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{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe", "TagMe" ], "filename": [ "Timor.txt", "Fletcher_Christian.txt" ], "title": [ "Timor", "Fletcher Christian" ], "wiki_context": [ "Timor is an island at the southern end of Maritime Southeast Asia, north of the Timor Sea. The island is divided between the sovereign states of East Timor, on the eastern part, and Indonesia, on the western part. The Indonesian part, also known as West Timor, constitutes part of the province of East Nusa Tenggara. Within West Timor lies an exclave of East Timor called Oecusse District. The island covers an area of . The name is a variant of timur, Malay for \"east\"; it is so called because it lies at the eastern end of the Lesser Sunda Islands.\n\nLanguage, ethnic groups, and religion\n\nAnthropologists identify eleven distinct ethno-linguistic groups in Timor. The largest are the Atoni of western Timor, and the Tetum of central and eastern Timor. Most indigenous Timorese languages belong to the Timor–Babar branch of the Austronesian languages spoken throughout the Indonesian archipelago. The non-Austronesian languages are thought to be related to languages spoken on Halmahera and in Western New Guinea. Some are so mixed it is difficult to tell which family they descend from.\n\nThe official languages of East Timor are Tetum and Portuguese, while in West Timor it is Indonesian. Indonesian is also widely spoken and understood in East Timor.\n\nChristianity is the dominant religion throughout the island of Timor, at about 90% of the population. Roman Catholics are the majority on both halves of the island; Catholics outnumber Protestants in West Timor by about a 3:2 ratio. Muslims and Animists make up most of the remainder, at about 5% each.\n\nGeography\n\nTimor is located north of Australia, and is one of the easternmost Sunda Islands. Together with Sumba, Babar and associated smaller islands, Timor forms the southern outer archipelago of the Lesser Sunda Islands with the inner islands of Flores, Alor and Wetar to the north, and beyond them Sulawesi.\n\nTimor is the principal island of the Outer Banda Arc, which has been upthrust by collision with the Australian continent. Timor has older geology and lacks the volcanic nature of the northern Lesser Sunda Islands. The orientation of the main axis of the island also differs from its neighbors. These features have been explained as the result of being on the northern edge of the Indo-Australian Plate as it meets the Eurasian Plate and pushes into South East Asia. The climate includes a long dry season with hot winds blowing over from Australia. Rivers on the island include the Southern and Northern Laclo Rivers in East Timor.\n\nThe largest towns on the island are the provincial capital of Kupang in West Timor, Indonesia and the Portuguese colonial towns of Dili the capital, and Baucau in East Timor. Poor roads make transport to inland areas difficult, in East Timor especially. East Timor is a poor country, with health issues including malaria and dengue fever. Sources of revenue include gas and oil in the Timor Sea, coffee growing and tourism.\n\nFlora and fauna\n\nTimor and its offshore islands such as Atauro, a former place of exile increasingly known for its beaches and coral, as well as Jaco along with Wetar and the other Barat Daya Islands to the northeast constitute the Timor and Wetar deciduous forests ecoregion. The natural vegetation was tropical dry broadleaf forests with an undergrowth of shrubs and grasses supporting a rich wildlife. However much of the original forest has been cleared for farming, especially on the coasts of Timor and on the smaller islands like Atauro. Apart from one large block in the centre of Timor only patches remain. This ecoregion is part of the Wallacea area with a mixture of plants and animals of Asian and Australasian origin; it lies in the western part of Wallacea, in which Asian species predominate.\n\nMany trees are deciduous or partly deciduous, dropping their leaves during the dry season, there are also evergreen and thorn trees in the woodland. Typical trees of the lowland slopes include Sterculia foetida, Calophyllum teysmannii and Aleurites moluccanus.\n\nDuring the Pleistocene epoch, Timor was the abode of extinct giant monitor lizards similar to the Komodo dragon. Like Flores, Sumba and Sulawesi, Timor was also once a habitat of extinct dwarf stegodonts, relatives of elephants.\n\nFauna of today includes a number of endemic species such as the distinctive Timor shrew and Timor rat. The northern common cuscus, a marsupial of Australasian origin occurs as well, but is thought to be introduced. The island have a great number of birds, mainly of Asian origin with some of Australasian origin. There is a total of 250 species of which twenty four are endemic, due to the relative isolation of Timor, including five threatened species; the slaty cuckoo-dove, Wetar ground dove, Timor green pigeon, Timor imperial pigeon, and iris lorikeet. \n\nSaltwater crocodiles are found in the wetlands whereas reticulated pythons can be found in forests and grasslands of Timor. However, the population sizes and status are unknown.\n\nLate Cretaceous fossils of marine vertebrates are known from East Timor deposits. These include mosasaurs such as Globidens timorensis, lamniforme sharks, coelacanths and the choristodere Champsosaurus. \n\nHistory\n\nThe earliest historical record about Timor island is 14th century Nagarakretagama, Canto 14, that identify Timur as an island within Majapahit's realm. Timor was incorporated into ancient Javanese, Chinese and Indian trading networks of the 14th century as an exporter of aromatic sandalwood, slaves, honey and wax, and was settled by both the Portuguese, in the end of the 16th century, and the Dutch, based in Kupang, in the mid-17th century.\n\nAs the nearest island with a European settlement at the time, Timor was the destination of William Bligh and seamen loyal to him following the infamous mutiny on the Bounty in 1789. It was also where survivors of the wrecked HMS Pandora, sent to arrest the Bounty mutineers, landed in 1791 after that ship sank in the Great Barrier Reef.\n\nThe island has been politically divided in two parts for centuries. The Dutch and Portuguese fought for control of the island until it was divided by treaty in 1859, but they still did not formally resolve the matter of the boundary until 1912. West Timor, was known as Dutch Timor until 1949 when it became Indonesian Timor, a part of the nation of Indonesia which was formed from the old Netherlands East Indies; while East Timor was known as Portuguese Timor, a Portuguese colony until 1975. It includes the enclave of Oecussi-Ambeno in West Timor.\n\nJapanese forces occupied the whole island from 1942 to 1945. They were resisted in a guerrilla campaign led initially by Australian commandos.\n\nFollowing the military coup in Portugal in 1974 the Portuguese began to withdraw from Timor, the subsequent internal unrest and fear of the communist Fretilin party encouraged an invasion by Indonesia, who opposed the concept of an independent East Timor. In 1975, East Timor was annexed by Indonesia and became known as Timor Timur or 'Tim-Tim' for short. It was regarded by Indonesia as the country's 27th province, but this was never recognised by the United Nations (UN) or Portugal.\n\nThe people of East Timor, through Falintil the military wing of Fretilin, resisted 35,000 Indonesian troops in a prolonged guerrilla campaign, but the whole island remained under Indonesian control until a referendum held in 1999 under a UN sponsored agreement between Indonesia and Portugal in which its people rejected the offer of autonomy within Indonesia. The UN then temporarily governed East Timor until it became independent as Timor-Leste in 2002 under the presidency of Falintil leader Xanana Gusmão. Although political strife continued as the new nation coped with poverty the UN presence was much reduced.\n\nA group of people on the Indonesian side of Timor have been reported active since 2001 trying to establish a Great Timor State. However, there is no real evidence whatsoever that the people of West Timor, most of whom are from Atoni ethnicity who are the traditional enemy of the East Timorese, have any interest in joining their tribal enemies. Additionally, East Timor's independence movement never laid claim to West Timor at any time, before the Indonesian invasion or thereafter. Similarly, the government of East Timor fully recognizes Indonesia's existing boundaries as inherited from the Netherlands East Indies. This is similar to the position taken by Papua New Guinea in relation to West Papua, when the former became independent of Australia.", "Fletcher Christian (25 September 1764 – 20 September 1793) was master's mate on board HMS Bounty during Lieutenant William Bligh's voyage to Tahiti for breadfruit plants. In the mutiny on the Bounty, Christian seized command of the ship from Bligh on 28 April 1789.\n\nEarly life\n\nChristian was born on 25 September 1764, at his family home of Moorland Close, Eaglesfield, near Cockermouth in Cumberland. Fletcher's father's side had originated from the Isle of Man and most of his paternal great-grandfathers were historic Deemsters, their original family surname McCrystyn.\n\nFletcher was the brother to Edward and Humphrey, being the three sons of Charles Christian of Moorland Close and of the large Ewanrigg Hall estate in Dearham, Cumberland, an attorney-at-law descended from Manx gentry, and his wife Ann Dixon. \n\nCharles's marriage to Ann brought with it the small property of Moorland Close, \"a quadrangle pile of buildings ... half castle, half farmstead.\" The property can be seen to the north of the Cockermouth to Egremont A5086 road. Charles died in 1768 when Fletcher was not yet four. Ann proved herself grossly irresponsible with money. By 1779, when Fletcher was fifteen, Ann had run up a debt of nearly £6,500 (equal to £ today), and faced the prospect of debtors' prison. Moorland Close was lost and Ann and her three younger children were forced to flee to the Isle of Man, to their relative's estate, where English creditors had no power. The three elder Christian sons managed to arrange a £40 (equal to £ today) per year annuity for their mother, allowing the family to live in genteel poverty. Christian spent seven years at the Cockermouth Free School from the age of nine. One of his younger contemporaries there was Cockermouth native William Wordsworth. It is commonly misconceived that the two were 'school friends'; Christian was six years the senior of the future Poet Laureate. His mother Ann died on the Isle of Man in 1819. \n\nNaval career\n\nSee here for a comparison of assignments to William Bligh\n\nFletcher Christian began his naval career at a late age, joining the Royal Navy as a cabin boy when he was already seventeen years old (the average age for this position was between 12 to 15). He served for over a year on a third-rate frigate along with his future commander, William Bligh, who was posted as the ship's sixth lieutenant. Christian next became a Midshipman on the sixth-rate post ship HMS Eurydice and was made master's mate six months after the ship put to sea. The muster rolls of indicate Christian was signed on for a 21-month voyage to India. The ship's muster shows Christian's conduct was more than satisfactory because \"some seven months out from England, he had been promoted from midshipman to master's mate\". \n\nAfter the Eurydice had returned from India, Christian was reverted to Midshipman and paid off from the Royal Navy. Unable to find another Midshipman assignment, Christian decided to join the British merchant fleet and applied for a berth on-board William Bligh's ship the Britannia. Bligh had himself been discharged from the Royal Navy and was now working as a merchant captain. Bligh accepted Christian on the ship's books as an Able Seaman, but granted him all the rights of a ship's officer including dining and berthing in the officer quarters. On a second voyage to Jamaica with Bligh, Christian was rated as the ship's Second Mate.\n\nAlthough Bligh had only known Christian for a little over a year, in 1787 Bligh approached Christian to serve on-board the HMAV Bounty for a two year voyage to transport breadfruit from Tahiti to the West Indies. Bligh originally had every intention of Christian serving as the ship's Master, but the Navy Board turned down this request due to Christian's low seniority in service years and appointed John Fryer instead. Christian was retained as Master's Mate. The following year, halfway through the Bounty's voyage, Bligh appointed Christian as Acting lieutenant, thus making him senior to Fryer.\n\nOn 28 April 1789, Fletcher Christian led a mutiny on-board the Bounty and from this point forward was considered an outlaw. He was formally stripped of his naval rank in March 1790 and discharged after Bligh returned to England and reported the mutiny to the Admiralty Board.\n\nMutiny on the Bounty\n\nIn 1787, Christian was appointed master's mate on Bounty, on Bligh's recommendation, for the ship's breadfruit expedition to Tahiti. During the voyage out, Bligh appointed him acting lieutenant. Bounty arrived at Tahiti on 26 October 1788 and Christian spent the next five months there.\n\nBounty set sail with its cargo of breadfruit plantings on 4 April 1789. Some 1,300 miles west of Tahiti, near Tonga, mutiny broke out on 28 April 1789, led by Christian. According to accounts, the sailors were attracted to the \"idyllic\" life and sexual opportunities afforded on the Pacific island of Tahiti. It has also been argued that they were motivated by Bligh's allegedly harsh treatment of them. Eighteen mutineers set Bligh afloat in a small boat with eighteen of the twenty-two crew loyal to him.\n\nFollowing the mutiny, Christian attempted to build a colony on Tubuai, but there the mutineers met with conflict with natives. Abandoning the island, he stopped briefly in Tahiti where he married Maimiti, the daughter of one of the local chiefs, on 16 June 1789.[http://www.thepeerage.com/p11908.htm#i119072 thePeerage.com - Person Page 11908] While on Tahiti, he dropped off sixteen crewmen. These sixteen included four Bligh loyalists who had been left behind on Bounty and two who had neither participated in, nor resisted, the mutiny. The remaining nine mutineers, six Tahitian men and eleven Tahitian women then sailed eastward. In time, they landed on Pitcairn Island, where they stripped Bounty of all that could be floated ashore before Matthew Quintal set it on fire, stranding them. The resulting sexual imbalance, combined with the effective enslavement of the Tahitian men by the mutineers, led to insurrection and the deaths of most of the men.\n\nDeath\n\nThe American seal-hunting ship Topaz visited Pitcairn in 1808 and found only one mutineer, John Adams (who had used the alias Alexander Smith while on Bounty), still alive along with nine Tahitian women. The mutineers who had perished had, however, already had children with their Tahitian wives. Most of these children were still living. Adams and Maimiti claimed Christian had been murdered during the conflict between the Tahitian men and the mutineers. According to an account by a Pitcairnian woman named Jenny who left the island in 1817, Christian was shot while working by a pond next to the home of his pregnant wife. Along with Christian, four other mutineers and all six of the Tahitian men who had come to the island were killed in the conflict. William McCoy, one of the four surviving mutineers, fell off a cliff while intoxicated and was killed. Quintal was later killed by the remaining two mutineers, Adams and Ned Young, after he attacked them. Young became the new leader of Pitcairn.\n\nJohn Adams gave conflicting accounts of Christian's death to visitors on ships that subsequently visited Pitcairn. He was variously said to have died of natural causes, committed suicide, gone insane and been murdered. \n\nChristian was survived by Maimiti and his son, Thursday October Christian (born 1790). Besides Thursday October, Fletcher Christian also had a younger son named Charles Christian (born 1792) and a daughter Mary Ann Christian (born 1793). Thursday and Charles are the ancestors of almost everybody with the surname Christian on Pitcairn and Norfolk Islands, as well as the many descendants who have moved to Australia, New Zealand and the United States.\n\nRumours have persisted for more than two hundred years that Christian's murder may have been faked, that he had left the island and that he made his way back to England. Many scholars believe that the rumours of Christian returning to England helped to inspire Samuel Taylor Coleridge's The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. \n\nThere is no portrait or drawing extant of Fletcher Christian that was drawn from life. Bligh described Christian as \"5 ft. 9 in. high [175 cm]. blackish or very dark complexion. Hair - Blackish or very dark brown. Make - Strong. A star tatowed on his left breast, and tatowed on the backside. His knees stand a little out and he may be called a little bow legged. He is subject to violent perspiration, particularly in his hand, so that he soils anything he handles\". \n\nAppearances in literature\n\nChristian's principal literary appearances are in the treatments of Bounty story, including Mutiny on the Bounty, Pitcairn's Island and After the Bounty (an edited version of James Morrison's journal). In Peter F. Hamilton's Night's Dawn trilogy, Fletcher Christian's ghost appears, possessing a human body, and helps two non-possessed girls escape. Val McDermid's 2006 thriller The Grave Tattoo is based on Christian's rumoured return to the Lake District and the fact that he was at school with William Wordsworth. In 1959 Louis McNeice produced a BBC Radio play called I Call Me Adam about the mutineers' lives on Pitcairn.\n\nFilm portrayals\n\nChristian was portrayed in films by:\n*Wilton Power in The Mutiny of the Bounty (1916)\n*Errol Flynn in In the Wake of the Bounty (1933)\n*Clark Gable in Mutiny on the Bounty (1935)\n*Marlon Brando in Mutiny on the Bounty (1962)\n*Mel Gibson in The Bounty (1984)\n\nThe 1935 and 1962 films are based on the 1932 novel Mutiny on the Bounty in which Christian is a major character and is generally portrayed positively. The authors of that novel, Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall, also wrote two sequels, one of which, Pitcairn's Island, is the story of the tragic events after the mutiny that apparently resulted in Christian’s death along with other violent deaths on Pitcairn Island. (The other sequel, Men Against the Sea, is the story of Bligh's voyage after the mutiny.) This series of novels uses fictionalised versions of minor crew members as narrators of the stories.\n\nThe Bounty, released in 1984, is less sympathetic to Christian than previous treatments were.\n\nMusical portrayal\n\n*David Essex in Mutiny! (1985)" ] }

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{ "aliases": [ "Governor Bligh", "Admiral Bligh", "Captain William Bligh", "Vice Admiral William Bligh", "Captain Bligh", "William Bligh", "Vice-Admiral William Bligh" ], "normalized_aliases": [ "vice admiral william bligh", "captain bligh", "admiral bligh", "captain william bligh", "william bligh", "governor bligh" ], "matched_wiki_entity_name": "", "normalized_matched_wiki_entity_name": "", "normalized_value": "william bligh", "type": "WikipediaEntity", "value": "William Bligh" }

{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe" ], "filename": [ "Poseidon.txt" ], "title": [ "Poseidon" ], "wiki_context": [ "Poseidon (; Greek: ,) was one of the twelve Olympian deities of the pantheon in Greek mythology. His main domain was the ocean, and he is called the \"God of the Sea\". Additionally, he is referred to as \"Earth-Shaker\" due to his role in causing earthquakes, and has been called the \"tamer of horses\". He is usually depicted as an older male with curly hair and beard.\n\nThe name of the sea-god Nethuns in Etruscan was adopted in Latin for Neptune in Roman mythology; both were sea gods analogous to Poseidon. Linear B tablets show that Poseidon was venerated at Pylos and Thebes in pre-Olympian Bronze Age Greece as a chief deity, but he was integrated into the Olympian gods as the brother of Zeus and Hades. According to some folklore, he was saved by his mother Rhea, who concealed him among a flock of lambs and pretended to have given birth to a colt, which was devoured by Cronos. \n\nThere is a Homeric hymn to Poseidon, who was the protector of many Hellenic cities, although he lost the contest for Athens to Athena. According to the references from Plato in his dialogues Timaeus and Critias, the island of Atlantis was the chosen domain of Poseidon.[http://www.activemind.com/Mysterious/Topics/atlantis/story.html The story of Atlantis]. Retrieved October 02, 2012. \n\nEtymology \n\nThe earliest attested occurrence of the name, written in Linear B, is Po-se-da-o or Po-se-da-wo-ne, which correspond to (Poseidaōn) and (Poseidawonos) in Mycenean Greek; in Homeric Greek it appears as (Poseidaōn); in Aeolic as (Poteidaōn); and in Doric as (Poteidan), (Poteidaōn), and (Poteidas). The form (Poteidawon) appears in Corinth.Liddell & Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc\nPerseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3D*poseidw%3Dn ]. A common epithet of Poseidon is Enosichthon, \"Earth-shaker\", an epithet which is also identified in Linear B, as , E-ne-si-da-o-ne, This recalls his later epithets Ennosidas and Ennosigaios indicating the chthonic nature of Poseidon. \n\nThe origins of the name \"Poseidon\" are unclear. One theory breaks it down into an element meaning \"husband\" or \"lord\" (Greek (posis), from PIE *pótis) and another element meaning \"earth\" ( (da), Doric for (gē)), producing something like lord or spouse of Da, i.e. of the earth; this would link him with Demeter, \"Earth-mother\". Walter Burkert finds that \"the second element da- remains hopelessly ambiguous\" and finds a \"husband of Earth\" reading \"quite impossible to prove\".\n\nAnother theory interprets the second element as related to the word *δᾶϝον dâwon, \"water\"; this would make *Posei-dawōn into the master of waters. There is also the possibility that the word has Pre-Greek origin. Plato in his dialogue Cratylus gives two alternative etymologies: either the sea restrained Poseidon when walking as a \"foot-bond\" (ποσίδεσμον), or he \"knew many things\" (πολλά εἰδότος or πολλά εἰδῶν). \n\nBronze Age Greece \n\nLinear B (Mycenean Greek) inscriptions\n\nIf surviving Linear B clay tablets can be trusted, the name po-se-da-wo-ne (\"Poseidon\") occurs with greater frequency than does di-u-ja (\"Zeus\"). A feminine variant, po-se-de-ia, is also found, indicating a lost consort goddess, in effect the precursor of Amphitrite.\nPoseidon carries frequently the title wa-na-ka (wanax) in Linear B inscriptions, as king of the underworld. The chthonic nature of Poseidon-Wanax is also indicated by his title E-ne-si-da-o-ne in Mycenean Knossos and Pylos, a powerful attribute (earthquakes had accompanied the collapse of the Minoan palace-culture). In the cave of Amnisos (Crete) Enesidaon is related with the cult of Eileithyia, the goddess of childbirth. She was related with the annual birth of the divine child. During the Bronze Age, a goddess of nature, dominated both in Minoan and Mycenean cult, and Wanax (wa-na-ka) was her male companion (paredros) in Mycenean cult. It is possible that Demeter appears as Da-ma-te in a Linear B inscription (PN EN 609), however the interpretetion is still under dispute. \n\nIn Linear B inscriptions found at Pylos, E-ne-si-da-o-ne is related with Poseidon, and Si-to Po-tini-ja is probably related with Demeter. \nTablets from Pylos record sacrificial goods destined for \"the Two Queens and Poseidon\" (\"to the Two Queens and the King\": wa-na-soi, wa-na-ka-te). The \"Two Queens\" may be related with Demeter and Persephone, or their precursors, goddesses who were not associated with Poseidon in later periods. \n\nArcadian myths\n\nThe illuminating exception is the archaic and localised myth of the stallion Poseidon and mare Demeter at Phigalia in isolated and conservative Arcadia, noted by Pausanias (2nd century AD) as having fallen into desuetude; \nThe stallion Poseidon pursues the mare-Demeter, and from the union she bears the horse Arion, and a daughter (Despoina), who obviously had the shape of a mare too. The violated Demeter was Demeter Erinys (furious) . In Arcadia, Demeter's mare-form was worshiped into historical times. Her xoanon of Phigaleia shows how the local cult interpreted her, as goddess of nature. A Medusa type with a horse's head with snaky hair, holding a dove and a dolphin, probably representing her power over air and water. \n\nOrigins\n\nIt seems that the Arcadian myth is related with the first Greek speaking people who entered the region during the Bronze Age. (Linear B represents an archaic Greek dialect). Their religious beliefs were mixed with the beliefs of the indigenous population. It is possible that the Greeks did not bring with them other gods except the god Zeus and the Dioskouroi. The horse (numina) was related with the liquid element, and with the underworld. Poseidon appears as a beast (horse), which is the river spirit of the underworld, as it usually happens in northern-European folklore, and not unusually in Greece. Poseidon “Wanax” , is the male companion (paredros) of the goddess of nature. In the relative Minoan myth, Pasiphaë is mating with the white bull, and she bears the hybrid creature Minotaur. The Bull was the old pre-Olympian Poseidon. The goddess of nature and her paredros survived in the Eleusinian cult, where the following words were uttered : \" Mighty Potnia bore a strong son\" \n\nIn the heavily sea-dependent Mycenaean culture, there is not sufficient evidence that Poseidon was connected with the sea. We do not know if \"Posedeia\" was a sea-goddess. Homer and Hesiod suggest that Poseidon became lord of the sea following the defeat of his father Kronos, when the world was divided by lot among his three sons; Zeus was given the sky, Hades the underworld, and Poseidon the sea, with the Earth and Mount Olympus belonging to all three. \nGiven Poseidon's connection with horses as well as the sea, and the landlocked situation of the likely Indo-European homeland, Nobuo Komita has proposed that Poseidon was originally an aristocratic Indo-European horse-god who was then assimilated to Near Eastern aquatic deities when the basis of the Greek livelihood shifted from the land to the sea, or a god of fresh waters who was assigned a secondary role as god of the sea, where he overwhelmed the original Aegean sea deities such as Proteus and Nereus. Conversely, Walter Burkert suggests that the Hellene cult worship of Poseidon as a horse god may be connected to the introduction of the horse and war-chariot from Anatolia to Greece around 1600 BC.\n\nIt is almost sure that once Poseidon was worshiped as a horse, and this is evident by his cult in Peloponnesos. However he was originally a god of the waters, and therefore he became the \"earth-shaker\", because the Greeks believed that the cause of the earthquakes was the erosion of the rocks by the waters, by the rivers who they saw to disappear into the earth and then to burst out again. This is what the natural philosophers Thales, Anaximenes and Aristotle believed, which could not be different from the folklore belief. Later, when the Myceneans travelled along the sea, he was assigned a role as god of the sea.\n \nIn any case, the early importance of Poseidon can still be glimpsed in Homer's Odyssey, where Poseidon rather than Zeus is the major mover of events. In Homer Poseidon is the master of the sea.\n\nWorship of Poseidon\n\nPoseidon was a major civic god of several cities: in Athens, he was second only to Athena in importance, while in Corinth and many cities of Magna Graecia he was the chief god of the polis.\n\nIn his benign aspect, Poseidon was seen as creating new islands and offering calm seas. When offended or ignored, he supposedly struck the ground with his trident and caused chaotic springs, earthquakes, drownings and shipwrecks. Sailors prayed to Poseidon for a safe voyage, sometimes drowning horses as a sacrifice; in this way, according to a fragmentary papyrus, Alexander the Great paused at the Syrian seashore before the climactic battle of Issus, and resorted to prayers, \"invoking Poseidon the sea-god, for whom he ordered a four-horse chariot to be cast into the waves.\" \n\nAccording to Pausanias, Poseidon was one of the caretakers of the oracle at Delphi before Olympian Apollo took it over. Apollo and Poseidon worked closely in many realms: in colonization, for example, Delphic Apollo provided the authorization to go out and settle, while Poseidon watched over the colonists on their way, and provided the lustral water for the foundation-sacrifice. Xenophon's Anabasis describes a group of Spartan soldiers in 400–399 BC singing to Poseidon a paean—a kind of hymn normally sung for Apollo.\n\nLike Dionysus, who inflamed the maenads, Poseidon also caused certain forms of mental disturbance. A Hippocratic text of ca 400 BC, On the Sacred Disease says that he was blamed for certain types of epilepsy.\n\nEpithets \n\nPoseidon was known in various guises, denoted by epithets. In the town of Aegae in Euboea, he was known as Poseidon Aegaeus and had a magnificent temple upon a hill. Poseidon also had a close association with horses, known under the epithet Poseidon Hippios, usually in Arcadia. He is more often regarded as the tamer of horses, but in some myths he is their father, either by spilling his seed upon a rock or by mating with a creature who then gave birth to the first horse. He was closely related with the springs, and with the strike of his trident, he created springs. Many springs like Hippocrene and Aganippe in Helikon are related with the word horse (hippos). \n(also Glukippe, Hyperippe). \nIn the historical period, Poseidon was often referred to by the epithets Enosichthon, Seisichthon and Ennosigaios, and Gaiēochos all meaning \"earth-shaker\" and referring to his role in causing earthquakes.\n\nSome other epithets of Poseidon are: \n*\"Asphaleios\", (ασφάλεια:safety), as protector from the earthquakes.\n*\"Helikonios\", (Ελικώνιος) related with the mountain Helikon.\n*\"Tavreios\" , (Ταύρειος: related with the bull). There was a fest \"Tavreia\" in Ephesos.\n*\"Petraios\" (Πετραίος: related with rocks) in Thessaly. He hit a rock, and the horse \"Skyphios\" appeared.\n*\"Epoptis\"(επόπτης: supervisor) in Megalopolis\n*\"Pelagios\" in Ionia.\n* Phykios\" ( Φύκιος: related with seaweeds) in Mykonos.\n*\"Phytalmios\" ( Φυτάλμιος) related with the vegetation in Troizen, Megara,Rhodes.\n*Epithets related with the genealogy trees: \"Patrigenios\", \"Genethlios\", \"Genesios\", \"Pater\", \"Phratrios\".\n\nPoseidon in mythology \n\nBirth \n\nPoseidon was the second son of titans Cronus and Rhea. In most accounts he is swallowed by Cronus at birth but later saved, with his other brothers and sisters, by Zeus.\nHowever, in some versions of the story, he, like his brother Zeus, did not share the fate of his other brother and sisters who were eaten by Cronus. He was saved by his mother Rhea, who concealed him among a flock of lambs and pretended to have given birth to a colt, which she gave to Cronus to devour.\n\nAccording to John Tzetzes the kourotrophos, or nurse of Poseidon was Arne, who denied knowing where he was, when Cronus came searching; according to Diodorus Siculus Poseidon was raised by the Telchines on Rhodes, just as Zeus was raised by the Korybantes on Crete.\n\nAccording to a single reference in the Iliad, when the world was divided by lot in three, Zeus received the sky, Hades the underworld and Poseidon the sea. In the Odyssey (v.398), Poseidon has a home in Aegae.\n\nThe foundation of Athens \n\nAthena became the patron goddess of the city of Athens after a competition with Poseidon. Yet Poseidon remained a numinous presence on the Acropolis in the form of his surrogate, Erechtheus. At the dissolution festival at the end of the year in the Athenian calendar, the Skira, the priests of Athena and the priest of Poseidon would process under canopies to Eleusis. They agreed that each would give the Athenians one gift and the Athenians would choose whichever gift they preferred. Poseidon struck the ground with his trident and a spring sprang up; the water was salty and not very useful, whereas Athena offered them an olive tree.\n\nThe Athenians or their king, Cecrops, accepted the olive tree and along with it Athena as their patron, for the olive tree brought wood, oil and food. After the fight, infuriated at his loss, Poseidon sent a monstrous flood to the Attic Plain, to punish the Athenians for not choosing him. The depression made by Poseidon's trident and filled with salt water was surrounded by the northern hall of the Erechtheum, remaining open to the air. \"In cult, Poseidon was identified with Erechtheus,\" Walter Burkert noted; \"the myth turns this into a temporal-causal sequence: in his anger at losing, Poseidon led his son Eumolpus against Athens and killed Erectheus.\" \n\nThe contest of Athena and Poseidon was the subject of the reliefs on the western pediment of the Parthenon, the first sight that greeted the arriving visitor.\n\nThis myth is construed by Robert Graves and others as reflecting a clash between the inhabitants during Mycenaean times and newer immigrants.\nIt is interesting to note that Athens at its height was a significant sea power, at one point defeating the Persian fleet at Salamis Island in a sea battle.\n\nThe walls of Troy \n\nPoseidon and Apollo, having offended Zeus by their rebellion in Hera's scheme, were temporarily stripped of their divine authority and sent to serve King Laomedon of Troy. He had them build huge walls around the city and promised to reward them well, a promise he then refused to fulfill. In vengeance, before the Trojan War, Poseidon sent a sea monster to attack Troy. The monster was later killed by Heracles.\n\nConsorts and children \n\nPoseidon was said to have had many lovers of both sexes (see expandable list below). His consort was Amphitrite, a nymph and ancient sea-goddess, daughter of Nereus and Doris.\n\nPoseidon was the father of many heroes. He is thought to have fathered the famed Theseus.\n\nA mortal woman named Tyro was married to Cretheus (with whom she had one son, Aeson) but loved Enipeus, a river god. She pursued Enipeus, who refused her advances. One day, Poseidon, filled with lust for Tyro, disguised himself as Enipeus, and from their union were born the heroes Pelias and Neleus, twin boys. Poseidon also had an affair with Alope, his granddaughter through Cercyon, his son and King of Eleusis, begetting the Attic hero Hippothoon. Cercyon had his daughter buried alive but Poseidon turned her into the spring, Alope, near Eleusis.\n\nPoseidon rescued Amymone from a lecherous satyr and then fathered a child, Nauplius, by her.\n\nAfter having raped Caeneus, Poseidon fulfilled her request and changed her into a male warrior.\n\nA mortal woman named Cleito once lived on an isolated island; Poseidon fell in love with the human mortal and created a dwelling sanctuary at the top of a hill near the middle of the island and surrounded the dwelling with rings of water and land to protect her. She gave birth to five sets of twin boys (the firstborn who being named Atlas) became the first rulers of Atlantis.\n\nNot all of Poseidon's children were human. In an archaic myth, Poseidon once pursued Demeter. She spurned his advances, turning herself into a mare so that she could hide in a herd of horses; he saw through the deception and became a stallion and captured her. Their child was a horse, Arion, which was capable of human speech. Poseidon also had sexual intercourse with Medusa on the floor of a temple to Athena. \n\nMedusa was then changed into a monster by Athena. When she was later beheaded by the hero Perseus, Chrysaor and Pegasus emerged from her neck. There is also Triton (the merman), Polyphemus (the cyclops) and, finally, Alebion and Bergion and Otos and Ephialtae (the giants).\n\nList of Poseidon's consorts and children \n\nFemale lovers and offspring\n\n#Amphitrite\n## Triton\n## Benthesikyme\n## Rhode (possibly)\n# Aphrodite\n##Rhode (possibly)\n## Herophile the Sibyl (possibly)\n# Demeter\n## Despoina\n## Areion, the talking horse\n#Gaea\n##Antaeus\n##Charybdis\n# Hestia (wooed her unsuccessfully)\n# Aba, nymph\n## Ergiscus \n#Agamede\n##Dictys\n# Aethra\n## Theseus\n# Alistra \n## Ogygus\n# Alcyone\n##Aethusa\n##Hyrieus\n##Hyperenor \n##Hyperes\n##Anthas\n#Alope\n##Hippothoon\n#Amphimedusa, Danaid\n## Erythras\n#Amymone\n##Nauplius\n#Arene\n##Idas (possibly)\n#Arne / Melanippe\n##Aeolus\n##Boeotus\n#Arethusa\n##Abas\n#Ascre\n##Oeoclus \n#Astydameia, daughter of Phorbas\n##Caucon\n#Astypalaea\n## Ancaeus\n## Eurypylus of Kos\n#Beroe (daughter of Aphrodite)\n# Boudeia / Bouzyge\n## Erginus\n#Caenis\n#Calchinia\n## Peratus\n#Canace\n##Hopleus\n##Nireus\n##Aloeus\n##Epopeus\n##Triopas\n# Celaeno (Pleiad or daughter of Ergeus)\n## Lycus\n## Nycteus\n## Eurypylus (Eurytus) of Cyrene\n## Lycaon\n#Celaeno, Danaid\n##Celaenus\n#Cerebia \n##Dictys\n##Polydectes\n#Ceroessa\n## Byzas\n#Cleodora\n##Parnassus\n#Chione\n## Eumolpus\n#Chrysogeneia\n##Chryses, father of Minyas\n#Corcyra, nymph\n##Phaeax\n#Coronis\n#Diopatra, nymph of Mount Othrys\n#Euryale, daughter of Minos\n## Orion (possibly)\n#Eurycyda\n##Eleius\n# Eurynome (Eurymede), daughter of Nisos\n## Bellerophon\n#Euryte / Bathycleia\n##Halirrhothius\n#Halia\n##Rhode (possibly)\n## six sons\n#Harpale / Scamandrodice / Calyce\n## Cycnus\n#Helle\n##Almops\n##Edonus\n##Paion\n#Hermippe\n##Minyas (possibly)\n#Hippothoe\n##Taphius\n#Iphimedeia\n## The Aloadae\n#Laodice \n#Larissa\n##Achaeus\n##Pelasgus\n##Pythius\n#Leis, daughter of Orus\n##Altephus \n#Libya\n##Agenor\n##Belus\n##Lelex\n#Lysianassa / Anippe\n##Busiris\n#Mecionice / Europa, daughter of Tityos\n## Euphemus, Argonaut\n#Medusa\n## Pegasus\n## Chrysaor\n#Melantheia, daughter of Alpheus\n## Eirene\n#Melantho (daughter of Deucalion)\n##Delphus\n#Melia\n##Amycus\n##Mygdon\n#Melissa, daughter of Epidamnus\n##Dyrrhachius \n#Mestra\n#Mideia\n##Aspledon\n#Molione\n##The Molionides\n#Mytilene\n## Myton \n#Oenope\n##Megareus of Onchestus (possibly)\n#Olbia, nymph\n##Astacus \n#Ossa\n## Sithon (possibly)\n#Peirene\n##Cenchrias\n##Leches\n#Periboea\n##Nausithous\n#Pero, nymph / Kelousa, nymph\n## Asopus (possibly)\n#Pitane, nymph / Lena\n##Euadne\n#Phoenice\n## Torone \n#Pronoe, daughter of Asopus\n##Phocus\n# Rhode \n## Ialysus\n## Cameirus\n## Lindus\n#Rhodope, daughter of Strymon\n## Athos \n#Salamis, daughter of Asopus\n##Cychreus\n#Satyria, nymph of Taras\n## Taras (eponym of the location) \n#Syme\n##Chthonius\n#Themisto\n##Leucon (possibly)\n#Theophane\n## The Ram of the Golden Fleece\n# Thyia\n# Tyro\n## Pelias\n## Neleus\n# Thoosa\n## Polyphemus\n#Daughter of Amphictyon, unnamed\n##Cercyon\n#Nymph of Chios, unnamed\n## Chios\n#Nymph of Chios, unnamed (another one)\n## Melas\n## Agelus\n## Malina\n#unknown consorts\n## Amphimarus \n## Amyrus, eponym of a river in Thessaly \n## Aon, eponym of Aonia \n## Astraeus and Alcippe of Mysia \n## Calaurus \n## Corynetes (possibly)\n## Cymopoleia\n## Cromus (eponym of Crommyon) \n## Geren, eponym of a town or village Geren on Lesbos \n## Dicaeus, eponym of Dicaea, a city in Thrace \n## Euseirus (father of Cerambus)\n## Ialebion (Alebion) and Dercynus (Bergion) of Liguria \n## Laestrygon, eponym of the Laestrygonians\n## Lamus, king of the Laestrygonians\n## Lotis (possibly)\n## Messapus\n## Onchestus \n## Ourea \n## Palaestinus \n## Phorbas of Acarnania\n## Poltys\n## Procrustes\n## Proteus\n## Sarpedon of Ainos\n## Sciron\n## Syleus\n## Taenarus (possibly)\n\nIn Plato's myth of Atlantis, Poseidon consorted with Cleito, daughter of the autochthons Evenor and Leucippe, and had by her ten sons: Ampheres, Atlas, Autochthon, Azaes, Diaprepes, Elasippus, Euaemon, Eumelus (Gadeirus), Mestor, Mneseus. \n\nMale lovers\n\n*Nerites\n*Pelops\n*Patroclus \n\nGenealogy\n\nPoseidon in literature and art \n\nIn Greek art, Poseidon rides a chariot that was pulled by a hippocampus or by horses that could ride on the sea. He was associated with dolphins and three-pronged fish spears (tridents). He lived in a palace on the ocean floor, made of coral and gems.\n\nIn the Iliad Poseidon favors the Greeks, and on several occasion takes an active part in the battle against the Trojan forces. However, in Book XX he rescues Aeneas after the Trojan prince is laid low by Achilles.\n\nIn the Odyssey, Poseidon is notable for his hatred of Odysseus who blinded the god's son, the cyclops Polyphemus. The enmity of Poseidon prevents Odysseus's return home to Ithaca for many years. Odysseus is even told, notwithstanding his ultimate safe return, that to placate the wrath of Poseidon will require one more voyage on his part.\n\nIn the Aeneid, Neptune is still resentful of the wandering Trojans, but is not as vindictive as Juno, and in Book I he rescues the Trojan fleet from the goddess's attempts to wreck it, although his primary motivation for doing this is his annoyance at Juno's having intruded into his domain.\n\nA hymn to Poseidon included among the Homeric Hymns is a brief invocation, a seven-line introduction that addresses the god as both \"mover of the earth and barren sea, god of the deep who is also lord of Helicon and wide Aegae, and specifies his twofold nature as an Olympian: \"a tamer of horses and a saviour of ships.\"\n\nPoseidon appears in Percy Jackson and the Olympians as the father of Percy Jackson and Tyson the Cyclops.\n\nPoseidon appears in the ABC television series Once Upon a Time as the guest star of the second half of season four played by Ernie Hudson. In this version, Poseidon is the father of the Sea Witch Ursula.\n\nNarrations \n\nGallery \n\nImage:MillesPoseidon.jpg|Poseidon statue in Gothenburg, Sweden.\nFile:Neptun v prešovskej fontane.jpg|Poseidon statue in Prešov, Slovakia\nImage:poseidon.statue.arp.500pix.jpg|Poseidon statue in Bristol, England.\nImage:Neptun brunnen1.jpg|The Neptunbrunnen fountain in Berlin\n\nNotes" ] }

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{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe", "TagMe", "TagMe" ], "filename": [ "Bone.txt", "Muscle.txt", "Connective_tissue.txt" ], "title": [ "Bone", "Muscle", "Connective tissue" ], "wiki_context": [ "A bone is a rigid organ that constitutes part of the vertebral skeleton. Bones support and protect the various organs of the body, produce red and white blood cells, store minerals and also enable mobility as well as support for the body. Bone tissue is a type of dense connective tissue. Bones come in a variety of shapes and sizes and have a complex internal and external structure. They are lightweight yet strong and hard, and serve multiple functions. Mineralized osseous tissue, or bone tissue, is of two types, cortical and cancellous, and gives a bone rigidity and a coral-like three-dimensional internal structure. Other types of tissue found in bones include marrow, endosteum, periosteum, nerves, blood vessels and cartilage.\n\nBone is an active tissue composed of different types of bone cells. Osteoblasts are involved in the creation and mineralisation of bone; osteocytes and osteoclasts are involved in the reabsorption of bone tissue. The mineralised matrix of bone tissue has an organic component mainly of collagen and an inorganic component of bone mineral made up of various salts.\n\nIn the human body at birth, there are over 270 bones, but many of these fuse together during development, leaving a total of 206 separate bones in the adult, not counting numerous small sesamoid bones. The largest bone in the body is the thigh-bone (femur) and the smallest is the stapes in the middle ear.\n\nStructure\n\nBone is not a uniformly solid material, but is mostly a matrix. The primary tissue of bone, bone tissue (osseous tissue), is relatively hard and lightweight. Its matrix is mostly made up of a composite material incorporating the inorganic mineral calcium phosphate in the chemical arrangement termed calcium hydroxylapatite (this is the bone mineral that gives bones their rigidity) and collagen, an elastic protein which improves fracture resistance. Bone is formed by the hardening of this matrix around entrapped cells. When these cells become entrapped from osteoblasts they become osteocytes.\n\nLayered structure\n\nCortical bone\n\nThe hard outer layer of bones is composed of cortical bone also called compact bone. Cortical referring to the outer (cortex) layer. The hard outer layer gives bone its smooth, white, and solid appearance, and accounts for 80% of the total bone mass of an adult human skeleton. However, that proportion may be much lower, especially in marine mammals and marine turtles, or in various Mesozoic marine reptiles, such as ichthyosaurs, among others.\n\nCortical bone consists of multiple microscopic columns, each called an osteon. Each column is multiple layers of osteoblasts and osteocytes around a central canal called the Haversian canal. Volkmann's canals at right angles connect the osteons together. The columns are metabolically active, and as bone is reabsorbed and created the nature and location of the cells within the osteon will change. Cortical bone is covered by a periosteum on its outer surface, and an endosteum on its inner surface. The endosteum is the boundary between the cortical bone and the cancellous bone. \n\nCancellous bone\n\nFilling the interior of the bone is the cancellous bone also known as trabecular or spongy bone tissue. It is an open cell porous network. Thin formations of osteoblasts covered in endosteum create an irregular network of spaces. Within these spaces are bone marrow and hematopoietic stem cells that give rise to platelets, red blood cells and white blood cells. Trabecular marrow is composed of a network of rod- and plate-like elements that make the overall organ lighter and allow room for blood vessels and marrow. Trabecular bone accounts for the remaining 20% of total bone mass but has nearly ten times the surface area of compact bone. \n\nBone marrow\n\nBone marrow, also known as myeloid tissue, can be found in almost any bone that holds cancellous tissue. In newborns, all such bones are filled exclusively with red marrow, but as the child ages it is mostly replaced by yellow, or fatty marrow. In adults, red marrow is mostly found in the bone marrow of the femur, the ribs, the vertebrae and pelvic bones.\n\nComposition\n\nCells\n\nBone is a metabolically active tissue composed of several types of cells. These cells include osteoblasts, which are involved in the creation and mineralization of bone tissue, osteocytes, and osteoclasts, which are involved in the reabsorption of bone tissue. Osteoblasts and osteocytes are derived from osteoprogenitor cells, but osteoclasts are derived from the same cells that differentiate to form macrophages and monocytes. Within the marrow of the bone there are also hematopoietic stem cells. These cells give rise to other cells, including white blood cells, red blood cells, and platelets.\n\n* Osteoblasts are mononucleate bone-forming cells. They are located on the surface of osteoid seams and make a protein mixture known as osteoid, which mineralizes to become bone. The osteoid seam is a narrow region of newly formed organic matrix, not yet mineralized, located on the surface of a bone. Osteoid is primarily composed of Type I collagen. Osteoblasts also manufacture hormones, such as prostaglandins, to act on the bone itself. They robustly produce alkaline phosphatase, an enzyme that has a role in the mineralisation of bone, as well as many matrix proteins.\n* Osteocytes are mostly inactive osteoblasts. Osteocytes originate from osteoblasts that have migrated into and become trapped and surrounded by bone matrix that they themselves produced. The spaces they occupy are known as lacunae. Osteocytes have many processes that reach out to meet osteoblasts and other osteocytes probably for the purposes of communication.\n\n* Osteoclasts are the cells responsible for bone resorption, thus they break down bone. New bone is then formed by the osteoblasts. Bone is constantly remodelled by the resorption of osteoclasts and created by osteoblasts. Osteoclasts are large cells with multiple nuclei located on bone surfaces in what are called Howship's lacunae (or resorption pits). These lacunae are the result of surrounding bone tissue that has been reabsorbed. Because the osteoclasts are derived from a monocyte stem-cell lineage, they are equipped with phagocytic-like mechanisms similar to circulating macrophages. Osteoclasts mature and/or migrate to discrete bone surfaces. Upon arrival, active enzymes, such as tartrate resistant acid phosphatase, are secreted against the mineral substrate. The reabsorption of bone by osteoclasts also plays a role in calcium homeostasis.\n\nExtracellular\n\nBones consist of living cells embedded in a mineralized organic matrix. This matrix consists of organic components, mainly collagen – \"organic\" referring to materials produced as a result of the human body – and inorganic components, primarily hydroxyapatite and other salts of calcium and phosphate. Above 30% of the acellular part of bone consists of the organic components, and 70% of salts. The strands of collagen give bone its tensile strength, and the interspersed crystals of hydroxyapatite give bone its compressional strength. These effects are synergistic.\n\nThe inorganic composition of bone (bone mineral) is primarily formed from salts of calcium and phosphate, the major salt being hydroxyapatite (Ca10(PO4)6(OH)2). The exact composition of the matrix may change over time and with nutrition, with the ratio of calcium to phosphate varying between 1.3 and 2.0 (per weight), and trace minerals such as magnesium, sodium, potassium and carbonate also being found.\n\nThe organic part of matrix is mainly composed of Type I collagen. Collagen composes 90–95% of the organic matrix, with remainder of the matrix being a homogenous liquid called ground substance consisting of proteoglycans such as hyaluronic acid and chondroitin sulfate. Collagen consists of strands of repeating units, which give bone tensile strength, and are arranged in an overlapping fashion that prevents shear stress. The function of ground substance is not fully known. Two types of bone can be identified microscopically according to the arrangement of collagen:\n* Woven bone, (also known as fibrous bone) which is characterized by a haphazard organization of collagen fibers and is mechanically weakCurry, J.D. 2006. \"The Structure of Bone Tissue\" Bones: Structure and Mechanics Princeton U. Press. Princeton, NJ. pps: 12–14\n* Lamellar bone, which has a regular parallel alignment of collagen into sheets (\"lamellae\") and is mechanically strong \n\nWoven bone is produced when osteoblasts produce osteoid rapidly, which occurs initially in all fetal bones, but is later replaced by more resilient lamellar bone. In adults woven bone is created after fractures or in Paget's disease. Woven bone is weaker, with a smaller number of randomly oriented collagen fibers, but forms quickly; it is for this appearance of the fibrous matrix that the bone is termed woven. It is soon replaced by lamellar bone, which is highly organized in concentric sheets with a much lower proportion of osteocytes to surrounding tissue. Lamellar bone, which makes its first appearance in humans in the fetus during the third trimester, is stronger and filled with many collagen fibers parallel to other fibers in the same layer (these parallel columns are called osteons). In cross-section, the fibers run in opposite directions in alternating layers, much like in plywood, assisting in the bone's ability to resist torsion forces. After a fracture, woven bone forms initially and is gradually replaced by lamellar bone during a process known as \"bony substitution.\" Compared to woven bone, lamellar bone formation takes place more slowly. The orderly deposition of collagen fibers restricts the formation of osteoid to about 1 to 2 µm per day. Lamellar bone also requires a relatively flat surface to lay the collagen fibers in parallel or concentric layers.\n\nDeposition\n\nThe extracellular matrix of bone is laid down by osteoblasts, which secrete both collagen and ground substance. These synthesise collagen within the cell, and then secrete collagen fibrils. The collagen fibres rapidly polymerise to form collagen strands. At this stage they are not yet mineralised, and are called \"osteoid\". Around the strands calcium and phosphate precipitate on the surface of these strands, within a days to weeks becoming crystals of hydroxyapatite.\n\nIn order to mineralise the bone, the osteoblasts secrete vesicles containing alkaline phosphatase. This cleaves the phosphate groups and acts as the foci for calcium and phosphate deposition. The vesicles then rupture and act as a centre for crystals to grow on. More particularly, bone mineral is formed from globular and plate structures. \n\nTypes\n\nThere are five types of bones in the human body: long, short, flat, irregular, and sesamoid. \n* Long bones are characterized by a shaft, the diaphysis, that is much longer than its width; and by an epiphysis, a rounded head at each end of the shaft. They are made up mostly of compact bone, with lesser amounts of marrow, located within the medullary cavity, and spongy, cancellous bone. Most bones of the limbs, including those of the fingers and toes, are long bones. The exceptions are the eight carpal bones of the wrist, the seven articulating tarsal bones of the ankle and the sesamoid bone of the kneecap. Long bones such as the clavicle, that have a differently shaped shaft or ends are also called modified long bones.\n* Short bones are roughly cube-shaped, and have only a thin layer of compact bone surrounding a spongy interior. The bones of the wrist and ankle are short bones. \n* Flat bones are thin and generally curved, with two parallel layers of compact bones sandwiching a layer of spongy bone. Most of the bones of the skull are flat bones, as is the sternum.\n* Sesamoid bones are bones embedded in tendons. Since they act to hold the tendon further away from the joint, the angle of the tendon is increased and thus the leverage of the muscle is increased. Examples of sesamoid bones are the patella and the pisiform.\n* Irregular bones do not fit into the above categories. They consist of thin layers of compact bone surrounding a spongy interior. As implied by the name, their shapes are irregular and complicated. Often this irregular shape is due to their many centers of ossification or because they contain bony sinuses. The bones of the spine, pelvis, and some bones of the skull are irregular bones. Examples include the ethmoid and sphenoid bones. \n\nTerminology\n\nIn the study of anatomy, anatomists use a number of anatomical terms to describe the appearance, shape and function of bones. Other anatomical terms are also used to describe the location of bones. Like other anatomical terms, many of these derive from Latin and Greek. Some anatomists still use Latin to refer to bones. The term \"osseous\", and the prefix \"osteo-\", referring to things related to bone, are still used commonly today.\n\nSome examples of terms used to describe bones include the term \"foramen\" to describe a hole through which something passes, and a \"canal\" or \"meatus\" to describe a tunnel-like structure. A protrusion from a bone can be called a number of terms, including a \"condyle\", \"crest\", \"spine\", \"eminence\", \"tubercle\" or \"tuberosity\", depending on the protrusion's shape and location. In general, long bones are said to have a \"head\", \"neck\", and \"body\".\n\nWhen two bones join together, they are said to \"articulate\". If the two bones have a fibrous connection and are relatively immobile, then the joint is called a \"suture\".\n\nDevelopment\n\nThe formation of bone is called ossification. During the fetal stage of development this occurs by two processes, Intramembranous ossification and endochondral ossification. Intramembranous ossification involves the creation of bone from connective tissue, whereas in the process of endochondral ossification bone is created from cartilage.\n\nIntramembranous ossification\n\nIntramembranous ossification mainly occurs during formation of the flat bones of the skull but also the mandible, maxilla, and clavicles; the bone is formed from connective tissue such as mesenchyme tissue rather than from cartilage. The steps in intramembranous ossification are:\n# Development of ossification center\n# Calcification\n# Formation of trabeculae\n# Development of periosteum\n\nEndochondral ossification\n\nEndochondral ossification, on the other hand, occurs in long bones and most of the rest of the bones in the body; it involves an initial hyaline cartilage that continues to grow. The steps in endochondral ossification are:\n# Development of cartilage model\n# Growth of cartilage model\n# Development of the primary ossification center\n# Development of the secondary ossification center\n# Formation of articular cartilage and epiphyseal plate\n\nEndochondral ossification begins with points in the cartilage called \"primary ossification centers.\" They mostly appear during fetal development, though a few short bones begin their primary ossification after birth. They are responsible for the formation of the diaphyses of long bones, short bones and certain parts of irregular bones. Secondary ossification occurs after birth, and forms the epiphyses of long bones and the extremities of irregular and flat bones. The diaphysis and both epiphyses of a long bone are separated by a growing zone of cartilage (the epiphyseal plate). When the child reaches skeletal maturity (18 to 25 years of age), all of the cartilage is replaced by bone, fusing the diaphysis and both epiphyses together (epiphyseal closure). In the upper limbs, only the diaphyses of the long bones and scapula are ossified. The epiphyses, carpal bones, coracoid process, medial border of the scapula, and acromion are still cartilaginous. \n\nThe following steps are followed in the conversion of cartilage to bone:\n# Zone of reserve cartilage. This region, farthest from the marrow cavity, consists of typical hyaline cartilage that as yet shows no sign of transforming into bone. \n# Zone of cell proliferation. A little closer to the marrow cavity, chondrocytes multiply and arrange themselves into longitudinal columns of flattened lacunae.\n# Zone of cell hypertrophy. Next, the chondrocytes cease to divide and begin to hypertrophy (enlarge), much like they do in the primary ossification center of the fetus. The walls of the matrix between lacunae become very thin.\n# Zone of calcification. Minerals are deposited in the matrix between the columns of lacunae and calcify the cartilage. These are not the permanent mineral deposits of bone, but only a temporary support for the cartilage that would otherwise soon be weakened by the breakdown of the enlarged lacunae.\n# Zone of bone deposition. Within each column, the walls between the lacunae break down and the chondrocytes die. This converts each column into a longitudinal channel, which is immediately invaded by blood vessels and marrow from the marrow cavity. Osteoblasts line up along the walls of these channels and begin depositing concentric lamellae of matrix, while osteoclasts dissolve the temporarily calcified cartilage.\n\nFunction\n\nBones have a variety of functions:\n\nMechanical\n\nBones serve a variety of mechanical functions. Together the bones in the body form the skeleton. They provide a frame to keep the body supported, and an attachment point for skeletal muscles, tendons, ligaments and joints, which function together to generate and transfer forces so that individual body parts or the whole body can be manipulated in three-dimensional space (the interaction between bone and muscle is studied in biomechanics).\n\nBones protect internal organs, such as the skull protecting the brain or the ribs protecting the heart and lungs. Because of the way that bone is formed, bone has a high compressive strength of about 170 MPa (1800 kgf/cm²), poor tensile strength of 104–121 MPa, and a very low shear stress strength (51.6 MPa). This means that bone resists pushing(compressional) stress well, resist pulling(tensional) stress less well, but only poorly resists shear stress (such as due to torsional loads). While bone is essentially brittle, bone does have a significant degree of elasticity, contributed chiefly by collagen. The macroscopic yield strength of cancellous bone has been investigated using high resolution computer models. \n\nMechanically, bones also have a special role in hearing. The ossicles are three small bones in the middle ear which are involved in sound transduction.\n\nSynthetic\n\nCancellous bones contain bone marrow. Bone marrow produces blood cells in a process called hematopoiesis. Blood cells that are created in bone marrow include red blood cells, platelets and white blood cells. Progenitor cells such as the hematopoietic stem cell divide in a process called mitosis to produce precursor cells. These include precursors which eventually give rise to white blood cells, and erythroblasts which give rise to red blood cells. Unlike red and white blood cells, created by mitosis, platelets are shed from very large cells called megakaryocytes. This process of progressive differentiation occurs within the bone marrow. After the cells are matured, they enter the circulation. Every day, over 2.5 billion red blood cells and platelets, and 50–100 billion granulocytes are produced in this way.\n\nAs well as creating cells, bone marrow is also one of the major sites where defective or aged red blood cells are destroyed.\n\nMetabolic\n\n* Mineral storage — bones act as reserves of minerals important for the body, most notably calcium and phosphorus.\n* Growth factor storage — mineralized bone matrix stores important growth factors such as insulin-like growth factors, transforming growth factor, bone morphogenetic proteins and others.\n* Fat storage — the yellow bone marrow acts as a storage reserve of fatty acids.\n* Acid-base balance — bone buffers the blood against excessive pH changes by absorbing or releasing alkaline salts.\n* Detoxification — bone tissues can also store heavy metals and other foreign elements, removing them from the blood and reducing their effects on other tissues. These can later be gradually released for excretion.\n* Endocrine organ — bone controls phosphate metabolism by releasing fibroblast growth factor – 23 (FGF-23), which acts on kidneys to reduce phosphate reabsorption. Bone cells also release a hormone called osteocalcin, which contributes to the regulation of blood sugar (glucose) and fat deposition. Osteocalcin increases both the insulin secretion and sensitivity, in addition to boosting the number of insulin-producing cells and reducing stores of fat. \n* Calcium balance—The process of bone resorption by the osteoclasts releases stored calcium into the systemic circulation and is an important process in regulating calcium balance. As bone formation actively fixes circulating calcium in its mineral form, removing it from the bloodstream, resorption actively unfixes it thereby increasing circulating calcium levels. These processes occur in tandem at site-specific locations.\n\nRemodeling\n\nBone is constantly being created and replaced in a process known as remodeling. This ongoing turnover of bone is a process of resorption followed by replacement of bone with little change in shape. This is accomplished through osteoblasts and osteoclasts. Cells are stimulated by a variety of signals, and together referred to as a remodeling unit. Approximately 10% of the skeletal mass of an adult is remodelled each year. The purpose of remodeling is to regulate calcium homeostasis, repair microdamaged bones from everyday stress, and also to shape and sculpt the skeleton during growth.. Repeated stress, such as weight-bearing exercise or bone healing, results in the bone thickening at the points of maximum stress (Wolff's law). It has been hypothesized that this is a result of bone's piezoelectric properties, which cause bone to generate small electrical potentials under stress. \n\nThe action of osteoblasts and osteoclasts are controlled by a number of chemical enzymes that either promote or inhibit the activity of the bone remodeling cells, controlling the rate at which bone is made, destroyed, or changed in shape. The cells also use paracrine signalling to control the activity of each other. For example, the rate at which osteoclasts resorb bone is inhibited by calcitonin and osteoprotegerin. Calcitonin is produced by parafollicular cells in the thyroid gland, and can bind to receptors on osteoclasts to directly inhibit osteoclast activity. Osteoprotegerin is secreted by osteoblasts and is able to bind RANK-L, inhibiting osteoclast stimulation.\n\nOsteoblasts can also be stimulated to increase bone mass through increased secretion of osteoid and by inhibiting the ability of osteoclasts to break down osseous tissue. Increased secretion of osteoid is stimulated by the secretion of growth hormone by the pituitary, thyroid hormone and the sex hormones (estrogens and androgens). These hormones also promote increased secretion of osteoprotegerin. Osteoblasts can also be induced to secrete a number of cytokines that promote reabsorbtion of bone by stimulating osteoclast activity and differentiation from progenitor cells. Vitamin D, parathyroid hormone and stimulation from osteocytes induce osteoblasts to increase secretion of RANK-ligand and interleukin 6, which cytokines then stimulate increased reabsorption of bone by osteoclasts. These same compounds also increase secretion of macrophage colony-stimulating factor by osteoblasts, which promotes the differentiation of progenitor cells into osteoclasts, and decrease secretion of osteoprotegerin.\n\nBone volume\n\nBone volume is determined by the rates of bone formation and bone resorption. Recent research has suggested that certain growth factors may work to locally alter bone formation by increasing osteoblast activity. Numerous bone-derived growth factors have been isolated and classified via bone cultures. These factors include insulin-like growth factors I and II, transforming growth factor-beta, fibroblast growth factor, platelet-derived growth factor, and bone morphogenetic proteins. Evidence suggests that bone cells produce growth factors for extracellular storage in the bone matrix. The release of these growth factors from the bone matrix could cause the proliferation of osteoblast precursors. Essentially, bone growth factors may act as potential determinants of local bone formation. Research has suggested that trabecular bone volume in postemenopausal osteoporosis may be determined by the relationship between the total bone forming surface and the percent of surface resorption. \n\nClinical significance\n\nA number of diseases can affect bone, including arthritis, fractures, infections, osteoporosis and tumours. Conditions relating to bone can be managed by a variety of doctors, including rheumatologists for joints, and orthopedic surgeons, who may conduct surgery to fix broken bones. Other doctors, such as rehabilitation specialists may be involved in recovery, radiologists in interpreting the findings on imaging, and pathologists in investigating the cause of the disease, and family doctors may play a role in preventing complications of bone disease such as osteoporosis.\n\nWhen a doctor sees a patient, a history and exam will be taken. Bones are then often imaged, called radiography. This might include ultrasound X-ray, CT scan, MRI scan and other imaging such as a Bone scan, which may be used to investigate cancer. Other tests such as a blood test for autoimmune markers may be taken, or a synovial fluid aspirate may be taken.\n\nFractures\n\nIn normal bone, fractures occur when there is significant force applied, or repetitive trauma over a long time. Fractures can also occur when a bone is weakened, such as with osteoporosis, or when there is a structural problem, such as when the bone remodels excessively (such as Paget's disease) or is the site of the growth of cancer. Common fractures include wrist fractures and hip fractures, associated with osteoporosis, vertebral fractures associated with high-energy trauma and cancer, and fractures of long-bones. Not all fractures are painful. When serious, depending on the fractures type and location, complications may include flail chest, compartment syndromes or fat embolism.\nCompound fractures involve the bone's penetration through the skin.\n\nFractures and their underlying causes can be investigated by X-rays, CT scans and MRIs. Fractures are described by their location and shape, and several classification systems exist, depending on the location of the fracture. A common long bone fracture in children is a Salter–Harris fracture. When fractures are managed, pain relief is often given, and the fractured area is often immobilised. This is to promote bone healing. In addition, surgical measures such as internal fixation may be used. Because of the immobilisation, people with fractures are often advised to undergo rehabilitation.\n\nTumours\n\nThere are several types of tumour that can affect bone; examples of benign bone tumours include osteoma, osteoid osteoma, osteochondroma, osteoblastoma, enchondroma, giant cell tumor of bone, aneurysmal bone cyst, and fibrous dysplasia of bone.\n\nCancer\n\nCancer can arise in bone tissue, and bones are also a common site for other cancers to spread (metastasise) to. Cancers that arise in bone are called \"primary\" cancers, although such cancers are rare. Metastases within bone are \"secondary\" cancers, with the most common being breast cancer, lung cancer, prostate cancer, thyroid cancer, and kidney cancer. Secondary cancers that affect bone can either destroy bone (called a \"lytic\" cancer) or create bone (a \"sclerotic\" cancer). Cancers of the bone marrow inside the bone can also affect bone tissue, examples including leukemia and multiple myeloma. Bone may also be affected by cancers in other parts of the body. Cancers in other parts of the body may release parathyroid hormone or parathyroid hormone-related peptide. This increases bone reabsorption, and can lead to bone fractures.\n\nBone tissue that is destroyed or altered as a result of cancers is distorted, weakened, and more prone to fracture. This may lead to compression of the spinal cord, destruction of the marrow resulting in bruising, bleeding and immunosuppression, and is one cause of bone pain. If the cancer is metastatic, then there might be other symptoms depending on the site of the original cancer. Some bone cancers can also be felt.\n\nCancers of the bone are managed according to their type, their stage, prognosis, and what symptoms they cause. Many primary cancers of bone are treated with radiotherapy. Cancers of bone marrow may be treated with chemotherapy, and other forms of targeted therapy such as immunotherapy may be used. Palliative care, which focuses on maximising a person's quality of life, may play a role in management, particularly if the likelihood of survival within five years is poor.\n\nPainful conditions\n\n* Osteomyelitis is inflammation of the bone or bone marrow due to bacterial infection.\n* Osteogenesis imperfecta\n* Osteochondritis dissecans\n* Arthritis\n* Ankylosing spondylitis\n* Skeletal fluorosis is a bone disease caused by an excessive accumulation of fluoride in the bones. In advanced cases, skeletal fluorosis damages bones and joints and is painful.\n\nOsteoporosis\n\nOsteoporosis is a disease of bone where there is reduced bone mineral density, increasing the likelihood of fractures. Osteoporosis is defined by the World Health Organization in women as a bone mineral density 2.5 standard deviations below peak bone mass, relative to the age and sex-matched average, as measured by Dual energy X-ray absorptiometry, with the term \"established osteoporosis\" including the presence of a fragility fracture. Osteoporosis is most common in women after menopause, when it is called \"postmenopausal osteoporosis\", but may develop in men and premenopausal women in the presence of particular hormonal disorders and other chronic diseases or as a result of smoking and medications, specifically glucocorticoids. Osteoporosis usually has no symptoms until a fracture occurs. For this reason, DEXA scans are often done in people with one or more risk factors, who have developed osteoporosis and be at risk of fracture.\n\nOsteoporosis treatment includes advice to stop smoking, decrease alcohol consumption, exercise regularly, and have a healthy diet. Calcium supplements may also be advised, as may Vitamin D. When medication is used, it may include bisphosphonates, Strontium ranelate, and osteoporosis may be one factor considered when commencing Hormone replacement therapy.\n\nOsteology\n\nThe study of bones and teeth is referred to as osteology. It is frequently used in anthropology, archeology and forensic science for a variety of tasks. This can include determining the nutritional, health, age or injury status of the individual the bones were taken from. Preparing fleshed bones for these types of studies can involve the process of maceration.\n\nTypically anthropologists and archeologists study bone tools made by Homo sapiens and Homo neanderthalensis. Bones can serve a number of uses such as projectile points or artistic pigments, and can also be made from external bones such as antlers.\n\nOther animals\n\nBird skeletons are very lightweight. Their bones are smaller and thinner, to aid flight. Among mammals, bats come closest to birds in terms of bone density, suggesting that small dense bones are a flight adaptation. Many bird bones have little marrow due to their being hollow.\n\nA bird's beak is primarily made of bone as projections of the mandibles which are covered in keratin.\n\nA deer's antlers are composed of bone which is an unusual example of bone being outside the skin of the animal once the velvet is shed.\n\nThe extinct predatory fish Dunkleosteus had sharp edges of hard exposed bone along its jaws.\n\nMany animals possess an exoskeleton that is not made of bone, These include insects and crustaceans.\n\nSociety and culture\n\nBones from slaughtered animals have a number of uses. In prehistoric times, they have been used for making bone tools. They have further been used in bone carving, already important in prehistoric art, and also in modern time as crafting materials for buttons, beads, handles, bobbins, calculation aids, head nuts, dice, poker chips, pick-up sticks, ornaments, etc. A special genre is scrimshaw.\n\nBone glue can be made by prolonged boiling of ground or cracked bones, followed by filtering and evaporation to thicken the resulting fluid. Historically once important, bone glue and other animal glues today have only a few specialized uses, such as in antiques restoration. Essentially the same process, with further refinement, thickening and drying, is used to make gelatin.\n\nBroth is made by simmering several ingredients for a long time, traditionally including bones.\n\nGround bones are used as an organic phosphorus-nitrogen fertilizer and as additive in animal feed. Bones, in particular after calcination to bone ash, are used as source of calcium phosphate for the production of bone china and previously also phosphorus chemicals.\n\nBone char, a porous, black, granular material primarily used for filtration and also as a black pigment, is produced by charring mammal bones.\n\nOracle bone script was a writing system used in Ancient china based on inscriptions in bones.\n\nTo point the bone at someone is considered bad luck in some cultures, such as Australian aborigines, such as by the Kurdaitcha.\n\nOsteopathic medicine is a school of medical thought originally developed based on the idea of the link between the musculoskeletal system and overall health, but now very similar to mainstream medicine. , over 77,000 physicians in the United States are trained in Osteopathic medicine colleges. \n\nThe wishbones of fowl have been used for divination, and are still customarily used in a tradition to determine which one of two people pulling on either prong of the bone may make a wish.\n\nVarious cultures throughout history have adopted the custom of shaping an infant's head by the practice of artificial cranial deformation. A widely practised\ncustom in China was that of foot binding to limit the normal growth of the foot.", "Muscle is a soft tissue found in most animals. Muscle cells contain protein filaments of actin and myosin that slide past one another, producing a contraction that changes both the length and the shape of the cell. Muscles function to produce force and motion. They are primarily responsible for maintaining and changing posture, locomotion, as well as movement of internal organs, such as the contraction of the heart and the movement of food through the digestive system via peristalsis.\n\nMuscle tissues are derived from the mesodermal layer of embryonic germ cells in a process known as myogenesis. There are three types of muscle, skeletal or striated, cardiac, and smooth. Muscle action can be classified as being either voluntary or involuntary. Cardiac and smooth muscles contract without conscious thought and are termed involuntary, whereas the skeletal muscles contract upon command. Skeletal muscles in turn can be divided into fast and slow twitch fibers.\n\nMuscles are predominantly powered by the oxidation of fats and carbohydrates, but anaerobic chemical reactions are also used, particularly by fast twitch fibers. These chemical reactions produce adenosine triphosphate (ATP) molecules that are used to power the movement of the myosin heads. \n\nThe term muscle is derived from the Latin musculus meaning \"little mouse\" perhaps because of the shape of certain muscles or because contracting muscles look like mice moving under the skin. \n\nAnatomy \n\nThe anatomy of muscles includes gross anatomy, which comprises all the muscles of an organism, and microanatomy, which comprises the structures of a single muscle.\n\nTypes of tissue \n\nMuscle tissue is a soft tissue, and is one of the four fundamental types of tissue present in animals. There are three types of muscle tissue recognized in vertebrates:\n* Skeletal muscle or \"voluntary muscle\" is anchored by tendons (or by aponeuroses at a few places) to bone and is used to effect skeletal movement such as locomotion and in maintaining posture. Though this postural control is generally maintained as an unconscious reflex, the muscles responsible react to conscious control like non-postural muscles. An average adult male is made up of 42% of skeletal muscle and an average adult female is made up of 36% (as a percentage of body mass).\n* Smooth muscle or \"involuntary muscle\" is found within the walls of organs and structures such as the esophagus, stomach, intestines, bronchi, uterus, urethra, bladder, blood vessels, and the arrector pili in the skin (in which it controls erection of body hair). Unlike skeletal muscle, smooth muscle is not under conscious control.\n* Cardiac muscle (myocardium), is also an \"involuntary muscle\" but is more akin in structure to skeletal muscle, and is found only in the heart.\n\nCardiac and skeletal muscles are \"striated\" in that they contain sarcomeres that are packed into highly regular arrangements of bundles; the myofibrils of smooth muscle cells are not arranged in sarcomeres and so are not striated. While the sarcomeres in skeletal muscles are arranged in regular, parallel bundles, cardiac muscle sarcomeres connect at branching, irregular angles (called intercalated discs). Striated muscle contracts and relaxes in short, intense bursts, whereas smooth muscle sustains longer or even near-permanent contractions.\n\nSkeletal (voluntary) muscle is further divided into two broad types: slow twitch and fast twitch:\n\n* Type I, slow twitch, or \"red\" muscle, is dense with capillaries and is rich in mitochondria and myoglobin, giving the muscle tissue its characteristic red color. It can carry more oxygen and sustain aerobic activity using fats or carbohydrates as fuel. Slow twitch fibers contract for long periods of time but with little force.\n* Type II, fast twitch muscle, has three major subtypes (IIa, IIx, and IIb) that vary in both contractile speed and force generated. Fast twitch fibers contract quickly and powerfully but fatigue very rapidly, sustaining only short, anaerobic bursts of activity before muscle contraction becomes painful. They contribute most to muscle strength and have greater potential for increase in mass. Type IIb is anaerobic, glycolytic, \"white\" muscle that is least dense in mitochondria and myoglobin. In small animals (e.g., rodents) this is the major fast muscle type, explaining the pale color of their flesh.\n\nThe density of mammalian skeletal muscle tissue is about 1.06 kg/liter. This can be contrasted with the density of adipose tissue (fat), which is 0.9196 kg/liter. This makes muscle tissue approximately 15% denser than fat tissue.\n\nHistogenesis \n\nAll muscles are derived from paraxial mesoderm. The paraxial mesoderm is divided along the embryo's length into somites, corresponding to the segmentation of the body (most obviously seen in the vertebral column. Each somite has 3 divisions, sclerotome (which forms vertebrae), dermatome (which forms skin), and myotome (which forms muscle). The myotome is divided into two sections, the epimere and hypomere, which form epaxial and hypaxial muscles, respectively. The only epaxial muscles in humans are the erector spinae and small intervertebral muscles, and are innervated by the dorsal rami of the spinal nerves. All other muscles, including those of the limbs are hypaxial, and inervated by the ventral rami of the spinal nerves.\n\nDuring development, myoblasts (muscle progenitor cells) either remain in the somite to form muscles associated with the vertebral column or migrate out into the body to form all other muscles. Myoblast migration is preceded by the formation of connective tissue frameworks, usually formed from the somatic lateral plate mesoderm. Myoblasts follow chemical signals to the appropriate locations, where they fuse into elongate skeletal muscle cells.\n\nMicroanatomy \n\nSkeletal muscles are sheathed by a tough layer of connective tissue called the epimysium. The epimysium anchors muscle tissue to tendons at each end, where the epimysium becomes thicker and collagenous. It also protects muscles from friction against other muscles and bones. Within the epimysium are multiple bundles called fascicles, each of which contains 10 to 100 or more muscle fibers collectively sheathed by a perimysium. Besides surrounding each fascicle, the perimysium is a pathway for nerves and the flow of blood within the muscle. The threadlike muscle fibers are the individual muscle cells (myocytes), and each cell is encased within its own endomysium of collagen fibers. Thus, the overall muscle consists of fibers (cells) that are bundled into fascicles, which are themselves grouped together to form muscles. At each level of bundling, a collagenous membrane surrounds the bundle, and these membranes support muscle function both by resisting passive stretching of the tissue and by distributing forces applied to the muscle. Scattered throughout the muscles are muscle spindles that provide sensory feedback information to the central nervous system. (This grouping structure is analogous to the organization of nerves which uses epineurium, perineurium, and endoneurium).\n\nThis same bundles-within-bundles structure is replicated within the muscle cells. Within the cells of the muscle are myofibrils, which themselves are bundles of protein filaments. The term \"myofibril\" should not be confused with \"myofiber\", which is a simply another name for a muscle cell. Myofibrils are complex strands of several kinds of protein filaments organized together into repeating units called sarcomeres. The striated appearance of both skeletal and cardiac muscle results from the regular pattern of sarcomeres within their cells. Although both of these types of muscle contain sarcomeres, the fibers in cardiac muscle are typically branched to form a network. Cardiac muscle fibers are interconnected by intercalated discs, giving that tissue the appearance of a syncytium.\n\nThe filaments in a sarcomere are composed of actin and myosin.\n\nGross anatomy \n\nThe gross anatomy of a muscle is the most important indicator of its role in the body. There is an important distinction seen between pennate muscles and other muscles. In most muscles, all the fibers are oriented in the same direction, running in a line from the origin to the insertion. However, In pennate muscles, the individual fibers are oriented at an angle relative to the line of action, attaching to the origin and insertion tendons at each end. Because the contracting fibers are pulling at an angle to the overall action of the muscle, the change in length is smaller, but this same orientation allows for more fibers (thus more force) in a muscle of a given size. Pennate muscles are usually found where their length change is less important than maximum force, such as the rectus femoris.\n\nSkeletal muscle is arranged in discrete muscles, an example of which is the biceps brachii (biceps). The tough, fibrous epimysium of skeletal muscle is both connected to and continuous with the tendons. In turn, the tendons connect to the periosteum layer surrounding the bones, permitting the transfer of force from the muscles to the skeleton. Together, these fibrous layers, along with tendons and ligaments, constitute the deep fascia of the body.\n\nMuscular system \n\nThe muscular system consists of all the muscles present in a single body. There are approximately 650 skeletal muscles in the human body, but an exact number is difficult to define. The difficulty lies partly in the fact that different sources group the muscles differently and partly in that some muscles, such as palmaris longus, are not always present.\n\nA muscular slip is a narrow length of muscle that acts to augment a larger muscle or muscles.\n\nThe muscular system is one component of the musculoskeletal system, which includes not only the muscles but also the bones, joints, tendons, and other structures that permit movement.\n\nPhysiology \n\nThe three types of muscle (skeletal, cardiac and smooth) have significant differences. However, all three use the movement of actin against myosin to create contraction. In skeletal muscle, contraction is stimulated by electrical impulses transmitted by the nerves, the motoneurons (motor nerves) in particular. Cardiac and smooth muscle contractions are stimulated by internal pacemaker cells which regularly contract, and propagate contractions to other muscle cells they are in contact with. All skeletal muscle and many smooth muscle contractions are facilitated by the neurotransmitter acetylcholine.\n\nFunction \n\nThe action a muscle generates is determined by the origin and insertion locations. The cross-sectional area of a muscle (rather than volume or length) determines the amount of force it can generate by defining the number of sarcomeres which can operate in parallel. The amount of force applied to the external environment is determined by lever mechanics, specifically the ratio of in-lever to out-lever. For example, moving the insertion point of the biceps more distally on the radius (farther from the joint of rotation) would increase the force generated during flexion (and, as a result, the maximum weight lifted in this movement), but decrease the maximum speed of flexion. Moving the insertion point proximally (closer to the joint of rotation) would result in decreased force but increased velocity. This can be most easily seen by comparing the limb of a mole to a horse - in the former, the insertion point is positioned to maximize force (for digging), while in the latter, the insertion point is positioned to maximize speed (for running).\n\nEnergy consumption \n\nMuscular activity accounts for much of the body's energy consumption. All muscle cells produce adenosine triphosphate (ATP) molecules which are used to power the movement of the myosin heads. Muscles have a short-term store of energy in the form of creatine phosphate which is generated from ATP and can regenerate ATP when needed with creatine kinase. Muscles also keep a storage form of glucose in the form of glycogen. Glycogen can be rapidly converted to glucose when energy is required for sustained, powerful contractions. Within the voluntary skeletal muscles, the glucose molecule can be metabolized anaerobically in a process called glycolysis which produces two ATP and two lactic acid molecules in the process (note that in aerobic conditions, lactate is not formed; instead pyruvate is formed and transmitted through the citric acid cycle). Muscle cells also contain globules of fat, which are used for energy during aerobic exercise. The aerobic energy systems take longer to produce the ATP and reach peak efficiency, and requires many more biochemical steps, but produces significantly more ATP than anaerobic glycolysis. Cardiac muscle on the other hand, can readily consume any of the three macronutrients (protein, glucose and fat) aerobically without a 'warm up' period and always extracts the maximum ATP yield from any molecule involved. The heart, liver and red blood cells will also consume lactic acid produced and excreted by skeletal muscles during exercise.\n\nAt rest, skeletal muscle consumes 54.4 kJ/kg (13.0 kcal/kg) per day. This is larger than adipose tissue (fat) at 18.8 kJ/kg (4.5 kcal/kg), and bone at 9.6 kJ/kg (2.3 kcal/kg).\n\nNervous control \n\nEfferent leg \n\nThe efferent leg of the peripheral nervous system is responsible for conveying commands to the muscles and glands, and is ultimately responsible for voluntary movement. Nerves move muscles in response to voluntary and autonomic (involuntary) signals from the brain. Deep muscles, superficial muscles, muscles of the face and internal muscles all correspond with dedicated regions in the primary motor cortex of the brain, directly anterior to the central sulcus that divides the frontal and parietal lobes.\n\nIn addition, muscles react to reflexive nerve stimuli that do not always send signals all the way to the brain. In this case, the signal from the afferent fiber does not reach the brain, but produces the reflexive movement by direct connections with the efferent nerves in the spine. However, the majority of muscle activity is volitional, and the result of complex interactions between various areas of the brain.\n\nNerves that control skeletal muscles in mammals correspond with neuron groups along the primary motor cortex of the brain's cerebral cortex. Commands are routed though the basal ganglia and are modified by input from the cerebellum before being relayed through the pyramidal tract to the spinal cord and from there to the motor end plate at the muscles. Along the way, feedback, such as that of the extrapyramidal system contribute signals to influence muscle tone and response.\n\nDeeper muscles such as those involved in posture often are controlled from nuclei in the brain stem and basal ganglia.\n\nAfferent leg \n\nThe afferent leg of the peripheral nervous system is responsible for conveying sensory information to the brain, primarily from the sense organs like the skin. In the muscles, the muscle spindles convey information about the degree of muscle length and stretch to the central nervous system to assist in maintaining posture and joint position. The sense of where our bodies are in space is called proprioception, the perception of body awareness. More easily demonstrated than explained, proprioception is the \"unconscious\" awareness of where the various regions of the body are located at any one time. This can be demonstrated by anyone closing their eyes and waving their hand around. Assuming proper proprioceptive function, at no time will the person lose awareness of where the hand actually is, even though it is not being detected by any of the other senses.\n\nSeveral areas in the brain coordinate movement and position with the feedback information gained from proprioception. The cerebellum and red nucleus in particular continuously sample position against movement and make minor corrections to assure smooth motion.\n\nEfficiency \n\nThe efficiency of human muscle has been measured (in the context of rowing and cycling) at 18% to 26%. The efficiency is defined as the ratio of mechanical work output to the total metabolic cost, as can be calculated from oxygen consumption. This low efficiency is the result of about 40% efficiency of generating ATP from food energy, losses in converting energy from ATP into mechanical work inside the muscle, and mechanical losses inside the body. The latter two losses are dependent on the type of exercise and the type of muscle fibers being used (fast-twitch or slow-twitch). For an overall efficiency of 20 percent, one watt of mechanical power is equivalent to 4.3 kcal per hour. For example, one manufacturer of rowing equipment calibrates its rowing ergometer to count burned calories as equal to four times the actual mechanical work, plus 300 kcal per hour, this amounts to about 20 percent efficiency at 250 watts of mechanical output. The mechanical energy output of a cyclic contraction can depend upon many factors, including activation timing, muscle strain trajectory, and rates of force rise & decay. These can be synthesized experimentally using work loop analysis.\n\nStrength \n\nA display of \"strength\" (e.g. lifting a weight) is a result of three factors that overlap: physiological strength (muscle size, cross sectional area, available crossbridging, responses to training), neurological strength (how strong or weak is the signal that tells the muscle to contract), and mechanical strength (muscle's force angle on the lever, moment arm length, joint capabilities).\n\nPhysiological strength \n\nVertebrate muscle typically produces approximately of force per square centimeter of muscle cross-sectional area when isometric and at optimal length. Some invertebrate muscles, such as in crab claws, have much longer sarcomeres than vertebrates, resulting in many more sites for actin and myosin to bind and thus much greater force per square centimeter at the cost of much slower speed. The force generated by a contraction can be measured non-invasively using either mechanomyography or phonomyography, be measured in vivo using tendon strain (if a prominent tendon is present), or be measured directly using more invasive methods.\n\nThe strength of any given muscle, in terms of force exerted on the skeleton, depends upon length, shortening speed, cross sectional area, pennation, sarcomere length, myosin isoforms, and neural activation of motor units. Significant reductions in muscle strength can indicate underlying pathology, with the chart at right used as a guide.\n\nThe \"strongest\" human muscle \n\nSince three factors affect muscular strength simultaneously and muscles never work individually, it is misleading to compare strength in individual muscles, and state that one is the \"strongest\". But below are several muscles whose strength is noteworthy for different reasons.\n\n* In ordinary parlance, muscular \"strength\" usually refers to the ability to exert a force on an external object—for example, lifting a weight. By this definition, the masseter or jaw muscle is the strongest. The 1992 Guinness Book of Records records the achievement of a bite strength of 4337 N for 2 seconds. What distinguishes the masseter is not anything special about the muscle itself, but its advantage in working against a much shorter lever arm than other muscles.\n* If \"strength\" refers to the force exerted by the muscle itself, e.g., on the place where it inserts into a bone, then the strongest muscles are those with the largest cross-sectional area. This is because the tension exerted by an individual skeletal muscle fiber does not vary much. Each fiber can exert a force on the order of 0.3 micronewton. By this definition, the strongest muscle of the body is usually said to be the quadriceps femoris or the gluteus maximus.\n* Because muscle strength is determined by cross-sectional area, a shorter muscle will be stronger \"pound for pound\" (i.e., by weight) than a longer muscle of the same cross-sectional area. The myometrial layer of the uterus may be the strongest muscle by weight in the female human body. At the time when an infant is delivered, the entire human uterus weighs about 1.1 kg (40 oz). During childbirth, the uterus exerts 100 to 400 N (25 to 100 lbf) of downward force with each contraction.\n* The external muscles of the eye are conspicuously large and strong in relation to the small size and weight of the eyeball. It is frequently said that they are \"the strongest muscles for the job they have to do\" and are sometimes claimed to be \"100 times stronger than they need to be.\" However, eye movements (particularly saccades used on facial scanning and reading) do require high speed movements, and eye muscles are exercised nightly during rapid eye movement sleep.\n* The statement that \"the tongue is the strongest muscle in the body\" appears frequently in lists of surprising facts, but it is difficult to find any definition of \"strength\" that would make this statement true. Note that the tongue consists of eight muscles, not one.\n* The heart has a claim to being the muscle that performs the largest quantity of physical work in the course of a lifetime. Estimates of the power output of the human heart range from 1 to 5 watts. This is much less than the maximum power output of other muscles; for example, the quadriceps can produce over 100 watts, but only for a few minutes. The heart does its work continuously over an entire lifetime without pause, and thus does \"outwork\" other muscles. An output of one watt continuously for eighty years yields a total work output of two and a half gigajoules.\n\nHealth \n\nHumans are genetically predisposed with a larger percentage of one type of muscle group over another. An individual born with a greater percentage of Type I muscle fibers would theoretically be more suited to endurance events, such as triathlons, distance running, and long cycling events, whereas a human born with a greater percentage of Type II muscle fibers would be more likely to excel at sprinting events such as 100 meter dash. \n\nExercise \n\nExercise is often recommended as a means of improving motor skills, fitness, muscle and bone strength, and joint function. Exercise has several effects upon muscles, connective tissue, bone, and the nerves that stimulate the muscles. One such effect is muscle hypertrophy, an increase in size. This is used in bodybuilding.\n\nVarious exercises require a predominance of certain muscle fiber utilization over another. Aerobic exercise involves long, low levels of exertion in which the muscles are used at well below their maximal contraction strength for long periods of time (the most classic example being the marathon). Aerobic events, which rely primarily on the aerobic (with oxygen) system, use a higher percentage of Type I (or slow-twitch) muscle fibers, consume a mixture of fat, protein and carbohydrates for energy, consume large amounts of oxygen and produce little lactic acid. Anaerobic exercise involves short bursts of higher intensity contractions at a much greater percentage of their maximum contraction strength. Examples of anaerobic exercise include sprinting and weight lifting. The anaerobic energy delivery system uses predominantly Type II or fast-twitch muscle fibers, relies mainly on ATP or glucose for fuel, consumes relatively little oxygen, protein and fat, produces large amounts of lactic acid and can not be sustained for as long a period as aerobic exercise. Many exercises are partially aerobic and partially anaerobic; for example, soccer and rock climbing involve a combination of both.\n\nThe presence of lactic acid has an inhibitory effect on ATP generation within the muscle; though not producing fatigue, it can inhibit or even stop performance if the intracellular concentration becomes too high. However, long-term training causes neovascularization within the muscle, increasing the ability to move waste products out of the muscles and maintain contraction. Once moved out of muscles with high concentrations within the sarcomere, lactic acid can be used by other muscles or body tissues as a source of energy, or transported to the liver where it is converted back to pyruvate. In addition to increasing the level of lactic acid, strenuous exercise causes the loss of potassium ions in muscle and causing an increase in potassium ion concentrations close to the muscle fibres, in the interstitium. Acidification by lactic acid may allow recovery of force so that acidosis may protect against fatigue rather than being a cause of fatigue.\n\nDelayed onset muscle soreness is pain or discomfort that may be felt one to three days after exercising and generally subsides two to three days later. Once thought to be caused by lactic acid build-up, a more recent theory is that it is caused by tiny tears in the muscle fibers caused by eccentric contraction, or unaccustomed training levels. Since lactic acid disperses fairly rapidly, it could not explain pain experienced days after exercise.\n\nHypertrophy \n\nIndependent of strength and performance measures, muscles can be induced to grow larger by a number of factors, including hormone signaling, developmental factors, strength training, and disease. Contrary to popular belief, the number of muscle fibres cannot be increased through exercise. Instead, muscles grow larger through a combination of muscle cell growth as new protein filaments are added along with additional mass provided by undifferentiated satellite cells alongside the existing muscle cells.\n\nBiological factors such as age and hormone levels can affect muscle hypertrophy. During puberty in males, hypertrophy occurs at an accelerated rate as the levels of growth-stimulating hormones produced by the body increase. Natural hypertrophy normally stops at full growth in the late teens. As testosterone is one of the body's major growth hormones, on average, men find hypertrophy much easier to achieve than women. Taking additional testosterone or other anabolic steroids will increase muscular hypertrophy.\n\nMuscular, spinal and neural factors all affect muscle building. Sometimes a person may notice an increase in strength in a given muscle even though only its opposite has been subject to exercise, such as when a bodybuilder finds her left biceps stronger after completing a regimen focusing only on the right biceps. This phenomenon is called cross education.\n\nAtrophy \n\nInactivity and starvation in mammals lead to atrophy of skeletal muscle, a decrease in muscle mass that may be accompanied by a smaller number and size of the muscle cells as well as lower protein content. Muscle atrophy may also result from the natural aging process or from disease.\n\nIn humans, prolonged periods of immobilization, as in the cases of bed rest or astronauts flying in space, are known to result in muscle weakening and atrophy. Atrophy is of particular interest to the manned spaceflight community, because the weightlessness experienced in spaceflight results is a loss of as much as 30% of mass in some muscles. Such consequences are also noted in small hibernating mammals like the golden-mantled ground squirrels and brown bats.\n\nDuring aging, there is a gradual decrease in the ability to maintain skeletal muscle function and mass, known as sarcopenia. The exact cause of sarcopenia is unknown, but it may be due to a combination of the gradual failure in the \"satellite cells\" that help to regenerate skeletal muscle fibers, and a decrease in sensitivity to or the availability of critical secreted growth factors that are necessary to maintain muscle mass and satellite cell survival. Sarcopenia is a normal aspect of aging, and is not actually a disease state yet can be linked to many injuries in the elderly population as well as decreasing quality of life.\n\nThere are also many diseases and conditions that cause muscle atrophy. Examples include cancer and AIDS, which induce a body wasting syndrome called cachexia. Other syndromes or conditions that can induce skeletal muscle atrophy are congestive heart disease and some diseases of the liver.\n\nDisease \n\nNeuromuscular diseases are those that affect the muscles and/or their nervous control. In general, problems with nervous control can cause spasticity or paralysis, depending on the location and nature of the problem. A large proportion of neurological disorders, ranging from cerebrovascular accident (stroke) and Parkinson's disease to Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, can lead to problems with movement or motor coordination.\n\nSymptoms of muscle diseases may include weakness, spasticity, myoclonus and myalgia. Diagnostic procedures that may reveal muscular disorders include testing creatine kinase levels in the blood and electromyography (measuring electrical activity in muscles). In some cases, muscle biopsy may be done to identify a myopathy, as well as genetic testing to identify DNA abnormalities associated with specific myopathies and dystrophies.\n\nA non-invasive elastography technique that measures muscle noise is undergoing experimentation to provide a way of monitoring neuromuscular disease. The sound produced by a muscle comes from the shortening of actomyosin filaments along the axis of the muscle. During contraction, the muscle shortens along its longitudinal axis and expands across the transverse axis, producing vibrations at the surface.\n\nEvolution \n\nThe evolutionary origin of muscle cells in metazoans is a highly debated topic. In one line of thought scientists have believed that muscle cells evolved once and thus all animals with muscles cells have a single common ancestor. In the other line of thought, scientists believe muscles cells evolved more than once and any morphological or structural similarities are due to convergent evolution and genes that predate the evolution of muscle and even the mesoderm - the germ layer from which many scientists believe true muscle cells derive.\n\nSchmid and Seipel argue that the origin of muscle cells is a monophyletic trait that occurred concurrently with the development of the digestive and nervous systems of all animals and that this origin can be traced to a single metazoan ancestor in which muscle cells are present. They argue that molecular and morphological similarities between the muscles cells in cnidaria and ctenophora are similar enough to those of bilaterians that there would be one ancestor in metazoans from which muscle cells derive. In this case, Schmid and Seipel argue that the last common ancestor of bilateria, ctenophora, and cnidaria was a triploblast or an organism with three germ layers and that diploblasty, meaning an organism with two germ layers, evolved secondarily due to their observation of the lack of mesoderm or muscle found in most cnidarians and ctenophores. By comparing the morphology of cnidarians and ctenophores to bilaterians, Schmid and Seipel were able to conclude that there were myoblast-like structures in the tentacles and gut of some species of cnidarians and in the tentacles of ctenophores. Since this is a structure unique to muscle cells, these scientists determined based on the data collected by their peers that this is a marker for striated muscles similar to that observed in bilaterians. The authors also remark that the muscle cells found in cnidarians and ctenophores are often contests due to the origin of these muscle cells being the ectoderm rather than the mesoderm or mesendoderm. The origin of true muscles cells is argued by others to be the endoderm portion of the mesoderm and the endoderm. However, Schmid and Seipel counter this skepticism about whether or not the muscle cells found in ctenophores and cnidarians are true muscle cells by considering that cnidarians develop through a medusa stage and polyp stage. They observe that in the hydrozoan medusa stage there is a layer of cells that separate from the distal side of the ectoderm to form the striated muscle cells in a way that seems similar to that of the mesoderm and call this third separated layer of cells the ectocodon. They also argue that not all muscle cells are derived from the mesendoderm in bilaterians with key examples being that in both the eye muscles of vertebrates and the muscles of spiralians these cells derive from the ectodermal mesoderm rather than the endodermal mesoderm. Furthermore, Schmid and Seipel argue that since myogenesis does occur in cnidarians with the help of molecular regulatory elements found in the specification of muscles cells in bilaterians that there is evidence for a single origin for striated muscle.\n\nIn contrast to this argument for a single origin of muscle cells, Steinmetz et al. argue that molecular markers such as the myosin II protein used to determine this single origin of striated muscle actually predate the formation of muscle cells. This author uses an example of the contractile elements present in the porifera or sponges that do truly lack this striated muscle containing this protein. Furthermore, Steinmetz et al. present evidence for a polyphyletic origin of striated muscle cell development through their analysis of morphological and molecular markers that are present in bilaterians and absent in cnidarians, ctenophores, and bilaterians. Steimetz et al. showed that the traditional morphological and regulatory markers such as actin, the ability to couple myosin side chains phosphorylation to higher concentrations of the positive concentrations of calcium, and other MyHC elements are present in all metazoans not just the organisms that have been shown to have muscle cells. Thus, the usage of any of these structural or regulatory elements in determining whether or not the muscle cells of the cnidarians and ctenophores are similar enough to the muscle cells of the bilaterians to confirm a single lineage is questionable according to Steinmetz et al. Furthermore, Steinmetz et al. explain that the orthologues of the MyHc genes that have been used to hypothesize the origin of striated muscle occurred through a gene duplication event that predates the first true muscle cells (meaning striated muscle), and they show that the MyHc genes are present in the sponges that have contractile elements but no true muscle cells. Furthermore, Steinmetz et all showed that the localization of this duplicated set of genes that serve both the function of facilitating the formation of striated muscle genes and cell regulation and movement genes were already separated into striated myhc and non-muscle myhc. This separation of the duplicated set of genes is shown through the localization of the striated myhc to the contractile vacuole in sponges while the non-muscle myhc was more diffusely expressed during developmental cell shape and change. Steinmetz et al. found a similar pattern of localization in cnidarians with except with the cnidarian N. vectensis having this striated muscle marker present in the smooth muscle of the digestive track. Thus, Steinmetz et al. argue that the pleisiomorphic trait of the separated orthologues of myhc cannot be used to determine the monophylogeny of muscle, and additionally argue that the presence of a striated muscle marker in the smooth muscle of this cnidarian shows a fundamentally different mechanism of muscle cell development and structure in cnidarians.\n\nSteinmetz et al. continue to argue for multiple origins of striated muscle in the metazoans by explaining that a key set of genes used to form the troponin complex for muscle regulation and formation in bilaterians is missing from the cnidarians and ctenophores, and of 47 structural and regulatory proteins observed, Steinmetz et al. were not able to find even on unique striated muscle cell protein that was expressed in both cnidarians and bilaterians. Furthermore, the Z-disc seemed to have evolved differently even within bilaterians and there is a great deal diversity of proteins developed even between this clade, showing a large degree of radiation for muscle cells. Through this divergence of the Z-disc, Steimetz et al. argue that there are only four common protein components that were present in all bilaterians muscle ancestors and that of these for necessary Z-disc components only an actin protein that they have already argued is an uninformative marker through its pleisiomorphic state is present in cnidarians. Through further molecular marker testing, Steinmetz et al. observe that non-bilaterians lack many regulatory and structural components necessary for bilaterians muscle formation and do not find any unique set of proteins to both bilaterians and cnidarians and ctenophores that are not present in earlier, more primitive animals such as the sponges and amoebozoans. Through this analysis the authors conclude that due to the lack of elements that bilaterians muscles are dependent on for structure and usage, nonbilaterian muscles must be of a different origin with a different set regulatory and structural proteins.\n\nIn another take on the argument, Andrikou and Arnone use the newly available data on gene regulatory networks to look at how the hierarchy of genes and morphogens and other mechanism of tissue specification diverge and are similar among early deuterostomes and protostomes. By understanding not only what genes are present in all bilaterians but also the time and place of deployment of these genes, Andrikou and Arnone discuss a deeper understanding of the evolution of myogenesis.\n\nIn their paper Andrikou and Arnone argue that to truly understand the evolution of muscle cells the function of transcriptional regulators must be understood in the context of other external and internal interactions. Through their analysis, Andrikou and Arnone found that there were conserved orthologues of the gene regulatory network in both invertebrate bilaterians and in cnidarians. They argue that having this common, general regulatory circuit allowed for a high degree of divergence from a single well functioning network. Andrikou and Arnone found that the orthologues of genes found in vertebrates had been changed through different types of structural mutations in the invertebrate deuterostomes and protostomes, and they argue that these structural changes in the genes allowed for a large divergence of muscle function and muscle formation in these species. Andrikou and Arnone were able to recognize not only any difference due to mutation in the genes found in vertebrates and invertebrates but also the integration of species specific genes that could also cause divergence from the original gene regulatory network function. Thus, although a common muscle patterning system has been determined, they argue that this could be due to a more ancestral gene regulatory network being coopted several times across lineages with additional genes and mutations causing very divergent development of muscles. Thus it seems that myogenic patterning framework may be an ancestral trait. However, Andrikou and Arnone explain that the basic muscle patterning structure must also be considered in combination with the cis regulatory elements present at different times during development. In contrast with the high level of gene family apparatuses structure, Andrikou and Arnone found that the cis regulatory elements were not well conserved both in time and place in the network which could show a large degree of divergence in the formation of muscle cells. Through this analysis, it seems that the myogenic GRN is an ancestral GRN with actual changes in myogenic function and structure possibly being linked to later coopts of genes at different times and places.\n\nEvolutionarily, specialized forms of skeletal and cardiac muscles predated the divergence of the vertebrate/arthropod evolutionary line. This indicates that these types of muscle developed in a common ancestor sometime before 700 million years ago (mya). Vertebrate smooth muscle was found to have evolved independently from the skeletal and cardiac muscle types.", "Connective tissue (CT) is one of the four types of biological tissue that support, connect, or separate different types of tissues and organs in the body. It develops from the mesoderm. The other three types are epithelial, muscle, and nervous tissue. Connective tissue is found in between other tissues everywhere in the body, including the nervous system. In the central nervous system, the three outer membranes (the meninges) that envelop the brain and spinal cord are composed of connective tissue.\n\nAll connective tissue apart from blood and lymph consists of three main components: fibers (elastic and collagenous fibers), ground substance and cells. (Not all authorities include blood or lymph as connective tissue.) Blood and lymph lack the fiber component. All are immersed in the body water.\n\nThe cells of connective tissue include fibroblasts, adipocytes, macrophages, mast cells and leucocytes.\n\nStructure\n\nConnective tissue can be broadly subdivided into connective tissue proper, and special connective tissue. Connective tissue proper consists of loose connective tissue and dense connective tissue (which is further subdivided into dense regular and dense irregular connective tissues.) Special connective tissue consists of reticular connective tissue, adipose tissue, cartilage, bone, and blood. Other kinds of connective tissues include fibrous, elastic, and lymphoid connective tissues. New vascularised connective tissue that forms in the process of wound healing is termed granulation tissue. \nFibroblasts are the cells responsible for the production of some CT.\n\nType I collagen, is present in many forms of connective tissue, and makes up about 25% of the total protein content of the mammalian body. \n\nCharacteristics\n\nCharacteristics of CT:\n* Cells are spread through an extracellular fluid. \n* Ground substance - A clear, colorless, and viscous fluid containing glycosaminoglycans and proteoglycans to fix the body water and the collagen fibers in the intercellular spaces. Ground substance slows the spread of pathogens.\n* Fibers. Not all types of CT are fibrous. Examples of non-fibrous CT include adipose tissue and blood. Adipose tissue gives \"mechanical cushioning\" to the body, among other functions. Although there is no dense collagen network in adipose tissue, groups of adipose cells are kept together by collagen fibers and collagen sheets in order to keep fat tissue under compression in place (for example, the sole of the foot). The matrix of blood is plasma. \n* Both the ground substance and proteins (fibers) create the matrix for CT.\n\nFunction\n\nConnective tissue has a wide variety of functions that depend on the types of cells and the different classes of fibers involved. Loose and dense irregular connective tissue, formed mainly by fibroblasts and collagen fibers, have an important role in providing a medium for oxygen and nutrients to diffuse from capillaries to cells, and carbon dioxide and waste substances to diffuse from cells back into circulation. They also allow organs to resist stretching and tearing forces. Dense regular connective tissue, which forms organized structures, is a major functional component of tendons, ligaments and aponeuroses, and is also found in highly specialized organs such as the cornea. Elastic fibers, made from elastin and fibrillin, also provide resistance to stretch forces. They are found in the walls of large blood vessels and in certain ligaments, particularly in the ligamenta flava.\n\nIn hematopoietic and lymphatic tissues, reticular fibers made by reticular cells provide the stroma—or structural support—for the parenchyma—or functional part—of the organ.\n\nMesenchyme is a type of connective tissue found in developing organs of embryos that is capable of differentiation into all types of mature connective tissue. Another type of relatively undifferentiated connective tissue is mucous connective tissue, found inside the umbilical cord.\n\nVarious type of specialized tissues and cells are classified under the spectrum of connective tissue, and are as diverse as brown and white adipose tissue, blood, cartilage and bone. Cells of the immune system, such as macrophages, mast cells, plasma cells and eosinophils are found scattered in loose connective tissue, providing the ground for starting inflammatory and immune responses upon the detection of antigens.\n\nClinical significance\n\nIt is estimated that 1 in 10 people have a connective tissue disorder. Diseases of connective tissue include:\n\n*Connective tissue neoplasms including sarcomas such as hemangiopericytoma and malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumor in nervous tissue.\n*Congenital diseases include Marfan syndrome and Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome.\n*Myxomatous degeneration – a pathological weakening of connective tissue.\n*Mixed connective tissue disease – a disease of the autoimmune system, also undifferentiated connective tissue disease.\n*Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) – a major autoimmune disease of connective tissue\n*Scurvy, caused by a deficiency of vitamin C which is necessary for the synthesis of collagen.\n\nStaining of connective tissue\n\nFor microscopic viewing, most of the connective tissue staining-techniques, color tissue fibers in contrasting shades. Collagen may be differentially stained by any of the following:\n\n* Van Gieson's stain\n* Masson's trichrome stain\n* Mallory's trichrome stain\n* Aniline blue stain\n* Eosin\n* Reticulin stain" ] }

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{ "aliases": [ "Vagina fibrosa", "Tendon", "Ossified tendons", "Tendineous", "Epitenon", "Sinews", "Ossified tendon", "Muscle tendon", "Sinew", "Tendin", "Tendines", "Torn tendon", "Tendons" ], "normalized_aliases": [ "torn tendon", "tendin", "tendines", "muscle tendon", "tendons", "sinews", "vagina fibrosa", "ossified tendon", "tendineous", "sinew", "ossified tendons", "epitenon", "tendon" ], "matched_wiki_entity_name": "", "normalized_matched_wiki_entity_name": "", "normalized_value": "tendon", "type": "WikipediaEntity", "value": "Tendon" }

{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe" ], "filename": [ "Ophthalmoscopy.txt" ], "title": [ "Ophthalmoscopy" ], "wiki_context": [ "Ophthalmoscopy, also called funduscopy, is a test that allows a health professional to see inside the fundus of the eye and other structures using an ophthalmoscope (or funduscope). It is done as part of an eye examination and may be done as part of a routine physical examination. It is crucial in determining the health of the retina, optic disc, and vitreous humor.\n\nThe pupil is a hole through which the eye's interior will be viewed. Opening the pupil wider (dilating it) is a simple and effective way to better see the structures behind it. Therefore, dilation of the pupil (mydriasis) is often accomplished with medicated eye drops before funduscopy. However, although dilated fundus examination is ideal, undilated examination is more convenient and is also helpful (albeit not as comprehensive), and it is the most common type in primary care. \n\nAn alternative or complement to ophthalmoscopy is to perform a fundus photography, where the image can be analysed later by a professional.\n\nTypes\n\nIt is of two major types:\n\n* Direct ophthalmoscopy one that produces an upright, or unreversed, image of approximately 15 times magnification.\n* Indirect ophthalmoscopy one that produces an inverted, or reversed, direct image of 2 to 5 times magnification.\n\nEach type of ophthalmoscopy has a special type of ophthalmoscope:\n*The direct ophthalmoscope is an instrument about the size of a small flashlight (torch) with several lenses that can magnify up to about 15 times. This type of ophthalmoscope is most commonly used during a routine physical examination.[http://www.healthbanks.com/PatientPortal/Public/LinkPublic.do?ArticleID\nHW5hw5223 healthbanks.com]\n*An indirect ophthalmoscope, on the other hand, constitutes a light attached to a headband, in addition to a small handheld lens. It provides a wider view of the inside of the eye. Furthermore, it allows a better view of the fundus of the eye, even if the lens is clouded by cataracts. An indirect ophthalmoscope can be either monocular or binocular. It is used for peripheral viewing of the retina.\n\nMedical uses\n\nOphthalmoscopy is done as part of a routine physical or complete eye examination.\n\nIt is used to detect and evaluate symptoms of various retinal vascular diseases or eye diseases such as glaucoma.\n\nIn patients with headaches, the finding of swollen optic discs, or papilledema, on ophthalmoscopy is a key sign, as this indicates raised intracranial pressure (ICP) which could be due to hydrocephalus, benign intracranial hypertension (aka pseudotumor cerebri) or brain tumor, amongst other conditions. Cupped optic discs are seen in glaucoma.\n\nIn patients with diabetes mellitus, regular ophthalmoscopic eye examinations (once every 6 months to 1 year) are important to screen for diabetic retinopathy as visual loss due to diabetes can be prevented by retinal laser treatment if retinopathy is spotted early.\n\nIn arterial hypertension, hypertensive changes of the retina closely mimic those in the brain, and may predict cerebrovascular accidents (strokes).\n\nDilation of the pupil\n\nTo allow for better inspection through the pupil, which constricts because of light from the ophthalmoscope, it is often desirable to dilate the pupil by application of a mydriatic agent, for instance tropicamide. It is primarily considered ophthalmologist equipment. Recent developments like Scanning Laser Ophthalmoscope can make good quality images though pupils as small as 2 millimeters, so dilating pupils is no longer needed with these devices.\n\nHistory\n\nDr. William Cumming in 1846 at the Royal London Ophthalmic Hospital (later Moorfields Eye Hospital), of his pioneering work wrote \"every eye could be made luminous if the axis from a source of illumination directed towards a person's eye and the line of vision of the observer were coincident\". \n\nAlthough some credit the invention of the ophthalmoscope to Charles Babbage in 1847, it was not until it was independently reinvented by Hermann von Helmholtz in 1851 that its usefulness was recognized - it was to revolutionize ophthalmology. \n\nWhile training in France, Andreas Anagnostakis, MD, an ophthalmologist from Greece, came up with the idea of making the instrument hand-held by adding a concave mirror. Austin Barnett created a model for Anagnostakis, which he used in his practice and subsequently when presented at the first Ophthalmological Conference in Brussels in 1857, the instrument became very popular among ophthalmologists.\n\nIn 1915, Francis A. Welch and William Noah Allyn invented the world's first hand-held direct illuminating ophthalmoscope, precursor to the device now used by clinicians around the world. This refinement and updating of von Helmholtz's invention enabled ophthalmoscopy to become one of the most ubiquitous medical screening techniques in the world today. The company Welch Allyn started as a result of this invention.\n\nEtymology and pronunciation\n\nThe word ophthalmoscopy uses combining forms of ophthalmo- + -scopy, yielding \"viewing the eye\". The word funduscopy derives from fundus + -scopy, yielding \"viewing the far inside\". The idea that fundus can and should correspond to a combining form fundo- drives the formation of an alternate form, fundoscopy (fundo- + -scopy, which is the subject of a descriptive-versus-prescriptive difference in acceptance. Some dictionaries enter the fundo- form as a second-listed variant, but others do not enter it at all, and one prescribes its avoidance with a usage note." ] }

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{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe", "TagMe" ], "filename": [ "President_of_the_United_States.txt", "Big_Stick_ideology.txt" ], "title": [ "President of the United States", "Big Stick ideology" ], "wiki_context": [ "The President of the United States of America (POTUS) is the elected head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces.\n\nThe President of the United States is considered one of the world's most powerful people, leading the world's only contemporary superpower. The role includes being the commander-in-chief of the world's most expensive military with the largest nuclear arsenal and leading the nation with the largest economy by real and nominal GDP. The office of the president holds significant hard and soft power both in the United States and abroad.\n\nArticle II of the U.S. Constitution vests the executive power of the United States in the president. The power includes execution of federal law, alongside the responsibility of appointing federal executive, diplomatic, regulatory and judicial officers, and concluding treaties with foreign powers with the advice and consent of the Senate. The president is further empowered to grant federal pardons and reprieves, and to convene and adjourn either or both houses of Congress under extraordinary circumstances. The president is largely responsible for dictating the legislative agenda of the party to which the president is enrolled. The president also directs the foreign and domestic policy of the United States. Since the founding of the United States, the power of the president and the federal government has grown substantially. \n\nThe president is indirectly elected by the people through the Electoral College to a four-year term, and is one of only two nationally elected federal officers, the other being the Vice President of the United States. The Twenty-second Amendment, adopted in 1951, prohibits anyone from ever being elected to the presidency for a third full term. It also prohibits a person from being elected to the presidency more than once if that person previously had served as president, or acting president, for more than two years of another person's term as president. In all, 43 individuals have served 44 presidencies (counting Cleveland's two non-consecutive terms separately) spanning 56 full four-year terms. On January 20, 2009, Barack Obama became the 44th and current president. On November 6, 2012, he was re-elected and is currently serving the 57th term. The next presidential election is scheduled to take place on November 8, 2016; on January 20, 2017, the newly elected president will take office.\n\nOrigin\n\nIn 1776, the Thirteen Colonies, acting through the Second Continental Congress, declared political independence from Great Britain during the American Revolution. The new states, though independent of each other as nation states, recognized the necessity of closely coordinating their efforts against the British. Desiring to avoid anything that remotely resembled a monarchy, Congress negotiated the Articles of Confederation to establish a weak alliance between the states. As a central authority, Congress under the Articles was without any legislative power; it could make its own resolutions, determinations, and regulations, but not any laws, nor any taxes or local commercial regulations enforceable upon citizens. This institutional design reflected the conception of how Americans believed the deposed British system of Crown and Parliament ought to have functioned with respect to the royal dominion: a superintending body for matters that concerned the entire empire. Out from under any monarchy, the states assigned some formerly royal prerogatives (e.g., making war, receiving ambassadors, etc.) to Congress, while severally lodging the rest within their own respective state governments. Only after all the states agreed to a resolution settling competing western land claims did the Articles take effect on March 1, 1781, when Maryland became the final state to ratify them.\n\nIn 1783, the Treaty of Paris secured independence for each of the former colonies. With peace at hand, the states each turned toward their own internal affairs. By 1786, Americans found their continental borders besieged and weak, their respective economies in crises as neighboring states agitated trade rivalries with one another, witnessed their hard currency pouring into foreign markets to pay for imports, their Mediterranean commerce preyed upon by North African pirates, and their foreign-financed Revolutionary War debts unpaid and accruing interest. Civil and political unrest loomed.\n\nFollowing the successful resolution of commercial and fishing disputes between Virginia and Maryland at the Mount Vernon Conference in 1785, Virginia called for a trade conference between all the states, set for September 1786 in Annapolis, Maryland, with an aim toward resolving further-reaching interstate commercial antagonisms. When the convention failed for lack of attendance due to suspicions among most of the other states, the Annapolis delegates called for a convention to offer revisions to the Articles, to be held the next spring in Philadelphia. Prospects for the next convention appeared bleak until James Madison and Edmund Randolph succeeded in securing George Washington's attendance to Philadelphia as a delegate for Virginia.\n\nWhen the Constitutional Convention convened in May 1787, the 12 state delegations in attendance (Rhode Island did not send delegates) brought with them an accumulated experience over a diverse set of institutional arrangements between legislative and executive branches from within their respective state governments. Most states maintained a weak executive without veto or appointment powers, elected annually by the legislature to a single term only, sharing power with an executive council, and countered by a strong legislature. New York offered the greatest exception, having a strong, unitary governor with veto and appointment power elected to a three-year term, and eligible for reelection to an indefinite number of terms thereafter. It was through the closed-door negotiations at Philadelphia that the presidency framed in the U.S. Constitution emerged.\n\nPowers and duties\n\nArticle I legislative role\n\nThe first power the Constitution confers upon the president is the veto. The Presentment Clause requires any bill passed by Congress to be presented to the president before it can become law. Once the legislation has been presented, the president has three options:\n# Sign the legislation; the bill then becomes law.\n# Veto the legislation and return it to Congress, expressing any objections; the bill does not become law, unless each house of Congress votes to override the veto by a two-thirds vote.\n# Take no action. In this instance, the president neither signs nor vetoes the legislation. After 10 days, not counting Sundays, two possible outcomes emerge:\n#* If Congress is still convened, the bill becomes law.\n#* If Congress has adjourned, thus preventing the return of the legislation, the bill does not become law. This latter outcome is known as the pocket veto.\n\nIn 1996, Congress attempted to enhance the president's veto power with the Line Item Veto Act. The legislation empowered the president to sign any spending bill into law while simultaneously striking certain spending items within the bill, particularly any new spending, any amount of discretionary spending, or any new limited tax benefit. Congress could then repass that particular item. If the president then vetoed the new legislation, Congress could override the veto by its ordinary means, a two-thirds vote in both houses. In Clinton v. City of New York, , the U.S. Supreme Court ruled such a legislative alteration of the veto power to be unconstitutional.\n\nArticle II executive powers\n\nWar and foreign affairs powers\n\nPerhaps the most important of all presidential powers is the command of the United States Armed Forces as its commander-in-chief. While the power to declare war is constitutionally vested in Congress, the president has ultimate responsibility for direction and disposition of the military. The present-day operational command of the Armed Forces (belonging to the Department of Defense) is normally exercised through the Secretary of Defense, with assistance of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, to the Combatant Commands, as outlined in the presidentially approved Unified Command Plan (UCP). The framers of the Constitution took care to limit the president's powers regarding the military; Alexander Hamilton explains this in Federalist No. 69: Congress, pursuant to the War Powers Resolution, must authorize any troop deployments longer than 60 days, although that process relies on triggering mechanisms that have never been employed, rendering it ineffectual. Additionally, Congress provides a check to presidential military power through its control over military spending and regulation. While historically presidents initiated the process for going to war, critics have charged that there have been several conflicts in which presidents did not get official declarations, including Theodore Roosevelt's military move into Panama in 1903, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and the invasions of Grenada in 1983 and Panama in 1990.\n\nAlong with the armed forces, the president also directs U.S. foreign policy. Through the Department of State and the Department of Defense, the president is responsible for the protection of Americans abroad and of foreign nationals in the United States. The president decides whether to recognize new nations and new governments, and negotiates treaties with other nations, which become binding on the United States when approved by two-thirds vote of the Senate.\n\nAlthough not constitutionally provided, presidents also sometimes employ \"executive agreements\" in foreign relations. These agreements frequently regard administrative policy choices germane to executive power; for example, the extent to which either country presents an armed presence in a given area, how each country will enforce copyright treaties, or how each country will process foreign mail. However, the 20th century witnessed a vast expansion of the use of executive agreements, and critics have challenged the extent of that use as supplanting the treaty process and removing constitutionally prescribed checks and balances over the executive in foreign relations. Supporters counter that the agreements offer a pragmatic solution when the need for swift, secret, and/or concerted action arises.\n\nAdministrative powers\n\nThe president is the head of the executive branch of the federal government and is constitutionally obligated to \"take care that the laws be faithfully executed.\" The executive branch has over four million employees, including members of the military. \n\nPresidents make numerous executive branch appointments: an incoming president may make up to 6,000 before taking office and 8,000 more while serving. Ambassadors, members of the Cabinet, and other federal officers, are all appointed by a president with the \"advice and consent\" of a majority of the Senate. When the Senate is in recess for at least ten days, the president may make recess appointments. Recess appointments are temporary and expire at the end of the next session of the Senate.\n\nThe power of a president to fire executive officials has long been a contentious political issue. Generally, a president may remove purely executive officials at will. However, Congress can curtail and constrain a president's authority to fire commissioners of independent regulatory agencies and certain inferior executive officers by statute. \n\nThe president additionally possesses the ability to direct much of the executive branch through executive orders that are grounded in federal law or constitutionally granted executive power. Executive orders are reviewable by federal courts and can be superseded by federal legislation.\n\nTo manage the growing federal bureaucracy, Presidents have gradually surrounded themselves with many layers of staff, who were eventually organized into the Executive Office of the President of the United States. Within the Executive Office, the President's innermost layer of aides (and their assistants) are located in the White House Office.\n\nJuridical powers\n\nThe president also has the power to nominate federal judges, including members of the United States courts of appeals and the Supreme Court of the United States. However, these nominations do require Senate confirmation. Securing Senate approval can provide a major obstacle for presidents who wish to orient the federal judiciary toward a particular ideological stance. When nominating judges to U.S. district courts, presidents often respect the long-standing tradition of Senatorial courtesy. Presidents may also grant pardons and reprieves, as is often done just before the end of a presidential term, not without controversy.\n\nHistorically, two doctrines concerning executive power have developed that enable the president to exercise executive power with a degree of autonomy. The first is executive privilege, which allows the president to withhold from disclosure any communications made directly to the president in the performance of executive duties. George Washington first claimed privilege when Congress requested to see Chief Justice John Jay's notes from an unpopular treaty negotiation with Great Britain. While not enshrined in the Constitution, or any other law, Washington's action created the precedent for the privilege. When Richard Nixon tried to use executive privilege as a reason for not turning over subpoenaed evidence to Congress during the Watergate scandal, the Supreme Court ruled in United States v. Nixon, , that executive privilege did not apply in cases where a president was attempting to avoid criminal prosecution. When President Bill Clinton attempted to use executive privilege regarding the Lewinsky scandal, the Supreme Court ruled in Clinton v. Jones, , that the privilege also could not be used in civil suits. These cases established the legal precedent that executive privilege is valid, although the exact extent of the privilege has yet to be clearly defined. Additionally, federal courts have allowed this privilege to radiate outward and protect other executive branch employees, but have weakened that protection for those executive branch communications that do not involve the president. \n\nThe state secrets privilege allows the president and the executive branch to withhold information or documents from discovery in legal proceedings if such release would harm national security. Precedent for the privilege arose early in the 19th century when Thomas Jefferson refused to release military documents in the treason trial of Aaron Burr and again in Totten v. United States , when the Supreme Court dismissed a case brought by a former Union spy. However, the privilege was not formally recognized by the U.S. Supreme Court until United States v. Reynolds , where it was held to be a common law evidentiary privilege. Before the September 11 attacks, use of the privilege had been rare, but increasing in frequency. Since 2001, the government has asserted the privilege in more cases and at earlier stages of the litigation, thus in some instances causing dismissal of the suits before reaching the merits of the claims, as in the Ninth Circuit's ruling in Mohamed v. Jeppesen Dataplan, Inc. Critics of the privilege claim its use has become a tool for the government to cover up illegal or embarrassing government actions. \n\nLegislative facilitator\n\nThe Constitution's Ineligibility Clause prevents the President (and all other executive officers) from simultaneously being a member of Congress. Therefore, the president cannot directly introduce legislative proposals for consideration in Congress. However, the president can take an indirect role in shaping legislation, especially if the president's political party has a majority in one or both houses of Congress. For example, the president or other officials of the executive branch may draft legislation and then ask senators or representatives to introduce these drafts into Congress. The president can further influence the legislative branch through constitutionally mandated, periodic reports to Congress. These reports may be either written or oral, but today are given as the State of the Union address, which often outlines the president's legislative proposals for the coming year. Additionally, the president may attempt to have Congress alter proposed legislation by threatening to veto that legislation unless requested changes are made.\n\nIn the 20th century critics began charging that too many legislative and budgetary powers have slid into the hands of presidents that should belong to Congress. As the head of the executive branch, presidents control a vast array of agencies that can issue regulations with little oversight from Congress. One critic charged that presidents could appoint a \"virtual army of 'czars' – each wholly unaccountable to Congress yet tasked with spearheading major policy efforts for the White House.\" Presidents have been criticized for making signing statements when signing congressional legislation about how they understand a bill or plan to execute it. This practice has been criticized by the American Bar Association as unconstitutional. Conservative commentator George Will wrote of an \"increasingly swollen executive branch\" and \"the eclipse of Congress.\"\n\nAccording to Article II, Section 3, Clause 2 of the Constitution, the president may convene either or both houses of Congress. If both houses cannot agree on a date of adjournment, the president may appoint a date for Congress to adjourn.\n\nCeremonial roles\n\nAs head of state, the president can fulfill traditions established by previous presidents. William Howard Taft started the tradition of throwing out the ceremonial first pitch in 1910 at Griffith Stadium, Washington, D.C., on the Washington Senators' Opening Day. Every president since Taft, except for Jimmy Carter, threw out at least one ceremonial first ball or pitch for Opening Day, the All-Star Game, or the World Series, usually with much fanfare. \n\nThe President of the United States has served as the honorary president of the Boy Scouts of America since the founding of the organization. \n\nOther presidential traditions are associated with American holidays. Rutherford B. Hayes began in 1878 the first White House egg rolling for local children. Beginning in 1947 during the Harry S. Truman administration, every Thanksgiving the president is presented with a live domestic turkey during the annual national thanksgiving turkey presentation held at the White House. Since 1989, when the custom of \"pardoning\" the turkey was formalized by George H. W. Bush, the turkey has been taken to a farm where it will live out the rest of its natural life. \n\nPresidential traditions also involve the president's role as head of government. Many outgoing presidents since James Buchanan traditionally give advice to their successor during the presidential transition. Ronald Reagan and his successors have also left a private message on the desk of the Oval Office on Inauguration Day for the incoming president. \n\nDuring a state visit by a foreign head of state, the president typically hosts a State Arrival Ceremony held on the South Lawn, a custom begun by John F. Kennedy in 1961. This is followed by a state dinner given by the president which is held in the State Dining Room later in the evening. \n\nThe modern presidency holds the president as one of the nation's premier celebrities. Some argue that images of the presidency have a tendency to be manipulated by administration public relations officials as well as by presidents themselves. One critic described the presidency as \"propagandized leadership\" which has a \"mesmerizing power surrounding the office.\" Administration public relations managers staged carefully crafted photo-ops of smiling presidents with smiling crowds for television cameras. One critic wrote the image of John F. Kennedy was described as carefully framed \"in rich detail\" which \"drew on the power of myth\" regarding the incident of PT 109 and wrote that Kennedy understood how to use images to further his presidential ambitions. As a result, some political commentators have opined that American voters have unrealistic expectations of presidents: voters expect a president to \"drive the economy, vanquish enemies, lead the free world, comfort tornado victims, heal the national soul and protect borrowers from hidden credit-card fees.\"\n\nCritics of presidency's evolution\n\nMost of the nation's Founding Fathers expected the Congress, which was the first branch of government described in the Constitution, to be the dominant branch of government; they did not expect a strong executive. However, presidential power has shifted over time, which has resulted in claims that the modern presidency has become too powerful, unchecked, unbalanced, and \"monarchist\" in nature. Critic Dana D. Nelson believes presidents over the past thirty years have worked towards \"undivided presidential control of the executive branch and its agencies.\" She criticizes proponents of the unitary executive for expanding \"the many existing uncheckable executive powers – such as executive orders, decrees, memorandums, proclamations, national security directives and legislative signing statements – that already allow presidents to enact a good deal of foreign and domestic policy without aid, interference or consent from Congress.\" Activist Bill Wilson opined that the expanded presidency was \"the greatest threat ever to individual freedom and democratic rule.\"\n\nSelection process\n\nEligibility\n\nArticle II, Section 1, Clause 5 of the Constitution sets the following qualifications for holding the presidency:\n* be a natural-born citizen of the United States;Foreign-born American citizens who met the age and residency requirements at the time the Constitution was adopted were also eligible for the presidency. However, this allowance has since become obsolete.\n* be at least thirty-five years old;\n* be a resident in the United States for at least fourteen years.\n\nThe Twelfth Amendment precludes anyone ineligible to being the president from becoming the vice president.\n\nA person who meets the above qualifications is still disqualified from holding the office of president under any of the following conditions:\n* Under the Twenty-second Amendment, no person can be elected president more than twice. The amendment also specifies that if any eligible person serves as president or acting president for more than two years of a term for which some other eligible person was elected president, the former can only be elected president once. Scholars disagree over whether a person precluded by the Twenty-second Amendment to being elected president is also precluded to being vice president. \n* Under Article I, Section 3, Clause 7, upon conviction in impeachment cases, the Senate has the option of disqualifying convicted individuals from holding federal office, including that of president. \n* Under Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment, no person who swore an oath to support the Constitution, and later rebelled against the United States, can become president. However, this disqualification can be lifted by a two-thirds vote of each house of Congress.\n\nCampaigns and nomination\n\nThe modern presidential campaign begins before the primary elections, which the two major political parties use to clear the field of candidates before their national nominating conventions, where the most successful candidate is made the party's nominee for president. Typically, the party's presidential candidate chooses a vice presidential nominee, and this choice is rubber-stamped by the convention. The most common previous profession by U.S. presidents is lawyer. \n\nNominees participate in nationally televised debates, and while the debates are usually restricted to the Democratic and Republican nominees, third party candidates may be invited, such as Ross Perot in the 1992 debates. Nominees campaign across the country to explain their views, convince voters and solicit contributions. Much of the modern electoral process is concerned with winning swing states through frequent visits and mass media advertising drives.\n\nElection and oath\n\nThe president is elected indirectly. A number of electors, collectively known as the Electoral College, officially select the president. On Election Day, voters in each of the states and the District of Columbia cast ballots for these electors. Each state is allocated a number of electors, equal to the size of its delegation in both Houses of Congress combined. Generally, the ticket that wins the most votes in a state wins all of that state's electoral votes and thus has its slate of electors chosen to vote in the Electoral College.\n\nThe winning slate of electors meet at its state's capital on the first Monday after the second Wednesday in December, about six weeks after the election, to vote. They then send a record of that vote to Congress. The vote of the electors is opened by the sitting vice president—acting in that role's capacity as President of the Senate—and read aloud to a joint session of the incoming Congress, which was elected at the same time as the president.\n\nPursuant to the Twentieth Amendment, the president's term of office begins at noon on January 20 of the year following the election. This date, known as Inauguration Day, marks the beginning of the four-year terms of both the president and the vice president. Before executing the powers of the office, a president is constitutionally required to take the presidential oath:\n\nAlthough not required, presidents have traditionally palmed a Bible while swearing the oath and have added, \"So help me God!\" to the end of the oath. Further, although the oath may be administered by any person authorized by law to administer oaths, presidents are traditionally sworn in by the Chief Justice of the United States.\n\nTenure and term limits\n\nThe term of office for president and vice president is four years. George Washington, the first president, set an unofficial precedent of serving only two terms, which subsequent presidents followed until 1940. Before Franklin D. Roosevelt, attempts at a third term were encouraged by supporters of Ulysses S. Grant and Theodore Roosevelt; neither of these attempts succeeded. In 1940, Franklin D. Roosevelt declined to seek a third term, but allowed his political party to \"draft\" him as its presidential candidate and was subsequently elected to a third term. In 1941, the United States entered World War II, leading voters to elect Roosevelt to a fourth term in 1944. But Roosevelt died only 82 days after taking office for the fourth term on 12 April 1945.\n\nAfter the war, and in response to Roosevelt being elected to third and fourth terms, the Twenty-second Amendment was adopted. The amendment bars anyone from being elected president more than twice, or once if that person served more than half of another president's term. Harry S. Truman, president when this amendment was adopted, was exempted from its limitations and briefly sought a third (a second full) term before withdrawing from the 1952 election.\n\nSince the amendment's adoption, four presidents have served two full terms: Dwight D. Eisenhower, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush. Barack Obama has been elected to a second term, and will complete his term on 20 January 2017, if he does not die or resign before that date. Jimmy Carter and George H. W. Bush sought a second term, but were defeated. Richard Nixon was elected to a second term, but resigned before completing it. Lyndon B. Johnson was the only president under the amendment to be eligible to serve more than two terms in total, having served for only fourteen months following John F. Kennedy's assassination. However, Johnson withdrew from the 1968 Democratic Primary, surprising many Americans. Gerald Ford sought a full term, after serving out the last two years and five months of Nixon's second term, but was not elected.\n\nVacancy or disability\n\nVacancies in the office of President may arise under several possible circumstances: death, resignation and removal from office.\n\nArticle II, Section 4 of the Constitution allows the House of Representatives to impeach high federal officials, including the president, for \"treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors.\" Article I, Section 3, Clause 6 gives the Senate the power to remove impeached officials from office, given a two-thirds vote to convict. The House has thus far impeached two presidents: Andrew Johnson in 1868 and Bill Clinton in 1998. Neither was subsequently convicted by the Senate; however, Johnson was acquitted by just one vote.\n\nUnder Section 3 of the Twenty-fifth Amendment, the president may transfer the presidential powers and duties to the vice president, who then becomes acting president, by transmitting a statement to the Speaker of the House and the President pro tempore of the Senate stating the reasons for the transfer. The president resumes the discharge of the presidential powers and duties upon transmitting, to those two officials, a written declaration stating that resumption. This transfer of power may occur for any reason the president considers appropriate; in 2002 and again in 2007, President George W. Bush briefly transferred presidential authority to Vice President Dick Cheney. In both cases, this was done to accommodate a medical procedure which required Bush to be sedated; both times, Bush returned to duty later the same day. \n\nUnder Section 4 of the Twenty-fifth Amendment, the vice president, in conjunction with a majority of the Cabinet, may transfer the presidential powers and duties from the president to the vice president by transmitting a written declaration to the Speaker of the House and the president pro tempore of the Senate that the president is unable to discharge the presidential powers and duties. If this occurs, then the vice president will assume the presidential powers and duties as acting president; however, the president can declare that no such inability exists and resume the discharge of the presidential powers and duties. If the vice president and Cabinet contest this claim, it is up to Congress, which must meet within two days if not already in session, to decide the merit of the claim.\n\nThe United States Constitution mentions the resignation of the president, but does not regulate its form or the conditions for its validity. Pursuant to federal law, the only valid evidence of the president's resignation is a written instrument to that effect, signed by the president and delivered to the office of the Secretary of State. This has only occurred once, when Richard Nixon delivered a letter to Henry Kissinger to that effect.\n\nSection 1 of the Twenty-fifth Amendment states that the vice president becomes president upon the removal from office, death or resignation of the preceding president. The Presidential Succession Act of 1947 provides that if the offices of President and Vice President are each either vacant or are held by a disabled person, the next officer in the presidential line of succession, the Speaker of the House, becomes acting president. The line then extends to the President pro tempore of the Senate, followed by every member of the Cabinet. These persons must fulfill all eligibility requirements of the office of President to be eligible to become acting president; ineligible individuals are skipped. There has never been a special election for the office of President.\n\nCompensation\n\nSince 2001, the president has earned a $400,000 annual salary, along with a $50,000 annual expense account, a $100,000 nontaxable travel account, and $19,000 for entertainment. The most recent raise in salary was approved by Congress and President Bill Clinton in 1999 and went into effect in 2001.\n\nThe White House in Washington, D.C., serves as the official place of residence for the president. As well as access to the White House staff, facilities available to the president include medical care, recreation, housekeeping, and security services. The government pays for state dinners and other official functions, but the president pays for personal, family and guest dry cleaning and food; the high food bill often amazes new residents. Naval Support Facility Thurmont, popularly known as Camp David, is a mountain-based military camp in Frederick County, Maryland, used as a country retreat and for high alert protection of the president and guests. Blair House, located next to the Eisenhower Executive Office Building at the White House Complex and Lafayette Park, is a complex of four connected townhouses exceeding 70000 sqft of floor space which serves as the president's official guest house and as a secondary residence for the president if needed. \n\nFor ground travel, the president uses the presidential state car, which is an armored limousine built on a heavily modified Cadillac-based chassis.[http://www.secretservice.gov/press/GPA02-09_Limo.pdf New Presidential Limousine enters Secret Service Fleet] U.S. Secret Service Press Release (January 14, 2009) Retrieved on January 20, 2009. One of two identical Boeing VC-25 aircraft, which are extensively modified versions of Boeing 747-200B airliners, serve as long distance travel for the president and are referred to as Air Force One while the president is on board (although any U.S. Air Force aircraft the President is aboard is designated as \"Air Force One\" for the duration of the flight). In-country trips are typically handled with just one of the two planes while overseas trips are handled with both, one primary and one backup. Any civilian aircraft the President is aboard is designated Executive One for the flight. The president also has access to a fleet of thirty-five U.S. Marine Corps helicopters of varying models, designated Marine One when the president is aboard any particular one in the fleet. Flights are typically handled with as many as five helicopters all flying together and frequently swapping positions as to disguise which helicopter the President is actually aboard to any would-be threats.\n\nThe U.S. Secret Service is charged with protecting the sitting president and the first family. As part of their protection, presidents, first ladies, their children and other immediate family members, and other prominent persons and locations are assigned Secret Service codenames. The use of such names was originally for security purposes and dates to a time when sensitive electronic communications were not routinely encrypted; today, the names simply serve for purposes of brevity, clarity, and tradition. \n\nFile:White House lawn (1).tif|The White House\n\nFile:Camp David 1959.jpg|Camp David\nFile:Blair House daylight.jpg|Blair House\nFile:GPA02-09 US SecretService press release 2009 Limousine Page 3 Image.jpg|State car\nFile:Air Force One over Mt. Rushmore.jpg|Air Force One\nFile:Marine One (1970).jpg|Marine One\n\nPost-presidency\n\nBeginning in 1959, all living former presidents were granted a pension, an office, and a staff. The pension has increased numerous times with Congressional approval. Retired presidents now receive a pension based on the salary of the current administration's cabinet secretaries, which was $199,700 each year in 2012. Former presidents who served in Congress may also collect congressional pensions. The Former Presidents Act, as amended, also provides former presidents with travel funds and franking privileges. Prior to 1997, all former presidents, their spouses, and their children until age 16 were protected by the Secret Service until the president's death. In 1997, Congress passed legislation limiting secret service protection to no more than 10 years from the date a president leaves office. On January 10, 2013, President Obama signed legislation reinstating lifetime secret service protection for him, George W. Bush, and all subsequent presidents. A spouse who remarries is no longer eligible for secret service protection.\n\nSome presidents have had significant careers after leaving office. Prominent examples include William Howard Taft's tenure as Chief Justice of the United States and Herbert Hoover's work on government reorganization after World War II. Grover Cleveland, whose bid for reelection failed in 1888, was elected president again four years later in 1892. Two former presidents served in Congress after leaving the White House: John Quincy Adams was elected to the House of Representatives, serving there for seventeen years, and Andrew Johnson returned to the Senate in 1875. John Tyler served in the provisional Congress of the Confederate States during the Civil War and was elected to the Confederate House of Representatives, but died before that body first met.\n\nPresidents may use their predecessors as emissaries to deliver private messages to other nations or as official representatives of the United States to state funerals and other important foreign events. Richard Nixon made multiple foreign trips to countries including China and Russia and was lauded as an elder statesman. Jimmy Carter has become a global human rights campaigner, international arbiter, and election monitor, as well as a recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. Bill Clinton has also worked as an informal ambassador, most recently in the negotiations that led to the release of two American journalists, Laura Ling and Euna Lee, from North Korea. Clinton has also been active politically since his presidential term ended, working with his wife Hillary on her 2008 and 2016 presidential bids and President Obama on his reelection campaign.\n\nFile:Carter 2k14.tif|Jimmy Carter39th (1977–81)\nFile:President George H. W.tif|George H. W. Bush41st (1989–93)\nFile:Clinton 2k15.tif|Bill Clinton42nd (1993–2001)\nFile:Bush 2k14.tif|George W. Bush43rd (2001–09)\n\nPresidential libraries\n\nSince Herbert Hoover, each president has created a repository known as a presidential library for preserving and making available his papers, records and other documents and materials. Completed libraries are deeded to and maintained by the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA); the initial funding for building and equipping each library must come from private, non-federal sources. There are currently thirteen presidential libraries in the NARA system. There are also presidential libraries maintained by state governments and private foundations and Universities of Higher Education, such as the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum, which is run by the State of Illinois, the George H.W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum, which is run by Texas A&M University and the Lyndon Baines Johnson Presidential Library and Museum, which is run by the University of Texas at Austin.\n\nAs many presidents live for many years after leaving office, several of them have personally overseen the building and opening of their own presidential libraries, some even making arrangements for their own burial at the site. Several presidential libraries therefore contain the graves of the president they document, such as the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum in Yorba Linda, California and the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California. The graves are viewable by the general public visiting these libraries.\n\nTimeline of Presidents", "Big Stick ideology, Big Stick diplomacy, or Big Stick policy refers to U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt’s foreign policy: \"speak softly, and carry a big stick.\" Roosevelt described his style of foreign policy as \"the exercise of intelligent forethought and of decisive action sufficiently far in advance of any likely crisis\". \n\nThe idea of negotiating peacefully, simultaneously threatening with the \"big stick\", or the military, ties in heavily with the idea of Realpolitik, which implies a pursuit of political power that resembles Machiavellian ideals. Compare to the term Gunboat diplomacy, as used in international politics by imperial powers.\n\nBackground \n\nThe first recorded use of the phrase occurs in a private letter from Roosevelt (then governor of New York) to Henry L. Sprague, dated January 26, 1900. Roosevelt wrote, in a bout of happiness after forcing New York's Republican committee to pull support away from a corrupt financial adviser:\n\nRoosevelt would go on to be elected Vice President later that year, and subsequently used the aphorism publicly in an address to the Minnesota State Fair, entitled \"National Duties\", on September 2, 1901.: \n\nFour days later, President William McKinley was shot by an assassin; his death a further eight days later elevated Roosevelt to the presidency.\n\nRoosevelt's attribution of the phrase to \"a West African proverb\" was seen at the time as evidence of Roosevelt’s \"prolific\" reading habits, but the claim that it originated in West Africa has been disputed. No earlier citation for the phrase has been found, and there is no record of the phrase being used in West Africa before Roosevelt's time. It has been therefore suggested that he might have coined the phrase himself.\n\nUsage \n\nAlthough used before his presidency, Roosevelt used military muscle several times throughout his two terms with a more subtle touch to complement his diplomatic policies and enforcing the Monroe Doctrine throughout multiple interventions in Latin America. This included the Great White Fleet, 16 battleships which peacefully circumnavigated the globe as an illustration of United States' rising yet neutral prestige under Roosevelt's direction.\n\nIn the U.S. \n\nAnthracite coal strike\n\nIn 1902, 140,000 miners went on strike, wanting higher pay, shorter work hours, and better housing. They were led by John Mitchell, a fellow miner who formed the United Mine Workers (UMW). The mining companies refused to meet the demands of the UMW and contacted the Federal Government for support. Before Roosevelt, the government would send in military support to forcefully end the strike, but during Roosevelt's terms, this strategy was not used. After the companies called for assistance, Roosevelt, fearful of the effects a coal shortage would have on the economy of the time, decided to host a meeting in the White House involving representatives or delegates, of the miners and the leaders of the mining companies. Mitchell, after returning from the White House meeting, met with the miners, and drew a Consensus. The miners decided not to submit to political pressure, and continue on with the strike. Roosevelt then decided to bring in the military, but, instead of forcefully ending the strike and restoring power to the mining companies, he would use the military to run the mines in the \"public interest\". The mining companies, upset that they were no longer directly making a profit, then accepted the demands of the UMW. This policy was later referred to as the \"Square Deal\". \n\nLatin America \n\nVenezuelan Affair (1902) and the Roosevelt Corollary \n\nIn the early 20th century, Venezuela was receiving messages from Britain and Germany about \"Acts of violence against the liberty of British subjects and the massive capture of British vessels\" who were from the UK and the acts of Venezuelan initiative to pay off long-standing debts. After British and German forces took naval action with a blockade on Venezuela (1902–1903), Roosevelt denounced the blockade. The blockade began the basis of the Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe doctrine. Though he had mentioned the basis of his idea beforehand in private letters, he officially announced the corollary in 1904, stating that he only wanted the \"other republics on this continent\" to be \"happy and prosperous\". For that goal to be met, the corollary required that they \"maintain order within their borders and behave with a just obligation toward outsiders\".\n\nMost historians, such as one of Roosevelt's many biographers Howard K. Beale have summarized that the corollary was influenced by Roosevelt's personal beliefs as well as his connections to foreign bondholders. The U.S. public was very \"tense\" during the two-month blockade, and Roosevelt requested that Britain and Germany pull out their forces from the area. During the requests for the blockade’s end, Roosevelt stationed naval forces in Cuba, to ensure \"the respect of Monroe doctrine\" and the compliance of the parties in question. The doctrine was never ratified by the senate or brought up for a vote to the American public. Roosevelt's declaration was the first of many presidential decrees in the twentieth century that were never ratified. \n\nCanal diplomacy \n\nThe U.S. used the \"big stick\" during \"Canal Diplomacy\", the questionable diplomatic actions of the U.S. during the pursuit of a canal across Central America. Both Nicaragua and Panama featured canal related incidents of Big Stick Diplomacy. \n\nProposed construction of the Nicaragua Canal \n\nIn 1901, Secretary of State John Hay pressed the Nicaraguan Government for approval of a canal. Nicaragua would receive $1.5 million in ratification, $100,000 annually, and the U.S. would \"provide sovereignty, independence, and territorial integrity\". Nicaragua then returned the contract draft with a change; they wished to receive, instead of an annual $100,000, $6 million in ratification. The U.S. accepted the deal, but after Congress approved the contract a problem of court jurisdiction came up. The U.S. did not have legal jurisdiction in the land of the future canal. An important note is that this problem was on the verge of correction, until Pro-Panama representatives posed problems for Nicaragua; the current leader (General José Santos Zelaya) did not cause problems, from the outlook of U.S. interests.\n\nConstruction of the Panama Canal \n\nIn 1899, the Isthmian Canal Commission was set up to determine which site would be best for the canal (Nicaragua or Panama) and then to oversee construction of the canal. After Nicaragua was ruled out, Panama was the obvious choice. A few problems had arisen, however. With the U.S.' solidified interests in Panama (then a small portion of Colombia), both Colombia and the French company that was to provide the construction materials raised their prices. The U.S., refusing to pay the higher-than-expected fees, \"engineered a revolution\" in Colombia. On November 3, 1903, Panama (with the support of the United States Navy) revolted against Colombia. Panama became a new republic, receiving $10 million from the U.S. alone. Panama also gained an annual payment of $250,000, and guarantees of independence. The U.S. gained the rights to the canal strip \"in perpetuity\". Roosevelt later said that he \"took the Canal, and let Congress debate\". After Colombia lost Panama, they tried to appeal to the U.S. by the reconsidering of treaties and even naming Panama City the capital of Colombia. \n\nCuba \n\nThe U.S., after the Spanish–American War, had many expansionists who wanted to annex Cuba. Many people felt that a foreign power (outside of the U.S.) would control a portion of Cuba, thus the U.S. could not continue with its interests in Cuba. Although many advocated annexation, this was prevented by the Teller Amendment, which states \"hereby disclaims any disposition of intention to exercise sovereignty, jurisdiction, or control over said island except for pacification thereof, and asserts its determination, when that is accomplished, to leave the government and control of the island to its people.\" When summarized, this could mean that the U.S. would not interfere with Cuba and its peoples. The expansionists argued though, that the Teller Amendment was created \"ignorant of actual conditions\" and that this released the U.S. from its obligation. Following the debate surrounding the Teller Amendment, the Platt Amendment took effect. The Platt Amendment (the name is a misnomer; the Platt Amendment is actually a rider to the Army Appropriation Act of 1901) was accepted by Cuba in late 1901, after \"strong pressure\" from Washington. The Platt Amendment, summarized by Thomas A. Bailey in \"Diplomatic History of the American People\":\n\n# Cuba was not to make decisions impairing her independence or to permit a foreign power [e.g., Germany] to secure lodgment in control over the island.\n# Cuba pledged herself not to incur an indebtedness beyond her means [It might result in foreign intervention].\n# The United States was at liberty to intervene for the purpose of preserving order and maintaining Cuban independence.\n# Cuba would agree to an American-sponsored sanitation program [Aimed largely at yellow fever].\n# Cuba would agree to sell or lease to the United States sites for naval or coaling stations [Guantánamo became the principal base].\n\nWith Platt Amendment in place, Roosevelt pulled the troops out of Cuba. This action was met with public unrest and outcries for annexation, with reasons ranging from \"U.S. interests\" to \"dominant white race\". The Indianapolis News said, \"It is manifest destiny for a nation to own the islands which border its shores.\" A year later, Roosevelt wrote,\n\nJapan\n\nAt the conclusion of the Russo-Japanese War in September 1905, President Roosevelt leveraged his position as a strong but impartial leader in order to negotiate a peace treaty between the two nations. \"Speaking softly\" earned the President enough prestige to even merit a Nobel Peace Prize the following year for his efforts." ] }

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{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe", "TagMe" ], "filename": [ "Montgomery_Ward.txt", "Robert_L._May.txt" ], "title": [ "Montgomery Ward", "Robert L. May" ], "wiki_context": [ "Montgomery Ward was the name of two historically distinct American retail enterprises. It can refer either to the defunct mail order and department store retailer, which operated between 1872 and 2001, or to the current catalog and online retailer also known as Wards.\n\nOriginal Montgomery Ward (1872–2001)\n\nCompany origins\n\nMontgomery Ward was founded by Aaron Montgomery Ward in 1872. Ward had conceived of the idea of a dry goods mail-order business in Chicago, Illinois, after several years of working as a traveling salesman among rural customers. He observed that rural customers often wanted \"city\" goods but their only access to them was through rural retailers who had little competition and did not offer any guarantee of quality. Ward also believed that by eliminating intermediaries, he could cut costs and make a wide variety of goods available to rural customers, who could purchase goods by mail and pick them up at the nearest train station.\n\nAfter several false starts, including the destruction of his first inventory by the Great Chicago Fire, Ward started his business at his first office, either in a single room at 825 North Clark Street, or in a loft above a livery stable on Kinzie Street between Rush and State Streets. He and two partners used $1,600 they had raised in capital and issued their first catalog in August 1872 which consisted of an 8 x single-sheet price list, listing 163 items for sale with ordering instructions for which Ward had written the copy. His two partners left the following year, but he continued the struggling business and was joined by his future brother-in-law George Robinson Thorne.\n\nIn the first few years, the business was not well received by rural retailers. Considering Ward a threat, they sometimes publicly burned his catalog. Despite the opposition, however, the business grew at a fast pace over the next several decades, fueled by demand primarily from rural customers who were inspired by the wide selection of items that were unavailable to them locally. Customers were also inspired by the innovative and unprecedented company policy of \"satisfaction guaranteed or your money back\", which Ward began in 1875. Ward turned the copy writing over to department heads, but he continued poring over every detail in the catalog for accuracy.\n\nIn 1883, the company's catalog, which became popularly known as the \"Wish Book\", had grown to 240 pages and 10,000 items. In 1896, Wards acquired its first serious competition in the mail order business, when Richard Warren Sears introduced his first general catalog. In 1900, Wards had total sales of $8.7 million, compared to $10 million for Sears, and both companies would struggle for dominance during much of the 20th century. By 1904, the company had expanded as such that it mailed three million catalogs, weighing 4 lb each, to customers.\n\nIn 1908, the company opened a 1.25 million ft² (116,000 m²) building stretching along nearly one-quarter mile of the Chicago River, north of downtown Chicago. The building, known as the Montgomery Ward & Co. Catalog House, served as the company headquarters until 1974, when the offices moved across the street to a new tower designed by Minoru Yamasaki. The catalog house was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1978 and a Chicago historic landmark in May 2000. In the decades before 1930, Montgomery Ward built a network of large distributions centers across the country in Baltimore, Fort Worth, Kansas City, St. Paul, Portland, and Oakland. In most cases, these reinforced concrete structures were the largest industrial structures in their respective locations. The Baltimore Montgomery Ward Warehouse and Retail Store was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2000. \n\nExpansion into retail outlets\n\nWard died in 1913, after 41 years running the catalog business. The company president, William C. Thorne (eldest son of the co-founder) died in 1917, and was succeeded by Robert J. Thorne. Robert Thorne retired in 1920 due to ill health.\n\nIn 1926, the company broke with its mail-order-only tradition when it opened its first retail outlet store in Plymouth, Indiana. It continued to operate its catalog business while pursuing an aggressive campaign to build retail outlets in the late-1920s. In 1928, two years after opening its first outlet, it had opened 244 stores. By 1929, it had more than doubled its number of outlets to 531. Its flagship retail store in Chicago was located on Michigan Avenue between Madison and Washington streets.\n\nIn 1930, the company declined a merger offer from its rival chain Sears. Losing money during the Great Depression, the company alarmed its major investors, including J. P. Morgan. In 1931, Morgan hired Sewell Avery as president who cut staff levels and stores, changed lines, hired store rather than catalog managers and refurbished stores. These actions caused the company to turn profitable before the end of the 1930s.\n\nWards was very successful in its retail business. \"Green awning\" stores dotted hundreds of small towns across the country. Larger stores were built in the major cities. By the end of the 1930s Montgomery Ward had become the country's largest retailer. It was this period of growth and prosperity that earned its president, Sewell Avery, an unchallenged position as Chief Executive Officer.\n\nIn 1939, as part of a Christmas promotional campaign, staff copywriter Robert L. May created the character and illustrated poem of \"Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer.\" The store distributed six-million copies of the storybook in 1946 and actor and singer Gene Autry popularized the song nationally.\n\nAfter World War II, Sewell Avery believed the country would fall back into a recession or even a depression. He decided to not open any new stores. In fact he would not even permit the expenditure of paint to freshen the stores. He wanted to bank the profits Wards was making so that he could have the liquidity when the recession or depression hit. Then he would buy up his retail competition. Without new stores or any investment back into the business, Montgomery Ward declined in sales volume compared to Sears, and many people have blamed the conservative decisions of its president, Sewell Avery. Avery seemed to not understand the changing economy of the postwar years. As new shopping centers were built after the war, it was Sears that got the best locations and Wards was shut out of any opportunity to expand. Nonetheless, for many years Wards was still the nation's third-largest department store chain.\n\nIn 1946, the Grolier Club, a society of bibliophiles in New York City, exhibited the Wards catalog alongside Webster's Dictionary as one of 100 American books chosen for their influence on life and culture of the people. The brand name of the store became embedded in the popular American consciousness and was often called by the nickname Monkey Ward, both affectionately and derisively.\n\nGovernment seizure\n\nIn April 1944, four months into a nationwide strike by the company’s 12,000 workers, U.S. Army troops seized the Chicago offices of Montgomery Ward & Company because Avery refused to settle the strike, as requested by the Roosevelt administration because of its adverse effect on the delivery of needed goods in wartime. Avery had refused to comply with a War Labor Board order to recognize the unions and institute the terms of a collective bargaining agreement. Eight months later, with Montgomery Ward continuing to refuse to recognize the unions, President Roosevelt issued an Executive Order seizing all of Montgomery Ward’s property nationwide, citing the War Labor Disputes Act as well as his power under the Constitution as Commander in Chief. In 1945, Truman ended the seizure and the Supreme Court ended the pending appeal as moot.\n\nDecline\n\nIn 1955, investor Louis Wolfson waged a high-profile proxy fight to obtain control of the board of Montgomery Ward. The new board forced the resignation of Avery. This fight led to a state court decision that Illinois corporations are not entitled to stagger election of their board members under that state's laws, as well as to tax litigation over whether the costs of a proxy fight are an \"ordinary and necessary business expense.\" In time, it helped inspire new Securities and Exchange Commission rules concerning proxies.\n\nMeanwhile, throughout the 1950s, the company was slow to respond to the general movement of the American middle class to suburbia. While its former rivals Sears, JCPenney, Macy's, Gimbels, and Dillard's established new anchor outlets in the growing number of suburban shopping malls, Avery and succeeding top executives had been reluctant to pursue such expansion. They stuck to their downtown and main street stores until the company had lost too much market share to compete with its rivals. After Avery's departure in 1955 it took two years before the first new store since the 1930s was opened in 1957. Wards tried to become more aggressive with store opening but it was too late. Competition had already taken the best locations. As the existing stores looked worn and disheveled, often malls would not entertain allowing Wards to build there. Its catalog business had begun to slip by the 1960s. In 1968, it merged with Container Corporation of America to become Marcor Inc.\n\nDuring the 1970s, the company continued to flounder. In 1973, its 101st year in business, it purchased a small discount store chain, the Miami-based Jefferson Stores, Inc. It renamed the stores Jefferson Ward. In 1976 Mobil, flush with cash from the recent rise in oil prices, acquired Montgomery Ward. By 1980, Mobil realized that the Montgomery Ward stores were doing poorly in comparison to the Jefferson stores, and decided that high quality discount units, along the lines of Dayton Hudson Company's Target stores, would be the retailer's future. Within 18 months, management quintupled the size of the operation, now called Jefferson Ward, to more than 40 units and planned to convert one-third of Montgomery Ward's existing stores to the Jefferson Ward model. The burden of servicing the new stores fell to the tiny Jefferson staff, who were overwhelmed by the increased store count, had no experience in dealing with some of the product lines they now carried, and were unfamiliar with buying for northern markets. Almost immediately, Jefferson had turned from a small moneymaker into a large drain on profits. The company sold the chain's 18-store Northern Division to Bradlees, a division of Stop & Shop, in 1985. The remaining stores closed.\n\nIn 1985, the company closed its catalog business after 113 years and began an aggressive policy of renovating its remaining stores. It restructured many of the store layouts in the downtown areas of larger cities and affluent neighborhoods into boutique-like specialty stores, as these were drawing business from traditional department stores. In 1988, the company management undertook a successful $3.8 billion leveraged buyout, making Montgomery Ward a privately held company.\n\nIn 1987, the company began a push into consumer electronics, using the \"Electric Avenue\" name. Montgomery Ward greatly expanded its electronics presence by shifting from a predominantly private label mix to an assortment dominated by major brands such as Sony, Toshiba, Hitachi, Panasonic, JVC and others. Vice President Vic Sholis, later President of the Tandy Name Brand Retail Group (McDuff, VideoConcepts, and Incredible Universe), led this strategy. In 1994, revenues increased 94% largely due to Montgomery Ward's tremendously successful direct-marketing arms. For a short period, the company reentered the mail-order business, through \"Montgomery Ward Direct\", a mail order business licensed to the catalog giant Fingerhut. But by the mid-1990s, sales margins eroded in the competitive electronics and appliance hardlines, which traditionally were Montgomery Ward's strongest lines.\n\nIn 1994, Wards acquired the now-defunct New England retail chain Lechmere.\n\nBankruptcy, restructuring, and liquidation\n\nBy the 1990s, however, even its rivals began to lose ground to low-price competition from Kmart, Wal-Mart, and especially Target, which eroded even more of Montgomery Ward's traditional customer base. In 1997, it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, emerging from protection by the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Illinois in August 1999 as a wholly owned subsidiary of GE Capital, which was by then its largest shareholder. As part of a last-ditch effort to remain competitive, the company closed 250 retail locations in 30 U.S. states (including all the Lechmere stores), abandoned the specialty store strategy, renamed and rebranded the chain as simply Wards (although unrelated, Wards was the original name for the now-defunct Circuit City), and spent millions of dollars to renovate its remaining outlets to be flashier and more consumer-friendly. But GE reneged on promises of further financial support of Montgomery Ward's restructuring plans.\n\nOn December 28, 2000, the company, after lower-than-expected sales during the Christmas season, announced it would cease operating, close its remaining 250 retail outlets, and lay off its 37,000 employees. All the stores closed within weeks of the announcement. The subsequent liquidation was at the time the largest retail Chapter 7 bankruptcy liquidation in American history (this was surpassed by Circuit City's liquidation eight years later). Roger Goddu, Montgomery Ward's CEO, received an offer from JCPenney to become CEO, but he declined under pressure from GE. One of the last stores to close was the Salem, Oregon location in which the human resources division was located. All of Montgomery Ward was liquidated by the end of May 2001, ending a 130-year enterprise.\n\nTermination of pension plan\n\nIn 1999, Montgomery Ward completed a standard termination of its $1.1 billion employee pension plan (Wards Retirement Plan WRP and Retired/Terminated Associate Plan RTAP), which at that time had an alleged estimated surplus of $270 million. The termination of the pension plan included 30,000 Wards retirees and 22,000 active employees who were employed by Wards in 1999. According to tax rules at that time (to avoid paying a 50% federal excise tax on the plan's termination), Wards then placed 25% of the plan's surplus into a new replacement pension plan, and paid federal tax of just 20% on the balance of the surplus. The final result: the estimated remaining $25 to $50 million of the employee pension plan surplus went to Wards free of income taxes, because the company, which was in Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings, had huge operating losses. In reality, Wards received an alleged estimated $25 to $50 million for ending the employee pension plan and avoided paying hundreds of thousands in yearly pension premiums to the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation. Employees and retirees vested in the pension plan were given a choice of receiving an annuity from an insurance company or a lump sum payment.\n\nDistribution centers\n\nFour of the six massive catalog distribution centers Montgomery Ward built between 1921 and 1929 remain. Three have been subject to renovations for adaptive reuse and the buildings are perhaps the most tangible legacy of Montgomery Ward. Two others have been demolished for various types of redevelopment. \n*In Baltimore, the 1925 warehouse, an eight-story, 1300000 sqft building at 1800 Washington Blvd. southwest of downtown Baltimore, now known as Montgomery Park, has been restored for office use. It has a green building with a green roof, storm water reutilization systems, and extensive use of recycled building materials. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2000 as the Montgomery Ward Warehouse and Retail Store. \n*The eight-story Fort Worth facility at West 7th St and Carroll was built in 1928 to replace the previous operation in a former Chevrolet assembly plant across the street. In its history, the warehouse survived a flood in 1949 that reached the second floor and a direct hit from a tornado in 2000. After the demise of the company, developers renovated the structure as a mixed-use condominium project and retail center known as Montgomery Plaza.\n*The Portland, Oregon center at NW 27th and Vaughn, ceased operation as a warehouse in 1976. A developer purchased the property in 1984 and renamed Montgomery Park, converting it for offices making it the second-largest office building in Portland.[http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/ohq/107.1/dibling.html Oregon Historical Quarterly] \n*The Kansas City distribution center at St. John Street and North Belmont Boulevard houses the Super Flea flea market.\n*The St. Paul, Minnesota center at 1450 University Ave West was the fourth of the distribution centers to be built and employed up to 2,500 employees in the 1920s. It had more than 1 e6sqft or 27 acres, under roof, making it the largest building in St. Paul at the time. The last remaining section of the original building was demolished in 1996. The site was redeveloped as a shopping center called Midway Marketplace.\n*The Oakland, California facility, constructed in 1923, was an eight-story 950000 sqft structure of reinforced concrete frame that was the largest industrial building in Oakland. After years of community organizing that urged city leaders to either demolish or re-purpose the site, despite opposition by preservation groups, the building at 2875 International Boulevard was demolished in 2003. It has been replaced by the Cesar Chavez Education Center, an elementary school.\n\nAs online retailer\n\nAt its height, the original Montgomery Ward was one of the largest retailers in the United States. After its demise, the familiarity of its brand meant its name, corporate logo, and advertising were still considered valuable intangible assets. In 2004, catalog marketer Direct Marketing Services Inc. (DMSI), an Iowa-based direct marketing company, purchased much of the intellectual property assets of the former Wards, including the \"Montgomery Ward\" and \"Wards\" trademarks, for an undisclosed amount of money.\n\nDMSI applied the brand to a new online and catalog-based retailing operation, with no physical stores, headquartered in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. DMSI then began operating under the Montgomery Ward branding and managed to get it up and running in three months. The new firm began operations in June 2004, selling essentially the same categories of products as the former brand, but as a new, smaller catalog.\n\nThe DMSI version of Montgomery Ward was not the same company as the original. The company did not honor obligations of the previous company, such as gift cards and items sold with a lifetime guarantee. David Milgrom, then president of the firm, said in an interview with the Associated Press: \"We're rebuilding the brand, and we want to do it right.\"\n\nIn July 2008, DMSI announced it was on the auction block, with sale scheduled for the following month. Catalog retailer Swiss Colony purchased DMSI August 5, 2008. Swiss Colony – which changed its name to Colony Brands Inc. on June 1, 2010 – announced it would keep the Montgomery Ward catalog division open. The Website launched September 10, 2008, with new catalogs mailing in February 2009. A month before the catalogs' launch, Swiss Colony President John Baumann told United Press International the retailer might also resurrect Montgomery Ward's Signature and Powr-Kraft store brands. To augment its vast selection, Montgomery Ward started promoting several exclusive new brands in July 2012 in its Early Fall 2012 catalog and on its website– Devonshire Collection, Apothecarie Collection and Elysian Forest Collection furniture, Chef Tested kitchen products, Comfort Creek towels and sheets, Freshica shoes, Sleep Connection bedding and Color Connection window treatments.", "Robert Lewis May (July 27 1905 – August 10 1976) was the creator of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.\n\nLife and work\n\nMay grew up in an affluent, secular Jewish home in New Rochelle, New York. He had a brother and two sisters. One of the sisters, Evelyn May, is the grandmother of the well-known economist Steven D. Levitt, of “Freakonomics” fame.The Probability that a Real-Estate Agent is Cheating You (and other riddles of modern life): Inside the curious mind of the heralded young economist Steven Levitt by Stephen J. Dubner, New York Times Magazine, August 3, 2003 Another sister, Margaret, married songwriter Johnny Marks in 1947. May graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Dartmouth College in 1926.\n\nRobert May’s parents were hard hit by the Great Depression (1929) and lost their wealth. Sometime in the 1930s, May moved to Chicago and took a job as a low-paid in-house advertising copywriter for Montgomery Ward. In early 1939, May’s boss at Montgomery Ward asked him to write a “cheery” Christmas book for shoppers and suggested that an animal be the star of the book. Montgomery Ward had been buying and giving away coloring books for Christmas every year and it was decided that creating their own book would save money and be a nice good-will gesture.\n\nMay’s (Jewish) wife, Evelyn, had contracted cancer in 1937 and was quite ill as he started on the book in early 1939. May \"drew on memories of his own painfully shy childhood when creating his Rudolph stories.\" He decided on making a deer the central character of the book because his then 4-year-old daughter, Barbara, loved the deer in the Chicago zoo. He ran verses and chapters of the Rudolph poem by Barbara to make sure they entertained children. The final version of the poem was first read to Barbara and his wife’s parents.\n\nEvelyn May died in July, 1939. She is interred at Saint Joseph Cemetery, River Grove, Cook County, IL. His boss offered to take him off the book assignment in light of his wife’s death. May refused and completed the poem in August, 1939. The Rudolph poem booklet was first distributed during the 1939 holiday season. Shoppers loved the poem and 2.4 million copies were distributed. War time restrictions on paper use prevented a re-issue until 1946. In that year, another 3.6 million copies were distributed to Montgomery Ward shoppers.\n\nIn 1946, May received an offer from a company that wanted to do a spoken-word record of the poem. May could not give his approval (and be compensated) because Montgomery Ward held the rights to the poem. In late 1946 or early 1947, Sewell Avery, the company’s president, gave the copyright rights to the poem to May, free and clear. The spoken-word version of the poem was a big sales success.\n\nIn 1947, Harry Elbaum, the head of Maxton Publishers, a small New York publishing company, took a chance and put out an updated print edition of the Rudolph (poem) book. Other publishers had passed on the book, believing that the distribution of millions of free copies had ruined the market. The book was a best seller.\n\nIn 1948, May’s brother-in-law, Johnny Marks, wrote (words and music) an adaptation of Rudolph. Though the song was turned down by such popular vocalists as Bing Crosby and Dinah Shore, it was recorded by the singing cowboy Gene Autry. \"Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer\" was released in 1949 and became a phenomenal success, selling more records than any other Christmas song, with the exception of \"White Christmas\". \n\nIn 1941, May married another Ward employee, Virginia, and had five children with her. She was a devout Catholic, and he converted to Catholicism during the marriage. He is buried in Saint Joseph Cemetery in River Grove, Illinois. \n\nMay wrote two sequels to Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. The first is mostly in prose (except that Rudolph speaks in anapaestic tetrameter), written in 1947 but only published posthumously as Rudolph's Second Christmas (1992), and subsequently with the title Rudolph to the Rescue (2006). The second sequel is entirely in anapaestic tetrameter like the original: Rudolph Shines Again (1954). May also published four other children's books: Benny the Bunny Liked Beans (1940), Winking Willie (1948), The Fighting Tenderfoot (1954), and Sam the Scared-est Scarecrow (1972). \n\nMay told his story of the writing of \"Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer\" in his article \"Robert May Tells how Rudolph, The Red Nosed Reindeer Came into Being\" from the Gettysburg Times published on December 22, 1975. \n\nMay is interred at Saint Joseph Cemetery, River Grove, Cook County, IL." ] }

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{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe", "Search" ], "filename": [ "A_Visit_from_St._Nicholas.txt", "Clement_Clarke_Moore.txt" ], "title": [ "A Visit from St. Nicholas", "Clement Clarke Moore" ], "wiki_context": [ "\"A Visit from St. Nicholas\", more commonly known as \"The Night Before Christmas\" and \"Twas the Night Before Christmas\" from its first line, is a poem first published anonymously in 1823 and later attributed to Clement Clarke Moore, who claimed authorship in 1837. Some commentators now believe the poem was written by Henry Livingston, Jr. \n\nThe poem has been called \"arguably the best-known verses ever written by an American\"Burrows, Edwin G. & Wallace, Mike. Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999. pp. 462-463 ISBN 0-19-511634-8 and is largely responsible for some of the conceptions of Santa Claus from the mid-nineteenth century to today. It has had a massive impact on the history of Christmas gift-giving. Before the poem gained wide popularity, American ideas had varied considerably about St. Nicholas and other Christmastide visitors. \"A Visit from St. Nicholas\" eventually was set to music and has been recorded by many artists.\n\nPlot \n\nOn Christmas Eve night, while his wife and children sleep, a father awakens to noises outside his house. Looking out the window, he sees Santa Claus (St. Nicholas) in an air-borne sleigh pulled by eight reindeer. After landing his sleigh on the roof, the saint enters the house through the chimney, carrying a sack of toys with him. The father watches Santa filling the children's Christmas stockings hanging by the fire, and laughs to himself. They share a conspiratorial moment before the saint bounds up the chimney again. As he flies away, Santa wishes everyone a \"Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night.\"\n\nMeter \n\nThe poem's meter is anapestic tetrameter (four feet of unstressed-unstressed-stressed). The anapest is the same foot used to construct limericks, and the common metrical modifications that can be observed in the limerick form also can be observed in Moore's poem. For example, while the first two lines each use full anapests, lines 3 and 4 each drop the first unstressed syllable. Likewise, lines 9 and 10 drop the first unstressed syllable; they also add an extra unstressed syllable to the end.\n\nLiterary history \n\nAccording to legend, \"A Visit\" was composed by Clement Clarke Moore on a snowy winter's day during a shopping trip on a sleigh. His inspiration for the character of Saint Nicholas was a local Dutch handyman as well as the historical Saint Nicholas. Moore originated many of the features that are still associated with Santa Claus today while borrowing other aspects, such as the use of reindeer. The poem was first published anonymously in the Troy, New York Sentinel on 23 December 1823, having been sent there by a friend of Moore, and was reprinted frequently thereafter with no name attached. It was first attributed in print to Moore in 1837. Moore himself acknowledged authorship when he included it in his own book of poems in 1844. By then, the original publisher and at least seven others had already acknowledged his authorship. Moore had a reputation as an erudite professor and had not wished at first to be connected with the unscholarly verse. He included it in the anthology at the insistence of his children, for whom he had originally written the piece.\n\nMoore's conception of St. Nicholas was borrowed from his friend Washington Irving (see below), but Moore portrayed his \"jolly old elf\" as arriving on Christmas Eve rather than Christmas Day. At the time that Moore wrote the poem, Christmas Day was overtaking New Year's Day as the preferred genteel family holiday of the season, but some Protestants viewed Christmas as the result of \"Catholic ignorance and deception\" and still had reservations. By having St. Nicholas arrive the night before, Moore \"deftly shifted the focus away from Christmas Day with its still-problematic religious associations.\" As a result, \"New Yorkers embraced Moore's child-centered version of Christmas as if they had been doing it all their lives.\"\n\nIn An American Anthology, 1787–1900, editor Edmund Clarence Stedman reprinted the Moore version of the poem, including the German spelling of \"Donder and Blitzen\" that he adopted, rather than the earlier Dutch version from 1823 \"Dunder and Blixem.\" Both phrases translate as \"Thunder and Lightning\" in English, though the German word for thunder is \"Donner\" and the words in modern Dutch would be \"Donder en Bliksem.\"\n\nModern printings frequently incorporate alterations that reflect changing linguistic and cultural sensibilities. For example, breast in \"The moon on the breast of the new-fallen snow\" is frequently bowdlerized to crest; the archaic ere in \"But I heard him exclaim ere he drove out of sight\" is frequently replaced with as. Note that this change implies that Santa Claus made his exclamation during the moment that he disappeared from view, while the exclamation came before his disappearance in the original. \"Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good-night\" is frequently rendered with the traditional English locution \"'Merry Christmas'\" and with \"goodnight\" as a single word.\n\nOriginal copies \n\nFour hand-written copies of the poem are known to exist and three are in museums, including the New-York Historical Society library. The fourth copy, written out and signed by Clement Clarke Moore as a gift to a friend in 1860, was sold by one private collector to another in December 2006. It was purchased for $280,000 by an unnamed \"chief executive officer of a media company\" who resides in New York City, according to Dallas, Texas-based Heritage Auctions which brokered the private sale. \n\nAuthorship controversy\n\nMoore's connection with the poem has been questioned by Professor Donald Foster, who used textual content analysis and external evidence to argue that Moore could not have been the author. Foster believes that Major Henry Livingston, Jr., a New Yorker with Dutch and Scottish roots, should be considered the chief candidate for authorship, a view long espoused by the Livingston family. Livingston was distantly related to Moore's wife. Foster's claim, however, has been countered by document dealer and historian Seth Kaller, who once owned one of Moore's original manuscripts of the poem. Kaller has offered a point-by-point rebuttal of both Foster's linguistic analysis and external findings, buttressed by the work of autograph expert James Lowe and Dr. Joe Nickell, author of Pen, Ink and Evidence. \n\nEvidence in favor of Moore\n\nMoore is credited by his friend Charles Fenno Hoffman as author in the 25 December 1837 Pennsylvania Inquirer and Daily Courier. Further, the Rev. David Butler, who allegedly showed the poem to Sentinel editor Orville L. Holley, was a relative of Moore's. A letter to Moore from the publisher states, \"I understand from Mr. Holley that he received it from Mrs. Sackett, the wife of Mr. Daniel Sackett who was then a merchant in this city\". Moore preferred to be known for his more scholarly works, but allowed the poem to be included in his anthology in 1844 at the request of his children. By that time, the original publisher and at least seven others had already acknowledged his authorship. Livingston family lore gives credit to their forebear rather than Moore, but there is no proof that Livingston himself ever claimed authorship, nor has any record ever been found of any printing of the poem with Livingston’s name attached to it, despite more than 40 years of searches.\n\nEvidence in favor of Livingston\n\nAdvocates for Livingston's authorship argue that Moore \"tried at first to disavow\" the poem. They also posit that Moore falsely claimed to have translated a book. Document dealer and historian Seth Kaller has challenged both claims. Kaller examined the book in question, A Complete Treatise on Merinos and Other Sheep, as well as many letters signed by Moore, and found that the \"signature\" was not penned by Moore, and thus provides no evidence that Moore made any plagiaristic claim. Kaller's findings were confirmed by autograph expert James Lowe, by Dr. Joe Nickell, the author of Pen, Ink & Evidence, and by others. According to Kaller, Moore's name was likely written on the book by a New-York Historical Society cataloger to indicate that it had been a gift from Moore to the Society. \n\nThe following points have been advanced in order to credit the poem to Major Henry Livingston, Jr.:\n\nLivingston also wrote poetry primarily using an anapaestic metrical scheme, and it is claimed that some of the phraseology of A Visit is consistent with other poems by Livingston, and that Livingston's poetry is more optimistic than Moore's poetry published in his own name. But Stephen Nissenbaum argues in his Battle for Christmas that the poem could have been a social satire of the Victorianization of Christmas. Furthermore, Kaller claims that Foster cherry-picked only the poems that fit his thesis and that many of Moore's unpublished works have a tenor, phraseology, and meter similar to A Visit. Moore had even written a letter titled \"From Saint Nicholas\" that may have predated 1823.\n\nFoster also contends that Moore hated tobacco and would, therefore, never have depicted St. Nicholas with a pipe. However, Kaller notes, the source of evidence for Moore's supposed disapproval of tobacco is [http://www.ebooksread.com/authors-eng/clement-moore/poems-hci-227/page-5-poems-hci-227.shtml The Wine Drinker], another poem by him. In actuality, that verse contradicts such a claim. Moore's The Wine Drinker criticizes self-righteous, hypocritical advocates of temperance who secretly indulge in the substances which they publicly oppose, and supports the social use of tobacco in moderation (as well as wine, and even opium, which was more acceptable in his day than it is now).\n\n Foster also asserts that Livingston's mother was Dutch, which accounts for the references to the Dutch Sinteklaes tradition and the use of the Dutch names \"Dunder and Blixem\". Against this claim, it is suggested by Kaller that Moore — a friend of writer Washington Irving and member of the same literary society — may have acquired some of his knowledge of New York Dutch traditions from Irving. Irving had written A History of New York in 1809 under the name of \"Dietrich Knickerbocker.\" It includes several references to legends of St. Nicholas, including the following that bears a close relationship to the poem:\n\nMacDonald P. Jackson, Emeritus Professor of English at the University of Auckland, New Zealand and a Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand, has spent his entire academic career analyzing authorship attribution. He has written a book titled Who Wrote “the Night Before Christmas”?: Analyzing the Clement Clarke Moore Vs. Henry Livingston Question, published in 2016, in which he evaluates the opposing arguments and, for the first time, uses the author-attribution techniques of modern computational stylistics to examine the long-standing controversy. Jackson employs a range of tests and introduces a new one, statistical analysis of phonemes; he concludes that Livingston is the true author of the classic work.\n\nIn popular culture \n\nA Visit from St. Nicholas, being very well-known, has inspired many parodies, adaptations, and references in popular culture.\n\nComics\n\n* In the Garfield comic strips published during the week of 19–24 December 1983, the text of the poem was drawn above scenes of Garfield acting out the part of the narrator.\n* From 13–25 December 2010, Over the Hedge covered the poem in a story arc, in which Verne tries to read it to Hammy and R.J., but keeps getting interrupted by their silly comments.\n* The 11 December 1968 installation of Peanuts features Sally Brown attempting to recite the poem but inadvertently substituting the name of golfer Jack Nicklaus for \"Saint Nicholas\" (\"The stockings were hung by the chimney with care, in hope that Jack Nicklaus soon would be there\"), after which Charlie Brown is hesitant to correct her.\n* Issue 40 of the DC Comics book Young Justice (2001) is a full-length parody of the poem. Unusual for a comic book, it features no panels or word balloons, only full-page illustrations accompanied by rhyming text. In the story, Santa sacrifices his life to save the world from a vengeful alien villain (though it's implied he'll be reborn next Christmas) and the teen heroes are stuck with the task of delivering all his gifts.\n* Florence Cestac adapted it for Christmas Classics: Graphic Classics Volume Nineteen (2010).\n\nFilms\n\n* The short silent film The Night Before Christmas (1905) was the first production of the poem on film.\n* In the 1933 Pooch the Pup cartoon Merry Dog (1933), Pooch the recites the poem. When he mentions the line \"Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse,\" a rat finds it ludicrous, and therefore comes out to cause a little trouble.\n* The Silly Symphonies cartoon short, The Night Before Christmas (1933),\n* The Tom & Jerry cartoon short The Night Before Christmas (1941) opens with the poem's first lines, Jerry appearing from his hole on the word \"mouse\".\n* In Die Hard (1988), Theo, the terrorist's tech specialist, is reporting on the assaulting Swat team, beginning his 'narration' with the first lines of the poem.\n* In National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (1989), Clark Griswold (Chevy Chase) reads the story to his extended family, but changes the narrative when he looks out the window and sees Cousin Eddie and Eddie's kidnapped hostage (Clark's boss) approaching the house. Instead of describing the \"miniature sleigh and eight tiny reindeer\", Clark describes the strange event taking place in his front yard.\n* The title of Tim Burton's stop motion film The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) parodies the poem's first line.\n* The film The Santa Clause (1994) features Tim Allen's character reading the poem to his son, who was later awakened by reindeer on the roof, citing the phrase \"arose such a clatter\".\n\nLiterature\n\n* A \"Canonical List of 'Twas the Night Before Christmas Variations\" contains nearly 1000 versions of the classic poem. \n* In 2014, the Cottage and Eagle Studios reproduced in its original format, \"The Night Before Christmas or a Visit of St. Nicholas\", originally published in 1896 by the McLoughin Brothers of New York.\n* Richard J. Davis' poetry adaptation, \"The Night Before Christmas, 1914\" (2013), is based upon the events of the Christmas Truce during World War I.\n* Lance Corporal James M. Schmidt penned \"Merry Christmas, My friend. A Marine's version of 'Twas the Night Before Christmas'\" (1986). \n* James Thurber's parody, \"A Visit from Saint Nicholas IN THE ERNEST HEMINGWAY MANNER\", which originally appeared in the 24 December 1927, issue of The New Yorker. \n* Trosclair's children's book, The Cajun Night Before Christmas (1973), offers a Cajun version of the classic tale, written in Cajun dialect and changing the scene to a Louisiana swamp and the saint's vehicle to a skiff pulled by alligators. \n* In E.B. White's novel Stuart Little (1945), the title character's parents change the second line to \"not even a louse\", so as not to offend their son, who is a mouse.\n\nMusic and spoken word\n\n* In 1953, Perry Como recorded a reading of \"'Twas the Night Before Christmas.\" Its original release was on the Around the Christmas Tree LPM-3133. \n* The Louis Armstrong Christmas CD Christmas Through the Years includes Louis reading the poem \"A Visit from Saint Nicholas\", better known as \"The Night before Christmas\". Recorded on 26 February 1971 in the den of his Corona, Queens home (now the Louis Armstrong House Museum), it is his last commercial recording, and the only one without his own music. \n* The nu metal band Korn released a limited edition promotional 12-inch single in 1993, which featured two versions of their \"A Visit from St. Nicholas\" parody: \"Christmas Song (Squeak by the FCC version)\" and \"Christmas Song (Blatant FCC Violation version)\". The song was also planned to appear in Korn's debut album, but eventually was not included.\n* The poem was set to music by Ken Darby and recorded by Fred Waring and the Pennsylvanians in 1942 in an arrangement by Harry Simeone.\n* Dave Seville recorded the poem for the 1963 album Christmas with The Chipmunks, Vol. 2.\n* Anthony Daniels voiced the character of C-3PO on Meco Monardo's 1980 record Christmas in the Stars reciting \"A Christmas Sighting ('Twas the Night Before Christmas)\", in which he describes \"S. Claus\" coming to the droids' toy factory to pick up the year's presents to distribute.\n* Actor Jack Palance narrates the poem on Laurie Z's 2001 recording, \"Heart of the Holidays\".\n* Under the title \"A Visit From St. Nick\", the poem was set for Speaker & Orchestra by Robert Lichtenberger in 1987. It was commissioned for and premiered by the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra conducted by Edward Polochick, and repeated by the BSO on a number of subsequent Christmas holiday concerts. The work has also been performed by the National Symphony Orchestra of Washington, DC, the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra conducted by the late Erich Kunzel, the Maryland Symphony Orchestra conducted by Elizabeth Schulze as well as other ensembles in the USA. Narrators have included then-mayor-of-Baltimore Kurt Schmoke, actor George Clooney and actress Pat Carroll.\n* The poem was set to music by Aaron Dai in 2006 as \"The Night Before Christmas\". It has been performed by The Chelsea Symphony and noteworthy narrators such as Richard Kind, Ana Gasteyer, and David Hyde Pierce.\n* A Pokémon version of this poem is included on the soundtrack CD album of Pokémon-themed Christmas songs entitled Pokémon Christmas Bash.\n* In a 1939 recording included in the Nimbus Records collection Prima Voce: The Spirit of Christmas Past, actor Basil Rathbone reads the poem.\n* The Bob Rivers comedy album Twisted Christmas features the track \"A Visit from St. Nicholson\", a narration of a Christmas visit from Jack Nicholson.\n* In the Dave Van Ronk song \"Yas Yas Yas\", the poem is parodied in the verse \"'Twas the night before Christmas, all was quiet in the house, not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse, when from the lawn there came a big crash. It was Father Christmas landing on his yas yas yas.\"\n* A new rock/pop musical adaptation was released in 2011 by the artist JJ's Tunes & Tales on CD, Baby and iTunes. The single features the singing of Juliet Lyons, and a rock band that includes both electric guitars and mandolins. This musical adaptation has singing and music throughout, with no spoken or rap lyric sections.\n* Since 1911 the Church of the Intercession in Manhattan has held a service that includes the reading of the poem followed by a procession to the tomb of Clement Clarke Moore at Trinity Cemetery the Sunday before Christmas. \n* In Mono Virus, a song by the Eraserheads from their 1996 album Fruitcake, the singer recites a parodied version of the poem before going into the song.\n* Alma Deutscher had composed the song in 2014, under the name \"The Night before Christmas\".\n\nRadio and television\n\n* In A Muppet Family Christmas, the Sesame Street Muppets perform a play based on the poem, with Ernie narrating as the father (the main character) and Bert as Mamma (he lost a coin toss). The monsters appear as the reindeer, with the Two-Headed Monster as Santa (and Grover as the mouse who is not stirring, literally). The narration omits the line, \"The children were nestled, all snug in their bed(s)/While visions of sugar plums danced in their heads\", because the line was just extra information that wasn't central to the skit's production.\n* Episode 55 of Animaniacs featured a skit titled \"The Day Before Christmas\", in which Ralph the Guard is given the task of delivering Yakko, Wakko, and Dot's Christmas presents. The short is presented as a bedtime story told by Slappy Squirrel to her nephew Skippy and is narrated in the poetic form as the original story. This cartoon was adapted into comic book form in a special comic book published by DC Comics in October 1994.\n* In the Barney and the Backyard Gang special, \"Waiting for Santa\", Barney reads the story to Michael and Amy, whom he has befriended, while Santa himself is in the living room of the house doing his usual work. He falls asleep just as he comes to \"With a little old driver, so lively and quick/I knew in a moment it must be St. Nick.\" Santa whispers the last quotation to the camera after that.\n* In the 1961 Bell Telephone Hour television program A Trip to Christmas, Ken Darby's musical version of the poem is performed off-screen by hostess Jane Wyatt and a chorus, and enacted onscreen by the Bil Baird Marionettes.\n* The 23 December 2011 broadcast of the CBS Evening News ended with Scott Pelley's saying: \"Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!\"\n* Some holiday airings of Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy had Charlie McCarthy trying to recite the poem from memory, resulting in such lines as: \"The stockings were hung by the chimney with care/In hopes that the laundryman soon would be there\". (A few times the line went: \"In hopes that the room could stand some fresh air\"), \"He flies through the air with the greatest of ease/The jolly old elf in the red BVD's\", and \"Now, Dasher, Now, Dancer, and what do you know/Dasher and Dancer paid $220 to show!\"\n* The song with the poem as its basis, arranged by Harry Simeone and music by Ken Darby, was performed at holiday airings of Fibber McGee and Molly, usually introduced by Teeny, the neighbor girl, as their \"Christmas Carol\".\n* At the beginning of Friends (TV series) episode 9, \"The One with Christmas in Tulsa\" (airdate 26 September 2002), Phoebe sings the last four lines of The Night Before Christmas, and Joey claims she wrote it. Another reference is seen is episode 10 of season 7, \"The One with the Holiday Armadillo\" (aired December 14, 2000), when Ross asks Chandler to leave and Chandler responds by saying \"But I didn't get to shake my belly like a bowl full of jelly!\"\n* The special Power Rangers Megaforce episode, \"Robo Knight Before Christmas\", ends with Robo Knight saying: \"Merry Christmas to all humans on Earth, and to all a good night!\"\n* The The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show story arc \"Topsy Turvy World\" featured a plot by Boris Badenov to replace Santa Claus for nefarious purposes. The cliffhanger pun titles for one segment of the storyline were: \"'The Fright Before Christmas', or 'A Visit From Saint Nicholouse'.\"\n* The Shake It Up episode \"Merry Merry it Up\" ended with Flynn in the hot tub, saying \"Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good soak!\"\n* A hip-hop animated version of the poem was made as an hour-long animated special, The Night B4 Christmas.\n* Bell Telephone Company sponsored a short film titled The Spirit of Christmas (circa 1950), featuring the Les and Mabel Beaton marionettes. Within a few years, it became a holiday perennial in many TV markets, especially in the Philadelphia area. In subsequent years it was licensed out as a 16mm film and shown in schools during the Christmas season.\n* In the animated TV special by Rankin/Bass (1974), titled Twas the Night Before Christmas, the characters and portions of the plot are loosely based on the poem.\n* In the Cabin Pressure radio show on BBC4 the intro of the episode Molokai references some verses of the poem.\n\nOther\n\n* For Christmas 1985, the Internet Engineering Task Force circulated an RFC document that was actually a poem about the early days of the Internet, titled \"Twas the Night Before Start-up\". \n* A version that originated on USENET in 1988 has circulated on Internet message boards and chain emails ever since. The entire poem is rephrased using more complicated and lesser known words. It is sometimes called \"Technical Night Before Christmas\" or subtitled \"For readers in their 23rd year of schooling\".\n* \"The Night Before Doom\", which appears in the Official DOOM F.A.Q., is a poem centered on the computer game Doom (1993). \n* \"Are Santa’s Reindeer Used for Propulsion or Navigation?\" (2013), written by Massachusetts Institute of Technology student Phillip M. Cunio, deconstructs the poem to determine the answer to that question.", "Clement Clarke Moore (July 15, 1779 – July 10, 1863) was a writer and American Professor of Oriental and Greek Literature, as well as Divinity and Biblical Learning, at the General Theological Seminary of the Protestant Episcopal Church, in New York City. The seminary was developed on land donated by Moore and it continues on this site at Ninth Avenue between 20th and 21st streets, in an area known as Chelsea Square. Moore's connection with the seminary continued for more than 25 years.\n\nMoore gained considerable wealth by subdividing and developing other parts of his large inherited estate in what became known as the residential neighborhood of Chelsea. Before this, the urbanized part of the city ended at Houston Street on Manhattan island. For 10 years, Moore also served as a board member of the New York Institution for the Blind.\n\nHe is credited and is most widely known as the author of the Christmas poem \"A Visit from St. Nicholas\", first published anonymously in 1823. It later became widely known as \"'Twas the Night Before Christmas\" and has been published in numerous illustrated versions in various languages. Scholars debate the identity of the author, calling on textual and handwriting analysis as well as other historical sources.\n\nLife and career\n\nMoore was born on July 15, 1779 in New York City to Bishop Benjamin Moore and Charity Clarke. His father headed the Episcopal Diocese of New York, which then covered the state. It was organized after the American Revolutionary War when the church became independent of the Anglican Church of England. During the uncertain years of the war, when Loyalists associated with what was known as King's College left for Canada, Moore became president of the renamed Columbia College (now Columbia University). He served twice in this position., pp.51-52\n\nMoore's mother was a daughter of Major Thomas Clarke, an English officer who stayed in the colony after fighting in the French and Indian War. He owned the large Manhattan estate \"Chelsea,\" then in the country north of the developed areas of the city. As a girl, Moore's mother Charity Clarke wrote letters to her English cousins. Preserved at Columbia University, these show her disdain for the policies of the British monarchy and her growing sense of patriotism in pre-Revolutionary days.\n\nMoore was born at Chelsea, at his mother's family estate. The Moores established their own residence in Elmhurst, Queens. After his grandfather Clarke's and mother's deaths, Moore inherited the Chelsea estate. He earned great wealth by subdividing and developing it in the 19th century. Moore graduated from Columbia College (1798), where he earned both his B.A. and his M.A..\n\nOne of Moore's earliest known works was an anonymous pro-Federalist pamphlet published prior to the 1804 presidential election, attacking the religious views of Thomas Jefferson (the incumbent president and Democratic-Republican candidate). His polemic, titled in full \"Observations upon Certain Passages in Mr. Jefferson's Notes on Virginia, which Appear to Have a Tendency to Subvert Religion, and Establish a False Philosophy\", focused on Jefferson's Notes on the State of Virginia (1785. Moore concluded this work was an \"instrument of infidelity\". \n\nIn 1820, Moore helped Trinity Church organize a new parish church, St. Luke in the Fields, on Hudson Street.Burrows and Wallace, p.447 He later gave 66 tracts of land – the apple orchard from his inherited Chelsea estate– to the Episcopal Diocese of New York to be the site of the General Theological Seminary.\n\nBased likely on this donation, and on the publication of his Hebrew and English Lexicon in 1809, Moore was appointed as professor of Biblical learning at the Seminary. He held this post until 1850. Moore owned several slaves during his lifetime, as was customary of many in his class. He opposed the abolition of slavery. New York State passed a gradual abolition law in 1799 after the Revolution; it freed the last slaves in the state in 1827.\n\nAfter the seminary was built, Moore began the residential development of his Chelsea estate in the 1820s with the help of James N. Wells, dividing it into lots along Ninth Avenue and selling them to well-heeled New Yorkers. Covenants in the deeds of sale created a planned neighborhood, specifying what could be built on the land as well as architectural details of the buildings.Regier, Hilda. \"Chelsea\" in , p.209 Stables, manufacturing and commercial uses were forbidden in the development.\n\nFrom 1840 to 1850, Moore also served as a board member of the New York Institution for the Blind at 34th Street and Ninth Avenue (now the New York Institute for Special Education). He published a collection of poems (1844).\n\nUpon his death in 1863 at his summer residence in Newport, Rhode Island, Moore's funeral was held in Trinity Church, Newport, where he had owned a pew. His body was returned to New York for burial in the cemetery at St. Luke in the Fields. On November 29, 1899, his body was reinterred in Trinity Church Cemetery in New York.\n\nMarriage and family\n\nMoore married Catharine Elizabeth Taylor, who was of English and Dutch descent. She was a direct descendant of the Dutch Van Cortlandt family, once the major landholders in the lower Hudson Valley of New York. The Moores had several living descendants, including members of the Ogden family. In 1855, Mary C. Moore Ogden, one of the Moores' married daughters, painted \"illuminations\" to go with the first color edition of her father's celebrated verse about Christmas.\n\nChelsea estate\n\nMoore's estate, named Chelsea, was on the west side of the island of Manhattan above Houston Street, where the developed city ended at the time. It was mostly open countryside before the 1820s. It had been owned by his maternal grandfather Maj. Thomas Clarke, a retired British veteran of the French and Indian War (the North American front of the Seven Years' War). Clarke named his house for the Royal Hospital Chelsea in London that served war veterans. The estate was later inherited by his daughter and Moore's mother, Charity Clarke Moore, and ultimately by grandson Clement Moore and his family.\n\nWhen the government of New York City laid down the street grid in Manhattan, based on the Commissioner's Plan of 1811, the new Ninth Avenue was projected to go through the middle of the Chelsea estate. Moore wrote and published a pamphlet calling on other \"Proprietors of Real Estate\" to fight the continued development of the city, which then ended at Houston Street. He thought it was a conspiracy designed to increase political patronage and appease the city's working class. He also decried having to pay taxes for public works such as creating new streets, which he called \"a tyranny no monarch in Europe would dare to exercise.\"\n\nDespite his protests, Moore eventually began to develop Chelsea, generating high revenues for himself by dividing it into lots along Ninth Avenue and selling them to well-heeled New Yorkers. He donated a large block of land to the Episcopal diocese for construction of a seminary, giving them an apple orchard consisting of 66 tracts. Construction began in 1827 for the General Theological Seminary. Based on his knowledge of Hebrew, Moore was appointed as its first professor of Oriental Languages, serving until 1850.\n\nThe Seminary continues to operate on the same site, taking up most of the block between 20th and 21st streets and Ninth and Tenth avenues. Ten years later, Moore also gave land on Ninth and 20th Street, east of the avenue, to the diocese for construction of St. Peter's Episcopal Church. The contemporary Manhattan neighborhood is known as Chelsea after his estate.\n\nA Visit from St. Nicholas\n\nThis poem, \"arguably the best-known verses ever written by an American\", was first published anonymously in the Troy (NY) Sentinel on December 23, 1823. It was sent to the paper by a friend of Moore. It was reprinted frequently thereafter and published as a small book in illustrated versions.\n\nIt was not until 1837 that the poem was first attributed in print to Moore. Moore claimed authorship by including it in his Poems, an 1844 anthology of his works. His children, for whom he had originally written the piece, encouraged this publication. At first Moore had not wished to be connected with the popular verse, given his public reputation as a professor of ancient languages. By then, the original publisher and at least seven others had already acknowledged him as author. Moore was said to have written the poem while visiting his cousin, Mary McVicker, at Constable Hall, in what is now known as Constableville, New York.\n\nAuthorship controversy\n\nScholars have debated whether Moore was the author of this poem. Professor Donald Foster used textual content analysis and external evidence to argue that Moore could not have been the author. Foster believes that Major Henry Livingston, Jr., a New Yorker with Dutch and Scottish roots, should be considered the chief candidate for authorship. This view was long espoused by the Livingston family. Livingston was distantly related to Moore's wife.\n\nFoster's claim, however, has been countered by document dealer and historian Seth Kaller, who once owned one of Moore's original manuscripts of the poem. Kaller has offered a point-by-point rebuttal of both Foster's linguistic analysis and external findings, buttressed by the work of autograph expert James Lowe and Dr. Joe Nickell, author of Pen, Ink and Evidence. \n\nThere is no proof that Livingston himself ever claimed authorship, nor has any record ever been found of any printing of the poem with Livingston’s name attached to it. But, according to the original copy of the poem that was sent to The Sentinel, the names of Santa's last two reindeer were Dunder and Blixem, instead of Donder (later Donner) and Blitzen, as printed. The changes in spelling are attributed to a printing error and/or correcting Moore's spelling inaccuracies, as he did not speak Dutch. \n\nIn 2016, the matter was further discussed by MacDonald P. Jackson, an emeritus professor of English at the University of Auckland, a fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand and an expert in authorship attribution using statistical techniques. He evaluated every argument using modern computational stylistics, including one never used before - statistical analysis of phonemes - and found in every test that Livingston was the more likely author. \n\nLegacy and honors\n\n*In 1911, the Church of the Intercession in Manhattan started a service on the Sunday before Christmas that included a reading of the poem followed by a procession to Moore's tomb at Trinity Cemetery on the Sunday before Christmas. This continued at least through 1917. \n*Clement Clarke Moore Park, located at 10th Avenue and 22nd Street in Chelsea, is named after Moore. \n*A playground opened in the park November 22, 1968, and was named for Moore by local law the following year. In 1995 it was fully renovated, and new trees were added. Local residents gather annually there on the last Sunday of Advent for a reading of \"Twas the Night Before Christmas.\"" ] }

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{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe", "Search" ], "filename": [ "Simon_Bar_Sinister.txt", "List_of_Underdog_characters.txt" ], "title": [ "Simon Bar Sinister", "List of Underdog characters" ], "wiki_context": [ "Dr. Simon Bar Sinister is the main antagonist in the Underdog cartoon show. Simon was the wickedest man in the world, and it was his ambition to rule the world, but each time, Underdog defeated him.\n\nCharacter\n\nVoiced by Allen Swift, and based on the voice and looks of Lionel Barrymore, Simon appeared to be only two feet tall.\n\nSimon's most famous saying was, \"Simon says!\" His henchman was Cad Lackey, who, though generally dull-witted, was occasionally capable of pointing out flaws in his boss's plans. Contrary to the mad scientist stereotype, Simon actually paid attention to Cad's suggestions.\n\nIn the 2007 live-action film adaptation, he is portrayed by Peter Dinklage. In the movie, Bar Sinister was originally a geneticist for a company in Capital City, using dogs as test subjects for the betterment of mankind. But after being laughed at by the mayor after attempting to have his research expanded to law enforcement, Bar Sinister began his work to create a super-power formula to get revenge and he took away Underdog's superpowers and put them in little blue pills and fed them to German shepherds and was sent to jail for his crimes. However, the incident resulted in the destruction of his lab that not only caused scarring of his forehead, the loss of some of his hair, and a limp in his right leg, but created Underdog.\n\nName\n\n\"Bar Sinister\" is a macaronic reference to a heraldic mark, called barre sinister in French and bend sinister in English. The bend sinister is a line from the top right to the bottom left, and its diminutive form, correctly called a baton sinister, denotes illegitimacy. Despite its heraldic inaccuracy, the term bar sinister has been used in literary contexts to denote bastardy since the early 19th century. The name \"Simon\" is of Hebrew origin, and the word \"bar\" in Hebrew typically denoted a patronymic surname (see, for example, Simon bar Jonah, the birth name of Saint Peter). Thus, Simon bar Sinister's name is a doubly macaronic play on words.\n\nEpisodes in which he is prominent\n\n* \"Simon Says\" (first appearance): Invents a camera used to freeze living things in photographs.\n* \"Go Snow\": Invents the Snow Gun to turn people into snowmen and snowwomen. After he snowed Underdog into submission, Underdog managed to defrost himself and then flew around in circles, making Simon and Cad too dizzy to continue their plan.\n* \"The Big Shrink\": Desires to be the biggest man in the world, so he invents Pure Distilled Shrinking Water to shrink people to the size of his thumb. After using the shrinking chemical on Underdog and Sweet Polly, he uses his Rainmaking Machine to make it rain Shrinking Water all over the city, and he even shrinks Cad. Underdog, Polly and the townspeople shrink him to the size of a flea and tickle him into telling them the cure to the shrinking water. After Simon tells the townspeople the cure, he and Cad are sent to jail.\n* \"Weathering the Storm\": Invents the Weather Machine to distort the Earth's weather patterns, but finds out he can't use the Weather Machine against Earth if he's on Earth. Cad points out they could use the Weather Machine if they weren't on the Earth. Simon and Cad spoil the Moon launch at Cape Canaveral by stealing a spacecraft with Sweet Polly as their prisoner after incapacitating the astronauts who were supposed to go with Sweet Polly. Sensing the danger, General Brainley, in charge of organizing the Moon launch, sent word for Underdog. Simon warns that if Underdog were to go to the moon, to harm Simon, Sweet Polly would be harmed. While Simon demonstrates the Weather Machine's powers, he creates a flood, which floods the Capitol Building, but Underdog makes a built-in drain, sending the flood out to sea. Then, Simon creates a lightning storm, but Underdog throws the lightning bolt into the sky. Then, Simon tries a tornado, but Underdog stops it with his atomic breath. Simon, after listening to one of Cad's suggestions, threatens to press all the keys on his Weather Machine unless the Earth agrees to make Simon dictator, and the world leaders have one hour to decide. Underdog knew it would be impossible for him to stop tornados, earthquakes, floods, hurricanes and many other natural disasters all at once, and even if Simon spotted Underdog nearing the Moon, he would press all the keys on the Weather Machine and destroy the Earth, with Sweet Polly, too. Underdog turns invisible and defeats Simon and Cad, destroys the Weather Machine, rescues Sweet Polly and returns Simon, Cad, Polly, and the spaceship to Earth where Simon and Cad will be sent to jail.\n* \"The Phoney Booths\": Replaces phone booths with Phoney Booths to brainwash people who use the booths. Underdog is also the victim of Simon Bar Sinister's phoney booths, but Underdog overcomes Simon's power, and destroys Simon's evil phone booths and Simon and Cad are once again sent to jail.\n* \"The Forget-Me-Net\": Invents a net to erase the memories of others. He planned to use the net on Underdog by robbing a jewelry store and a toy store, but Underdog was busy taming a typhoon and stopping a band of pirates. So, he decides to kidnap Sweet Polly and use the net on Underdog, erasing Polly's memory in the process. After using the net on Underdog, he realizes the cure to the net's effects is if the victim hears his or her name, so he disguises Underdog as an elderly woman who sells apples, and then plans to erase the memories of all the people in Washington D.C. Underdog and Polly regain their memories and stop Simon and Cad by using the Forget-Me-Net against them, causing both Simon and Cad to forget who they are.\n* \"Simon Says 'No Thanksgiving \": He plans to make himself master of the city with an army consisting of 3 airplanes, 3 tanks and 12 soldiers. Sweet Polly overheard it and the police that she informed of this laughed at the fact of Simon using 3 airplanes, 3 tanks, and 12 soldiers. He planned it on the same day of the Thanksgiving Day parade and was disappointed at that. Cad points out if Simon's plan fails, he and Cad will be laughingstocks of the city. So he plans to go back in time and destroy Thanksgiving by having the Indians fight the Pilgrims. With that done, he'll be able to push the buttons on Main Street locking every door in the city and he'll be able to carry out his plan. Underdog and Polly as usual foiled his plan. When his army started the attack, they were quickly arrested and Simon was the laughingstock of the city.\n* \"The Tickle Feather Machine\": After the narrator makes reference to Simon's previous failed inventions to conquer the world (the Shrinking Water, the Weather Machine, the Snow Gun and the Forget-Me-Net, respectively), Simon decides to run for dictator, but quickly realizes nobody will vote for him since he's the most wicked person in the world. So Simon and Cad must vote for Simon themselves and prevent others from voting. He invents the Tickle Feather Machine to make people laugh so hard, they won't vote against him. After firing the Tickle Feather on Underdog and Sweet Polly, he and Cad vote for him for dictator and threatened a cook, a banker, a construction worker, and Sweet Polly to do whatever he says. It may look as though Simon was legally elected, but he wasn't. Underdog found info that Sweet Polly revealed on the television like Simon Bar Sinister and Cad are convicted criminals and they weren't registered to vote. This caused those that Simon threatened with the Tickle Feather Machine to turn against him as Underdog disposes of the Tickle Feathers.\n* \"The Big Dipper\": Invents the Big Dipper Machine to steal every water reservoir in the world, including oceans, seas, lakes, rivers, lagoons, ponds, and swimming pools. Underdog stops Simon from dipping all the water in the world, and Underdog restores all the water to everybody, and Simon and Cad are sent to jail again.\n* \"Simon Says 'Be My Valentine \": Uses his Valentine Vault to turn others into Valentine cards. Simon and his thugs intended to use the Valentine Vault on Underdog, but first they needed Sweet Polly as the bait. When Underdog arrived to rescue Polly, he was turned into a Valentine that Simon was going to use for a dartboard. When Simon and his thugs left the lab to use the Valentine Vault on the Mayor and the City's Officials, Underdog broke free of his Valentine Prison using his Super Energy Pill and rescued Sweet Polly. Simon and his gang were eventually defeated and turned into Valentine Cards themselves.\n* \"The Vacuum Gun\": Enlists the help of Batty-Man, Riff Raff, Electric Eel, and the gangs that each one led to pull crimes all over the world. Underdog managed to defeat them all.\n\nSimon's diabolical machines\n\nPop-culture references\n\n* In an episode of Will & Grace entitled \"Whose Mom Is It, Anyway?\", character Will Truman (played by Eric McCormack) calls Grace Adler (played by Debra Messing) Simon Bar Sinister.\n\nGrace: You were supposed to be proving a point to my mother, not selfishly sharing a nice evening with someone. This completely flies in the face of my master plan!\n\nWill: Master plan? What are you, Simon Bar Sinister? \n\n* Simon Chardiet, notable guitarist and guest musician with Rancid, has performed in a rockabilly trio called Simon & The Bar Sinisters.\n* In a 1993 HBO special, Dennis Miller referred to H. Ross Perot as a \"Simon Bar Sinister Replicant\", also a reference to the synthetic people in the film Blade Runner.\n* An enemy in the 1987 Nintendo Entertainment System video game Castlevania II: Simon's Quest is called \"Slimey BarSinister\".", "This is a list of the characters in the Underdog series.\n\nUnderdog is an anthropomorphic dog, who is a superhero parody of Superman and similar heroes with secret identities. The premise was that \"humble and lovable\" Shoeshine Boy, a cartoon dog, was in truth the superhero Underdog. When villains threatened, Shoeshine Boy ducked into a telephone booth where he transformed into the caped and costumed hero, destroying the booth in the process when his super powers were activated. In the live action film, he appeared as a beagle who became Jack Unger's pet. In 2008, He appeared in a Super Bowl advertisement for Coca-Cola.\n\nUnderdog is voiced by Wally Cox in the television cartoon. In the film adaptation, he is voiced by Jason Lee and portrayed onscreen by a lemon beagle named Leo sporting a red sweater and a blue cape.\n\nAllies \n\nSweet Polly Purebred \n\nSweet Polly Purebred is a female anthropomorphic dog TV news reporter and Underdog's love interest; she serves as the damsel in distress of most episodes. When being pursued by an antagonist, Polly is apt to start singing, \"Oh where oh where has my Underdog gone\", in a whiny voice, hoping for the object of her affections to come and rescue her. Polly's face is slightly similar to that of Underdog's, with a large muzzle and nose, she wears her platinum blonde hair styled in a pageboy, and her wardrobe consists of a black skirt, white shirt, red sweater, and black high-heels. In a few episodes it is hinted that Polly shows her love for Underdog. For example, in the episode \"March of the Monsters\", she is caught by a robot and calls for Underdog. He then saves Polly, but after Underdog uses his sci-fi noise and breaks all the glass, the townspeople complain about his noise. However, Polly defends the hero and tells the people they should thank him for saving everyone from the robots. She then goes to reward Underdog with a big kiss, but the hero backs away and flies off. Also, in the episode \"The Vacuum Gun\", when Polly is caught by Simon Barsinister's vacuum gun, she calls for Underdog, and her song annoys Simon. Later in the episode, she retrieves Underdog's ring.\n\nIn the live-action film, Polly is a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel owned by a girl named Molly. She is based upon Superman's romantic interest Lois Lane.\n\nShe was voiced by Norma MacMillan in the cartoon and voiced by Amy Adams in the live-action film.\n\nDan Unger \n\nAppearances: Movie\n\nDan Unger is Jack's father. He was once a police officer, but quit the force after his wife passed on and is currently working as a security guard at the scientific institute where Simon Bar Sinister hid out during the after hours. Simon and Cad later captured him in order to lure Jack and Underdog to them. After Simon Bar Sinister fed an antidote pill to Underdog and left to forcefully negotiate with the Mayor, Dan learned that Shoeshine was Underdog. After Underdog freed the Mayor, Dan was reinstated and promoted by the Mayor and helped Underdog arrest Simon while Underdog buried a bomb Cad placed on the roof. Dan was later seen placing Simon into solitary confinement where Cad was also held.\n\nIn the movie, he is portrayed by James Belushi.\n\nGeneral Brainley \n\nAppearances: Weathering the Storm\n\nGeneral Brainley is in charge of the moon launch at Cape Canaveral. When he was about to send a pair of astronauts and Sweet Polly to the moon, Simon Bar Sinister and Cad Lackey hijacked the spaceship and held Sweet Polly prisoner so they could use the Weather Machine against Earth. When anything goes awry, he deems the problem an outrage.\n\nHe is voiced by Allen Swift.\n\nJack Unger \n\nAppearances: Movie\n\nJack Unger is Underdog's human companion. He is a teenager and Dan Unger's son. His mother has died some time ago. Although Dan is very understanding, Jack's relationship with him is not very smooth. When Dan brings him the dog Shoeshine, which he found in the street, Jack first does not want him. When the dog talks to him he is understandably upset, and wonders whether he is getting crazy. However, soon he decides he wants to keep him.\n\nAfter Shoeshine defends Molly (the teenage female owner of the female dog he fancies) against robbers, Jack convinces him to use his powers to fight more evil, arguing that one cannot always just do what one likes. They decide that for his superhero actions Shoeshine takes on the secret identity of \"Underdog\", using Dan's college sweater, which has a big U on it, as his hero attire.\n\nJack is played by Alex Neuberger.\n\nO.J. Skweez \n\nAppearances: Fearo, The Gold Bricks, The Phoney Booths, RiffRaffville\n\nO.J. Skweez is the owner of the TTV (Total Television) building.\n\nHe is voiced by Mort Marshall.\n\nProfessor Moby Von Ahab \n\nAppearances: The Bubbleheads\n\nProfessor Moby Von Ahab is one of the world's leading scientists who helped Sweet Polly investigate what was happening beneath the sea when the Bubblehead Empire planned to conquer the surface world. His name is a take-off on Moby-Dick and Captain Ahab.\n\nHe is voiced by Allen Swift.\n\nMain villains \n\nSimon Bar Sinister \n\nAppearances: Simon Says, Go Snow, The Big Shrink, Weathering The Storm, The Phoney Booths, The Forget-Me-Net, Simon Says \"No Thanksgiving\", The Tickle Feather Machine, Simon Says \"Be My Valentine\", The Vacuum Gun, The Big Dipper, movie\n\nSimon Bar Sinister is a mad scientist. He has an assistant named Cad Lackey. A \"bend sinister\", sometimes, inaccurately, called a \"bar sinister\", is a diagonal line in heraldry that can indicate that the person is a bastard by birth. \n\nHe was voiced by Allen Swift impersonating Lionel Barrymore in the cartoon. In the movie, he is portrayed by Peter Dinklage.\n\nCad Lackey \n\nAppearances: Simon Says, Go Snow, The Big Shrink, Weathering The Storm, The Phoney Booths, The Forget-Me-Net, Simon Says \"No Thanksgiving\", The Tickle Feather Machine, Simon Says \"Be My Valentine\", The Vacuum Gun, The Big Dipper, movie\n\nCad Lackey was Simon's henchman, who, though generally dull-witted, was occasionally capable of pointing out flaws in his boss's plans. Simon was the mad scientist stereotype and paid good attention to Cad in these episodes.\n\nIn the live action film, he was portrayed as more intelligent and level-headed. He is also the security guard of a building and Simon's partner where he hid out in the building that Cad worked in after hours.\n\nHe is voiced by Ben Stone in the cartoon, in a style reminiscent of Humphrey Bogart. In the movie, he is portrayed by Patrick Warburton.\n\nRiff Raff \n\nAppearances: The Great Gold Robbery, Whistler's Father, The Gold Bricks, Pain Strikes Underdog, From Hopeless to Helpless, Just in Case, RiffRaffville, The Vacuum Gun, movie\n\nRiff Raff is an anthropomorphic wolf gangster. He leads an unnamed gang that often carry out various crime waves until they are stopped by Underdog. In \"The Vacuum Gun,\" Riff Raff and his gang were among the criminals that were recruited by Simon Bar Sinister.\n\nIn the film, Riff Raff is redone as a Rottweiler bully who meets Shoeshine and he and his dog henchmen chase him around an alley in an attempt to eat him and he is found by Dan Unger and they run away and they meet again with Polly on the sidewalk. Around the end of the film, Shoeshine barks at him enough to remove some of his fur and they run away again for the last time. In contrast to his role as a major villain on the series, Riff Raff is portrayed as more of a comic relief minor villain.\n\nRiff Raff is voiced by Allen Swift impersonating George Raft in the cartoon. In the film, Riff Raff was voiced by Brad Garrett.\n\nRiff Raff's gang \n\nIn addition to some unnamed members, the following are members of Riff Raff's gang:\n\nDinah Mite \n\nAppearances: Whistler's Father\n\nDinah Mite is one of the criminals Riff Raff summoned in the episode \"Whistler's Father\". She is the best bomb-tosser in the crime business.\n\nMooch \n\nAppearances: The Great Gold Robbery, From Hopeless to Helpless, Riffraffville, Whistler's Father, Fearo, The Vacuum Gun, Pain Strikes Underdog\n\nMooch is the top gunman in Riff Raff's gang and is Riff Raff's right-hand man.\n\nHe is voiced by George S. Irving.\n\nNails the Carpenter \n\nAppearances: Just in Case\n\nNails the Carpenter is one of the new members of Riff Raff's gang. He rebuilt the sunken ship of Captain Kidd as part of Riff Raff's Ghost Ship plot.\n\nNeedles the Tailor \n\nAppearances: Just in Case\n\nNeedles the Tailor is one of the new members of Riff Raff's gang. He sewed a sail as part of Riff Raff's Ghost Ship plot.\n\nSandy the Safecracker \n\nAppearances: Whistler's Father, Riffraffville\n\nSandy the Safecracker is the best at breaking banks. He just opens safes with his fingers.\n\nSmitty the Blacksmith \n\nAppearances: Just in Case\n\nSmitty the Blacksmith is one of the new members of Riff Raff's gang. He hammered out an anchor as part of Riff Raff's Ghost Ship plot.\n\nVoiced by George S. Irving.\n\nSpinny Wheels \n\nAppearances: Whistler's Father, Riffraffville\n\nSpinny Wheels is the best getaway car driver in the crime business.\n\nWitch Doctor \n\nAppearances: Just in Case\n\nThe Witch Doctor is one of the new members of Riff Raff's gang. He was the disguised prisoner who went with Riff Raff during the prison break. When asked by Nails, Needles, and Smitty why they should bring him along during the prison break and give him a share of the loot, Riff Raff kept telling them \"Just in Case\". When Sweet Polly Purebread ends up captured during her infiltration, Riff Raff reveals the disguised prisoner to be a Witch Doctor. When Underdog arrives, the Witch Doctor puts Underdog under a voodoo spell which was instantly broken using the Super Energy Pill.\n\nVoiced by George S. Irving.\n\nOther villains \n\nBatty-Man \n\nAppearances: Batty-Man, The Vacuum Gun\n\nBatty-Man (voiced by Allen Swift) is a vampire villain who commands a massive army of Giant Bats and lives in Belfrey Castle.\n\nIn \"Batty-Man\", he and his batty army have caused a crime wave nationwide. Underdog, the police, and everyone in the country were baffled because of these crime waves. The crime wave was arranged to make Underdog powerless enough so Batty-Man can't be stopped from pulling the crime of the century. Soon, Underdog found out Batty-Man was the crook behind the crime wave after Sweet Polly was taken captive. Underdog had to rescue her and had to defeat Batty Man, but failed and was captured. Batty-Man later planned to steal all the gold in Fort Knox and use them to go to Europe, by turning the gold into bowling balls. Underdog and Polly escaped before they could get turned into bowling balls and stopped Batty Man and everything was returned to its rightful owners.\n\nBatty-Man was later freed from prison by Simon Bar Sinister. He, along with Riff Raff and Slippery Eel were enlisted to help Simon with his Vacuum Gun plan which Underdog later stopped.\n\nGeorgie \n\nGeorgie (voiced by George S. Irving) is Batty-Man's assistant.\n\nBubblehead Empire \n\nAppearances: The Bubbleheads\n\nThe Bubblehead Empire is a society of people who all wear air helmets and live under the sea, in the city of Maldemare. They command Sea Creatures to do their bidding and deal with their prisoners by feeding them to a Giant Clam. The city is ruled by the Bubblehead Emperor, who in turn, was ruled by the Bubblehead Empress.\n\nThe Empress was tired of living under the sea, so she wanted to take over the dry land. The Bubblehead Scientists worked to destroy the land, using earthquakes and volcanoes, but those two evil plans were foiled by Underdog. As a result, the two scientists were fed to the Giant Clam. The third evil plot was to use a machine creating a tidal wave powerful enough to destroy the Earth. Soon, everybody around the world was aware that something peculiar was happening to the ocean. Sweet Polly Purebread, with the aid from one of the world's leading scientists, Prof. Moby Von Ahab (name being a take-off on Captain Ahab and Moby Dick), investigated what was happening under the sea, but were eventually captured and tossed into the Giant Clam. Underdog got word that his friends were held captive, and rescued Sweet Polly and the Professor and destroyed the Tidal Wave machine.\n\nIrving and Ralph \n\nAppearances: Zot\n\nIrving and Ralph are a Two-Headed Dragon that are known as the legendary enemies in the community of the planet Zot. For every task they do, they do it with teamwork, as noted by the quote \"Teamwork! Teamwork! That's what counts!\". When they attacked while Underdog was to forcibly wed to Glissando, Princess of Zot, Underdog easily defeated them and they promised never to bother Zot's inhabitants again. Upon their defeat, Underdog was allowed to return home to Earth, knowing that he had helped Glissando find her future husband: Zot's prime minister.\n\nThe Magnet Men \n\nAppearances: The Magnet Men\n\nThe Magnet Men are evil people from another planet. Underdog defeats them when they make the Earth cold.\n\nThe Marbleheads \n\nAppearances: The Marbleheads\n\nThe Marbleheads are people made of marble. Captain Marblehead (voiced by Allen Swift) is the dictator of their planet. Captain Marblehead holds their most powerful weapon the Granite Gun that could turn anyone into solid stone and used it on Underdog but to Marblehead's shock he breaks free. Underdog defeats the Marbelheads and the Granite Gun and frees all the slaves.\n\nThe Molemen \n\nAppearances: The Molemen\n\nThe Molemen are an evil society of giant moles who live underground, led by the evil King Mange (voiced by Allen Swift) and plan to conquer the world by stealing all the food in the world, thus making everybody weak, sluggish and without energy. With this advantage, the Molemen and their ants would have no problem conquering the world.\n\nAs Sweet Polly was investigating the thefts, she was captured by King Mange, and Underdog was called to rescue her, but he was succumbed to the Mole-Hole Gun, the Molemen's secret weapon. Afterwards, he was captured. King Mange threatened to destroy Sweet Polly if Underdog didn't do what Mange said. Underdog got Polly free, and had the answer to everyone's energy problems. He filled every water reservoir in the world with his Super Energy Vitamin Pills, filling the water with tremendous energy. Soon after, the citizens had enough energy to escape the Molemen attack and the Army had the strength to fight. King Mange was eventually defeated and arrested.\n\nOvercat \n\nAppearances: Underdog vs. Overcat\n\nOvercat is a giant cat who was once the infamous ruler of the planet Felina. He is a bully and is very arrogant and he also has all of Underdog's powers. He is voiced by Allen Swift.\n\nOne day on Felina, the milk wells ran dry, so Overcat stole the cows from the Earth, kidnapped Sweet Polly Purebred, and forced her to milk the cows so the giant cats of Felina can have a lifetime supply of milk. After Underdog rescued Polly and the cows, Overcat challenged Underdog to a winner-takes-all fight. Unless Underdog fought Overcat, the giant cats of Felina would destroy the Earth. As Underdog fought Overcat, it appeared Overcat had the upper-hand, but due to Overcat's size and lack of speed, Underdog came out the victor. Underdog promised the giant cats of Felina to give them milk growing from coconut trees if the giant cats banished Overcat from Felina and let the other worlds live as they pleased. Underdog carried out the promise, and all the cats were happy, because with the coconut trees, the cats won't run out of milk. After being banished from Felina, Overcat swore he would find another planet to conquer and train harder to become stronger and one day return to Earth to wipe out Underdog.\n\nSlippery Eel (A.K.A. Electric Eel) \n\nAppearances: A New Villain, The Vacuum Gun\n\nSlippery Eel is one of the world's most dangerous criminals. He got the name Electric Eel after he was electrified by the gates of the prison's electric fence while he was trying to escape. After being electrified, he gained the power to control electricity.\n\nEel was the only villain who ever actually defeated Underdog, using his electrical powers and apparently killing Underdog. However, before he \"died\", Underdog requested that he not be thrown into the lake. Eel, being the villain that he was, naturally decided to throw Underdog into the lake – which drained the electricity from Underdog's body and restored him to \"life\", whereupon he polished off Eel and his gang and thus ensuring Eel is imprisoned in a glass prison.\n\nIn \"The Vacuum Gun,\" Electric Eel and his gang were recruited by Simon Bar Sinister when he found his sewer hideout.\n\nTap-Tap the Chiseler \n\nAppearances: From Hopeless to Helpless, Tricky-Trap by Tap-Tap\n\nTap-Tap the Chiseler is a criminal that chisels jewelry, making them into smaller pieces of jewelry. He bears an amazing resemblance to Underdog, and Tap-Tap can use this advantage to impersonate Underdog. He also seems to be close friends with Riff Raff. He is voiced by George S. Irving.\n\nIn \"From Hopeless to Helpless\", after Riff Raff stole the Hopeless Diamond, Tap-Tap was hired to help break apart the Hopeless Diamond so Riff Raff could sell it and impersonate Underdog to pull crimes all over town. Everyone, including Sweet Polly (this is the only episode in the series where even she assumed the worst about Underdog due to her being fooled by Tap-Tap and mistaking him as Underdog after he snatched her purse), thought Underdog turned to crime and he was sent to jail. Tap-Tap pulled the crimes so excellently, even Underdog was convinced he was guilty, believing he sleepwalked when the crimes were pulled. Riff Raff needed Underdog to break the Hopeless Diamond into a million pieces when Tap-Tap failed to cut it, so, they broke Underdog out of jail and told Underdog that Tap-Tap imitated him. Now knowing that Tap-Tap has been responsible for the crimes that were pulled against him, Underdog pretended to turn to crime, and when he finally retrieved the Hopeless Diamond from Riff-Raff, Mooch and Tap-Tap, he apprehended them and explained to the townspeople, including Sweet Polly, how Tap-Tap imitated him and framed him for the crimes. And so, the townspeople apologized to Underdog for the misunderstanding, and prior to the episode \"Tricky-Trap by Tap-Tap\", Tap-Tap was sent to prison.\n\nAt that point, Tap-Tap disguised himself as Underdog and broke out of jail on the same day Underdog was visiting the prison. His plan was to purchase a bomb from a bomb factory and borrow a policeman's handcuffs. He used the handcuffs to cuff himself to Sweet Polly, and used the bomb to blow himself and Polly to bits if Underdog didn't do what he said. Underdog stopped him by melting the handcuffs with his super vision, then tackling Tap-Tap, accidentally detonating the bomb in the process. Underdog was unharmed, while Tap-Tap was left singed and dazed.\n\nWicked Witch of Pickyoon \n\nAppearances: The Witch of Pickyoon\n\nThe Wicked Witch of Pickyoon is an evil witch who rules over the strange land of the Pickyoons and has enslaved all who inhabit the lands. She lives in a castle in the mountains of Pickyoon.\n\nShe wishes to be the most powerful being in all of Pickyoon, that is, until Underdog came. She planned to capture Sweet Polly and put Underdog in her power. She put a spell on Sweet Polly, causing her to fall asleep for 1000 Years. The Witch was the only one who knew how to break the spell (although, everybody knows the only way to break a spell is as if the hero kisses someone under the spell). If she was going to tell Underdog how to undo the spell, she forced him to perform three tasks: steal water and diamonds and help her assemble and army to conquer the world. Unless Underdog helped the Witch with those tasks, she would not break the spell that was cast on Sweet Polly. Underdog refused to accomplish the tasks, for it would make him as wicked as the Witch. But every time Underdog refused to do the tasks, the Witch reminded him that Polly would sleep for 1000 years unless he did what she said. Underdog struck water by burrowing through the depths of Pickyoon and made diamonds out of coal, and all that was left was to help the Witch conquer the world. When Underdog refused to perform the final task, he eventually got into a fight with the Witch. After the fight, the Witch disappeared forever after Underdog destroyed her broom. After destroying the Witch, Underdog awakened Polly with a kiss and the people of Pickyoon were freed from the Witch's grasp.\n\nZorm \n\nAppearances: Round and Round\n\nZorm is the ruler of a strange planet. He plans to take over the world, but in order to do that, he intends to keep Underdog from interfering. He sent Cron, one of his henchmen, to Earth. He put a charm around Underdog's neck, causing him to fall under his dizzy spell when he is standing.\n\nReformed villains \n\nThe Cloud Men \n\nAppearances: The Silver Thieves\n\nThe Cloud Men are a race of ghost-like creatures. They live on the Planet Cumulus and are led by King Cumulus Regulus (voiced by Allen Swift). When people \"interfere with them\" by \"attacking them,\" they lightning jolt them. They steal all the silver on Earth, including Underdog's ring, because all clouds need a silver lining. When Underdog and Sweet Polly head for a conveyor belt, Underdog finds his ring and takes the Underdog energy vitamin pill. Underdog defeats the Cloudmen. In the end, the Cloud Men trade gold for silver with the Earth.\n\nThe Flying Sorcerers \n\nAppearances: The Flying Sorcerers\n\nThe Flying Sorcerers are a strange alien race led by King Cup (voiced by Allen Swift).\n\nKing Cup sent his twin sons Prince Brac and Prince Bric to find someone who can bake a cake for his people after the old baker was fired for his cake not being good. The first two baking slaves they found upon King Cup firing a dart at three possible planets were a Magnet Man and an inhabitant of Zot, but they couldn't bake a cake that tasted like cake (though the Magnet Man's cake was made of metal) and were imprisoned. Then, they found Sweet Polly to be their new baking slave. Before Underdog could rescue her, Bric and Brac transformed him into a bouncing ball. Sweet Polly was forced to bake 500 cakes for the Flying Sorcerers, but her weariness from baking the other cakes made her fall into the giant mixing bowl she was using to make 500 cakes. Underdog freed himself from Bric and Brac's spell and defeated the Flying Sorcerers. At first, King Cup was upset that Underdog was bringing his baking slave home, but after vowing he wouldn't abuse others again, he received one of Sweet Polly's cake recipes so he can make a cake for his people.\n\nOther characters \n\nHelen Patterson \n\nAppearances: Movie\n\nHelen Patterson is the Principal of Molly and Jack's school.\n\nShe is portrayed by Samantha Bee." ] }

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{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe", "TagMe", "Search" ], "filename": [ "Franklin_D._Roosevelt.txt", "Infamy_Speech.txt", "Attack_on_Pearl_Harbor.txt" ], "title": [ "Franklin D. Roosevelt", "Infamy Speech", "Attack on Pearl Harbor" ], "wiki_context": [ "Franklin Delano Roosevelt (, his own pronunciation, or; January 30, 1882 – April 12, 1945), commonly known as FDR, was an American statesman and political leader who served as the President of the United States from 1933 to 1945. A Democrat, he won a record four presidential elections and dominated his party after 1932 as a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic depression and total war. His program for relief, recovery and reform, known as the New Deal, involved a great expansion of the role of the federal government in the economy. As a dominant leader of the Democratic Party, he built the New Deal Coalition that brought together and united labor unions, big city machines, white ethnics, African Americans, and rural white Southerners in support of the party. The Coalition significantly realigned American politics after 1932, creating the Fifth Party System and defining American liberalism throughout the middle third of the 20th century.\n\nRoosevelt was born in 1882, to an old, prominent Dutch family from Dutchess County, New York. He attended the elite educational institutions of Groton School and Harvard College. At age 23, in 1905, he married Eleanor Roosevelt, with whom he had six children. He entered politics in 1910, serving in the New York State Senate, and then as Assistant Secretary of the Navy under President Woodrow Wilson. In 1920, Roosevelt ran for vice president with presidential candidate James M. Cox, but the Cox/Roosevelt ticket lost to the Republican ticket of Warren Harding and Calvin Coolidge. Roosevelt was stricken with debilitating polio in 1921, which cost him the use of his legs and put his future political career in jeopardy, but he attempted to recover from the illness, and founded the treatment center for people with polio in Warm Springs, Georgia. After returning to political life by placing Alfred E. Smith's name into nomination at the 1924 Democratic National Convention, Roosevelt, at Smith's behest, successfully ran for Governor of New York in 1928. In office from 1929 to 1933, he served as a reform governor promoting the enactment of programs to combat the Great Depression besetting the United States at the time.\n\nIn 1932, in the depths of the Great Depression, Roosevelt successfully defeated incumbent Republican president Herbert Hoover to win the presidency of the United States. Having been energized by his personal victory over his polio, FDR relied on his persistent optimism and activism to renew the national spirit. In his first hundred days in office, which began March 4, 1933, Roosevelt spearheaded unprecedented major legislation and issued a profusion of executive orders that instituted the New Deal—a variety of programs designed to produce relief (government jobs for the unemployed), recovery (economic growth), and reform (through regulation of Wall Street, banks and transportation). He created numerous programs to support the unemployed and farmers, and to encourage labor union growth while more closely regulating business and high finance. The repeal of Prohibition in 1933 added to his popularity, helping him win re-election by a landslide in 1936. The economy improved rapidly from 1933 to 1937, but then relapsed into a deep recession in 1937–38. The bipartisan Conservative Coalition that formed in 1937 prevented his packing the Supreme Court, and blocked almost all proposals for major liberal legislation (except the minimum wage, which did pass). When the war began and unemployment ended, conservatives in Congress repealed the two major relief programs, the WPA and CCC. However, they kept most of the regulations on business. Along with several smaller programs, major surviving programs include the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Wagner Act, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and Social Security.\n\nAs World War II loomed after 1938, with the Japanese invasion of China and the aggression of Nazi Germany, Roosevelt gave strong diplomatic and financial support to China and the United Kingdom, while remaining officially neutral. His goal was to make America the \"Arsenal of Democracy\", which would supply munitions to the Allies. In March 1941, Roosevelt, with Congressional approval, provided Lend-Lease aid to Britain and China. Following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, which he called \"a date which will live in infamy\", Roosevelt sought and obtained the quick approval, on December 8, of the United States Congress to declare war on Japan and, a few days later, on Germany. (Hitler had already declared war on the US in support of Japan). Assisted by his top aide Harry Hopkins, and with very strong national support, he worked closely with British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, Soviet leader Joseph Stalin and Chinese Generalissimo Chiang Kai-Shek in leading the Allies against Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy and Imperial Japan in World War II. He supervised the mobilization of the U.S. economy to support the war effort, and also ordered the internment of 100,000 Japanese American civilians. As an active military leader, Roosevelt implemented a war strategy on two fronts that ended in the defeat of the Axis Powers and the development of the world's first nuclear bomb. His work also influenced the later creation of the United Nations and Bretton Woods. During the war, unemployment dropped to 2%, relief programs largely ended, and the industrial economy grew rapidly to new heights as millions of people moved to wartime factory jobs or entered military service. Roosevelt's health seriously declined during the war years, and he died three months into his fourth term. He is often rated by scholars as one of the top three U.S. Presidents, along with Abraham Lincoln and George Washington. \n\nPersonal life\n\nEarly life and education\n\nOne of the oldest Dutch families in New York State, the Roosevelts distinguished themselves in areas other than politics. One ancestor, Isaac Roosevelt, had served with the New York militia during the American Revolution. Roosevelt attended events of the New York society Sons of the American Revolution, and joined the organization while he was president. His paternal family had become prosperous early on in New York real estate and trade, and much of his immediate family's wealth had been built by FDR's maternal grandfather, Warren Delano, Jr., in the China trade, including opium and tea.\n \nRoosevelt was born on January 30, 1882, in the Hudson Valley town of Hyde Park, New York to businessman James Roosevelt I (1828–1900) and Sara Ann Delano (1854–1941). His parents were sixth cousins and both were from wealthy old New York families. They were of mostly English descent; Roosevelt's patrilineal great-grandfather, Jacobus Roosevelt III, was of Dutch ancestry, and his mother's maiden name, Delano, could be traced to a French Huguenot immigrant ancestor of the 17th century. Their only child was to have been named Warren, but Sara's infant nephew of that name had recently died. Their son was named for Sara's uncle Franklin Hughes Delano.\n\nRoosevelt grew up in an atmosphere of privilege. (Reportedly, when James Roosevelt took his five-year-old son to visit President Grover Cleveland in the White House, the busy president told Franklin, \"I have one wish for you, little man, that you will never be President of the United States.\") Sara was a possessive mother; James, 54 when Franklin was born, was considered by some as a remote father, though biographer James MacGregor Burns indicates James interacted with his son more than was typical at the time. Sara was the dominant influence in Franklin's early years; she once declared, \"My son Franklin is a Delano, not a Roosevelt at all.\" Frequent trips to Europe—he made his first at the age of two, and went with his parents every year from the ages of seven to 15—helped Roosevelt become conversant in German and French; being arrested with his tutor by police four times in one day in the Black Forest for minor offenses may have affected the future president's view of German character. He learned to ride, shoot, row, and play polo and lawn tennis. Roosevelt also took up golf in his teen years, becoming a skilled long hitter. He learned to sail, and his father gave him a sailboat at the age of 16 which he named \"New Moon\".\n\nRoosevelt attended Groton School, an Episcopal boarding school in Massachusetts; 90% of the students were from families on the social register. He was strongly influenced by its headmaster, Endicott Peabody, who preached the duty of Christians to help the less fortunate and urged his students to enter public service. Forty years later Roosevelt said of Peabody, \"It was a blessing in my life to have the privilege of [his] guiding hand\", and the headmaster remained a strong influence throughout his life, officiating at his wedding and visiting Roosevelt as president. Peabody recalled Roosevelt as \"a quiet, satisfactory boy of more than ordinary intelligence, taking a good position in his form but not brilliant\", while a classmate described Roosevelt as \"nice, but completely colorless\"; an average student, he only stood out in being the only Democratic student, continuing the political tradition of his side of the Roosevelt family. Roosevelt remained consistent in his politics; immediately after his fourth election to the presidency, he defined his domestic policy as \"a little left of center\". \n\nLike all but two of his 21 Groton classmates, Roosevelt went to Harvard College, where he lived in a suite which is now part of Adams House, in the \"Gold Coast\" area populated by wealthy students. Again an average student academically, Roosevelt later declared, \"I took economics courses in college for four years, and everything I was taught was wrong.\" He was a member of the Alpha Delta Phi fraternity and the Fly Club. While undistinguished as a student or athlete, he became editor-in-chief of The Harvard Crimson daily newspaper, a position which required great ambition, energy, and ability to manage others. While he was at Harvard, his fifth cousin Theodore \"T. R.\" Roosevelt, Jr. (1858–1919) became President of the United States; his vigorous leadership style and reforming zeal made him Franklin's role model and hero. The younger Roosevelt remained a Democrat, campaigning for Theodore's opponent William Jennings Bryan. In mid-1902, Franklin was formally introduced to his future wife Anna Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962), Theodore's niece, on a train to Tivoli, New York, although they had met briefly as children. Eleanor and Franklin were fifth cousins, once removed. She was the daughter of Elliott Bulloch Roosevelt (1860–94) and Anna Rebecca Hall (1863–92) of the Livingston family. At the time of their engagement, Roosevelt was twenty-two and Eleanor nineteen. Roosevelt graduated from Harvard in 1903 with an A.B. in history. He later received an honorary LL.D. from Harvard in 1929. \n\nRoosevelt entered Columbia Law School in 1904, dropping out in 1907 after passing the New York State Bar exam. He later received a posthumous J.D. from Columbia Law School. In 1908, he took a job with the prestigious Wall Street firm of Carter Ledyard & Milburn, dealing mainly with corporate law. He was first initiated in the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and was initiated into Freemasonry on October 11, 1911, at Holland Lodge No. 8, New York City. \n\nMarriage and affairs\n\nOn March 17, 1905, Roosevelt married Eleanor in New York City, despite the fierce resistance of his mother; he was 23 and she was 21. While she did not dislike Eleanor, Sara Roosevelt was very possessive of her son; believing he was too young, she several times attempted to break the engagement. Eleanor's uncle, President Theodore Roosevelt, stood in at the wedding for Eleanor's deceased father Elliott, as Eleanor was his favorite niece. (Eleanor had lost both parents by age ten.)\n\nThe young couple moved into Springwood, his family's estate at Hyde Park, where Roosevelt's mother became a frequent house guest, much to Eleanor's chagrin. The home was owned by Roosevelt's mother until her death in 1941 and was very much her home as well. In addition, Franklin Roosevelt and his mother Sara did the planning and furnishing of a town house she had built for the young couple in New York City; she had a twin house built alongside, with connections on every floor. Eleanor never felt it was her house.\n\nBiographer James MacGregor Burns says young Roosevelt was self-assured and at ease in the upper class. In contrast, Eleanor at the time was shy and disliked social life, and at first stayed at home to raise their several children. Although Eleanor had an aversion to sexual intercourse, and considered it \"an ordeal to be endured\", they had six children, the first four in rapid succession:\n* Anna Eleanor Roosevelt (May 3, 1906 – December 1, 1975)\n* James Roosevelt II (December 23, 1907 – August 13, 1991)\n* Franklin Roosevelt (March 18, 1909 – November 7, 1909)\n* Elliott Roosevelt (September 23, 1910 – October 27, 1990)\n* Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Jr. (August 17, 1914 – August 17, 1988)\n* John Aspinwall Roosevelt II (March 13, 1916 – April 27, 1981)\n\nRoosevelt liked fatherhood, and the parents suffered greatly when their third child, named for Franklin, died of heart disease in infancy in 1909. Eleanor soon was pregnant again and gave birth to another son, Elliott, less than a year later. The fifth child and fourth son, born in 1914, was also named for Franklin. Their sixth child, John, was their fifth son.\n\nRoosevelt had extra-marital affairs, including one with Eleanor's social secretary Lucy Mercer, which began soon after she was hired in early 1914. In September 1918, Eleanor found letters revealing the affair in Roosevelt's luggage, when he returned from World War I. Franklin had contemplated divorcing Eleanor, but Lucy would not agree to marry a divorced man with five children. Franklin and Eleanor remained married, and FDR promised never to see Lucy again. Eleanor never truly forgave him, and their marriage from that point on was more of a political partnership. His mother Sara told Franklin that if he divorced his wife, it would bring scandal upon the family, and she \"would not give him another dollar.\"\n\nFranklin broke his promise to Eleanor. He and Lucy maintained a formal correspondence, and began seeing each other again in 1941, perhaps earlier. The Secret Service gave Lucy the code name \"Mrs. Johnson\" . Lucy was with FDR on the day he died. Despite this, FDR's affair was not widely known until the 1960s. Roosevelt's son Elliott said that Franklin also had a 20-year affair with his private secretary Marguerite \"Missy\" LeHand. Another son, James, stated that \"there is a real possibility that a romantic relationship existed\" between his father and Princess Märtha of Sweden, who resided in the White House during part of World War II. Aides began to refer to her at the time as \"the president's girlfriend\", and gossip linking the two romantically appeared in the newspapers.\n\nThe effect of these flirtations or affairs upon Eleanor Roosevelt is difficult to estimate. \"I have the memory of an elephant. I can forgive, but I cannot forget,\" she wrote to a close friend. After the Lucy Mercer affair, any remaining intimacy left their relationship. Eleanor soon thereafter established a separate house in Hyde Park at Val-Kill, and increasingly devoted herself to various social and political causes independently of her husband. The emotional break in their marriage was so severe that when Roosevelt asked Eleanor in 1942—in light of his failing health—to come back home and live with him again, she refused. He was not always aware of when she visited the White House, and for some time she could not easily reach him on the telephone without his secretary's help; he, in turn, did not visit her New York City apartment until late 1944.\n\nWhen Roosevelt was President, his dog, Fala, also became well known as his companion during his time in the White House. Fala was called the \"most photographed dog in the world.\" \n\nFile:Springwood Home of FDR August 2012.jpg|The birthplace of FDR at Springwood.\nFile:Fdrwithparents.jpg|Roosevelt sailing with half-niece Helen and father James, 1899.\nFile:ER FDR Camobello 1904 crop.jpg|Franklin and Eleanor at Campobello Island, Canada, in 1904.\nFile:Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Statues.JPG|Franklin and Eleanor Statues at FDR National Historic Site in Hyde Park, New York.\nFile:Franklin D. Roosevelt, James R. Roosevelt, Jr, and Helen R. Roosevelt in Bicester, England - NARA - 196561.jpg|Franklin (left) with nephew Tadd (middle) and niece Helen (right) in January 1889.\n\nEarly political career\n\nState senator and Tammany antagonist\n\nIn the state election of 1910, Roosevelt ran for the New York State Senate from the district around Hyde Park in Dutchess County, which was strongly Republican, having elected one Democrat since 1856. The local party chose him as a paper candidate because his Republican cousin Theodore was still one of the country's most prominent politicians, and a Democratic Roosevelt was good publicity; the candidate could also pay for his own campaign. Surprising almost everyone, due to his aggressive and effective campaign, the Roosevelt name's influence in the Hudson Valley, and the Democratic landslide that year, Roosevelt won the election.\n\nTaking his seat on January 1, 1911, Roosevelt immediately became the leader of a group of \"Insurgents\" who opposed the bossism of the Tammany machine dominating the state Democratic Party. The U.S. Senate election, which began with the Democratic caucus on January 16, 1911, was deadlocked by the struggle of the two factions for 74 days, as the new legislator endured what a biographer later described as \"the full might of Tammany\" behind its choice, William F. Sheehan. (Popular election of US Senators did not occur until after a constitutional amendment.) On March 31 compromise candidate James A. O'Gorman was elected, giving Roosevelt national exposure and some experience in political tactics and intrigue; one Tammany leader warned that Roosevelt should be eliminated immediately, before he disrupted Democrats as much as his cousin disrupted the Republicans. Roosevelt soon became a popular figure among New York Democrats, though he had not as yet become an eloquent speaker. News articles and cartoons began depicting \"the second coming of a Roosevelt\" that sent \"cold shivers down the spine of Tammany\".\n\nDespite a bout of typhoid fever, and thanks to the help of Louis McHenry Howe who ran his campaign, Roosevelt was re-elected for a second term in the state election of 1912, and served as chairman of the Agriculture Committee. His success with farm and labor bills was a precursor to his New Deal policies twenty years later. By this time he had become more consistently progressive, in support of labor and social welfare programs for women and children; cousin Theodore was of some influence on these issues. Roosevelt, again in opposition to Tammany Hall, supported southerner Woodrow Wilson's successful bid in the 1912 presidential election, and thereby earned an informal designation as an original Wilson man.\n\nAssistant Secretary of the Navy\n\nRoosevelt's support of Wilson led to his appointment in 1913 as Assistant Secretary of the Navy under Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels. Roosevelt had a lifelong affection for the Navy—he had already collected almost 10,000 naval books and claimed to have read all but one—and was more ardent than his boss Daniels in supporting a large and efficient naval force. As assistant secretary, Roosevelt worked to expand the Navy and founded the United States Navy Reserve. Against reactionary older officers such as Admiral William Bensonwho claimed he could not \"conceive of any use the fleet will ever have for aviation\"Roosevelt personally ordered the preservation of the navy's Aviation Division after the war, despite publicly opining that Billy Mitchell's warnings of bombs capable of sinking battleships were \"pernicious\". Roosevelt negotiated with Congressional leaders and other government departments to get budgets approved. He opposed the Taylor \"stop-watch\" system, which was hailed by shipbuilding managers but opposed by the unions. Not a single union strike occurred during his seven-plus years in the office, during which Roosevelt gained experience in labor issues, government management during wartime, naval issues, and logistics, all valuable areas for future office.\n\nRoosevelt was still relatively obscure, but his friends were already speaking of him as a future president; he reportedly began talking about being elected to the presidency as early as 1907. In 1914, Roosevelt made an ill-conceived decision to run for the U.S. Senate seat for New York. The decision was doomed for lack of Wilson administration backing. He was determined to take on Tammany again at a time when Wilson needed them to help marshal his legislation and secure his future re-election. He was soundly defeated in the Democratic primary election for the United States Senate by Tammany Hall-backed James W. Gerard, by a margin of 3-to-1. Roosevelt learned a valuable lesson, that federal patronage alone, without White House support, could not defeat a strong local organization.\n\nIn March 1917, after Germany initiated its submarine warfare campaign, Roosevelt asked Wilson for permission, which was denied, to fit the naval fleet out for war. He became an enthusiastic advocate of the submarine and of means to combat the German submarine menace to Allied shipping: he proposed building a mine barrier across the North Sea from Norway to Scotland. In 1918, he visited Scotland, England, Wales, and France to inspect American naval facilities. Roosevelt wanted to provide arms to the merchant marine; knowing that a sale of arms was prohibited, he asked Wilson for approval to lease the arms to the mariners. Wilson ultimately approved this by executive order, and a precedent was set for Roosevelt to take similar action in 1940.\n\nDuring these war years, Roosevelt worked to make peace with the Tammany Hall forces, and in 1918 the group supported others in an unsuccessful attempt to persuade him to run for governor of New York. He very much wanted to get into a military uniform, but the armistice took shape before this could materialize; Wilson reportedly ordered Roosevelt to not resign. With the end of World War I in November 1918, Roosevelt was in charge of demobilization, although he opposed plans to completely dismantle the Navy.\n\nIn 1918, Roosevelt was sickened during the 1918 flu pandemic, and survived. In 1919, newspapers in Newport, Rhode Island criticized Roosevelt over his handling of what came to be known as the Newport sex scandal. Much more threatening was the fact that Roosevelt and his wife, then living in Washington, D.C. across the street from Attorney General Alexander Mitchell Palmer, narrowly missed becoming casualties of an anarchist's bomb that exploded at Palmer's house, which they had walked past just minutes before. Their own residence was close enough that one of the bomber's body parts landed on their doorstep.\n\nCampaign for Vice President\n\nThe 1920 Democratic National Convention chose Roosevelt by acclamation as the vice-presidential candidate with its presidential candidate, Governor James M. Cox of Ohio. Although his nomination surprised most people, Roosevelt was considered as bringing balance to the ticket as a moderate, a Wilsonian, and a prohibitionist with a famous name. Roosevelt had just turned 38, four years younger than Theodore had been when he received the same nomination from his party. The Cox-Roosevelt ticket was defeated by Republicans Warren G. Harding and Calvin Coolidge in the presidential election by a wide margin. Roosevelt returned to New York to practice law and joined the newly organized New York Civitan Club. \n\nPolio\n\nIn August 1921, while the Roosevelts were vacationing at Campobello Island, New Brunswick, Canada, Roosevelt fell ill and was diagnosed with polio. It left him with permanent paralysis from the waist down. Following the illness, Roosevelt remained out of the public eye for several years, turning his attention away from politics and toward his legal practice. For the rest of his life, Roosevelt refused to accept that he was permanently paralyzed. He tried a wide range of therapies, including hydrotherapy. In 1926, he purchased a resort at Warm Springs, Georgia, where he founded a hydrotherapy center for the treatment of polio patients; it still operates as the Roosevelt Warm Springs Institute for Rehabilitation. In 1938, FDR founded the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis, now known as the March of Dimes. \n\nAt the time, Roosevelt convinced many people that he was improving, which he believed to be essential prior to running for public office again. He laboriously taught himself to walk short distances while wearing iron braces on his hips and legs by swiveling his torso, supporting himself with a cane. He was careful never to be seen using his wheelchair in public, and great care was taken to prevent any portrayal in the press that would highlight his disability. Few photographs of FDR in his wheelchair are known; they include two taken by his cousin and confidante Margaret Suckley, another taken by a sailor aboard the USS Indianapolis in 1933, and another published in a 1937 issue of Life magazine. Film clips of the \"walk\" he achieved after his illness are equally rare. He usually appeared in public standing upright, supported on one side by an aide or one of his sons. FDR used a car with specially designed hand controls, providing him further mobility. \n\nA 2003 retrospective diagnosis of Roosevelt's paralytic illness favored Guillain–Barré syndrome rather than polio, a conclusion criticized by other researchers.\n\nGovernor of New York (1929–32)\n\nRoosevelt maintained contacts and mended fences with the Democratic Party during the 1920s, especially in New York. Although he initially had made his name as an opponent of New York City's Tammany Hall machine, Roosevelt moderated his stance against that group as well. He helped Alfred E. Smith win the election for governor of New York in 1922, and in 1924 was a strong supporter of Smith against his cousin, Republican Theodore Roosevelt, Jr. Roosevelt gave nominating speeches for Smith at the 1924 and 1928 Democratic conventions; the speech at the 1924 election marked a return to public life following his illness and convalescence.\n\nAs the Democratic Party presidential nominee in the 1928 election, Smith in turn asked Roosevelt to run for governor in the state election. Roosevelt was nominated by the Democrats by acclamation. While Smith lost the Presidency in a landslide, and was defeated in his home state, Roosevelt was narrowly elected governor, by a one-percent margin. As a reform governor, he established a number of new social programs, and was advised by Frances Perkins and Harry Hopkins. In April 1929, a bomb was found addressed to him at the Albany, New York post office. A porter kicked the package, causing the fuse to sputter. The device was dropped in a pail of water where it failed to go off.\n\nIn May 1930, as he began his run for a second term, Roosevelt reiterated his doctrine from the campaign two years before: \"that progressive government by its very terms, must be a living and growing thing, that the battle for it is never ending and that if we let up for one single moment or one single year, not merely do we stand still but we fall back in the march of civilization.\" In this campaign for re-election, Roosevelt needed the good will of the Tammany Hall machine in New York City to succeed; but, his Republican opponent, Charles H. Tuttle, used Roosevelt's connection with Tammany Hall's corruption as an election issue. As the election approached, Roosevelt began preemptive efforts by initiating investigations of the sale of judicial offices. He was directly involved, as he had made a routine short-term court appointment of a Tammany Hall man who was alleged to have paid Tammany $30,000 for the position. His Republican opponent could not overcome the public's criticism of the Republican Party for current economic distress in the Great Depression, and Roosevelt was elected to a second term by a margin of fourteen percent.\n\n1932 presidential election\n\nRoosevelt's strong base in the most populous state made him an obvious candidate for the Democratic nomination, which was hotly contested in light of incumbent Herbert Hoover's vulnerability. Al Smith was supported by some city bosses, but had lost control of the New York Democratic party to Roosevelt. Roosevelt built his own national coalition with personal allies such as newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst, Irish leader Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr., and California leader William Gibbs McAdoo. When Texas leader John Nance Garner announced his support of FDR, he was given the vice-presidential nomination.\n\nBreaking with tradition of the time, Roosevelt traveled to Chicago to accept the nomination in person. In his acceptance speech, Roosevelt declared, \"I pledge you, I pledge myself to a new deal for the American people... This is more than a political campaign. It is a call to arms.\" The election campaign was conducted under the shadow of the Great Depression in the United States, and the new alliances which it created. Roosevelt and the Democratic Party mobilized the expanded ranks of the poor as well as organized labor, ethnic minorities, urbanites, and Southern whites, crafting the New Deal coalition. At that time, African Americans in the South were still disfranchised, as they had been since the turn of the century. Southern states had passed a variety of requirements making voter registration more difficult, which served to exclude most blacks and many poor whites from the political system.\n\nEconomist Marriner Eccles observed that \"given later developments, the campaign speeches often read like a giant misprint, in which Roosevelt and Hoover speak each other's lines.\" Roosevelt denounced Hoover's failures to restore prosperity or halt the downward slide, and he ridiculed Hoover's huge deficits. Roosevelt campaigned on the Democratic platform advocating \"immediate and drastic reductions of all public expenditures,\" \"abolishing useless commissions and offices, consolidating departments and bureaus, and eliminating extravagances\" and for a \"sound currency to be maintained at all hazards.\" On September 23, Roosevelt made the gloomy evaluation that, \"Our industrial plant is built; the problem just now is whether under existing conditions it is not overbuilt. Our last frontier has long since been reached.\" Hoover damned that pessimism as a denial of \"the promise of American life... the counsel of despair.\" The prohibition issue solidified the \"wet vote\" for Roosevelt, who noted that repeal would bring in new tax revenues.\n\nRoosevelt won 57 percent of the vote and carried all but six states. Historians and political scientists consider the 1932–36 elections a realigning election that created a new majority coalition for the Democrats, made up of organized labor, northern blacks, and ethnic Americans such as Italian-Americans, Polish-Americans and Jews. This transformed American politics and started what is called the \"New Deal Party System\" or (by political scientists) the Fifth Party System. \n\nAfter the election, Roosevelt refused Hoover's requests for a meeting to develop a joint program to stop the downward spiral and calm investors, claiming publicly it would tie his hands, and that Hoover had all the power to act if necessary. Unofficially, he told reporters that \"it is not my baby\". The economy spiraled downward until the banking system began a complete nationwide shutdown as Hoover's term ended. In February 1933, Roosevelt escaped an assassination attempt. Giuseppe Zangara, who expressed a \"hate for all rulers,\" attempted to shoot Roosevelt. He shot and killed Chicago Mayor Anton Cermak who was sitting alongside Roosevelt, but his attempt to murder Roosevelt failed when an alert spectator, Lillian Cross, hit his arm with her purse and deflected the bullet. Roosevelt leaned heavily on his \"Brain Trust\" of academic advisers, especially Raymond Moley, when designing his policies; he offered cabinet positions to numerous candidates, but some declined. The cabinet member with the strongest independent base was Cordell Hull at State. William Hartman Woodin – at Treasury – was soon replaced by the much more powerful Henry Morgenthau, Jr.\n\nPresidency (1933–45)\n\nRoosevelt appointed powerful men to top positions but made certain he made all the major decisions, regardless of delays, inefficiency or resentment. Analyzing the president's administrative style, historian James MacGregor Burns concludes:\nThe president stayed in charge of his administration...by drawing fully on his formal and informal powers as Chief Executive; by raising goals, creating momentum, inspiring a personal loyalty, getting the best out of people...by deliberately fostering among his aides a sense of competition and a clash of wills that led to disarray, heartbreak, and anger but also set off pulses of executive energy and sparks of creativity...by handing out one job to several men and several jobs to one man, thus strengthening his own position as a court of appeals, as a depository of information, and as a tool of co-ordination; by ignoring or bypassing collective decision-making agencies, such as the Cabinet...and always by persuading, flattering, juggling, improvising, reshuffling, harmonizing, conciliating, manipulating. \n\nFirst term, 1933–37\n\nWhen Roosevelt was inaugurated March 4, 1933, the U.S. was at the nadir of the worst depression in its history. A quarter of the workforce was unemployed. Farmers were in deep trouble as prices fell by 60%. Industrial production had fallen by more than half since 1929. Two million people were homeless. By the evening of March 4, 32 of the 48 states – as well as the District of Columbia – had closed their banks. The New York Federal Reserve Bank was unable to open on the 5th, as huge sums had been withdrawn by panicky customers in previous days. Beginning with his inauguration address, Roosevelt began blaming the economic crisis on bankers and financiers, the quest for profit, and the self-interest basis of capitalism:\n\nHistorians categorized Roosevelt's program as \"relief, recovery and reform.\" Relief was urgently needed by tens of millions of unemployed. Recovery meant boosting the economy back to normal. Reform meant long-term fixes of what was wrong, especially with the financial and banking systems. Through Roosevelt's series of radio talks, known as fireside chats, he presented his proposals directly to the American public. In 1934, FDR paid a visit to retired Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, who mused about the President: \"A second class intellect. But a first class temperament.\"\n\nFirst New Deal, 1933–34\n\nRoosevelt's \"First 100 Days\" concentrated on the first part of his strategy: immediate relief. From March 9 to June 16, 1933, he sent Congress a record number of bills, all of which passed easily. To propose programs, Roosevelt relied on leading Senators such as George Norris, Robert F. Wagner, and Hugo Black, as well as his Brain Trust of academic advisers. Like Hoover, he saw the Depression caused in part by people no longer spending or investing because they were afraid.\n\nRoosevelt's inauguration on March 4, 1933, occurred in the middle of a bank panic, hence the backdrop for his famous words: \"The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.\" The very next day he declared a \"bank holiday\" and called for a special session of Congress to start March 9, at which Congress passed the Emergency Banking Act. This was his first proposed step to recovery. To give Americans confidence in the banks, Roosevelt signed the Glass–Steagall Act that created the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) to underwrite savings deposits.\n\nRelief measures included the continuation of Hoover's major relief program for the unemployed under its new name: Federal Emergency Relief Administration. The most popular of all New Deal agencies – and Roosevelt's favorite – was the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), which hired 250,000 unemployed young men to work on rural local projects.\n\nCongress also gave the Federal Trade Commission broad new regulatory powers and provided mortgage relief to millions of farmers and homeowners. Roosevelt expanded a Hoover agency, the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, making it a major source of financing for railroads and industry. Roosevelt made agricultural relief a high priority and set up the first Agricultural Adjustment Administration (AAA). The AAA tried to force higher prices for commodities by paying farmers to take land out of crops and to cut herds.\n\nReform of the economy was the goal of the National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA) of 1933. It tried to end cutthroat competition by forcing industries to come up with codes that established the rules of operation for all firms within specific industries, such as minimum prices, agreements not to compete, and production restrictions. Industry leaders negotiated the codes which were approved by NIRA officials. Industry needed to raise wages as a condition for approval. Provisions encouraged unions and suspended anti-trust laws. The NIRA was found to be unconstitutional by unanimous decision of the US Supreme Court on May 27, 1935. Roosevelt opposed the decision, saying, \"The fundamental purposes and principles of the NIRA are sound. To abandon them is unthinkable. It would spell the return to industrial and labor chaos.\" In 1933, major new banking regulations were passed. In 1934, the Securities and Exchange Commission was created to regulate Wall Street, with 1932 campaign fundraiser Joseph P. Kennedy in charge.\n\nRoosevelt wanted a federal minimum wage as part of the NIRA, arguing that. \"No business which depends for existence on paying less than living wages to its workers has any right to continue in this country\". Congress finally adopted the minimum wage in the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938. It was the last major domestic reform measure of the New Deal. \n\nRecovery was pursued through \"pump-priming\" (that is, federal spending). The NIRA included $3.3 billion of spending through the Public Works Administration to stimulate the economy, which was to be handled by Interior Secretary Harold Ickes. Roosevelt worked with Republican Senator George Norris to create the largest government-owned industrial enterprise in American history — the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) — which built dams and power stations, controlled floods, and modernized agriculture and home conditions in the poverty-stricken Tennessee Valley. The repeal of prohibition also brought in new tax revenues and helped Roosevelt keep a major campaign promise. Executive Order 6102 declared that all privately held gold of American citizens was to be sold to the US Treasury and the price raised from $20 to $35 per ounce. The goal was to counter the deflation which was paralyzing the economy.\n\nRoosevelt tried to keep his campaign promise by cutting the federal budget — including a reduction in military spending from $752 million in 1932 to $531 million in 1934 and a 40% cut in spending on veterans' benefits — by removing 500,000 veterans and widows from the pension rolls and reducing benefits for the remainder, as well as cutting the salaries of federal employees and reducing spending on research and education. But, the veterans were well organized and strongly protested; most benefits were restored or increased by 1934, but FDR vetoed their efforts to get a cash bonus. The benefit cuts also did not last. In June 1933, Roosevelt restored $50 million in pension payments, and Congress added another $46 million more. Veterans groups such as the American Legion and the Veterans of Foreign Wars won their campaign to transform their benefits from payments due in 1945 to immediate cash when Congress overrode the President's veto and passed the Bonus Act in January 1936. It pumped sums equal to 2% of the GDP into the consumer economy and had a major stimulus effect. \n\nRoosevelt also kept his promise to push for repeal of Prohibition. On March 23, 1933, he signed the Cullen–Harrison Act redefining 3.2% alcohol as the maximum allowed. That act was preceded by Congressional action in the drafting and passage of the 21st Amendment, which was ratified later that year.\n\nSecond New Deal, 1935–36\n\nAfter the 1934 Congressional elections, which gave Roosevelt large majorities in both houses, his administration drafted a fresh surge of New Deal legislation. These measures included the Works Progress Administration (WPA), which set up a national relief agency that employed two million family heads. At the height of WPA employment in 1938, unemployment was down from 20.6% in 1933 to only 12.5%, according to figures from Michael Darby. The Social Security Act established Social Security and promised economic security for the elderly, the poor and the sick. Senator Robert Wagner wrote the Wagner Act, which officially became the National Labor Relations Act. The act established the federal rights of workers to organize unions, to engage in collective bargaining, and to take part in strikes.\n\nWhile the First New Deal of 1933 had broad support from most sectors, the Second New Deal challenged the business community. Conservative Democrats, led by Al Smith, fought back with the American Liberty League, savagely attacking Roosevelt and equating him with Karl Marx and Vladimir Lenin. But Smith overplayed his hand, and his boisterous rhetoric let Roosevelt isolate his opponents and identify them with the wealthy vested interests that opposed the New Deal, strengthening Roosevelt for the 1936 landslide. By contrast, the labor unions, energized by the Wagner Act, signed up millions of new members and became a major backer of Roosevelt's reelections in 1936, 1940 and 1944.\n\nLarry Schweikart and Michael Allen disagree with the prevailing belief that there were two New Deals in the Roosevelt administration. They argue that there is no evidence of any such blueprint for Roosevelt's programs, and that abundant evidence shows FDR's policies were formulated and executed haphazardly, fluctuating in the hands of a revolving cast of presidential advisors. Biographer James M. Burns suggests that Roosevelt's policy decisions were guided more by pragmatism than ideology, and that he \"was like the general of a guerrilla army whose columns, fighting blindly in the mountains through dense ravines and thickets, suddenly converge, half by plan and half by coincidence, and debouch into the plain below.\" Roosevelt argued that such apparently haphazard methodology was necessary. \"The country needs and, unless I mistake its temper, the country demands bold, persistent experimentation,\" he wrote. \"It is common sense to take a method and try it; if it fails, admit it frankly and try another. But above all, try something.\" \n\nEconomic policies\n\nGovernment spending increased from 8.0% of gross national product (GNP) under Hoover in 1932 to 10.2% of the GNP in 1936. The national debt as a percentage of the GNP had more than doubled under Hoover from 16% to 40% of the GNP in early 1933. It held steady at close to 40% as late as fall 1941, then grew rapidly during the war. \n\nDeficit spending had been recommended by some economists, most notably by John Maynard Keynes of Britain. The GNP was 34% higher in 1936 than in 1932 and 58% higher in 1940 on the eve of war. That is, the economy grew 58% from 1932 to 1940 in 8 years of peacetime, and then grew 56% from 1940 to 1945 in 5 years of wartime.\n\nUnemployment fell dramatically in Roosevelt's first term, from 25% when he took office to 14.3% in 1937. However, it increased slightly to 19.0% in 1938 (\"a depression within a depression\") and fell to 17.2% in 1939, and then dropped again to 14.6% in 1940 until it reached 1.9% in 1945 during World War II. Total employment during Roosevelt's term expanded by 18.31 million jobs, with an average annual increase in jobs during his administration of 5.3%. Roosevelt considered his New Deal policies as central to his legacy, and in his 1944 State of the Union Address, he advocated that Americans should think of basic economic rights as a Second Bill of Rights.\n\nRoosevelt did not raise income taxes before World War II began; however payroll taxes were introduced to fund the new Social Security program in 1937. He also convinced Congress to spend more on many various programs never before seen in American history. Under the revenue pressures brought on by the depression, most states added or increased taxes, including sales as well as income taxes. Roosevelt's proposal for new taxes on corporate savings were highly controversial in 1936–37, and were rejected by Congress. During the war he pushed for even higher income tax rates for individuals (reaching a marginal tax rate of 91%) and corporations and a cap on high salaries for executives. He also issued Executive Order 9250 in October 1942, later to be rescinded by Congress, which raised the marginal tax rate for salaries exceeding $25,000 (after tax) to 100%, thereby limiting salaries to $25,000 (about $ today). To fund the war, Congress not only broadened the base so that almost every employee paid federal income taxes, but also introduced withholding taxes in 1943.\n\nConservation and the environment\n\nRoosevelt had a lifelong interest in the environment and conservation starting with his youthful interest in forestry on his family estate. As governor and president, he launched numerous projects for conservation, in the name of protecting the environment, and providing beauty and jobs for the people. He was strengthened in his resolve by the model of his cousin Theodore Roosevelt. Although FDR was never an outdoorsman or sportsman on TR's scale, his growth of the national systems were comparable. FDR created 140 national wildlife refuges (especially for birds) and established 29 national forests and 29 national parks and monuments. He thereby achieved the vision he had set out in 1931:\nHeretofore our conservation policy has been merely to preserve as much as possible of the existing forests. Our new policy goes a step further. It will not only preserve the existing forests, but create new ones. \nAs president he was active in expanding, funding, and promoting the National Park and National Forest systems. He used relief agencies to upgrade the facilities. Their popularity soared, from three million visitors a year at the start of the decade, to 15.5 million in 1939. His favorite agency was the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), which expended most of its effort on environmental projects. The CCC in a dozen years enrolled 3.4 million young men; they built 13,000 miles of trails, planted two billion trees and upgraded 125,000 miles of dirt roads. Every state had its own state parks, and Roosevelt made sure that WPA and CCC projects were set up to upgrade them as well as the national systems. Roosevelt heavily funded the system of dams to provide flood control, electricity, and modernization of rural communities through the Tennessee Valley Authority, as well as less famous projects transforming western rivers. He was a great dam builder, although 21st century critics would see this as the antithesis of conservation. \n\nForeign policy, 1933–37\n\nThe rejection of the League of Nations treaty in 1919 marked the dominance of isolationism from world organizations in American foreign policy. Despite Roosevelt's Wilsonian background, he and Secretary of State Cordell Hull acted with great care not to provoke isolationist sentiment. Roosevelt's \"bombshell\" message to the world monetary conference in 1933 effectively ended any major efforts by the world powers to collaborate on ending the worldwide depression, and allowed Roosevelt a free hand in economic policy. Roosevelt was a lifelong free-trader and anti-imperialist. Ending European colonialism was one of his objectives.\n\nThe main foreign policy initiative of Roosevelt's first term was the Good Neighbor Policy, which was a re-evaluation of U.S. policy towards Latin America. Since the Monroe Doctrine of 1823, this area had been seen as an American sphere of influence. American forces were withdrawn from Haiti, and new treaties with Cuba and Panama ended their status as U.S. protectorates. In December 1933, Roosevelt signed the Montevideo Convention on the Rights and Duties of States, renouncing the right to intervene unilaterally in the affairs of Latin American countries. \n\nThe isolationist movement was bolstered in the early to mid-1930s by U.S. Senator Gerald Nye and others who succeeded in their effort to stop the \"merchants of death\" in the U.S. from selling arms abroad. This effort took the form of the Neutrality Acts; the president asked for, but was refused, a provision to give him the discretion to allow the sale of arms to victims of aggression. In the interim, Italy under Benito Mussolini proceeded to overcome Ethiopia, and the Italians joined Nazi Germany in supporting the General Franco and the Nationalist cause in the Spanish Civil War. In 1936 Germany and Japan signed a Anti-Comintern Pact, but they never coordinated their strategies. Congress passed, and the president signed, a mandatory arms embargo at a time when dictators in Europe and Asia were girding for world war. \n\nLandslide re-election, 1936\n\nIn the 1936 presidential election, Roosevelt campaigned on his New Deal programs against Kansas Governor Alf Landon, who accepted much of the New Deal but objected that it was hostile to business and involved too much waste. Roosevelt and Garner won 60.8% of the vote and carried every state except Maine and Vermont. The New Deal Democrats won even larger majorities in Congress. Roosevelt was backed by a coalition of voters which included traditional Democrats across the country, small farmers, the \"Solid South\" (mostly white Democrats), Catholics, big city political machines, labor unions, northern African Americans (southern ones were still disfranchised), Jews, intellectuals and political liberals. This coalition, frequently referred to as the New Deal coalition, remained largely intact for the Democratic Party until the 1960s. Roosevelt's popularity generated massive volumes of correspondence that had to be responded to. He once told his son James, \"Two short sentences will generally answer any known letter.\" \n\nSecond term, 1937–41\n\nIn contrast to his first term, little major legislation was passed during Roosevelt's second term. There was the Housing Act of 1937, a second Agricultural Adjustment Act, and the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) of 1938, which created the minimum wage. When the economy began to deteriorate again in late 1937, Roosevelt asked Congress for $5 billion in WPA relief and public works funding. This managed to eventually create as many as 3.3 million WPA jobs by 1938. Projects accomplished under the WPA ranged from new federal courthouses and post offices, to facilities and infrastructure for national parks, bridges and other infrastructure across the country, and architectural surveys and archeological excavations — investments to construct facilities and preserve important resources. Beyond this, however, Roosevelt recommended to a special congressional session only a permanent national farm act, administrative reorganization and regional planning measures, which were leftovers from a regular session. According to Burns, this attempt illustrated Roosevelt's inability to decide on a basic economic program. \n\nThe Supreme Court became Roosevelt's primary focus during his second term, after the court overturned many of his programs. In particular in 1935, the Court unanimously ruled that the National Recovery Act (NRA) was an unconstitutional delegation of legislative power to the president. Roosevelt stunned Congress in early 1937 by proposing a law to allow him to appoint up to six new justices, what he referred to as a \"persistent infusion of new blood.\" This \"court packing\" plan ran into intense political opposition from his own party, led by Vice President Garner, since it upset the separation of powers and gave the President control over the Court. Roosevelt's proposal to expand the court failed; but by 1941, Roosevelt had appointed seven of the nine justices of the court, a change in membership which resulted in a court that began to ratify his policies. \n\nRoosevelt at first had massive support from the rapidly growing labor unions, but they split into bitterly feuding AFL and CIO factions, the latter led by John L. Lewis. Roosevelt pronounced a \"plague on both your houses,\" but labor's disunity weakened the party in the elections from 1938 through 1946. \n\nDetermined to overcome the opposition of conservative Democrats in Congress (mostly from the South), Roosevelt became involved in the 1938 Democratic primaries, actively campaigning for challengers who were more supportive of New Deal reform. His targets denounced Roosevelt for trying to take over the Democratic party and to win reelection, using the argument that they were independent. Roosevelt failed badly, managing to defeat only one target, a conservative Democrat from New York City. \n\nIn the November 1938 election, Democrats lost six Senate seats and 71 House seats. Losses were concentrated among pro-New Deal Democrats. When Congress reconvened in 1939, Republicans under Senator Robert Taft formed a Conservative coalition with Southern Democrats, virtually ending Roosevelt's ability to get his domestic proposals enacted into law. The minimum wage law of 1938 was the last substantial New Deal reform act passed by Congress. Following the autumn Congressional elections in 1938, Congress was now dominated by conservatives, many of whom feared that Roosevelt was \"aiming at a dictatorship,\" according to the historian Hugh Brogan. In addition, as noted by another historian, after the 1938 election increased the strength of Republicans,\n\n\"conservative Democrats held the balance of power between liberals and Republicans, and they used it to prevent completion of the structure of the Second New Deal.\"\n\nRoosevelt had always belonged to the more liberal wing of the Democratic Party. He sought a realignment that would solidify liberal dominance by means of landslides in 1932, 1934 and 1936. During the 1932 campaign he predicted privately, \"I'll be in the White House for eight years. When those years are over, there'll be a Progressive party. It may not be Democratic, but it will be Progressive.\" When the third consecutive landslide in 1936 failed to produce major legislation in 1937, his recourse was to purge his conservative opponents in 1938. \n\nForeign policy, 1937–41\n\nThe aggressive foreign policy of Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler in Germany after 1933 aroused fears of a new world war. Americans wanted to keep out of it and in 1937 Congress passed an even more stringent Neutrality act. But when Japan invaded China in 1937, public opinion strongly favored China, and Roosevelt found various ways to assist that nation.\n\nIn October 1937, Roosevelt gave the Quarantine Speech aiming to contain aggressor nations. He proposed that warmongering states be treated as a public health menace and be \"quarantined.\" Meanwhile, he secretly stepped up a program to build long-range submarines that could blockade Japan. \n\nAt the time of the Munich Agreement in 1938 — with the U.S. not represented — Roosevelt said the country would not join a \"stop-Hitler bloc\" under any circumstances. He made it quite clear that, in the event of German aggression against Czechoslovakia, the U.S. would remain neutral. Roosevelt said in 1939 that France and Britain were America's \"first line of defense\" and needed American aid, but because of widespread isolationist sentiment, he reiterated the US itself would not go to war. In the spring of 1939, Roosevelt allowed the French to place huge orders with the American aircraft industry on a cash-and-carry basis, as allowed by law. Most of the aircraft ordered had not arrived in France by the time of its collapse in May 1940, so Roosevelt arranged in June 1940 for French orders to be sold to the British.\n\nWhen World War II began in September 1939 with Germany's invasion of Poland, Roosevelt rejected the Wilsonian neutrality stance and sought ways to assist Britain and France militarily. At first he gave only covert support to repeal of the arms embargo provisions of the Neutrality Act. He began a regular secret correspondence with the First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill in September 1939 — the first of 1,700 letters and telegrams between them — discussing ways of supporting Britain. Roosevelt forged a close personal relationship with Churchill, who became Prime Minister of the United Kingdom in May 1940.\n\nHis relations with Charles de Gaulle, leader of Free France, were more strained, for a long time he refused to recognize de Gaulle as the representative of France, preferring to deal with representatives of the Vichy government. Roosevelt did not recognize de Gaulle's provisional government until late 1944. \n\nIn April 1940, Germany invaded Denmark and Norway, followed by invasions of the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg and France in May. The German victories left Britain isolated in western Europe. Roosevelt, who was determined that Britain not be defeated, took advantage of the rapid shifts of public opinion. The fall of Paris shocked American opinion, and isolationist sentiment declined. A consensus was clear that military spending had to be dramatically expanded. There was no consensus on how much the US should risk war in helping Britain. In July 1940, FDR appointed two interventionist Republican leaders, Henry L. Stimson and Frank Knox, as Secretaries of War and the Navy, respectively. Both parties gave support to his plans for a rapid build-up the American military, but the isolationists warned that Roosevelt would get the nation into an unnecessary war with Germany. Congress authorized the nation's first peacetime draft. \n\nRoosevelt used his personal charisma to build support for intervention. America should be the \"Arsenal of Democracy\", he told his fireside audience. On September 2, 1940, Roosevelt openly defied the Neutrality Acts by passing the Destroyers for Bases Agreement, which, in exchange for military base rights in the British Caribbean Islands, gave 50 WWI American destroyers to Britain. The U.S. also received free base rights in Bermuda and Newfoundland, allowing British forces to be moved to the sharper end of the war; the idea of an exchange of warships for bases such as these originated in the cabinet. Hitler and Mussolini responded to the deal by joining with Japan in the Tripartite Pact.\n\nThe agreement with Britain was a precursor of the March 1941 Lend-Lease agreement, which began to direct massive military and economic aid to Britain, the Republic of China, and later the Soviet Union. For foreign policy advice, Roosevelt turned to Harry Hopkins, who became his chief wartime advisor. They sought innovative ways short of going to war to help Britain, whose financial resources were exhausted by the end of 1940. Congress, where isolationist sentiment was waning, passed the Lend-Lease Act in March 1941, allowing the U.S. to give Wales, England, Scotland, China, and later the Soviet Union military supplies. The legislation had hit a logjam until Senators Byrd, Byrnes and Taft added a provision subjecting it to appropriation by Congress. Congress voted to commit to spend $50 billion on military supplies from 1941 to 1945. In sharp contrast to the loans of World War I, there would be no repayment after the war. Until late in 1941, Roosevelt refused Churchill's urgent requests for armed escort of ships bound for Britain, insisting on a more passive patrolling function in the western Atlantic.\n\nElection of 1940\n\nThe two-term tradition had been an unwritten rule (until the 22nd Amendment after Roosevelt's presidency) since George Washington declined to run for a third term in 1796. Both Ulysses S. Grant and Theodore Roosevelt were attacked for trying to obtain a third non-consecutive term. Roosevelt systematically undercut prominent Democrats who were angling for the nomination, including Vice President John Nance Garner and two cabinet members, Secretary of State Cordell Hull and James Farley, Roosevelt's campaign manager in 1932 and 1936, the Postmaster General and the Democratic Party chairman. Roosevelt moved the convention to Chicago where he had strong support from the city machine (which controlled the auditorium sound system). At the convention the opposition was poorly organized, but Farley had packed the galleries. Roosevelt sent a message saying that he would not run unless he was drafted, and that the delegates were free to vote for anyone. The delegates were stunned; then the loudspeaker screamed \"We want Roosevelt... The world wants Roosevelt!\" The delegates went wild and he was nominated by 946 to 147 on the first ballot. The tactic employed by Roosevelt was not entirely successful, as his goal had been to be drafted by acclamation. The new vice-presidential nominee was Henry Agard Wallace, a liberal intellectual who was Secretary of Agriculture.\n\nIn his campaign against Republican Wendell Willkie, Roosevelt stressed both his proven leadership experience and his intention to do everything possible to keep the United States out of war. In one of his speeches he declared to potential recruits that \"you boys are not going to be sent into any foreign war.\" He won the 1940 election with 55% of the popular vote and 38 of the 48 states, and thus winning almost 85% of the electoral vote (449 to 82). A shift to the left within the Administration was shown by the naming of Henry A. Wallace as Vice President in place of the conservative Texan John Nance Garner, who had become a bitter enemy of Roosevelt after 1937.\n\nThird term, 1941–45\n\nRoosevelt tried to avoid repeating what he saw as Woodrow Wilson's mistakes in World War I. He often made exactly the opposite decision. Wilson called for neutrality in thought and deed, while Roosevelt made it clear his administration strongly favored Britain and China. Unlike the loans in World War I, the United States made large-scale grants of military and economic aid to the Allies through Lend-Lease, with little expectation of repayment. Wilson did not greatly expand war production before the declaration of war; Roosevelt did. Wilson waited for the declaration to begin a draft; Roosevelt started one in 1940. Wilson never made the United States an official ally but Roosevelt did. Wilson never met with the top Allied leaders but Roosevelt did. Wilson proclaimed independent policy, as seen in the 14 Points, while Roosevelt always had a collaborative policy with the Allies. In 1917, United States declared war on Germany; in 1941, Roosevelt waited until the enemy attacked at Pearl Harbor. Wilson refused to collaborate with the Republicans; Roosevelt named leading Republicans to head the War Department and the Navy Department. Wilson let General George Pershing make the major military decisions; Roosevelt made the major decisions in his war including the \"Europe first\" strategy. He rejected the idea of an armistice and demanded unconditional surrender. Roosevelt often mentioned his role in the Wilson administration, but added that he had profited more from Wilson's errors than from his successes. \n\nPolicies\n\nRoosevelt's third term was dominated by World War II. Roosevelt slowly began re-armament in 1938, although he was facing strong isolationist sentiment from leaders like Senators William Borah and Robert A. Taft. By 1940, re-armament was in high gear, with bipartisan support, partly to expand and re-equip the Army and Navy and partly to become the \"Arsenal of Democracy\" supporting Britain, France, China and (after June 1941), the Soviet Union. As Roosevelt took a firmer stance against the Axis Powers, American isolationists (including Charles Lindbergh and America First) vehemently attacked the President as an irresponsible warmonger. Roosevelt initiated FBI and Internal Revenue Service investigations of his loudest critics, though no legal actions resulted. Unfazed by these criticisms and confident in the wisdom of his foreign policy initiatives, FDR continued his twin policies of preparedness and aid to the Allied coalition. On December 29, 1940, he delivered his Arsenal of Democracy fireside chat, in which he made the case for involvement in the war directly to the American people. A week later he delivered his famous Four Freedoms speech laying out the case for an American defense of basic rights throughout the world.\n\nThe homefront was subject to dynamic social changes throughout the war, though domestic issues were no longer Roosevelt's most urgent policy concern. The military buildup spurred economic growth. Unemployment fell in half from 7.7 million in spring 1940 (when the first accurate statistics were compiled) to 3.4 million in fall 1941 and fell in half again to 1.5 million in fall 1942, out of a labor force of 54 million. There was a growing labor shortage, accelerating the second wave of the Great Migration of African Americans, farmers and rural populations to manufacturing centers. African Americans from the South went to California and other West Coast states for new jobs in the defense industry. To pay for increased government spending, in 1941 FDR proposed that Congress enact an income tax rate of 99.5% on all income over $100,000; when the proposal failed, he issued an executive order imposing an income tax of 100% on income over $25,000, which Congress rescinded.\n\nWhen Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941, Roosevelt agreed to extend Lend-Lease to the Soviets. Thus, Roosevelt had committed the U.S. to the Allied side with a policy of \"all aid short of war.\" Execution of the aid fell victim to foot dragging in the administration so FDR appointed a special assistant, Wayne Coy, to expedite matters. Later that year, a German submarine fired on the U.S. destroyer Greer, and Roosevelt declared that the U.S. Navy would assume an escort role for Allied convoys in the Atlantic as far east as Great Britain and would fire upon German ships or submarines (U-boats) of the Kriegsmarine if they entered the U.S. Navy zone. This \"shoot on sight\" policy effectively declared naval war on Germany and was favored by Americans by a margin of 2-to-1.\n\nRoosevelt and Churchill conducted a highly secret bilateral meeting in Argentia, Newfoundland, and on August 14, 1941, drafted the Atlantic Charter, conceptually outlining global wartime and postwar goals. All the Allies endorsed it. This was the first of several wartime conferences; Churchill and Roosevelt would meet ten more times in person. In July 1941, Roosevelt had ordered Secretary of War Henry Stimson, to begin planning for total American military involvement. The resulting \"Victory Program\" provided the Army's estimates necessary for the total mobilization of manpower, industry, and logistics to defeat Germany and Japan. The program also planned to dramatically increase aid to the Allied nations and to have ten million men in arms, half of whom would be ready for deployment abroad in 1943. Roosevelt was firmly committed to the Allied cause, and these plans were formulated before Japan's Attack on Pearl Harbor.\n\nCongress was debating a modification of the Neutrality Act in October 1941, when the USS Kearny, along with other ships, engaged a number of U-boats south of Iceland; the Kearny took fire and lost eleven crewmen. As a result, the amendment of the Neutrality Act to permit the arming of the merchant marine passed both houses, though by a slim margin.\n\nIn 1942, with the United States now in the conflict, war production increased dramatically, but fell short of the goals established by the President, due in part to manpower shortages. The effort was also hindered by numerous strikes by union workers, especially in the coal mining and railroad industries, which lasted well into 1944. The White House became the ultimate site for labor mediation, conciliation or arbitration. One particular battle royal occurred, between Vice-President Wallace, who headed the Board of Economic Warfare, and Jesse Jones, in charge of the Reconstruction Finance Corporation; both agencies assumed responsibility for acquisition of rubber supplies and came to loggerheads over funding. FDR resolved the dispute by dissolving both agencies.\n\nIn 1944, the President requested that Congress enact legislation which would tax all unreasonable profits, both corporate and individual, and thereby support his declared need for over $10 billion in revenue for the war and other government measures. The Congress passed a revenue bill raising $2 billion, which FDR vetoed, though Congress in turn overrode him.\n\nPearl Harbor and declarations of war\n\nWhen Japan occupied northern French Indochina in late 1940, FDR authorized increased aid to the Republic of China, a policy that won widespread popular support. In July 1941, after Japan occupied the remainder of Indo-China, he cut off the sale of oil to Japan, which thus lost more than 95 percent of its oil supply. Roosevelt continued negotiations with the Japanese government, primarily through Secretary Hull. Japan Premier Fumimaro Konoye desired a summit conference with FDR which the US rejected. Konoye was replaced with Minister of War Hideki Tojo. Meanwhile, Roosevelt started sending long-range B-17 bombers to the Philippines.\n\nFDR felt that an attack by the Japanese was probable – most likely in the Dutch East Indies or Thailand. On December 4, 1941, The Chicago Tribune published the complete text of \"Rainbow Five\", a top-secret war plan drawn up by the War Department. It dealt chiefly with mobilization issues, calling for a 10-million-man army.\n\nThe great majority of scholars have rejected the conspiracy thesis that Roosevelt, or any other high government officials, knew in advance about the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. The Japanese had kept their secrets closely guarded. Senior American officials were aware that war was imminent, but they did not expect an attack on Pearl Harbor.\n\nOn the morning of December 7, 1941, the Japanese struck the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor with a surprise attack, knocking out the main American battleship fleet and killing 2,403 American servicemen and civilians. Roosevelt called for war in his famous \"Infamy Speech\" to Congress, in which he said: \"Yesterday, December 7, 1941 — a date which will live in infamy — the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.\"\n\nIn 1942 Roosevelt set up a new military command structure with Admiral Ernest J. King as Chief of Naval Operations in complete control of the Navy and Marines; General George C. Marshall in charge of the Army and in nominal control of the Air Force, which in practice was commanded by General Hap Arnold. Roosevelt formed a new body, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, which made the final decisions on American military strategy. The Joint Chiefs was a White House agency and was chaired by Admiral William D. Leahy. When dealing with Europe, the Joint Chiefs met with their British counterparts and formed the Combined Chiefs of Staff. Unlike the political leaders of the other major powers, Roosevelt rarely overrode his military advisors. His civilian appointees handled the draft and procurement of men and equipment, but no civilians – not even the secretaries of War or Navy, had a voice in strategy. Roosevelt avoided the State Department and conducted high level diplomacy through his aides, especially Harry Hopkins. Since Hopkins also controlled $50 billion in Lend Lease funds given to the Allies, they paid attention to him.\n\nWar plans\n\nAfter Pearl Harbor, antiwar sentiment in the United States evaporated overnight. On December 11, 1941, Germany and Italy declared war on the United States, which responded in kind. Roosevelt and his military advisers implemented a war strategy with the objectives of halting the German advances in the Soviet Union and in North Africa; launching an invasion of western Europe with the aim of crushing Nazi Germany between two fronts; and saving China and defeating Japan. Public opinion, however, gave priority to the destruction of Japan, so American forces were sent chiefly to the Pacific in 1942. \n\nIn the opening weeks of the war, Japan had conquered the Philippines, and the British and Dutch colonies in Southeast Asia, capturing Singapore in February 1942. Furthermore, Japan cut off the overland supply route to China.\n\nRoosevelt met with Churchill in late December and planned a broad informal alliance among the U.S., Britain, China and the Soviet Union. This included Churchill's initial plan to invade North Africa (called Operation Gymnast) and the primary plan of the U.S. generals for a western Europe invasion, focused directly on Germany (Operation Sledgehammer). An agreement was also reached for a centralized command and offensive in the Pacific theater called ABDA (American, British, Dutch, Australian) to save China and defeat Japan. Nevertheless, the Atlantic First strategy was intact, to Churchill's great satisfaction. On New Year's Day 1942, Churchill and FDR issued the \"Declaration by United Nations\", representing 26 countries in opposition to the Tripartite Pact of Germany, Italy and Japan.\n\nInternment of Germans, Japanese and Italians\n\nWhen the war began, the danger of a Japanese attack on the coast led to growing pressure to move people of Japanese descent away from the coastal region. This pressure grew due to fears of terrorism, espionage, and/or sabotage; it was also related to anti-Japanese competition and discrimination. On February 19, 1942, President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, which relocated hundreds of thousands of the \"Issei\" (first generation of Japanese immigrants who did not have U.S. citizenship) and their children, \"Nisei\" (who had dual citizenship). They were forced to give up their properties and businesses, and transported to hastily built camps in interior, harsh locations.\n\nAfter both Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy declared war on the United States in December 1941, many German and Italian citizens who had not taken out American citizenship were arrested or interned. \n\nWar strategy\n\nThe \"Big Three\" (Roosevelt, Churchill, and Joseph Stalin), together with Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek, cooperated informally on a plan in which American and British troops concentrated in the West; Soviet troops fought on the Eastern front; and Chinese, British and American troops fought in Asia and the Pacific. The Allies formulated strategy in a series of high-profile conferences as well as contact through diplomatic and military channels. Roosevelt guaranteed that the U.S. would be the \"Arsenal of Democracy\" by shipping $50 billion of Lend Lease supplies, primarily to Britain and to the USSR, China and other Allies. Roosevelt coined the term \"Four Policemen\" to refer this \"Big Four\" Allied powers of World War II, the United States, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and China. \n\nIn October 1942, the President was advised that military resources were desperately needed at Guadalcanal to prevent overrunning by the Japanese. FDR heeded the advice, redirected armaments and the Japanese Pacific offensive was stalled.\n\nThe Allies undertook the invasions of French Morocco and Algeria (Operation Torch) in November 1942. FDR very much desired the assault be initiated before election day, but did not order it. FDR and Churchill had another war conference in Casablanca in January 1943; Stalin declined an invitation. The Allies agreed strategically that the Mediterranean focus be continued, with the cross-channel invasion coming later, followed by concentration of efforts in the Pacific. Roosevelt also championed General Henri Giraud as leader of Free France against General Charles de Gaulle. Hitler reinforced his military in North Africa, with the result that the Allied efforts there suffered a temporary setback; Allied attempts to counterbalance this were successful, but resulted in war supplies to the USSR being delayed, as well as the second war front. Later, their assault pursued into Sicily (Operation Husky) followed in July 1943, and of Italy (Operation Avalanche) in September 1943. In 1943, it was apparent to FDR that Stalin, while bearing the brunt of Germany's offensive, had not had sufficient opportunity to participate in war conferences. The President made a concerted effort to arrange a one-on-one meeting with Stalin, in Fairbanks. However, when Stalin learned that Roosevelt and Churchill had postponed the cross-channel invasion a second time, he cancelled. The strategic bombing campaign was escalated in 1944, pulverizing all major German cities and cutting off oil supplies. It was a 50–50 British-American operation. Roosevelt picked Dwight D. Eisenhower, and not George Marshall, to head the Allied cross-channel invasion, Operation Overlord that began on D-Day, June 6, 1944. Some of the most costly battles of the war ensued after the invasion, and the Allies were blocked on the German border in the \"Battle of the Bulge\" in December 1944. When Roosevelt died on April 12, 1945, Allied forces were closing in on Berlin.\n\nMeanwhile, in the Pacific, the Japanese advance reached its maximum extent by June 1942, when the U.S. Navy scored a decisive victory at the Battle of Midway. American and Australian forces then began a slow and costly progress called island hopping or leapfrogging through the Pacific Islands, with the objective of gaining bases from which strategic airpower could be brought to bear on Japan and from which Japan could ultimately be invaded. In contrast to Hitler, Roosevelt took no direct part in the tactical naval operations, though he approved strategic decisions. FDR gave way in part to insistent demands from the public and Congress that more effort be devoted against Japan; he always insisted on Germany first.\n\nPost-war planning\n\nBy late 1943, it was apparent that the Allies would ultimately defeat the enemy, so it became increasingly important to make high-level political decisions about the course of the war and the postwar future of Europe. Roosevelt met with Churchill and the Chinese leader Chiang Kai-shek at the Cairo Conference in November 1943, and then went to the Tehran Conference to confer with Churchill and Stalin. While Churchill warned of potential domination by a Stalin dictatorship over eastern Europe, Roosevelt responded with a statement summarizing his rationale for relations with Stalin: \"I just have a hunch that Stalin is not that kind of a man. [...] I think that if I give him everything I possibly can and ask for nothing from him in return, noblesse oblige, he won't try to annex anything and will work with me for a world of democracy and peace.\" At the Tehran Conference, Roosevelt and Churchill discussed plans for a postwar international organization. For his part, Stalin insisted on redrawing the frontiers of Poland. Stalin supported Roosevelt's plan for the United Nations and promised to enter the war against Japan 90 days after Germany was defeated.\n\nBy the beginning of 1945, however, with the Allied armies advancing into Germany and the Soviets in control of Poland, the postwar issues came into the open. In February, Roosevelt met with Churchill at Malta and traveled to Yalta, in Crimea, to meet again with Stalin and Churchill. While Roosevelt maintained his confidence that Stalin would keep his Yalta promises regarding free elections in eastern Europe, one month after Yalta ended, Roosevelt's Ambassador to the USSR Averell Harriman cabled Roosevelt that \"we must come clearly to realize that the Soviet program is the establishment of totalitarianism, ending personal liberty and democracy as we know it.\" Two days later, Roosevelt began to admit that his view of Stalin had been excessively optimistic and that \"Averell is right.\"\n\nDeclining health\n\nRoosevelt, who was a chain-smoker, had been in declining health since at least 1940, and by 1944 he was noticeably fatigued. In March 1944, shortly after his 62nd birthday, he underwent testing at Bethesda Hospital and was found to have high blood pressure, atherosclerosis, coronary artery disease causing angina pectoris, and congestive heart failure. Hospital physicians and two outside specialists ordered Roosevelt to rest. His personal physician, Admiral Ross McIntire, created a daily schedule that banned business guests for lunch and incorporated two hours of rest each day. During the 1944 election campaign, McIntire denied several times that Roosevelt's health was poor; on October 12, for example, he announced that \"The President's health is perfectly OK. There are absolutely no organic difficulties at all.\" Prior to the election, Roosevelt may have used his authority over the Office of Censorship to quash press reports of his declining physical health. \n\nElection of 1944\n\nRoosevelt, aware that most publishers were opposed to him, issued a decree in 1943 that blocked all publishers and media executives from visits to combat areas; he put General Marshall in charge of enforcement. The main target was Henry Luce, the powerful publisher of Time and Life magazines. Historian Alan Brinkley argues the move was \"badly mistaken\", for had Luce been allowed to travel, he would have been an enthusiastic cheerleader for American forces around the globe. But stranded in New York City, Luce's frustration and anger expressed itself in hard-edged partisanship. \n\nParty leaders insisted that Roosevelt drop Henry A. Wallace, who had been erratic as Vice President. James F. Byrnes of South Carolina, a top FDR aide, was considered ineligible because he had left the Catholic Church and many Catholic voters would not vote for him. Roosevelt replaced Wallace with Missouri Senator Harry S. Truman, best known for his battle against corruption and inefficiency in wartime spending. The Republicans nominated Thomas E. Dewey, the liberal governor of New York. The opposition lambasted FDR and his administration for domestic corruption, bureaucratic inefficiency, tolerance of Communism, and military blunders. Labor unions, which had grown rapidly in the war, threw their all-out support behind Roosevelt. Roosevelt and Truman won the 1944 election by a comfortable margin, defeating Dewey and his running mate John W. Bricker with 53.4% of the popular vote and 432 out of the 531 electoral votes. The President campaigned in favor of a strong United Nations, so his victory symbolized support for the nation's future participation in the international community.\n\nDue to the President's declining health, the small-scale fourth inauguration on January 20, 1945, was held on the White House lawn.\n\nFourth term and death, 1945\n\nLast days, death and memorial\n\nThe President left the Yalta Conference on February 12, 1945, flew to Egypt and boarded the USS Quincy operating on the Great Bitter Lake near the Suez Canal. Aboard Quincy, the next day he met with Farouk I, king of Egypt, and Haile Selassie, emperor of Ethiopia. On February 14, he held a historic meeting with King Abdulaziz, the founder of Saudi Arabia, a meeting some historians believe holds profound significance in U.S.–Saudi relations even today. After a final meeting between Roosevelt and Prime Minister Winston Churchill, Quincy steamed for Algiers, arriving February 18, at which time Roosevelt conferred with American ambassadors to Britain, France and Italy. At Yalta, Lord Moran, Winston Churchill's physician, commenting on Roosevelt's ill health, said that he was a dying man.\n\nWhen Roosevelt returned to the United States, he addressed Congress on March 1 about the Yalta Conference, and many were shocked to see how old, thin and frail he looked. He spoke while seated in the well of the House, an unprecedented concession to his physical incapacity. Roosevelt opened his speech by saying, \"I hope that you will pardon me for this unusual posture of sitting down during the presentation of what I want to say, but... it makes it a lot easier for me not to have to carry about ten pounds of steel around on the bottom of my legs.\" Still in full command mentally, he firmly stated \"The Crimean Conference ought to spell the end of a system of unilateral action, the exclusive alliances, the spheres of influence, the balances of power, and all the other expedients that have been tried for centuries– and have always failed. We propose to substitute for all these, a universal organization in which all peace-loving nations will finally have a chance to join.\"\n\nDuring March 1945, he sent strongly worded messages to Stalin accusing him of breaking his Yalta commitments over Poland, Germany, prisoners of war and other issues. When Stalin accused the western Allies of plotting a separate peace with Hitler behind his back, Roosevelt replied: \"I cannot avoid a feeling of bitter resentment towards your informers, whoever they are, for such vile misrepresentations of my actions or those of my trusted subordinates.\"\n\nOn March 29, 1945, Roosevelt went to the Little White House at Warm Springs, Georgia, to rest before his anticipated appearance at the founding conference of the United Nations. On the afternoon of April 12, Roosevelt said, \"I have a terrific pain in the back of my head.\" He then slumped forward in his chair, unconscious, and was carried into his bedroom. The president's attending cardiologist, Dr. Howard Bruenn, diagnosed a massive cerebral hemorrhage (stroke). At 3:35 p.m. that day, Roosevelt died. As Allen Drury later said, \"so ended an era, and so began another.\" After Roosevelt's death, an editorial by The New York Times declared, \"Men will thank God on their knees a hundred years from now that Franklin D. Roosevelt was in the White House\". \n\nAt the time he collapsed, Roosevelt had been sitting for a portrait painting by the artist Elizabeth Shoumatoff, known as the famous Unfinished Portrait of FDR.\n\nIn his later years at the White House, when Roosevelt was increasingly overworked, his daughter Anna Roosevelt Boettiger had moved in to provide her father companionship and support. Anna had also arranged for her father to meet with his former mistress, the now widowed Lucy Mercer Rutherfurd. Shoumatoff, who maintained close friendships with both Roosevelt and Mercer, rushed Mercer away to avoid negative publicity and implications of infidelity.\n\nOn the morning of April 13, Roosevelt's body was placed in a flag-draped coffin and loaded onto the presidential train. After a White House funeral on April 14, Roosevelt was transported back to Hyde Park by train. As was his wish, Roosevelt was buried in the Rose Garden of the Springwood estate, the Roosevelt family home in Hyde Park on April 15. Eleanor, who died in November 1962, is interred next to him.\n\nRoosevelt's death was met with shock and grief across the US and around the world. His declining health had not been known to the general public.\n\nLess than a month after his death, on May 8, the war in Europe ended. President Harry S. Truman dedicated Victory in Europe Day and its celebrations to Roosevelt's memory, and kept the flags across the U.S. at half-staff for the remainder of the 30-day mourning period, saying that his only wish was \"that Franklin D. Roosevelt had lived to witness this day.\"\n\nSupreme Court appointments 1933–45\n\nPresident Roosevelt appointed eight Justices to the Supreme Court of the United States, more than any other President except George Washington, who appointed ten. By 1941, eight of the nine Justices were Roosevelt appointees. Harlan Fiske Stone was elevated to Chief Justice from the position of Associate Justice by Roosevelt.\n\nRoosevelt's appointees would not share ideologies, and some, like Hugo Black and Felix Frankfurter, would become \"lifelong adversaries.\" Frankfurter even labeled his more liberal colleagues Rutledge, Murphy, Black, and Douglas as part of an \"Axis\" of opposition to his judicial restraint agenda.\n\nCivil rights\n\nRoosevelt was a hero to major minority groups, especially African Americans, Catholics, and Jews, and was highly successful in attracting large majorities of these voters into his New Deal coalition. He won strong support from Chinese Americans and Filipino Americans, but not Japanese Americans, as he was responsible for their losses due to internship in concentration camps during the war. Roosevelt's understanding and awareness of problems in the world of the American Indians was questioned during the Hopi Hearings which were held in 1955.\n\nAfrican Americans and Native Americans fared well in two New Deal relief programs, the Civilian Conservation Corps and the Indian Reorganization Act, respectively. Sitkoff reported that the WPA \"provided an economic floor for the whole black community in the 1930s, rivaling both agriculture and domestic service as the chief source\" of income.\n\nAnother significant change was establishment in 1941 of the Fair Employment Practices Committee, to implement Executive Order 8802 prohibiting racial and religious discrimination in employment among defense contractors. This was the first national program directed against employment discrimination. African Americans who gained defense industry jobs in the 1940s shared in the higher wages; in the 1950s they had gained in relative economic position, about 14% higher than other blacks who were not in such industries. Their moves into manufacturing positions were critical to their success. \n\nRoosevelt needed the support of the powerful white Southern Democrats for his New Deal programs, and blacks were still disenfranchised in the South. He decided against pushing for federal anti-lynching legislation. It was not likely to pass and the political fight might threaten his ability to pass his highest priority programs—though he did denounce lynchings as \"a vile form of collective murder\". The frequency of lynchings had declined since the early decades of the century, in part due to the African Americans' Great Migration out of the South; millions were still leaving it behind.\n\nHistorian Kevin J. McMahon claims that strides were made for the civil rights of African Americans. In Roosevelt's Justice Department, the Civil Rights Section worked closely with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Roosevelt worked with other civil rights groups on cases dealing with police brutality, lynching, and voting rights abuses. \n\nBeginning in the 1960s, FDR was charged with not acting decisively enough to prevent or stop the Holocaust. Critics cite instances such as the 1939 episode in which 936 Jewish refugees on the SS St. Louis were denied asylum and not allowed into the United States because of strict laws passed by Congress.\n\nThe issue of desegregating the armed forces did not arise, but in 1940 Roosevelt appointed former federal judge William H. Hastie, an African American, to be a civilian aide to Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson. On the home front on June 25, 1941, Roosevelt signed Executive Order 8802, forbidding discrimination on account of \"race, creed, color, or national origin\" in the hiring of workers in defense related industries. This was a precursor to Title VII of the Civil Rights Act to come decades later.\n\nHowever, enemy aliens and people of Japanese ancestry fared badly. On February 19, 1942, Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066 that applied to everyone classified as an \"enemy alien\", including people who had dual citizenship living in designated high-risk areas that covered most of the cities on the West Coast. With the U.S. at war with Italy, some 600,000 Italian aliens (citizens of Italy who did not have U.S. citizenship) were subjected to strict travel restrictions; the restrictions were lifted in October 1942. Moreover, some 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry were forced to leave the West Coast. From 1942 to 1945, they lived in internment camps inland. Those outside the West Coast, and in Hawaii, were not affected.\n\nCriticism of Roosevelt\n\nDuring his presidency, and continuing to a lesser extent today, there has been much criticism of Roosevelt, some of it intense. Critics have questioned not only his policies and positions, consolidation of power that occurred due to his responses to the crises of the Depression, and World War, but also his breaking with tradition by running for a third term as president. \n\nBy the middle of his second term, much criticism of Roosevelt centered on fears that he was heading toward a dictatorship, by attempting to seize control of the Supreme Court in the court-packing incident of 1937, by attempting to eliminate dissent within the Democratic party in the South during the 1938 elections, and by breaking the tradition established by George Washington of not seeking a third term when he again ran for re-election in 1940. As two historians explain, \"In 1940, with the two-term issue as a weapon, anti-New Dealers...argued that the time had come to disarm the 'dictator' and to dismantle the machinery.\" \n\nAs President, Roosevelt was hit from both the right and the left. He came under attack for his supposed anti-business policies, for being a \"warmonger\", for being a \"Fascist\" and for being too friendly to Joseph Stalin. Long after his death, new lines of attack criticized his policies regarding helping the Jews of Europe, incarcerating the Japanese on the West Coast, and opposing anti-lynching legislation. \n\nLegacy\n\nA majority of polls rank Roosevelt as the second or third greatest president, consistent with other surveys. Roosevelt is the sixth most admired person from the 20th century by U.S. citizens, according to Gallup. Roosevelt was also widely beloved for his role in repealing Prohibition. \n\nThe rapid expansion of government programs that occurred during Roosevelt's term redefined the role of the government in the United States, and Roosevelt's advocacy of government social programs was instrumental in redefining liberalism for coming generations. \n\nRoosevelt firmly established the United States' leadership role on the world stage, with his role in shaping and financing World War II. His isolationist critics faded away, and even the Republicans joined in his overall policies. After his death, his widow continued to be a forceful presence in US and world politics, serving as delegate to the conference which established the United Nations and championing civil rights and liberalism generally. Many members of his administration played leading roles in the administrations of Truman, Kennedy and Johnson, each of whom embraced Roosevelt's political legacy. \n\nReflecting on Roosevelt's presidency, \"which brought the United States through the Great Depression and World War II to a prosperous future\", said FDR's biographer Jean Edward Smith in 2007, \"He lifted himself from a wheelchair to lift the nation from its knees.\"\n\nBoth during and after his terms, critics of Roosevelt questioned not only his policies and positions, but even more so the consolidation of power in the White House at a time when dictators were taking over Europe and Asia. Many of the New Deal programs were abolished during the war by FDR's opponents. The powerful new wartime agencies were set up to be temporary and expire at war's end. \n\nRoosevelt's home in Hyde Park is now a National Historic Site and home to his Presidential library. His retreat at Warm Springs, Georgia is a museum operated by the state of Georgia. His summer retreat on Campobello Island is maintained by the governments of both Canada and the United States as Roosevelt Campobello International Park; the island is accessible by way of the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Bridge.\n\nWashington D.C. hosts two memorials to the former president. The largest, the 7.50-acre Roosevelt Memorial, is located next to the Jefferson Memorial on the Tidal Basin. A much more modest memorial, a block of marble in front of the National Archives building, was erected in 1955 and adheres to President Roosevelt's explicit suggestion as to what his memorial should be.\n\nThree public sculptures of Roosevelt sitting in a wheelchair are known to exist. Two are at the Roosevelt Memorial, one of FDR sitting in a chair with small wheels – mostly obscured by his cape, another of FDR in a wheelchair at the entrance to the memorial; a third statue, unveiled in April 2008, is part of the \"Paseo de los Presidentes\" on the south side of Puerto Rico's Capitol Building, which honors the nine presidents who have visited the US territory while in office. Another statue is installed at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms Park on Roosevelt Island.\n\nRoosevelt's leadership in the March of Dimes is one reason he is commemorated on the American dime. \n\nMany parks and schools, as well as an aircraft carrier and a Paris subway station and hundreds of streets and squares both across the U.S. and the rest of the world have been named in his honor.\n\nRoosevelt was a strong supporter of scouting, beginning in 1915.\n\nRoosevelt was honored by the United States Postal Service with a Prominent Americans series 6¢ postage stamp, issue of 1966. He also appears on several other U.S. Postage stamps. Roosevelt was a devoted philatelist from the age of ten, spending some time almost every day with his collection of 1.25 million stamps. As president government agencies sent Roosevelt unusual stamps they received in the mail, and the hobby gave him an unusually thorough knowledge of world geography which benefited him during the war. After his death the collection was sold for $250,000. Among the items was a group of envelopes Roosevelt saved that he received as president; those with compliments were addressed \"To the Greatest Man in the World\" and \"God's Gift to the U.S.A.\", while less favorable letters arrived in envelopes labeled \"F.D. Russianvelt, President of U.S.A., C.I.O.\", \"Benedict Arnold 2nd\", and \"Rattlesnake Roosevelt\".\n\nThe airport of the Dutch Caribbean island of St. Eustatius is named F.D. Roosevelt Airport after Roosevelt, whose ancestors lived on the island in the 18th century. Most of the arms and supplies for General Washington's fight against the British came to North America through St. Eustatius. When in the port of the island in 1939, Roosevelt presented the inhabitants with a plaque commemorating that in 1776 \"Here the sovereignty of the United States of America was first formally acknowledged to a national vessel by a foreign official\", the famous \"First Salute\". The plaque hangs on the flag pole of the island's Fort Oranje. \n\nRoosevelt was the last President of the United States to serve more than two terms in office; in 1947, the 22nd Amendment limiting Presidential terms was ratified by the states.\n\nPortraits\n\nPhotos\n\nFile:FDR in 1893-crop.jpg|Age 11, 1893\nFile:FDR at Groton April 1900-crop.jpg|Age 18, Massachusetts, 1900\nFile:Franklin Roosevelt Secretary of the Navy 1913-crop.jpg|Age 31, Assistant Secretary of the Navy, 1913\nFile:Roosevelt20.jpg|Age 37, circa 1919\nFile:FDR in 1933.jpg|Age 51, first year as president, 1933\nFile:1944 portrait of FDR (1).jpg|Age 62, portrait before the 1944 campaign\n\nPaintings\n\nFile:FRoosevelt.png|Gubernatorial portrait, ca. 1941\nFile:Froosevelt.jpeg|Official presidential portrait, 1947\n\nAppendix\n\nCabinet\n\nMedia", "The Infamy Speech was a speech delivered by United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt to a Joint Session of Congress on December 8, 1941, one day after the Empire of Japan's attack on the US naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The name derives from the first line of the speech: Roosevelt describing the previous day as \"a date which will live in infamy\". The speech is also commonly referred to as the \"Pearl Harbor Speech.\"\n\nWithin an hour of the speech, Congress passed a formal declaration of war against Japan and officially brought the U.S. into World War II. The address is one of the most famous of all American political speeches. \n\nCommentary \n\nThe Infamy Speech was brief, running to just a little over seven minutes. Secretary of State Cordell Hull had recommended that the President devote more time to a fuller exposition of Japanese-American relations and the lengthy but unsuccessful effort to find a peaceful solution. However, Roosevelt kept the speech short in the belief that it would have a more dramatic effect. \n\nHis revised statement was all the stronger for its emphatic insistence that posterity would forever endorse the American view of the attack. It was intended not merely as a personal response by the President, but as a statement on behalf of the entire American people in the face of a great collective trauma. In proclaiming the indelibility of the attack and expressing outrage at its \"dastardly\" nature, the speech worked to crystallize and channel the response of the nation into a collective response and resolve. \n\nThe first paragraph of the speech was carefully worded to reinforce Roosevelt's portrayal of the United States as the innocent victim of unprovoked Japanese aggression. The wording was deliberately passive. Rather than taking the active voice—i.e. \"Japan attacked the United States\"—Roosevelt chose to put in the foreground the object being acted upon, namely the United States, to emphasize America's status as a victim. The theme of \"innocence violated\" was further reinforced by Roosevelt's recounting of the ongoing diplomatic negotiations with Japan, which the president characterized as having been pursued cynically and dishonestly by the Japanese government while it was secretly preparing for war against the United States. \n\nRoosevelt consciously sought to avoid making the sort of more abstract appeal that had been issued by President Woodrow Wilson in his own speech to Congress in April 1917, when the United States entered World War I. Wilson laid out the strategic threat posed by Germany and stressed the idealistic goals behind America's participation in the war. During the 1930s, however, American public opinion turned strongly against such themes and was wary of, if not actively hostile to, idealistic visions of remaking the world through a \"just war\". Roosevelt therefore chose to make an appeal aimed more at the gut level—in effect, an appeal to patriotism rather than to idealism. Nonetheless, he took pains to draw a symbolic link with the April 1917 declaration of war; when he went to Congress on December 8, 1941, he was accompanied by Edith Bolling Wilson, President Wilson's widow. \n\nThe \"infamy framework\" adopted by Roosevelt was given additional resonance by the fact that it followed the pattern of earlier narratives of great American defeats. The Battle of the Little Bighorn in 1876 and the sinking of the USS Maine in 1898 had both been the source of intense national outrage and a determination to take the fight to the enemy. Defeats and setbacks were on each occasion portrayed as being merely a springboard towards an eventual and inevitable victory. As Professor Sandra Silberstein observes, Roosevelt's speech followed a well-established tradition of how \"through rhetorical conventions, presidents assume extraordinary powers as the commander in chief, dissent is minimized, enemies are vilified, and lives are lost in the defense of a nation once again united under God.\" \n\nRoosevelt expertly employed one of the three terms defined by the ancient Sophists as essential to their definition of rhetoric. Coming from over two thousand years ago, the idea of kairos, which relates to speaking in a timely manner, makes this speech powerful and rhetorically important. Delivering his speech on the day after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Roosevelt presented himself as immediately ready to face this issue, indicating its importance to both him and the nation. As Campbell notes in Deeds Done in Words: Presidential Rhetoric and the Genres of Governance, war rhetoric is similar to inaugural rhetoric in that the speaker utilizes their speech to inform their audience that now is the necessary time for them to take charge. In this sense, the timing of the speech in coordination with Roosevelt’s powerful war rhetoric allowed the immediate and almost unanimous approval of Congress to go to war. Essentially, Roosevelt’s speech and timing extended his executive powers to not only declaring war but also making war, a power that constitutionally belongs to Congress.\n\nThe overall tone of the speech was one of determined realism. Roosevelt made no attempt to paper over the great damage that had been caused to the American armed forces, noting (without giving figures, as casualty reports were still being compiled) that \"very many American lives have been lost\" in the attack. However, he emphasized his confidence in the strength of the American people to face up to the challenge posed by Japan, citing the \"unbounded determination of our people\". He sought to reassure the public that steps were being taken to ensure their safety, noting his own role as \"Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy\" (the United States Air Force was at this time part of the U.S. Army) and declaring that he had already \"directed that all measures be taken for our defense.\"\n\nRoosevelt also made a point of emphasizing that \"our people, our territory and our interests are in grave danger\" and highlighted reports of Japanese attacks in the Pacific between Hawaii and San Francisco. In so doing, he sought to silence the isolationist movement which had campaigned so strongly against American involvement in the war in Europe. If the territory and waters of the continental United States—not just outlying possessions such as the Philippines—was seen as being under direct threat, isolationism would become an unsustainable course of action. Roosevelt's speech had the desired effect, with only one Representative (Jeannette Rankin) voting against the declaration of war he sought; the wider isolationist movement collapsed almost immediately.\n\nThe speech's \"infamy\" line is often misquoted as \"a day that will live in infamy\". However, Roosevelt quite deliberately chose to emphasize the date—December 7, 1941—rather than the day of the attack, a Sunday, which he mentioned only in the last line when he said, \"...Sunday, December 7th, 1941,...\". He sought to emphasize the historic nature of the events at Pearl Harbor, implicitly urging the American people never to forget the attack and memorialize its date. Notwithstanding, the term \"day of infamy\" has become widely used by the media to refer to any moment of supreme disgrace or evil. \n\nImpact and legacy \n\nRoosevelt's speech had an immediate and long-lasting impact on American politics. Thirty-three minutes after he finished speaking, Congress declared war on Japan, with only one Representative, Jeannette Rankin, voting against the declaration. The speech was broadcast live by radio and attracted the largest audience in US radio history, with over 81 percent of American homes tuning in to hear the President. The response was overwhelmingly positive, both within and outside of Congress. Judge Samuel Irving Rosenman, who served as an adviser to Roosevelt, described the scene:\n\nThe White House was inundated with telegrams praising the president's stance (\"On that Sunday we were dismayed and frightened, but your unbounded courage pulled us together.\" ). Recruiting stations were jammed with a surge of volunteers and had to go on 24-hour duty to deal with the crowds seeking to sign up, in numbers reported to be twice as high as after Woodrow Wilson's declaration of war in 1917. The anti-war and isolationist movement collapsed in the wake of the speech, with even the president's fiercest critics falling into line. Charles Lindbergh, who had been a leading isolationist, declared:\n\nRoosevelt's framing of the Pearl Harbor attack became, in effect, the standard American narrative of the events of December 7, 1941. Hollywood enthusiastically adopted the narrative in a number of war films. Wake Island, the Academy Award-winning Air Force and the films Man from Frisco (1944), and Betrayal from the East (1945), all included actual radio reports of the pre-December 7 negotiations with the Japanese, reinforcing the message of enemy duplicity. Across the Pacific (1942), Salute to the Marines (1943), and Spy Ship (1942), used a similar device, relating the progress of US–Japanese relations through newspaper headlines. The theme of American innocence betrayed was also frequently depicted on screen, the melodramatic aspects of the narrative lending themselves naturally to the movies. \n\nThe President's description of December 7 as \"a date which will live in infamy\" was borne out; the date very quickly became shorthand for the Pearl Harbor attack in much the same way that September 11 became inextricably associated with the 2001 terrorist attacks. The slogans \"Remember December 7th\" and \"Avenge December 7\" were adopted as a rallying cry and were widely displayed on posters and lapel pins. Prelude to War (1942), the first of Frank Capra's Why We Fight film series (1942–45), urged Americans to remember the date of the Japanese invasion of Manchuria, September 18, 1931, \"as well as we remember December 7th 1941, for on that date in 1931 the war we are now fighting began.\" The symbolism of the date was highlighted in a scene in the 1943 film Bombardier, in which the leader of a group of airmen walks up to a calendar on the wall, points to the date (\"December 7, 1941\") and tells his men: \"Gentlemen, there's a date we will always remember—and they'll never forget!\" \n\nSixty years later, the continuing resonance of the Infamy Speech was demonstrated following the September 11, 2001 attacks, which many commentators compared with Pearl Harbor in terms of its impact and deadliness. In the days following the attacks, author Richard Jackson notes in his book Writing the War on Terrorism: Language, Politics and Counter-terrorism that \"there [was] a deliberate and sustained effort\" on the part of the George W. Bush administration to \"discursively link September 11, 2001 to the attack on Pearl Harbor itself\", both by directly invoking Roosevelt's Infamy Speech and by re-using the themes employed by Roosevelt in his speech. In Bush's speech to the nation on September 11, 2001, he contrasted the \"evil, despicable acts of terror\" with the \"brightest beacon for freedom and opportunity\" that America represented in his view. University of Washington Professor and author Sandra Silberstein draws direct parallels between the language used by Roosevelt and Bush, highlighting a number of similarities between the Infamy Speech and Bush's presidential address of September 11. Similarly, Emily S. Rosenberg notes rhetorical efforts to link the conflicts of 1941 and 2001 by re-utilizing Second World War terminology of the sort used by Roosevelt, such as using the term \"axis\" to refer to America's enemies (as in \"Axis of Evil\").\n\nMedia\n\nImage:Infamy-address-1.gif|An annotated version of the speech, showing the original wording \"a date which will live in world history\"\nImage:Noentanglements.jpg|Anti-war protest sign prior to U.S. entry into World War II.\nImage:Franklin Roosevelt signing declaration of war against Japan.jpg|Franklin D. Roosevelt signing the declaration of war against Japan.\nImage:Avenge december 7.jpg| \"Avenge December 7!\" US Government propaganda poster of 1942", "The attack on Pearl Harbor, also known as the Battle of Pearl Harbor, the Hawaii Operation or Operation AI by the Japanese Imperial General Headquarters, and Operation Z during planning, was a surprise military strike by the Imperial Japanese Navy against the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii Territory, on the morning of December 7, 1941. The attack led to the United States' entry into World War II.\n\nJapan intended the attack as a preventive action to keep the U.S. Pacific Fleet from interfering with military actions the Empire of Japan planned in Southeast Asia against overseas territories of the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and the United States. Over the next seven hours there were coordinated Japanese attacks on the U.S.-held Philippines, Guam and Wake Island and on the British Empire in Malaya, Singapore, and Hong Kong. \n\nThe attack commenced at 7:48 a.m. Hawaiian Time. The base was attacked by 353 Imperial Japanese fighter planes, bombers, and torpedo planes in two waves, launched from six aircraft carriers. All eight U.S. Navy battleships were damaged, with four sunk. All but were later raised, and six were returned to service and went on to fight in the war. The Japanese also sank or damaged three cruisers, three destroyers, an anti-aircraft training ship, and one minelayer. 188 U.S. aircraft were destroyed; 2,403 Americans were killed and 1,178 others were wounded. Important base installations such as the power station, shipyard, maintenance, and fuel and torpedo storage facilities, as well as the submarine piers and headquarters building (also home of the intelligence section) were not attacked. Japanese losses were light: 29 aircraft and five midget submarines lost, and 64 servicemen killed. One Japanese sailor, Kazuo Sakamaki, was captured.\n\nThe attack came as a profound shock to the American people and led directly to the American entry into World War II in both the Pacific and European theaters. The following day, December 8, the United States declared war on Japan. Domestic support for non-interventionism, which had been fading since the Fall of France in 1940, disappeared. Clandestine support of the United Kingdom (e.g., the Neutrality Patrol) was replaced by active alliance. Subsequent operations by the U.S. prompted Germany and Italy to declare war on the U.S. on December 11, which was reciprocated by the U.S. the same day.\n\nFrom the 1950s, several writers alleged that parties high in the U.S. and British governments knew of the attack in advance and may have let it happen (or even encouraged it) with the aim of bringing the U.S. into war. However, this advance-knowledge conspiracy theory is rejected by mainstream historians. \n\nThere were numerous historical precedents for unannounced military action by Japan. However, the lack of any formal warning, particularly while negotiations were still apparently ongoing, led President Franklin D. Roosevelt to proclaim December 7, 1941, \"a date which will live in infamy\". Because the attack happened without a declaration of war and without explicit warning, the attack on Pearl Harbor was judged by the Tokyo Trials to be a war crime. \n\nBackground to conflict\n\nDiplomatic background\n\nWar between Japan and the United States had been a possibility of which each nation had been aware (and developed contingency plans for) since the 1920s, though tensions did not begin to grow seriously until Japan's 1931 invasion of Manchuria. Over the next decade, Japan continued to expand into China, leading to all-out war between those countries in 1937. Japan spent considerable effort trying to isolate China and achieve sufficient resource independence to attain victory on the mainland; the \"Southern Operation\" was designed to assist these efforts. \n\nFrom December 1937, events such as the Japanese attack on USS Panay, the Allison incident, and the Nanking Massacre (the International Military Tribunal of the Far East concluded that more than 200,000 Chinese non-combatants were killed in indiscriminate massacres, though other estimates have ranged from 40,000 to more than 300,000) swung public opinion in the West sharply against Japan. Fearing Japanese expansion, the United States, the United Kingdom, and France provided loan assistance for war supply contracts to the Republic of China.\n\nIn 1940, Japan invaded French Indochina in an effort to control supplies reaching China. The United States halted shipments of airplanes, parts, machine tools, and aviation gasoline to Japan, which was perceived by Japan as an unfriendly act. The U.S. did not stop oil exports to Japan at that time in part because prevailing sentiment in Washington was that such an action would be an extreme step that Japan would likely consider a provocation, given Japanese dependence on U.S. oil. \n\nEarly in 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt moved the Pacific Fleet to Hawaii from its previous base in San Diego and ordered a military buildup in the Philippines in the hope of discouraging Japanese aggression in the Far East. Because the Japanese high command was (mistakenly) certain that any attack on the UK's Southeast Asian colonies would bring the U.S. into war, a devastating preventive strike appeared to be the only way to avoid U.S. naval interference. An invasion of the Philippines was also considered necessary by Japanese war planners. The U.S. War Plan Orange had envisioned defending the Philippines with a 40,000-man elite force. This was opposed by Douglas MacArthur, who felt that he would need a force ten times that size, and was never implemented. By 1941, U.S. planners anticipated abandonment of the Philippines at the outbreak of war and orders to that effect were given in late 1941 to Admiral Thomas Hart, commander of the Asiatic Fleet. \n\nThe U.S. ceased oil exports to Japan in July 1941, following Japanese expansion into French Indochina after the fall of France, in part because of new American restrictions on domestic oil consumption. This in turn caused the Japanese to proceed with plans to take the Dutch East Indies, an oil-rich territory. On August 17, Roosevelt warned Japan that the U.S. was prepared to take steps against Japan if it attacked \"neighboring countries\". The Japanese were faced with the option of either withdrawing from China and losing face or seizing and securing new sources of raw materials in the resource-rich, European-controlled colonies of Southeast Asia.\n\nJapan and the U.S. engaged in negotiations during the course of 1941 in an effort to improve relations. During these negotiations, Japan offered to withdraw from most of China and Indochina when peace was made with the Nationalist government, adopt an independent interpretation of the Tripartite Pact, and not to discriminate in trade provided all other countries reciprocated. Washington rejected these proposals. Japanese Prime Minister Konoye then offered to personally meet with Roosevelt, but Roosevelt insisted on coming to an agreement before any meeting. The U.S. ambassador to Japan repeatedly urged Roosevelt to accept the meeting, warning that it was the only way to preserve the conciliatory Konoye government and peace in the Pacific. His recommendation was not acted upon. The Konoye government collapsed the following month when the Japanese military refused to agree to the withdrawal of all troops from China. \n\nJapan's final proposal, on November 20, offered to withdraw their forces from southern Indochina and not to launch any attacks in Southeast Asia provided that the U.S., the UK, and the Netherlands ceased aiding China and lifted their sanctions against Japan. The American counter-proposal of November 26 (November 27 in Japan) (the Hull note) required Japan to evacuate all of China without conditions and conclude non-aggression pacts with Pacific powers. However the day before the Hull Note was delivered, on November 26 in Japan, the main Japanese attack fleet left port for Pearl Harbor.\n\nMilitary planning\n\nPreliminary planning for an attack on Pearl Harbor to protect the move into the \"Southern Resource Area\" (the Japanese term for the Dutch East Indies and Southeast Asia generally) had begun very early in 1941 under the auspices of Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, then commanding Japan's Combined Fleet. He won assent to formal planning and training for an attack from the Imperial Japanese Navy General Staff only after much contention with Naval Headquarters, including a threat to resign his command. Full-scale planning was underway by early spring 1941, primarily by Rear Admiral Ryunosuke Kusaka, with assistance from Captain Minoru Genda and Yamamoto's Deputy Chief of Staff, Captain Kameto Kuroshima. The planners studied the 1940 British air attack on the Italian fleet at Taranto intensively.\n\nOver the next several months, pilots trained, equipment was adapted, and intelligence collected. Despite these preparations, Emperor Hirohito did not approve the attack plan until November 5, after the third of four Imperial Conferences called to consider the matter. Final authorization was not given by the emperor until December 1, after a majority of Japanese leaders advised him the \"Hull Note\" would \"destroy the fruits of the China incident, endanger Manchukuo and undermine Japanese control of Korea.\" \n\nBy late 1941, many observers believed that hostilities between the U.S. and Japan were imminent. A Gallup poll just before the attack on Pearl Harbor found that 52% of Americans expected war with Japan, 27% did not, and 21% had no opinion. While U.S. Pacific bases and facilities had been placed on alert on many occasions, U.S. officials doubted Pearl Harbor would be the first target; instead, they expected the Philippines would be attacked first. This presumption was due to the threat that the air bases throughout the country and the naval base at Manila posed to sea lanes, as well as to the shipment of supplies to Japan from territory to the south. They also incorrectly believed that Japan was not capable of mounting more than one major naval operation at a time. \n\nEver since the Japanese attack, there has been debate as to how and why the United States had been caught unaware, and how much and when American officials knew of Japanese plans and related topics. Military officers including Gen. Billy Mitchell had pointed out the vulnerabiliy of Pearl to Air attack. At least two Naval War games, one in 1932 and another in 1936 proved that Pearl was vulnerable to such an attack. Adm. James Richardson was removed from command shortly after protesting President Roosevelt's decision to move the bulk of the Pacific fleet to Pearl Harbor. The decisions of military and political leadership to ignore these warnings has contributed to conspiracy theories. Several writers, including journalist Robert Stinnett and former United States rear admiral Robert Alfred Theobald, have argued that various parties high in the U.S. and British governments knew of the attack in advance and may even have let it happen or encouraged it in order to force the U.S. into war via the so-called \"back door\". However, this Pearl Harbor advance-knowledge conspiracy theory is rejected by mainstream historians. \n\nObjectives\n\nThe attack had several major aims. First, it intended to destroy important American fleet units, thereby preventing the Pacific Fleet from interfering with Japanese conquest of the Dutch East Indies and Malaya and to enable Japan to conquer Southeast Asia without interference. Second, it was hoped to buy time for Japan to consolidate its position and increase its naval strength before shipbuilding authorized by the 1940 Vinson-Walsh Act erased any chance of victory.. Third, to deliver a blow to America's ability to commit its forces in the Pacific, battleships were chosen as the main targets, since they were the prestige ships of any navy at the time. Finally, it was hoped that the attack would undermine American morale such that the U.S. government would drop its demands contrary to Japanese interests, and would seek a compromise peace with Japan. \n\nStriking the Pacific Fleet at anchor in Pearl Harbor carried two distinct disadvantages: the targeted ships would be in very shallow water, so it would be relatively easy to salvage and possibly repair them; and most of the crews would survive the attack, since many would be on shore leave or would be rescued from the harbor. A further important disadvantage—this of timing, and known to the Japanese—was the absence from Pearl Harbor of all three of the U.S. Pacific Fleet's aircraft carriers (, , and ). IJN top command was so imbued with Admiral Mahan's \"decisive battle\" doctrine—especially that of destroying the maximum number of battleships—that, despite these concerns, Yamamoto decided to press ahead. \n\nJapanese confidence in their ability to achieve a short, victorious war also meant other targets in the harbor, especially the navy yard, oil tank farms, and submarine base, were ignored, since—by their thinking—the war would be over before the influence of these facilities would be felt. \n\nApproach and attack\n\nOn November 26, 1941, a Japanese task force (the Striking Force) of six aircraft carriers—, , , , , and —departed northern Japan en route to a position northwest of Hawaii, intending to launch its 408 aircraft to attack Pearl Harbor: 360 for the two attack waves and 48 on defensive combat air patrol (CAP), including nine fighters from the first wave.\n\nThe first wave was to be the primary attack, while the second wave was to attack carriers as its first objective and cruisers as its second, with battleships as the third target. The first wave carried most of the weapons to attack capital ships, mainly specially adapted Type 91 aerial torpedoes which were designed with an anti-roll mechanism and a rudder extension that let them operate in shallow water. The aircrews were ordered to select the highest value targets (battleships and aircraft carriers) or, if these were not present, any other high value ships (cruisers and destroyers). First wave dive bombers were to attack ground targets. Fighters were ordered to strafe and destroy as many parked aircraft as possible to ensure they did not get into the air to intercept the bombers, especially in the first wave. When the fighters' fuel got low they were to refuel at the aircraft carriers and return to combat. Fighters were to serve CAP duties where needed, especially over U.S. airfields.\n\nBefore the attack commenced, two reconnaissance aircraft launched from cruisers and were sent to scout over Oahu and Maui and report on U.S. fleet composition and location. Reconnaissance aircraft flights risked alerting the U.S., and were not necessary. U.S. fleet composition and preparedness information in Pearl Harbor was already known due to the reports of the Japanese spy Takeo Yoshikawa. A report of the absence of the U.S. fleet in Lahaina anchorage off Maui was received from the fleet submarine . Another four scout planes patrolled the area between the Japanese carrier force (the Kido Butai) and Niihau, to detect any counterattack. \n\nSubmarines\n\nFleet submarines , , , , and each embarked a Type A midget submarine for transport to the waters off Oahu. The five I-boats left Kure Naval District on November 25, 1941. On December 6, they came to within 10 nmi of the mouth of Pearl Harbor and launched their midget subs at about 01:00 on December 7. At 03:42 Hawaiian Time, the minesweeper spotted a midget submarine periscope southwest of the Pearl Harbor entrance buoy and alerted the destroyer . The midget may have entered Pearl Harbor. However, Ward sank another midget submarine at 06:37 in the first American shots in the Pacific Theater. A midget submarine on the north side of Ford Island missed the seaplane tender with her first torpedo and missed the attacking destroyer with her other one before being sunk by Monaghan at 08:43.\n\nA third midget submarine, Ha-19, grounded twice, once outside the harbor entrance and again on the east side of Oahu, where it was captured on December 8. Ensign Kazuo Sakamaki swam ashore and was captured by Hawaii National Guard Corporal David Akui, becoming the first Japanese prisoner of war. A fourth had been damaged by a depth charge attack and was abandoned by its crew before it could fire its torpedoes. Japanese forces received a radio message from a midget submarine at 00:41 on December 8 claiming damage to one or more large warships inside Pearl Harbor. \n\nIn 1992, 2000, and 2001, Hawaii Undersea Research Laboratory's submersibles found the wreck of the fifth midget submarine lying in three parts outside Pearl Harbor. The wreck was in the debris field where much surplus U.S. equipment was dumped after the war, including vehicles and landing craft. Both of its torpedoes were missing. This correlates with reports of two torpedoes fired at the light cruiser at 10:04 at the entrance of Pearl Harbor, and a possible torpedo fired at destroyer at 08:21. \n\nJapanese declaration of war\n\nThe attack took place before any formal declaration of war was made by Japan, but this was not Admiral Yamamoto's intention. He originally stipulated that the attack should not commence until thirty minutes after Japan had informed the United States that peace negotiations were at an end. However, the attack began before the notice could be delivered. Tokyo transmitted the 5000-word notification (commonly called the \"14-Part Message\") in two blocks to the Japanese Embassy in Washington, but transcribing the message took too long for the Japanese ambassador to deliver it in time. (In fact, U.S. code breakers had already deciphered and translated most of the message hours before he was scheduled to deliver it.) The final part of the \"14 Part Message\" is sometimes described as a declaration of war. While it was viewed by a number of senior U.S government and military officials as a very strong indicator that negotiations were likely to be terminated and that war might break out at any moment, it neither declared war nor severed diplomatic relations. A declaration of war was printed on the front page of Japan's newspapers in the evening edition of December 8, but not delivered to the U.S. government until the day after the attack.\n\nFor decades, conventional wisdom held that Japan attacked without any official warning of a break in relations only because of accidents and bumbling that delayed the delivery of a document hinting at war to Washington. In 1999, however, Takeo Iguchi, a professor of law and international relations at International Christian University in Tokyo, discovered documents that pointed to a vigorous debate inside the government over how, and indeed whether, to notify Washington of Japan's intention to break off negotiations and start a war, including a December 7 entry in the war diary saying, \"our deceptive diplomacy is steadily proceeding toward success.\" Of this, Iguchi said, \"The diary shows that the army and navy did not want to give any proper declaration of war, or indeed prior notice even of the termination of negotiations ... and they clearly prevailed.\" \n\nFirst wave composition\n\nThe first attack wave of 183 planes was launched north of Oahu, led by Commander Mitsuo Fuchida. Six planes failed to launch due to technical difficulties. It included:\n* 1st Group (targets: battleships and aircraft carriers)\n** 49 Nakajima B5N Kate bombers armed with 800 kg (1760 lb) armor-piercing bombs, organized in four sections (1 failed to launch)\n** 40 B5N bombers armed with Type 91 torpedoes, also in four sections\n* 2nd Group – (targets: Ford Island and Wheeler Field)\n** 51 Aichi D3A Val dive bombers armed with 550 lb general-purpose bombs (3 failed to launch)\n* 3rd Group – (targets: aircraft at Ford Island, Hickam Field, Wheeler Field, Barber's Point, Kaneohe)\n** 43 Mitsubishi A6M \"Zero\" fighters for air control and strafing (2 failed to launch)\n\nAs the first wave approached Oahu, it was detected by the U.S. Army SCR-270 radar at Opana Point near the island's northern tip. This post had been in training mode for months, but was not yet operational. The operators, Privates George Elliot Jr. and Joseph Lockard, reported a target. But Lieutenant Kermit A. Tyler, a newly assigned officer at the thinly manned Intercept Center, presumed it was the scheduled arrival of six B-17 bombers from California. The Japanese planes were approaching from a direction very close (only a few degrees difference) to the bombers, and while the operators had never seen a formation as large on radar, they neglected to tell Tyler of its size. Tyler, for security reasons, could not tell the operators of the six B-17s that were due (even though it was widely known).\n\nAs the first wave planes approached Oahu, they encountered and shot down several U.S. aircraft. At least one of these radioed a somewhat incoherent warning. Other warnings from ships off the harbor entrance were still being processed or awaiting confirmation when the attacking planes began bombing and strafing. Nevertheless, it is not clear any warnings would have had much effect even if they had been interpreted correctly and much more promptly. The results the Japanese achieved in the Philippines were essentially the same as at Pearl Harbor, though MacArthur had almost nine hours warning that the Japanese had already attacked Pearl Harbor.\n\nThe air portion of the attack began at 7:48 a.m. Hawaiian Time (3:18 a.m. December 8 Japanese Standard Time, as kept by ships of the Kido Butai), with the attack on Kaneohe. A total of 353 Japanese planes in two waves reached Oahu. Slow, vulnerable torpedo bombers led the first wave, exploiting the first moments of surprise to attack the most important ships present (the battleships), while dive bombers attacked U.S. air bases across Oahu, starting with Hickam Field, the largest, and Wheeler Field, the main U.S. Army Air Forces fighter base. The 171 planes in the second wave attacked the Army Air Forces' Bellows Field near Kaneohe on the windward side of the island, and Ford Island. The only aerial opposition came from a handful of P-36 Hawks, P-40 Warhawks, and some SBD Dauntless dive bombers from the carrier .\n\nIn the first wave attack, about eight of the forty-nine 800 kg (1760 lb) armor-piercing bombs dropped hit their intended battleship targets. At least two of those bombs broke up on impact, another detonated before penetrating an unarmored deck, and one was a dud. Thirteen of the forty torpedoes hit battleships, and four torpedoes hit other ships. Men aboard U.S. ships awoke to the sounds of alarms, bombs exploding, and gunfire, prompting bleary-eyed men to dress as they ran to General Quarters stations. (The famous message, \"Air raid Pearl Harbor. This is not drill.\", was sent from the headquarters of Patrol Wing Two, the first senior Hawaiian command to respond.) The defenders were very unprepared. Ammunition lockers were locked, aircraft parked wingtip to wingtip in the open to prevent sabotage, guns unmanned (none of the Navy's 5\"/38s, only a quarter of its machine guns, and only four of 31 Army batteries got in action). Despite this low alert status, many American military personnel responded effectively during the attack. Ensign Joe Taussig Jr., aboard , commanded the ship's antiaircraft guns and was severely wounded, but continued to be on post. Lt. Commander F. J. Thomas commanded Nevada in the captain's absence and got her under way until the ship was grounded at 9:10 a.m. One of the destroyers, , got underway with only four officers aboard, all ensigns, none with more than a year's sea duty; she operated at sea for 36 hours before her commanding officer managed to get back aboard. Captain Mervyn Bennion, commanding , led his men until he was cut down by fragments from a bomb which hit , moored alongside.\n\nSecond wave composition\n\nThe second planned wave consisted of 171 planes: 54 B5Ns, 81 D3As, and 36 A6Ms, commanded by Lieutenant-Commander Shigekazu Shimazaki. Four planes failed to launch because of technical difficulties. This wave and its targets comprised:\n* 1st Group – 54 B5Ns armed with 550 lb and 132 lb general-purpose bombs\n** 27 B5Ns – aircraft and hangars on Kaneohe, Ford Island, and Barbers Point\n** 27 B5Ns – hangars and aircraft on Hickam Field\n* 2nd Group (targets: aircraft carriers and cruisers)\n** 78 D3As armed with 550 lb general-purpose bombs, in four sections (3 aborted)\n* 3rd Group – (targets: aircraft at Ford Island, Hickam Field, Wheeler Field, Barber's Point, Kaneohe)\n** 35 A6Ms for defense and strafing (1 aborted)\nThe second wave was divided into three groups. One was tasked to attack Kāneohe, the rest Pearl Harbor proper. The separate sections arrived at the attack point almost simultaneously from several directions.\n\nAmerican casualties and damages\n\nNinety minutes after it began, the attack was over. 2,008 sailors were killed and 710 others wounded; 218 soldiers and airmen (who were part of the Army until the independent U.S. Air Force was formed in 1947) were killed and 364 wounded; 109 marines were killed and 69 wounded; and 68 civilians were killed and 35 wounded. In total, 2,403 Americans died and 1,178 were wounded. Eighteen ships were sunk or run aground, including five battleships. All of the Americans killed or wounded during the attack were non-combatants, given the fact there was no state of war when the attack occurred. \n\nOf the American fatalities, nearly half were due to the explosion of 's forward magazine after it was hit by a modified 40 cm shell.\n\nAlready damaged by a torpedo and on fire amidships, Nevada attempted to exit the harbor. She was targeted by many Japanese bombers as she got under way and sustained more hits from 250 lb bombs, which started further fires. She was deliberately beached to avoid blocking the harbor entrance.\n\n was hit by two bombs and two torpedoes. The crew might have kept her afloat, but were ordered to abandon ship just as they were raising power for the pumps. Burning oil from Arizona and drifted down on her, and probably made the situation look worse than it was. The disarmed target ship was holed twice by torpedoes. West Virginia was hit by seven torpedoes, the seventh tearing away her rudder. was hit by four torpedoes, the last two above her belt armor, which caused her to capsize. was hit by two of the converted 40 cm shells, but neither caused serious damage.\n\nAlthough the Japanese concentrated on battleships (the largest vessels present), they did not ignore other targets. The light cruiser was torpedoed, and the concussion from the blast capsized the neighboring minelayer . Two destroyers in dry dock, and were destroyed when bombs penetrated their fuel bunkers. The leaking fuel caught fire; flooding the dry dock in an effort to fight fire made the burning oil rise, and both were burned out. Cassin slipped from her keel blocks and rolled against Downes. The light cruiser was holed by a torpedo. The light cruiser was damaged, but remained in service. The repair vessel , moored alongside Arizona, was heavily damaged and beached. The seaplane tender Curtiss was also damaged. The destroyer was badly damaged when two bombs penetrated her forward magazine. \n\nOf the 402 American aircraft in Hawaii, 188 were destroyed and 159 damaged, 155 of them on the ground. Almost none were actually ready to take off to defend the base. Eight Army Air Forces pilots managed to get airborne during the attack and six were credited with downing at least one Japanese aircraft during the attack: 1st Lt. Lewis M. Sanders, 2nd Lt. Philip M. Rasmussen, 2nd Lt. Kenneth M. Taylor, 2nd Lt. George S. Welch, 2nd Lt. Harry W. Brown, and 2nd Lt. Gordon H. Sterling Jr. Sterling was shot down by Lt. Fujita over Kaneohe Bay and is listed as Body Not Recovered (not Missing In Action). Lt. John L. Dains was killed by friendly fire returning from a victory over Kaawa. Of 33 PBYs in Hawaii, 24 were destroyed, and six others damaged beyond repair. (The three on patrol returned undamaged.) Friendly fire brought down some U.S. planes on top of that, including five from an inbound flight from . Japanese attacks on barracks killed additional personnel.\n\nAt the time of the attack, nine civilian aircraft were flying in the vicinity of Pearl Harbor. Of these, three were shot down.\n\nJapanese losses\n\nFifty-five Japanese airmen and nine submariners were killed in the attack, and one was captured. Of Japan's 414 available planes, 29 were lost during the battle (nine in the first attack wave, 20 in the second), with another 74 damaged by antiaircraft fire from the ground.\n\nPossible third wave\n\nSeveral Japanese junior officers including Fuchida and Genda urged Nagumo to carry out a third strike in order to destroy as much of Pearl Harbor's fuel and torpedo storage, maintenance, and dry dock facilities as possible. Genda, who had unsuccessfully advocated for invading Hawaii after the air attack, believed that without an invasion multiple strikes were necessary to disable the base as much as possible. The captains of the other five carriers in the task force reported they were willing and ready to carry out a third strike. Military historians have suggested the destruction of these shore facilities would have hampered the U.S. Pacific Fleet far more seriously than the loss of its battleships. If they had been wiped out, \"serious [American] operations in the Pacific would have been postponed for more than a year\"; according to Admiral Chester Nimitz, later Commander in Chief of the Pacific Fleet, \"it would have prolonged the war another two years.\" Nagumo, however, decided to withdraw for several reasons:\n* American anti-aircraft performance had improved considerably during the second strike, and two thirds of Japan's losses were incurred during the second wave. Nagumo felt if he launched a third strike, he would be risking three quarters of the Combined Fleet's strength to wipe out the remaining targets (which included the facilities) while suffering higher aircraft losses.\n* The location of the American carriers remained unknown. In addition, the admiral was concerned his force was now within range of American land-based bombers. Nagumo was uncertain whether the U.S. had enough surviving planes remaining on Hawaii to launch an attack against his carriers. \n* A third wave would have required substantial preparation and turnaround time, and would have meant returning planes would have had to land at night. At the time, only the (British) Royal Navy had developed night carrier techniques, so this was a substantial risk. \n* Weather had deteriorated notably since the first and second wave launching, and rough seas complicated takeoff and landing for a third wave attack.\n* The task force's fuel situation did not permit him to remain in waters north of Pearl Harbor much longer, since he was at the very limit of logistical support. To do so risked running unacceptably low on fuel, perhaps even having to abandon destroyers en route home. \n* He believed the second strike had essentially satisfied the main objective of his mission—the neutralization of the Pacific Fleet—and did not wish to risk further losses. Moreover, it was Japanese Navy practice to prefer the conservation of strength over the total destruction of the enemy. \n\nAt a conference aboard Yamato the following morning, Yamamoto initially supported Nagumo. In retrospect, sparing the vital dockyards, maintenance shops, and oil depots meant the U.S. could respond relatively quickly to Japanese activities in the Pacific. Yamamoto later regretted Nagumo's decision to withdraw and categorically stated it had been a great mistake not to order a third strike.\n\nPhotographs\n\nThe first aerial photographs of the attack on Pearl Harbor were taken by Lee Embree, who was aboard a Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress en route from Hamilton Field, California, to the Philippines. Lee's 38th Reconnaissance Squadron had scheduled a refueling stop at Hickam Field at the time of the attack.\n\nFile:Aboard a Japanese carrier before the attack on Pearl Harbor.jpg|Crew members aboard Shōkaku launching the attack.\nFile:Zero Akagi Dec1941.jpg|A Japanese Mitsubishi A6M2 \"Zero\" fighter airplane of the second wave takes off from the aircraft carrier Akagi on the morning of December 7, 1941.\nFile:Carrier shokaku.jpg|Zeroes of the second wave preparing to take off from Shōkaku for Pearl Harbor.\nFile:Japanese plane leaves Shokaku-Pearl Harbor.jpg|A Japanese Nakajima B5N2 \"Kate\" torpedo bomber takes off from Shōkaku.\nFile:Japanese planes preparing-Pearl Harbor.jpg|Japanese Aichi D3A1 \"Val\" dive bombers of the second wave preparing for take off. Aircraft carrier Sōryū in the background.\n\nFile:Akagi Aichi D3A Pearl Harbor.jpg|An Aichi D3A Type 99 kanbaku (dive bomber) launches from the Imperial Japanese Navy aircraft carrier Akagi to participate in the second wave during the attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.\nFile:USS California sinking-Pearl Harbor.jpg|Battleship USS California sinking.\nFile:Pearlharborcolork13513.jpg|Battleship USS Arizona explodes.\nFile:USS SHAW exploding Pearl Harbor Nara 80-G-16871 2.jpg|Destroyer USS Shaw exploding after her forward magazine was detonated.\n\nFile:USS Nevada attempts escape from Pearl 80G32558.jpg|Battleship USS Nevada attempting to escape from the harbor.\nFile:USS West Virginia;014824.jpg|Battleship USS West Virginia took two aerial bombs, both duds, and seven torpedo hits, one of which may have come from a midget submarine.\nFile:NARA 28-1277a.gif|A destroyed B-17 after the attack on Hickam Field.\nFile:PLanes burning-Ford Island-Pearl Harbor.jpg|Hangar on Ford Island burns\nFile:Pearl harbour.png|Aftermath: USS West Virginia (severely damaged), USS Tennessee (damaged), and USS Arizona (sunk).\n\nShips lost or damaged\n\nBattleships\n\n* (RADM Kidd's flagship of Battleship Division One): hit by four armor-piercing bombs, exploded; total loss. 1,177 dead.\n* : hit by five torpedoes, capsized; total loss. 429 dead.\n* : hit by two bombs, seven torpedoes, sunk; returned to service July 1944. 106 dead.\n* : hit by two bombs, two torpedoes, sunk; returned to service January 1944. 100 dead.\n* : hit by six bombs, one torpedo, beached; returned to service October 1942. 60 dead.\n* (ADM Kimmel's flagship of the United States Pacific Fleet): in drydock with Cassin and Downes, hit by one bomb and debris from USS Cassin; remained in service. 9 dead.\n* : hit by two bombs; returned to service February 1942. 5 dead.\n* : hit by two bombs; returned to service February 1942. 4 dead (including floatplane pilot shot down).\n\nEx-battleship (target/AA training ship)\n\n* : hit by two torpedoes, capsized; total loss. 64 dead.\n\nCruisers\n\n* : hit by one torpedo; returned to service January 1942. 20 dead.\n* : hit by one torpedo; returned to service February 1942.\n* : Near miss, light damage; remained in service.\n\nDestroyers\n\n* : in drydock with Downes and Pennsylvania, hit by one bomb, burned; returned to service February 1944.\n* : in drydock with Cassin and Pennsylvania, caught fire from Cassin, burned; returned to service November 1943.\n* : hit by three bombs; returned to service June 1942.\n\nAuxiliaries\n\n* (minelayer): Damaged by torpedo hit on Helena, capsized; returned to service (as engine-repair ship) February 1944.\n* (repair ship): hit by two bombs, blast and fire from Arizona, beached; returned to service by August 1942.\n* (seaplane tender): hit by one bomb, one crashed Japanese aircraft; returned to service January 1942. 19 dead.\n\nSalvage\n\nAfter a systematic search for survivors, formal salvage operations began. Captain Homer N. Wallin, Material Officer for Commander, Battle Force, U.S. Pacific Fleet, was immediately ordered to lead salvage operations. \"Within a short time I was relieved of all other duties and ordered to full time work as Fleet Salvage Officer\". \n\nAround Pearl Harbor, divers from the Navy (shore and tenders), the Naval Shipyard, and civilian contractors (Pacific Bridge and others) began work on the ships that could be refloated. They patched holes, cleared debris, and pumped water out of ships. Navy divers worked inside the damaged ships. Within six months, five battleships and two cruisers were patched or refloated so they could be sent to shipyards in Pearl Harbor and on the mainland for extensive repair.\n\nIntensive salvage operations continued for another year, a total of some 20,000 man-hours under water. Oklahoma, while successfully raised, was never repaired, and capsized while under tow to the mainland in 1947. Arizona and the target ship Utah were too heavily damaged for salvage, though much of their armament and equipment was removed and put to use aboard other vessels. Today, the two hulks remain where they were sunk, with Arizona becoming a war memorial.\n\nAftermath\n\nIn the wake of the attack, 15 Medals of Honor, 51 Navy Crosses, 53 Silver Stars, four Navy and Marine Corps Medals, one Distinguished Flying Cross, four Distinguished Service Crosses, one Distinguished Service Medal, and three Bronze Star Medals were awarded to the American servicemen who distinguished themselves in combat at Pearl Harbor. Additionally, a special military award, the Pearl Harbor Commemorative Medal, was later authorized for all military veterans of the attack.\n\nThe day after the attack, Roosevelt delivered his famous Infamy Speech to a Joint Session of Congress, calling for a formal declaration of war on the Empire of Japan. Congress obliged his request less than an hour later. On December 11, Germany and Italy, honoring their commitments under the Tripartite Pact, declared war on the United States. The pact was an earlier agreement between Germany, Italy and Japan which had the principal objective of limiting U.S. intervention in any conflicts involving the three nations. Congress issued a declaration of war against Germany and Italy later that same day. The UK actually declared war on Japan nine hours before the U.S. did, partially due to Japanese attacks on Malaya, Singapore and Hong Kong, and partially due to Winston Churchill's promise to declare war \"within the hour\" of a Japanese attack on the United States. \n\nThe attack was an initial shock to all the Allies in the Pacific Theater. Further losses compounded the alarming setback. Japan attacked the Philippines hours later (because of the time difference, it was December 8 in the Philippines). Only three days after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the battleships Prince of Wales and Repulse were sunk off the coast of Malaya, causing British Prime Minister Winston Churchill later to recollect \"In all the war I never received a more direct shock. As I turned and twisted in bed the full horror of the news sank in upon me. There were no British or American capital ships in the Indian Ocean or the Pacific except the American survivors of Pearl Harbor who were hastening back to California. Over this vast expanse of waters Japan was supreme and we everywhere were weak and naked\". \n\nThroughout the war, Pearl Harbor was frequently used in American propaganda. \n\nOne further consequence of the attack on Pearl Harbor and its aftermath (notably the Niihau Incident) was that Japanese American residents and citizens were relocated to nearby Japanese-American internment camps. Within hours of the attack, hundreds of Japanese American leaders were rounded up and brought to high-security camps such as Sand Island at the mouth of Honolulu harbor and Kilauea Military Camp on the island of Hawaii. Later, over 110,000 Japanese Americans, including United States citizens, were removed from their homes and transferred to internment camps in California, Idaho, Utah, Arizona, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, Arkansas, and Texas. \n\nThe attack also had international consequences. The Canadian province of British Columbia, bordering the Pacific Ocean, had long had a large population of Japanese immigrants. Pre-war tensions were exacerbated by the Pearl Harbor attack, leading to a reaction from the Government of Canada. On February 24, 1942, Order-in-Council P.C. no. 1486 was passed under the War Measures Act allowing for the forced removal of any and all Canadians of Japanese descent from British Columbia, as well as the prohibiting from them returning to the province. The Japanese-Canadians were given a choice: either be moved into internment camps or be deported back to Japan. \n\nNiihau Incident\n\nThe Japanese planners had determined that some means was required for rescuing fliers whose aircraft were too badly damaged to return to the carriers. The island of Niihau, only 30 minutes flying time from Pearl Harbor, was designated as the rescue point.\n\nThe Zero flown by Petty Officer Shigenori Nishikaichi of Hiryu was damaged in the attack on Wheeler, so he flew to the rescue point on Niihau. The aircraft was further damaged on landing. Nishikaichi was helped from the wreckage by one of the native Hawaiians, who, aware of the tension between the United States and Japan, took the pilot's maps and other documents. The island's residents had no telephones or radio and were completely unaware of the attack on Pearl Harbor. Nishikaichi enlisted the support of three Japanese-American residents in an attempt to recover the documents. During the ensuing struggles, Nishikaichi was killed and a Hawaiian civilian was wounded; one collaborator committed suicide, and his wife and the third collaborator were sent to prison.\n\nThe ease with which the local ethnic Japanese residents had apparently gone to the assistance of Nishikaichi was a source of concern for many, and tended to support those who believed that local Japanese could not be trusted. \n\nStrategic implications\n\nAdmiral Hara Tadaichi summed up the Japanese result by saying, \"We won a great tactical victory at Pearl Harbor and thereby lost the war.\" While the attack accomplished its intended objective, it turned out to be largely unnecessary. Unbeknownst to Yamamoto, who conceived the original plan, the U.S. Navy had decided as far back as 1935 to abandon 'charging' across the Pacific towards the Philippines in response to an outbreak of war (in keeping with the evolution of Plan Orange). The U.S. instead adopted \"Plan Dog\" in 1940, which emphasized keeping the IJN out of the eastern Pacific and away from the shipping lanes to Australia, while the U.S. concentrated on defeating Nazi Germany. \n\nFortunately for the United States, the American aircraft carriers were untouched by the Japanese attack; otherwise the Pacific Fleet's ability to conduct offensive operations would have been crippled for a year or more (given no diversions from the Atlantic Fleet). As it was, the elimination of the battleships left the U.S. Navy with no choice but to rely on its aircraft carriers and submarines—the very weapons with which the U.S. Navy halted and eventually reversed the Japanese advance. While six of the eight battleships were repaired and returned to service, their relatively low speed and high fuel consumption limited their deployment, and they served mainly in shore bombardment roles (their only major action being the Battle of Surigao Strait). A major flaw of Japanese strategic thinking was a belief that the ultimate Pacific battle would be fought by battleships, in keeping with the doctrine of Captain Alfred Thayer Mahan. As a result, Yamamoto (and his successors) hoarded battleships for a \"decisive battle\" that never happened. \n\nThe Japanese confidence in their ability to achieve a short, victorious war meant that they neglected Pearl Harbor's navy repair yards, oil tank farms, submarine base, and old headquarters building. All of these targets were omitted from Genda's list, yet they proved more important than any battleship to the American war efforts in the Pacific. The survival of the repair shops and fuel depots allowed Pearl Harbor to maintain logistical support to the U.S. Navy's operations, such as the Battles of Coral Sea and Midway. It was submarines that immobilized the Imperial Japanese Navy's heavy ships and brought Japan's economy to a virtual standstill by crippling the transportation of oil and raw materials: by the end of 1942, import of raw materials was cut to half of what it had been, \"to a disastrous ten million tons\", while oil import \"was almost completely stopped\". Lastly, the basement of the Old Administration Building was the home of the cryptanalytic unit which contributed significantly to the Midway ambush and the Submarine Force's success. \n\nPresent day\n\n \nToday, the USS Arizona Memorial on the island of Oahu honors the dead. Visitors to the memorial reach it via boats from the naval base at Pearl Harbor. The memorial was designed by Alfred Preis, and has a sagging center but strong and vigorous ends, expressing \"initial defeat and ultimate victory\". It commemorates all lives lost on December 7, 1941. Although December 7 is known as Pearl Harbor Day, it is not a federal holiday in the United States. The nation does however pay homage remembering the thousands injured and killed when attacked by the Japanese in 1941. Ceremonies are held annually at Pearl Harbor itself, attended each year by some of the ever-dwindling number of elderly veterans who were there on the morning of the attack. Schools and other establishments in some places around the country lower the American flag to half-staff out of respect. The naval vessel where the war ended on September 2, 1945—the last U.S. Navy battleship ever built, —is now a museum ship moored in Pearl Harbor, with its bow barely 1,000 feet (300 meters) southwest of the Arizona memorial.\n\nMedia\n\nFilms set at or around the bombing of Pearl Harbor include:\n* Remember Pearl Harbor (1942) A Republic Pictures B-movie, starring Don \"Red\" Barry, one of the first motion pictures to respond to the events. (Online version requires subscription.)\n* Air Force, a 1943 propaganda film depicting the fate of the crew of the Mary-Ann, one of the B-17 Flying Fortress bombers that fly into Hickam Field during the attack.\n* December 7th, directed by John Ford for the U.S. Navy in 1943, is a film that recreates the attacks of the Japanese forces. CNN mistakenly ran footage of this as actual attack footage during an entertainment news report in 2003. One film historian believes two documentaries a decade earlier did also. \n* From Here to Eternity (1953), an adaptation of the James Jones novel set in Hawaii on the eve of the attack.\n* In Harm's Way (1965), director Otto Preminger's adaptation of the James Bassett novel, which opens on December 6, 1941, in Hawaii, and depicts the attack from the point of view of the men of a ship able to leave the harbor.\n* Storm Over the Pacific, also known as Hawai Middouei daikaikusen: Taiheiyo no arashi (Hawaii-Midway Battle of the Sea and Sky: Storm in the Pacific Ocean) and I Bombed Pearl Harbor (1961), produced by the Japanese studio Toho Company and starring Toshiro Mifune, tells the story of Japanese airmen who served in the Pearl Harbor Raid and the Battle of Midway. An edited version dubbed into English as I Bombed Pearl Harbor was given U.S. release in 1961.\n* The Time Tunnel, TV series; Season 1, Episode 4: The Day the Sky Fell In (1966). \n* Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970), a Japan-U.S. coproduction about the attack is \"meticulous\" in its approach to dissecting the situation leading up to the bombing. It depicts the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor from both American and Japanese points of view, with scrupulous attention to historical fact, including the U.S. use of Magic cryptanalysis.\n* Pearl (1978), a TV miniseries, written by Stirling Silliphant, about events leading up to the attack.\n* 1941 (1979), director Steven Spielberg comedy about a panicked Los Angeles immediately after the attack.\n* The Winds of War, a novel by American writer Herman Wouk, was written between 1963 and 1971. The novel finishes in December 1941 with the aftermath of the attack. The TV miniseries based on the book was produced by Dan Curtis, airing in 1984. It starred Robert Mitchum and Ali MacGraw, with Ralph Bellamy as President Roosevelt.\n* Pearl Harbor (2001), directed by Michael Bay, a love story set amidst the lead up to the attack and its aftermath.\n\nNon-fiction/historical\n\n* The Attack on Pearl Harbor: An Illustrated History by Larry Kimmett and Margaret Regis is a careful recreation of the \"Day of Infamy\" using maps, photos, unique illustrations, and an animated CD. From the early stages of Japanese planning, through the attack on Battleship Row, to the salvage of the U.S. Pacific fleet, this book provides a detailed overview of the attack.\n* At Dawn We Slept: The Untold Story of Pearl Harbor by Gordon W. Prange is an extremely comprehensive account of the events leading up to the Pearl Harbor attack and is considered by most scholars to be the best single work about the raid. It is a balanced account that gives both the Japanese and American perspectives. Prange spent 37 years researching the book by studying documents about Pearl Harbor and interviewing surviving participants to attempt the most exhaustive account of what happened: the Japanese planning and execution, why U.S. intelligence failed to warn of it, and why a peace agreement was not attained. The book is the first in the so-called \"Prange Trilogy\" of Pearl Harbor books co-written with Donald Goldstein and Katherine Dillon, the other two being:\n** Pearl Harbor: The Verdict of History – a dissection of the various revisionist theories surrounding the attack.\n** December 7, 1941: The Day The Japanese Attacked Pearl Harbor – a recollection of the attack as narrated by eyewitnesses.\n* Day of Infamy by Walter Lord was one of the most popular nonfiction accounts of the attack on Pearl Harbor. \n* Pearl Harbor: Final Judgment by Henry C. Clausen and Bruce Lee tells of Clausen's top-secret investigation of the events leading up to the Pearl Harbor attack. Much of the information in this book was still classified when previous books were published.\n* Pearl Harbor Countdown: Admiral James O. Richardson by Skipper Steely is an insightful and detailed account of the events leading up to the attack. Through his comprehensive treatment of the life and times of Admiral James O. Richardson, Steely explores four decades of American foreign policy, traditional military practice, U.S. intelligence, and the administrative side of the military, exposing the largely untold story of the events leading up to the Japanese attack.\n* Pearl Harbor Papers: Inside the Japanese Plans, released by Goldstein and Dillon in 1993, used materials from Prange's library to further flesh out the Japanese perspective of the attack, including diaries from some officers and ship logs.\n* [https://mises.org/books/pearl_harbor_greaves.pdf Pearl Harbor: The Seeds and Fruits of Infamy] by Percy L. Greaves, Jr. The first part provides a detailed history of pre-war U.S.-Japan relations, documenting the sources of rising tension. The second part suggests that the attack on Pearl Harbor was neither unexpected nor unprovoked.\n* The Last Zero Fighter, released in 2012, uses interviews conducted in Japanese, in Japan, with five Japanese aviators, three of whom participated in the Pearl Harbor strike: Kaname Harada, Haruo Yoshino and Takeshi Maeda. The aviators share their personal experiences (translated into English) in regards to their personal experiences training for and executing the raid on Pearl Harbor. \n\nAlternate history\n\n* The feature-length movie The Final Countdown (1980), in which the nuclear aircraft carrier travels through time to one day before the attack.\n* Days of Infamy is a novel by Harry Turtledove in which the Japanese attack on Hawaii a full-scale invasion (something one of the key planners of the attack, Commander Minoru Genda, wanted but the senior officers realized was impossible). \n* The airstrike and Hawaii-invasion premise of Days of Infamy was earlier used in the first episode of the anime OVA series Konpeki no Kantai.\n* William Sanders wrote the alternate history story \"Billy Mitchell's Overt Act\". In the variant history depicted in the story, Billy Mitchell managed to avoid the court-martial which ended his military career and was still alive and still an active service general in 1941, correctly guessing Japanese intentions." ] }

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{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe", "TagMe" ], "filename": [ "This_American_Life.txt", "Ira_Glass.txt" ], "title": [ "This American Life", "Ira Glass" ], "wiki_context": [ "This American Life (TAL) is an American weekly hour-long radio program produced by WBEZ and hosted by Ira Glass. It is broadcast on numerous public radio stations in the United States and internationally, and is also available as a free weekly podcast. Primarily a journalistic non-fiction program, it has also featured essays, memoirs, field recordings, short fiction, and found footage. The first episode aired on November 17, 1995, under the show's original title, Your Radio Playhouse. The series was distributed by Public Radio International until June 2014, when the program became self-distributed with Public Radio Exchange delivering new episodes to public radio stations. \n\nA television program of the same name ran for two seasons on the Showtime cable network between June 2007 and May 2008.\n\nFormat\n\nEach week's show has a theme, explored in several \"acts.\" On occasion, an entire program will consist of a single act. The most acts were in the episode \"20 Acts in 60 Minutes.\" Each act is produced by a combination of staff and freelance contributors. Programs usually begin with a short station identification by Glass who then introduces a segment related to the theme which precedes act one. The segment will then lead into the presentation of the theme for that week's show.\n\nContent varies widely by episode. Stories are often told as first-person narratives. The mood of the show ranges from gloomy to ironic, from thought-provoking to humorous. The show often addresses current events, such as Hurricane Katrina in \"After the Flood.\" Often This American Life features stories which explore aspects of human nature, such as \"Kid Logic,\" which presented pieces on the reasoning of children.\n\nThe end credits of each show are read by Glass, and include a sound clip extracted out of context from some portion of that show, which Glass humorously attributes to previous WBEZ general manager Torey Malatia, who co-founded the show with Ira Glass in 1995.\n\nGlass has stated he is contractually obligated to mention both station WBEZ, and previously, distributor PRI three times in the course of the show. \n\nHistory\n\nGlass, the program's creator, has served as executive producer and host since its November 17, 1995, debut. The program's first year was produced on a budget that was tight even by U.S. public-radio standards. A budget of US$243,000 covered an outfitted studio, marketing costs, purchased satellite time, and paid for four full-time staffers and various freelance writers and reporters. National syndication began in June 1996 when Public Radio International formed a distribution partnership with the program. It airs on 509 PRI affiliate stations in the United States reaching an estimated 2.1 million listeners each week. The show is also carried on Sirius XM Satellite Radio over the Public Radio International block on the XM Public Radio channel. The program consistently rates as the first- or second-most downloaded podcast on iTunes for each week. \n\nOriginally titled Your Radio Playhouse, a local show on WBEZ, the program's name was changed beginning with the March 21, 1996 episode. It was picked up nationally by PRI in June 1996. The reference to each segment of the show as an \"act\" is a holdover from its original \"playhouse theme\". The program helped launch the literary careers of many, including contributing editor Sarah Vowell and essayists David Rakoff and David Sedaris.\n\nEarly response to the program was largely positive. In 1998, Mother Jones magazine called it \"hip - as well as intensely literary and surprisingly irreverent.\" \n\nIn January 2011, the series was picked up by CBC Radio One in Canada. The program is shortened slightly for the Canadian broadcast to allow for a five-minute newscast at the top of the hour, although this is partly made up for by the removal of mid-program breaks, most of the production credits (apart from that of Malatia), and underwriting announcements (CBC's radio services being fully commercial-free, except when contractually or legally required).\n\nIn January 2012, This American Life presented excerpts from a one-man theatre show by Mike Daisey as an exposé of conditions at a Foxconn factory in China. The episode was entitled \"Mr. Daisey and the Apple Factory\" and became one of the show's most popular episodes, with 888,000 downloads and 206,000 streams. WBEZ planned to host a live showing and a Q+A of \"The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs\" in Chicago on April 7, 2012. \n\nOn March 16, 2012, This American Life officially retracted the episode after learning that several events recounted both in the radio story and the monologue were fabrications. Daisey apologized for presenting his work as journalism, saying it is actually theatre, but refused to acknowledge that he had lied—even in the face of obvious discrepancies. WBEZ canceled the planned live performance and refunded all ticket purchases. The same day, This American Life devoted their weekly show (titled \"Retraction\") to detailing the inconsistencies in \"The Agony and Ecstasy of Steve Jobs\". The show includes interviews between Rob Schmitz, the reporter who discovered the discrepancies and Daisey's translator in China, Cathy Lee, as well as an interview between host Glass and Daisey. The podcast of this episode became the most downloaded in the show's history. However, the Harper High School series broadcast in February 2013 surpassed it in number of downloads.\n\nThe show also removed three stories by Stephen Glass (no relation to Ira Glass) in the week following the retraction of the Daisey episode due to less-than-truthful content. These were noted to have been previously removed, but had resurfaced in episode streams due to a website redesign. Though the segments are cut from the streams of the episodes, the transcript of the contents were kept accessible on the This American Life website. These were from the episodes \"57: Delivery\", \"79: Stuck in the wrong decade\", and \"86: How to take money from strangers\". \n\nIn 2014, it was announced that PRI would stop distributing the show in July. After a few months, in May, Ira Glass announced that the staff would be distributing the show themselves, with Public Radio Exchange doing the technical legwork to deliver the audio to the radio stations. On October 1, 2014, the show produced a spinoff, Serial, a season-long exploration delivered as a podcast series. \n\nAdaptations\n\nTelevision\n\nDiscussions of a television adaptation of TAL date back to at least 1999. In January 2006, Showtime announced it had greenlighted six episodes of a new series based on TAL. The announcement noted that each half-hour episode would \"be hosted by Ira Glass and [...] explore a single theme or topic through the unique juxtaposition of first-person storytelling and whimsical narrative.\"\n\nFor budgetary reasons, Glass and four of the radio show's producers left Chicago for New York City, where Showtime is headquartered. In January 2007, it was announced that Glass had completed production on the show's first season, with the first episode set to premiere on March 22. Originally the series had a contract for a total of 30 shows over the four years, but after two seasons Glass announced that he and the other creators of the show had \"asked to be taken off TV\", largely in part to the difficult schedule required to produce a television program. He went on to state that the show is officially \"on hiatus\", but would like to do a television special at some point in the future.\n\nFilm\n\nStories from TAL have been used as the basis of movie scripts. In 2002 the show signed a six-figure deal with Warner Bros. giving the studio two years of \"first-look\" rights to its hundreds of past and future stories. One film to have apparently emerged from the deal is Unaccompanied Minors, a 2006 film directed by Paul Feig and reportedly based on \"In The Event of An Emergency, Put Your Sister in an Upright Position\" from \"Babysitting\". In June 2008, Spike Lee bought the movie rights to Ronald Mallett's memoir, whose story was featured in the episode \"My Brilliant Plan\". Potential Warner Bros films from TAL episodes include \"Niagara\", which explored the town of Niagara Falls, New York, after those who sought to exploit the tourism and hydroelectrical opportunities of the area left; \"Wonder Woman\" (from the episode \"Superpowers\"), the story of an adolescent who took steps to become the superhero she dreamed of being, well into adulthood; and \"Act V\", about the last act of Hamlet as staged by inmates from a maximum security prison as part of Prison Performing Arts Adult Theatre Projects. Paramount Pictures and Broadway Video are in production on Curly Oxide and Vic Thrill, a film based on the TAL story in the episode \"My Experimental Phase\". \n\nThis American Lifes 168th episode, \"The Fix Is In\", inspired screenwriter Scott Burns to adapt Kurt Eichenwald's book about business executive and FBI informant Mark Whitacre, titled The Informant, into a major motion picture. The film was directed by Steven Soderbergh and stars Matt Damon. Glass has stated that the radio show has no financial stake in the film, but noted that he appreciated how well the movie stuck to the original facts.\n\nThis American Lifes 361st episode's, \"Fear of Sleep\", section \"Stranger in the Night\" featured an excerpt from Mike Birbiglia's one-man show, \"Sleepwalk with Me\". This inspired Glass to work with Birbiglia for two years on a movie based on this segment. The film version of Sleepwalk with Me screened at the Sundance Film Festival on January 23, 2012, to favorable reviews, winning the \"Best of NEXT Audience Award\". \n\nIn May 2011, Walt Disney Pictures announced it was adapting a movie from a 2009 episode titled \"The Girlfriend Equation\". \n\nLive tours\n\nThis American Life has taken the radio show on the road three times since 2000; material recorded on each of the three tours has been edited into an episode which aired on the radio shortly after the tour. Other episodes include segments recorded live.\n* \"Music Lessons\", recorded at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco during the 1998 Public Radio Conference in San Francisco. Performers include Sarah Vowell, David Sedaris and Anne Lamott. Music includes elementary school students from the San Francisco Unified School District as well as \"Eyes on the Sparrow\" with Renola Garrison vocals and Anne Jefferson on piano.\n* \"Advice\", recorded in 1999 in Seattle and at HBO's U.S. Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen. Performers include Sarah Vowell, Dan Savage, and Cheryl Trykv with music from the Black Cat Orchestra.\n* \"Birthdays, Anniversaries and Milestones\", recorded in December 2000 in Boston (Berklee Performance Center), New York, Chicago (Merle Reskin Theatre), and Los Angeles. Performers included Sarah Vowell, Russell Banks, David Rakoff, Ian Brown, and OK Go.\n* \"Lost in America\", recorded in May 2003 in Boston, Washington, D.C., Portland, Denver, and Chicago. Performers included Sarah Vowell, Davy Rothbart, and Jonathan Goldstein. Jon Langford of the Mekons led the \"Lost in America House Band\" during the show.\n* \"What I Learned from Television\", recorded in February and March, 2007 in New York City (February 26 at Avery Fisher Hall, Lincoln Center); Boston (February 27 at the Boston Opera House); Minneapolis (February 28 at the Orpheum Theatre); Chicago (March 1 at the Chicago Theatre); Seattle (March 7 at the Paramount Theatre); and Los Angeles (March 12 at Royce Hall, UCLA). Directed by Jane Feltes, performers on this tour included David Rakoff, Sarah Vowell, John Hodgman, Dan Savage, Jonathan Goldstein, and Chris Wilcha. In New York, Boston, Seattle, Chicago, and Minneapolis, Mates of State were the house band, while in Los Angeles, OK Go performed between acts.\n\nDigital cinema\n\nOn May 1, 2008, This American Life was the first major public media program to use digital cinema, distributing a one-hour-long program titled This American Life – Live! to select cinemas. PRI originally conceived of the idea to serve stations around the country. This American Life Live! was presented exclusively in select theatres by National CineMedia's (NCM) Fathom, in partnership with BY Experience and Chicago Public Radio, and in association with Public Radio International. \n\nOn April 23, 2009, This American Life broadcast a second theater event, titled This American Life – Live! Returning to the Scene of the Crime. Contributors included Mike Birbiglia, Starlee Kine, Dan Savage, David Rakoff, and Joss Whedon.\n\nOn May 10, 2012, This American Life broadcast a third theater event, titled Invisible Made Visible. Contributors included David Sedaris, David Rakoff, Tig Notaro, Ryan Knighton, and Mike Birbiglia, who made a short film with Terry Gross.\n\nOn June 7, 2014, This American Life recorded a fourth live event titled The Radio Drama Episode. Contributors included Carin Gilfry, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Mike Birbiglia, Joshua Bearman, and Sasheer Zamata. The episode was broadcast on radio and the podcast on June 20, 2014.\n\nPodcast\n\nFrom 1998 to 2005, the program could be accessed online in two formats: a free RealAudio stream available from the official show website, and a DRM-encrypted download available through Audible.com, which charged $4 per episode. In early 2006, the program began to offer MP3 copies of each episode, which could be streamed from the show's website using a proprietary Flash player.\n\nSince October 2006, the program has offered a free podcast feed to the public. Under this arrangement, each show is made available to podcast feeds and aggregation programs Sunday evening at 8 p.m. ET, allowing radio stations a 43-hour window of exclusivity to carry the episode. After seven days, the link to the MP3 is removed from the podcast feed. Older shows can be streamed online via the show's website, or purchased from Apple's iTunes Store for $0.95 per episode.\n\nSince the move to MP3 files in 2006, the show has relied on an extremely lightweight Digital Rights Management system, based on security through obscurity and legal threats. While the show episodes are removed from the podcast RSS feed after a week, they remain on This American Lifes server, accessible to anyone who knows the location. On at least three different occasions, Internet users have created their own unofficial podcast feeds, deep linking to the MP3 files located on the This American Life webserver. In all three instances, the podcast feeds were removed from the Internet once representatives from Public Radio International contacted the individuals responsible for creating the feeds. \n\n, a typical podcast episode was downloaded 750,000 times. \n\nMobile apps\n\nIn February 2010, Public Radio Exchange launched a mobile app on Apple's iTunes Store. This app contains MP3 audio of the podcast. \n\nAwards\n\nWBEZ-FM received a Peabody Award in 1996 and again in 2006 for TAL, for a show which \"captures contemporary culture in fresh and inventive ways that mirror the diversity and eccentricities of its subjects\" and \"weav[es] original monologues, mini-dramas, original fiction, traditional radio documentaries and original radio dramas into an instructional and entertaining tapestry\". \n\nGeorge Foster Peabody Award\n* [http://www.peabodyawards.com/award-profile/harper-high-school-wbez-chicago-91.5 2013] WBEZ/Chicago, IL, This American Life, for the documentary \"Harper High School\"\n* [http://www.peabodyawards.com/award-profile/this-american-life-what-happened-at-dos-erres 2012] WBEZ/Chicago, IL, Pro Publica, Fundacion MEPI for the documentary \"What Happened at Dos Erres\"\n* [http://www.peabodyawards.com/award-profile/this-american-life-the-giant-pool-of-money 2008] WBEZ-FM Chicago and National Public Radio, News Division for The Giant Pool of Money\n* [http://www.peabodyawards.com/award-profile/this-american-life-habeas-schmabeas 2006] WBEZ-FM Chicago\n* [http://www.peabodyawards.com/award-profile/this-american-life 1996] Ira Glass, Peter Clowney, Alix Spiegel, Nancy Updike, and Dolores Wilber, WBEZ-FM Chicago, for This American Life.\nThird Coast International Audio Festival\n* 2001 Susan Burton Best New Artist award for act 1, Tornado Prom from episode 186, \"Prom\".\n* 2002 Jonathan Goldstein, Alex Blumberg and Ira Glass: Best Documentary Gold Award for act 3, Yes, There is a Baby from episode 175, \"Babysitting\".\n* 2003, Susan Burton and Hyder Akbar, Best Documentary Silver Award for episode 230, \"Come Back to Afghanistan\".\nLivingston Award\n* 2002 Alix Spiegel: National Reporting for episode 204, \"81 Words\".\nScripps Howard Foundation\n* 2004 Nancy Updike: Jack R. Howard Award for episode 266, \"I'm From the Private Sector and I'm Here to Help\".\nEdward R. Murrow Award\n* 2005 Nancy Updike: for News Documentary for episode 266, \"I'm From the Private Sector and I'm Here to Help\".\nAlfred I. duPont–Columbia University Award\n* 2007 Alix Spiegel: for \"Which One of These is Not Like the Others?\" for episode 322, \"Shouting Across the Divide\".\nNew York Festivals Award\n* 2007 Trey Kay & Lu Olkowski: \"Best Human Interest Story\" for act 2, \"I'm Not a Doctor, but I Play One at the Holiday Inn\" from episode 321, \"Sink or Swim\".\nGeorge Polk Award\n* 2008 Alex Blumberg and Adam Davidson: \"Best Radio Reporting\" for episode 355 \"The Giant Pool of Money \n* 2012 Ira Glass: \"Best Radio Reporting\" for episode 430 \"Very Tough Love\" \n\nIn popular culture\n\nThis American Life was referenced in the television series The O.C., prompting the character Summer to respond, \"Is that that show by those hipster know-it-alls who talk about how fascinating ordinary people are?\" and, with a dismissive snort, \"Gawd!\" This reference was itself repeated in a segment of the 2007 Live Tour episode, when Glass, a self-confessed shameless fan of the teen soap opera, described his experience responding to the aforementioned line. \n\nThe Onion, a parody newspaper, published a satirical story on April 20, 2007, entitled \"This American Life Completes Documentation Of Liberal, Upper-Middle-Class Existence\". \n\nIn 2011, comedy writer Julian Joslin (with Michael Grinspan) released a parody of This American Life entitled \"This American Laugh\" on YouTube, wherein a fictional Glass makes a sex tape with Fresh Air's Terry Gross. The spoof was viewed over 100,000 times in one week but was met with a cool reception by Glass himself. \n\nFred Armisen parodied Ira Glass for a skit on Saturday Night Lives \"Weekend Update\" in 2011. The skit was cut from the show on the grounds that Ira Glass was \"not famous enough\" to be parodied on Saturday Night Live. Glass then invited Armisen to impersonate him as a guest co-host for an episode of This American Life in January 2013. \n\nIn 2012, in Season 6, Episode 12 of \"30 Rock\": \"St. Patrick's Day\", Ira Glass's voice appears on the radio, apparently presenting TAL, with his studio having been overrun by drunken thugs. \n\nIn 2013, Stanley Chase III, Mickey Dwyer, Ken Fletcher, and Matt Gifford launched the parody podcast That American Life on iTunes, which is hosted by \"Ira Class\". \n\nIn two episodes of Season 1 of Orange Is the New Black, Robert Stanton portrays a radio personality, Maury Kind who hosts an NPR show called Urban Tales, a fictional portrayal of This American Life. \n\nThe 2014 motion picture Veronica Mars depicts the character of Stosh \"Piz\" Piznarski working at This American Life. Host Ira Glass appears in a cameo role as himself, and many This American Life staffers appear in background roles. \n\nMusic\n\nEpisodes of TAL are accompanied by music. Some songs are used between acts and are credited in the episode guide for the show. Other songs are used as thematic background music for stories and are not credited.\n\n\"Over the years, we've used hundreds of songs under our stories—and in some stories, we use a number of different songs in different sections. We tried to answer these emails , but often it was impossible sometimes to pinpoint which song people were asking about...\". \n\nOther media\n\nSome of the show's episodes are accompanied by multimedia downloads available on This American Lifes website. For example, a cover version of the Elton John song \"Rocket Man\" was produced for episode 223, \"Classifieds\", and released as an MP3.\n\nFour two-disc CD sets collecting some of the producers' favorite acts have been released: Lies, Sissies, and Fiascoes: The Best of This American Life was released on May 4, 1999; Crimebusters + Crossed Wires: Stories from This American Life was released on November 11, 2003; Davy Rothbart: This American Life was released in 2004; and Stories of Hope and Fear was released on November 7, 2006.\n\nA 32-page comic book, Radio: An Illustrated Guide (ISBN 0-9679671-0-4), documents how an episode of TAL is put together. It was drawn by cartoonist Jessica Abel, written by Abel and Glass, and first published in 1999.\n\nThe cover of \"The Lives They Lived\" edition of The New York Times Magazine published on December 25, 2011 read \"These American Lives\" after a special section of the magazine edited by Glass and other staff of the show. \n\nGlass had a cameo appearance in the 22nd season premiere of The Simpsons, entitled \"Elementary School Musical\". Lisa plays This American Life on her iPod and Glass introduces the theme of the show, \"Today in Five Acts: Condiments\". \n\nIn the American Dad! episode, \"Honey, I'm Homeland,\" Ira Glass provides his own voice when members of an Occupy group kidnap Stan after he tries to infiltrate their group. To brainwash him, they play This American Life for him while in captivity in which Ira talks about a dog and his owner, who also happens to be a dog. Stan objects to Ira's pauses between lines, questioning why they are necessary if he already has them written down in front of him. When Stan has been fully brainwashed and is released, he continues to listen to Ira as he touts the benefits of paying for radio.", "Ira Jeffrey Glass (, born March 3, 1959) is an American public radio personality and the host and producer of the radio and television show This American Life.\n\nEarly life\n\nGlass was born in Baltimore, Maryland, United States, to Jewish parents Barry Glass, an accountant, and Shirley Glass, a psychologist, infidelity researcher, and author whom the New York Times called \"the godmother of infidelity research.\" \n\nHe is the first cousin once removed of composer Philip Glass, who has appeared on Glass' show and whose music can often be heard on the program. \n\nEducation\n\nGlass attended Milford Mill High School in Baltimore County where he was active in student theater, student government, and yearbook; he was also the co-editor of the student literary magazine. He played the part of Captain George Brackett in Milford's 1975 production of South Pacific, Lowe in their 1976 production of Damn Yankees, and Bud Frump in their 1977 production of How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying; along with his involvement on stage, he was a member of the Thespian Society. Glass was involved in student government during his junior and senior years, as a member of the executive board. His involvement in yearbook started in tenth grade and continued until his graduation in 1977. A rather popular and outgoing student, Glass also was involved with the morning announcements, as well as being a member of the Milford Mill Honor Society in 1977. While in high school, he wrote jokes for Baltimore radio personality Johnny Walker. \n\nAfter graduation from high school, he initially attended Northwestern University, in Evanston, Illinois, but transferred to Brown University, where he concentrated in semiotics and graduated in 1982. \n\nCareer\n\nRadio broadcasting\n\nGlass has worked in public radio for some 30 years. At 19 he began as an intern at National Public Radio's headquarters in Washington, D.C. He was a reporter and host on several NPR programs, including Morning Edition, All Things Considered, and Talk of the Nation. Glass wrote,\n\nThe very first National Public Radio show that I worked on was Joe Frank's. I think I was influenced in a huge way... Before I saw Joe put together a show, I had never thought about radio as a place where you could tell a certain kind of story. \n\nFrom November 1990 until September 1995, with NPR producer Gary Covino, he co-hosted a weekly local program on Chicago Public Radio called \"The Wild Room.\" In 1993, Glass said,\n\nI like to think of it as the only show on public radio other than \"Car Talk\" that both Daniel Schorr [NPR news analyst] and Kurt Cobain [lead singer/guitarist of Nirvana] could listen to. I think it's appropriate that the show [which aired on Friday evenings] is on a station that most people don't listen to at a time when most people won't hear it. And the fact that public radio never puts a new show on the air or takes any off is definitely to our advantage. \n\nDuring this time, he spent two years reporting on the Chicago Public School System—one year at a high school, and another at an elementary school. The largest finding of his investigations was that smaller class sizes would contribute to more success in impoverished, inner-city schools. \n\nIn 1995, the MacArthur Foundation approached Torey Malatia, general manager of Chicago Public Radio, with an offer of to produce a show featuring local Chicago writers and performance artists. Malatia approached Glass who countered that he wanted to do a weekly program with a budget of . In 1998 Covino told the Chicago Reader, \"The show he proposed was The Wild Room.\" He just didn't call it The Wild Room.\" Covino continued to produce The Wild Room until February 1996.\n\nGlass invited David Sedaris to read his essays on NPR, which led to Sedaris's success as an independent author. Glass also produced Sedaris's commentaries on NPR. \n\nSince 1995, he has hosted and produced This American Life, from WBEZ and its parent company, Chicago Public Media. The show was syndicated nationally in June 1996 by Public Radio International and has been national ever since. PRI was eager to take on the program, even as NPR passed on it. Chicago Public Media announced it would begin self-distribution of \"This American Life\" starting July 1, 2014, through Public Radio Exchange (PRX). \n\nThis American Life reaches more than 1.7 million listeners on more than 500 stations weekly, with an average listening time of 48 minutes. Glass can be heard in all but four episodes. In July 2013, the 500th show was aired.\n\nOn November 17, 2005, This American Life celebrated its tenth anniversary. The following week, as a special show celebrating the anniversary, the first episode, \"New Beginnings,\" was re-broadcast. Prior to this, the first episode had never been aired outside of Chicago. When the first episode was broadcast in 1995, the show was known as Your Radio Playhouse.That first episode includes interviews with talk-show host Joe Franklin and Ira's mother, as well as stories by Kevin Kelly, founding editor of Wired, and performance artist Lawrence Steger.\n\nIn May 2009, the This American Life radio show episode \"Return to the Scene of the Crime\" was broadcast live to more than 300 movie theaters.\n\nIn 2009, Glass was named the recipient of the Edward R. Murrow Award for Outstanding Contributions to Public Radio. \n\nIn 2011 Ira Glass earned the George Polk Award in Radio Reporting for \"Very Tough Love,\" an hour-long report that showed alarmingly severe punishments being meted out by a county drug court judge in Georgia. Drug courts were set up to emphasize rehabilitation instead of incarceration, but Glass's investigation revealed that Judge Amanda Williams strayed far from the principles and philosophy by routinely piling on jail sentences for relapses. One 17-year-old girl, initially in trouble for forging two small checks on her father's account, was facing more than 10 years in jail. Following the airing of \"Very Tough Love,\" Georgia's Judicial Qualifying Commission filed 14 ethical misconduct charges against Williams. Within weeks of the filing of charges, Williams stepped down from the bench and agreed never to seek other judicial offices. \n\nIn 2012 Glass was awarded a Doctorate of Humane Letters honoris causa from Goucher College in Baltimore.\n\nIn May 2013, Glass received the Medal for Spoken Language from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. \n\nGlass was inducted into the National Radio Hall of Fame in November 2014.\n\nOther works\n\nIn September 1999, Glass collaborated on a comic book, Radio: An Illustrated Guide, with Jessica Abel. The book shows how This American Life is produced, and how to produce your own radio program.\n\nIn 2006, he served as one of the executive producers of the feature film Unaccompanied Minors. It is based on the true story of what happened to This American Life contributing editor Susan Burton and her sister Betsy at an airport on the day before Christmas. Burton had already produced a segment on This American Life about the same experience before the story was adapted to film.\n\nIn October 2007, he published the anthology The New Kings of Nonfiction.\n\nOn March 22, 2007, Glass and company began airing a television version of This American Life as half-hour episodes on the Showtime network. During an interview with Patt Morrison on 89.3 KPCC, Southern California Public Radio, Glass said that he lost 30 lb for this venture. The show aired for thirteen episodes over two seasons, and ended in 2009 because of the heavy workload required to produce it. \n\nIn 2012, Glass co-wrote and produced comedian Mike Birbiglia's film Sleepwalk with Me and they both went on a country-wide promotional tour for the film, not only giving interviews, but making visits to theaters to introduce the film.\n\nIn 2013, Glass partnered with Monica Bill Barnes & Company to produce Three Acts, Two Dancers, One Radio Host, working alongside Monica Bill Barnes and Anna Bass. \n\nFor Valentine's Day 2014, for American users only, Glass provided the introduction for an interactive Google logo on the search engine's homepage. Each candy heart on which the user clicked played a different short story of unusual love, in the same style as This American Life.\n\nAppearances\n\nOn April 25, 2008, Glass again appeared on The Late Show. On April 22, 2009, Glass appeared as the featured guest on The Colbert Report. He also was on TBTL on September 18, 2009. Glass served as the monologist for ASSSSCAT at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre in New York on February 21, 2010. He appeared in a green motion capture suit in a John Hodgman segment on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart on Thursday, November 4, 2010, where he acted as the main character of the Grand Theft Auto: Vice City video game. Glass appeared on the June 24, 2011 edition of Adam Carolla's podcast, where they discussed The Adam Carolla Podcast, claiming the title of \"Most Downloaded Podcast\" from the Guinness Book of World Records. On September 17, 2011, Glass participated in the Drunk Show at the Eugene Mirman Comedy Festival, during which Glass became so drunk he blacked out and vomited backstage. On September 19, 2011, Glass appeared on WTF Live with Marc Maron, which aired as Episode 213 of WTF with Marc Maron,\" on September 26, 2011. Ira Glass guest co-hosted Dan Savage's sex-advice podcast, \"Savage Love,\" on January 31, 2012. He also lent his voice to The Simpsons in Season 22 in the episode entitled \"Elementary School Musical.\"\n\nOn May 18, 2012, Glass gave the commencement address for the Goucher College class of 2012 graduation ceremony, where he also received an honorary degree. On September 17, 2012, Glass made a special voice appearance on The Colbert Report with Stephen Colbert to promote Mike Birbiglia's film Sleepwalk with Me, and to invite Colbert to take part in a This American Life episode.\n\nArchival footage of Ira Glass is used in the film We Cause Scenes, which premiered at the 2013 South by Southwest conference.\n\nGlass appeared in the extended cut of John Hodgman's Netflix comedy special John Hodgman: Ragnarok. \n\nIn 2014, Glass appeared as himself in the film adaption of the U.S. television series Veronica Mars. \n\nOn Monday, November 24, 2014 Glass appeared on the Here's The Thing podcast. \n\nPersonal life\n\nGlass married Anaheed Alani, a writer and editor, in August 2005. \"We have the entire Middle East crisis in our house\", jokes Glass. \"Her mom is Christian and her dad is Muslim, from Iraq.\" \n\nReligion\n\nGlass has stated on This American Life that he is a staunch atheist. \"It's not like I don't feel like I'm a Jew. I feel like I don't have a choice about being a Jew. Your cultural heritage isn't like a suitcase you can lose at the airport. I have no choice about it. It is who I am. I can't choose that. It's a fact of me\", Glass begins. \"But even when I was 14 or 15, it didn't make that much sense to me that there was this Big Daddy who created the world and would act so crazy in the Old Testament. That we made up these stories to make ourselves feel good and explain the world seems like a much more reasonable explanation. I've tried to believe in God but I simply don't.\"\n\nAtheism aside, \"some years I have a nostalgic feeling to go into a shul and I'll go in for a High Holiday service,\" reveals Glass, who has fond memories of his childhood rabbi's enthralling sermons. \"Rabbi Seymour Esrog was really funny, a great storyteller. He was so good that even the kids would stay and watch him. He'd tell a funny anecdote, something really moving, and go for a big finish. That's what the show is,\" he compares, acknowledging the rabbi's influence.\n\nIra Glass has stated that \"Christians get a really bad rap in the media\" and that contrary to the way they are portrayed in pop-culture, the Christians in his life \"were all incredibly wonderful and thoughtful.\"" ] }

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{ "doc_source": [ "Search" ], "filename": [ "10th_Cavalry_Regiment_(United_States).txt" ], "title": [ "10th Cavalry Regiment (United States)" ], "wiki_context": [ "The 10th Cavalry Regiment is a unit of the United States Army. Formed as a segregated African-American unit, the 10th Cavalry was one of the original \"Buffalo Soldier\" regiments in the post-Civil War Regular Army. It served in combat during the Indian Wars in the western United States, the Spanish–American War in Cuba and in the Philippine–American War. The regiment was trained as a combat unit but later relegated to non-combat duty and served in that capacity in World War II until its deactivation in 1944.\n\nThe 10th Cavalry was reactivated as an integrated combat unit in 1958. Portions of the regiment have served in conflicts ranging from the Vietnam War to Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom. The current structure is by squadron, but with the 1st and 7th Squadrons recently deactivated, the 4th Squadron is the only 10th Cavalry Regiment unit in active service. It is assigned to the 3rd Armored Brigade Combat Team of the U.S. 4th Infantry Division at Ft Carson, Colorado.\n\nBuffalo Soldier name\n\nThe following story is one of many how the Buffalo Soldiers got their name.\n\nIn September 1867, Private John Randall of Troop G of the 10th Cavalry Regiment was assigned to escort two civilians on a hunting trip. A band of 70 Cheyenne warriors swept down on them. The two civilians quickly fell in the initial attack and Randall's horse was shot out from beneath him. Randall scrambled to safety behind a washout under the railroad tracks, where he fended off the attack with only his pistol until help from the nearby camp arrived. The Indians quickly retreated, leaving behind 13 dead warriors. Private Randall suffered a gunshot wound to his shoulder and 11 lance wounds, but recovered. The Cheyenne quickly spread word of this new type of soldier, \"who had fought like a cornered buffalo; who like a buffalo had suffered wound after wound, yet had not died; and who like a buffalo had a thick and shaggy mane of hair.\"[http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/agency/army/7-10cav.htm 7–10 Cav] Global Security.org which references \" (Starr 1981:46).\"\n\nInsignia\n\nCoat of arms\n\n* Shield: Per pale, dexter: paly of thirteen Argent and Gules, a chief Azure charged with a Native American chief's war bonnet affronté above a tomahawk and stone axe in saltire heads down all Proper, sinister: per fess quarterly Gules and Argent in 1st and 4th a tower Or gated Azure 2d and 3d lion rampant Gules crowned with a ducal cornet Or; on an oval escutcheon Azure a fleur-de-lis Or; and Sable a triangle on its base charged with a sun ombre de soleil Or between three mullets of the like pierced of the field.\n* Crest: On a wreath of the colors Or and Sable an American bison statant guardant Proper.\n* Motto: \"Ready and Forward\".\n\nDistinctive unit insignia\n\n* Description:\n** A gold color metal and enamel device 1 inch (2.54 cm) blazoned: On an heraldic wreath Or and Sable, a buffalo statant Proper.\n** On a scroll of the second fimbriated of the first the motto \"READY AND FORWARD\" of the like.\n* Symbolism:\n** Black and gold have long been used as the regimental colors.\n** The buffalo has likewise been the emblem of the regiment for many years having its origin in the term \"Buffalo soldiers\" applied by the Indians to colored regiments.\n** The distinctive unit insignia is worn in pairs.\n* Background:\n** The distinctive unit insignia was originally approved on 13 March 1922.\n** It was amended 6 December 1923 to change the wording in the description and the method of wear.\n** On 19 March 1951 the insignia was re-designated for the 510th Tank Battalion.\n** The distinctive unit insignia was re-designated for the 10th Cavalry on 12 May 1959.\n** The current version was re-affirmed on 22 August 1991.\n\nSymbolism\n\nThe 10th Cavalry Coat of arms was first confirmed on 11 February 1911 at Fort Ethan Allen in Vermont as \"General Orders No. 1\" by order of Colonel Thaddeus W. Jones. The 1911 description of the Arms is different from that used today, and has no functional difference except for symbolism.United States Army Institute of Heraldry, General Orders No. 1, dated 11 February 1911. [TIOHWebmaster@conus.army.mil The Institute of Heraldry], 9325 Gunston Rd, Room S-112, Ft. Belvoir, Virginia 22060-5579. PDF file. There was no symbolic explanations or reasons given for the basic symbols of the Regimental Arms in 1911 or when the arms were re-affirmed on 22 August 1991. The following is gathered from many heraldic and military sources.\n\nAbove the shield is part of the distinctive unit insignia, the \"Buffalo\" (American Bison). On the arms it faces left, which represents the western movement of the early unit across the United States. The black and gold on which the buffalo stands are \"the colour of the negro\" and the \"refined gold\" which the regiment represents.\n\nThe left side is for the 43 years of service (1866–1909) in the American West that were formative for the 10th Cavalry. The blue represents the sky and open plains of the west. The ceremonial war bonnet and eagle feathers honors the respect of the Native American tribes. The tomahawk and stone axe with the heads down indicate peace achieved. The vertical red and white stripes are for 13 major campaigns.\n\nUpper right. The Castilian Coat of Arms, without the crown, represents the Spanish–American War and indirectly the Philippine Insurrection where the 10th helped liberate Cuba (1898) and fought in the Philippines (1899–1902).\n\nLower right. The black background is the African-American ancestry. Within the yellow pyramid (triangle) is a symbol of the sun and 3 stars. Under the original 1911 description of the Arms this is described as \"In base sable, the Katipunan device on its base, thereon the sun in its splendour, between three mullets, one and two, all or.\" This stresses the Katipunan, Philippine revolutionaries, who were engaged in three years of campaigns against the 10th.\n\nAn inaccurate and informal interpretation of the lower right section by several veterans and groups of the 10th describe that section as follows; the sun with its rays showing the rebirth of the 10th as cavalry. The sun symbol is different from the 22nd Regimental sun symbol and here represents a renewal. The triangle comes from the Seventh Army pyramid patch which the 510th Tank battalion (Negro), then part of the 19th Armored Group and attached to the 4th Infantry Division and in support to the 22nd Infantry Regiment. Again, the 1911 description and use predates this informal view.\n\nThe distinctive unit insignia approved on 13 March 1922 (amended 6 December 1923) denoted its use as a paired set of devices or unit insignia with the head of the buffalo (the American bison) facing the head and neck of the individual in uniform. This is to remind the wearer that the unit totem, the \"Buffalo\" is forever watching them.\n\nRegimental Song\n\n::::::::::\"The Buffaloes\"\n:(The Regimental Song of the Tenth Cavalry Regiment from about 1885. Sung to the tune of Stephen Foster's \"Camptown Races\")\n\n:We're fighting bulls of the Buffaloes,\n:Git a goin' – git a goin'\n:From Kansas' plains we'll hunt our foes;\n:A trottin' down the line.\n:Our range spreads west to Santa Fe,\n:Git a goin' – git a goin'.\n:From Dakota down the Mexican way;\n:A trottin' down the line.\n\n:Goin' to drill all day\n:Goin' to drill all night,\n:We got our money on the buffaloes,\n:Somebody bet on the fight.\n\n:Pack up your saddle and make it light.\n:Git a rollin' – git a rollin'.\n:You are training fast for a hard fight;\n:A rollin' down the line.\n:Untie your horse and boot and gun,\n:Git a goin' – git a goin'.\n:Shake out your feet or you'll miss the fun,\n:A rollin' down the line.\n\n:Goin' to drill all day\n:Goin' to drill all night,\n:We got our money on the buffaloes,\n:Somebody bet on the fight.\n\n:It's Troops in line for the Buffaloes,\n:Git a movin' – git a movin'.\n:Then Squadron mass when the bugle blows'\n:A movin' into line.\n:Pull in your reins and sit your horse,\n:Git a movin' – git a movin'.\n:If you can't ride you'll be a corpse;\n:A movin' into line.\n\n:Goin' to drill all day\n:Goin' to drill all night,\n:We got our money on the buffaloes,\n:Somebody bet on the fight.\n\nEarly history\n\nIndian Wars 1866–74\n\nThe 10th U.S. Cavalry was formed at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, in 1866 as an all-African-American regiment. The 10th U.S. Cavalry regiment was composed of black enlisted men and white officers, which was typical for that era. By the end of July 1867, eight companies of enlisted men had been recruited from the Departments of Missouri, Arkansas, and the Platte. Life at Leavenworth was not pleasant for the 10th Cavalry. The fort's commander, who was openly opposed to African-Americans serving in the Regular Army, made life for the new troops difficult. Colonel Benjamin Grierson sought to have his regiment transferred, and subsequently received orders moving the regiment to Fort Riley, Kansas. This began on the morning of 6 August 1867 and was completed the next day in the afternoon of 7 August.\n\nOne of the first battles of the 10th was the Battle of the Saline River. This battle occurred 25 miles northwest of Fort Hays in Kansas near the end of August 1867. After a railroad work party was wiped out, patrols from the 38th Infantry Regiment (in 1869 reorganized into the 24th Infantry Regiment) with a 10th Cavalry troop were sent out to locate the \"hostile\" Cheyenne forces.\n\nCaptain George Armes, Company F, 10th Cavalry, while following an active trail along the Saline River were surrounded by about 400 Cheyenne warriors. Armes formed a defensive \"hollow square\" with the cavalry mounts in the middle. Seeking better defensive ground, Armes walked his command while maintaining the defensive square. After 8 hours of combat, 2,000 rounds of defensive fire and 15 miles of movement, the Cheyenne disengaged and withdrew. Company F, without reinforcements, concluded 113 miles of movement during the 30‑hour patrol, riding the final 10 miles back to Fort Hays with only one trooper killed in action. Captain Armes, wounded in the hip early in the battle, commented later, \"It is the greatest wonder in the world that my command escaped being massacred.\" Armes credited his officers for a \"devotion to duty and coolness under fire.\"\n\nIn 1867 and 1868, the 10th Cavalry participated in Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman's winter campaigns against the Cheyennes, Arapahos, and Comanches. Units of the 10th prevented the Cheyenne from fleeing to the northwest, thus allowing Custer and the 7th Cavalry to defeat them at the decisive battle near Fort Cobb, Indian Territory.\n\nIn September and October 1868, two notable actions happened with Troops H & I under the command of Brevet Lieutenant Colonel (Captain in the Regular Army) Louis H. Carpenter. The first was the rescue of Lieutenant Colonel G. A. Forsyth whose small party of 48 white scouts, was attacked and \"corralled\" by a force of about 700 Native American Indians on a sand island up the North Fork of the Republican River; this action became the Battle of Beecher Island. The second was two weeks after Carpenter had returned to Fort Wallace with the survivors of Forsyth's command. Troops H and I of the 10th Cavalry sallied forth for an escort and supply to the 5th Cavalry near Beaver Creek. Near there Carpenter combined command was attacked by a force of about 500 Indians. After a running fight and defensible stand the \"hostiles\" retreated. Carpenter would later receive the Medal of Honor for these two actions. Letter written in 1912 from Carpenter to Mr. George Martin of the Kansas State Historical Society.\n\nFor the next eight years, the 10th was stationed at numerous forts throughout Kansas and Indian Territory (now Oklahoma), including Fort Gibson starting in 1872. They provided guards for workers of the Kansas and Pacific Railroad, strung miles of new telegraph lines, and to a large extent built Fort Sill. Throughout this period, they were constantly patrolling the reservations and engaging \"hostiles\" in an attempt to prevent Indian raids into Texas.\n\nIndian Wars 1875–84\n\nOn 17 April 1875, regimental headquarters for the 9th and 10th Cavalries were transferred to Fort Concho, Texas. Companies actually arrived at Fort Concho in May 1873. At various times from 1873 through 1885, Fort Concho housed 9th Cavalry companies A–F, K, and M, 10th Cavalry companies A, D–G, I, L, and M, 24th Infantry companies D–G, and K, and 25th Infantry companies G and K.\n\nThe 10th Regimental's mission in Texas was to protect mail and travel routes, control Indian movements, provide protection from Mexican revolutionaries and outlaws, and to gain knowledge of the area's terrain. The regiment proved highly successful in completing their mission. The 10th scouted 34420 mi of uncharted terrain, opened more than 300 mi of new roads, and laid over 200 mi of telegraph lines.\n\nThe scouting activities took the troops through some of the harshest and most desolate terrain in the nation. These excursions allowed the preparation of excellent maps detailing scarce water holes, mountain passes, and grazing areas that would later allow for settlement of the area. These feats were accomplished while the troops had constantly to be on the alert for quick raids by the Apaches. The stay in west Texas produced tough soldiers who became accustomed to surviving in an area that offered few comforts and no luxuries for those who survived.\n\nIn 1877 four soldiers of the 10th were lost under the command of Captain Nicolas Merritt Nolan. The Buffalo Soldier tragedy of 1877 also known as the \"Staked Plains Horror\" occurred when a combined force of Buffalo Soldier troops of the 10th and local buffalo hunters wandered for days in the dry Llano Estacado region of north-west Texas and eastern New Mexico during July of a drought year. The two groups had united forces for a retaliatory attack on regional Native American bands who had been staging raids on white settlers in the area, during what came to be called the Buffalo Hunters' War. Over the course of five days in the near-waterless Llano Estacado, they divided and four soldiers and one buffalo hunter died. Due to the telegraph, news of the ongoing event and speculation reached Eastern newspapers where it was erroneously reported that the expedition had been massacred. Later, after the remainder of the group returned from the Llano, the same papers declared them \"back from the dead.\"\n\nThe 10th Cavalry played an important role in the 1879–80 campaign (Apache Wars) against Chief Victorio and his band of Apaches. Victorio and his followers escaped from their New Mexico reservation and wreaked havoc throughout the southwest on their way to Mexico. Col. Grierson and the 10th attempted to prevent Victorio's return to the U.S., and particularly his reaching New Mexico where he could cause additional problems with the Apaches still on the reservations. Knowing the importance of water in the harsh region, Grierson decided the best way to intercept Victorio was to take control of potential water holes along his route.\n\nThe campaign called for the biggest military concentration ever assembled in the Trans-Pecos area. Six troops of the 10th Cavalry were assigned to patrol the area from the Van Horn Mountains west to the Quitman Mountains, and north to the Sierra Diablo and Delaware Mountains. Encounters with the Indians usually resulted in skirmishes; however the 10th engaged in major confrontations at Tinaja de las Palmas (a water hole south of Sierra Blanca) and at Rattlesnake Springs (north of Van Horn). These two engagements halted Victorio and forced him to retreat to Mexico. Although Victorio and his band were not captured, the campaign conducted by the 10th prevented them from reaching New Mexico. The 10th's efforts at containment exhausted the Apaches. Soon after they crossed the border, Victorio and many of his warriors were killed by Mexican troops on 14 October 1880.\n\nIndian Wars 1885–98\n\nIn 1885, the regiment was transferred to the Department of Arizona. Once again the 10th was involved in the arduous pursuit of Apaches who left the reservations under the leadership of Geronimo, Nana, Nachez, Chihuahua and Magnus.\n\nThe 10th Cavalry continued to fight Apaches after Geronimo's surrender in 1886. A detachment of 10th Cavalry would fight one of their last battles of the Apache Wars north of Globe at the Salt River during an expedition on 7 March 1890. After the battle Sergeant William McBryar, was awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions during the pursuit of the Apache warriors.\n\nAfter twenty years of service on posts in the southwest, the regiment, now under the command of Colonel John K. Mizner, was transferred to the Department of Dakota in 1891 The regiment served at various posts in Montana and Dakotas until 1898. During this time, a young white lieutenant, J. Pershing (later known as \"Blackjack\" for his time with the unit) commanded a troop from Fort Assinniboine in north central Montana. Pershing commanded an expedition to the south and southwest that rounded up and deported a large number of Cree Indians to Canada.\n\nIn summary, from 1866 to the early 1890s, the 10th Cavalry Regiment served at a variety of posts in the Southwestern United States (Apache Wars) and Great Plains regions. They participated in most of the military campaigns in these areas and earned a distinguished record. Thirteen enlisted men and six officers from the Buffalo Soldiers (four regiments including the 10th) earned the Medal of Honor during the Indian Wars.\n\nMedal of Honor – Indian Wars\n\nThe Medal of Honor is the highest military decoration awarded by the United States. Two members of the 10th Cavalry Regiment, earned the Medal of Honor during the Indian Wars. They were:\n\nWilliam McBryar Sergeant, Company K, 10th Cavalry Regiment at Salt River, north of Globe, Arizona, from 7 March 1890 to 15 May 1890. He was later a first lieutenant in the U.S. Army.\nLouis H. Carpenter Captain, Company H, 10th Cavalry Regiment during Indian campaigns, Kansas, and Colorado, September–October 1868. He was later a brigadier general in the U.S. Army.\n\nSpanish–American War\n\nThe regiment served during the Spanish–American War in 1898, alongside the 24th and 25th \"colored\" regiments (1st Division, 1st Brigade) with the 9th Cavalry.\n\nThe 9th and 10th formed a core around which volunteer units were attached in the Cavalry Division (Dismounted) under Major General Joseph Wheeler and were in the 1st Brigade under Brigadier General Samuel S. Sumner. The 1st Brigade also included the 1st United States Volunteer Cavalry which was commonly known as \"Roosevelt's Rough Riders\".Samuel Sumner was in command of the division when the battle began as General Wheeler was ill. Wheeler returned to the front once the battle was underway.Longacre, Edward G. A Soldier to the Last: Major General Joseph Wheeler in Blue and Gray: 2006 p.227\n\nThey fought in the Battle of Las Guasimas, the Battle of Tayacoba (where all four members of the last rescue party were awarded the Medal of Honor), the Battle of San Juan Hill and the Siege of Santiago de Cuba.\n\nThree principal battles were fought by this brigade on the approach to the principal city of Santiago de Cuba. In many ways this was the 10th most glorious time.\n\nThe first of these were the Battle of Las Guasimas on 24 June 1898 where Lieutenant Conley and the 10th Cavalry saved a portion of the Rough Riders from annihilation when their lead companies were ambushed and pinned down. Harper's Weekly war correspondent Frederic Remington was present. Remington later painted the \"Scream of the Shrapnel\" in 1899 that represented this event. The second was the Battle of El Caney in the early morning hours of 1 July where Spanish forces held the Americans at bay for almost twelve hours. Then came the Battle of San Juan Hill in the late afternoon.\n\nThe battle of the San Juan Heights involved the 10th Cavalry Regiment who took part in the taking of the two main heights. One was on the so-called Kettle Hill by the Americans and other the main height on what would be called San Juan Hill.\n\nAs the 10th moved into position, they were receiving fire from the San Juan Heights that was fortified by the Spanish defenders. Other units went into position on the left and the right. But still no orders to advance came. The waiting for other units to come online began to take a toll in men and morale.\n\nSan Juan Hill\n\nA former brigade staff officer, then assigned to D Troop of the 10th Cavalry, First Lieutenant Jules Garesche Ord (son of General E.O.C. Ord), arrived and initiated an unusual discussion with his commander, Brigadier General Hamilton S. Hawkins, by asking, \"General, if you will order a charge, I will lead it.\" Hawkins made no response. Ord again asked \"If you do not wish to order a charge, General, I should like to volunteer. We can't stay here, can we?\" \"I would not ask any man to volunteer,\" Hawkins stated. \"If you do not forbid it, I will start it,\" returned Ord. Hawkins again remained silent. Ord finally asked \"I only ask you not to refuse permission.\" Hawkins responded \"I will not ask for volunteers, I will not give permission and I will not refuse it,\" he said. \"God bless you and good luck!\"\n\nWith that response, Ord rushed to the front of the brigade, advising them to support the charge of the regulars. Captain John Bigelow, Jr., commander of D Troop of the 10th with his second in command of Ord in the lead, moved out of the trenches and advanced up the slope. Other units seeing the \"Buffalo Soldiers\" advance moved forward without commands to do so. General Hawkins apparently was not opposed to the attack since once the men began he joined in directing supporting regiments. At 150 yards from the top of the hill the troops charged, cutting their way through the barbed wire. Bigelow was hit four times before falling. There he continued to encourage his men to not stop until the top.\n\nSeeing the 'spontaneous advances' of Ord and then Roosevelt, General Wheeler (having returned to the front) gave the order for Kent to advance with his whole division while he returned to the Cavalry Division. Kent sent forward Ewers' brigade to join Hawkins' men already approaching the hill. Kent's men discovered that the Spanish had placed their trenches in faulty positions and were actually covered from their fire while the attackers climbed the hill. Ord, still in the lead, was among the first to reach the crest of San Juan Hill. The Spanish fled, as Ord began directing supporting fire into the remaining Spanish when he was shot in the throat and mortally wounded. General Hawkins was wounded shortly after.\n\nFirst Sergeant Givens (Bivins?) then took command of D Troop on San Juan Hill and held his position until relieved. First Lieutenant John J. Pershing, quartermaster of the 10th, took over temporary command of D Troop. Pershing had helped lead the charge up Kettle Hill with the right flank of the 10th. He was later replaced by Lieutenant A. E. Kennington. The 10th would continue to fight during the Siege of Santiago. Santiago fell to the Americans and Conley's Buffalo Regiment on 17 July 1898.\n\nKettle Hill\n\nKettle Hill was a smaller part of the San Juan Heights with San Juan Hill and its main blockhouses being the highest point with a dip or draw in between the two hills on a north-south axis. The heights are located about a mile east of Santiago. Elements of Conley's 10th Cavalry (\"black\" regulars) took Kettle Hill on the American right with assistance from Col. Theodore Roosevelt's 1st Volunteer Cavalry (Rough Riders) and the entire 3rd Cavalry (\"white\" regulars). Most of the 10th supported by elements of the 24th and 25th colored infantry on the left took San Juan Hill.\n\nThe 10th had held the center position between the two hills and when they went forward they split toward the tops of the two hills. Lieutenant Ord started the regulars forward on the American left and Roosevelt claimed he started the charge on the right. Retreating Spanish troops withdrew toward San Juan Hill still being contested. The regulars fired toward them and supported their comrades fighting on the adjacent hill. A legend was started that the Rough Riders alone took Kettle Hill, but this is not true. Sergeant George Berry (10th Cavalry) took his unit colors and that of the 3rd Cavalry to the top of Kettle Hill before the Rough Rider's flag arrived. This is supported in the writings of Pershing, who fought with Sergeant Conley and the 10th on Kettle Hill. and later led the American Expeditionary Force during the First World War.\n\nMedal of Honor – Spanish–American War\n\nFive members of the 10th Cavalry Regiment, earned the Medal of Honor during the Spanish–American War. They were:\nEdward L. Baker, Jr. Sergeant Major, 10th U.S. Cavalry Regiment at Santiago. He was later a captain in the U.S. Army.\nDennis Bell Corporal, Troop H, 10th Cavalry Regiment during \"the rescue\" at the conclusion of the Battle of Tayacoba.\nFitz Lee Private, Troop M, 10th Cavalry Regiment during \"the rescue\" at the conclusion of the Battle of Tayacoba.\nWilliam H. Thompkins Private, Troop G, 10th Cavalry Regiment during \"the rescue\" at the conclusion of the Battle of Tayacoba. \nGeorge H. Wanton Private, Troop M, 10th Cavalry Regiment during \"the rescue\" at the conclusion of the Battle of Tayacoba. He was later a Master Sergeant in the U.S. Army.\n\n20th century\n\nPhilippine–American War\n\nFollowing the end of the Spanish–American War, the 10th Cavalry was deployed to the Philippine Islands in what was known then as the \"Philippine Insurrection\", but now termed the Philippine–American War, until 1902. Although the conflict was controversial amongst many in and out of the African American community, the regiment, alongside the 9th Cavalry and 24th and 25th Infantry, served honorably and admirably. The conflict also provided an opportunity as several senior NCOs were commissioned as officers in the Philippine Scouts, including Edward Baker. But such opportunity would be short lived as the first American Governor General, then future President, William Taft barred the four segregated \"colored\" regiments from continuing to serve in the Philippines.\n\nDuty in the West\n\nThe 10th Cavalry returned from the Philippines in late 1902 and settled down in different posts in the south western United States. Patrols and garrison life was the routine for the regiment. Under war plans, the 10th was designated for service in the Pacific and support in the Philippines from 1915 through 1942 but never rotated there.\n\nThe 9th Cavalry Regiment (not the 10th) became \"Park Rangers\" in 1905 for Yosemite National Park and other state and federal lands. The Troopers' Campaign Hat, sporting the \"Montana Pinch\" used to help shed the tropical downpours. That \"Montana Pinch\" gave the hat the distinctive look we recognize today as the \"Smokey Bear Hat\". \n\nDuty in the East\n\nIn 1909, for the first time in the Regiment's history, it was sent East for garrison duty in the peaceful state of Vermont. They arrived at Fort Ethan Allen on 28 July 1909. There they resided with the 3rd US Cavalry, old saddle mates from the Indian Wars, Cuba, and the Philippines.\n\nIn various letters and books they described their time from 1909 to 1913 as \"luxurious.\" They had an indoor riding hall, solid warm barracks, heated barns for their horses, friendly neighbors and plenty of \"wholesome food.\" Educational opportunities on base and within the community were provided and many men earned higher degrees. When one compares this to building their own barracks, rough frontier living and military field rations, this was heaven on earth for the 10th.\n\nBaseball was a favorite past time among the soldiers and they quickly found willing local teams to play against. Sunday games began attracting greater crowds of locals to the dismay of the local ministers who saw their attendance drop. Ministers elected one of their own to complain to the commander of the 10th. Colonel Jones replied that the games were not mandatory, but his Army command overruled him and Sunday games with the locals were halted.\n\nDuring the harsh Vermont winters, the fairly new game of basketball was introduced, learned and played almost nightly indoors. The \"Basketball Troopers\" became proficient enough for tournament play and went head to head losing to the \"New York All-Stars,\" another new African-American team.\n\nDuring this time period, only one racial incident was documented. And it involved a local Vermont woman, a 10th Cavalry trooper and white officers disapproving the relationship. The soldier was placed in the guard house for a few days as an example and 'proper order' was maintained.\n\nThis short stint in the East allowed time to formalize their regimental coat of arms in 1911, allowed them to show off their horsemanship to amazed civilians, members of Congress, statesmen from many lands and even President Wilson. \"F Troop\" of the 10th Cavalry Regiment was recognized as the premier demonstration unit in the entire US Army.\n\nDue to rising tension along the Mexican-American border, the 10th was sent to the South West starting in late November and finishing in December 1913. Fort Huachuca in Arizona became their new headquarters.\n\nMexican Expedition\n\nThe Punitive Expedition, officially known in the United States as the Mexican Expedition, was an abortive military operation conducted by the United States Army against the paramilitary forces of Francisco \"Pancho\" Villa from 1916 to 1917. The expedition was retaliation for Villa's invasion of the United States and attack on the village of Columbus, New Mexico, in Luna County during the Mexican Revolution.[http://www.army.mil/-news/2008/03/30/7729-down-mexico-way/ Named Campaigns – Mexican Expedition] Mexican Punitive Expedition\n\nMore than 5,000 US troops of General John J. Pershing's forces, including elements of the 7th Cavalry and the African-American U.S. 10th Cavalry Regiment, entered Mexico in hot pursuit of Villa. The campaign consisted primarily of dozens of minor skirmishes with small bands of insurgents. Gen. Pershing failed to catch up to Villa. On 21 June 1916, two troops of the 10th, totaling 92 troopers, attacked Mexican Federal Army troops in an engagement in the Battle of Carrizal, Chihuahua. 12 US troops were killed and 23 taken prisoner; 45 Federales were casualties, including the Mexican general Gomez. The engagement nearly precipitated open war with the Mexican government (the Carranza government, during that three-cornered Mexican civil war), but both governments immediately moved to lessen tensions and open negotiations for US withdrawal, preventing war. The prisoners were repatriated at El Paso, Texas by the Carrancista government. \n\nWorld War I\n\nThe 10th Cavalry spent World War I in the United States. On 9 January 1918, the U.S. 10th Cavalry Regiment was involved in firefight with Yaqui Indians just west of Nogales, Arizona. E Troop intercepted a group of American Yaquis on their way to render aid to Yaquis of Sonora, who were in the midst of long running war with the Mexicans.\n\nLater that year, in August 1918, the 10th Cavalry fought a border skirmish with the 35th Infantry Regiment at the Battle of Ambos Nogales in which German military advisors fought and died along with Mexican soldiers. This was the only battle during World War I where Germans engaged in land combat against United States soldiers in North America.\n\nThe 35th Infantry Regiment was stationed at Nogales, Arizona, on 27 August 1918, when at about 4:10 PM, a gun battle erupted unintentionally when a Mexican civilian attempted to pass through the border, back to Mexico, without being interrogated at the U.S. Customs house. After the initial shooting, reinforcements from both sides rushed to the border. Hostilities quickly escalated and several soldiers were killed and others wounded.\nNote: Library of Congress Number: 93-206790\n\nThe U.S. 35th Infantry border post had about 15–18 men and requested reinforcements from their garrison. When they arrived they requested the Buffalo Soldiers of the 10th Cavalry. The 10th, commanded by Frederick Herman, came to their aid from their camp outside town. After observing the situation for a few moments, Lt. Colonel Herman ordered an attack on the Mexican and German held hilltops overlooking the border town. Defensive trenches and machine gun placements had been seen being dug there in the previous weeks. Herman wanted Americans there before Mexican reinforcements got there.\n\nUnder heavy fire, the U.S. 35th Regimental infantry soldiers and dismounted 10th Cavalry troops advanced across the Mexican-American border through the buildings and streets of Nogales, Sonora and up onto the nearby hilltops. This was done while other units of the 35th Regiment held the main line near the border post. About 7:45 PM, the Mexicans waved a large white flag of surrender over their customs building. Lt. Colonel Herman observed and then ordered an immediate cease fire. Snipers on both sides continued shooting for a little while after the cease fire, but were eventually silenced upon orders from their superiors.\n\nWorld War II\n\nAt the beginning of World War II the 10th Cavalry was relegated to caretaker duties at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. In 1942 the regiment was moved to Camp Lockett, California, replacing the 11th Cavalry in its duties as the southern defense of the Western Defense Command, under LTG DeWitt. 153 NCOs of this regiment would later be assigned to the newly organized 28th Cavalry Regiment forming its cadre, and filling out the 4th Cavalry Brigade, which would remain in existence after the deactivation of the 2nd Cavalry Division, and its subsequent reactivation. In the summer of 1943, the 10th and 28th Cavalry Regiments fought wildfires in the Cleveland National Forest. In 1944, the entire 2nd Cavalry Division was shipped out to Oran, North Africa; where it disembarked and was deactivated on 9 March 1944. Although trained as combat soldiers, the soldiers of this regiment, and other regiments of the 2nd Cavalry Division were reorganized as combat support and combat service support units. Some would see combat as replacement soldiers of the 92nd Infantry Division. \n\nEarly Cold War\n\nIn 1958 the Tenth Regiment was reactivated. The unit today wears the buffalo symbol.\n\n1st Squadron, 10th Cavalry was assigned to Fort Lewis, Washington, on September 1, 1963, as the eyes and ears of the 4th Infantry Division.\n\n2nd Squadron, 10th Cavalry was activated on 1 July 1957 and consolidated with the 7th Recon Company transferring less personnel and equipment to Korea from Germany. It was assigned to the 7th Infantry Division. It was transferred with 7th Division to Fort Ord, California, in December 1976. 2nd Squadron, 10th Cavalry (Air) served as the 7th Division's helicopter borne reconnaissance asset. It had a scout troop (Kiowa), Lift Troop (Huey), Attack troop (Cobra) and a ground troop of scouts in jeeps. The Squadron was reorganized in August 1985 as a reconnaissance squadron under the Infantry Division (Light) configuration. The unit was deactivated and replaced by an element of the 9th Cavalry prior to the 7th Divisions eventual de-activation and depart from Fort Ord.\n\nVietnam\n\nIn the later part of 1966, the 1st Squadron, 10th Cavalry (Armored Reconnaissance), went to the Republic of South Vietnam during the Vietnam War (1966–1972) operating in the II Corp Area as part of the 4th Infantry Division. It received its first Valorous Unit Award in May 1969 for actions at LZ Oasis against a battalion sized enemy force. The 1st Squadron of the 10th, with the 4th Infantry Division, earned 12 campaign streamers and other awards in Vietnam.\n\nLate Cold War\n\n1st Squadron, 10th Cavalry (1/10 Cav) with the 4th Infantry Division participated in Exercise Reforger in 1977, 1978, 1981, 1985, 1987, and 1991. Exercise Reforger (from return of forces to Germany) was an annual exercise conducted, during the Cold War, by NATO. The exercise was intended to ensure that NATO had the ability to quickly deploy forces to West Germany in the event of a conflict with the Warsaw Pact.\n\n2nd Squadron, 10th Cavalry (2/10) with the 7th Infantry Division participated in Exercise Reforger in 1984, 1986 and 1993.\n\n3rd Battalion, 10th Cavalry (3/10 Cav) was activated in the 1st Cavalry Division at Fort Hood, Texas, in December 1981.\n\nD Troop, \"Black Jack\"\n\nD Troop of the 10th Cavalry Regiment was detached and moved around before settling in with the 3rd Infantry Division, 3rd Brigade.\n\nOn 25 June 1958, D Troop was reconstituted in the Regular Army and redesignated as Headquarters and Headquarters Troop, 4th Reconnaissance Squadron, 10th Cavalry Regiment. On 1 September 1963, the unit was redesignated as Troop D, 10th Cavalry and assigned to Fort Knox, Kentucky, and on 15 April 1968 the Troop became part of the 194th Armored Brigade.\n\nIn October 1999, the 3rd Infantry Division (Mechanized) began its transition to Limited Conversion Division XXI (LCD XXI). Under this force structure, mechanized brigades received organic cavalry organizations. On 16 June 2000, D Troop, 10th Cavalry Regiment was reactivated and assigned to the 3rd Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division (Mechanized), at Fort Benning, Georgia.\n\nIn March 2003 the 3rd Brigade participated along with the rest of the 3rd Infantry Division (Mechanized) in the initial operations against Iraq as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom. The 3rd Infantry Division returned to Georgia in late 2003. In mid-2004 it began the transformation to the US Army's new modular force structure, which saw D Troop, 10th Cavalry inactivated.\n\n21st-century\n\nC Troop, 10th Cavalry was reactivated 22 September 2001 and served as the Brigade Reconnaissance Troop (BRT) as well as the brigade's quick reaction force (QRF) for 1st Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division. All Troops maintained a large area of operations. The BRT, known as the \"Cowboy Troop\"., set the operations tempo (OPTEMPO) for battle operations in the northeastern section of Baghdad and Sadr City. C Troop was reportedly the only unit in Baghdad at the time clearing routes in light vehicles, with a reported 4,800 different forms of contact over the course of the year. After returning to Fort Hood, Texas, C Troop was deactivated and re-flagged as C Troop, 1st Squadron, 7th Cavalry.\n\nThe 1st Squadron, 10th Cavalry, 4th Brigade, 4th Division served during Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003–2004 (in which it earned its second Presidential Unit Citation) and again from 2005 to 2006. The squadron is currently serving as the Armored Reconnaissance Squadron of the 2nd Brigade, 4th Infantry Division at Fort Carson, Colorado. B Troop, 1st Squadron 10th Cavalry, led by Captain Brian McCarthy and First Sergeant Brian Allen were featured in a 14-page article of Texas Monthly magazine which covered the 2005–2006 deployment to Iraq. This is one of many articles on the 10th Cavalry units.\n\nOperation Red Dawn was an American military operation conducted on December 13, 2003, in the town of ad-Dawr, Iraq, near Tikrit, that led to the capture of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. This is where elements of the 1st Brigade of the 4th Infantry Division captured Saddam Hussein, former President of Iraq. The mission was assigned to the 1st Brigade Combat Team of the 4th Infantry Division, commanded by Major. Gen Raymond Odierno and led by Col. James Hickey of the 4th Infantry Division, with joint operations Task Force 121 – an elite and covert joint special operations team.[http://www.lifeway.com/lwc/article_main_page/0,1703,A%253D155809%2526M%253D50011,00.html Saddam Hussein Captured in spider hole with $750,000]. Lifeway-Biblical Solution for Life \n\nDuring Operation Iraqi Freedom, the 1st Squadron, 10th Cavalry, D Troop played an instrumental role during Operation Red Dawn, providing security for the air corridor. \n\nA and C Troop, 10th US Cavalry also during this operation secured the inner and outer cordons of the AO (area of operation) for Operation Red Dawn.\n\nThe 4th Division rotated out of Iraq in the Spring of 2004, and was relieved by the 1st Infantry Division.\n\nPresent\n\nThe 10th Cavalry Regiment presently comprises only one active squadron, which is a M3 Bradley-equipped armored reconnaissance squadron within the 4th Infantry Division in Fort Carson, Colorado.\n\nPrior to late 2014, the 10th Cavalry's assignments were:\n*1st Squadron was the armored reconnaissance squadron of the 2nd Brigade, 4th Infantry Division\n*4th Squadron was the armored reconnaissance squadron of the 3rd Brigade, 4th Infantry Division\n*7th Squadron was the armored reconnaissance squadron of the 1st Brigade, 4th Infantry Division\nHowever, due to the U.S. Army's recent reorganization, only 4th Squadron remains in active service.\n\n4th Squadron, 10th Cavalry takes its history and lineage from D Troop, 10th Cavalry. In 2000, D Troop, 10th U.S. Cavalry, was reactivated and assigned as the brigade reconnaissance troop for 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division at Fort Benning, Georgia. D Troop, 10th Cavalry was deployed with 3/3 ID to Iraq in 2003, and was deactivated upon redeployment in 2004.\n\nIt was reactivated in October 2007 at Fort Carson, Colorado, replacing the 2nd Squadron, 9th Cavalry regiment, as the 4th Squadron, 10th Cavalry Regiment with A, B, C, and HQ Troops as the reconnaissance squadron for 3rd Combat Brigade Team (BCT) of the 4th Infantry Division. The 4th Squadron deployed to Iraq with 3/4 ID from December 2007 to February 2009, and again in March 2010.\n\nAs of February 2016, 4th Squadron, 10th Cavalry Regiment is the only current active unit of the 10th Cavalry Regiment.\n\nCampaign participation credit\n\nActivated 1866.\n* Indian Wars\n** 1867 – Battle of the Saline River near Fort Hays, Kansas\n** 1867–1868 – Winter campaigns against the Cheyennes, Arapahos, and Comanches\n** 1868 – Battle of Beecher Island\n** 1868 – Battle of Beaver Creek\n** 1869 – Defense of the Wichita I\n** 1871 – Texas-Indian Wars\n** 1874 – Defense of the Wichita II\n** 1879–1880 – Victorio Campaign\n** 1880 – Battle of Rattlesnake Springs\n** 1918 – Battle of Bear Valley\n* Spanish–American War\n** Battle of Las Guasimas\n** Battle of Tayacoba\n** Battle of El Caney\n** Battle of San Juan Hill\n** Siege of Santiago\n* Philippine–American War\n** Moro Rebellion\n* Mexican Revolution\n** Battle of Carrizal\n* World War I\n** 1918 – Battle of Ambos Nogales The only land battle in North America where German troops (advisors with a Mexican unit) were killed in action fighting Americans.\n* World War II\n** Attached to the 4th Cavalry Brigade, 2nd Cavalry Division in 1942. Deactivated in 1944, some members fought with the 92nd Infantry Division in Italy as replacements.\n\nIn 1958 the Tenth Cavalry Regiment was reactivated.\n* Vietnam War:\n** Counteroffensive, Phase II; (with the 4th Infantry Division)\n** Counteroffensive, Phase III;\n** Tet Counteroffensive;\n** Counteroffensive, Phase IV;\n** Counteroffensive, Phase V;\n** Counteroffensive, Phase VI;\n** Tet 69/Counteroffensive;\n** Summer–Fall 1969;\n** Winter–Spring 1970;\n** Sanctuary Counteroffensive (Except 3rd Brigade);\n** Counteroffensive, Phase VII (Except 3rd Brigade).\n* Iraq War:\n** Liberation of Iraq – 19 March 2003 to 1 May 2003.\n** Coalition Provisional Authority – 2 May 2003 to 28 June 2004.\n** Iraqi Interim Government – 29 June 2004 to 30 December 2005.\n** Iraqi Transitional Government – 31 December 2005 to 20 May 2006\n** Government of Iraq from 2006 – 20 May 2006 to present\n*** Reconstruction of Iraq\n*** Post-invasion Iraq, 2003–present\n*** New Iraqi Army\n*** International Compact with Iraq\n\nIn July 2010 the 7th Squadron become the first armored reconnaissance squadron in the US Army to deploy to Afghanistan. The squadron headquarters and D TRP (FSC) were located in Camp Stone, Herat with the line troops forward deployed in the Herat Province and Badghis Province. The squadron redeployed to Fort Carson, CO in July 2011.\n* War in Afghanistan (2001–14):\n** Consolidation III\n** Transition I\n\nRegimental decorations\n\n * Presidential Unit Citation (Army), Streamer embroidered PLEIKU PROVINCE (1st Brigade only) \n * Presidential Unit Citation (Army), Streamer embroidered DAK TO DISTRICT (1st Brigade only) \n * Valorous Unit Award, 1st Squadron, 10th Cavalry Regiment, 4th Infantry Division (1969–1972), Streamer embroidered II Corp Defense \n * Republic of Vietnam Cross of Gallantry with Palm, Streamer embroidered VIETNAM 1966–1969 \n * Republic of Vietnam Cross of Gallantry with Palm, Streamer embroidered VIETNAM 1969–1970 \n * Republic of Vietnam Civil Action Honor Medal, First Class, Streamer embroidered VIETNAM 1966–1969 \n * Army Superior Unit Award (Selected Units) for Force XXI Test and Evaluation (1995–1996) \n * Valorous Unit Award, 1st Brigade Combat Team & Supporting units, 4th Infantry Division, Streamer embroidered with Operation Red Dawn, Iraq – 2003 \n * Presidential Unit Citation (Army), Streamer embroidered Operation Iraqi Freedom (2003–2004) (1st & 2nd Brigades only) \n * Presidential Unit Citation (Army), Streamer embroidered Operation Iraqi Freedom (2005–2006) (1st & 2nd Brigades only) \n * Meritorious Unit Commendation (Army), 7th Squadron 10th US Cavalry, Streamer embroidered Iraqi Governance 2004–2005 \n * Meritorious Unit Commendation (Army), 7th Squadron 10th US Cavalry, Streamer embroidered National Resolution 2005–2007 \n * Valorous Unit Award, 1st Brigade Combat Team & Supporting units, 4th Infantry Division, Streamer embroidered with Iraqi Surge 2007–2008 \n * Valorous Unit Award, 1st Brigade Combat Team & Supporting units, 4th Infantry Division, Streamer embroidered with Iraqi Sovereignty 2009–2010 \n\nNotable members\n\nSome members in this section are noted in the article above. If detailed in the article, they are summarized here. If not detailed, a brief expansion is provided.\n*Mark Matthews, who was the oldest living Buffalo Soldier, died at the age of 111 on 6 September 2005. He was buried at Arlington National Cemetery. Matthews joined the 10th Cavalry Regiment when he was only 15 years old, after having been recruited at a Lexington, Kentucky, racetrack and having documents forged so that he appeared to meet the minimum age of 17.\n\n* Summary of Medal of Honor recipients of the 10th Cavalry;\n** William McBryar and Louis H. Carpenter Indian Wars.\n** The following four members of the 10th Cavalry Regiment received the Medal of Honor for \"the rescue\" of stranded soldiers on the beach at the conclusion of the Battle of Tayacoba. Dennis Bell, Fitz Lee, William H. Thompkins and George H. Wanton.\n** Edward L. Baker, Jr., Spanish–American War.\n* John Bigelow, Jr., Second Lieutenant, (later Lieutenant Colonel) Bigelow served with the 9th Cavalry Regiment from 1877 to 1885. He was then assigned to the 10th Cavalry and stayed with them in Cuba (D Troop) until 1899. He then served again with the 9th from 1903 to 1904.\n* Benjamin Grierson, the first commander of the 10th Cavalry Regiment. Served 1866 to 1888.\n* Henry O. Flipper – the first African-American graduate of West Point in 1877.\n* Gilbert W. Lindsay (1900–1990), Los Angeles City Council member, 1963–90\n* Nicholas M. Nolan, a favorite officer of A Troop for more than a decade and who led during the Buffalo Soldier tragedy of 1877 also known as the \"Staked Plains Horror.\"\n* Jules Garesche Ord, First Lieutenant, second in command of D Troop, who was killed in action after starting and leading the spontaneous charge of the 10th U.S. Cavalry up to the top of San Juan Hill.\n* John J. Pershing – from October 1895 until mid-1897, First Lieutenant (later General) Pershing commanded a troop of the 10th Cavalry Regiment from Fort Assinniboine in north central Montana. In 1898 in Cuba, Major Pershing served as a regimental officer who participated in the assault on Kettle Hill (part of the San Juan heights) and took over temporary command of D Troop after that battle on 1 July 1898. He was later known as \"Nigger Jack\" and \"Black Jack\" for comparing the high level of professionalism and discipline of the \"Buffalo Soldiers\" with other soldiers.\n* Kenneth O. Preston is a former Sergeant Major of the Army in the United States. He served in that position from January 2004 through his retirement in March 2011.\n* Augustus Walley served with the 9th Cavalry Regiment as a private and received the Medal of Honor. He later served with the 10th Cavalry as First Sergeant in Cuba and the Philippines.\n* Charles Young, Major (later Colonel) commanded the 2nd Squadron of the 10th during the 1916 Punitive Expedition into Mexico. He led a cavalry pistol charge that saved the wounded General Beltran and his men of the 13th Cavalry squadron, who had been outflanked.\n\nIn media and fiction\n\n* Tom Clancy's The Sum Of All Fears, the 10th Cavalry Regiment is reformed to serve as the Army component of the American forces defending Israel. This reformed regiment continues to play prominently in Tom Clancy's Executive Orders where it is transferred to Kuwait to defend that nation from the United Islamic Republic (a fictional amalgamation of Iran and Iraq). Later a movie, loosely based on the book was made.\n* The 1997 television movie Buffalo Soldiers, starring Danny Glover, drew attention to their role in the military history of the United States.\n* Sergeant Rutledge (1960) deals with a \"Buffalo Soldier\", the sergeant of the title, who is accused of the rape and murder of a white woman. In the film the regiment was inaccurately described as the 9th, but in fact the 10th were serving in Arizona at that time. The song included—\"Captain Buffalo\"—refers to the little-known western legend of a black cavalry officer.\n* Chris Bohjalian's The Buffalo Soldier, the 10th Cavalry Regiment is quoted in between chapters with George Rowe and his views on the Civil War. The author also wrote, [http://www.amazon.com/dp/0375725466 \"The Buffalo Soldier\"] in 2002.\n* A reunion of former 10th cavalrymen at Camp Lockett was featured on the \"California's Gold\" television (TV) program primarily seen on public television stations.\n* James A. Michener's historical novel Texas has a section depicting the 10th Cavalry's activities in Texas from 1869 to 1874.\n* The plot of Valdez Is Coming, the 1970 novel by Elmore Leonard and 1971 film of the same name, is developed around the wrongful killing of a recently discharged 10th Cavalry soldier and the attempt to compensate his Apache wife." ] }

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{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe" ], "filename": [ "Amanda_Knox.txt" ], "title": [ "Amanda Knox" ], "wiki_context": [ "Amanda Marie Knox (born July 9, 1987) is an American woman who spent almost four years in an Italian prison following the 2007 murder of Meredith Kercher, one of the women who shared her apartment, before being definitively acquitted by the Supreme Court of Cassation. Knox, then a twenty-year-old student, had raised the alarm after returning from spending the night with her boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito. Following an interrogation, the conduct of which is a matter of dispute, Knox implicated herself and an employer. Knox and Sollecito were initially accused of murdering Kercher while acting with the employer, but he was released and substituted for Rudy Guede after Guede's bloodstained fingerprints were found on Kercher's possessions.\n\nPre-trial publicity in Italian media portrayed Knox in a negative light, leading to complaints that the prosecution was using character assassination tactics. A guilty verdict at Knox's initial trial and her 26-year sentence caused international controversy, as U.S. forensic experts thought evidence at the crime scene was incompatible with her involvement. A prolonged legal process, including a successful prosecution appeal against her acquittal at a second-level trial, continued after Knox was freed in 2011. On March 27, 2015, Italy's highest court—the Supreme Court of Cassation—definitively exonerated Knox and Sollecito. Knox's conviction for Calunnia against her employer was upheld by all courts. On January 14, 2016 Knox was acquitted of Calunnia for saying she had been struck by policewomen during the interrogation. \n\nEarly life \n\nAmanda Knox grew up in West Seattle with three younger sisters. Her mother, Edda Mellas, a mathematics teacher, and her father, Curt Knox, a vice president of finance at the local Macy's, divorced when Amanda was a few years old. Her stepfather, Chris Mellas, is an information-technology consultant. Knox first travelled to Italy at the age of 15, when she visited Rome, Pisa, the Amalfi Coast and the ruins of Pompeii on a family holiday. Her interest in the country was increased by the book Under the Tuscan Sun, which her mother gave her. She graduated in 2005 from the Seattle Preparatory School and studied linguistics at the University of Washington; making the university's dean's list, and working at part-time jobs to fund an academic year in Italy. Relatives described the 20-year-old Knox as outgoing, but unwary. Her stepfather had strong reservations about her going to Italy that year, as he felt she was still too naïve. \n\nItaly\n\nPerugia background\n\nPerugia, the city where the murder of Kercher took place, is known for its universities and large population of students. There had reportedly not been a killing in the city for twenty years, but its prosecutors had been responsible for Italy's most controversial murder cases. The Week, 9 DEC 2009, Robert Fox, [http://www.theweek.co.uk/amanda-knox-free/17977/nothing-%E2%80%98third-world%E2%80%99-about-italian-justice Nothing ‘Third World’ about Italian justice] In 2002 the conviction in Perugia of former Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti for ordering the murder of a journalist (linked to a secret masonic lodge) resulted in complaints that the justice system had \"gone mad\". The Supreme Court took the unusual step of definitively acquitting him the next year. \n\nIn early 2002, Perugia prosecutor Giuliano Mignini, who enjoyed taking a detective-like role and was later to be in charge of the Kercher investigation, arraigned members of a respectable masonic lodge for an alleged conspiracy reportedly involving serial killings and Satanic rites. Mignini investigated fellow prosecutors for complicity in the supposed plot, and appealed dismissals of the charges; there were no convictions the case, which finally ended in 2010. According to a scholar who researched comparative law in Italy, selective changes to the Italian legal system left it unable to cope when a prosecutor with Mignini's American-style adversarial approach used his powers to the fullest.\n\nVia della Pergola 7\n\nIn Perugia, Knox shared a four-bedroom ground-floor apartment in a house at Via della Pergola 7. Her flatmates were two Italian women in their late twenties, and Kercher. Kercher and Knox moved in on 10 and 20 September 2007, respectively, meeting each other for the first time. Knox was employed part-time at a bar, Le Chic, which was owned by a Congolese man, Diya Patrick Lumumba. She told flatmates that she was going to quit because he was not paying her; Lumumba denied this. Kercher's English women friends saw relatively little of Knox, as she preferred to mix with Italians. \n\nThe walk-out semi-basement of the house was rented by young Italian men with whom both Kercher and Knox were friendly. One, Giacomo, spent time in the girls' flat due to a shared interest in music. Returning home at 2 am one night in mid-October, Knox, Kercher, Giacomo and another basement resident met a basketball court acquaintance of the Italians, Rudy Guede. \n Guede attached himself to the group and asked about Knox. He was invited into the basement by the Italians. Knox and then Kercher came down to join them. At 4:30 am Kercher left, saying she was going to bed, and Knox followed her out. Guede spent the rest of the night in the basement. Knox recalled a second night out with Kercher and Giacomo in which Guede joined them and was allowed into the basement. He was never invited into the women's apartment. Three weeks before her death Kercher went with Knox to the EuroChocolate festival. On October 20, Kercher became romantically involved with Giacomo, after going to a nightclub with him as part of a small group which included Knox. Guede visited the basement later that day. On 25 October, Kercher and Knox went to a concert where Knox met Raffaele Sollecito, a 23-year-old student. She began spending her time at his flat, a 5-minute walk from Via della Pergola 7. \n\nDiscovery of body\n\nNovember 1 was a public holiday and the Italians living in the house were away. Kercher was alone in the house when she returned at 9 PM that evening. Just after midday on November 2, Knox called Kercher’s English phone, which she kept in her jeans and could always be reached on, but the call was not answered. Knox then called Romanelli, one of the two Italian trainee lawyers she and Kercher shared the apartment with, and in a mixture of Italian and English said she was worried something had happened to Kercher, as on going to Via della Pergola 7 apartment earlier that morning she had noticed an open front door, bloodstains including a footprint in the bathroom, and Kercher’s bedroom door closed. Knox and Sollecito then went to Via della Pergola 7 and on getting no answer from Kercher unsuccessfully tried to break in the bedroom door, leaving it noticeably damaged. At 12.47 pm Knox called her mother and was told to contact the police as an emergency. \n\nSollecito called the Carabinieri getting though at 12.51 PM. He was recorded telling them there had been a break-in with nothing taken, and the emergency was that Kercher’s door was locked, she was not answering calls to her phone and there were bloodstains. Police telecommunications investigators arrived to inquire about an abandoned phone, which was in fact Kercher’s Italian unit. Romanelli arrived and took over explaining the situation to the police who were informed about Kercher’s English phone, which had been handed in as a result of it ringing when Knox called it. On discovering Kercher’s English phone had been found dumped, Romanelli demanded that the policemen force Kercher’s bedroom door open, but they did not think the circumstances warranted damaging private property. The door was then kicked in by a strongly built friend of Romanelli’s, and Kercher's body was discovered on the floor. She had been stabbed and died from exsanguination due to neck wounds. \n\nInvestigation\n\nThe first detectives on the scene were Monica Napoleoni and her superior Marco Chiacchiera. Napoleoni conducted the initial interviews and quizzed Knox about her failure to immediately raise the alarm, later to be widely seen as an anomalous feature of her behaviour. According to Knox, Romanelli was hostile to her from the outset. Chiacchiera discounted the signs of a break in as clearly faked by the killer. The police were not told the extent of Kercher's relationship with Giacomo in initial interviews. On 4 December, the same day Chiacchiera was quoted as saying that someone known to Kercher and let into the house by her might be responsible for her murder, Guede is believed to have left Perugia. \n\nInterviews, arrest and arraignment\n\nOver the following days Knox was repeatedly interviewed, ostensibly as someone who might become a witness. She told police that on 1 November her evening waitressing shift at Patrick Lumumba's bar was cancelled by a text, and she had stayed over at Sollecito's apartment, only going back to the house she shared with Kercher on the morning of the day the body was discovered. She was not provided with legal counsel as Italian law only mandates the appointment of a lawyer for someone suspected of a crime, No police recordings of the interviews were ever produced. On the night of November the 5th she voluntarily went to the police station, although what followed is a matter of dispute.\n\nAt her trial Knox testified that she had spent hours maintaining her original story, that she had been with Sollecito at his flat all night and had no knowledge of the murder, but a group of police would not believe her. Knox said \"I wasn't just stressed and pressurised; I was manipulated\"; she testified to being told by the interpreter, \"probably I didn't remember well because I was traumatised. So I should try to remember something else.\" Knox stated, \"they said they were convinced that I was protecting someone. They were saying 'Who is it? Who is it?' They were saying: 'Here's the message on your telephone, you wanted to meet up with him, you are a stupid liar.\" Knox also said that a policewoman \"was saying 'Come on, come on, remember' and then – slap – she hit me. Then 'come on, come on' and – slap – another one\".\nKnox said she had requested a lawyer but was told it would make things worse for her, and that she would go to jail for 30 years; she also said she was not allowed access to food, water, or the bathroom. Hooper, John. [http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/feb/05/meredith-kercher-murder-trial \"Was there a plot to kill Meredith?\"], The Guardian, 5 February 2009.\n*Dempsey 2010, pp. 147–148. Ficarra and policewoman Lorena Zugarini testified that during the interview Knox was given access to food, water, hot drinks and the lavatory. They further said Knox was asked about a lawyer but did not have one, was not hit at any time,Dempsey 2010, p. 145. and interviewed \"firmly but politely\".Squires, Nick. [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/italy/4864649/Amanda-Knox-hit-in-the-head-during-Meredith-Kercher-murder-interrogation.html \"Amanda Knox 'hit in the head' during Meredith Kercher murder interrogation\"], The Daily Telegraph, 28 February 2009. Under pressure, she falsely stated that she had been in the house when Kercher was killed, and that she thought the murderer was Lumumba (known to Knox to have been serving customers at his bar all that night). Knox, Sollecito, and Lumumba were taken into custody and charged with the murder. Her first meeting with her legal counsel was on November 11. Chiacchiera, who thought the arrests were premature, dropped out of the investigation soon afterward, leaving Napoleoni in charge of a murder case for the first time in her career. \n\nCustomers who had been served by Lumumba at his bar on the night of the murder gave him a complete alibi. After bloodstained fingerprints of Rudy Guede, were found on bedding under Kercher's body, he was brought from Germany where he had fled. Guede, Knox, and Sollecito were then charged with committing the murder together. On the 30th of November 2007 a panel of three judges endorsed the charges, and ordered Knox and Sollecito held in detention pending a trial. In a formal interview with Mignini, Knox said she had been brainwashed by police interrogators into accusing Lumumba and implicating herself. \n\nKnox became the subject of unprecedented pre-trial media coverage drawing on unattributed leaks from the prosecution, including a best-selling Italian book whose author imagined or invented incidents which were purported to have occurred in Knox's private life. Wise, Ann. [http://abcnews.go.com/2020/AmandaKnox/small-victory-amanda-knox/story?id\n10169888 \"Small Victory For Amanda Knox\"], ABC News, March 22, 2010. Sherwell, Philip. [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/6736512/Amanda-Knox-Foxy-Knoxy-was-an-innocent-abroad-say-US-supporters.html \"Amanda Knox: 'Foxy Knoxy' was an innocent abroad, say US supporters\"], The Daily Telegraph, December 5, 2009. \n\nItalian legal procedure\n\nIn 1989, Italy reformed its inquisitorial system, introducing elements of U.S.-style adversarial procedure. The changes were intended to remove an inquisitorial continuity between the investigatory phase and the basis for a decision at trial, but in practice they took control of inquiries away from police and gave prosecutors authority over the preliminary investigation. Although they have considerable authority over early inquiries and discretion in bringing charges, Italian prosecutors do not customarily use their powers in the aggressive way common in the US system. \n\nUnless the defendant opts for a fast track trial (a relatively inquisitorial procedure) murder trials are heard by a Corte d'Assise, which is less likely to exclude evidence as prejudicial than a U.S. court. Two presiding professional trial judges, who also vote on the verdict, are expected to correct any bias of the 6 lay-judges during their deliberations. An acquittal can be appealed by the prosecution, and faulty application of legal principles in the judges' detailed report on their decision can be grounds be for overturning the verdict.\n\nA defendant who gives evidence is not given an oath, because he or she is not considered to be a witness. The settled verdict of another court can be used without collaboration to support circumstantial evidence; in Knox's case the official report on Guede's conviction was introduced as showing that Guede had accomplices. If the Supreme Court grants an appeal against a guilty verdict, it usually sends the case back to be re-heard. It can also dismiss the prosecution case, although this is rare.\n\nTrial of Guede\n\nIn initial internet conversation while he was a fugitive wanted for the murder of Kercher, which Knox and Sollecito were being held for, Guede did not mention Knox or Sollecito as being in the house on the night of the murder. Later his account changed and he indirectly implicated them in the murder, which he denied involvement in. He opted to be tried in a special fast track procedure by judge Micheli. Guede was not charged with having had a knife. He did not testify and was not questioned about his statements. He was convicted of murder and the official judges’ report on the conviction specified that he had not acted alone, or stolen any of Kercher’s possessions. Micheli’s finding that Guede must have had an accomplice gave support to the later prosecution of Knox. \n\nThe judges reasoned that Guede would not have faked a burglary, because it would have pointed to him in view of his own earlier break-ins (though at the time of the murder he was known to police only for being detained for trespassing in Florence). The judges also decided against the possibility of Guede having got in by simply knocking on the door, because they thought Kercher would not have opened the entry door to him (although she knew him to be an acquaintance of her boyfriend Giacomo). In his pre-trial declarations Guede said Kercher had let him in the cottage. One legal commentator on the case thought that courts gave insufficient consideration to the possibility that Guede had called at the house on some pretext while Kercher was alone there, and killed her after she opened the door to him. \n\nFirst trial of Knox and Sollecito\n\nIn 2009 Knox and Sollecito pleaded not guilty at a Corte d'Assise on charges of murder, sexual assault, carrying a knife, simulating a burglary, theft of 300 euros, two credit cards and two mobile phones. There was no charge in relation to Kercher's missing keys to the entry door and her own bedroom door, although Guede's trial judgement said he had not stolen anything. Knox was accused of falsely implicating Lumumba and charged with Calunnia, which under Italian law is knowingly blaming someone for a crime that they didn't commit. \n\nProsecution case\n\nAccording to the prosecution, Knox’s first call of 2 November, to Kercher’s English phone, was to ascertain if Kercher's phones had been found, Sollecito had tried to break in the bedroom door because after he and Knox locked it behind them, they realized they had left something that might incriminate them. Knox’s call to her mother in Seattle, a quarter of an hour before the discovery of the body, was said by prosecutors to show Knox was acting as if something serious might have happened before the point in time when an innocent person would have such concern. \n\nA prosecution witness, homeless man Antonio Curatolo, said Knox and Sollecito were in a nearby square on the night of the murder. Prosecutors advanced a single piece of forensic evidence linking Sollecito to Kercher's bedroom, where the murder had taken place: fragments of his DNA on Kercher's bra clasp. Hogenboom, Melissa. [http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-24534110 Kercher trial: How does DNA contamination occur?], BBC News, January 30, 2014. Accessed July 24, 2016. Giulia Bongiorno, leading Sollecito's defence, questioned how Sollecito's DNA could have got on the small metal clasp of the bra, but not on the fabric of the bra back strap from which it was torn. \"How can you touch the hook without touching the cloth?\" Bongiorno asked. The back strap of the bra had multiple traces of DNA belonging to Guede. According to the prosecution's reconstruction, Knox had attacked Kercher in her bedroom, repeatedly banged her head against a wall, forcefully held her face and tried to strangle her. Guede, Knox and Sollecito had removed Kercher's jeans, and held her on her hands and knees while Guede had sexually abused her. Knox had cut Kercher with a knife before inflicting the fatal stab wound; then faked a burglary. The judge pointedly questioned Knox about a number of details, especially concerning her phone calls to her mother and Romanelli. \n\nDefense case\n\nThe defense suggested that there had been a genuine break in by Guede, and pointed out that no shoe prints, clothing fibers, hairs, fingerprints, skin cells or DNA of Knox were found on Kercher's body, clothes, handbag or anywhere else in Kercher's bedroom.Guardian, September 22, 2011, [http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/sep/22/amanda-knox-hope-appeal?newsfeed\ntrue Amanda Knox 'hopeful of release'] The prosecution alleged that all forensic traces in the room that would have incriminated Knox had been wiped away by her and Sollecito. Knox's lawyers said it would have been impossible to selectively remove her traces, and emphasized that Guede's shoe prints, fingerprints, and DNA were found in Kercher's bedroom. \n\nGuede's DNA was on the strap of her bra, which had been torn off, and his DNA was found on a vaginal swab taken from Kercher's body. Guede's bloody palm print was on a pillow that had been placed under Kercher's hips. Guede's DNA mixed with Kercher's was on the left sleeve of her bloody sweatshirt and in bloodstains inside her shoulder bag, from which 300 euros and credit cards had been stolen.Povoledo, Elisabetta. [http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/30/world/europe/30knox.html?_r=1 \"Italian Experts Question Evidence in Knox Case\"], The New York Times, June 29, 2011.\n*Rizzo, Alessandra. [http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Latest-News-Wires/2011/0630/Amanda-Knox-DNA-evidence-contested-by-experts-crucial-victory-for-defense \"Amanda Knox DNA evidence contested by experts, crucial victory for defense\"], The Christian Science Monitor, June 30, 2011. Both sets of defence lawyers requested the judges to order independent reviews of evidence including DNA and the compatibility of the wounds with the alleged murder weapon; the request was denied. In final pleas to the court, Sollecito's lawyer described Knox as \"a weak and fragile girl\" who had been \"duped by the police.\" Knox's lawyer pointed to text messages between Knox and Kercher as showing that they had been friends. \n\nVerdict and controversy\n\nOn 5 December 2009 Knox, by then 22, was convicted on charges of faking a break-in, slander (for a statement implicating Lumumba), sexual violence and murder, and sentenced to 26 years imprisonment. Sollecito was sentenced to 25 years. In Italy opinion was not generally favorable to Knox, and an Italian jurist remarked: \"This is the simplest and fairest criminal trial one could possibly think of in terms of evidence.\"\n\nIn the U.S., the verdict was widely viewed as a miscarriage of justice. American lawyers expressed concern about pre-trial publicity, and statements excluded from the murder case being allowed for a contemporaneous civil suit heard by the same jury. Knox's defense attorneys were seen as, by American standards, passive in the face of the prosecution's use of character assassination. Although acknowledging that Knox might have been a person of interest for American police in similar circumstances, journalist Nina Burleigh, who had spent months in Perugia during the trial while researching a book on the case, said that the conviction had not been based on solid proof and there had been resentment at the Knox family which amounted to \"anti-Americanism\". \n\nA number of U.S. experts spoke out against DNA evidence used by the prosecution. According to consultant Gregory Hampikian the Italian forensic police could not replicate the key result, claimed to have successfully identified DNA at levels below those an American laboratory would attempt to analyse, and never supplied validation of their methods. \n\nIn September 2010, Knox was additionally indicted on charges of slandering the Italian police in relation to claims of mistreatment during her interrogation. \n\nIn May 2011, Hampikian, director of the Idaho Innocence Project, a non-profit investigative organization dedicated to proving the innocence of wrongly convicted people, said forensic results from the crime scene pointed to Guede being the killer who had acted on his own. \n\nAcquittal and release\n\nA Corte d'Assise verdict of guilty is not a definitive conviction. What is in effect a new trial, Corte d'Assise d'Appello, reviews the case. The appeal (or second grade) trial began November 2010 and was presided over by Judges Claudio Pratillo Hellmann and Massimo Zanetti. A court-ordered review of the contested DNA evidence by independent experts noted numerous basic errors in the gathering and analysis of the evidence, and concluded that no evidential trace of Kercher's DNA had been found on the alleged murder weapon, which police had found in Sollecito's kitchen. The review found the forensic police examination showed evidence of multiple males' DNA fragments on the bra clasp, which had been lost on the floor for 47 days, the court-appointed expert testified the context strongly suggested contamination. On October 3, 2011 Knox and Sollecito were found not guilty. Knox returned to the US. \n\nIn an official statement giving the grounds for the acquittals, Hellmann said forensic evidence did not support the idea that Knox and Sollecito had been present at the murder. It was emphasized that Knox's first calls raised the alarm and brought the police to the house, which made the prosecution's assertion that she had been trying to delay discovery of the body untenable. Her and Sollecito's accounts failing to completely match did not constitute evidence they had given a false alibi. Discounting Curatolo's testimony as self-contradictory, the judges observed that he was a heroin addict. Having noted that there was no evidence of any phone calls or texts between Knox or Sollecito and Guede, the judges concluded there was a \"material non-existence\" of evidence to support the guilty verdicts, and that an association among Sollecito, Knox, and Guede to commit the murder was \"far from probable\". \n\nKnox wrote a letter to Corrado Maria Daclon, Secretary General of the Italy-USA Foundation, the day after regaining her freedom:\n \n\nRetrial \n\nOn March 26, 2013, Italy's highest court, the Supreme Court of Cassation set aside the acquittals of the Hellmann second level trial on the grounds that it had gone beyond the remit of a Corte d'Assise d'Appello by not ordering new DNA tests and failing to give weight to circumstantial evidence in context such as Knox's accusation of the bar owner in the disputed interviews. A note Knox composed in the police station (not mentioning Guede) was regarded by the Supreme Court as confirmation that she and Guede were present in Via della Pergola 7 while Kercher was attacked. A retrial was ordered. Knox was represented, but remained in the United States. \n\nJudge Nencini presided at the retrial, and granted a prosecution request for analysis of previously unexamined DNA sample found on a kitchen knife of Sollecito, which the prosecution alleged was the murder weapon based on the forensic police reporting that Kercher's DNA was on it, a conclusion discredited by court-appointed experts at the appeal trial. When the unexamined sample was tested, no DNA belonging to Kercher was found. On January 30, 2014, Knox and Sollecito were found guilty. In their written explanation the judges emphasised Guede's fast-track verdict report was a judicial reference point establishing that he had not acted alone. The Nencini verdict report said there must have been a cleanup to remove traces of Knox from the house while leaving Guede's. The report said that there had been no burglary and the signs of one were staged. It did not consider the possibility of Guede having been responsible for faking a break-in. \n\nForensic controversy continues\n\nAlthough not part of the defense's team of experts, an authority on the forensic use of DNA, Professor Peter Gill, publicly said that the case against Knox and Sollecito was misconceived because they had a legitimate excuse for their DNA being present on Sollecito's kitchen knife, and in the crime scene apartment. According to Gill, the DNA fragment from Sollecito on the bra clasp could have got there through Sollecito having touched the handle of Kercher's door while trying to force it, enabling transfer of his DNA to the bra clasp inside the bedroom on the latex gloves used by investigators. \n\nFinal decision\n\nOn March 27, 2015, the ultimate appeal by Knox and Sollecito was heard by the Supreme Court of Cassation; it ruled that the case was without foundation, thereby definitively acquitting them of the murder. Her Calunnia conviction was upheld. Rather than merely declaring that there were errors in the earlier court cases or that there was not enough evidence to convict, the court ruled that Knox and Sollecito were innocent of involvement in the murder. \nOn September 7, 2015, the Court published the report on the acquittal, citing \"glaring errors,\" \"investigative amnesia,\" and \"guilty omissions,\" where a five-judge panel said that the prosecutors who won the original murder conviction failed to prove a \"whole truth\" to back up the scenario that Knox and Sollecito killed Kercher. They also stated that there were \"sensational failures\" (') in the investigation, and that the lower court had been guilty of \"culpable omissions\" () in ignoring expert testimony that demonstrated contamination of evidence. \n\nPersonal life\n\nAfter returning to the United States, Knox completed her degree and worked on a book about her case. She was often followed by paparazzi. Her family incurred large debts from the years of supporting her in Italy and are reportedly \ninsolvent, the proceeds from Waiting to Be Heard: A Memoir having gone to pay legal fees to her Italian lawyers. In 2014 Amanda Knox started working as an occasional freelance writer for a local weekly newspaper, the West Seattle Herald. Knox has stated her intention to become an advocate for others who were wrongfully convicted, and she attends events related to the Innocence Project and related organizations.\n\nMedia\n\nDocumentaries\n\n* A Long Way From Home: CBS 48 Hours documentary, broadcast in April 2008 in the United States \n* Murder Mystery: Amanda Knox Speaks: ABC News 20/20 special interview with Diane Sawyer, Knox's first interview after being freed. \n\nBooks\n\n* The Fatal Gift of Beauty: The Trials of Amanda Knox (August 2011) ISBN 978-0307588593\n* Waiting to Be Heard: A Memoir (2013)\n* Honor Bound: My Journey to Hell and Back with Amanda Knox (2013)" ] }

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{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe", "TagMe" ], "filename": [ "Baseball_scorekeeping.txt", "Pitcher.txt" ], "title": [ "Baseball scorekeeping", "Pitcher" ], "wiki_context": [ "Baseball scorekeeping is the practice of recording the details of a baseball game as it unfolds. Professional baseball leagues hire official scorers to keep an official record of each game (from which a box score can be generated), but many fans keep score as well for their own enjoyment. Scorekeeping is usually done on a printed scorecard and, while official scorers must adhere precisely to one of the few different scorekeeping notations, most fans exercise some amount of creativity and adopt their own symbols and styles. \n\nHistory\n\nSportswriter Henry Chadwick is generally credited as the inventor of baseball scorekeeping. His basic scorecard and notation have evolved significantly since their advent in the 1870s but they remain the basis for most of what has followed.\n\nAbbreviations and grammar\n\nSome symbols and abbreviations are shared by nearly all scorekeeping systems. For example, the position of each player is indicated by a number:\n# Pitcher (P)\n# Catcher (C)\n# First baseman (1B)\n# Second baseman (2B)\n# Third baseman (3B)\n# Shortstop (SS)\n# Left fielder (LF)\n# Center fielder (CF)\n# Right fielder (RF)\n# Rover or short fielder (used primarily in softball)\n\nThe designated hitter (DH), if used, is marked using a zero (0).\n\nScorecards\n\nScorecards vary in appearance but almost all share some basic features, including areas for:\n* Recording general game information (date and time, location, teams, etc.)\n* Listing the batting lineup (with player positions and uniform numbers)\n* Recording the play-by-play action (usually the majority of the scorecard)\n* Tallying each player's total at-bats, hits, runs, etc. at the end of the game\n* Listing the pitchers in the game\n\nUsually two scorecards (one for each team) are used to score a game.\n\nTraditional scorekeeping\n\nBecause the traditional method has been in use for so long, it has the most variations in its symbols and syntax. It is difficult, at this point in time, to describe an \"authoritative\" set of rules for traditional scorekeeping, but what is described here is a representative sample.\n\nIn the traditional method, each cell in the main area of the scoresheet represents the \"lifetime\" of an offensive player, from at-bat to baserunner, to being put out or scoring a run.\n\nOuts\n\nWhen an out is recorded, the combination of defensive players executing that out is recorded. For example:\n* If a batter hits a ball on the ground to the shortstop, who throws the ball to the first baseman to force the first out, it would be noted on the scoresheet as 6–3, with 6 for the shortstop and 3 for the first baseman.\n* If the next batter hits a ball to the center fielder who catches it on the fly for the second out, it would be noted as F8, with F for flyout and 8 for the center fielder. (This is just one of several approaches to scoring a fly out. Normally, the letter 'F' is reserved for foul outs. A fly out would normally be scored simply as '8'.)\n\n* If the following batter strikes out, it would be noted as K, with the K being the standard notation for a strikeout. If the batter did not swing at the third strike, a \"backwards K\" (Ʞ, see right) is traditionally used. Other forms include \"Kc\" for a called third strike with no swing, or \"Ks\" if the batter did swing. A slash should be drawn across the lower right corner to indicate the end of the inning.\n* If in another inning, a baserunner is caught stealing second base, the basepath between first and second is filled-in halfway, then ended with a short stroke perpendicular to the basepath. It is then noted CS, with some scorers adding the uniform number or batting position of the batter to indicate when the runner was put out. Then the defensive combination of the put out, normally 2–4 or 2–6 for a catcher-to-second-base play, is written.\n\nReaching base\n\nIf a batter reaches first base, either due to a walk, a hit, or an error, the basepath from home to first base is drawn, and the method described in the lower-righthand corner. For example:\n* If a batter gets a base hit, the basepath is drawn and 1B (for a single-base hit) is written below.\n* If the batter hits a double, however, the basepaths from home to first and first to second are drawn, and 2B is written above. This change of position is done to indicate that the runner did not advance on another hit. If the batter hits a triple, the basepaths are drawn from home to first to second to third and 3B is written in the upper lefthand corner for the same reason.\n* If a batter gets a walk, the basepath is drawn and BB (for Base on Balls) or W (for Walk) is written below. IBB is written for an intentional base on balls. HBP is written for the batter walking because he was hit by a pitch.\n* If the batter reaches first base due to fielder's choice, the basepath is drawn and FC is written along with the sequence of the defense's handling of the ball, e.g., 6–4.\n* If the batter reaches base because the first baseman dropped the throw from the shortstop, the basepath is drawn and E3 (an error committed by the first baseman) is written below.\n* If a batter gets a base hit then in the same play advances due to a fielding error by the second baseman, these are written as two events. First, the path to first is drawn with a 1B noted as for a single, then the path to second is drawn with an E4 noted above. This correctly describes the scoring—a single plus an error.\n\nAdvancing\n\nWhen a runner advances due to a following batter, it can be noted by the batting position or the uniform number of the batter that advanced the runner. This kind of information is not always included by amateur scorers, and there is a lot of variation in notation. For example:\n* If a runner on first is advanced to third base due to action from the 4th batter, number 22, the paths from first to second to third are drawn in and either a 4 or 22 could be written in the upper left hand corner. Whether that action was a base hit or a sacrifice will be noted on the batter's annotation.\n* If a runner steals second while the 7th batter, number 32, is up to bat, the path from first to second would be drawn and SB followed by either a 7 or 32 could be written in the upper right hand corner.\n* For a batter to be credited with advancing the runner, the base advance must be the result of the batter's action. If a runner advances beyond that due to an error, the advance due to the batter's action and the advance due to the error are noted as two separate actions.\n* To advance a player home to score a run, a runner must touch all 4 bases and cross all four base paths, therefore the scorer draws a complete diamond and, usually, fills it in. However, some scorers only fill in the diamond on a home run; they might then place a small dot in the center of the diamond to indicate a run scored but not a home run. The player that bats the runner home (or the error that allows the runner to reach home) is noted in the lower left hand corner.\n\nMiscellaneous\n\n* End of an inning – When the offensive team has made three outs, a slash is drawn diagonally across the lower right corner of the cell of the third out. After each half-inning, the total number of hits and runs can be noted at the bottom of the column. After the game, totals can be added up for each team and each batter.\n* Extra innings – There are extra columns on a scoresheet that can be used if a game goes to extra innings, but if a game requires more columns, another scorecard will be needed for each team.\n* Substitutions – When a substitution is made, a vertical line is drawn after the last at-bat for previous player, and the new player's name and number is written in the second line of the Player Information section. A notation of PH or PR should be made for pinch hit and pinch run situations.\n* Batting around – After the ninth batter has batted, the record of the first batter should be noted in the same column. However, if more than nine batters bat in a single inning, the next column will be needed. Draw a diagonal line across the lower left hand corner, to indicate that the original column is being extended.\n\nExample\n\nThe scorecard on the right describes the August 8, 2000 game between the Milwaukee Brewers and San Francisco Giants, played at Pacific Bell Park, in San Francisco. The scorecard describes the following events in the top of the 1st inning:\n* 1st Batter, #10 Ronnie Belliard (the Brewers' 2nd baseman) grounded the ball to the Giants' 3rd baseman (5), who fielded the ball and threw it to 1st base (3) for the out. The play is recorded as \"5-3.\"\n** The notation (\"3-2\") in the lower right corner of the \"Belliard:Inning 1 cell\" indicates the pitch count at the time Belliard put the ball into play (3 balls and 2 strikes).\n* 2nd batter, #9 Marquis Grissom (the Brewers' center fielder) grounded out 5-3 (3rd baseman to 1st baseman) on a 2-ball, 2-strike count.\n* 3rd batter, #5 Geoff Jenkins (the Brewers' left fielder) grounded the ball to the 1st baseman (3) who took the ball to the base himself for an unassisted put out (3U).\n\nOne hard and fast rule of baseball scorekeeping is that every out and every time a baserunner advances must be recorded. The scoring can get a little more complicated when a batter who has reached base, is then \"moved up\" (advances one or more bases) by his own actions or by the actions of a hitter behind him. This is demonstrated in the Giants' first inning:\n\n* 1st Batter, #7 Marvin Benard (the Giants' center fielder) hit a fly ball that was caught by the right fielder (9) for an out. Other scorekeepers might abbreviate this out using \"F9\" for fly out to right field.\n* 2nd batter, #32 Bill Mueller (the Giants' 3rd baseman) hit a single: he hit the ball into play and made it safely to first base. This is denoted by the single line running from \"home\" to \"1st\" next to the diamond in that cell. Commonly, scorekeepers will place some abbreviation, such as \"1B-7\", to designate a single hit to left field. In addition, many scorekeepers also place a line across the diamond to show the actual path of the baseball on the field.\n* 3rd batter, #25 Barry Bonds (the Giants' left fielder, incorrectly noted as a right fielder (\"RF\") on this scorecard) struck out (K) on a 1-ball, 2-strike count. At some point during Bonds' at-bat, Mueller, the runner on 1st base, stole 2nd base. This advancement was recorded in Mueller's cell by writing the notation \"SB\" next to the upper-right edge of the diamond.\n* 4th batter, #21 Jeff Kent (the Giants' 2nd baseman) hit a fly ball that was caught by the Brewers' right fielder (9) for the third and final out of the inning. Mueller was stranded on 2nd base.\n\nStranded baserunners might be notated as being \"LOB\" (Left On Base) for that inning, with a number from 1-3 likely at the bottom of the inning column. For example, if two runners are left on base after the 3rd out, the scorekeeper might note \"LOB:2\", then at the end of the game calculate a total number of LOB for the game.\n\nA more complicated example of scorekeeping is the record of the bottom of the 5th inning:\n* 1st batter, #6 J.T. Snow (the Giants' 1st baseman and the fifth hitter in the Giants' lineup) advanced to first base on a walk (base-on-balls; BB).\n* 2nd batter, #23 Ellis Burks (the Giants' right fielder) grounded out 5-3 (3rd baseman to 1st baseman). In the process, Snow advanced to second base.\n* 3rd batter, #25 Rich Aurilia (the Giants' shortstop) flied out to the center fielder (8) for the second out of the inning.\n* 4th batter, #29 Bobby Estalella (the Giants' catcher) drew a walk (BB) to advance to first base. Snow remained at 2nd base.\n* 5th batter, #48 Russ Ortiz (the Giants' starting pitcher) hit a single (diagonal single line drawn next to the lower-right side of the diamond). Snow advanced to home plate on that single (the diagonal line drawn next to the lower left side of the diamond in Snow's \"cell\") to score the game's only run. Ortiz is given credit for an RBI (run batted in), denoted by the \"R\" written in the bottom left corner of his cell (incorrectly, since \"R\" indicates a 'run scored' and would more appropriately been noted in Snow's cell; \"RBI\" should have been written in Ortiz's cell). Estalella advanced from 1st to 3rd base on Ortiz's single (the diagonal line drawn next to the upper left side of the diamond in Estalella's \"cell\").\n* 6th batter Marvin Bernard, up for the third time in this game, drew a walk (BB). Ortiz advanced to 2nd base on that walk (indicated by \"BB\" written on the \"1st to 2nd\" portion of the diamond in his cell.\n* 7th batter Bill Mueller hit a ground ball to the 3rd baseman (5), who then threw the ball to the 2nd baseman (4) to force out Bernard at 2nd base (6-4) for the third and final out of the inning. As a force out also could have been performed by throwing the ball to 1st base, this is scored as a fielder's choice (\"FC\").\n\nProject Scoresheet\n\nProject Scoresheet was an organization run by volunteers in the 1980s for the purpose of collecting baseball game data and making it freely available to the public (the data collected by Major League Baseball was and still is not freely available). To collect and distribute the data, Project Scoresheet needed a method of keeping score that could be easily input to a computer. This limited the language to letters, numbers, and punctuation (no baseball diamonds or other symbols not found on a computer keyboard). \n\nScorecard\n\nIn addition to the new language introduced by Project Scoresheet, a few major changes were made to the traditional scorecard. Firstly, innings of play are not recorded in a one-per-column fashion; instead all boxes are used sequentially and new innings are indicated with a heavy horizontal line. This saves considerable space on the card (since no boxes are left blank) and reduces the likelihood of a game requiring a second set of scorecards.\n\nThe second major change is the detailed offensive and defensive in/out system, which allows the scorekeeper to specify very specifically when players enter and leave the game. This is vital for attributing events to the proper players.\n\nLastly, each \"event box\" on a Project Scoresheet scorecard is broken down into three sections: before the play, during the play, and after the play. All events are put into one of these three slots. For example, a stolen base happens \"before the play\" because it occurs before the batter's at-bat is over. A hit is considered \"during the play\" because it ends the batter's plate appearance, and baserunner movement subsequent to the batter's activity is considered \"after the play\".\n\nLanguage\n\nThe language developed by Project Scoresheet can be used to record trajectories and locations of batted balls and every defensive player who touched the ball, in addition to the basic information recorded by the traditional method. Here are some examples:\n\nIn the \"before the play\" slot:\n* CS2(26): runner caught stealing 2B (catcher to shortstop)\n* 1-2/SB: runner on 1B steals 2B\n\nIn \"during the play\" slot:\n* 53: ground-out to third baseman (\"5-3\" in the traditional system)\n* E5/TH1: error on the third baseman (on his throw to 1B)\n\nIn the \"after the play\" slot:\n* 2-H: runner on 2B advances to home (scores)\n* 1XH(92): runner on 1B thrown out going home (right fielder to catcher)\n\nFor a complete description of the language and the scorecard please see [http://dcortesi.home.mindspring.com/scoring/ David Cortesi's documentation].\n\nReisner Scorekeeping\n\nProject Scoresheet addressed a lack of precision in the traditional scorekeeping method, and introduced several new features to the scorecard. But while the Project Scoresheet language continues to be the baseball research community's standard for storing play-by-play game data in computers, the scorecards it yields are difficult to read due to the backtracking required to reconstruct a mid-inning play. Hence, despite its historical importance, the system has never gained favor with casual fans.\n\nIn 2002 Alex Reisner developed a new scorekeeping method that took the language of Project Scoresheet but redefined the way the event boxes on the scorecard worked, virtually eliminating the backtracking required by both Project Scoresheet and the traditional method. The system also makes it easy to reconstruct any mid-inning situation, a difficult task with the other two systems (for this reason it was originally promoted as \"Situational Scorekeeping\").\n\nScorecard\n\nA Reisner scorecard looks like a cross between a traditional and Project Scoresheet scorecard. It has a diamond (representing the field, as in the traditional system) and a single line for recording action during and after the play (like Project Scoresheet's second and third lines). The diamond in each event box is used to show which bases are occupied by which players at the start of an at-bat. Stolen bases, pickoffs, and other \"before the play\" events are also marked on the diamond, so that one can see the \"situation\" in which an at-bat took place by simply glancing at the scorecard.", "In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws the baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of retiring a batter, who attempts to either make contact with the pitched ball or draw a walk. In the numbering system used to record defensive plays, the pitcher is assigned the number 1. The pitcher is often considered the most important defensive player, and as such is situated at the right end of the defensive spectrum. There are many different types of pitchers, such as the starting pitcher, relief pitcher, middle reliever, lefty specialist, setup man, and closer.\n\nTraditionally, the pitcher also bats. Starting in 1973 with the American League and spreading to further leagues throughout the 1980s and 1990s, the hitting duties of the pitcher have generally been given over to the position of designated hitter, a cause of some controversy. The National League in Major League Baseball and the Japanese Central League are among the remaining leagues that have not adopted the designated hitter position.\n\nOverview \n\nIn most cases, the objective of the pitcher is to deliver the pitch to the catcher without allowing the batter to hit the ball with the bat. A successful pitch is delivered in such a way that the batter either allows the pitch to pass through the strike zone, swings the bat at the ball and misses it, or hits the ball poorly (resulting in a pop fly or ground out). If the batter elects not to swing at the pitch, it is called a strike if any part of the ball passes through the strike zone and a ball when no part of the ball passes through the strike zone. A check swing is when the batter begins to swing, but then stops the swing short. If the batter successfully checks the swing and the pitch is out of the strike zone, it is called a ball.\n\nThere are two legal pitching positions, the windup and the set position or stretch. Either position may be used at any time; typically, the windup is used when the bases are empty, while the set position is used when at least one runner is on base. Each position has certain procedures that must be followed. A balk can be called on a pitcher from either position. A power pitcher is one who relies on the velocity of his pitches to succeed. Generally, power pitchers record a high percentage of strikeouts. A control pitcher succeeds by throwing accurate pitches and thus records few walks.\n\nNearly all action during a game is centered on the pitcher for the defensive team. A pitcher's particular style, time taken between pitches, and skill heavily influence the dynamics of the game and can often determine the victor. Starting with the pivot foot on the pitcher's rubber at the center of the pitcher's mound, which is 60 ft from home plate, the pitcher throws the baseball to the catcher, who is positioned behind home plate and catches the ball. Meanwhile, a batter stands in the batter's box at one side of the plate, and attempts to bat the ball safely into fair play.\n\nThe type and sequence of pitches chosen depend upon the particular situation in a game. Because pitchers and catchers must coordinate each pitch, a system of hand signals is used by the catcher to communicate choices to the pitcher, who either vetoes or accepts by shaking his head or nodding. The relationship between pitcher and catcher is so important that some teams select the starting catcher for a particular game based on the starting pitcher. Together, the pitcher and catcher are known as the battery.\n\nAlthough the object and mechanics of pitching remain the same, pitchers may be classified according to their roles and effectiveness. The starting pitcher begins the game, and he may be followed by various relief pitchers, such as the long reliever, the left-handed specialist, the middle reliever, the setup man, and/or the closer.\n\nIn Major League Baseball, every team uses Baseball Rubbing Mud to rub game balls in before their pitchers use them in games.\n\nPitching in a game\n\n \n\nA skilled pitcher often throws a variety of different pitches to prevent the batter from hitting the ball well. The most basic pitch is a fastball, where the pitcher throws the ball as hard as he can. Some pitchers are able to throw a fastball at a speed over 100 mph, ex., Aroldis Chapman. Other common types of pitches are the curveball, slider, changeup, cutter, sinker, screwball, forkball, split-fingered fastball, slurve, and knuckleball. These generally are intended to have unusual movement or to deceive the batter as to the rotation or velocity of the ball, making it more difficult to hit. Very few pitchers throw all of these pitches, but most use a subset or blend of the basic types. Some pitchers also release pitches from different arm angles, making it harder for the batter to pick up the flight of the ball. (See List of baseball pitches.) A pitcher who is throwing well on a particular day is said to have brought his \"good stuff\".\n\nThere are a number of distinct throwing styles used by pitchers. The most common style is a three-quarters delivery in which the pitcher's arm snaps downward with the release of the ball. Some pitchers use a sidearm delivery in which the arm arcs laterally to the torso. Some pitchers use a submarine style in which the pitcher's body tilts sharply downward on delivery, creating an exaggerated sidearm motion in which the pitcher's knuckles come very close to the mound.\n\nEffective pitching is vitally important in baseball. In baseball statistics, for each game, one pitcher will be credited with winning the game, and one pitcher will be charged with losing it. This is not necessarily the starting pitchers for each team, however, as a reliever can get a win and the starter would then get a no-decision.\n\nRotation and specialization\n\n \nPitching is physically demanding, especially if the pitcher is throwing with maximum effort. A full game usually involves 120–170 pitches thrown by each team, and most pitchers begin to tire before they reach this point. As a result, the pitcher who starts a game often will not be the one who finishes it, and he may not be recovered enough to pitch again for a few days. The act of throwing a baseball at high speed is very unnatural to the body and somewhat damaging to human muscles; thus pitchers are very susceptible to injuries, soreness, and general pain.\n\nTeams have devised two strategies to address this problem: rotation and specialization. To accommodate playing nearly every day, a team will include a group of pitchers who start games and rotate between them, allowing each pitcher to rest for a few days between starts. A team's roster of starting pitchers are usually not even in terms of skill. Exceptional pitchers are highly sought after and in the professional ranks draw large salaries, thus teams can seldom stock each slot in the rotation with top-quality pitchers.\n\nThe best starter in the team's rotation is called the ace. He is usually followed in the rotation by 3 or 4 other starters before he would be due to pitch again. Barring injury or exceptional circumstances, the ace is usually the pitcher that starts on Opening Day. Aces are also preferred to start crucial games late in the season and in the playoffs; sometimes they are asked to pitch on shorter rest if the team feels he would be more effective than the 4th or 5th starter. Typically, the further down in the rotation a starting pitcher is, the weaker he is compared with the others on the staff. The \"5th starter\" is seen as the cut-off between the starting staff and the bullpen. A team may have a designated 5th starter, sometimes known as a spot starter or that role may shift cycle to cycle between members of the bullpen or Triple-A starters. Differences in rotation setup could also have tactical considerations as well, such as alternating right- or left-handed pitchers, in order to throw off the other team's hitting game-to-game in a series.\n\nTeams have additional pitchers reserved to replace that game's starting pitcher if he tires or proves ineffective. These players are called relief pitchers, relievers, or collectively the bullpen. Once a starter begins to tire or is starting to give up hits and runs a call is made to the bullpen to have a reliever start to warm up. This involves the reliever starting to throw practice balls to a coach in the bullpen so as to be ready to come in and pitch whenever the manager wishes to pull the current pitcher. Having a reliever warm up does not always mean he will be used; the current pitcher may regain his composure and retire the side, or the manager may choose to go with another reliever if strategy dictates. Commonly, pitching changes will occur as a result of a pinch hitter being used in the late innings of a game, especially if the pitcher is in the batting lineup due to not having the designated hitter. A reliever would then come out of the bullpen to pitch the next inning.\n\nWhen making a pitching change a manager will come out to the mound. He will then call in a pitcher by the tap of the arm which the next pitcher throws with. The manager or pitching coach may also come out to discuss strategy with the pitcher, but on his second trip to the mound with the same pitcher in the same inning, the pitcher has to come out. The relief pitchers often have even more specialized roles, and the particular reliever used depends on the situation. Many teams designate one pitcher as the closer, a relief pitcher specifically reserved to pitch the final inning or innings of a game when his team has a narrow lead, in order to preserve the victory. Other relief roles include set-up men, middle relievers, left-handed specialists, and long relievers. Generally, relievers pitch fewer innings and throw fewer pitches than starters, but they can usually pitch more frequently without the need for several days of rest between appearances. Relief pitchers are typically guys with \"special stuff\". Meaning that they have really effective pitches or a very different style of delivery. This makes the batter see a very different way of pitching in attempt to get them out. One example is a sidearm or submarine pitcher.\n\nPosition players are eligible to pitch in a game as well, this however is rare as these players are not truly trained as pitchers and risk injury. (For instance, in a 1993 game, Jose Canseco suffered a season ending arm injury after pitching 2 innings.) Plus, they tend to throw with less velocity. For these reasons, managers will typically only use a position player as a pitcher in a blowout loss, or if they have run out of available pitchers in order to avoid a forfeit (the latter typically only happens in extra-inning games). The last position player to pitch in major league baseball was Erik Kratz of the Pittsburgh Pirates who pitched the ninth inning of a 15-4 loss on 21 June, 2016. Cliff Pennington of the Toronto Blue Jays, who pitched 1/3 of an inning in game 4 of the 2015 American League Championship Series en route to a 14-2 loss, is the only documented position player to pitch during the postseason.\n\nAfter the ball is pitched\n\nThe pitcher's duty does not cease after he pitches the ball. Unlike the other fielders, a pitcher and catcher must start every play in a designated area. The pitcher must be on the pitcher's mound, with one foot in contact with the pitcher's rubber, and the catcher must be behind home plate in the catcher's box. Once the ball is in play, however, the pitcher and catcher, like the other fielders, can respond to any part of the field necessary to make or assist in a defensive play. At that point, the pitcher has several standard roles. The pitcher must attempt to field any balls coming up the middle, and in fact a Gold Glove Award is reserved for the pitcher with the best fielding ability. He must head over to first base, to be available to cover it, on balls hit to the right side, since the first baseman might be fielding them. On passed balls and wild pitches, he covers home-plate when there are runners on. Also, he generally backs up throws to home plate. When there is a throw from the outfield to third base, he has to back up the play to third base as well.\n\nPitching biomechanics\n\nThe physical act of overhand pitching is complex and unnatural to the human anatomy. Most major league pitchers throw at speeds between 60 and 100 mph, putting high amounts of stress on the pitching arm. Pitchers are by far the most frequently injured players and many professional pitchers will have multiple surgeries to repair damage in the elbow and shoulder by the end of their careers.\n\nAs such, the biomechanics of pitching are closely studied and taught by coaches at all levels and are an important field in sports medicine. Glenn Fleisig, a biomechanist who specializes in the analysis of baseball movements, says that pitching is \"the most violent human motion ever measured.\" He claims that the pelvis can rotate at 515–667°/sec, the trunk can rotate at 1,068–1,224°/s, the elbow can reach a maximal angular velocity of 2,200–2,700°/s and the force pulling the pitcher's throwing arm away from the shoulder at ball release is approximately 280 lbf.\n\nThe overhead throwing motion can be divided into phases which include windup, early cocking, late cocking, early acceleration, late acceleration, deceleration, and follow-through. Training for pitchers often includes targeting one or several of these phases. Biomechanical evaluations are sometimes done on individual pitchers to help determine points of inefficiency. Mechanical measurements that are assessed include, but are not limited to, foot position at stride foot contact (SFC), elbow flexion during arm cocking and acceleration phases, maximal external rotation during arm cocking, horizontal abduction at SFC, arm abduction, lead knee position during arm cocking, trunk tilt, peak angular velocity of throwing arm and angle of wrist. \n\nSome players begin intense mechanical training at a young age, a practice that has been criticized by many coaches and doctors, with some citing an increase in Tommy John surgeries in recent years. Fleisig lists nine recommendations for preventative care of children's arms. 1) Watch and respond to signs of fatigue. 2) Youth pitchers should not pitch competitively in more than 8 months in any 12-month period. 3) Follow limits for pitch counts and days of rest. 4) Youth pitchers should avoid pitching on multiple teams with overlapping seasons. 5) Youth pitchers should learn good throwing mechanics as soon as possible: basic throwing, fastball pitching and change-up pitching. 6) Avoid using radar guns. 7) A pitcher should not also be a catcher for his/her team. The pitcher catcher combination results in many throws and may increase the risk of injury. 8) If a pitcher complains of pain in his/her elbow, get an evaluation from a sports medicine physician. 9) Inspire youth to have fun playing baseball and other sports. Participation and enjoyment of various activities will increase the youth's athleticism and interest in sports.\n\nTo counteract shoulder and elbow injury, coaches and trainers have begun utilizing \"jobe\" exercises, named for Dr. Frank Jobe, the pioneer of the Tommy John procedure. Jobes are exercises that have been developed to isolate, strengthen and stabilize the rotator cuff muscles. Jobes can be done using either resistance bands or lightweight dumbbells. Common jobe exercises include shoulder external rotation, shoulder flexion, horizontal abduction, prone abduction and scaption (at 45°, 90° and inverse 45°).\n\nIn addition to the Jobes exercises, many pitching coaches are creating lifting routines that are specialized for pitchers. Pitchers should avoid exercises that deal with a barbell. The emphasis on the workout should be on the legs and the core. Other body parts should be worked on but using lighter weights. Over lifting muscles, especially while throwing usually ends up in a strain muscle or possible a tear.\n\nEquipment\n\nOther than the catcher, pitchers and other fielders wear very few pieces of equipment. In general the ball cap, baseball glove and cleats are equipment used. Currently there is a new trend of introducing a pitcher helmet to provide head protection from batters hitting line drives back to the pitcher. As of January 2014, MLB approved a protective pitchers cap which can be worn by any pitcher if they choose. San Diego Padres relief pitcher, Alex Torres was the first player in MLB to wear the protective cap. \n\nOne style of helmet is worn on top of the ballcap to provide protection to the forehead and sides. \n\nIn softball, a full face helmet is available to all players including pitchers. These fielder's masks are becoming increasingly popular in younger fast pitch leagues, some leagues even requiring them." ] }

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{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe", "TagMe", "TagMe", "TagMe", "TagMe", "TagMe", "Search" ], "filename": [ "Benjamin_Franklin.txt", "Ulysses_S._Grant.txt", "Andrew_Jackson.txt", "Alexander_Hamilton.txt", "Thomas_Jefferson.txt", "Abraham_Lincoln.txt", "George_Washington.txt" ], "title": [ "Benjamin Franklin", "Ulysses S. Grant", "Andrew Jackson", "Alexander Hamilton", "Thomas Jefferson", "Abraham Lincoln", "George Washington" ], "wiki_context": [ "Benjamin Franklin ( - April 17, 1790) was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. A renowned polymath, Franklin was a leading author, printer, political theorist, politician, freemason, postmaster, scientist, inventor, civic activist, statesman, and diplomat. As a scientist, he was a major figure in the American Enlightenment and the history of physics for his discoveries and theories regarding electricity. As an inventor, he is known for the lightning rod, bifocals, and the Franklin stove, among other inventions. He facilitated many civic organizations, including Philadelphia's fire department and a university. \n\nFranklin earned the title of \"The First American\" for his early and indefatigable campaigning for colonial unity, initially as an author and spokesman in London for several colonies. As the first United States Ambassador to France, he exemplified the emerging American nation. Franklin was foundational in defining the American ethos as a marriage of the practical values of thrift, hard work, education, community spirit, self-governing institutions, and opposition to authoritarianism both political and religious, with the scientific and tolerant values of the Enlightenment. In the words of historian Henry Steele Commager, \"In a Franklin could be merged the virtues of Puritanism without its defects, the illumination of the Enlightenment without its heat.\" To Walter Isaacson, this makes Franklin \"the most accomplished American of his age and the most influential in inventing the type of society America would become.\" \n\nFranklin became a successful newspaper editor and printer in Philadelphia, the leading city in the colonies, publishing the Pennsylvania Gazette at the age of 23. He became wealthy publishing this and Poor Richard's Almanack, which he authored under the pseudonym \"Richard Saunders\". After 1767, he was associated with the Pennsylvania Chronicle, a newspaper that was known for its revolutionary sentiments and criticisms of the British policies.\n\nHe pioneered and was first president of the The Academy and College of Philadelphia which opened in 1751 and later became the University of Pennsylvania. He organised and was the first secretary of the American Philosophical Society and was elected president in 1769. Franklin became a national hero in America when, as an agent for several colonies, he spearheaded an effort in London to have the Parliament of Great Britain repeal the unpopular Stamp Act. An accomplished diplomat, he was widely admired among the French as American minister to Paris and was a major figure in the development of positive Franco-American relations. His efforts to secure support for the American Revolution by shipments of crucial munitions proved vital for the American war effort.\n\nHe was promoted to deputy postmaster-general for the British colonies in 1753, having been Philadelphia postmaster for many years, and this enabled him to set up the first national communications network. After the Revolution he became the first US Postmaster General. He was active in community affairs, colonial and state politics, as well as national and international affairs. From 1785 to 1788, he served as governor of Pennsylvania. Although he initially owned and dealt in slaves, by the 1750s he argued against slavery from an economic perspective and became one of the most prominent abolitionists.\n\nHis colorful life and legacy of scientific and political achievement, and status as one of America's most influential Founding Fathers, have seen Franklin honored on coinage and the $100 bill; warships; the names of many towns; counties; educational institutions; corporations; and, more than two centuries after his death, countless cultural references.\n\nEarly life in Boston\n\nBenjamin Franklin was born on Milk Street, in Boston, Massachusetts, on January 17, 1706,Contemporary records, which used the Julian calendar and the Annunciation Style of enumerating years, recorded his birth as January 6, 1705. The provisions of the British Calendar (New Style) Act 1750, implemented in 1752, altered the official British dating method to the Gregorian calendar with the start of the year on January 1 (it had been March 25). These changes resulted in dates being moved forward 11 days, and for those between January 1 and March 25, an advance of one year. For a further explanation, see: Old Style and New Style dates. and baptized at Old South Meeting House. He was one of seventeen children born to Josiah Franklin, and one of ten born by Josiah's second wife, Abiah Folger; the daughter of Peter Foulger and Mary Morrill. Among Benjamin's siblings were his older brother James and his younger sister Jane.\n\nJosiah wanted Ben to attend school with the clergy, but only had enough money to send him to school for two years. He attended Boston Latin School but did not graduate; he continued his education through voracious reading. Although \"his parents talked of the church as a career\" for Franklin, his schooling ended when he was ten. He worked for his father for a time, and at 12 he became an apprentice to his brother James, a printer, who taught Ben the printing trade. When Ben was 15, James founded The New-England Courant, which was the first truly independent newspaper in the colonies.\n\nWhen denied the chance to write a letter to the paper for publication, Franklin adopted the pseudonym of \"Silence Dogood\", a middle-aged widow. Mrs. Dogood's letters were published, and became a subject of conversation around town. Neither James nor the Courants readers were aware of the ruse, and James was unhappy with Ben when he discovered the popular correspondent was his younger brother. Franklin was an advocate of free speech from an early age. When his brother was jailed for three weeks in 1722 for publishing material unflattering to the governor, young Franklin took over the newspaper and had Mrs. Dogood (quoting Cato's Letters) proclaim: \"Without freedom of thought there can be no such thing as wisdom and no such thing as public liberty without freedom of speech.\" Franklin left his apprenticeship without his brother's permission, and in so doing became a fugitive. \n\nPhiladelphia\n\nAt age 17, Franklin ran away to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, seeking a new start in a new city. When he first arrived, he worked in several printer shops around town, but he was not satisfied by the immediate prospects. After a few months, while working in a printing house, Franklin was convinced by Pennsylvania Governor Sir William Keith to go to London, ostensibly to acquire the equipment necessary for establishing another newspaper in Philadelphia. Finding Keith's promises of backing a newspaper empty, Franklin worked as a typesetter in a printer's shop in what is now the Church of St Bartholomew-the-Great in the Smithfield area of London. Following this, he returned to Philadelphia in 1726 with the help of Thomas Denham, a merchant who employed Franklin as clerk, shopkeeper, and bookkeeper in his business.\n\nJunto and library\n\nIn 1727, Benjamin Franklin, then 21, created the Junto, a group of \"like minded aspiring artisans and tradesmen who hoped to improve themselves while they improved their community.\" The Junto was a discussion group for issues of the day; it subsequently gave rise to many organizations in Philadelphia. The Junto was modeled after English coffeehouses that Franklin knew well, and which should become the center of the spread of Enlightenment ideas in Britain. \n\nReading was a great pastime of the Junto, but books were rare and expensive. The members created a library initially assembled from their own books after Franklin wrote:\n\nA proposition was made by me that since our books were often referr'd to in our disquisitions upon the inquiries, it might be convenient for us to have them altogether where we met, that upon occasion they might be consulted; and by thus clubbing our books to a common library, we should, while we lik'd to keep them together, have each of us the advantage of using the books of all the other members, which would be nearly as beneficial as if each owned the whole. \n\nThis did not suffice, however. Franklin conceived the idea of a subscription library, which would pool the funds of the members to buy books for all to read. This was the birth of the Library Company of Philadelphia: its charter was composed by Franklin in 1731. In 1732, Franklin hired the first American librarian, Louis Timothee. The Library Company is now a great scholarly and research library. \n\nNewspaperman\n\nUpon Denham's death, Franklin returned to his former trade. In 1728, Franklin had set up a printing house in partnership with Hugh Meredith; the following year he became the publisher of a newspaper called The Pennsylvania Gazette. The Gazette gave Franklin a forum for agitation about a variety of local reforms and initiatives through printed essays and observations. Over time, his commentary, and his adroit cultivation of a positive image as an industrious and intellectual young man, earned him a great deal of social respect. But even after Franklin had achieved fame as a scientist and statesman, he habitually signed his letters with the unpretentious 'B. Franklin, Printer.'\n\nIn 1732, Ben Franklin published the first German language newspaper in America – Die Philadelphische Zeitung – although it failed after only one year, because four other newly founded German papers quickly dominated the newspaper market. Franklin printed Moravian religious books in German. Franklin often visited Bethlehem staying at the Moravian Sun Inn. In a 1751 pamphlet on demographic growth and its implications for the colonies, he called the Pennsylvania Germans \"Palatine Boors\" who could never acquire the \"Complexion\" of the English settlers and to \"Blacks and Tawneys\" as weakening the social structure of the colonies. Although Franklin apparently reconsidered shortly thereafter, and the phrases were omitted from all later printings of the pamphlet, his views may have played a role in his political defeat in 1764. \n\nFranklin saw the printing press as a device to instruct colonial Americans in moral virtue. Frasca argues he saw this as a service to God, because he understood moral virtue in terms of actions, thus, doing good provides a service to God. Despite his own moral lapses, Franklin saw himself as uniquely qualified to instruct Americans in morality. He tried to influence American moral life through construction of a printing network based on a chain of partnerships from the Carolinas to New England. Franklin thereby invented the first newspaper chain. It was more than a business venture, for like many publishers since, he believed that the press had a public-service duty. \n\nWhen Franklin established himself in Philadelphia, shortly before 1730, the town boasted two \"wretched little\" news sheets, Andrew Bradford's American Mercury, and Samuel Keimer's Universal Instructor in all Arts and Sciences, and Pennsylvania Gazette. This instruction in all arts and sciences consisted of weekly extracts from Chambers's Universal Dictionary. Franklin quickly did away with all this when he took over the Instructor and made it The Pennsylvania Gazette. The Gazette soon became Franklin's characteristic organ, which he freely used for satire, for the play of his wit, even for sheer excess of mischief or of fun. From the first he had a way of adapting his models to his own uses. The series of essays called \"The Busy-Body\", which he wrote for Bradford's American Mercury in 1729, followed the general Addisonian form, already modified to suit homelier conditions. The thrifty Patience, in her busy little shop, complaining of the useless visitors who waste her valuable time, is related to the ladies who address Mr. Spectator. The Busy-Body himself is a true Censor Morum, as Isaac Bickerstaff had been in the Tatler. And a number of the fictitious characters, Ridentius, Eugenius, Cato, and Cretico, represent traditional 18th-century classicism. Even this Franklin could use for contemporary satire, since Cretico, the \"sowre Philosopher\", is evidently a portrait of Franklin's rival, Samuel Keimer.\n\nAs time went on, Franklin depended less on his literary conventions, and more on his own native humor. In this there is a new spirit—not suggested to him by the fine breeding of Addison, or the bitter irony of Swift, or the stinging completeness of Pope. The brilliant little pieces Franklin wrote for his Pennsylvania Gazette have an imperishable place in American literature.\n\nThe Pennsylvania Gazette, like most other newspapers of the period, was often poorly printed. Franklin was busy with a hundred matters outside of his printing office, and never seriously attempted to raise the mechanical standards of his trade. Nor did he ever properly edit or collate the chance medley of stale items that passed for news in the Gazette. His influence on the practical side of journalism was minimal. On the other hand, his advertisements of books show his very great interest in popularizing secular literature. Undoubtedly his paper contributed to the broader culture that distinguished Pennsylvania from her neighbors before the Revolution. Like many publishers, Franklin built up a book shop in his printing office; he took the opportunity to read new books before selling them.\n\nFranklin had mixed success in his plan to establish an inter-colonial network of newspapers that would produce a profit for him and disseminate virtue. He began in Charleston, South Carolina, in 1731. After the second editor died, his widow Elizabeth Timothy took over and made it a success, 1738–46. She was one of the colonial era's first woman printers. For three decades Franklin maintained a close business relationship with her and her son Peter who took over in 1746. The Gazette had a policy of impartiality in political debates, while creating the opportunity for public debate, which encouraged others to challenge authority. Editor Peter Timothy avoided blandness and crude bias, and after 1765 increasingly took a patriotic stand in the growing crisis with Great Britain. However, Franklin's Connecticut Gazette (1755–68) proved unsuccessful. \n\nFreemason\n\nIn 1731, Franklin was initiated into the local Masonic Lodge. He became Grand Master in 1734, indicating his rapid rise to prominence in Pennsylvania.The History Channel, Mysteries of the Freemasons: America, video documentary, August 1, 2006, written by Noah Nicholas and Molly Bedell That same year, he edited and published the first Masonic book in the Americas, a reprint of James Anderson's Constitutions of the Free-Masons. Franklin remained a Freemason for the rest of his life. \n\nCommon-law marriage to Deborah Read\n\nIn 1723, at the age of 17, Franklin proposed to 15-year-old Deborah Read while a boarder in the Read home. At that time, Read's mother was wary of allowing her young daughter to marry Franklin, who was on his way to London at Governor Sir William Keith's request, and also because of his financial instability. Her own husband had recently died, and Mrs. Read declined Franklin's request to marry her daughter.\n\nWhile Franklin was in London, his trip was extended, and there were problems with Sir William's promises of support. Perhaps because of the circumstances of this delay, Deborah married a man named John Rodgers. This proved to be a regrettable decision. Rodgers shortly avoided his debts and prosecution by fleeing to Barbados with her dowry, leaving Deborah behind. Rodgers's fate was unknown, and because of bigamy laws, Deborah was not free to remarry.\n\nFranklin established a common-law marriage with Deborah Read on September 1, 1730. They took in Franklin's young, recently acknowledged illegitimate son, William, and raised him in their household. In addition, they had two children together. The first, Francis Folger Franklin, born October 1732, died of smallpox in 1736. Their second child, Sarah Franklin, familiarly called Sally, was born in 1743. She eventually married Richard Bache, had seven children, and cared for her father in his old age.\n\nDeborah's fear of the sea meant that she never accompanied Franklin on any of his extended trips to Europe, despite his repeated requests. She wrote to him in November 1769 saying she was ill due to \"dissatisfied distress\" from his prolonged absence, but he did not return until his business was done. Deborah Read Franklin died of a stroke in 1774, while Franklin was on an extended mission to England; he returned in 1775.\n\nWilliam Franklin\n\nIn 1730, at the age of 24, Franklin publicly acknowledged the existence of William, his son, who was deemed 'illegitimate' as he was born out of wedlock, and raised him in his household. His mother's identity is not known. He was educated in Philadelphia.\n\nBeginning at about age 30, William studied law in London in the early 1760s. He fathered an illegitimate son, William Temple Franklin, born February 22, 1762. The boy's mother was never identified, and he was placed in foster care. Franklin later that year married Elizabeth Downes, daughter of a planter from Barbados. After William passed the bar, his father helped him gain an appointment in 1763 as the last Royal Governor of New Jersey.\n\nA Loyalist, William and his father eventually broke relations over their differences about the American Revolutionary War. The elder Franklin could never accept William's position. Deposed in 1776 by the revolutionary government of New Jersey, William was arrested at his home in Perth Amboy at the Proprietary House and imprisoned for a time. The younger Franklin went to New York in 1782, which was still occupied by British troops. He became leader of the Board of Associated Loyalists — a quasi-military organization, headquartered in New York City. They initiated guerrilla forays into New Jersey, southern Connecticut, and New York counties north of the city. When British troops evacuated from New York, William Franklin left with them and sailed to England. He settled in London, never to return to North America.\n\nIn the preliminary peace talks in 1782 with Britain, \"... Benjamin Franklin insisted that loyalists who had borne arms against the United States would be excluded from this plea (that they be given a general pardon). He was undoubtedly thinking of William Franklin.\" \n\nSuccess as an author\n\nIn 1733, Franklin began to publish the noted Poor Richard's Almanack (with content both original and borrowed) under the pseudonym Richard Saunders, on which much of his popular reputation is based. Franklin frequently wrote under pseudonyms. Although it was no secret that Franklin was the author, his Richard Saunders character repeatedly denied it. \"Poor Richard's Proverbs\", adages from this almanac, such as \"A penny saved is twopence dear\" (often misquoted as \"A penny saved is a penny earned\") and \"Fish and visitors stink in three days\", remain common quotations in the modern world. Wisdom in folk society meant the ability to provide an apt adage for any occasion, and Franklin's readers became well prepared. He sold about ten thousand copies per year—it became an institution. In 1741 Franklin began publishing The General Magazine and Historical Chronicle for all the British Plantations in America, the first such monthly magazine of this type published in America.\n\nIn 1758, the year he ceased writing for the Almanack, he printed Father Abraham's Sermon, also known as The Way to Wealth. Franklin's autobiography, begun in 1771 but published after his death, has become one of the classics of the genre.\n\nDaylight saving time (DST) is often erroneously attributed to a 1784 satire that Franklin published anonymously. Modern DST was first proposed by George Vernon Hudson in 1895. \n\nInventions and scientific inquiries\n\nFranklin was a prodigious inventor. Among his many creations were the lightning rod, glass harmonica (a glass instrument, not to be confused with the metal harmonica), Franklin stove, bifocal glasses and the flexible urinary catheter. Franklin never patented his inventions; in his autobiography he wrote, \"... as we enjoy great advantages from the inventions of others, we should be glad of an opportunity to serve others by any invention of ours; and this we should do freely and generously.\" \n\nHis inventions also included social innovations, such as paying forward. Franklin's fascination with innovation could be viewed as altruistic; he wrote that his scientific works were to be used for increasing efficiency and human improvement. One such improvement was his effort to expedite news services through his printing presses. \n\nElectricity\n\nFranklin started exploring the phenomenon of electricity in 1746 when he heard of the Leyden Jar. Franklin proposed that \"vitreous\" and \"resinous\" electricity were not different types of \"electrical fluid\" (as electricity was called then), but the same electrical fluid under different pressures. He was the first to label them as positive and negative respectively, and he was the first to discover the principle of conservation of charge. In 1748 he constructed a multiple plate capacitor, that he called an \"electrical battery\" (not to be confused with Volta's pile) by placing eleven panes of glass sandwiched between lead plates hung from silk cords and connected by wires. \n\nIn 1750, he published a proposal for an experiment to prove that lightning is electricity by flying a kite in a storm that appeared capable of becoming a lightning storm. On May 10, 1752, Thomas-François Dalibard of France conducted Franklin's experiment using a 40 ft iron rod instead of a kite, and he extracted electrical sparks from a cloud. On June 15 Franklin may possibly have conducted his well known kite experiment in Philadelphia, successfully extracting sparks from a cloud. Franklin's experiment was not written up with credit until Joseph Priestley's 1767 History and Present Status of Electricity. Franklin was careful to stand on an insulator, keeping dry under a roof to avoid the danger of electric shock. Others, such as Prof. Georg Wilhelm Richmann in Russia, were indeed electrocuted during the months following Franklin's experiment.\n\nIn his writings, Franklin indicates that he was aware of the dangers and offered alternative ways to demonstrate that lightning was electrical, as shown by his use of the concept of electrical ground. If Franklin did perform this experiment, he may not have done it in the way that is often described—flying the kite and waiting to be struck by lightning—as it would have been dangerous. Instead he used the kite to collect some electric charge from a storm cloud, which implied that lightning was electrical. On October 19 in a letter to England with directions for repeating the experiment, Franklin wrote:\n\nFranklin's electrical experiments led to his invention of the lightning rod. He noted that conductors with a sharp rather than a smooth point could discharge silently, and at a far greater distance. He surmised that this could help protect buildings from lightning by attaching \"upright Rods of Iron, made sharp as a Needle and gilt to prevent Rusting, and from the Foot of those Rods a Wire down the outside of the Building into the Ground; ... Would not these pointed Rods probably draw the Electrical Fire silently out of a Cloud before it came nigh enough to strike, and thereby secure us from that most sudden and terrible Mischief!\" Following a series of experiments on Franklin's own house, lightning rods were installed on the Academy of Philadelphia (later the University of Pennsylvania) and the Pennsylvania State House (later Independence Hall) in 1752. \n\nIn recognition of his work with electricity, Franklin received the Royal Society's Copley Medal in 1753, and in 1756 he became one of the few 18th-century Americans elected as a Fellow of the Society. He received honorary degrees from Harvard and Yale universities (his first). The cgs unit of electric charge has been named after him: one franklin (Fr) is equal to one statcoulomb.\n\nPopulation studies\n\nFranklin had a major influence on the emerging science of demography, or population studies. Thomas Malthus is noted for his rule of population growth and credited Franklin for discovering it. Kammen (1990) and Drake (2011) say Franklin's \"Observations on the Increase of Mankind\" (1755) stands alongside Ezra Stiles' \"Discourse on Christian Union\" (1760) as the leading works of eighteenth century Anglo-American demography; Drake credits Franklin's \"wide readership and prophetic insight.\" \n\nIn the 1730s and 1740s, Franklin began taking notes on population growth, finding that the American population had the fastest growth rates on earth. Emphasizing that population growth depended on food supplies—a line of thought later developed by Thomas Malthus—Franklin emphasized the abundance of food and available farmland in America. He calculated that America's population was doubling every twenty years and would surpass that of England in a century. In 1751, he drafted \"Observations concerning the Increase of Mankind, Peopling of Countries, &c.\" Four years later, it was anonymously printed in Boston, and it was quickly reproduced in Britain, where it influenced the economists Adam Smith and later Thomas Malthus. Franklin's predictions alarmed British leaders who did not want to be surpassed by the colonies, so they became more willing to impose restrictions on the colonial economy. \n\nFranklin was also a pioneer in the study of slave demography, as shown in his 1755 essay. \n\nAtlantic Ocean currents\n\nAs deputy postmaster, Franklin became interested in the North Atlantic Ocean circulation patterns. While in England in 1768, he heard a complaint from the Colonial Board of Customs: Why did it take British packet ships carrying mail several weeks longer to reach New York than it took an average merchant ship to reach Newport, Rhode Island? The merchantmen had a longer and more complex voyage because they left from London, while the packets left from Falmouth in Cornwall.\n\nFranklin put the question to his cousin Timothy Folger, a Nantucket whaler captain, who told him that merchant ships routinely avoided a strong eastbound mid-ocean current. The mail packet captains sailed dead into it, thus fighting an adverse current of 3 mph. Franklin worked with Folger and other experienced ship captains, learning enough to chart the current and name it the Gulf Stream, by which it is still known today.\n\nFranklin published his Gulf Stream chart in 1770 in England, where it was completely ignored. Subsequent versions were printed in France in 1778 and the U.S. in 1786. The British edition of the chart, which was the original, was so thoroughly ignored that everyone assumed it was lost forever until Phil Richardson, a Woods Hole oceanographer and Gulf Stream expert, discovered it in the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris in 1980. This find received front page coverage in the New York Times. \n\nIt took many years for British sea captains to adopt Franklin's advice on navigating the current; once they did, they were able to trim two weeks from their sailing time. In 1853, the oceanographer and cartographer Matthew Fontaine Maury noted that Franklin only charted and codified the Gulf Stream, he did not discover it:\n\nWave theory of light\n\nFranklin was, along with his contemporary Leonhard Euler, the only major scientist who supported Christiaan Huygens' wave theory of light, which was basically ignored by the rest of the scientific community. In the 18th century Newton's corpuscular theory was held to be true; only after Young's well known slit experiment in 1803 were most scientists persuaded to believe Huygens' theory. \n\nMeteorology\n\nOn October 21, 1743, according to popular myth, a storm moving from the southwest denied Franklin the opportunity of witnessing a lunar eclipse. Franklin was said to have noted that the prevailing winds were actually from the northeast, contrary to what he had expected. In correspondence with his brother, Franklin learned that the same storm had not reached Boston until after the eclipse, despite the fact that Boston is to the northeast of Philadelphia. He deduced that storms do not always travel in the direction of the prevailing wind, a concept that greatly influenced meteorology. \n\nAfter the Icelandic volcanic eruption of Laki in 1783, and the subsequent harsh European winter of 1784, Franklin made observations connecting the causal nature of these two separate events. He wrote about them in a lecture series. \n\nTraction kiting\n\nThough Benjamin Franklin has been most noted kite-wise with his lightning experiments, he has also been noted by many for his using kites to pull humans and ships across waterways. The George Pocock in the book A TREATISE on The Aeropleustic Art, or Navigation in the Air, by means of Kites, or Buoyant Sails noted being inspired by Benjamin Franklin's traction of his body by kite power across a waterway. In his later years he suggested using the technique for pulling ships.\n\nConcept of cooling\n\nFranklin noted a principle of refrigeration by observing that on a very hot day, he stayed cooler in a wet shirt in a breeze than he did in a dry one. To understand this phenomenon more clearly Franklin conducted experiments. In 1758 on a warm day in Cambridge, England, Franklin and fellow scientist John Hadley experimented by continually wetting the ball of a mercury thermometer with ether and using bellows to evaporate the ether. With each subsequent evaporation, the thermometer read a lower temperature, eventually reaching 7 F. Another thermometer showed that the room temperature was constant at 65 F. In his letter Cooling by Evaporation, Franklin noted that, \"One may see the possibility of freezing a man to death on a warm summer's day.\"\n\nTemperature's effect on electrical conductivity\n\nAccording to Michael Faraday, Franklin's experiments on the non-conduction of ice are worth mentioning, although the law of the general effect of liquefaction on electrolytes is not attributed to Franklin. However, as reported in 1836 by Prof. A. D. Bache of the University of Pennsylvania, the law of the effect of heat on the conduction of bodies otherwise non-conductors, for example, glass, could be attributed to Franklin. Franklin writes, \"... A certain quantity of heat will make some bodies good conductors, that will not otherwise conduct ...\" and again, \"... And water, though naturally a good conductor, will not conduct well when frozen into ice.\" \n\nOceanography findings\n\nAn aging Franklin accumulated all his oceanographic findings in Maritime Observations, published by the Philosophical Society's transactions in 1786. It contained ideas for sea anchors, catamaran hulls, watertight compartments, shipboard lightning rods and a soup bowl designed to stay stable in stormy weather.\n\nDecision-making\n\nIn a 1772 letter to Joseph Priestley, Franklin lays out the earliest known description of the Pro & Con list, a common decision-making technique, now sometimes called a decisional balance sheet:\n\n... my Way is, to divide half a Sheet of Paper by a Line into two Columns, writing over the one Pro, and over the other Con. Then during three or four Days Consideration I put down under the different Heads short Hints of the different Motives that at different Times occur to me for or against the Measure. When I have thus got them all together in one View, I endeavour to estimate their respective Weights; and where I find two, one on each side, that seem equal, I strike them both out: If I find a Reason pro equal to some two Reasons con, I strike out the three. If I judge some two Reasons con equal to some three Reasons pro, I strike out the five; and thus proceeding I find at length where the Ballance lies; and if after a Day or two of farther Consideration nothing new that is of Importance occurs on either side, I come to a Determination accordingly.\n\n \n\nOil on water\n\nWhile traveling on a ship, Franklin had observed that the wake of a ship was diminished when the cooks scuttled their greasy water. He studied the effects at Clapham Common, London on a large pond there. \"I fetched out a cruet of oil and dropt a little of it on the water...though not more than a teaspoon full, produced an instant calm over a space of several yards square.\" He later used the trick to \"calm the waters\" by carrying \"a little oil in the hollow joint of my cane\". \n\nMusical endeavors\n\nFranklin is known to have played the violin, the harp, and the guitar. He also composed music, notably a string quartet in early classical style. He developed a much-improved version of the glass harmonica, in which the glasses rotate on a shaft, with the player's fingers held steady, instead of the other way around; this version soon found its way to Europe. \n\nChess\n\nFranklin was an avid chess player. He was playing chess by around 1733, making him the first chess player known by name in the American colonies. His essay on \"The Morals of Chess\" in Columbian magazine in December 1786 is the second known writing on chess in America. This essay in praise of chess and prescribing a code of behavior for the game has been widely reprinted and translated. He and a friend also used chess as a means of learning the Italian language, which both were studying; the winner of each game between them had the right to assign a task, such as parts of the Italian grammar to be learned by heart, to be performed by the loser before their next meeting. \n\nFranklin was able to play chess more frequently against stronger opposition during his many years as a civil servant and diplomat in England, where the game was far better established than in America. He was able to improve his playing standard by facing more experienced players during this period. He regularly attended Old Slaughter's Coffee House in London for chess and socializing, making many important personal contacts. While in Paris, both as a visitor and later as ambassador, he visited the famous Café de la Régence, which France's strongest players made their regular meeting place. No records of his games have survived, so it is not possible to ascertain his playing strength in modern terms. \n\nFranklin was inducted into the U.S. Chess Hall of Fame in 1999. The Franklin Mercantile Chess Club in Philadelphia, the second oldest chess club in the U.S., is named in his honor.\n\nPublic life\n\nEarly steps in Pennsylvania\n\nIn 1736, Franklin created the Union Fire Company, one of the first volunteer firefighting companies in America. In the same year, he printed a new currency for New Jersey based on innovative anti-counterfeiting techniques he had devised. Throughout his career, Franklin was an advocate for paper money, publishing A Modest Enquiry into the Nature and Necessity of a Paper Currency in 1729, and his printer printed money. He was influential in the more restrained and thus successful monetary experiments in the Middle Colonies, which stopped deflation without causing excessive inflation. In 1766 he made a case for paper money to the British House of Commons. \n\nAs he matured, Franklin began to concern himself more with public affairs. In 1743, he first devised a scheme for The Academy, Charity School, and College of Philadelphia. However, the person he had in mind to run the academy, Rev. Richard Peters, refused and Franklin put his ideas away until 1749, when he printed his own pamphlet, Proposals Relating to the Education of Youth in Pensilvania. He was appointed president of the Academy on November 13, 1749; the Academy and the Charity School opened on August 13, 1751.\n\nIn 1743, Franklin founded the American Philosophical Society to help scientific men discuss their discoveries and theories. He began the electrical research that, along with other scientific inquiries, would occupy him for the rest of his life, in between bouts of politics and moneymaking.\n\nIn 1747, he retired from printing and went into other businesses. He created a partnership with his foreman, David Hall, which provided Franklin with half of the shop's profits for 18 years. This lucrative business arrangement provided leisure time for study, and in a few years he had made discoveries that gave him a reputation with educated persons throughout Europe and especially in France.\n\nFranklin became involved in Philadelphia politics and rapidly progressed. In October 1748, he was selected as a councilman, in June 1749 he became a Justice of the Peace for Philadelphia, and in 1751 he was elected to the Pennsylvania Assembly. On August 10, 1753, Franklin was appointed deputy postmaster-general of British North America, (see below). His most notable service in domestic politics was his reform of the postal system, with mail sent out every week.\n\nIn 1751, Franklin and Dr. Thomas Bond obtained a charter from the Pennsylvania legislature to establish a hospital. Pennsylvania Hospital was the first hospital in what was to become the United States of America.\n\nBetween 1750 and 1753, the \"educational triumvirate\" of Dr. Benjamin Franklin, the American Dr. Samuel Johnson of Stratford, Connecticut, and the immigrant Scottish schoolteacher Dr. William Smith built on Franklin's initial scheme and created what Bishop James Madison, president of the College of William & Mary, called a \"new-model\" plan or style of American college. Franklin solicited, printed in 1752, and promoted an American textbook of moral philosophy from the American Dr. Samuel Johnson titled Elementa Philosophica to be taught in the new colleges to replace courses in denominational divinity.\n\nIn June 1753, Johnson, Franklin, and Smith met in Stratford. They decided the new-model college would focus on the professions, with classes taught in English instead of Latin, have subject matter experts as professors instead of one tutor leading a class for four years, and there would be no religious test for admission. Johnson went on to found King's College (now Columbia University) in New York City in 1754, while Franklin hired Smith as Provost of the College of Philadelphia, which opened in 1755. At its first commencement, on May 17, 1757, seven men graduated; six with a Bachelor of Arts and one as Master of Arts. It was later merged with the University of the State of Pennsylvania to become the University of Pennsylvania. The College was to become influential in guiding the founding documents of the United States: in the Continental Congress, for example, over one third of the college-affiliated men who contributed the Declaration of Independence between September 4, 1774, and July 4, 1776, were affiliated with the College. \n\nIn 1753, both Harvard and Yale awarded him honorary degrees. \n\nIn 1754, he headed the Pennsylvania delegation to the Albany Congress. This meeting of several colonies had been requested by the Board of Trade in England to improve relations with the Indians and defense against the French. Franklin proposed a broad Plan of Union for the colonies. While the plan was not adopted, elements of it found their way into the Articles of Confederation and the Constitution.\n\nIn 1756, Franklin organized the Pennsylvania Militia (see \"Associated Regiment of Philadelphia\" under heading of Pennsylvania's 103rd Artillery and 111th Infantry Regiment at Continental Army). He used Tun Tavern as a gathering place to recruit a regiment of soldiers to go into battle against the Native American uprisings that beset the American colonies. Reportedly Franklin was elected \"Colonel\" of the Associated Regiment but declined the honor.\n\nDecades in London\n\nFrom the mid 1750s to the mid 1770s, Franklin spent much of his time in London. Officially he was there on a political mission, but he used his time to further his scientific explorations as well, meeting many notable people.\n\nIn 1757, he was sent to England by the Pennsylvania Assembly as a colonial agent to protest against the political influence of the Penn family, the proprietors of the colony. He remained there for five years, striving to end the proprietors' prerogative to overturn legislation from the elected Assembly, and their exemption from paying taxes on their land. His lack of influential allies in Whitehall led to the failure of this mission.\n\nAt this time, many members of the Pennsylvania Assembly were feuding with William Penn's heirs, who controlled the colony as proprietors. After his return to the colony, Franklin led the \"anti-proprietary party\" in the struggle against the Penn family, and was elected Speaker of the Pennsylvania House in May 1764. His call for a change from proprietary to royal government was a rare political miscalculation, however: Pennsylvanians worried that such a move would endanger their political and religious freedoms. Because of these fears, and because of political attacks on his character, Franklin lost his seat in the October 1764 Assembly elections. The anti-proprietary party dispatched Franklin to England again to continue the struggle against the Penn family proprietorship. During this trip, events drastically changed the nature of his mission. \n\nIn London, Franklin opposed the 1765 Stamp Act. Unable to prevent its passage, he made another political miscalculation and recommended a friend to the post of stamp distributor for Pennsylvania. Pennsylvanians were outraged, believing that he had supported the measure all along, and threatened to destroy his home in Philadelphia. Franklin soon learned of the extent of colonial resistance to the Stamp Act, and he testified during the House of Commons proceedings that led to its repeal. \n\nWith this, Franklin suddenly emerged as the leading spokesman for American interests in England. He wrote popular essays on behalf of the colonies. Georgia, New Jersey, and Massachusetts also appointed him as their agent to the Crown.\n\nFranklin lodged in a house in Craven Street, just off The Strand in central London. During his stays there, he developed a close friendship with his landlady, Margaret Stevenson, and her circle of friends and relations, in particular her daughter Mary, who was more often known as Polly. Their house, which he used on various lengthy missions from 1757 to 1775, is the only one of his residences to survive. It opened to the public as the Benjamin Franklin House museum in 2006.\n\nWhilst in London, Franklin became involved in radical politics. He belonged to a gentleman's club (which he called \"the honest Whigs\"), which held stated meetings, and included members such as Richard Price, the minister of Newington Green Unitarian Church who ignited the Revolution Controversy, and Andrew Kippis.\n\nIn 1756, Franklin had become a member of the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures & Commerce (now the Royal Society of Arts or RSA), which had been founded in 1754 and whose early meetings took place in Covent Garden coffee shops. After his return to the United States in 1775, Franklin became the Society's Corresponding Member, continuing a close connection. The RSA instituted a Benjamin Franklin Medal in 1956 to commemorate the 250th anniversary of his birth and the 200th anniversary of his membership of the RSA.\n\nThe study of natural philosophy (what we would call science) drew him into overlapping circles of acquaintance. Franklin was, for example, a corresponding member of the Lunar Society of Birmingham, which included such other scientific and industrial luminaries as Matthew Boulton, James Watt, Josiah Wedgwood and Erasmus Darwin; on occasion he visited them. In 1762, Oxford University awarded Franklin an honorary doctorate for his scientific accomplishments. He also managed to secure an appointed post for his illegitimate son, William Franklin, by then an attorney, as Colonial Governor of New Jersey.\n\nWhile living in London in 1768, he developed a phonetic alphabet in A Scheme for a new Alphabet and a Reformed Mode of Spelling. This reformed alphabet discarded six letters Franklin regarded as redundant (c, j, q, w, x, and y), and substituted six new letters for sounds he felt lacked letters of their own. His new alphabet, however, never caught on, and he eventually lost interest. \n\nTravels around Britain and Ireland\n\nFranklin used London as a base to travel. In 1771, he made short journeys through different parts of England, staying with Joseph Priestley at Leeds, Thomas Percival at Manchester and Erasmus Darwin at Lichfield. \n\nIn Scotland, he spent five days with Lord Kames near Stirling and stayed for three weeks with David Hume in Edinburgh. In 1759, he visited Edinburgh with his son, and recalled his conversations there as \"the densest happiness of my life\". In February 1759, the University of St Andrews awarded him an Honorary Doctor of Laws degree. From then he was known as \"Doctor Franklin\". In October of the same year he was granted Freedom of the Borough of St Andrews. \n\nHe had never been to Ireland before, and met and stayed with Lord Hillsborough, who he believed was especially attentive. Franklin noted of him that \"all the plausible behaviour I have described is meant only, by patting and stroking the horse, to make him more patient, while the reins are drawn tighter, and the spurs set deeper into his sides.\" In Dublin, Franklin was invited to sit with the members of the Irish Parliament rather than in the gallery. He was the first American to receive this honor. While touring Ireland, he was moved by the level of poverty he saw. Ireland's economy was affected by the same trade regulations and laws of Britain that governed America. Franklin feared that America could suffer the same effects should Britain's \"colonial exploitation\" continue. \n\nVisits to Europe\n\nFranklin spent two months in German lands in 1766, but his connections to the country stretched across a lifetime. He declared a debt of gratitude to German scientist Otto von Guericke for his early studies of electricity. Franklin also co-authored the first treaty of friendship between Prussia and America in 1785.\n\nIn September 1767, Franklin visited Paris with his usual traveling partner, Sir John Pringle. News of his electrical discoveries was widespread in France. His reputation meant that he was introduced to many influential scientists and politicians, and also to King Louis XV. \n\nDefending the American cause\n\nOne line of argument in Parliament was that Americans should pay a share of the costs of the French and Indian War, and that therefore taxes should be levied on them. Franklin became the American spokesman in highly publicized testimony in Parliament in 1766. He stated that Americans already contributed heavily to the defense of the Empire. He said local governments had raised, outfitted and paid 25,000 soldiers to fight France—as many as Britain itself sent—and spent many millions from American treasuries doing so in the French and Indian War alone. \n\nIn 1773, Franklin published two of his most celebrated pro-American satirical essays: \"Rules by Which a Great Empire May Be Reduced to a Small One\", and \"An Edict by the King of Prussia\". \n\nHutchinson letters\n\nIn June 1773 Franklin obtained private letters of Thomas Hutchinson and Andrew Oliver, governor and lieutenant governor of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, that proved they were encouraging the Crown to crack down on the rights of Bostonians. Franklin sent them to America, where they escalated the tensions. The British began to regard him as the fomenter of serious trouble. Hopes for a peaceful solution ended as he was systematically ridiculed and humiliated by Solicitor-General Alexander Wedderburn, before the Privy Council on January 29, 1774. He returned to Philadelphia in March 1775, and abandoned his accommodationist stance. \n\nComing of revolution\n\nIn 1763, soon after Franklin returned to Pennsylvania from England for the first time, the western frontier was engulfed in a bitter war known as Pontiac's Rebellion. The Paxton Boys, a group of settlers convinced that the Pennsylvania government was not doing enough to protect them from American Indian raids, murdered a group of peaceful Susquehannock Indians and marched on Philadelphia. Franklin helped to organize a local militia to defend the capital against the mob. He met with the Paxton leaders and persuaded them to disperse. Franklin wrote a scathing attack against the racial prejudice of the Paxton Boys. \"If an Indian injures me\", he asked, \"does it follow that I may revenge that Injury on all Indians?\" \n\nHe provided an early response to British surveillance through his own network of counter-surveillance and manipulation. \"He waged a public relations campaign, secured secret aid, played a role in privateering expeditions, and churned out effective and inflammatory propaganda.\" \n\nDeclaration of Independence\n\nBy the time Franklin arrived in Philadelphia on May 5, 1775, after his second mission to Great Britain, the American Revolution had begun – with fighting between colonials and British at Lexington and Concord. The New England militia had trapped the main British army in Boston. The Pennsylvania Assembly unanimously chose Franklin as their delegate to the Second Continental Congress. In June 1776, he was appointed a member of the Committee of Five that drafted the Declaration of Independence. Although he was temporarily disabled by gout and unable to attend most meetings of the Committee, Franklin made several \"small but important\" changes to the draft sent to him by Thomas Jefferson.\n\nAt the signing, he is quoted as having replied to a comment by Hancock that they must all hang together: \"Yes, we must, indeed, all hang together, or most assuredly we shall all hang separately.\" \n\nPostmaster\n\nWell known as a printer and publisher, Franklin was appointed postmaster of Philadelphia in 1737, holding the office until 1753, when he and publisher William Hunter were named deputy postmasters–general of British North America, the first to hold the office. (Joint appointments were standard at the time, for political reasons.) Franklin was responsible for the British colonies as far as the island of Newfoundland, opening Canada's first post office at Halifax, Nova Scotia, while Hunter became postal administrator in Williamsburg, Virginia and oversaw areas south of Annapolis, Maryland. Franklin reorganized the service's accounting system, then improved speed of delivery between Philadelphia, New York and Boston. By 1761, efficiencies lead to the first profits for the colonial post office. \n\nWhen the lands of New France were ceded to the British under the Treaty of Paris in 1763, the new British province of Quebec was created among them, and Franklin saw mail service expanded between Montreal, Trois-Rivières, Quebec City, and New York. For the greater part of his appointment, Franklin lived in England (from 1757 to 1762, and again from 1764 to 1774) – about three-quarters of his term. Eventually, his sympathies for the rebel cause in the American Revolution led to his dismissal on January 31, 1774.\n\nOn July 26, 1775, the Second Continental Congress established the United States Post Office and named Benjamin Franklin as the first United States Postmaster General. Franklin had been a postmaster for decades and was a natural choice for the position. He had just returned from England and was appointed chairman of a Committee of Investigation to establish a postal system. The report of the Committee, providing for the appointment of a postmaster general for the 13 American colonies, was considered by the Continental Congress on July 25 and 26. On July 26, 1775, Franklin was appointed Postmaster General, the first appointed under the Continental Congress. It established a postal system that became the United States Post Office, a system that continues to operate today. \n\nAmbassador to France: 1776–1785\n\nIn December 1776, Franklin was dispatched to France as commissioner for the United States. He took with him as secretary his 16-year-old grandson, William Temple Franklin. They lived in a home in the Parisian suburb of Passy, donated by Jacques-Donatien Le Ray de Chaumont, who supported the United States. Franklin remained in France until 1785. He conducted the affairs of his country toward the French nation with great success, which included securing a critical military alliance in 1778 and negotiating the Treaty of Paris (1783).\n\nAmong his associates in France was Honoré Gabriel Riqueti, comte de Mirabeau—a French Revolutionary writer, orator and statesman who in early 1791 would be elected president of the National Assembly. In July 1784, Franklin met with Mirabeau and contributed anonymous materials that the Frenchman used in his first signed work: Considerations sur l'ordre de Cincinnatus. The publication was critical of the Society of the Cincinnati, established in the United States. Franklin and Mirabeau thought of it as a \"noble order\", inconsistent with the egalitarian ideals of the new republic. \n\nDuring his stay in France, Benjamin Franklin was active as a Freemason, serving as Venerable Master of the Lodge Les Neuf Sœurs from 1779 until 1781. He was the 106th member of the Lodge. In 1784, when Franz Mesmer began to publicize his theory of \"animal magnetism\" which was considered offensive by many, Louis XVI appointed a commission to investigate it. These included the chemist Antoine Lavoisier, the physician Joseph-Ignace Guillotin, the astronomer Jean Sylvain Bailly, and Benjamin Franklin. In 1781, he was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.\n\nFranklin's advocacy for religious tolerance in France contributed to arguments made by French philosophers and politicians that resulted in Louis XVI's signing of the Edict of Versailles in November 1787. This edict effectively nullified the Edict of Fontainebleau, which had denied non-Catholics civil status and the right to openly practice their faith. \n\nFranklin also served as American minister to Sweden, although he never visited that country. He negotiated a treaty that was signed in April 1783. On August 27, 1783, in Paris, Franklin witnessed the world's first hydrogen balloon flight. Le Globe, created by professor Jacques Charles and Les Frères Robert, was watched by a vast crowd as it rose from the Champ de Mars (now the site of the Eiffel Tower). This so enthused Franklin that he subscribed financially to the next project to build a manned hydrogen balloon. On December 1, 1783, Franklin was seated in the special enclosure for honoured guests when La Charlière took off from the Jardin des Tuileries, piloted by Jacques Charles and Nicolas-Louis Robert. \n\nConstitutional Convention\n\nWhen he returned home in 1785, Franklin occupied a position only second to that of George Washington as the champion of American independence. Le Ray honored him with a commissioned portrait painted by Joseph Duplessis, which now hangs in the National Portrait Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. After his return, Franklin became an abolitionist and freed his two slaves. He eventually became president of the Pennsylvania Abolition Society. \n\nIn 1787, Franklin served as a delegate to the Philadelphia Convention. He held an honorary position and seldom engaged in debate. He is the only Founding Father who is a signatory of all four of the major documents of the founding of the United States: the Declaration of Independence, the Treaty of Alliance with France, the Treaty of Paris and the United States Constitution.\n\nIn 1787, a group of prominent ministers in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, proposed the foundation of a new college named in Franklin's honor. Franklin donated £200 towards the development of Franklin College (now called Franklin & Marshall College).\n\nBetween 1771 and 1788, he finished his autobiography. While it was at first addressed to his son, it was later completed for the benefit of mankind at the request of a friend.\n\nFranklin strongly supported the right to freedom of speech:\n\nIn those wretched countries where a man cannot call his tongue his own, he can scarce call anything his own. Whoever would overthrow the liberty of a nation must begin by subduing the freeness of speech ...\n\nWithout freedom of thought there can be no such thing as wisdom, and no such thing as public liberty without freedom of speech, which is the right of every man ...\n\n—Silence Dogood no. 8, 1722 \n\nIn his later years, as Congress was forced to deal with the issue of slavery, Franklin wrote several essays that stressed the importance of the abolition of slavery and of the integration of blacks into American society. These writings included:\n* An Address to the Public (1789)\n* A Plan for Improving the Condition of the Free Blacks (1789)\n* Sidi Mehemet Ibrahim on the Slave Trade (1790) \n\nIn 1790, Quakers from New York and Pennsylvania presented their petition for abolition to Congress. Their argument against slavery was backed by the Pennsylvania Abolitionist Society and its president, Benjamin Franklin.\n\nPresident of Pennsylvania\n\nSpecial balloting conducted October 18, 1785, unanimously elected Franklin the sixth president of the Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania, replacing John Dickinson. The office was practically that of governor. Franklin held that office for slightly over three years, longer than any other, and served the constitutional limit of three full terms. Shortly after his initial election he was reelected to a full term on October 29, 1785, and again in the fall of 1786 and on October 31, 1787. In that capacity he served as host to the Constitutional Convention of 1787 in Philadelphia. \n\nVirtue, religion, and personal beliefs\n\nLike the other advocates of republicanism, Franklin emphasized that the new republic could survive only if the people were virtuous. All his life he explored the role of civic and personal virtue, as expressed in Poor Richard's aphorisms. Franklin felt that organized religion was necessary to keep men good to their fellow men, but rarely attended religious services himself. When Franklin met Voltaire in Paris and asked his fellow member of the Enlightenment vanguard to bless his grandson, Voltaire said in English, \"God and Liberty\", and added, \"this is the only appropriate benediction for the grandson of Monsieur Franklin.\" \n\nFranklin's parents were both pious Puritans. The family attended the Old South Church, the most liberal Puritan congregation in Boston, where Benjamin Franklin was baptized in 1706. Franklin's father, a poor chandler, owned a copy of a book, Bonifacius: Essays to Do Good, by the Puritan preacher and family friend Cotton Mather, which Franklin often cited as a key influence on his life. Franklin's first pen name, Silence Dogood, paid homage both to the book and to a widely known sermon by Mather. The book preached the importance of forming voluntary associations to benefit society. Franklin learned about forming do-good associations from Cotton Mather, but his organizational skills made him the most influential force in making voluntarism an enduring part of the American ethos. \n\nFranklin formulated a presentation of his beliefs and published it in 1728. It did not mention many of the Puritan ideas as regards belief in salvation, the divinity of Jesus, and indeed most religious dogma. He clarified himself as a deist in his 1771 autobiography, although he still considered himself a Christian. He retained a strong faith in a God as the wellspring of morality and goodness in man, and as a Providential actor in history responsible for American independence. \n\nIt was Ben Franklin who, at a critical impasse during the Constitutional Convention in June 1787, attempted to introduce the practice of daily common prayer with these words:\n\n... In the beginning of the contest with G. Britain, when we were sensible of danger we had daily prayer in this room for the Divine Protection. – Our prayers, Sir, were heard, and they were graciously answered. All of us who were engaged in the struggle must have observed frequent instances of a Superintending providence in our favor. ... And have we now forgotten that powerful friend? or do we imagine that we no longer need His assistance. I have lived, Sir, a long time and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth – that God governs in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without his notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without his aid? We have been assured, Sir, in the sacred writings that \"except the Lord build they labor in vain that build it.\" I firmly believe this; and I also believe that without his concurring aid we shall succeed in this political building no better than the Builders of Babel: ... I therefore beg leave to move – that henceforth prayers imploring the assistance of Heaven, and its blessings on our deliberations, be held in this Assembly every morning before we proceed to business, and that one or more of the Clergy of this City be requested to officiate in that service. \n\nHowever, the motion met with resistance and was never brought to a vote. \n\nFranklin was an enthusiastic supporter of the evangelical minister George Whitefield during the First Great Awakening. Franklin did not subscribe to Whitefield's theology, but he admired Whitefield for exhorting people to worship God through good works. Franklin published all of Whitefield's sermons and journals, thereby earning a lot of money and boosting the Great Awakening. \n\nWhen he stopped attending church, Franklin wrote in his autobiography:\n... Sunday being my studying day, I never was without some religious principles. I never doubted, for instance, the existence of the Deity; that He made the world, and governed it by His providence; that the most acceptable service of God was the doing good to man; that our souls are immortal; and that all crime will be punished, and virtue rewarded, either here or hereafter. \n\nFranklin retained a lifelong commitment to the Puritan virtues and political values he had grown up with, and through his civic work and publishing, he succeeded in passing these values into the American culture permanently. He had a \"passion for virtue\". These Puritan values included his devotion to egalitarianism, education, industry, thrift, honesty, temperance, charity and community spirit. \n\nThe classical authors read in the Enlightenment period taught an abstract ideal of republican government based on hierarchical social orders of king, aristocracy and commoners. It was widely believed that English liberties relied on their balance of power, but also hierarchal deference to the privileged class. \"Puritanism ... and the epidemic evangelism of the mid-eighteenth century, had created challenges to the traditional notions of social stratification\" by preaching that the Bible taught all men are equal, that the true value of a man lies in his moral behavior, not his class, and that all men can be saved. Franklin, steeped in Puritanism and an enthusiastic supporter of the evangelical movement, rejected the salvation dogma, but embraced the radical notion of egalitarian democracy.\n\nFranklin's commitment to teach these values was itself something he gained from his Puritan upbringing, with its stress on \"inculcating virtue and character in themselves and their communities.\" These Puritan values and the desire to pass them on, were one of Franklin's quintessentially American characteristics, and helped shape the character of the nation. Franklin's writings on virtue were derided by some European authors, such as Jackob Fugger in his critical work Portrait of American Culture. Max Weber considered Franklin's ethical writings a culmination of the Protestant ethic, which ethic created the social conditions necessary for the birth of capitalism. \n\nOne of Franklin's notable characteristics was his respect, tolerance and promotion of all churches. Referring to his experience in Philadelphia, he wrote in his autobiography, \"new Places of worship were continually wanted, and generally erected by voluntary Contribution, my Mite for such purpose, whatever might be the Sect, was never refused.\" \"He helped create a new type of nation that would draw strength from its religious pluralism.\" The evangelical revivalists who were active mid-century, such as Franklin's friend and preacher, George Whitefield, were the greatest advocates of religious freedom, \"claiming liberty of conscience to be an 'inalienable right of every rational creature.'\" Whitefield's supporters in Philadelphia, including Franklin, erected \"a large, new hall, that ... could provide a pulpit to anyone of any belief.\" Franklin's rejection of dogma and doctrine and his stress on the God of ethics and morality and civic virtue made him the \"prophet of tolerance.\" Franklin composed \"A Parable Against Persecution\", an apocryphal 51st chapter of Genesis in which God teaches Abraham the duty of tolerance. While he was living in London in 1774, he was present at the birth of British Unitarianism, attending the inaugural session of the Essex Street Chapel, at which Theophilus Lindsey drew together the first avowedly Unitarian congregation in England; this was somewhat politically risky, and pushed religious tolerance to new boundaries, as a denial of the doctrine of the Trinity was illegal until the 1813 Act. \n\nAlthough Franklin's parents had intended for him to have a career in the Church, Franklin as a young man adopted the Enlightenment religious belief in deism, that God's truths can be found entirely through nature and reason. \"I soon became a thorough Deist.\" As a young man he rejected Christian dogma in a 1725 pamphlet A Dissertation on Liberty and Necessity, Pleasure and Pain, which he later saw as an embarrassment, while simultaneously asserting that God is \"all wise, all good, all powerful.\" He defended his rejection of religious dogma with these words: \"I think opinions should be judged by their influences and effects; and if a man holds none that tend to make him less virtuous or more vicious, it may be concluded that he holds none that are dangerous, which I hope is the case with me.\" After the disillusioning experience of seeing the decay in his own moral standards, and those of two friends in London whom he had converted to Deism, Franklin turned back to a belief in the importance of organized religion, on the pragmatic grounds that without God and organized churches, man will not be good. Moreover, because of his proposal that prayers be said in the Constitutional Convention of 1787, many have contended that in his later life Franklin became a pious Christian. \n\nAt one point, he wrote to Thomas Paine, criticizing his manuscript, The Age of Reason:\n\nAccording to David Morgan, Franklin was a proponent of religion in general. He prayed to \"Powerful Goodness\" and referred to God as \"the infinite\". John Adams noted that Franklin was a mirror in which people saw their own religion: \"The Catholics thought him almost a Catholic. The Church of England claimed him as one of them. The Presbyterians thought him half a Presbyterian, and the Friends believed him a wet Quaker.\" Whatever else Franklin was, concludes Morgan, \"he was a true champion of generic religion.\" In a letter to Richard Price, Franklin stated that he believed that religion should support itself without help from the government, claiming, \"When a Religion is good, I conceive that it will support itself; and, when it cannot support itself, and God does not take care to support, so that its Professors are oblig'd to call for the help of the Civil Power, it is a sign, I apprehend, of its being a bad one.\" \n\nIn 1790, just about a month before he died, Franklin wrote a letter to Ezra Stiles, president of Yale University, who had asked him his views on religion:\n\nOn July 4, 1776, Congress appointed a three-member committee composed of Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and John Adams to design the Great Seal of the United States. Franklin's proposal (which was not adopted) featured the motto: \"Rebellion to Tyrants is Obedience to God\" and a scene from the Book of Exodus, with Moses, the Israelites, the pillar of fire, and George III depicted as pharaoh. The design that was produced was never acted upon by Congress, and the Great Seal's design was not finalized until a third committee was appointed in 1782. \n\nThirteen Virtues\n\nFranklin sought to cultivate his character by a plan of 13 virtues, which he developed at age 20 (in 1726) and continued to practice in some form for the rest of his life. His autobiography lists his 13 virtues as:\n\n# \"Temperance. Eat not to dullness; drink not to elevation.\"\n# \"Silence. Speak not but what may benefit others or yourself; avoid trifling conversation.\"\n# \"Order. Let all your things have their places; let each part of your business have its time.\"\n# \"Resolution. Resolve to perform what you ought; perform without fail what you resolve.\"\n# \"Frugality. Make no expense but to do good to others or yourself; i.e., waste nothing.\"\n# \"Industry. Lose no time; be always employ'd in something useful; cut off all unnecessary actions.\"\n# \"Sincerity. Use no hurtful deceit; think innocently and justly, and, if you speak, speak accordingly.\"\n# \"Justice. Wrong none by doing injuries, or omitting the benefits that are your duty.\"\n# \"Moderation. Avoid extremes; forbear resenting injuries so much as you think they deserve.\"\n# \"Cleanliness. Tolerate no uncleanliness in body, clothes, or habitation.\"\n# \"Tranquility. Be not disturbed at trifles, or at accidents common or unavoidable.\"\n# \"Chastity. Rarely use venery but for health or offspring, never to dullness, weakness, or the injury of your own or another's peace or reputation.\"\n# \"Humility. Imitate Jesus and Socrates.\"\n\nFranklin did not try to work on them all at once. Instead, he would work on one and only one each week \"leaving all others to their ordinary chance.\" While Franklin did not live completely by his virtues, and by his own admission he fell short of them many times, he believed the attempt made him a better man contributing greatly to his success and happiness, which is why in his autobiography, he devoted more pages to this plan than to any other single point; in his autobiography Franklin wrote, \"I hope, therefore, that some of my descendants may follow the example and reap the benefit.\" \n\nSlavery\n\nDuring Franklin's lifetime slaves were numerous in Philadelphia. In 1750, half the persons in Philadelphia who had established probate estates owned slaves. Dock workers in the city consisted of 15% slaves. Franklin owned as many as seven slaves, two males of whom worked in his household and his shop. Franklin posted paid ads for the sale of slaves and for the capture of runaway slaves and allowed the sale of slaves in his general store. Franklin profited from both the international and domestic slave trade, even criticizing slaves who had run off to join the British Army during the colonial wars of the 1740s and 1750s. Franklin, however, later became a \"cautious abolitionist\" and became an outspoken critic of landed gentry slavery. In 1758, Franklin advocated the opening of a school for the education of black slaves in Philadelphia. After returning from England in 1762, Franklin became more anti-slavery, in his view believing that the institution promoted black degradation rather than the idea blacks were inherently inferior. By 1770, Franklin had freed his slaves and attacked the system of slavery and the international slave trade. Franklin, however, refused to publicly debate the issue of slavery at the 1787 Constitutional Convention. Franklin tended to take both sides of the issue of slavery, never fully divesting himself from the institution. \n\nDeath and legacy\n\nFranklin struggled with obesity throughout his middle-aged and later years, which resulted in multiple health problems, particularly gout, which worsened as he aged. In poor health during the signing of the US Constitution in 1787, he was rarely seen in public from then until his death.\n\nBenjamin Franklin died from pleuritic attack at his home in Philadelphia on April 17, 1790, at age 84. Approximately 20,000 people attended his funeral. He was interred in Christ Church Burial Ground in Philadelphia. In 1728, aged 22, Franklin wrote what he hoped would be his own epitaph:\n\nThe Body of B. Franklin Printer; Like the Cover of an old Book, Its Contents torn out, And stript of its Lettering and Gilding, Lies here, Food for Worms. But the Work shall not be wholly lost: For it will, as he believ'd, appear once more, In a new & more perfect Edition, Corrected and Amended By the Author. \n\nFranklin's actual grave, however, as he specified in his final will, simply reads \"Benjamin and Deborah Franklin\". \n\nIn 1773, when Franklin's work had moved from printing to science and politics, he corresponded with a French scientist, Jacques Barbeu-Dubourg, on the subject of preserving the dead for later revival by more advanced scientific methods, writing:\n\nI should prefer to an ordinary death, being immersed with a few friends in a cask of Madeira, until that time, then to be recalled to life by the solar warmth of my dear country! But in all probability, we live in a century too little advanced, and too near the infancy of science, to see such an art brought in our time to its perfection. (Extended excerpt also online.) \n\nHis death is described in the book The Life of Benjamin Franklin, quoting from the account of Dr. John Jones:\n\n... when the pain and difficulty of breathing entirely left him, and his family were flattering themselves with the hopes of his recovery, when an imposthume, which had formed itself in his lungs, suddenly burst, and discharged a quantity of matter, which he continued to throw up while he had power; but, as that failed, the organs of respiration became gradually oppressed; a calm, lethargic state succeeded; and on the 17th instant (April 1790), about eleven o'clock at night, he quietly expired, closing a long and useful life of eighty-four years and three months. \n\nA signer of both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, Franklin is considered one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. His pervasive influence in the early history of the nation has led to his being jocularly called \"the only President of the United States who was never President of the United States.\" Franklin's likeness is ubiquitous. Since 1928, it has adorned American $100 bills, which are sometimes referred to in slang as \"Benjamins\" or \"Franklins.\" From 1948 to 1963, Franklin's portrait was on the half dollar. He has appeared on a $50 bill and on several varieties of the $100 bill from 1914 and 1918. Franklin appears on the $1,000 Series EE Savings bond. The city of Philadelphia contains around 5,000 likenesses of Benjamin Franklin, about half of which are located on the University of Pennsylvania campus. Philadelphia's Benjamin Franklin Parkway (a major thoroughfare) and Benjamin Franklin Bridge (the first major bridge to connect Philadelphia with New Jersey) are named in his honor.\n\nIn 1976, as part of a bicentennial celebration, Congress dedicated a 20 ft marble statue in Philadelphia's Franklin Institute as the Benjamin Franklin National Memorial. Many of Franklin's personal possessions are also on display at the Institute, one of the few national memorials located on private property.\n\nIn London, his house at 36 Craven Street, which is the only surviving former residence of Benjamin Franklin, was first marked with a blue plaque and has since been opened to the public as the Benjamin Franklin House. In 1998, workmen restoring the building dug up the remains of six children and four adults hidden below the home. The Times reported on February 11, 1998:\n\nInitial estimates are that the bones are about 200 years old and were buried at the time Franklin was living in the house, which was his home from 1757 to 1762 and from 1764 to 1775. Most of the bones show signs of having been dissected, sawn or cut. One skull has been drilled with several holes. Paul Knapman, the Westminster Coroner, said yesterday: \"I cannot totally discount the possibility of a crime. There is still a possibility that I may have to hold an inquest.\"\n\nThe Friends of Benjamin Franklin House (the organization responsible for the restoration) note that the bones were likely placed there by William Hewson, who lived in the house for two years and who had built a small anatomy school at the back of the house. They note that while Franklin likely knew what Hewson was doing, he probably did not participate in any dissections because he was much more of a physicist than a medical man. \n\nBequest\n\nFranklin bequeathed £1,000 (about $4,400 at the time, or about $112,000 in 2011 dollars ) each to the cities of Boston and Philadelphia, in trust to gather interest for 200 years. The trust began in 1785 when the French mathematician Charles-Joseph Mathon de la Cour, who admired Franklin greatly, wrote a friendly parody of Franklin's \"Poor Richard's Almanack\" called \"Fortunate Richard\". The main character leaves a smallish amount of money in his will, five lots of 100 livres, to collect interest over one, two, three, four or five full centuries, with the resulting astronomical sums to be spent on impossibly elaborate utopian projects. Franklin, who was 79 years old at the time, wrote thanking him for a great idea and telling him that he had decided to leave a bequest of 1,000 pounds each to his native Boston and his adopted Philadelphia. By 1990, more than $2,000,000 had accumulated in Franklin's Philadelphia trust, which had loaned the money to local residents. From 1940 to 1990, the money was used mostly for mortgage loans. When the trust came due, Philadelphia decided to spend it on scholarships for local high school students. Franklin's Boston trust fund accumulated almost $5,000,000 during that same time; at the end of its first 100 years a portion was allocated to help establish a trade school that became the Franklin Institute of Boston, and the whole fund was later dedicated to supporting this institute. \n\nFranklin on U.S. postage\n\nBenjamin Franklin is a prominent figure in American history comparable to Washington, Jefferson and Lincoln, and as such he has been honored on U.S. postage stamps many times. The image of Franklin, the first Postmaster General of the United States, occurs on the face of U.S. postage more than any other notable American save that of George Washington. \n\nFranklin appeared on the first U.S. postage stamp (displayed above) issued in 1847. From 1908 through 1923 the U.S. Post Office issued a series of postage stamps commonly referred to as the Washington-Franklin Issues where, along with George Washington, Franklin was depicted many times over a 14-year period, the longest run of any one series in U.S. postal history. Along with the regular issue stamps Franklin however only appears on a few commemorative stamps. Some of the finest portrayals of Franklin on record can be found on the engravings inscribed on the face of U.S. postage.\n\nBawdy Ben\n\n\"Advice to a Friend on Choosing a Mistress\" is a letter written by Benjamin Franklin, dated June 25, 1745, in which Franklin gives advice to a young man about channeling sexual urges. Due to its licentious nature, the letter was not published in collections of Franklin's papers during the nineteenth century. Federal court decisions from the mid-to-late twentieth century cited the document as a reason for overturning obscenity laws, using it to make a case against censorship. \n\nExhibitions\n\n\"The Princess and the Patriot: Ekaterina Dashkova, Benjamin Franklin and the Age of Enlightenment\" exhibition opened in Philadelphia in February 2006 and ran through December 2006. Benjamin Franklin and Dashkova met only once, in Paris in 1781. Franklin was 75 and Dashkova was 37. Franklin invited Dashkova to become the first woman to join the American Philosophical Society; she was the only woman so honored for another 80 years. Later, Dashkova reciprocated by making him the first American member of the Russian Academy of Sciences.\n\nPlaces and things named after Benjamin Franklin\n\nAs a founding father of the United States, Franklin's name has been attached to many things. Among these are:\n\n* The State of Franklin, a short-lived independent state formed during the American Revolutionary War\n* Counties in at least 16 U.S. states\n* Several major landmarks in and around Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Franklin's longtime home, including:\n** Franklin and Marshall College in nearby Lancaster\n** Franklin Field, a football field once home to the Philadelphia Eagles of the National Football League and the home field of the University of Pennsylvania Quakers since 1895\n** The Franklin Mercantile Chess Club in Philadelphia, the second oldest chess club in the U.S. (Franklin was a keen chess enthusiast and the first writer on chess in America)\n** The Benjamin Franklin Bridge across the Delaware River between Philadelphia and Camden, New Jersey\n** The Franklin Institute, a science museum in Philadelphia, which presents the Benjamin Franklin Medal\n* The Sons of Ben soccer supporters club for the Philadelphia Union\n* Ben Franklin Stores chain of variety stores, with a key-and-spark logo\n* Franklin Templeton Investments an investment firm whose New York Stock Exchange ticker abbreviation, BEN, is also in honor of Franklin\n* The Ben Franklin effect from the field of psychology\n* Benjamin Franklin Shibe, baseball executive and namesake of the longtime Philadelphia baseball stadium\n* Benjamin Franklin \"Hawkeye\" Pierce, the fictional character from the M*A*S*H novels, film, and television program\n* Benjamin Franklin Gates, Nicolas Cage's character from the National Treasure films.\n* Several US Navy ships have been named the or the , the latter being a French translation of his penname \"Poor Richard\". Two aircraft carriers, and were simultaneously in commission and in operation during World War II, and Franklin therefore had the distinction of having two simultaneously operational US Navy warships named in his honor. The French ship Franklin (1797) was also named in Franklin's honor.\n* Franklinia alatamaha, commonly called the Franklin tree. It was named after him by his friends and fellow Philadelphians, botanists James and William Bartram.\n* CMA CGM Benjamin Franklin, a Chinese-built French owned Explorer-class container ship \n\nAncestry\n\nFranklin's father, Josiah Franklin, was a tallow chandler, a soap-maker and a candle-maker. Josiah was born at Ecton, Northamptonshire, England, on December 23, 1657, the son of Thomas Franklin, a blacksmith-farmer, and Jane White. Benjamin's mother, Abiah Folger, was born in Nantucket, Massachusetts, on August 15, 1667, to Peter Folger (Governor Thomas Mayhew's assistant), a miller and schoolteacher, and his wife Mary Morrill, a former indentured servant.\n\nJosiah Franklin had 17 children with his two wives. He married his first wife, Anne Child, in about 1677 in Ecton and emigrated with her to Boston in 1683; they had three children before emigrating and four after. After her death, Josiah married Abiah Folger on July 9, 1689, in the Old South Meeting House by Samuel Willard. Benjamin, their eighth child, was Josiah Franklin's 15th child and tenth and last son.\n\nBenjamin Franklin's mother, Abiah Folger, was born into a Puritan family among those that fled to Massachusetts to establish a purified Congregationalist Christianity in New England, when King Charles I of England began persecuting Puritans. They sailed for Boston in 1635. Her father was \"the sort of rebel destined to transform colonial America\"; as clerk of the court, he was jailed for disobeying the local magistrate in defense of middle-class shopkeepers and artisans in conflict with wealthy landowners. Ben Franklin followed in his grandfather's footsteps in his battles against the wealthy Penn family that owned the Pennsylvania Colony.", "Ulysses S. Grant (born Hiram Ulysses Grant; April 27, 1822 – July 23, 1885) was the 18th President of the United States (1869–77). As Commanding General of the United States Army (1864–69), Grant worked closely with President Abraham Lincoln to lead the Union Army to victory over the Confederacy in the American Civil War. He implemented Congressional Reconstruction, often at odds with Lincoln's successor, Andrew Johnson. Twice elected president, Grant led the Republicans in their effort to remove the vestiges of Confederate nationalism and slavery, protect African-American citizenship, and support economic prosperity nationwide. His presidency has often come under criticism for protecting corrupt associates and in his second term leading the nation into a severe economic depression.\n\nGrant graduated in 1843 from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, served in the Mexican–American War and initially retired in 1854. He struggled financially in civilian life. When the Civil War began in 1861, he rejoined the U.S. Army. In 1862, Grant took control of Kentucky and most of Tennessee, and led Union forces to victory in the Battle of Shiloh, earning a reputation as an aggressive commander. He incorporated displaced African American slaves into the Union war effort. In July 1863, after a series of coordinated battles, Grant defeated Confederate armies and seized Vicksburg, giving the Union control of the Mississippi River and dividing the Confederacy in two. After his victories in the Chattanooga Campaign, Lincoln promoted him to lieutenant-general and Commanding General of the United States Army in March 1864. Grant confronted Robert E. Lee in a series of bloody battles, trapping Lee's army in their defense of Richmond. Grant coordinated a series of devastating campaigns in other theaters. In April 1865, Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox, effectively ending the war. Historians have hailed Grant's military genius, and his strategies are featured in military history textbooks, but a minority contend that he won by brute force rather than superior strategy.\n\nAfter the Civil War, Grant led the army's supervision of Reconstruction in the former Confederate states. Elected president in 1868 and reelected in 1872, Grant stabilized the nation during the turbulent Reconstruction period, prosecuted the Ku Klux Klan, and enforced civil and voting rights laws using the army and the Department of Justice. He used the army to build the Republican Party in the South, based on black voters, Northern newcomers (\"carpetbaggers\"), and native Southern white supporters (\"scalawags\"). After the disenfranchisement of some former Confederates, Republicans gained majorities and African Americans were elected to Congress and high state offices. In his second term, the Republican coalitions in the South splintered and were defeated one by one as redeemers (conservative whites) regained control using coercion and violence. Grant's Indian peace policy initially reduced frontier violence, but is best known for the Great Sioux War of 1876, where George Custer and his regiment were killed at the Battle of the Little Bighorn. Grant responded to charges of corruption in executive offices more than any other 19th Century president. He appointed the first Civil Service Commission and signed legislation ending the corrupt moiety system.\n \nIn foreign policy, Grant sought to increase American trade and influence, while remaining at peace with the world. His administration successfully resolved the Alabama Claims by the Treaty of Washington with Great Britain, ending wartime tensions. Grant avoided war with Spain over the Virginius Affair, but Congress rejected his attempted annexation of the Dominican Republic. In trade policy, Grant's administration implemented a gold standard and sought to strengthen the dollar. Corruption charges escalated during his second term, while his response to the Panic of 1873 proved ineffective nationally in halting the five-year industrial depression that produced high unemployment, low prices, low profits, and bankruptcies. Grant left office in 1877 and embarked on a widely praised world tour lasting over two years.\n\nIn 1880, Grant was unsuccessful in obtaining a Republican presidential nomination for a third term. Facing severe investment reversals and dying of throat cancer, he completed his memoirs, which proved a major critical and financial success. His death in 1885 prompted an outpouring of national unity. 20th century historical evaluations were negative about his presidency before recovering somewhat beginning in the 1980s. Scholars rank his presidency below the average of other presidents. Grant's critics take a negative view of his economic mismanagement and his failed Dominican Republic annexation treaty, while admirers emphasize his concern for Native Americans and enforcement of civil and voting rights for African Americans.\n\nEarly life\n\nHiram Ulysses Grant was born in Point Pleasant, Ohio, on April 27, 1822, to Jesse Root Grant, a tanner, and Hannah (née Simpson) Grant. His ancestors Matthew and Priscilla Grant arrived aboard the Mary and John at Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1630. Grant's great-grandfather fought in the French and Indian War, and his grandfather served in the American Revolution at Bunker Hill. Grant's father was a Whig Party supporter with abolitionist sentiments. In 1823, the family moved to the village of Georgetown in Brown County, Ohio, where five more siblings were born: Simpson, Clara, Orvil, Jennie, and Mary. Young Grant regularly attended public schools and later was enrolled in private schools. While hating the tannery, he chose work on his father's farm. Unlike his siblings, Grant was not forced to attend church by his Methodist parents; for the rest of his life, he prayed privately and never officially joined any denomination. Observers, including his own son, thought he was an agnostic. In his youth, Grant developed an unusual ability to work with and control horses. As a general he rode the strongest and most challenging horse available, and was sometimes injured in riding.\n\nWhen Grant was 17, Congressman Thomas L. Hamer nominated him to the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York. Hamer mistakenly wrote down the name as \"Ulysses S. Grant of Ohio\", and this became his adopted name. His nickname became \"Sam\" among army colleagues at the academy since the initials \"U.S.\" also stood for \"Uncle Sam\". As he later recalled it, \"a military life had no charms for me\"; he was lax in his studies, but he achieved above-average grades in mathematics and geology. Quiet by nature, he established a few intimate friends, including Frederick Tracy Dent and Rufus Ingalls. Grant developed a reputation as a fearless and expert horseman known as a horse whisperer, setting an equestrian high-jump record that stood for almost 25 years. He also studied under Romantic artist Robert Walter Weir and produced nine surviving artworks. He graduated in 1843, ranking 21st in a class of 39. Glad to leave the academy, his plan was to resign his commission after his four-year term of duty. Despite his excellent horsemanship, he was not assigned to the cavalry (assignments were determined by class rank, not aptitude), but to the 4th Infantry Regiment. He was made regimental quartermaster, managing supplies and equipment, with the rank of brevet second lieutenant.\n\nEarly military career and personal life\n\nGrant's first assignment after graduation took him to the Jefferson Barracks near St. Louis, Missouri. It was the nation's largest military base in the west, commanded by Colonel Stephen W. Kearny. Grant was happy with his new commander, but looked forward to the end of his military service and a possible teaching career. He spent some of his time in Missouri visiting the family of his West Point classmate, Frederick Tracy Dent; he became engaged to Dent's sister, Julia, in 1844.\n\nAmid rising tensions with Mexico following the United States' annexation of Texas, President John Tyler ordered Grant's unit to Louisiana as part of the Army of Observation under Major General Zachary Taylor. When the Mexican–American War broke out in 1846, the Army entered Mexico. Although a quartermaster, Grant led a cavalry charge at the Battle of Resaca de la Palma. At Monterrey he demonstrated his equestrian ability, by volunteering to carry a dispatch through sniper-lined streets while hanging off the side of his horse, keeping the animal between him and the enemy. President James K. Polk, wary of Taylor's growing popularity, divided his forces, sending some troops (including Grant's unit) to form a new army under Major General Winfield Scott. Scott's army landed at Veracruz and advanced toward Mexico City. The army met the Mexican forces at the battles of Molino del Rey and Chapultepec outside Mexico City. Grant was a quartermaster in charge of supplies and did not have a combat role, but he yearned for one and finally was allowed to take part in dangerous missions. At Chapultepec, men under Grant's direction dragged a disassembled howitzer into a church steeple, reassembled it, and bombarded nearby Mexican troops. His bravery and initiative earned him brevet promotions; he became a temporary captain while his permanent rank was lieutenant. Scott's army entered the city, and the Mexicans agreed to peace soon afterward.\n\nDuring this war Grant studied the tactics and strategies of Scott and others, often second guessing their moves beforehand. In his Memoirs, he wrote that this is how he learned about military leadership, and in retrospect identified his leadership style with Taylor's. Even so, he believed that the Mexican war was wrongful and that the territorial gains from the war were designed to expand slavery. Grant reflected in 1883, \"I was bitterly opposed to the measure, and to this day, regard the war, which resulted, as one of the most unjust ever waged by a stronger against a weaker nation.\" He opined that the Civil War was punishment inflicted on the nation for its aggression in Mexico.\n\nGrant arrived in San Francisco during the California Gold Rush\n\nGrant's mandatory service expired during the war, but he chose to remain a soldier. Four years after becoming engaged, he married Julia on August 22, 1848. They had four children: Frederick, Ulysses Jr. (\"Buck\"), Ellen (\"Nellie\"), and Jesse. Grant's first post-war assignments took him and Julia to Detroit and then to Sackets Harbor, New York. In 1852, Grant's next assignment sent him west to Fort Vancouver in the Oregon Territory. Julia, who was eight months pregnant with Ulysses Jr., did not accompany him. While traveling overland through Panama, an outbreak of cholera among his fellow travelers caused 150 fatalities; Grant arranged makeshift transportation and hospital facilities to care for the sick. He debarked in San Francisco during the height of the California Gold Rush.\nGrant's time in the Pacific Northwest followed the Cayuse War; the army was stationed there to keep peace between settlers and Indians. To supplement a military salary which was inadequate to support his family, Grant tried and failed at several business ventures, confirming Jesse Grant's belief that his son had no head for business. He was unhappy being separated from his family, and rumors circulated that he was drinking to excess. Historians overwhelmingly agree that his drunkenness, although off duty, at the time was a fact, though there are no eyewitness reports extant.\n\nPromoted to captain in the summer of 1853, Grant was assigned to command Company F, 4th Infantry, at Fort Humboldt in California. The commanding officer at Fort Humboldt, Lieutenant Colonel Robert C. Buchanan, received reports that Grant became intoxicated off-duty while seated at the pay officer's table. In lieu of a court-martial, Buchanan gave Grant an ultimatum to resign; he did so, effective July 31, 1854, without explanation and returned to St. Louis. The War Department stated on his record, \"Nothing stands against his good name.\" After Grant's retirement, rumors persisted in the regular army of his drinking. Years later, he said, \"the vice of intemperance (drunkenness) had not a little to do with my decision to resign.\"\n\nCivilian struggles and politics\n\nAt age 32, with no civilian vocation, Grant struggled through seven financially lean years. His father initially offered him a place in the Galena, Illinois, branch of the family's tannery and leather goods business, on condition that Julia and the children stay with her parents in Missouri or with the Grants in Kentucky. Ulysses and Julia opposed another separation and declined the offer. In 1855, Grant farmed on his brother-in-law's property near St. Louis, using slaves owned by Julia's father. The farm was not successful and to earn money he sold firewood on St. Louis street corners. The next year, the Grants moved to land on Julia's father's farm, and built a home Grant called \"Hardscrabble\". Julia hated the rustic house, which she described as an \"unattractive cabin\". In 1857, Grant acquired a slave, a thirty-five-year-old man named William Jones, from his father-in-law. The Panic of 1857 devastated farmers, including Grant, who was forced to rent out Hardscrabble the following year.\n\nHaving met with no success farming, the Grants left the farm when their fourth and final child was born in 1858. The following year in 1859 Grant freed his only slave Jones, who was 35 years old and worth about $1,500, instead of selling him at a time when Grant desperately needed money. For the next year, the family took a small house in St. Louis where he worked with Julia's cousin Harry Boggs as a bill collector, again without success. In 1860, Jesse offered him the job in Galena without conditions, and Grant accepted. The leather shop, \"Grant & Perkins\", sold harnesses, saddles, and other leather goods, and purchased hides from farmers in the prosperous Galena area. Grant and family moved to a rental house that year.\n\nAfter Grant had retired from the military, many considered him allied politically to Julia's father, Frederick Dent, a prominent Missouri Democrat. In the 1856 election, Grant cast his first presidential vote for the Democrat, James Buchanan, later saying he was really voting against John C. Frémont, the first Republican candidate, over concern that Frémont's anti-slavery position would motivate southern states to secede. In 1859, Grant's vote for Buchanan and his political affiliation to his father-in-law cost him an appointment to become county engineer. Grant's own father in Illinois, Jesse, was an outspoken Republican in Galena. In 1860, Grant was an open Democrat, favoring Democrat Stephen A. Douglas over Abraham Lincoln, and Lincoln over the Southern Democrat, John C. Breckinridge. Lacking the residency requirements in Illinois at the time, he could not vote. Grant opposed the southern states' secession at the outbreak of the Civil War and remained loyal to the Union.\n\nCivil War\n\nOn April 12, 1861, the American Civil War began as Confederate troops attacked Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina. Two days later, President Lincoln called for 75,000 volunteers and a mass meeting was held in Galena to encourage recruitment. Recognized as a military professional, Grant was asked to lead the ensuing effort. Before the attack on Fort Sumter, Grant had not reacted strongly to Southern secession. The news of the attack came as a shock in Galena, and Grant shared his neighbors' mounting concern about the onset of war. After hearing a speech by his father's attorney, John Aaron Rawlins, Grant found renewed energy in the Union cause. Rawlins later became Grant's aide-de-camp and close friend during the war. Grant recalled with satisfaction that after that first recruitment meeting in Galena, \"I never went into our leather store again.\"\n\nWithout any formal rank in the army, Grant helped recruit a company of volunteers and accompanied them to Springfield, the state capital. During this time, Grant quickly perceived that the war would be fought for the most part by volunteers and not career soldiers. Illinois' Governor Richard Yates offered Grant a militia commission to recruit and train volunteer units, which he accepted, but he still wanted a field command in the army. He made several efforts through his professional contacts, including Major General George B. McClellan. McClellan refused to meet him, remembering Grant's earlier reputation for drinking while stationed in California. Meanwhile, Grant continued serving at the training camps and made a positive impression on the volunteer Union recruits.\n\nWith the aid of his advocate in Washington, Illinois congressman Elihu B. Washburne, Grant was formally promoted to Colonel on June 14, 1861, and put in charge of disciplining the unruly 21st Illinois Volunteer Infantry Regiment. To restore discipline, Grant had one troublemaker bound and gagged to a post for being drunk and disorderly. Transferred to northern Missouri, Grant was promoted by Lincoln to Brigadier General, backdated to May 17, 1861, again with Washburne's support. Believing Grant was a general of \"dogged persistence\" and \"iron will\", Major General John C. Frémont assigned Grant command of troops near Cairo, Illinois by the end of August 1861. Under Frémont's authority Grant advanced into Paducah and took the town without a fight.\n\nBelmont, Forts Henry and Donelson\n\nOn November 7, 1861 Grant and his troops crossed the Mississippi to attack Confederate soldiers encamped in Belmont, Missouri. They took the camp, but the reinforced Confederates under Brigadier General Gideon J. Pillow forced a retreat to Cairo. A tactical defeat, the battle nonetheless gave Grant and his volunteers confidence and experience. After Belmont, Grant asked his new commander Henry Halleck (Lincoln had relieved Frémont of command) for permission to move against Fort Henry in Tennessee, which would open the Tennessee River to Union gunboats; Halleck agreed on condition that the attack be conducted in coordination with navy Flag Officer Andrew H. Foote. Grant's troops, in close cooperation with Foote's naval forces captured Fort Henry on February 6, 1862.\n\nEmboldened by Lincoln's call for a general advance of all Union forces, Grant ordered an immediate assault on nearby Fort Donelson, which dominated the Cumberland River (this time without Halleck's permission). On February 15, Grant and Foote met stiff resistance from Confederate forces under Pillow. Reinforced by 10,000 troops, Grant's army totaled 25,000 troops against 12,000 Confederates. Foote's first approach was repulsed, and the Confederates attempted a breakout, pushing Grant's right flank into disorganized retreat. Grant rallied his troops, resumed the offensive, retook the Union right, and attacked Pillow's left. Pillow ordered Confederate troops back into the fort and relinquished command to Brigadier General Simon Bolivar Buckner, who the next day acceded to Grant's demand for his \"unconditional and immediate surrender.\" Lincoln promoted Grant to major-general of volunteers while the Northern press treated Grant as a hero. Playing off his initials, they took to calling him \"Unconditional Surrender Grant\".\n\nShiloh and aftermath\n\nEncamped on the western bank of the Tennessee River, Grant's Army of the Tennessee, now numbering about 45,000 troops, prepared to attack a Confederate army of roughly equal strength at Corinth, Mississippi, a vital railroad junction. The Confederates, led by Generals Albert Sidney Johnston and P.G.T. Beauregard, struck first on April 6, 1862, attacking five divisions of Grant's army bivouacked at Pittsburg Landing, not far from the Shiloh meetinghouse. Grant's troops were not entrenched and were taken by surprise, falling back before the Confederate onslaught. At day's end, the Confederates captured one Union division, but Grant's army was able to hold the Landing. The remaining Union army might have been destroyed, but the Confederates halted due to exhaustion, confusion, and a lack of reinforcements. Grant, bolstered by 18,000 fresh troops from the divisions of Major Generals Don Carlos Buell and Lew Wallace, counterattacked at dawn the next day The Northerners regained the field and forced the rebels to retreat back to Corinth.\n\nIn Shiloh's aftermath, the Northern press criticized Grant for high casualties and for his alleged drunkenness during the battle. Shiloh was the costliest battle in American history to that point, with total casualties of about 23,800. Halleck arrived at Pittsburg Landing on April 9, and removed Grant from field command, proceeding to capture Corinth. Discouraged and disappointed, Grant considered resigning his commission, but Brigadier General William Tecumseh Sherman, one of his division commanders, convinced him to stay. Lincoln overruled Grant's critics, saying \"I can't spare this man; he fights.\" Ordered to Washington, Halleck on July 11 reinstated Grant as field commander of the Army of the Tennessee. On September 19, Grant's army defeated Confederates at the Battle of Iuka, then successfully defended Corinth, inflicting heavy casualties on the enemy. On October 25, Grant assumed command of the District of the Tennessee. In November, after Lincoln's preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, Grant ordered units under his command, headed by Chaplain John Eaton, to incorporate contraband slaves into the Union war effort, giving them clothes, shelter, and wages for their services.\n\nVicksburg campaign\n\nLocated on the high bluffs of the Mississippi River, Vicksburg, Mississippi was the last major obstacle to Union control of that river; both Lincoln and Grant saw it as the key to victory in the West and were determined to take the rebel stronghold. Grant's Army held western Tennessee having almost 40,000 troops available to fight. Grant was aggravated to learn that Lincoln authorized Major General John A. McClernand to raise a separate army for the purpose. Halleck ordered McClernand to Memphis, and placed him under Grant's authority. Grant planned to attack Vicksburg on land from the east while Sherman attacked the fortress from the Mississippi River, but two Confederate cavalry raids, on December 11 and 20, prevented the armies from connecting. On December 29, a Confederate army led by Lieutenant General John C. Pemberton repulsed Sherman's direct approach to Vicksburg at Chickasaw Bayou. McClernand reached Sherman's army, assumed command, and independently of Grant led a campaign that captured Confederate Fort Hindman.\n\nAlong with his military responsibilities in the months following Grant's return to command, he was concerned over an expanding illicit cotton trade in his district. He believed the trade undermined the Union war effort, funded the Confederacy, and prolonged the war, while Union soldiers died in the fields. On December 17, he issued General Order No. 11, expelling \"Jews, as a class,\" from the district, saying that Jewish merchants were violating trade regulations. Writing in 2012, historian Jonathan D. Sarna said Grant \"issued the most notorious anti-Jewish official order in American history.\" Historians' opinions vary on Grant's motives for issuing the order. Jewish leaders complained to Lincoln while the Northern press criticized Grant. Lincoln demanded the order be revoked and Grant rescinded it within three weeks. Grant made amends with the Jewish community during his presidency.\n\nOn January 29, 1863, Grant assumed personal overall command and during the months of February and March made a series of attempts to advance his army through water-logged terrain to bypass Vicksburg's guns; these also proved ineffective, however, Union soldiers became better trained. On April 16, 1863, Grant ordered Admiral David Porter's Union gunboats south under fire from the Vicksburg batteries to meet up with his Union troops who had marched south down the west side of the Mississippi River. Grant ordered diversionary battles, confusing Pemberton and allowing Grant's army to cross east over the Mississippi, landing troops at Bruinsburg. Continuing eastward, Grant's army captured Port Gibson, Raymond, and Jackson, the state capital and Confederate railroad supply center. Advancing his army to Vicksburg, Grant defeated Pemberton's army at the Battle of Champion Hill on May 16, forcing Pemberton to retreat into Vicksburg. After Grant's men assaulted the Vicksburg entrenchments twice, suffering severe losses, they settled in for a siege lasting seven weeks. Pemberton surrendered Vicksburg to Grant on July 4, 1863.\n\nThe fall of Vicksburg gave Union forces control over the Mississippi River and split the Confederacy in two. By that time, Grant's political sympathies fully coincided with the Radical Republicans' aggressive prosecution of the war and emancipation of the slaves. Although the success at Vicksburg was a great morale boost for the Union war effort, Grant received criticism for his decisions and his alleged drunkenness. The personal rivalry between McClernand and Grant continued after Vicksburg, until Grant removed McClernand from command when he contravened Grant by publishing an order without permission. When Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton suggested Grant be brought back east to run the Army of the Potomac, Grant demurred, writing that he knew the geography and resources of the West better and he did not want to upset the chain of command in the East.\n\nChattanooga and promotion\n\nLincoln commissioned Grant a major general in the regular army and assigned him command of the newly formed Division of the Mississippi in October 1863, including the Armies of the Ohio, Tennessee, and Cumberland. After the Battle of Chickamauga, the Army of the Cumberland retreated into Chattanooga, where they were trapped. When informed of the situation, Grant put Major General George H. Thomas in charge of the besieged army. Taking command, Grant arrived in Chattanooga by horseback, devising plans to resupply the city and break the siege. Lincoln also sent Major General Joseph Hooker and two divisions of the Army of the Potomac to assist. Union forces captured Brown's Ferry and opened a supply line to Bridgeport. On November 23, 1863, Grant organized three armies to attack at Missionary Ridge and Lookout Mountain. Two days later in the early morning, Hooker's forces successfully took Lookout Mountain. Grant ordered Thomas and the Army of the Cumberland to advance when Sherman's army failed to take Missionary Ridge from the northeast. The Army of the Cumberland, led by Major General Philip Sheridan and Brigadier General Thomas J. Wood, charged uphill and captured the Confederate entrenchments on top of the ridge, forcing the rebels into disorganized retreat. The decisive battle gave the Union control of Tennessee and opened Georgia, the heartland of the Confederacy, to Union invasion.\n\nOn March 3, 1864 Lincoln promoted Grant to lieutenant general, giving him command of all Union Armies, answering only to the President. Grant assigned Sherman the Division of the Mississippi and traveled east to Washington D.C., meeting with Lincoln to devise a strategy of total war against the Confederacy. After settling Julia into a house in Georgetown, Grant established his headquarters with General George Meade's Army of the Potomac in Culpeper, Virginia. He devised a strategy of coordinated Union offensives, attacking the rebel armies at the same time to keep the Confederates from shifting reinforcements within their interior lines. Sherman was to pursue Joseph E. Johnston's Army of the Tennessee, while Meade would lead the Army of the Potomac, with Grant in camp, to attack Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia. Major General Benjamin Butler was to advance towards Richmond from the south, up the James River. If Lee was forced south as expected, Grant would join forces with Butler's armies and be fed supplies from the James. Major General Franz Sigel was to capture the railroad line at Lynchburg, move east, and attack from the Blue Ridge Mountains. Grant knew that Lee had limited manpower and that a war of attrition fought on a battlefield without entrenchments would lead to Lee's defeat.\n\nGrant was now riding a rising tide of popularity, and there was talk that a Union victory early in the year could lead to his candidacy for the presidency. Grant was aware of the rumors, but had ruled out a political candidacy; the possibility would soon vanish with delays on the battlefield.\n\nOverland Campaign and Union victory\n\nSigel's and Butler's efforts sputtered, and Grant was left alone to fight Lee in a series of bloody battles known as the Overland Campaign. Grant crossed the Rapidan River on May 4, 1864, and attacked Lee in the Battle of the Wilderness, a hard-fought three-day battle with many casualties. Rather than retreat as his predecessors had done, Grant flanked Lee's army to the southeast and attempted to wedge his forces between Lee and Richmond at Spotsylvania Court House. Lee's army got to Spotsylvania first, and a costly battle ensued, lasting thirteen days. During the battle, Grant attempted to break through Lee's line of defense, resulting in one of the bloodiest assaults of the Civil War, known as the Battle of the Bloody Angle. Unable to break Lee's defenses, Grant again flanked the Confederate army to the southeast, meeting at North Anna, where a battle lasted three days. The Confederates had the defensive advantage, and Grant maneuvered his army to Cold Harbor, a vital railroad hub that linked to Richmond, but Lee's men were again able to entrench against the Union assault. During the third day of the thirteen-day battle, Grant led a costly assault on Lee's trenches. As casualty reports became known in the North, heavy criticism fell on Grant, who was castigated as \"the Butcher\" by the Northern press after taking 52,788 casualties in the thirty days since crossing the Rapidan. Lee's army suffered 32,907 casualties, but he was less able to replace them. The costly Union assault at Cold Harbor was the second of two battles in the war that Grant later said he regretted (the other being his initial assault on the fortifications around Vicksburg). Without being detected by Lee, Grant pulled out of Cold Harbor and moved his army south of the James River, freed Butler from the Bermuda Hundred (where the Rebels had surrounded his army), and advanced toward Petersburg, Richmond's central railroad hub.\n\nAfter crossing the James River undetected, Grant and the Army of the Potomac arrived at Petersburg. Confederate General P.G.T. Beauregard defended the city, and Lee's veteran reinforcements soon arrived. The result was a nine-month-long siege of Petersburg, stalling the advance. Northern resentment grew as the war dragged on, but an indirect benefit of the Petersburg siege was that Lee was forced to entrench and defend Richmond, and was unable to reinforce the Army of the Tennessee. Sheridan was assigned command of the Union Army of the Shenandoah and Grant directed him to \"follow the enemy to their death\". Lee had sent General Jubal Early up the Shenandoah Valley to attack the federal capital and draw troops away from the Army of the Potomac, but Sheridan defeated Early, ensuring that Washington would not be endangered. Grant then ordered Sheridan's cavalry to destroy vital Confederate supplies in the Shenandoah Valley. When Sheridan reported suffering attacks by irregular Confederate cavalry under John S. Mosby, Grant recommended rounding up their families for imprisonment as hostages at Fort McHenry.\n\nGrant approved of a plan to blow up part of the enemy trenches from an underground tunnel. The explosion created a crater, into which poorly-led Union troops poured. Recovering from the surprise, Confederates surrounded the crater and easily picked off Union troops within it. The Union's 3500 casualties outnumbered the Confederates' by three-to-one; although the plan could have been successful if implemented correctly, Grant admitted the tactic had been a \"stupendous failure\". On August 9, 1864, Grant, who had just arrived at his headquarters in City Point, narrowly escaped death when Confederate spies blew up an ammunition barge in the James River. Rather than fight Lee in a full frontal attack as he had done at Cold Harbor, Grant continued to extend Lee's defenses south and west of Petersburg, to capture vital railroad links. As Grant continued to push the Union advance westward, Lee's lines became overstretched and undermanned. After the Federal army rebuilt the City Point Railroad, Grant was able to use mortars to attack Lee's entrenchments. On September 2, Sherman captured Atlanta while Confederate forces retreated, ensuring Lincoln's reelection in November. Sherman convinced Grant and Lincoln to send a Union Army to march to Savannah devastating the Confederate heartland.\n\nOnce Sherman reached the East Coast and Thomas dispatched John Bell Hood's forces in Tennessee, Union victory appeared certain, and Lincoln attempted negotiations. He enlisted Francis Preston Blair to carry a message to Confederate President Jefferson Davis. Davis and Lincoln each appointed commissioners, but the conference soon stalled. Grant contacted Lincoln, who agreed to personally meet with the commissioners at Fort Monroe. The peace conference that took place near Union-controlled Fort Monroe was ultimately fruitless, but represented Grant's first foray into diplomacy.\n\nIn late March 1865, Grant's forces finally took Petersburg, then captured Richmond that April. Grant, Sherman, Admiral Porter and Lincoln held a conference on the River Queen to discuss Reconstruction of the South. Lee's troops began deserting in large numbers; disease and lack of supplies also diminished the remaining Confederates. Lee attempted to link up with the remnants of Joseph E. Johnston's defeated army, but Union cavalry forces led by Sheridan were able to stop the two armies from converging, cutting the line of advance to the Confederate supply trains. Lee and his army surrendered to Grant at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865. Grant gave generous terms; Confederate troops surrendered their weapons and were allowed to return to their homes with their mounts, on the condition that they would not take up arms against the United States. On April 26, Johnson's Confederate army surrendered to Sherman under the same terms Grant offered to Lee. On May 26, Kirby Smith's western Confederate army surrendered and the Civil War was over, ending in Union victory. \n\nLincoln's assassination\n\nOn April 14, five days after Grant's victory at Appomattox, he attended a cabinet meeting in Washington. Lincoln invited him and his wife to Ford's Theater, but they declined as they had plans to travel to Philadelphia. In a conspiracy that targeted several government leaders, Lincoln was fatally shot by John Wilkes Booth at the theater, and died the next morning. Many, including Grant himself, thought that he had been a target in the plot. Secretary of War Stanton notified him of the President's death and summoned him back to Washington. Attending Lincoln's funeral on April 19, Grant stood alone and wept openly; he later said Lincoln was \"the greatest man I have ever known.\" Regarding the new President, Andrew Johnson, Grant told Julia that he dreaded the change in administrations; he judged Johnson's attitude toward white southerners as one that would \"make them unwilling citizens\", and initially thought that with President Johnson, \"Reconstruction has been set back no telling how far.\"\n\nCommanding General\n\nTransition to peacetime\n\nAt the war's end, Grant remained commander of the army, with duties that included enforcement of Reconstruction Acts in the former Confederate states and supervision of Indian wars on the western Plains. Grant secured a house for his family in Georgetown Heights in 1865, but instructed Elihu Washburne that for political purposes his legal residence remained in Galena, Illinois. That same year, Grant spoke at Cooper Union in New York, where the New York Times reported that \"... the entranced and bewildered multitude trembled with extraordinary delight.\" Further travels that summer took the Grants to Albany, New York, back to Galena, and throughout Illinois and Ohio, with enthusiastic receptions.\n\nIn November 1865, President Andrew Johnson sent Grant on a fact-finding mission to the South. Afterwards, Grant recommended continuation of a reformed Freedmen's Bureau, which Johnson opposed, but advised against the use of black troops in garrisons, which he believed encouraged an alternative to farm labor. Grant did not believe the people of the devastated South were ready for civilian self-rule, and that both whites and blacks in the South required protection by the federal government. He also warned of threats by disaffected poor people, black and white, and recommended that local decision-making be entrusted only to \"thinking men of the South\" (i.e., white men of property). In this respect, Grant's opinion on Reconstruction aligned with Johnson's policy of pardoning established southern leaders and restoring them to their positions of power. He joined Johnson in arguing that Congress should allow representatives from the South to take their seats. On July 25, 1866, Congress promoted Grant to the newly created rank of General of the Army of the United States.\n\nBreach with Johnson\n\nJohnson favored a lenient approach to Reconstruction, calling for an immediate return of the former Confederate states into the Union without any guarantee of African American civil rights. The Radical Republican-controlled Congress opposed the idea and refused to admit Congressmen from the former Confederate states. Over Johnson's vetoes, Congress renewed the Freedmen's Bureau and passed the Civil Rights Act of 1866. During the congressional election campaign later that year, Johnson took his case to the people in his \"Swing Around the Circle\" speaking tour. Johnson pressured Grant, by then the most popular man in the country, to go on the tour; Grant, wishing to appear loyal, agreed. Grant believed that Johnson was purposefully agitating conservative opinion to defy Congressional Reconstruction. Finding himself increasingly at odds with Johnson, Grant confided to his wife that he thought the President's speeches were a \"national disgrace\". Publicly, Grant attempted to appear loyal to Johnson while not alienating Republican legislators essential to his future political career. Concerned that Johnson's differences with Congress would cause renewed insurrection in the South, he ordered Southern arsenals to ship arms north to prevent their capture by Southern state governments.\n\nConflict between radicals and conservatives continued after the 1866 congressional elections. Rejecting Johnson's vision for quick reconciliation with former Confederates, Congress passed the Reconstruction Acts, which divided the southern states into five military districts to protect the freedman's constitutional and congressional rights. Military district governors were to lead transitional state governments in each district. Grant, who was to select the general to govern each district from a group designated by Johnson, preferred Congress's plan for enforcement of Reconstruction. Grant was optimistic that Reconstruction Acts would help pacify the South. By complying with the Acts and instructing his subordinates to do likewise, Grant further alienated Johnson. When Sheridan removed public officials in Louisiana who impeded Reconstruction, Johnson was displeased and sought Sheridan's removal. Grant recommended a rebuke, but not a dismissal. Throughout the Reconstruction period, Grant and the military protected the rights of more than 1,500 African Americans elected to political office. In 1866, Congress renewed the Freedmen's Bureau over Johnson's vetoes and with Grant's support, and passed the first Civil Rights Act protecting African American civil rights by nullifying black codes. On July 19, 1867, Congress, again over Johnson's veto, passed a measure that authorized Grant to have oversight in enforcing congressional Reconstruction, making Southern state governments subordinate to military control.\n\nJohnson's impeachment\n\nJohnson wished to replace Stanton, a Lincoln appointee who sympathized with Congressional Reconstruction. To keep Grant under control as a potential political rival, Johnson asked him to take the post. Grant recommended against the move, in light of the Tenure of Office Act, which required Senate approval for cabinet removals. Johnson believed the Act did not apply to officers appointed by the previous president, and forced the issue by making Grant an interim appointee during a Senate recess. Grant agreed to accept the post temporarily, and Stanton vacated the office until the Senate reconvened.\n\nWhen the Senate reinstated Stanton, Johnson told Grant to refuse to surrender the office and let the courts resolve the matter. Grant told Johnson in private that violating the Tenure of Office Act was a federal offense, which could result in a fine or imprisonment. Believing he had no other legal alternatives, Grant returned the office to Stanton. This incurred Johnson's wrath; at a cabinet meeting immediately afterwards, Johnson accused Grant of breaking his promise to remain Secretary of War. Grant disputed that he had ever made such a promise although cabinet members later testified he had done so. Newspapers friendly to Johnson published a series of articles to discredit Grant over returning the War Department to Stanton, stating that Grant had been deceptive in the matter. This public insult infuriated Grant, and he defended himself in an angry letter to Johnson, after which the two men were confirmed foes. When Grant's statement became public, it increased his popularity among Radical Republicans and he emerged from the controversy unscathed. Although Grant favored Johnson's impeachment, he took no active role in the impeachment proceedings against Johnson, which were fueled in part by Johnson's removal of Stanton. Johnson barely survived, and none of the other Republican leaders directly involved benefited politically in their unsuccessful attempt to remove the president.\n\nElection of 1868\n\nWhile remaining Commanding General, Grant entered the 1868 campaign season with increased popularity among the Radical Republicans following his abandonment of Johnson over the Secretary of War dispute. The Republicans chose Grant as their presidential candidate on the first ballot at the 1868 Republican National Convention in Chicago. In his letter of acceptance to the party, Grant concluded with \"Let us have peace\", which became his campaign slogan. For vice president, the delegates nominated House Speaker Schuyler Colfax. Grant's 1862 General Order No. 11 became an issue during the presidential campaign; he sought to distance himself from the order, saying \"I have no prejudice against sect or race, but want each individual to be judged by his own merit.\" As President, Grant would atone for 1862's expulsion of the Jews. Historian Jonathan Sarna argues that Grant became one of the greatest friends of Jews in American history, meeting with them often and appointing them to high office. He was the first president to condemn atrocities against Jews in Europe, thus putting human rights on the American diplomatic agenda. As was expected at the time, Grant returned to his home state and left the active campaigning and speaking on his behalf to his campaign manager William E. Chandler and others. The Republican campaign focused on continuing Reconstruction and restoring the public credit. \n\nThe Democrats nominated former New York Governor Horatio Seymour. Their campaign focused mainly on ending Reconstruction and returning control of the South to the white planter class, which alienated many War Democrats in the North. The Democrats attacked Reconstruction and the Republican Party's support of African American rights, while deriding Grant, calling him captain of the \"Black Marines\". Grant won the election by 300,000 votes out of 5,716,082 votes cast, receiving an electoral college landslide, of 214 votes to Seymour's 80. Grant, at the age of 46 was (at the time) the youngest president ever elected. His election was a triumph of conservative principles that included sound money, efficient government, and the restoration of Southern reconstructed states. Grant was the first president elected after the nation had outlawed slavery and granted citizenship to former slaves. Implementation of these new rights was slow to come; in the 1868 election, the black vote counted in only 16 of the 37 states, nearly all in the South. Grant lost Louisiana and Georgia primarily due to Ku Klux Klan violence against African American voters. During the election there was a noticeably large number of black citizens in Washington.\n\nPresidency (1869–77)\n\nOn March 4, 1869, Grant was sworn in as the eighteenth President of the United States by Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase. His presidency began with a break from tradition, as Johnson did not attend Grant's inauguration at the Capitol or ride with him as he departed the White House for the last time. In his inaugural address, Grant urged the ratification of the Fifteenth Amendment and said he would approach Reconstruction \"calmly, without prejudice, hate or sectional pride.\" Grant recommended the \"proper treatment\" of Native Americans be studied; advocating their civilization and eventual citizenship. Grant took an unconventional approach to choosing his cabinet, declining to consult with the Senate and keeping his choices secret until he submitted them for confirmation. In his effort to create national harmony, Grant purposely avoided choosing Republican Party leaders. Grant appointed his wartime comrade John A. Rawlins as Secretary of War and Hamilton Fish, a conservative New York statesman, as Secretary of State. Sherman earned promotion to Commanding General, but his relationship with Grant became strained when the President took Rawlins's side when the Secretary of War sought to limit Sherman's authority. Grant initially granted Sherman command over War Department bureau chiefs, but rescinded it when Rawlins and Congress complained. Rawlins died in office a few months later, and Grant appointed William W. Belknap as his replacement.\n\nGrant selected several non-politicians to his cabinet, including Adolph E. Borie and Alexander Turney Stewart, with limited success. Borie served briefly as Secretary of the Navy, later replaced by George M. Robeson, while Stewart was prevented from becoming Secretary of the Treasury by a 1789 statute that barred businessmen from the position (Senators Charles Sumner and Roscoe Conkling opposed amending the law.) In place of Stewart, Grant appointed Massachusetts Representative George S. Boutwell, a radical, as Treasury Secretary. Grant's other cabinet appointments—Jacob D. Cox (Interior), John Creswell (Postmaster General), and Ebenezer Rockwood Hoar (Attorney General)—were well-received and uncontroversial. Grant also appointed four Justices to the Supreme Court: William Strong, Joseph P. Bradley, Ward Hunt and Chief Justice Morrison Waite. Hunt voted to uphold Reconstruction laws while Waite and Bradley did much to undermine them.\n\nLater Reconstruction and civil rights\n\nGrant took office in 1869 during the middle of the Reconstruction of the South or former Confederate states. Unlike his predecessor, Grant advocated systematic federal enforcement of fundamental civil rights regardless of race. He lobbied Congress to pass the Fifteenth Amendment, guaranteeing that no state could prevent someone from voting based on race, and believed that its passage would secure freedmen's rights. Grant asked Congress to admit representatives from the remaining unrepresented Southern states in conformity with Congressional Reconstruction; they did so, passing legislation providing that Mississippi, Virginia, and Texas would be represented in Congress after they ratified the Fifteenth Amendment. Grant pressured Congress to draw up legislation that would seat African American state legislators in Georgia, who had been ousted by white conservatives. Congress responded through special legislation; the members were re-seated in the Georgia legislature, and Georgia was required to adopt the Fifteenth Amendment to gain representation in Congress. By July 1870, the four remaining states were readmitted.\n\nTo bolster the new amendment, Grant relied on the army and in 1870 he signed legistlation creating the Justice Department, primarily to enforce federal laws in the South. Where the attorney general had once been only a legal adviser to the president, he now led a cabinet department dedicated to enforcing federal law, including a solicitor general to argue on the government's behalf in court. Under Grant's first attorney general, Ebenezer R. Hoar, the administration was not especially aggressive in prosecuting white Southerners who terrorized their black neighbors, but Hoar's successor, Amos T. Akerman, was more zealous. Alarmed by a rise in terror by the Ku Klux Klan and other groups against African Americans, Congress (with Grant's encouragement) passed a series of three laws, the Enforcement Acts from 1870 to 1871, which made depriving African Americans their civil rights a federal offense and authorized the president to use the military to enforce the laws. In May 1871, Grant ordered federal troops to help marshals in arresting Klansmen. That October, on Akerman's recommendation, Grant suspended habeas corpus in part of South Carolina and sent federal troops to enforce the law there. After prosecutions by Akerman and his replacement, George Henry Williams, the Klan's power collapsed; by 1872, elections in the South saw African Americans voting in record numbers. That same year, Grant signed the Amnesty Act, which restored political rights to former Confederates. Lacking sufficient funding, the Justice Department stopped prosecutions of the Klan in June 1873, and Grant offered the Klan clemency in exchange for peace. The Justice Department's civil rights prosecutions continued throughout Grant's second term but with fewer yearly cases and minimal convictions.\n\nAfter the Klan's decline, other conservative whites formed armed groups, such as the Red Shirts and the White League who openly used violence and intimidation to take control of state governments. The Panic of 1873 and the ensuing depression contributed to public fatigue, and the North grew less concerned with Reconstruction. Supreme Court rulings in the Slaughter-House Cases (1873) and United States v. Cruikshank (1875) restricted federal enforcement of civil rights. Grant began to favor limiting the use of troops, to avoid the impression that he was acting as a military dictator; he was also concerned that increased military pressure in the South might cause conservative whites in the North to bolt the Republican Party. In 1874, Grant by proclamation ended the Brooks–Baxter War bringing Reconstruction in Arkansas to a peaceful conclusion, but that same year, he sent troops and warships under Major General William H. Emory to New Orleans in the wake of the Colfax Massacre and disputes over the election of Governor William Pitt Kellogg. Emory peacefully restored Kellogg to office and the following year the parties reached a compromise allowing Democrats to retain control of the Louisiana House. Under public pressure Grant recalled General Sheridan and most of the federal troops from Louisiana.\n\nBy 1875, Democratic \"Redeemer\" politicians took control of all but three Southern states. As violence against black Southerners escalated once more, Edwards Pierrepont (Grant's fourth attorney general) told Governor Adelbert Ames of Mississippi that the people were \"tired of the autumnal outbreaks in the South\", and declined to intervene directly, instead, sending an emissary to negotiate a peaceful election. Grant signed an ambitious Civil Rights Act of 1875, which expanded federal law enforcement by prohibiting discrimination on account of race in public lodging, public transportation, and jury service. However, it did not stop the rise of white supremacist forces in the South. In October 1876, Grant sent troops to South Carolina to aid Republican Governor Daniel Chamberlain. Even so, the remaining three Republican governments in the South fell to Redeemers after the 1876 presidential election, and the ensuing Compromise of 1877 marked the end of Reconstruction.\n\nIndian peace policy\n\nGrant's attempts to live peacefully with Native Americans marked a radical reversal of what had since the 1830s been the government's policy of Indian removal. He appointed Ely S. Parker, a Seneca Indian and member of his wartime staff, as Commissioner of Indian Affairs. \"My efforts in the future will be directed,\" Grant said in his second inaugural address, \"by a humane course, to bring the aborigines of the country under the benign influences of education and civilization ... Wars of extermination ... are demoralizing and wicked.\" Grant's \"Peace Policy\" aimed to replace entrepreneurs serving as Indian agents with missionaries. In 1869, Grant signed a law establishing a Board of Indian Commissioners to oversee spending and reduce corruption in the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Two years later, he signed a bill ending the Indian treaty system; the law now treated individual Native Americans as wards of the federal government, and no longer dealt with the tribes as sovereign entities. Grant wished for Indian tribes to be protected on reservations and educated in European-style farming and culture, abandoning their hunter-gatherer way of life. Although, as biographer Jean Edward Smith wrote, Grant's peace policy was \"remarkably progressive and humanitarian\" for its time, it ultimately disregarded native cultures, something modern Americans see \"as a grave error.\"\n\nThe peace policy showed some success in reducing battles between Indians and whites on the western frontier, but the increased slaughter of the buffalo, encouraged by Grant's subordinates, led to conflict with the Plains Indians. The Sioux and other Plains tribes accepted the reservation system, but encroachments by whites in search of gold in the Black Hills led to renewed war by the end of Grant's second term, ending the understanding that had developed between Grant and Sioux Chief Red Cloud. Under Major Generals Oliver Otis Howard and George Crook, Grant's policy had greater success in the Southwest. Howard, the former head of the Freedmen's Bureau, negotiated peace with the Apache in 1872, convincing their leader, Cochise, to move the tribe to a new reservation, and ending a war started the year before. In Oregon, relations were less peaceful, as war with the Modocs erupted in April 1873. The Modocs refused to move to a reservation and killed the local army commander, Major General Edward Canby. Although Grant was upset over Canby's death, he ordered restraint, disregarding Sherman's advice to seek revenge or exterminate the tribe. The army captured, tried, and executed the four Modoc warriors responsible for Canby's murder in October 1873. Grant ordered the rest of the Modoc tribe relocated to the Indian Territory.\n\nDuring the Great Sioux War, fueled by the discovery of gold in the Black Hills, Grant came into conflict with Colonel George Armstrong Custer after Custer testified in 1876 about corruption in the War Department. Grant ordered Custer arrested for breach of military protocol and barred him from leading an upcoming campaign against the Sioux. Grant later relented and let Custer fight under Brigadier General Alfred Terry. Sioux warriors led by Crazy Horse killed Custer at the Battle of the Little Big Horn, the army's most famous defeat in the Indian wars. Two months later, Grant castigated Custer in the press, saying \"I regard Custer's massacre as a sacrifice of troops, brought on by Custer himself, that was wholly unnecessary – wholly unnecessary.\" Custer's death shocked the nation, leading Congress to appropriate funds for more troops, two more Western forts and barred Indians from purchasing weapons.\n\nForeign affairs\n\nEven before Grant became president, expansionists in American politics desired control over the Caribbean islands. Andrew Johnson had recommended annexation but the early anti-imperialist Republicans in Congress rejected the plan. Grant renewed negotiations to annex the Dominican Republic (18,705 mi2), led by Orville E. Babcock, a wartime confidant. Grant was initially skeptical, but at the urging of Admiral Porter, who wanted a naval base at Samaná Bay, and Joseph W. Fabens, a New England businessman employed by the Dominican government, Grant became convinced of the plan's merit. Grant sent Babcock to the Dominican Republic and consult with Buenaventura Báez, the Dominican president who supported annexation. Although he had no official government standing, Babcock secretly negotiated an annexation treaty with Baez and returned to Washington in December 1869.\n\nGrant believed in peaceful expansion of the nation's borders, and thought acquisition of the majority-black nation would allow new economic opportunities for African Americans in the United States while increasing American naval power in the Caribbean. Grant believed the island would offer a refuge for black Americans suffering from violent attacks in the South by white Americans during Reconstruction. Secretary of State Hamilton Fish dismissed annexation, seeing the island as politically unstable and troublesome. Grant personally lobbied Senators to pass the treaty, going so far as to visit Sumner at his home. Fish added to the effort out of loyalty to the administration, but to no avail; the Senate refused to pass the treaty. Sumner's role in leading opposition toward annexation led to political enmity between him and Grant. A congressional investigation in 1870 by Senator Carl Schurz revealed land speculators financially motivated passage of the treaty. After the Dominican initiative failed, Grant convinced Fish to stay in the cabinet and gave him greater authority to run the State Department. Unwilling to admit defeat, Grant successfully lobbied Congress to send a commission to the West Indies to investigate, including Frederick Douglass. Although Douglass and the commission approved of Grant's claims for annexation in its findings released on April 5, 1871, the Senate remained opposed while Grant was forced to abandon further annexation attempts.\n\nGrant and Fish were more successful in their resolution of the Alabama claims. This dispute with the United Kingdom stemmed from the damage done to American shipping during the Civil War by the five ships built for the Confederacy in British shipyards including, most famously, the . The Americans claimed that Britain had violated neutrality by building ships for the Confederate Navy. When the war ended, the United States demanded restitution, which the British refused to pay. Negotiations continued fitfully, a sticking point being the claims of \"indirect damages\" on top of the harm directly caused by the five ships. Sumner opposed the Johnson administration's proposed settlement, which had been rejected by the Senate, believing that Britain should directly pay $2 billion in gold or, alternatively, cede Canada to the United States. Fish convinced Grant that peaceful relations with Britain were more important than acquisition of more territory, and the two nations agreed to negotiate along those lines. A commission in Washington produced a treaty whereby an international tribunal would settle the damage amounts; the British admitted regret, but not fault. The Senate approved the Treaty of Washington, which also settled disputes over fishing rights and maritime boundaries, by a 50–12 vote in 1871.\n\nIn 1873, a Spanish cruiser took captive a merchant ship, Virginius, flying the U.S. flag, carrying war materials and men to aid the Cuban insurrection. The passengers and crew, including eight American citizens, were illegally traveling to Cuba to help overthrow the government. Spanish authorities executed the prisoners, and many Americans called for war with Spain. Fish, with Grant's support, worked to reach a peaceful resolution. Spain's President, Emilio Castelar y Ripoll, expressed regret for the tragedy and agreed to decide reparations through arbitration; Spain surrendered the Virginius and paid a cash indemnity of $80,000 to the families of the executed Americans. In June 1874, Grant's Secretary of the Navy, George M. Robeson, commissioned the reconstruction of five redesigned double-turreted monitor warships to compete with the superior Spanish Navy. The administration's diplomacy was also at work in the Pacific as, in December 1874, Grant held a state dinner at the White House for the King of Hawaii, David Kalakaua, who was seeking duty-free sugar importation to the United States. Grant and Fish were able to produce a successful free trade treaty in 1875 with the Kingdom of Hawaii, incorporating the Pacific islands' sugar industry into the United States' economic sphere.\n\nGold standard and the Gold Ring\n\nSoon after taking office, Grant took steps to return the nation's currency to a more secure footing. During the Civil War, Congress had authorized the Treasury to issue banknotes that, unlike the rest of the currency, were not backed by gold or silver. The \"greenback\" notes, as they were known, were necessary to pay the unprecedented war debts, but they also caused inflation and forced gold-backed money out of circulation; Grant determined to return the national economy to pre-war monetary standards. Many in Congress agreed, and they passed the Public Credit Act of 1869, which guaranteed that bondholders would be repaid in gold, not greenbacks. To strengthen the dollar, Treasury Secretary George S. Boutwell, backed by Grant, sold gold from the Treasury each month and bought back high-interest Treasury bonds issued during the war; this had the effect of reducing the deficit, but deflating the currency.\n\nThese actions had a large impact on the gold market and the national economy. Jay Gould, a Wall Street trader and railroad magnate, and financier Jim Fisk, seeking to drive up the gold price, enlisted the help of another speculator Abel Corbin, Grant's brother-in-law, who used his connection with the president to get inside information (the collaborators were later known as the \"Gold Ring.\") Corbin convinced Grant to appoint a Gould associate, Daniel Butterfield, as assistant Treasurer, where he could gather information for the Ring. Meanwhile, Gould and Fisk quietly stockpiled gold. Gould convinced Corbin that a high gold price would be good for the nation's prosperity, and Corbin passed this theory on to Grant, who allowed the Treasury to act accordingly. After consulting in early September with Alexander Stewart (his erstwhile nominee for Treasury Secretary), Grant stopped the sale of gold, believing a higher gold price would help Western farmers. By mid-September, Grant warned Boutwell to be on his guard as the gold price continued to rise, while the conspirators bought ever more and the rising price affected the wider economy. Grant, seeing that the increase was unnatural, told Boutwell to sell gold, which reduced its price. Boutwell did so the next day, on September 24, 1869, later known as Black Friday. The sale of gold from the Treasury defeated Gould's scheme as the gold price plummeted, relieving the growing economic tension. Gould and Fisk managed to escape without much harm to themselves. Many brokerage firms collapsed while trade volume and agriculture prices plummeted, causing a mild recession, but by January 1870, the economy resumed its post-war recovery.\n\nElection of 1872\n\nDespite his administration's many scandals, Grant continued to be personally popular. A growing number of reformers, however, were disappointed by Grant's support of Reconstruction, the Gold Ring, and corruption in the New York Customs House. To placate reformers, Grant created a Civil Service Commission authorized by Congress in 1871. The Commission, chaired by reformer George William Curtis, proposed certain reform rules and regulations, which Grant implemented by executive order in April 1872, Congress appropriating funds in May. Congress stopped funding the Commission in December 1875 having refused to pass legislation to implement its recommendations. There was further division within the party between the faction most concerned with the plight of the freedmen and that concerned with the growth of industry. During the war, both factions' interests had aligned, and in 1868 both had supported Grant. As the wartime coalition began to fray, Grant's alignment with the party's pro-Reconstruction elements alienated party leaders who favored an end to federal intervention in Southern racial issues.\n\nMany of that faction split from the party in 1872, calling themselves the Liberal Republican Party. Led by Charles Francis Adams of Massachusetts and Senator Carl Schurz of Missouri, they publicly denounced the federal patronage system that Sumner, a Liberal Republican sympathizer, called \"Grantism\" and demanded amnesty for Confederate soldiers. The Liberal Republicans distrusted black suffrage and demanded literacy tests for voting while opposing federal enforcement of equal voting rights in the South. The Liberal Republicans nominated Horace Greeley, another Republican who had come to dislike Grant and his policies, and Governor Benjamin Gratz Brown of Missouri for Vice President. The Democrats, seeking to benefit from anti-Grant sentiment, nominated Greeley as well. The rest of the Republican Party nominated Grant for reelection, with Senator Henry Wilson of Massachusetts replacing Colfax as vice-presidential nominee. Wilson, viewed as a practical reformer and civil rights advocate, was meant to strengthen the Republican ticket. The Crédit Mobilier scandal revealed in September 1872, in which a railroad company bribed many members of Congress in 1868, did not involve Grant, but did ensnare Vice President Colfax and Senator Wilson, adding to the general sense of dishonesty in Washington. To the Liberals' chagrin, Greeley made Grant's Southern policy, rather than reform, the main campaign issue. The fusion effort failed and Grant was easily reelected. The Liberal Republicans were unable to deliver many votes, and Greeley was only successful in areas the Democrats would have carried without him. A strong economy, debt reduction, lowered tariffs, repeal of the income tax, and civil service reforms helped Grant defeat the Liberal Republicans. Grant won 56 percent of the popular vote and an Electoral College landslide of 286 to 66. A majority of African Americans in the South voted for Grant, while Democratic opposition remained mostly peaceful.\n\nPanic of 1873, the Long Depression, and currency debates\n\nAs his first term was ending, Grant continued to work for a strong dollar, signing into law the Coinage Act of 1873, which effectively ended the legal basis for bimetallism (the use of both silver and gold as money), and established the gold standard in practice. The Coinage Act discontinued the standard silver dollar and established the gold dollar as the sole monetary standard. Critics who wanted more money in circulation to facilitate easier credit later denounced the move as the \"Crime of 1873\", claiming the law caused deflation and helped bankers while hurting farmers.\n\nGrant's second term saw renewed economic turmoil. In September 1873, Jay Cooke & Company, a New York brokerage house, collapsed after it failed to sell all of the bonds issued by Cooke's Northern Pacific Railway. The collapse sent ripples through Wall Street, and other banks and brokerages that owned railroad stocks and bonds were also ruined. On September 20, the New York Stock Exchange suspended trading for ten days. Grant, who knew little about finance, traveled to New York to consult leading businessmen and bankers for advice on how to resolve the crisis, which became known as the Panic of 1873. Grant believed that, as with the collapse of the Gold Ring in 1869, the panic was merely an economic fluctuation that affected bankers and brokers. He responded cautiously, instructing the treasury to buy $10 million in government bonds, thus injecting cash into the system. These purchases curbed the panic on Wall Street, but a five-year industrial depression, later called the Long Depression, nonetheless swept the nation. Many of the nation's railroads—89 out of 364—went bankrupt.\n\nCongress hoped inflation would stimulate the economy and passed what became known as the Inflation Bill in 1874. Many farmers and workingmen favored the bill, which would have added $64 million in greenbacks to circulation, but some Eastern bankers opposed it because it would have weakened the dollar. Belknap, Williams, and Delano told Grant a veto would hurt Republicans in the November elections. Grant believed the bill would destroy the credit of the nation, and he vetoed it despite their objections. Grant's veto, supported by Fish, placed him in the conservative faction of the Republican party, and was the beginning of the party's commitment to a strong gold-backed dollar. Grant later pressured Congress for a bill to further strengthen the dollar by gradually reducing the number of greenbacks in circulation. After losing the House to the Democrats in the 1874 elections, the lame-duck Republican Congress did so before the Democrats took office. On January 14, 1875, Grant signed the Specie Payment Resumption Act into law. The Resumption Act required gradual reduction of the amount of greenbacks allowed to circulate and declared that specie payment (i.e., in gold or silver) would resume in 1879.\n\nGilded Age corruption and reform\n\nGrant served as president during the Gilded Age, a time when the economy was open to speculation and western expansion that fueled corruption in government offices. Against the harsh public revelation of the Credit Mobilier of America scandal, Grant responded to charges of misconduct in nearly all federal departments, engaging his administration in constant conflict between corrupt associates and reformers. Although personally honest with his own money matters, Grant was trusting and had difficulty in spotting corruption in others. Stubbornly protective of corrupt associates, Grant often saw their prosecutions as unjust and shielded them from attack even at the cost of his own reputation, unless evidence of personal misconduct was overwhelming. No person linked any of the scandals together, except possibly Grant's personal secretary, Orville E. Babcock, who indirectly controlled many cabinet departments and delayed federal investigations.\n\nThere was additional scandal in New York. In 1871, Thomas Murphy, the Collector of the Port of New York and a member of New York Senator Roscoe Conkling's political machine, was forced to resign. Murphy, a Grant appointee to the patronage-rich position, had become embroiled in a dispute with another faction of the Republican party over the jobs at his disposal and was accused of corruption in office (a charge confirmed in an 1872 congressional investigation). In December, Grant appointed Chester A. Arthur, another Conkling man, to replace Murphy, and administration of the Customs House steadily improved.\n\nIn Grant's second term, a congressional investigation exposed corruption in the Treasury Department, in a case that would become known as the Sanborn incident: Treasury Secretary William Richardson had hired John Sanborn (a friend of Congressman Benjamin Butler) as an independent tax collector on a 50 percent commission basis, also known as a moiety. Treasury officials were then privately instructed not to press for payment, so that accounts would eventually become delinquent in taxes and Sanborn would get paid more when he \"discovered\" the accounts' delinquency. The congressional committee report condemned Richardson for permitting the aggressive tax collection system Sanborn used, but did not attempt impeachment. To quell the public outcry and prevent future fraud, Congress passed the Anti-Moiety Act. Signed into law by Grant in 1874, it abolished the moiety system. Grant removed Richardson from the Treasury appointing him judge of the Court of Claims.\nGrant's Secretary of Treasury Bristow struck down the Whiskey Ring.\nIn 1874, Grant replaced Richardson as Treasury Secretary with Benjamin H. Bristow, a man known for his honesty, who began a series of reforms in the department, including tightening up the detective force and firing the second-comptroller for inefficiency. Discovering that millions of gallons of whiskey escaped taxation, and having Grant's endorsement to act (\"Let no guilty man escape\"), Bristow in May 1875 struck down the Whiskey Ring, seizing 32 installations, impounding documents, and arresting some 350 men while obtaining 176 indictments. These led to 110 convictions and $3,150,000 in tax dollars was restored to the Treasury. When Bristow's investigation implicated Babcock as part of the Whiskey Ring, Grant became defensive, believing Babcock was the innocent victim of a witch hunt. While denying immunity to minor Whiskey Ring conspirators, Grant worked to protect Babcock. In 1876, a jury acquitted Babcock at a trial influenced by Grant's deposition in Babcock's favor. After the trial, under public pressure, Grant dismissed Babcock from the White House. Grant pardoned some Ring members after a few months in prison, and pardoned Ring founder John McDonald after 17 months in jail.\n\nAs the scandals increased, Congress, with the House now under Democratic control, began several investigations into corruption in the administration, the most notable of which dealt with profiteering at western trading posts. involving Secretary of War William W. Belknap which led to his resignation. Congress also investigated and reprimanded Navy Secretary George M. Robeson in 1876 for receiving bribes.\n\nGrant's Civil Service Commission reforms had limited success, as his cabinet implemented a merit system that increased the number of qualified candidates and relied less on Congressional patronage. Interior Secretary Columbus Delano, however, exempted his department from competitive examinations, and Congress refused to enact permanent Civil Service reform. Zachariah Chandler, who succeeded Delano, made sweeping reforms in the entire Interior Department; Grant ordered Chandler to fire all corrupt clerks in the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Grant appointed reformers Edwards Pierrepont and Marshall Jewell as Attorney General and Postmaster General, respectively, who supported Bristow's investigations. In 1875, Pierrepont cleaned up corruption among the United States Attorneys and Marshals in the South. Grant suggested other reforms as well, including a proposal that states should offer free public schooling to all children; he also endorsed the Blaine Amendment, which would have forbidden government aid to schools with religious affiliations.\n\nElection of 1876\n\nEven as Grant drew cheers at the opening of the Centennial Exposition in May 1876, the collected scandals of his presidency, the country's weak economy, and the Democratic gains in the House led many in the Republican party to repudiate him in June. Bristow was among the leading candidates to replace him, suggesting that a large faction desired an end to \"Grantism\" and feared that Grant would run for a third term. Ultimately, Grant declined to run, but Bristow also failed to capture the nomination, as the convention settled on Governor Rutherford B. Hayes of Ohio, a reformer. The Democrats nominated Governor Samuel J. Tilden of New York. Voting irregularities in three Southern states caused the election that year to remain undecided for several months. Grant told Congress to settle the matter through legislation and assured both sides that he would not use the army to force a result, except to curb violence. On January 29, 1877, Grant signed legislation passed by Congress to form an Electoral Commission to decide the matter. The result was the Compromise of 1877: the Electoral Commission ruled that the disputed votes belonged to Hayes, but the last troops were withdrawn from Southern capitals. The Republicans had won, but Reconstruction was over. According to biographer Jean Edward Smith, \"Grant's calm visage in the White House reassured the nation.\"\n\nCabinet \n\nGrant's formal White House portrait\nGrant's cabinet 1876–1877\n\nPost-presidency\n\nWorld tour\n\nAfter leaving the White House, Grant and his family stayed with friends for two months, before setting out on a world tour. The trip, which would last two years, began in Liverpool in May 1877, where enormous crowds greeted the ex-president and his entourage. The Grants dined with Queen Victoria at Windsor Castle, and Grant gave several speeches in London. After a tour on the continent, the Grants spent a few months with their daughter Nellie, who had married an Englishman and moved to that country several years before. Grant and his wife journeyed to France and Italy, spending Christmas 1877 aboard USS Vandalia, a warship docked in Palermo. A winter sojourn in the Holy Land followed, and they visited Greece before returning to Italy and a meeting with Pope Leo XIII. They toured Spain before moving on to Germany, where Grant discussed military matters with Chancellor Otto von Bismarck, telling him that in the final stages of the Civil War, the Union Army fought to preserve the nation and to \"destroy slavery\".\n\nThe Grants left from England by ship, sailing through the Suez Canal to India. They visited cities throughout the Raj, welcomed by colonial officials. After India, they toured Burma, Siam (where Grant met with King Chulalongkorn), Singapore, and Cochinchina (Vietnam). Traveling on to Hong Kong, Grant began to change his mind on the nature of colonization, believing that British rule was not \"purely selfish\" but also good for the colonial subjects. Leaving Hong Kong, the Grants visited the cities of Canton, Shanghai, and Peking, China. He declined to ask for an interview with the Guangxu Emperor, a child of seven, but did speak with the head of government, Prince Gong, and Li Hongzhang, a leading general. They discussed China's dispute with Japan over the Ryukyu Islands, and Grant agreed to help bring the two sides to agreement. After crossing over to Japan and meeting the Emperor Meiji, Grant convinced China to accept the Japanese annexation of the islands, and the two nations avoided war.\n\nBy then, the Grants had been gone two years, and were homesick. They crossed the Pacific and landed in San Francisco in September 1879, greeted by cheering crowds. After a visit to Yosemite Valley, they returned at last to Philadelphia on December 16, 1879. The voyage around the world had captured popular imagination, and Republicans—especially those of the Stalwart faction excluded from the Hayes administration—saw Grant in a new light. The Republican nomination for 1880 was wide open after Hayes forswore a second term and many Republicans thought that Grant was the man for the job.\n\nThird term attempt\n\nStalwarts, led by Grant's old political ally, Roscoe Conkling, saw the ex-president's renewed popularity as a way for their faction to regain power. Opponents denounced the idea as a violation of the two-term rule that had been the norm since George Washington. Grant said nothing publicly, but he wanted the job and encouraged his men. Elihu B. Washburne urged him to run; Grant demurred, saying he would be happy for the Republicans to win with another candidate, though he preferred James G. Blaine to John Sherman. Even so, Conkling and John A. Logan began to organize delegates in Grant's favor. When the convention convened in Chicago in June, there were more delegates pledged to Grant than to any other candidate, but he was still short of a majority vote to capture the nomination.\n\nAt the convention, Conkling nominated Grant with an elegant speech, the most famous line being: \"When asked which state he hails from, our sole reply shall be, he hails from Appomattox and its famous apple tree.\" With 370 votes needed for nomination, the first ballot had Grant at 304, Blaine at 284, Sherman at 93, and the rest scattered to minor candidates. Subsequent ballots followed, with roughly the same result; neither Grant nor Blaine could win. After thirty-six ballots, Blaine's delegates deserted him and combined with those of other candidates to nominate a compromise candidate: Representative James A. Garfield of Ohio. The 306 votes Grant received on the last ballot was not enough to secure the nomination. A procedural motion made the vote unanimous for Garfield, who accepted the nomination.\n\nGrant gave speeches for Garfield, but declined to criticize the Democratic nominee, Winfield Scott Hancock, a general who had served under him in the Army of the Potomac. Garfield won the popular vote by a narrow margin, but solidly won the Electoral College—214 to 155. After the election, Grant gave Garfield his public support, and pushed him to include Stalwarts in his administration.\n\nBusiness ventures\n\nGrant's world tour had been costly. When he returned to America, Grant had depleted most of his savings and needed to earn money and find a new home. Wealthy friends bought him a home on Manhattan's Upper East Side, and to make an income, Grant, Jay Gould, and former Mexican Finance Secretary Matías Romero chartered the Mexican Southern Railroad, with plans to build a railroad from Oaxaca to Mexico City. Grant urged Chester A. Arthur, who had succeeded Garfield as president in 1881, to negotiate a free trade treaty with Mexico. Arthur and the Mexican government agreed, but the United States Senate rejected the treaty in 1883. The railroad was similarly unsuccessful, falling into bankruptcy the following year.\n\nAt the same time, Grant's son Ulysses Jr. had opened a Wall Street brokerage house with Ferdinand Ward. Regarded as a rising star, Ward, and the firm, Grant & Ward, were initially successful. In 1883, Grant joined the firm and invested $100,000 of his own money. Investors bought securities through the firm, and Ward used the securities as collateral to borrow money to buy more securities. Grant & Ward pledged that collateral to borrow more money to trade in securities on the firm's own account. The practice—called hypothecation—was legal and accepted; what was illegal was rehypothecation, the practice of pledging the same securities as collateral for multiple loans. Ward, having colluded with the bank involved, did this for many of the firm's assets. When the trades went bad, multiple loans came due, all backed up by the same collateral. Historians agree that Grant was likely unaware of Ward's tactics, but it is unclear how much Buck Grant knew. In May 1884, enough investments went bad to convince Ward that the firm would soon be bankrupt. Ward told Grant of the impending failure, but suggested that this was a temporary shortfall. Grant approached businessman William Henry Vanderbilt, who gave him a personal loan of $150,000. Grant invested the money in the firm, but it was not enough to save the firm from failure. Essentially penniless, but compelled by a sense of personal honor, he repaid what he could with his Civil War mementos and the sale or transfer of all other assets. Although the proceeds did not cover the loan, Vanderbilt insisted the debt had been paid in full. Grant was left destitute.\n\nMemoirs and death\n\nTo restore his family's income, Grant wrote several articles on his Civil War campaigns for The Century Magazine at $500 each. The articles were well received by critics, and the editor, Robert Underwood Johnson, suggested that Grant write a book of memoirs, as Sherman and others had done. Grant's articles would serve as the basis for several chapters.\n\nIn the summer of 1884, Grant complained of a soreness in his throat, but put off seeing a doctor until late October where he finally learned it was throat cancer. Before being diagnosed, Grant was invited to a Methodist service for Civil War veterans in Ocean Grove, New Jersey, on August 4, 1884, receiving a standing ovation from more than ten thousand veterans and others; it would be his last public appearance. In March of the following year, the New York Times finally announced that Grant was dying of cancer and a nationwide public concern for the former president began. Later, Grant, who had forfeited his military pension when he assumed the presidency, was honored by his friends and the Congress when he was restored to the rank of General of the Army with full retirement pay.\n\nDespite his debilitating illness, Grant worked diligently on his memoirs at his home in New York City, and then from a cottage on the slopes of Mount McGregor, finishing only days before he died. Grant asked his former staff officer, Adam Badeau, to help edit his work. Grant's son Fred assisted with references and proofreading. Century magazine offered Grant a book contract with a 10 percent royalty, but Grant accepted a better offer from his friend, Mark Twain, who proposed a 75 percent royalty. His memoir ends with the Civil War, and does not cover the post-war years, including his presidency.\n\nThe book, Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant, was a critical and commercial success. In the end, Julia Grant received about $450,000 in royalties. The memoir has been highly regarded by the public, military historians, and literary critics. Grant portrayed himself in the persona of the honorable Western hero, whose strength lies in his honesty and straightforwardness. He candidly depicted his battles against both the Confederates and internal army foes. Twain called the Memoirs a \"literary masterpiece.\" Given over a century of favorable literary analysis, reviewer Mark Perry states that the Memoirs are \"the most significant work\" of American non-fiction.\n\nIn the days preceding his death, Grant's wife, Julia, all of his children, and three grandchildren were present. After a year-long struggle with the cancer, Grant died at 8 o'clock in the morning in the Mount McGregor cottage on July 23, 1885, at the age of 63. Sheridan, then Commanding General of the Army, ordered a day-long tribute to Grant on all military posts, and President Grover Cleveland ordered a thirty-day nationwide period of mourning. After private services, the honor guard placed Grant's body on a special funeral train, which traveled to West Point and New York City. A quarter of a million people viewed it in the two days before the funeral. Tens of thousands of men, many of them veterans from the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) or other veterans' organizations, marched with Grant's casket drawn by two dozen horses to Riverside Park in the Morningside Heights neighborhood of Upper Manhattan, New York City. His pallbearers included Union generals Sherman and Sheridan, Confederate generals Simon Bolivar Buckner and Joseph E. Johnston, Admiral David Dixon Porter, and Senator John A. Logan, the head of the GAR.\n\nGrant's body was laid to rest in Riverside Park, first in a temporary tomb, and then—twelve years later, on April 17, 1897—in the General Grant National Memorial, also known as \"Grant's Tomb\". The tomb is the largest mausoleum in North America. Attendance at the New York funeral topped 1.5 million. Ceremonies were held in other major cities around the country, and those who eulogized Grant in the press likened him to George Washington and Abraham Lincoln.\n\nHistorical reputation\n\nNo presidential reputations have changed as dramatically as Grant's. Hailed across the North as the winning general in a great war, his nomination as president seemed inevitable. Grant's popularity declined with congressional investigations into corruption in his administration and Custer's defeat at the Battle of the Little Big Horn. In 1877, there was bipartisan approval of Grant's peaceful handling of the electoral crisis. Grant's reputation soared during his well-publicized world tour.\n\nAt his death, Grant was seen as \"a symbol of the American national identity and memory\", when millions turned out for his funeral procession in 1885 and attended the 1897 dedication of his tomb. Grant's popularity increased in the years immediately after his death. At the same time, commentators and scholars portrayed his administration as the most corrupt in American history. As the popularity of the pro-Confederate Lost Cause movement increased early in the 20th century, a more negative view became increasingly common. As they had early in the Civil War, Grant's new critics charged that he was a reckless drunk, and in light of his presidency, that he was also corrupt. In the 1930s, biographer William B. Hesseltine noted that Grant's reputation deteriorated because his enemies were better writers than his friends. In 1931, Frederic Paxson and Christian Bach in the Dictionary of American Biography praised Grant's military vision and his execution of that vision in defeating the Confederacy, but of his political career, the authors were less complimentary. Speaking specifically of the scandals, they wrote that \"personal scandal has not touched Grant in any plausible form, but it struck so close to him and so frequently as to necessitate the vindication of his honor by admitting his bad taste in the choice of associates.\"\n\nViews of Grant reached new lows as he was seen as an unsuccessful president and an unskilled, if lucky, general. Bruce Catton and T. Harry Williams began the reassessment of Grant's military career in the 1960s, shifting the analysis of Grant as victor by brute force to that of successful and skillful strategist and commander. Even for scholars with a particular concern for the plight of former slaves and Indians, Grant left a problematic legacy and, with changing attitudes toward warfare after the end of the Vietnam War, Grant's military reputation suffered again. William S. McFeely won the Pulitzer Prize for his critical 1981 biography that emphasized the failure of Grant's presidency to carry out lasting progress and concluded that \"he did not rise above limited talents or inspire others to do so in ways that make his administration a credit to American politics.\" John Y. Simon in 1982 responded to McFeely: \"Grant's failure as President ... lies in the failure of the Indian peace policy and the collapse of Reconstruction ... But if Grant tried and failed, who could have succeeded?\" Simon praised Grant's first term in office, arguing that it should be \"remembered for his staunch enforcement of the rights of freedmen combined with conciliation of former Confederates, for reform in Indian policy and civil service, for successful negotiation of the Alabama Claims, and for delivery of peace and prosperity.\" According to Simon, the Liberal Republican revolt, the Panic of 1873, and the North's conservative retreat from Reconstruction weakened Grant's second term in office, although his foreign policy remained steady.\nGalena, Illinois Dedicated June 1891\nHistorians' views have grown more favorable since the 1990s, appreciating Grant's protection of African Americans and his peace policy towards Indians, even where those policies failed. Grant's reputation rose further with Jean Edward Smith's 2001 biography. Smith argued that the same qualities that made Grant a success as a general carried over to his political life to make him, if not a successful president, then certainly an admirable one. Smith wrote that \"the common thread is strength of character—an indomitable will that never flagged in the face of adversity ... Sometimes he blundered badly; often he oversimplified; yet he saw his goals clearly and moved toward them relentlessly.\" Brooks Simpson continued the trend in the first of two volumes on Grant in 2000, although the work was far from a hagiography. H. W. Brands, in his more uniformly positive 2012 book, wrote favorably of Grant's military and political careers alike, saying:\n\nAs Reconstruction scholar Eric Foner wrote, Brands gave \"a sympathetic account of Grant's forceful and temporarily successful effort as president to crush the Ku Klux Klan, which had inaugurated a reign of terror against the former slaves.\" Foner criticized Grant for not sending military aid to Mississippi during the 1875 election to protect African Americans from threats of violence. According to Foner, \"Grant's unwillingness to act reflected the broader Northern retreat from Reconstruction and its ideal of racial equality.\"\n\nAccording to historian Brooks Simpson, Grant was on \"the right side of history\". Simpson said, “[w]e now view Reconstruction ... as something that should have succeeded in securing equality for African-Americans, and we see Grant as supportive of that effort and doing as much as any person could do to try to secure that within realm of political reality.\" John F. Marszalek said, \"You have to go almost to Lyndon Johnson to find a president who tried to do as much to ensure black people found freedom.\"\n\nBesides civil rights, issues of environmental protection have also attracted historiographical attention. Historian Joan Waugh, in her generally favorable book, says Grant appreciated the beauty of the West, and in 1872 signed the law establishing the country's first national park at Yellowstone. However, she argues:\n\nThroughout the 20th century, historians ranked his presidency near the bottom. In the 21st century, his military reputation is strong, while most scholars rank his presidency well below average. His accomplishments as President have been overlooked due to corruption charges of his Cabinet members and appointees during his administration.Lynn Fabian Lasner (January/February 2002), [http://www.neh.gov/humanities/2002/januaryfebruary/feature/the-rise-and-fall-and-rise-ulysses-s-grant The Rise and Fall and Rise of Ulysses S. Grant], Humanities\n\nMemorials and presidential library\n\nSeveral memorials honor Grant. In addition to his mausoleum, the General Grant National Memorial in New York, there is the Ulysses S. Grant Memorial at the foot of Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. Dedicated in 1922, it overlooks the Capitol Reflecting Pool and is made of bronze and marble created by sculptor Henry Merwin Shrady and architect Edward Pearce Casey. On April 23, 2015, the 193rd anniversary of Grant's birth, restoration work began; the restoration is expected to be completed before the bicentennial of Grant's birth in 2022. \n\nThe Ulysses S. Grant National Historic Site near St. Louis, and several other sites in Ohio and Illinois memorialize Grant's life. There are smaller memorials in Chicago's Lincoln Park and Philadelphia's Fairmount Park. Named in his honor are Grant Park, as well as several counties in western and midwestern states. On June 3, 1891, a bronze statue of Grant, created by Danish sculptor Johannes Gelert and commissioned by publisher H. H. Kohlsaat, was dedicated at Grant Park in Galena, Illinois. \n From 1890 to 1940, part of what is now Kings Canyon National Park was called General Grant National Park, named for the General Grant sequoia. Grant has appeared on the front of the United States fifty-dollar bill since 1913, and appears on several stamps.\n\nIn May 2012, the Ulysses S. Grant Foundation, on the institute's fiftieth anniversary, selected Mississippi State University as the permanent location for Ulysses S. Grant's presidential library. Historian John Y. Simon edited Grant's letters into a 32-volume scholarly edition published by Southern Illinois University Press.", "Andrew Jackson (March 15, 1767 – June 8, 1845) was an American statesman who served as the seventh President of the United States from 1829 to 1837. He was born near the end of the colonial era, somewhere near the then-unmarked border between North and South Carolina, into a recently immigrated Scots-Irish farming family of relatively modest means. During the American Revolutionary War, Jackson, whose family supported the revolutionary cause, acted as a courier. At age 13, he was captured and mistreated by the British army. He later became a lawyer. He was also elected to Congressional office, first to the U.S. House of Representatives and twice to the U.S. Senate.\n\nIn 1801, Jackson was appointed colonel in the Tennessee militia, which became his political as well as military base. He owned hundreds of slaves who worked on the Hermitage Plantation. In 1806, he killed a man in a duel over a matter of honor regarding his wife Rachel. He gained national fame through his role in the War of 1812, most famously where he won a decisive victory over the main British invasion army at the Battle of New Orleans, albeit some weeks after the Treaty of Ghent had already been signed (unbeknownst to the combatants). In response to conflict with the Seminole in Spanish Florida, he invaded the territory in 1818. This led directly to the First Seminole War and the Adams–Onís Treaty of 1819, which formally transferred Florida from Spain to the United States.\n\nAfter winning election to the Senate, Jackson decided to run for president in 1824. Although he got a plurality in both electoral and popular vote against three major candidates, Jackson failed to get a majority and lost in the House of Representatives to John Quincy Adams. Jackson claimed that he lost by a \"corrupt bargain\" between Adams and Speaker of the House Henry Clay, who was also a candidate, to give Clay the office of Secretary of State in exchange for Adams winning the presidency. Jackson's supporters then founded what became the Democratic Party. He ran again for president in 1828 against Adams. Building on his base in the West and with new support from Virginia and New York, he won by a landslide. He blamed the death of his wife, Rachel, which occurred just after the election, on the Adams campaigners, who called her a \"bigamist\".\n\nAs president, Jackson faced a threat of secession by South Carolina over the \"Tariff of Abominations\", which Congress had enacted under Adams. In contrast to several of his immediate successors, he denied the right of a state to secede from the union or to nullify federal law. The Nullification Crisis was defused when the tariff was amended and Jackson threatened the use of military force if South Carolina attempted to secede.\n\nIn anticipation of the 1832 election, Congress, led by Clay, attempted to reauthorize the Second Bank of the United States four years before the expiration of its charter. In keeping with his platform of economic decentralization, Jackson vetoed the renewal of its charter, thereby seemingly putting his chances for reelection in jeopardy. However, by portraying himself as the defender of the common person against wealthy bankers, he was able to defeat Clay in the election that year. He thoroughly dismantled the bank by the time its charter expired in 1836. His struggles with Congress were personified in his personal rivalry with Clay, whom Jackson deeply disliked and who led the opposition of the emerging Whig Party. Jackson's presidency marked the beginning of the ascendancy of the \"spoils system\" in American politics. He is also known for having signed the Indian Removal Act in 1830, which forcibly relocated a number of native tribes in the South to Indian Territory (now Oklahoma).\n\nJackson supported his vice president Martin Van Buren's successful presidential campaign in 1836. He worked to bolster the Democratic Party and helped his friend James K. Polk win the 1844 presidential election.\n\nEarly life and education\n\nAndrew Jackson was born on March 15, 1767. His parents were Scots-Irish colonists Andrew and Elizabeth Hutchinson Jackson, Presbyterians who had emigrated from Ireland two years earlier. Jackson's father was born in Carrickfergus, County Antrim, in current-day Northern Ireland, around 1738. Jackson's parents lived in the village of Boneybefore, also in County Antrim. His patrilineal family line originated in Killingswold Grove, Yorkshire, England. \n\nWhen they immigrated to North America in 1765, Jackson's parents probably landed in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Most likely they traveled overland down through the Appalachian Mountains to the Scots-Irish community in the Waxhaws region, straddling the border between North and South Carolina. They brought two children from Ireland, Hugh (born 1763) and Robert (born 1764).\n\nJackson's father died in an accident in February 1767 at the age of 29, three weeks before his son Andrew was born in the Waxhaws area. His exact birth site is unclear because he was born about the time his mother was making a difficult trip home from burying Jackson's father. The area was so remote that the border between North and South Carolina had not been officially surveyed. In 1824 Jackson wrote a letter saying that he was born at an uncle's plantation in Lancaster County, South Carolina. But he may have claimed to be a South Carolinian because the state was considering nullification of the Tariff of 1824, which he opposed. In the mid-1850s, second-hand evidence indicated that he may have been born at a different uncle's home in North Carolina. \n\nJackson received a sporadic education in the local \"old-field\" school. In 1781 he worked for a time in a saddle-maker's shop. Later, he taught school and studied law in Salisbury, North Carolina. In 1787 he was admitted to the bar and moved to Jonesborough, in what was then the Western District of North Carolina. This area later became the Southwest Territory (1790), the precursor to the state of Tennessee.\n\nRevolutionary War service\n\n \nDuring the Revolutionary War, Jackson, at age thirteen, informally helped the local militia as a courier. His eldest brother, Hugh, died from heat exhaustion during the Battle of Stono Ferry on June 20, 1779. He and his brother Robert were captured by the British and held as prisoners; they nearly starved to death in captivity. When Andrew refused to clean the boots of a British officer, the officer slashed at the youth with a sword, leaving him with scars on his left hand and head, as well as an intense hatred for the British. While imprisoned, the brothers contracted smallpox.\n\nRobert Jackson died on April 27, 1781, a few days after their mother Elizabeth secured the brothers' release. After being assured Andrew would recover, she volunteered to nurse prisoners of war on board two ships in Charleston harbor, where there had been an outbreak of cholera. In November 1781 she died from the disease and was buried in an unmarked grave. Andrew became an orphan at age 14. Following the deaths of his brothers and mother during the war, he blamed the British for his losses.\n\nLegal and political career\n\nJackson began his legal career in Jonesborough, now northeastern Tennessee. Though his legal education was scanty, he knew enough to be a country lawyer on the frontier. Since he was not from a distinguished family, he had to make his career by his own merits; soon he began to prosper in the rough-and-tumble world of frontier law. Most of the actions grew out of disputed land-claims, or from assault and battery. In 1788 he was appointed Solicitor (prosecutor) of the Western District and held the same position in the government of the Territory South of the River Ohio after 1791.\n\nJackson was elected as a delegate to the Tennessee constitutional convention in 1796. When Tennessee achieved statehood that year, he was elected its U.S. Representative. The following year, he was elected U.S. Senator as a Democratic-Republican, but he resigned within a year. (His return to the U.S. Senate in 1823, after 24 years, 11 months, 3 days out of office, marks the second longest gap in service to the chamber in history.) In 1798 he was appointed a judge of the Tennessee Supreme Court, serving until 1804. \n\nLand speculation and founding of Memphis\n\nIn 1794, Jackson formed a business with fellow lawyer and planter John Overton \"for the purpose of purchasing lands as well those lands without as within military bounds\"—overtly buying and selling land which had been reserved by treaty for the Cherokee and Chickasaw. Upon his return from Florida, Jackson negotiated the sale of the land from the Chickasaw Nation in 1818 (termed the Jackson Purchase). He was one of the three original investors who founded Memphis, Tennessee, in 1819. \n\nHermitage plantation\n\nIn addition to his legal and political career, Jackson prospered as planter, slave owner, and merchant. He built a home and the first general store in Gallatin, Tennessee, in 1803. The next year he acquired the Hermitage, a 640 acre plantation in Davidson County, near Nashville. He later added 360 acre to the plantation, which eventually grew to 1050 acres. The primary crop was cotton, grown by enslaved workers. Starting with nine slaves, he held as many as 44 by 1820 and later held up to 150 slaves, making him among the planter elite. Throughout his lifetime Jackson may have owned as many as 300 slaves. \n\nAfrican American men, women, and children were kept as slave workers by Jackson on three sections of the Hermitage plantation. Slaves lived in extended family units between five and ten persons quartered in 20-foot-square cabins made either of brick or logs. The size and quality of his Hermitage slave quarters exceeded the standards of his times. To help slaves acquire food staples, in addition to his rations, he supplied slaves with guns, knives, and fishing equipment for hunting and fishing. At times he paid his slaves with monies and coins to trade in local markets. The Hermitage plantation was a profit-making enterprise and Jackson, demanding slave loyalty, permitted slaves to be whipped to increase productivity or if he believed his slaves' offenses were severe enough. At various times he posted advertisements for his fugitive slaves. For the standards of his times he was considered a humane slave owner who furnished his slaves food and housing, and did not prohibit his female slaves from having children.\n\nMilitary career\n\nJackson was appointed commander of the Tennessee militia in 1801, with the rank of colonel. He was later elected major general of the Tennessee militia in 1802. \n\nWar of 1812\n\nCreek campaign and treaty\n\nDuring the War of 1812, the Shawnee chief Tecumseh encouraged the \"Red Stick\" Creek Indians of northern Alabama and Georgia to attack white settlements. He had unified tribes in the Northwest to rise up against the Americans, trying to repel American settlers from those lands north of the Ohio. Four hundred settlers were killed in the Fort Mims massacre of 1813—one of the few instances of Native Americans killing a large number of American settlers and their African-American slaves—which brought the United States into the internal Creek campaign. Occurring at the same time as the War of 1812, the Creek campaign saw Jackson command the U.S. forces, which included the Tennessee militia, U.S. regulars, and Cherokee, Choctaw, and Lower Creek warriors. Sam Houston and David Crockett served under Jackson in this campaign.\n\nJackson defeated the Red Sticks at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend in 1814. US forces and their allies killed 800 Red Stick warriors in this battle, but spared the chief Red Eagle, a mixed-race man also known as William Weatherford. After the victory, John Armstrong Jr., Madison's Secretary of War, ordered Major General Thomas Pinckney in April 1814 to make the surrender treaty. Pinckney specified the terms of surrender. These terms included the handing over an unspecified amount of land, the construction of U.S. forts, the turning over of warriors who instigated hostilities, and an agreement to stop trade with foreign countries. Jackson opposed the unpopular Pinckney treaty, desiring to end the threats that had caused the conflict with the Creek nation in the first place. Jackson was promoted Major General and given charge of the Seventh Military District, replacing Major General Thomas Flournoy. Jackson, now commanding general, invalidated Pinckney's treaty and specified more direct terms upon both the Upper Creek and the Lower Creek. Ultimately, these terms had the effect of declaring twenty-two million acres in present-day Georgia and Alabama as open for American settlement. On August 9, 1814, 35 Indian elder leaders signed Jackson's Treaty of Fort Jackson. The warrior faction of the Creek nation and the British, however, did not formally recognize the treaty. \n\nAccording to author Gloria Jahoda, the Creeks coined their own name for him, Jacksa Chula Harjo or \"Jackson, old and fierce\". \n\nBattle of New Orleans\n\nJackson's service in the War of 1812 against the United Kingdom was conspicuous for bravery and success. When British forces threatened New Orleans, Jackson took command of the defenses, including militia from several western states and territories. He was a strict officer but was popular with his troops. They said he was \"tough as old hickory\" wood on the battlefield, and he acquired the nickname of \"Old Hickory\". In the Battle of New Orleans on January 8, 1815, Jackson's 5,000 soldiers won a decisive victory over 7,500 British. At the end of the battle, the British had 2,037 casualties: 291 dead (including three senior generals), 1,262 wounded, and 484 captured or missing. The Americans had 71 casualties: 13 dead, 39 wounded, and 19 missing. \n\nEnforced martial law New Orleans\n\nJackson ordered the arrest of U. S. District Court Judge Dominic A. Hall in March 1815, after the judge signed a writ of habeas corpus on behalf of a Louisiana legislator that Jackson had arrested. Louis Louaillier had written an anonymous piece in the New Orleans newspaper, challenging Jackson's refusal to release the militia, after the British ceded the field of battle. Jackson had claimed the authority to declare martial law over the entire City of New Orleans, not merely his \"camp\". After ordering the arrest of a Louisiana legislator, a federal judge, a lawyer and after intervention of Joshua Lewis, a State Judge, who was simultaneously serving under Jackson in the militia, and who also signed a writ of habeas corpus against Jackson, his commanding officer, seeking Judge Hall's release, Jackson relented. \n\nCivilian authorities in New Orleans had reason to fear Jackson. But they fared better than did the six members of the militia whose executions, ordered by Jackson, would surface as the Coffin Handbills during his 1828 Presidential campaign. Nonetheless, Jackson became a national hero for his actions in this battle and the War of 1812. By a resolution on February 27, 1815, Jackson received the Thanks of Congress as well as a Congressional Gold Medal. Alexis de Tocqueville, \"underwhelmed\" by Jackson, later commented in Democracy in America that Jackson \"... was raised to the Presidency, and has been maintained there, solely by the recollection of a victory which he gained, twenty years ago, under the walls of New Orleans.\" \n\nFirst Seminole War\n\nJackson served in the military again during the First Seminole War. He was ordered by President James Monroe in December 1817 to lead a campaign in Georgia against the Seminole and Creek Indians. Jackson was also charged with preventing Spanish Florida from becoming a refuge for runaway slaves. Critics later alleged that Jackson exceeded orders in his Florida actions. His directions were to \"terminate the conflict\". Jackson believed the best way to do this was to seize Florida from Spain once and for all. Before going, Jackson wrote to Monroe, \"Let it be signified to me through any channel ... that the possession of the Floridas would be desirable to the United States, and in sixty days it will be accomplished.\" \n\nThe Seminole attacked Jackson's Tennessee volunteers. The Seminole attack left their villages vulnerable, and Jackson burned their houses and the crops. He found letters that indicated that the Spanish and British were secretly assisting the Indians. Jackson believed that the United States could not be secure as long as Spain and the British encouraged Indians to fight, and argued that his actions were undertaken in self-defense. Jackson captured Pensacola, Florida, with little more than some warning shots, and deposed the Spanish governor. He captured and then tried and executed two British subjects, Robert Ambrister and Alexander Arbuthnot, who had been supplying and advising the Indians. Jackson's actions struck fear into the Seminole tribes as word spread of his ruthlessness in battle (he became known as \"Sharp Knife\").\n\nThe executions, and Jackson's invasion of territory belonging to Spain, a country with which the U.S. was not at war, created an international incident. Many in the Monroe administration called for Jackson to be censured. The Secretary of State, John Quincy Adams, an early believer in Manifest Destiny, defended Jackson. When the Spanish minister demanded a \"suitable punishment\" for Jackson, Adams wrote back, \"Spain must immediately [decide] either to place a force in Florida adequate at once to the protection of her territory ... or cede to the United States a province, of which she retains nothing but the nominal possession, but which is, in fact ... a post of annoyance to them.\" Adams used Jackson's conquest, and Spain's own weakness, to get Spain to cede Florida to the United States by the Adams–Onís Treaty. Jackson was subsequently named Florida's military governor and served from March 10, 1821, to December 31, 1821.\n\nElection of 1824\n\nThe Tennessee legislature nominated Jackson for President in 1822. It also elected him U.S. Senator again. By 1824, the Democratic-Republican Party had become the only functioning national party. Its Presidential candidates had been chosen by an informal Congressional nominating caucus, but this had become unpopular. In 1824, most of the Democratic-Republicans in Congress boycotted the caucus. Those who attended backed Treasury Secretary William H. Crawford for President and Albert Gallatin for Vice President. A Pennsylvania convention nominated Jackson for President a month later, stating that the irregular caucus ignored the \"voice of the people\" and was a \"vain hope that the American people might be thus deceived into a belief that he [Crawford] was the regular democratic candidate\". Gallatin criticized Jackson as \"an honest man and the idol of the worshipers of military glory, but from incapacity, military habits, and habitual disregard of laws and constitutional provisions, altogether unfit for the office\". \n\nBesides Jackson and Crawford, the Secretary of State John Quincy Adams and House Speaker Henry Clay were also candidates. Jackson received the most popular votes (but not a majority, and four states had no popular ballot). The electoral votes were split four ways, with Jackson having a plurality. Because no candidate received a majority, the election was decided by the House of Representatives, which chose Adams. Jackson supporters denounced this result as a \"corrupt bargain\" because Clay gave his state's support to Adams, who subsequently appointed Clay as Secretary of State. As none of the electors from Kentucky, Clay's home state, had initially voted for Adams, and Jackson had won more nationwide popular votes than Adams, some Kentucky politicians criticized Clay for violating the will of the people in return for personal political favors. Jackson's defeat burnished his political credentials, however; many voters believed the \"man of the people\" had been robbed by the \"corrupt aristocrats of the East\".\n\nElection of 1828\n\nJackson denounced the \"corrupt bargain\" that put Adams in the White House and laid plans for a crusade to oust Adams from office. \nAfter resigning the Senate in October 1825, he continued his quest for the Presidency. The Tennessee legislature again nominated Jackson for President. He attracted Vice President John C. Calhoun, Martin Van Buren, and Thomas Ritchie into his camp (Van Buren and Ritchie were previous supporters of Crawford). Van Buren, with help from his friends in Philadelphia and Richmond, revived many of the ideals of the old Republican Party, gave it a new name as the Democratic Party, and forged a national organization of durability. The Jackson coalition handily defeated Adams in 1828.\n\nDuring the election, Jackson's opponents referred to him as a \"jackass\". Jackson liked the name and used the jackass as a symbol for a while, but it died out. However, it later became the symbol for the Democratic Party when cartoonist Thomas Nast popularized it. \n\nThe campaign was very much a personal one. As was the custom at the time, neither candidate personally campaigned, but their political followers organized many campaign events. Both candidates were rhetorically attacked in the press, which reached a low point when the press accused Jackson's wife Rachel of bigamy. Though the accusation was technically true, as were most personal attacks leveled against him during the campaign, it was based on events that occurred many years prior (1791 to 1794). Jackson said he would forgive those who insulted him, but he would never forgive the ones who attacked his wife. Rachel died suddenly on December 22, 1828, before his inauguration, and was buried on Christmas Eve. He blamed the Adams campaigners for her death. \"May God Almighty forgive her murderers\", he swore at her funeral. \"I never can.\" Jackson also came under heavy attack as a slave trader who bought and sold slaves and moved them about in defiance of modern standards or morality. (He was not attacked for merely owning slaves used in plantation work.) \n\nPresidency 1829–1837\n\nJackson's name has been associated with Jacksonian democracy or the spread of democracy in terms of the passing of political power from established elites to ordinary voters based in political parties. \"The Age of Jackson\" shaped the national agenda and American politics. Jackson's philosophy as President followed much in the same line as Thomas Jefferson, advocating Republican values held by the Revolutionary War generation. Jackson's presidency held a high moralistic tone; having as a planter himself agrarian sympathies, a limited view of states rights and the federal government. Jackson feared that monied and business interests would corrupt republican values. When South Carolina opposed the tariff law he took a strong line in favor of nationalism and against secession.\n\nJackson believed that the president's authority was derived from the people and the presidential office was above party politics. Instead of choosing party favorites, Jackson chose \"plain, businessmen\" whom he intended to control. Jackson chose Martin Van Buren as Secretary of State, John Eaton as Secretary of War, Samuel Ingham as Secretary of Treasury, John Branch as Secretary of Navy, John Berrien as Attorney General, and William T. Barry as Postmaster General. Jackson's first choice of Cabinet proved to be unsuccessful, full of bitter partisanship and gossip, especially between Eaton, Vice President John C. Calhoun, and Van Buren. By the Spring of 1831, only Barry remained, while the rest of Jackson's cabinet had been discharged. Jackson's following cabinet selections worked better together.\n\nInauguration\n\nOn March 4, 1829, Andrew Jackson became the first United States president-elect to take the oath of office on the East Portico of the U.S. Capitol. Jackson was the first President to invite the public to attend the White House ball honoring his first inauguration. Many poor people came to the inaugural ball in their homemade clothes. The crowd became so large that Jackson's guards could not keep them out of the White House, which became so crowded with people that dishes and decorative pieces inside were eventually broken. Some people stood on good chairs in muddied boots just to get a look at the President. The crowd had become so wild that the attendants poured punch in tubs and put it on the White House lawn to lure people outside. Jackson's raucous populism earned him the nickname \"King Mob\".\n\nPetticoat politics\n\nJackson devoted a considerable amount of his presidential time during his early years in office responding to what came to be known as the \"Petticoat affair\" or \"Eaton affair\". Vicious Washington gossip circulated among Jackson's Cabinet members and their wives including Vice President John C. Calhoun's wife Floride Calhoun concerning Secretary of War John H. Eaton and his wife Peggy Eaton. Salacious rumors held that Peggy as a barmaid in her father's tavern had been sexually promiscuous or had even been a prostitute. Petticoat politics emerged when the wives of cabinet members, led by Mrs. Calhoun, refused to socialize with the Eatons. Jackson was outraged—male honor, he firmly believed, required husbands to control their wives. Allowing a prostitute in the official family was of course unthinkable—but for Jackson, after losing his own wife to horrible rumors, Peggy's virtue could not be questioned. It was a matter of authority: Jackson told his Cabinet that \"She is as chaste as a virgin!\" Jackson believed that the dishonorable people were the rumormongers who questioned and dishonored Jackson himself. \n\nMeanwhile, the Cabinet wives insisted that the interests and honor of all American women was at stake. They believed a responsible woman should never accord a man sexual favors without the assurance that went with marriage. A woman who broke that code was dishonorable and unacceptable. Historian Daniel Walker Howe notes that this was the feminist spirit that in the next decade shaped the woman's rights movement. The aristocratic wives of European diplomats shrugged the matter off; they had their national interest to uphold, and had seen how life worked in Paris and London. Secretary of State Martin Van Buren, a widower, was already forming a coalition against Calhoun; he could now see his main chance to strike hard; he took the side of Jackson and Eaton. \n\nThe upshot was a total revamping of the cabinet, with everyone resigning or being fired save the Postmaster General. Jackson nominated Van Buren to be Minister to England; Calhoun blocked the nomination. Calhoun continued to serve as Vice President and boasted that Van Buren's political career was over, stating the defeated nomination would \"...kill him, sir, kill dead. He will never kick, sir, never kick.\" Van Buren, however, fully recovered and played a leading role in the Jackson's unofficial Kitchen Cabinet. He became Jackson's running mate in 1832 and his successor in 1836. Jackson also acquired the Globe newspaper to have his own propaganda weapon for fighting the rumor mills. \n\nIndian removal policy\n\nSince the presidency of James Madison when Jackson was a military commander, Jackson had played a prominent role in Indian relations. Although there are scant details, Madison often met with Southeastern and Western Indians who included the Creek and Osage. Madison would meet with the Indians and would often encourage them to give up their lives as hunter-gatherers and instead take up farming.Rutland (1990), pp. 199–200Rutland (1990), p. 37. Indian conflicts continued to intensify during Madison's presidency, particularly with the War of 1812, and in the years after. Throughout his eight years in office, Jackson made about 70 treaties with Native American tribes both in the South and the Northwest. Jackson's presidency marked a new era in Indian-Anglo American relations initiating a policy of Indian removal. Jackson himself sometimes participated in the treaty negotiating process with various Indian tribes, though other times he left the negotiations to his subordinates. The southern tribes included the Choctaw, Creek, Chickasaw, Seminole and the Cherokee. The northwest tribes include the Chippewa, Ottawa, and the Potawatomi. Though conflict between Indians and American settlers took place in the north and in the south, the problem was worse in the south where the Indian populations were larger. Indian wars broke out repeatedly, often when native tribes, especially the Muscogee and Seminole Indians, refused to abide by the treaties for various reasons. The Second Seminole War, started in December 1835, lasted over six years, finally ending in August 1842 under President John Tyler.\n\nThough relations between Europeans (and later Americans) and Indians were always complicated, they grew increasingly complicated once American settlements began pushing further west in the years after the American Revolution. Often these relations were peaceful, though they increasingly grew tense and sometimes violent, both on the part of American settlers and the Indians. From George Washington to John Quincy Adams, the problem was typically ignored or dealt with lightly; though by Jackson's time the earlier policy had grown unsustainable. The problem was especially acute in the south (in particular the lands near the state of Georgia), where Indian populations were larger, denser, and more Americanized than those of the north. There had developed a growing popular and political movement to deal with the problem, and out of this developed a policy to relocate certain Indian populations. Jackson, never known for timidity, became an advocate for this relocation policy in what is considered by some historians to be the most controversial aspect of his presidency. This contrasted with his immediate predecessor, President John Q. Adams, who tended to follow the policy of his own predecessors, letting the problem play itself out with minimal intervention. Jackson's presidency thus took place in a new era in Indian-Anglo American relations, marked by federal action and a policy of relocation. During Jackson's presidency, Indian relations between the Southern tribes and the state governments had reached a critical juncture.\n\nIn his December 8, 1829, First Annual Message to Congress, Jackson advocated land west of the Mississippi River be set aside for Indian tribes. Congress had been developing its own Indian relocation bill, and Jackson had many supporters in both the Senate and House who agreed with his goal. On May 26, 1830 Congress passed the Indian Removal Act, which Jackson signed into law. The Act authorized the President to negotiate treaties to buy tribal lands in the east in exchange for lands further west, outside of existing U.S. state borders. The passage of the bill was Jackson's first legislative triumph and marked the Democratic party's emergence into American political society. The passage of the act was especially popular in the South where population growth and the discovery of gold on Cherokee land had increased pressure on tribal lands.\n\nThe state of Georgia became involved in a contentious jurisdictional dispute with the Cherokees, culminating in the 1832 U.S. Supreme Court decision (Worcester v. Georgia). In that decision, U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Marshall, in writing for the court, ruled that Georgia could not impose its laws upon Cherokee tribal lands. Jackson is frequently, though incorrectly, attributed the following response: \"John Marshall has made his decision, now let him enforce it\". The quote originated in 1863 from Horace Greeley.\n\nJackson used the Georgia crisis to broker an agreement whereby the Cherokee leaders agreed to a removal treaty. A group of Cherokees led by John Ridge negotiated the Treaty of New Echota with Jackson's representatives. Ridge was not a widely recognized leader of the Cherokee Nation, and this document was rejected by some as illegitimate. A group of Cherokees petitioned in protest of the proposed removal, though this wasn't taken up by the Supreme Court or the U.S. Congress, in part due to delays and timing.\n\nThe treaty was enforced by Jackson's successor, President Martin Van Buren, who sent 7,000 troops to carry out the relocation policy. Due to the infighting between political factions, many Cherokees thought their appeals were still being considered when the relocation began. It was subsequent to this that as many as 4,000 Cherokees died on the \"Trail of Tears\".\n\nBy the 1830s, under constant pressure from settlers, each of the five southern tribes had ceded most of its lands, but sizable self-government groups lived in Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and Florida. All of these (except the Seminoles) had moved far in the coexistence with whites, and they resisted suggestions that they should voluntarily remove themselves. Their methods earned them the title of the \"Five Civilized Tribes\". More than 45,000 American Indians were relocated to the West during Jackson's administration, though a few Cherokees walked back afterwards or migrated to the high Smoky Mountains along the North Carolina and Tennessee border. \n\nJackson's initiatives to deal with the conflicts between Indians and American settlers has been a source of controversy on and off over the years, especially among his political opponents at the time and ideological opponents since. Modern historians, such as Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., often note the history of American conflicts with Indians dating to long before the American revolution, and the ultimate need for a solution which Jackson and Congress partly achieved. Starting around 1970, the controversy picked up again, this time with more ideological tones. Around that time, Jackson came under sharp attack from revisionist writers on the left, such as Michael Paul Rogin and Howard Zinn, often on this issue. In 1969 Francis Paul Prucha argued that Jackson's removal of the \"Five Civilized Tribes\" from the very hostile white environment in the Old South to Oklahoma probably saved their very existence. \n\nTreaties\n\nSouth:\n:*Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek Choctaw September 27, 1830\n:*Treaty of Cusseta Creek March 24, 1832\n:*Treaty of Payne's Landing Seminole May 9, 1832\n:*Treaty of New Echota Cherokee December 29, 1835\nNorthwest:\n:*Treaty between the United States of America and the United Nation of Chippewa, Ottowa, and Potawatamie Indians Retrieved on November 29, 2014\n::February 21, 1835\n\nWars\n\n:*Black Hawk War May–August 1832\n:*Second Seminole War December 1835 to August 1842 Truce: January–June 1837\n:*Second Creek War May–July 1836; sporadic violence in 1837\n\nInitiated reforms\n\nIn an effort to purge the government of corruption of previous administrations, Jackson launched presidential investigations into all executive Cabinet offices and departments. During Jackson's tenure in office, large amounts of public money were put in the hands of public officials. Jackson, who believed appointees should be hired on merit, withdrew many candidates he believed were lax in their handling of monies. Jackson asked Congress to reform embezzlement laws, reduce fraudulent applications for federal pensions, revenue laws to prevent evasion of custom duties, and laws to improve government accounting. Jackson's Postmaster Barry resigned after a Congressional investigation into the postal service revealed mismanagement of mail services, collusion and favoritism in awarding lucrative contracts, failure to audit accounts and supervise contract performances. Jackson replaced Barry with Amos Kendall, who went on to implement much needed reforms in the Postal Service. \n\nJackson repeatedly called for the abolition of the Electoral College by constitutional amendment in his annual messages to Congress as President. In his third annual message to Congress, he expressed the view \"I have heretofore recommended amendments of the Federal Constitution giving the election of President and Vice-President to the people and limiting the service of the former to a single term. So important do I consider these changes in our fundamental law that I can not, in accordance with my sense of duty, omit to press them upon the consideration of a new Congress.\"\n\nJackson's time in the presidency as saw various improvements in financial provisions for veterans and their dependents. The Service Pension Act of 1832, for instance, provided pensions to veterans \"even where there existed no obvious financial or physical need\", while an Act of July 1836 enabled widows of Revolutionary War soldiers who met certain criteria to receive their husband's pensions. In 1836, Jackson established the ten-hour day in national shipyards. \n\nRotation in office and spoils system\n\nUpon assuming the presidency in 1829 Jackson enforced the Tenure of Office Act, passed earlier into law by President James Monroe in 1820, that limited appointed office tenure and authorized the president to remove and appoint political party associates. Jackson believed that a rotation in office was actually a democratic reform preventing father-to-son succession of office and made civil service responsible to the popular will. Jackson declared that rotation of appointments in political office was \"a leading principle in the republican creed\". Jackson noted, \"In a country where offices are created solely for the benefit of the people no one man has any more intrinsic right to official station than another.\" Jackson believed that rotating political appointments would prevent the development of a corrupt bureaucracy. Opposed to this view, however, were Jackson's supporters who in order to strengthen party loyalty wanted to give the posts to other party members. In practice, this would have meant the continuation of the patronage system by replacing federal employees with friends or party loyalists. The number of federal office holders removed by Jackson were exaggerated by his opponents; Jackson only rotated about 20% of federal office holders during his first term, some for dereliction of duty rather than political purposes. Jackson, however, did use his image and presidential power to award his loyal Democratic Party followers by granting them federal office appointments. Jackson's democratic approach incorporated patriotism for country as qualification for holding office. Having appointed a soldier who had lost his leg fighting on the battlefield to a postmastership Jackson stated \"If he lost his leg fighting for his country, that is ... enough for me.\" \n\nJackson's theory regarding rotation of office generated what would later be called the spoils system, a practice that Jackson, ironically, didn't justify. The political realities of Washington, however, ultimately forced Jackson to make partisan appointments despite his personal reservations. Historians believe Jackson's presidency marked the beginning of an era of decline in public ethics. Supervision of bureaus and departments whose operations were outside of Washington (such as the New York Customs House; the Postal Service; the Departments of Navy and War; and the Bureau of Indian Affairs, whose budget had increased enormously in the previous two decades) proved to be difficult. Other aspects of the spoils system including the buying of offices, forced political party campaign participation, and collection of assessments, did not take place until after Jackson's presidency. During Jackson's presidency, those in opposition to Jackson's purging of office holders, formed the Whig Party, calling Jackson \"King Andrew I\" having feared his military background, and named their party after the English parliamentary Whigs who opposed eighteenth century British monarchy. \n\nNullification crisis\n\nAnother notable crisis during Jackson's period of office was the \"Nullification Crisis\", or \"secession crisis\", of 1828–1832, which merged issues of sectional strife with disagreements over tariffs. Critics alleged that high tariffs (the \"Tariff of Abominations\") on imports of common manufactured goods made in Europe made those goods more expensive than ones from the northern U.S., raising the prices paid by planters in the South. Southern politicians argued that tariffs benefited northern industrialists at the expense of southern farmers.\n\nThe issue came to a head when Vice President Calhoun, in the South Carolina Exposition and Protest of 1828, supported the claim of his home state, South Carolina, that it had the right to \"nullify\"—declare void—the tariff legislation of 1828, and more generally the right of a state to nullify any Federal laws that went against its interests. Although Jackson sympathized with the South in the tariff debate, he also vigorously supported a strong union, with effective powers for the central government. Jackson attempted to face down Calhoun over the issue, which developed into a bitter rivalry between the two men. Particularly notable was an incident at the April 13, 1830, Jefferson Day dinner, involving after-dinner toasts. Robert Hayne began by toasting to \"The Union of the States, and the Sovereignty of the States\". Jackson then rose, and in a booming voice added \"Our federal Union: It must be preserved!\" – a clear challenge to Calhoun. Calhoun clarified his position by responding \"The Union: Next to our Liberty, the most dear!\" \n\nIn May 1830, Jackson discovered that Calhoun had asked President Monroe to censure then-General Jackson for his invasion of Spanish Florida in 1818 while Calhoun was serving as Secretary of War. Calhoun's and Jackson's relationship deteriorated further. By February 1831, the break between Calhoun and Jackson was final. Responding to inaccurate press reports about the feud, Calhoun had published letters between him and Jackson detailing the conflict in the United States Telegraph. Jackson and Calhoun began an angry correspondence which lasted until Jackson stopped it in July. \n\nAt the first Democratic National Convention, which was privately engineered by members of the Kitchen Cabinet, Calhoun and Jackson broke from each other politically and Van Buren replaced Calhoun as Jackson's running mate in the 1832 presidential election. On December 28, 1832, with less than two months remaining on his term, Calhoun resigned as Vice President to become a U.S. Senator for South Carolina.\n\nIn response to South Carolina's nullification claim, Jackson vowed to send troops to South Carolina to enforce the laws. In December 1832, he issued a resounding proclamation against the \"nullifiers\", stating that he considered \"the power to annul a law of the United States, assumed by one State, incompatible with the existence of the Union, contradicted expressly by the letter of the Constitution, unauthorized by its spirit, inconsistent with every principle on which it was founded, and destructive of the great object for which it was formed\". South Carolina, the President declared, stood on \"the brink of insurrection and treason\", and he appealed to the people of the state to reassert their allegiance to that Union for which their ancestors had fought. Jackson also denied the right of secession: \"The Constitution ... forms a government not a league ... To say that any State may at pleasure secede from the Union is to say that the United States is not a nation.\"Syrett, 36. See also: \n\nJackson asked Congress to pass a \"Force Bill\" explicitly authorizing the use of military force to enforce the tariff, but its passage was delayed until protectionists led by Clay agreed to a reduced Compromise Tariff. The Force Bill and Compromise Tariff passed on March 1, 1833, and Jackson signed both. The South Carolina Convention then met and rescinded its nullification ordinance. The Force Bill became moot because it was no longer needed. On May 1, 1833, Jackson wrote, \"the tariff was only the pretext, and disunion and southern confederacy the real object. The next pretext will be the negro, or slavery question.\" \n\nForeign affairs\n\nWhen Jackson took office in 1829 spoliation claims, or compensation demands for the capture of American ships and sailors, dating from the Napoleonic era, caused strained relations between the U.S. and French governments. The French Navy had captured and sent American ships to Spanish ports while holding their crews captive forcing them to labor without any charges or judicial rules. According to Secretary of State Martin Van Buren, relations between the U.S. and France were \"hopeless\". Jackson's Minister to France William C. Rives, however, through diplomacy was able to convince the French government to sign a reparations treaty on July 4, 1831 that would award the U.S. ₣ 25,000,000 ($5,000,000) in damages. The French government became delinquent in payment due to internal financial and political difficulties. The French king Louis Philippe I and his ministers blamed the French Chamber of Deputies. By 1834, the non-payment of reparations by the French government drew Jackson's ire and he became impatient. In his December 1834 State of the Union address, Jackson sternly reprimanded the French government for non-payment, stating the federal government was \"wholly disappointed\" by the French, and demanded Congress authorize trade reprisals against France. Feeling insulted by Jackson's words, the French people demanded an apology. In his December 1835 State of the Union Address, Jackson refused to apologize, stating he had a good opinion of the French people and his intentions were peaceful. Jackson described in lengthy and minute detail the history of events surrounding the treaty and his belief that the French government was purposely stalling payment. The French government accepted Jackson's statements as sincere and in February 1836, American reparations were finally paid. \n\nIn addition to France, the Jackson administration successfully settled spoliation claims with Denmark, Portugal, and Spain. Jackson's state department was active and successful at making trade agreements with Russia, Spain, Turkey, Great Britain, and Siam. Under the treaty of Great Britain, American trade was reopened in the West Indies. The trade agreement with Siam was America's first treaty between the United States and an Asiatic country. As a result, American exports increased 75% while imports increased 250%. \n\nJackson, however, was unsuccessful in opening trade with China and Japan. Jackson was unsuccessful at thwarting Great Britain's presence and power in South America. Jackson's attempt to purchase Texas from Mexico for $5,000,000 failed. Jackson's agent in Texas, Colonel Anthony Butler, suggested to take Texas over militarily, but Jackson refused. Butler was later replaced toward the end of Jackson's presidency. \n\nBank veto and Election of 1832\n\nIn 1816 the Second Bank of the United States was chartered by President James Madison to restore the United States economy devastated by the War of 1812. In 1823 President James Monroe appointed Nicholas Biddle, the Bank's third and last executive, to run the bank. In January 1832 Biddle, on advice from his friends, submitted to Congress a renewal of the Bank's charter four years before the original 20-year charter was to end. Biddle's recharter bill passed the Senate on June 11 and the House on July 3, 1832. Jackson, believing that Bank was fundamentally a corrupt monopoly whose stock was mostly held by foreigners, vetoed the bill. Jackson used the issue to promote his democratic values, believing the Bank was being run exclusively for the wealthy. Jackson stated the Bank made \"the rich richer and the potent more powerful\". The National Republican Party immediately made Jackson's veto of the Bank a political issue, attempting to undermine Jackson's popularity. Jackson's political opponents castigated Jackson's veto as \"the very slang of the leveller and demagogue\", claiming Jackson was using class warfare to gain support from the common man.\n\nDuring the 1832 Presidential Election the rechartering of the Second National Bank became the primary issue. The election also demonstrated the rapid development and organization of political parties during this time period. The Democratic Party's first national convention, held in Baltimore, in May 1832 nominated Jackson of Tennessee and Martin Van Buren of New York. The National Republican Party, who had held their first convention in Baltimore earlier in December 1831, nominated Henry Clay, senator from Kentucky and former Speaker of the House, and John Sergeant of Pennsylvania. The Anti-Masonic Party, which had earlier held its convention also in Baltimore in September 1831, nominated William Wirt of Maryland and Amos Elmaker of Pennsylvania; both Jackson and Clay were Masons. The two rival parties, however, proved to be no match for Jackson's popularity and the Democratic Party's strong political networks known as Hickory Clubs in state and local organization. Democratic newspapers, parades, barbecues, and rallies increased Jackson's popularity. Jackson himself made numerous popular public appearances on his return trip from Tennessee to Washington D.C. Jackson won the election decisively by a landslide, receiving 55 percent of the popular vote and 219 electoral votes. Clay received 37 percent of the popular vote and 49 electoral votes. Wirt received only 8 percent of the popular vote and 7 electoral votes while the Anti-Masonic Party folded. Jackson believed the solid victory was a popular mandate for his veto of the Bank's recharter and his continued warfare on the Bank's control over the national economy. \n\nRemoval of deposits and censure\n\nIn 1833, Jackson removed federal deposits from the bank, whose money-lending functions were taken over by the legions of local and state banks that materialized across America, thus drastically increasing credit and speculation. Three years later, Jackson issued the Specie Circular, an executive order that required buyers of government lands to pay in \"specie\" (gold or silver coins). The result was a great demand for specie, which many banks did not have enough of to exchange for their notes, causing the Panic of 1837, which threw the national economy into a deep depression. It took years for the economy to recover from the damage, but the bulk of the damage was blamed on Martin Van Buren, who took office in 1837. Whitehouse.gov notes, \n\nThe U.S. Senate censured Jackson on March 28, 1834, for his action in removing U.S. funds from the Bank of the United States. The censure was a political maneuver spearheaded by Jackson-rival Senator Henry Clay, which served only to perpetuate the animosity between him and Jackson. During the proceedings preceding the censure, Jackson called Clay \"reckless and as full of fury as a drunken man in a brothel\", and the issue was highly divisive within the Senate; however, the censure was approved 26–20 on March 28. When the Jacksonians had a majority in the Senate, the censure was expunged after years of effort by Jackson supporters, led by Thomas Hart Benton, who though he had once shot Jackson in a street fight, eventually became an ardent supporter of the president. \n\nAttack and assassination attempt\n\nThe first recorded physical attack on a U.S. president was directed at Jackson. Jackson had ordered the dismissal of Robert B. Randolph from the navy for embezzlement. On May 6, 1833, Jackson sailed on USS Cygnet to Fredericksburg, Virginia, where he was to lay the cornerstone on a monument near the grave of Mary Ball Washington, George Washington's mother. During a stopover near Alexandria, Randolph appeared and struck the President. He fled the scene chased by several members of Jackson's party, including the well-known writer Washington Irving. Jackson decided not to press charges.\n\nOn January 30, 1835, what is believed to be the first attempt to kill a sitting President of the United States occurred just outside the United States Capitol. When Jackson was leaving through the East Portico after the funeral of South Carolina Representative Warren R. Davis, Richard Lawrence, an unemployed house painter from England, aimed a pistol at Jackson, which misfired. Lawrence pulled out a second pistol, which also misfired. Historians believe the humid weather contributed to the double misfiring. Lawrence was restrained, and legend says that Jackson attacked Lawrence with his cane. Others present, including David Crockett, restrained and disarmed Lawrence.\n\nLawrence told doctors later his reasons for the shooting. He blamed Jackson for the loss of his job. He claimed that with the President dead, \"money would be more plenty\" (a reference to Jackson's struggle with the Bank of the United States) and that he \"could not rise until the President fell\". Finally, he told his interrogators that he was a deposed English King—specifically, Richard III, dead since 1485—and that Jackson was his clerk. He was deemed insane and was institutionalized.\n\nAfterwards, due to public curiosity concerning the double misfires, the pistols were tested and retested. Each time they performed perfectly. Many believed that Jackson had been protected by the same Providence that they believed also protected their young nation. The incident became a part of the Jacksonian mythos.\n\nSlavery controversies\n\nAnti-slavery tracts\n\nDuring the summer of 1835, controversy over slavery was rekindled throughout the nation, as had similarly taken place during the divisive 1819–1820 Missouri Compromise debates. Northern abolitionists were sending anti-slavery tracts through the U.S. Postal system into the South. Pro slavery Southerners objected believing the tracts were \"incendiary literature\" and demanded that the postal service unconditionally ban the sending of any anti-slavery tracts into the South. On July 29, a pro-slavery mob of 300 people led by former governor Robert Y. Hayne broke into the Post Office in Charleston, South Carolina and proceeded to seize and destroy abolitionist tracts. Jackson and his Administration largely had Southern sympathies over slavery and were hostile to abolitionism. However, Jackson, who demanded sectional peace, desired to placate Southerners; at the same time resisting antislavery demands without ignoring the interests of Northern Democrats. Jackson's Postmaster General Amos Kendall gave Southern postmasters discretionary powers to either send or detain the anti-slavery tracts. Jackson angrily denounced Northern abolitionists and suggested that the names of abolitionist authors should be published. Jackson, who wanted the matter quickly resolved, also suggested the tracts be mailed only to subscribers. In February 1836, Senator John C. Calhoun, Jackson's former Vice President, authored a bill that would prohibit the sending of any anti-slavery tracts via the federal mail service. The bill however failed to gain enough votes to pass in the House. Many Southern postmasters, however, disregarded matters of federal law and simply refused to send the anti-slavery tracts.\n\nAnti-slavery Congressional petitions\n\nIn the same year another controversy took place, when abolitionists sent the U.S. House of Representatives petitions to end the slave trade and slavery in Washington, D.C. This infuriated pro-slavery Southerners, who attempted to prevent acknowledgement or discussion of the petitions. On December 18, 1835 South Carolina congressman James H. Hammond strongly denounced abolitionists as \"ignorant fanatics\". Northern Whigs objected that anti-slavery petitions were constitutional and should not be forbidden. Jackson wanted the issue of these petitions resolved quickly. South Carolina Representative Henry L. Pinckney drafted and introduced a resolution that denounced the petitions as \"sickly sentimentality\", declared that Congress had no right to interfere with slavery, and tabled (gag rule) all further anti-slavery petitions. Southerners in Congress, including many of Jackson's supporters, favored the measure, which was passed quickly and without any debate; temporarily suppressing pro-abolitionist activities in Congress.\n\nRecognition of Republic of Texas\n\nIn 1835, the Texas Revolution began when pro-slavery American settlers in Texas fought the Mexican government for Texan independence; by May 1836, they had routed the Mexican military for the time being, establishing an independent Republic of Texas. The new Texas government legalized slavery and demanded recognition from President Jackson and annexation into the United States. However, Jackson was hesitant with recognizing Texas, unconvinced that the new republic could maintain independence from Mexico, and not wanting to make Texas an anti-slavery issue during the 1836 election. The strategy worked; the Democratic Party and national loyalties were held intact, while Democratic candidate Van Buren was elected President. Jackson formally recognized the Republic of Texas, nominating a chargé d'affaires on the last day of his Presidency, March 3, 1837. \n\nU.S. Exploring Expedition\n\nJackson initially opposed any federal exploration scientific expeditions during his first term in office. The last scientific federally funded exploration expeditions took place from 1817 to 1823 led by Stephen H. Harriman on the Red River of the North. Jackson's predecessor John Q. Adams attempted to launch a scientific oceanic exploration expedition in 1828, but Congress was unwilling to fund the effort. When Jackson assumed office in 1829 he pocketed Adam's expedition plans. However, wanting to establish his presidential legacy, similar to Thomas Jefferson and the Lewis and Clark Expedition, Jackson finally sponsored scientific exploration during his second term. On May 18, 1836 Jackson signed a law creating and funding the oceanic United States Exploring Expedition. Jackson put Secretary of Navy Mahlon Dickerson in charge, to assemble suitable ships, officers, and scientific staff for the expedition; with a planned launch before Jackson's term of office expired. Dickerson however proved unfit for the task, preparations stalled and the expedition was not launched until 1838, under the next President, Martin Van Buren. One brig ship, , later used in the expedition; having been laid down, built, and commissioned by Secretary Dickerson in May 1836, circumnavigated the world, explored and mapped the Southern Ocean, confirming the existence of the Antarctica continent.\n\nPanic of 1837\n\nThe national economy during the 1830s was booming and the federal government through duty revenues and sale of public lands was able to pay all bills. In January 1835, Jackson paid off the entire national debt, the only time in U.S. history that has been accomplished. However, reckless speculation in land and railroads caused what became known as the Panic of 1837. Contributing factors included Jackson's veto of the Second National Bank renewal charter in 1832 and subsequent transfer of federal monies to state banks in 1833 that caused Western Banks to relax their lending standards. Two other Jacksonian acts in 1836 contributed to the Panic of 1837, the Specie Circular, that mandated Western lands only be purchased by money backed by gold and silver, and the Deposit and Distribution Act, that transferred federal monies from Eastern to western state banks which in turn led to a speculation frenzy by banks. Jackson's Specie Circular, although designed to reduce speculation and stabilize the economy, left many investors unable to afford to pay loans backed by gold and silver. The same year there was a downturn in Great Britain's economy that stopped investment in the United States. As a result, the U.S. economy went into a depression, banks became insolvent, the national debt (previously paid off) increased, business failures rose, cotton prices dropped, and unemployment dramatically increased. The depression that followed lasted for four years until 1841 when the economy began to rebound. \n\nAdministration and cabinet\n\nJudicial appointments\n\nIn total Jackson appointed 24 federal judges: six Justices to the Supreme Court of the United States and eighteen judges to the United States district courts.\n\nStates admitted to the Union\n\n* Arkansas – June 15, 1836.\n* Michigan – January 26, 1837.\n\nLater life and death\n\nAfter serving two terms as president, Jackson retired to his Hermitage plantation in 1837. He immediately began putting the Hermitage in order as it had been poorly managed in his absence by his adopted son, Andrew Jr. Although he suffered ill health, Jackson remained influential in both national and state politics. He was a firm advocate of the federal union of the states and rejected any talk of secession, insisting, \"I will die with the Union.\" Blamed for causing the Panic of 1837, he was unpopular in his early retirement. Jackson continued to denounce the \"perfidy and treachery\" of banks and urged his successor, Martin Van Buren to repudiate the Specie Circular.\n\nJackson's strong position in favor of the annexation of the Republic of Texas led him to support James K. Polk for the Democratic nomination in the 1844 presidential election against Calhoun and Van Buren. Jackson's support played an important role in Polk winning the nomination and the general election.\n\nJackson died at his plantation on June 8, 1845, at the age of 78, of chronic tuberculosis, dropsy, and heart failure. According to a newspaper account from the Boon Lick Times read, \"[he] fainted whilst being removed from his chair to the bed ... but he subsequently revived ... Gen. Jackson died at the Hermitage at 6 o'clock P.M. on Sunday the 8th instant. ... When the messenger finally came, the old soldier, patriot and Christian was looking out for his approach. He is gone, but his memory lives, and will continue to live.\" \n\nIn his will, Jackson left his entire estate to his adopted son, Andrew Jackson Jr., except for specifically enumerated items that were left to various other friends and family members. \n\nFamily and personal life\n\nShortly after Jackson first arrived in Nashville in 1788, he lived as a boarder with Rachel Stockly Donelson, the widow of John Donelson. Here Jackson became acquainted with their daughter, Rachel Donelson Robards. At the time, Rachel was in an unhappy marriage with Captain Lewis Robards; he was subject to fits of jealous rage. The two were separated in 1790. According to Jackson, he married Rachel after hearing that Robards had obtained a divorce. However, the divorce had never been completed, making Rachel's marriage to Jackson bigamous and therefore invalid. After the divorce was officially completed, Rachel and Jackson remarried in 1794. To complicate matters further, evidence shows that Rachel had been living with Jackson and referred to herself as Mrs. Jackson before the petition for divorce was ever made. It was not uncommon on the frontier for relationships to be formed and dissolved unofficially, as long as they were recognized by the community.\n\nThe controversy surrounding their marriage remained a sore point for Jackson, who deeply resented attacks on his wife's honor. By May 1806, Charles Dickinson had published an attack on Jackson in the local newspaper, and it resulted in a written challenge from Jackson to a duel. Since Dickinson was considered an expert shot, Jackson determined it would be best to let Dickinson turn and fire first, hoping that his aim might be spoiled in his quickness; Jackson would wait and take careful aim at Dickinson. Dickinson did fire first, hitting Jackson in the chest. The bullet that struck Jackson was so close to his heart that it was never safely removed. Under the rules of dueling, Dickinson had to remain still as Jackson took aim and shot and killed him. Jackson's behavior in the duel outraged men of honor in Tennessee, who called it a brutal, cold-blooded killing and saddled Jackson with a reputation as a violent, vengeful man. As a result, he became a social outcast. \n\nRachel died of a heart attack on December 22, 1828, two weeks after her husband's victory in the election and two months before Jackson took office as President. Jackson described her symptoms as \"excruciating pain in the left shoulder, arm, and breast\". After struggling for three days, Rachel finally died; a distraught Jackson had to be pulled from her so the undertaker could prepare the body. She had been under extreme stress during the election, and she never did well when Jackson was away at war or work. Jackson blamed John Quincy Adams for Rachel's death because the National Republican campaign of 1828 had repeatedly attacked the circumstances for Jackson's wedding to Rachel. He felt that this had hastened her death and never forgave Adams. \n\nJackson had three adopted sons: Theodore, an Indian about whom little is known, Andrew Jackson Jr., the son of Rachel's brother Severn Donelson, and Lyncoya, a Creek Indian orphan adopted by Jackson after the Creek War. Lyncoya died of tuberculosis in 1828, at the age of sixteen. \n\nThe Jacksons also acted as guardians for eight other children. John Samuel Donelson, Daniel Smith Donelson and Andrew Jackson Donelson were the sons of Rachel's brother Samuel Donelson, who died in 1804. Andrew Jackson Hutchings was Rachel's orphaned grand nephew. Caroline Butler, Eliza Butler, Edward Butler, and Anthony Butler were the orphaned children of Edward Butler, a family friend. They came to live with the Jacksons after the death of their father. \n\nThe widower Jackson invited Rachel's niece Emily Donelson to serve as hostess at the White House. Emily was married to Andrew Jackson Donelson, who acted as Jackson's private secretary and in 1856 would run for Vice President on the American Party ticket. The relationship between the President and Emily became strained during the Petticoat affair, and the two became estranged for over a year. They eventually reconciled and she resumed her duties as White House hostess. Sarah Yorke Jackson, the wife of Andrew Jackson Jr., became co-hostess of the White House in 1834. It was the only time in history when two women simultaneously acted as unofficial First Lady. Sarah took over all hostess duties after Emily died from tuberculosis in 1836. Jackson used Rip Raps as a retreat, visiting between August 19, 1829 through August 16, 1835. \n\nTemperament\n\nJackson's quick temper was notorious. Brands says, \"His audacity on behalf of the people earned him enemies who slandered him and defamed even his wife, Rachel. He dueled in her defense and his own, suffering grievous wounds that left him with bullet fragments lodged about his body.\" However, Remini is of the opinion that Jackson was often in control of his rage, and used it (and his fearsome reputation) as a tool to get what he wanted in his public and private affairs. \n\nBrands also notes that his opponents were terrified of his temper:\nObservers likened him to a volcano, and only the most intrepid or recklessly curious cared to see it erupt.... His close associates all had stories of his blood-curling oaths, his summoning of the Almighty to loose His wrath upon some miscreant, typically followed by his own vow to hang the villain or blow him to perdition. Given his record – in duels, brawls, mutiny trials, and summary hearings – listeners had to take his vows seriously. \n\nOn the last day of the presidency, Jackson admitted that he had but two regrets, that he \"had been unable to shoot Henry Clay or to hang John C. Calhoun.\" \n\nPhysical appearance\n\nJackson was a lean figure, standing at 6 feet, 1 inch (1.85 m) tall, and weighing between 130 and 140 pounds (64 kg) on average. Jackson also had an unruly shock of red hair, which had completely grayed by the time he became president at age 61. He had penetrating deep blue eyes. Jackson was one of the more sickly presidents, suffering from chronic headaches, abdominal pains, and a hacking cough, caused by a musket ball in his lung that was never removed, that often brought up blood and sometimes made his whole body shake.\n\nReligious faith\n\nAbout a year after retiring the presidency, Jackson became a member of the First Presbyterian Church in Nashville. \n\nJackson was a Freemason, having been initiated at Harmony Lodge No. 1 in Tennessee; he also participated in chartering several other lodges in Tennessee. He was the only U.S. president to have served as Grand Master of a state's Grand Lodge until Harry S. Truman in 1945. His Masonic apron is on display in the Tennessee State Museum. An obelisk and bronze Masonic plaque decorate his tomb at The Hermitage. \n\nLegacy and memory\n\nJackson remains one of the most studied and most controversial Americans of the 19th century. Historian Charles Sellers says \"Andrew Jackson's masterful personality was enough by itself to make him one of the most controversial figures ever to stride across the American stage.\" His most controversial presidential actions included removal of the Indians from the southeast, the dismantling of the Bank of the United States, and his threat to use military force against the state of South Carolina to make it stop nullifying federal laws. Not at all controversial was his great victory over the British at New Orleans in the last battle of the War of 1812. He was the main founder of the modern Democratic Party and became its iconic hero; he was always a fierce partisan, with many friends and many enemies. \n\nAndrew Jackson has appeared on U.S. banknotes as far back as 1869, and extending into the 21st century. His image has appeared on the $5, $10, $20 and $10,000 note. Most recently, his image appears on the U.S. $20 Federal reserve note, Series 2004-2006, with a redesigned, larger portrait. In 2016, Treasury Security Jack Lew announced his goal that by 2029 an image of Harriet Tubman would replace Jackson's depiction on the front side of the $20 banknote, and that an image of Jackson would be placed on the reverse side, though the final decision will be made by his successors. \n\nAndrew Jackson is one of the few American presidents ever to appear on U.S. Postage more than the usual two or three times. He died in 1845, but the U.S. Post Office did not release a postage stamp in his honor until 18 years after his death, with the issue of 1863, a 2-cent black issue, commonly referred to by collectors as the 'Black Jack'. In contrast, the first Warren G. Harding stamp was released only one month after his death, Lincoln, one year exactly. As Jackson was a controversial figure in his day, there is speculation that officials in Washington chose to wait a period of time before issuing a stamp with his portrait. In all, Jackson has appeared on thirteen different U.S. postage stamps, more than that of most U.S. presidents; only Washington, Lincoln, and Franklin (who was not a president) have appeared more often. During the American Civil War the Confederate government also issued two Confederate postage stamps bearing Jackson's portrait, one a 2-cent red stamp and the other a 2-cent green stamp, both issued in 1863. \n\nAndrew Jackson2 1862 Issue-2c.jpg|Issue of 1863\nJackson44 1870-2c.jpg|Issue of 1870\nAndrew Jackson 1903 Issue-3c.jpg|Issue of 1903\n\nMemorials\n\n* Jackson's portrait currently appears on the United States twenty-dollar bill; however, on April 20, 2016, United States Treasury Secretary Jack Lew announced that Jackson's face will be replaced by that of slave leader Harriet Tubman, with Jackson's portrait relegated to the reverse side. Lew expects the new design to be ready by 2020. Jackson has also appeared on $5, $10, $50, and $10,000 bills in the past, as well as a Confederate $1,000 bill.\n* Jackson's image is on the Black Jack and many other postage stamps. These include the Prominent Americans series (1965–1978) 10¢ stamp.\n* Numerous counties and cities are named after him, including the city of Jacksonville in Florida and North Carolina; the city of Jackson in Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, and Tennessee; Jackson County in Florida, Illinois, Mississippi, Missouri, Ohio, and Oregon; and Jackson Parish in Louisiana. \n* Memorials to Jackson include a set of four identical equestrian statues by the sculptor Clark Mills: in Jackson Square in New Orleans; in Nashville on the grounds of the Tennessee State Capitol; in Washington, D.C. near the White House; and in Jacksonville, Florida. Other equestrian statues of Jackson have been erected elsewhere, as in the State Capitol grounds in Raleigh, North Carolina.\n* Andrew Jackson State Park is located on the site of his birthplace in Lancaster County, South Carolina.\n* Old Hickory Boulevard in Nashville is named for him.\n* Two suburbs in the eastern part of Nashville are named in honor of Jackson and his home: Old Hickory and Hermitage.\n* A main thoroughfare in Hermitage is named Andrew Jackson Parkway. Several roads in the same area have names associated with Jackson, such as Andrew Jackson Way, Andrew Jackson Place, Rachel Donelson Pass, Rachel's Square Drive, Rachel's Way, Rachel's Court, Rachel's Trail, and Andrew Donelson Drive.\n* Old Hickory Lake is located in north central Tennessee.\n* Andrew Jackson High School, in Lancaster County, South Carolina, is named after him and uses the title of \"Hickory Log\" for its Annual photo book.\n* The section of U.S. Route 74 between Charlotte, North Carolina and Wilmington, North Carolina is named the Andrew Jackson Highway.\n* Fort Jackson in Columbia, South Carolina, is named in his honor.\n* Fort Jackson, built before the Civil War on the Mississippi River for the defense of New Orleans, was named in his honor.\n* , a Lafayette-class nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine, which served from 1963 to 1989.\n* Jackson Park, the third-largest park in Chicago, is named for him.\n* Jackson Park, a public golf course in Seattle, Washington, is named for him.\n* Andrew Jackson Centre, the Andrew Jackson Cottage and US Rangers Centre in Northern Ireland, is a \"traditional thatched Ulster–Scots farmhouse built in 1750s\" and includes the home of Jackson's parents\", which has been restored.\n* Andrew Jackson Masonic Lodge No. 120, in the Jurisdiction of Virginia, is named for him. \n\nPopular culture depictions\n\nJackson and his wife Rachel were the main subjects of a 1950 historical novel by Irving Stone, The President's Lady, which told the story of their lives up until Rachel's death. The novel was the basis for the 1953 film of the same name starring Charlton Heston as Jackson and Susan Hayward as Rachel.\n\nJackson has been a supporting character in a number of historical films and television productions. Lionel Barrymore played Jackson in The Gorgeous Hussy (1936), a fictionalized biography of Peggy Eaton starring Joan Crawford. The Buccaneer (1938), a fictionalized version of the Battle of New Orleans, included Hugh Sothern as Jackson, and was remade in 1958 with Heston again playing Jackson. Basil Ruysdael played Jackson in Walt Disney's 1955 Davy Crockett TV miniseries and subsequent film release. Wesley Addy appeared as Jackson in some episodes of the 1976 PBS miniseries The Adams Chronicles.\n\nJackson is the protagonist of the comedic historic rock musical Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson (2008) with music and lyrics by Michael Friedman and book by Alex Timbers.\n\nJackson was also featured in the 4th episode of the history podcast, The Broadsides.", "Alexander Hamilton (January 11, 1755 or 1757 - July 12, 1804) was a Founding Father of the United States, chief staff aide to General George Washington, one of the most influential interpreters and promoters of the U.S. Constitution, the founder of the nation's financial system, the founder of the Federalist Party, the world's first voter-based political party, the founder of the United States Coast Guard, and the founder of The New York Post newspaper. As the first Secretary of the Treasury, Hamilton was the primary author of the economic policies of the George Washington administration. Hamilton took the lead in the funding of the states' debts by the Federal government, the establishment of a national bank, a system of tariffs, and friendly trade relations with Britain. He led the Federalist Party, created largely in support of his views; he was opposed by the Democratic-Republican Party, led by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, which despised Britain and feared that Hamilton's policies of a strong central government would weaken the American commitment to Republicanism.\n\nBorn out of wedlock, raised in the West Indies, and orphaned as a child, Hamilton pursued a college education through the help of local wealthy men. Recognized for his abilities and talent, he was sent to King's College (now Columbia University) in New York City. Hamilton played a major role in the American Revolutionary War. At the start of the war in 1775, he joined a militia company. In early 1776, he raised a provincial artillery company, to which he was appointed captain. He soon became the senior aide to General Washington, the American forces' commander-in-chief. Washington sent him on numerous important missions to tell generals what Washington wanted. After the war, Hamilton was elected to the Congress of the Confederation from New York. He resigned, to practice law, and founded the Bank of New York. Hamilton was among those dissatisfied with the weak national government. He led the Annapolis Convention, which successfully influenced Congress to issue a call for the Philadelphia Convention, in order to create a new constitution. He was an active participant at Philadelphia; and he helped achieve ratification by writing 51 of the 85 installments of The Federalist Papers, which to this day are the single most important reference for Constitutional interpretation. \n\nHamilton became the leading cabinet member in the new government under President Washington. Hamilton was a nationalist, who emphasized strong central government and successfully argued that the implied powers of the Constitution provided the legal authority to fund the national debt, assume states' debts, and create the government-backed Bank of the United States. These programs were funded primarily by a tariff on imports, and later also by a highly controversial tax on whiskey. Facing well-organized opposition from Jefferson and Madison, Hamilton mobilized a nationwide network of friends of the government, especially bankers and businessmen. It became the Federalist Party. A major issue splitting the parties was the Jay Treaty, largely designed by Hamilton in 1794. It established friendly economic relations with Britain to the chagrin of France and the supporters of the French Revolution. Hamilton played a central role in the Federalist party, which dominated national and state politics until it lost the election of 1800 to Jefferson's Democratic Republicans.\n\nIn 1795, he returned to the practice of law in New York. He tried to control the policies of President Adams (1797–1801). In 1798 and 99, Hamilton called for mobilization against France after the XYZ Affair and became commander of a new army, which he readied for war. However, the Quasi-War, while hard-fought at sea, was never officially declared and did not involve army action. In the end, Adams found a diplomatic solution which avoided a war with France. Hamilton's opposition to Adams' re-election helped cause his defeat in the 1800 election. When Jefferson and Aaron Burr tied for the presidency in the electoral college in 1801, Hamilton helped to defeat Burr, whom he found unprincipled, and to elect Jefferson despite philosophical differences. Hamilton continued his legal and business activities in New York City, but lost much of his national prominence within the Federalist party. When Vice President Burr ran for governor of New York state in 1804, Hamilton crusaded against him as unworthy. Taking offense at some of Hamilton's comments, Burr challenged him to a duel in 1804 and mortally wounded Hamilton, who died the next day.\n\nChildhood in the Caribbean\n\nAlexander Hamilton was born in and spent part of his childhood in Charlestown, the capital of the island of Nevis, in the Leeward Islands; Nevis was one of the British West Indies. Hamilton was born out of wedlock to Rachel Faucette, a married woman of partial British and partial French Huguenot descent, and James A. Hamilton, the fourth son of the Scottish laird Alexander Hamilton of Grange, Ayrshire. \n\nHis mother moved with the young Hamilton to St. Croix in the Virgin Islands, then ruled by Denmark. It is not certain whether the year of Hamilton's birth was 1757 or 1755; most historical evidence after Hamilton's arrival in North America supports the idea that he was born in 1757, and many historians had accepted this birth date. But, Hamilton's early life in the Caribbean was recorded in documents which were first published in Danish in 1930; this evidence has caused historians since then to favor a birth year of 1755.Chernow, p. 17. Hamilton listed his birth year as 1757 when he first arrived in the Thirteen Colonies. He celebrated his birthday on January 11. In later life, he tended to give his age only in round figures. Probate papers from St. Croix in 1768, after the death of Hamilton's mother, list him as then 13 years old, a date that would support a birth year of 1755. Historians have posited reasons for the different dates of birth being used: If 1755 is correct, Hamilton may have been trying to appear younger than his college classmates or perhaps wished to avoid standing out as older; if 1757 is correct, the probate document indicating a birth year of 1755 may have been in error, or Hamilton may have been attempting to pass as 13, in order to be more employable after his mother's death. \n\nHamilton's mother had been married previously to Johann Michael Lavien of St. Croix. Faucette left her husband and first son, Peter, traveling to St. Kitts in 1750, where she met James Hamilton. Hamilton and Faucette moved together to her birthplace, Nevis, where she had inherited property from her father. The couple's two sons were James Jr. and Alexander. Because Alexander Hamilton's parents were not legally married, the Church of England denied him membership and education in the church school. Hamilton received \"individual tutoring\" and classes in a private school led by a Jewish headmistress. Hamilton supplemented his education with a family library of 34 books. \n\nJames Hamilton abandoned Rachel Faucette and their sons, allegedly to \"spar[e] [her] a charge of bigamy ... after finding out that her first husband intend[ed] to divorce her under Danish law on grounds of adultery and desertion.\" Thereafter, she supported her children in St. Croix, keeping a small store in Christiansted. She contracted a severe fever and died on February 19, 1768, 1:02 am, leaving Hamilton orphaned. This may have had severe emotional consequences for him, even by the standards of an 18th-century childhood. In probate court, Faucette's \"first husband seized her estate\" and obtained the few valuables she had owned, including some household silver. Many items were auctioned off, but a friend purchased the family's books and returned them to the young Hamilton. \n\nHamilton became a clerk at a local import-export firm, Beekman and Cruger, which traded with New England; he was left in charge of the firm for five months in 1771, while the owner was at sea. He and his older brother James Jr. were adopted briefly by a cousin, Peter Lytton; but when Lytton committed suicide, the brothers were separated. James apprenticed with a local carpenter, while Alexander was adopted by a Nevis merchant, Thomas Stevens. According to the writer Ron Chernow, some evidence suggests that Stevens may have been Alexander Hamilton's biological father; his son, Edward Stevens, became a close friend of Hamilton. The two boys were described as looking much alike, were both fluent in French, and shared similar interests. \n\nHamilton continued clerking, but he remained an avid reader, later developing an interest in writing, and began to desire a life outside the small island where he lived. He wrote an essay published in the Royal Danish-American Gazette, a detailed account of a hurricane which had devastated Christiansted on August 30, 1772. His biographer says that, \"Hamilton's famous letter about the storm astounds the reader for two reasons: for all its bombastic excesses, it does seem wondrous the 17-year-old self-educated clerk could write with such verve and gusto. Clearly, Hamilton was highly literate and already had considerable fund of verbal riches.\" The essay impressed community leaders, who collected a fund to send the young Hamilton to the North American colonies for his education. \n\nEducation\n\nIn the autumn of 1772, Hamilton arrived at Elizabethtown Academy, a grammar school in Elizabethtown, New Jersey. In 1773 he studied with Francis Barber at Elizabethtown in preparation for college work. He came under the influence of William Livingston, a leading intellectual and revolutionary, with whom he lived for a time at his Liberty Hall. Hamilton entered King's College in New York City (now Columbia University) in the autumn of 1773 \"as a private student\" and officially matriculated in May 1774. In what is credited as his first public appearance, on July 6, 1774 at the liberty pole at King's College, Hamilton's friend Robert Troup spoke glowingly of Hamilton's ability to clearly and concisely explain the rights and reasons the patriots have in their case against the British. Hamilton, Troup and four other undergraduates formed an unnamed literary society that is regarded as a precursor of the Philolexian Society. \n\nWhen the Church of England clergyman Samuel Seabury published a series of pamphlets promoting the Loyalist cause in 1774, Hamilton responded anonymously with his first political writings, A Full Vindication of the Measures of Congress and The Farmer Refuted. Seabury essentially tried to provoke fear into the colonies and his main objective was to stopgap the potential of a union among the colonies. Hamilton published two additional pieces attacking the Quebec Act and may have also authored the fifteen anonymous installments of \"The Monitor\" for Holt's New York Journal. Although Hamilton was a supporter of the Revolutionary cause at this prewar stage, he did not approve of mob reprisals against Loyalists. On May 10, 1775, Hamilton won credit for saving his college president Myles Cooper, a Loyalist, from an angry mob by speaking to the crowd long enough for Cooper to escape. \n\nDuring the Revolutionary War\n\nEarly military career\n\nIn 1775, after the first engagement of American troops with the British at Lexington and Concord, Hamilton and other King's College students joined a New York volunteer militia company called the Corsicans, later renamed or reformed as the Hearts of Oak. He drilled with the company, before classes, in the graveyard of nearby St. George's Chapel. Hamilton studied military history and tactics on his own and was soon recommended for promotion. Under fire from HMS Asia, he led a successful raid for British cannons in the Battery, the capture of which resulted in the Hearts of Oak becoming an artillery company thereafter. Through his connections with influential New York patriots such as Alexander McDougall and John Jay, he raised the New York Provincial Company of Artillery of sixty men in 1776, and was elected captain. It took part in the campaign of 1776 around New York City, particularly at the Battle of White Plains; at the Battle of Trenton, it was stationed at the high point of town, the meeting of the present Warren and Broad Streets, to keep the Hessians pinned in the Trenton Barracks. \n\nGeorge Washington's staff\n\nHamilton was invited to become an aide to William Alexander, Lord Stirling and one other general, perhaps Nathanael Greene or Alexander McDougall. He declined these invitations, believing his best chance for improving his station in life was glory on the battlefield. Hamilton eventually received an invitation he felt he could not refuse: to serve as Washington's aide, with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. Washington felt, \"Aides de camp are persons in whom entire confidence must be placed and it requires men of abilities to execute the duties with propriety and dispatch.\" Hamilton served for four years as Washington's chief staff aide. He handled letters to Congress, state governors, and the most powerful generals in the Continental Army; he drafted many of Washington's orders and letters at the latter's direction; he eventually issued orders from Washington over Hamilton's own signature. Hamilton was involved in a wide variety of high-level duties, including intelligence, diplomacy, and negotiation with senior army officers as Washington's emissary. \n\nDuring the war, Hamilton became close friends with several fellow officers. His letters to the Marquis de Lafayette and to John Laurens, employing the sentimental literary conventions of the late eighteenth century and alluding to Greek history and mythology, have been read by Jonathan Katz as revealing a homosocial or perhaps homosexual relationship, but few historians agree. \n\nWhile on Washington's staff, Hamilton long sought command and a return to active combat. As the war drew nearer to an end, he knew that opportunities for military glory were diminishing. In February 1781, Hamilton was mildly reprimanded by Washington and used this as an excuse to resign his staff position. He asked Washington and others for a field command. This continued until early July 1781, when Hamilton submitted a letter to Washington with his commission enclosed, \"thus tacitly threatening to resign if he didn't get his desired command.\" \n\nOn July 31, 1781, Washington relented and assigned Hamilton as commander of a New York light infantry battalion. In the planning for the assault on Yorktown, Hamilton was given command of three battalions, which were to fight in conjunction with the allied French troops in taking Redoubts No. 9 and No. 10 of the British fortifications at Yorktown. Hamilton and his battalions fought bravely and took Redoubt No. 10 with bayonets in a nighttime action, as planned. The French also fought bravely, suffered heavy casualties, and took Redoubt No. 9. These actions forced the British surrender of an entire army at Yorktown, Virginia, effectively ending their major British military operations in North America. \n\nCongress of the Confederation\n\nAfter the Battle of Yorktown, Hamilton resigned his commission. He was appointed in July 1782 to the Congress of the Confederation as a New York representative for the term beginning in November 1782. Before his appointment to Congress in 1782, Hamilton was already sharing his criticisms of Congress. He expressed these criticisms in his letter to James Duane dated September 3, 1780. In this letter he wrote, \"The fundamental defect is a want of power in Congress…the confederation itself is defective and requires to be altered; it is neither fit for war, nor peace.\" While on Washington's staff, Hamilton had become frustrated with the decentralized nature of the wartime Continental Congress, particularly its dependence upon the states for voluntary financial support. Under the Articles of Confederation, Congress had no power to collect taxes or to demand money from the states. This lack of a stable source of funding had made it difficult for the Continental Army both to obtain its necessary provisions and to pay its soldiers. During the war, and for some time after, Congress obtained what funds it could from subsidies from the King of France, from aid requested from the several states (which were often unable or unwilling to contribute), and from European loans. \n\nAn amendment to the Articles had been proposed by Thomas Burke, in February 1781, to give Congress the power to collect a 5% impost, or duty on all imports, but this required ratification by all states; securing its passage as law proved impossible after it was rejected by Rhode Island in November 1782. Madison joined Hamilton in persuading Congress to send a delegation to persuade Rhode Island to change its mind. Their report recommending the delegation argued the federal government needed not just some level of financial autonomy, but also the ability to make laws that superseded those of the individual states. Hamilton transmitted a letter arguing that Congress already had the power to tax, since it had the power to fix the sums due from the several states; but Virginia's rescission of its own ratification ended the Rhode Island negotiations. \n\nCongress and the army\n\nWhile Hamilton was in Congress, discontented soldiers began to pose a danger to the young United States. Most of the army was then posted at Newburgh, New York. Those in the army were paying for much of their own supplies, and they had not been paid in eight months. Furthermore, the Continental officers had been promised, in May 1778, after Valley Forge, a pension of half their pay when they were discharged. By the early 1780s, due to the structure of the government under the Articles of Confederation, it had no power to tax to either raise revenue or pay its soldiers.Tucker, p. 470. In 1782 after several months without pay, a group of officers organized to send a delegation to lobby Congress, led by Capt. Alexander MacDougall. The officers had three demands: the Army's pay, their own pensions, and commutation of those pensions into a lump-sum payment if Congress were unable to afford the half-salary pensions for life. Congress rejected the proposal.\n\nSeveral Congressmen, including Hamilton, Robert Morris and Gouverneur Morris, attempted to use this Newburgh Conspiracy as leverage to secure support from the states and in Congress for funding of the national government. They encouraged MacDougall to continue his aggressive approach, threatening unknown consequences if their demands were not met, and defeated proposals that would have resolved the crisis without establishing general federal taxation: that the states assume the debt to the army, or that an impost be established dedicated to the sole purpose of paying that debt.Kohn; Ellis 2004, pp. 141–4. Hamilton suggested using the Army's claims to prevail upon the states for the proposed national funding system. The Morrises and Hamilton contacted Knox to suggest he and the officers defy civil authority, at least by not disbanding if the army were not satisfied; Hamilton wrote Washington to suggest that Hamilton covertly \"take direction\" of the officers' efforts to secure redress, to secure continental funding but keep the army within the limits of moderation. Washington wrote Hamilton back, declining to introduce the army; after the crisis had ended, he warned of the dangers of using the army as leverage to gain support for the national funding plan. \n\nOn March 15, Washington defused the Newburgh situation by giving a speech to the officers. Congress ordered the Army officially disbanded in April 1783. In the same month, Congress passed a new measure for a twenty-five-year impost—which Hamilton voted against —that again required the consent of all the states; it also approved a commutation of the officers' pensions to five years of full pay. Rhode Island again opposed these provisions, and Hamilton's robust assertions of national prerogatives in his previous letter were widely held to be excessive. \n\nIn June 1783, a different group of disgruntled soldiers from Lancaster, Pennsylvania, sent Congress a petition demanding their back pay. When they began to march toward Philadelphia, Congress charged Hamilton and two others with intercepting the mob. Hamilton requested militia from Pennsylvania's Supreme Executive Council, but was turned down. Hamilton instructed Assistant Secretary of War William Jackson to intercept the men. Jackson was unsuccessful. The mob arrived in Philadelphia, and the soldiers proceeded to harangue Congress for their pay. The President of Congress, John Dickinson, feared that the Pennsylvania state militia was unreliable, and refused its help. Hamilton argued that Congress ought to adjourn to Princeton, New Jersey. Congress agreed, and relocated there. \n\nFrustrated with the weakness of the central government, Hamilton while in Princeton drafted a call to revise the Articles of Confederation. This resolution contained many features of the future U.S. Constitution, including a strong federal government with the ability to collect taxes and raise an army. It also included the separation of powers into the Executive, Legislative, and Judicial branches. \n\nReturn to New York\n\nHamilton resigned from Congress, and in July 1783 was authorized to practice law in New York after several months of self-directed education. He practiced law in New York City in partnership with Richard Harison. He specialized in defending Tories and British subjects, as in Rutgers v. Waddington, in which he defeated a claim for damages done to a brewery by the Englishmen who held it during the military occupation of New York. He pleaded for the Mayor's Court to interpret state law consistent with the 1783 Treaty of Paris which had ended the Revolutionary War. \n\nIn 1784, he founded the Bank of New York which became one of the longest operating banks in American history, it stayed in business for over 220 years before it merged with another bank in 2007. Hamilton was one of the men who restored King's College, which had been suspended since 1776 and severely damaged during the War, as Columbia College. Long dissatisfied with the weak Articles of Confederation, he played a major leadership role at the Annapolis Convention in 1786. He drafted its resolution for a constitutional convention, and in doing so brought his longtime desire to have a more powerful, more financially independent federal government one step closer to reality. \n\nConstitution and The Federalist Papers\n\nConstitutional Convention and ratification of the Constitution\n\nIn 1787, Hamilton served as assemblyman from New York County in the New York State Legislature and was chosen as a delegate for the Constitutional Convention by his father-in-law Philip Schuyler. Even though Hamilton had been a leader in calling for a new Constitutional Convention, his direct influence at the Convention itself was quite limited. Governor George Clinton's faction in the New York legislature had chosen New York's other two delegates, John Lansing, Jr. and Robert Yates, and both of them opposed Hamilton's goal of a strong national government. Morton, p. 131. Thus, whenever the other two members of the New York delegation were present, they decided New York's vote, to ensure that there were no major alterations to the Articles of Confederation. \n\nEarly in the Convention he made a speech proposing a President-for-Life; it had no effect upon the deliberations of the convention. He proposed to have an elected President and elected Senators who would serve for life, contingent upon \"good behavior\" and subject to removal for corruption or abuse; this idea contributed later to the hostile view of Hamilton as a monarchist sympathizer, held by James Madison. According to Madison's notes, Hamilton said in regards to the executive, \"The English model was the only good one on this subject. The hereditary interest of the king was so interwoven with that of the nation, and his personal emoluments so great, that he was placed above the danger of being corrupted from abroad…Let one executive be appointed for life who dares execute his powers.\" Hamilton argued, \"And let me observe that an executive is less dangerous to the liberties of the people when in office during life than for seven years. It may be said this constitutes as an elective monarchy…But by making the executive subject to impeachment, the term 'monarchy' cannot apply…\" During the convention, Hamilton constructed a draft for the Constitution based on the convention debates, but he never presented it. This draft had most of the features of the actual Constitution. In this draft, the Senate was to be elected in proportion to the population, being two-fifths the size of the House, and the President and Senators were to be elected through complex multistage elections, in which chosen electors would elect smaller bodies of electors; they would hold office for life, but were removable for misconduct. The President would have an absolute veto. The Supreme Court was to have immediate jurisdiction over all law suits involving the United States, and state governors were to be appointed by the federal government. \n\nAt the end of the Convention, Hamilton was still not content with the final form of the Constitution, but signed it anyway as a vast improvement over the Articles of Confederation, and urged his fellow delegates to do so also. Since the other two members of the New York delegation, Lansing and Yates, had already withdrawn, Hamilton was the only New York signer to the United States Constitution. He then took a highly active part in the successful campaign for the document's ratification in New York in 1788, which was a crucial step in its national ratification. He first used the popularity of the Constitution by the masses to compel George Clinton to sign, but was unsuccessful. The state convention in Poughkeepsie in June 1788 pitted Hamilton, Jay, James Duane, Robert Livingston, and Richard Morris against the Clintonian faction led by Melancton Smith, Lansing, Yates, and Gilbert Livingston.Denboer, p. 196. Hamilton's faction were against any conditional ratification, under the impression that New York would not be accepted into the Union, while Clinton's faction wanted to amend the Constitution, while maintaining the state's right to secede if their attempts failed. During the state convention, New Hampshire and Virginia becoming the ninth and tenth states to ratify the Constitution, respectively, had ensured any adjournment would not happen and a compromise would have to be reached.Kaplan, p. 75. Hamilton's arguments used for the ratifications were largely iterations of work from The Federalist Papers, and Smith eventually went for ratification, though it was more out of necessity than Hamilton's rhetoric. The vote in the state constitution was ratified 30 to 27, on July 26, 1788. \n\nIn 1788, Hamilton served yet another term in what proved to be the last session of the Continental Congress under the Articles of Confederation. When the term of Philip Schuyler was up in 1791, elected in his place was the attorney general of New York, one Aaron Burr. Hamilton blamed Burr for this result, and ill characterizations of Burr appear in his correspondence thereafter. The two men did work together from time to time thereafter on various projects, including Hamilton's army of 1798 and the Manhattan Water Company. \n\nThe Federalist Papers\n\nHamilton recruited John Jay and James Madison to write a series of essays defending the proposed Constitution, now known as The Federalist Papers, and made the largest contribution to that effort, writing 51 of 85 essays published (Madison wrote 29, Jay only five). Hamilton supervised the entire project, enlisted the participants, wrote the majority of the essays, and oversaw the publication. During the project each person was responsible for their areas of expertise; Jay covered foreign relations, Madison covered the history of republics and confederacies, along with the anatomy of the new government and Hamilton covered the branches of government most pertinent to him: the executive and judicial branches, with some aspects of the Senate, as well as covering military matters and taxation. The papers first appeared in The Independent Journal on October 27, 1787. \n\nHamilton wrote the first paper signed as Publius, and all of the subsequent papers were signed under the name. Jay wrote the next four papers to elaborate on the confederation's weakness and the need for unity against foreign aggression and against splitting into rival confederacies, and, except for Number 64, was not further involved. Hamilton's highlights included discussion that although republics have been culpable for disorders in the past, advances in the \"science of politics\" had fostered principles that ensured that those abuses could be prevented, such as the division of powers, legislative checks and balances, an independent judiciary, and legislators that were represented by electors (Numbers 7–9). Hamilton also wrote an extensive defense of the constitution (No. 23–36), and discussed the Senate and executive and judicial branches in Numbers 65–85. Hamilton and Madison worked to describe the anarchic state of the confederation in numbers 15–22, and have been described as not being entirely different in thought during this time period in contrast to their stark opposition later in life. Subtle differences appeared with the two when discussing the necessity of standing armies. \n\nReconciliation between New York and Vermont\n\nIn 1764 King George III had ruled in favor of New York in a dispute between New York and New Hampshire over the region that later became the state of Vermont. New York refused to recognize claims to property derived from grants by New Hampshire governor Benning Wentworth during the preceding 15 years when the territory had been governed as a de facto part of New Hampshire. Consequently, the people of the disputed territory, called the New Hampshire Grants, resisted the enforcement of New York's laws within the Grants. Indeed, Ethan Allen's militia called the Green Mountain Boys, noted for successes in the war against the British in 1775, was originally formed for the purpose of resisting the colonial government of New York. In 1777 the statesmen of the Grants declared it a separate state to be called Vermont, and by early 1778 had erected a state government. During 1777–1785, Vermont was repeatedly denied representation in the Continental Congress, largely because New York insisted that Vermont was legally a part of New York. Vermont took the position that because its petitions for admission to the Union were denied, it was not a part of the United States, not subject to Congress, and at liberty to negotiate separately with the British. The latter Haldimand negotiations led to some exchanges of prisoners of war. The peace treaty of 1783 that ended the war included Vermont within the boundaries of the United States.\n\nBy 1787 the government of New York had almost entirely given up plans to subjugate Vermont, but still claimed jurisdiction. As a member of the legislature of New York, Hamilton argued forcefully and at length in favor of a bill to recognize the sovereignty of the State of Vermont, against numerous objections to its constitutionality and policy. Consideration of the bill was deferred to a later date. In 1788 and 1789 extensive negotiations were carried out between Hamilton and Nathaniel Chipman, a lawyer representing Vermont. Among the topics were the location of the border between Vermont and New York, and financial compensation of New York land-grantees whose grants Vermont refused to recognize because they conflicted with earlier grants from New Hampshire. In 1788 the new Constitution of the United States went into effect, with its plan to replace the unicameral Continental Congress with a new Congress consisting of a Senate and a House of Representatives. Hamilton wrote: One of the first subjects of deliberation with the new Congress will be the independence of Kentucky [at that time still a part of Virginia], for which the southern states will be anxious. The northern will be glad to find a counterpoise in Vermont.\n\nIn 1790 the legislature of New York agreed to give up that state's claim to jurisdiction in Vermont on condition that Congress would admit Vermont state to the Union.\n\nSecretary of the Treasury\n\nPresident George Washington appointed Hamilton as the first United States Secretary of the Treasury on September 11, 1789. He left office on the last day of January 1795. Much of the structure of the government of the United States was worked out in those five years, beginning with the structure and function of the cabinet itself. Biographer Forrest McDonald argues that Hamilton saw his office, like that of the British First Lord of the Treasury, as the equivalent of a Prime Minister; Hamilton would oversee his colleagues under the elective reign of George Washington. Washington did request Hamilton's advice and assistance on matters outside the purview of the Treasury Department. In 1791, while Secretary, Hamilton was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Hamilton submitted various financial reports to Congress. Among these are the First Report on the Public Credit, Operations of the Act Laying Duties on Imports, Report on a National Bank, On the Establishment of a Mint, Report on Manufactures, and the Report on a Plan for the Further Support of Public Credit. So, the great enterprise in Hamilton's project of an administrative republic is the establishment of stability. \n\nReport on Public Credit\n\nBefore the adjournment of the House in September 1789, they requested Hamilton to make a report on suggestions to improve the public credit by January 1790.Murray, p. 121. Hamilton had written to Robert Morris as early as 1781 that fixing the public credit will win their objective of independence. The sources that Hamilton used ranged from Frenchmen such as Jacques Necker and Montesquieu to British writers such as Hume, Hobbes, and Malachy Postlethwayt.Chernow, p. 296. While writing the report he also sought out suggestions from contemporaries such as John Knox Witherspoon, and Madison. Although they agreed on additional taxes such as distilleries and duties on imported liquors and land taxes, Madison feared that the securities from the government debt would fall in foreign hands. \n\nIn the report, Hamilton felt that the debt that the United States had accrued during the Revolutionary War was the price it paid for its liberty. He argued that liberty and property security were inseparable and that the government should honor the contracts, as they formed the basis of public and private morality. To Hamilton, the proper handling of the government debt would also allow America to borrow at affordable interest rates and would also be a stimulant to the economy. Hamilton divided the debt into national and state, and further divided the national debt into foreign and domestic debt. While there was agreement on how to handle the foreign debt (especially with France), there was not with regards to the national debt held by domestic creditors. During the Revolutionary War, affluent citizens had invested in bonds, and war veterans had been paid with promissory notes and IOUs that plummeted in price during the Confederation. In response, the war veterans sold the securities to speculators for as little as fifteen to twenty cents on the dollar. Hamilton felt the money from the bonds should not go to the soldiers, but the speculators that had bought the bonds from the soldiers, as they had little faith in the country's future. The process of attempting to track down the original bond holders along with the government showing discrimination among the classes of holders if the war veterans were to be compensated also weighed in as factors for Hamilton. As for the state debts, Hamilton suggested to consolidate it with the national debt and label it as federal debt, for the sake of efficiency on a national scale. The last portion of the report dealt with eliminating the debt by utilizing a sinking fund that would retire five percent of the debt annually until it was paid off. Due to the bonds being traded well below their face value, the purchases would benefit the government as the securities rose in price. \n\nWhen the report was submitted to the House of Representatives, detractors soon began to speak against it. The notion of programs that resembled British practice were wicked along with the power of balance being shifted away from the Representatives to the executive branch were some of the prejudices that resided within the House. William Maclay suspected that that several congressmen were involved in government securities, saw Congress in an unholy league with New York speculators. Congressman James Jackson also spoke against New York with allegations of speculators attempting to swindle those who had yet heard about Hamilton's report. The involvement of those in Hamilton's circle such as Schuyler, William Duer, James Duane, Gouverneur Morris, and Rufus King as speculators was not favorable to those against the report, either, though Hamilton personally did not own or deal a share in the debt. Madison eventually spoke against it by February 1790. Although he was not against current holders of government debt to profit, he wanted the windfall to go to the original holders. Madison did not feel that the original holders had lost faith in the government, but sold their securities out of desperation. The compromise was seen as egregious to both Hamiltonians and their dissidents such as Maclay, and Madison's vote was defeated 36 votes to 13 on February 22. \n\nThe fight for the national government to assume state debt was a longer issue, and lasted over four months. During the period, the resources that Hamilton was to apply to the payment of state debts was requested by Alexander White, and was rejected due to Hamilton's not being able to prepare information by March 3, and was even postponed by his own supporters in spite of configuring a report the next day (which consisted of a series of additional duties to meet the interest on the state debts). Some of the other issues involving Hamilton were bypassing the rising issue of slavery in Congress after Quakers petitioned for its abolition (though he returned to the issue the following year), having Duer resign as Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, and the vote of assumption being voted down 31 votes to 29 on April 12. The temporary location of the capital from New York City also played a role, as Tench Coxe was sent to speak to Maclay to bargain about the capital being temporarily located to Philadelphia, as a single vote in the Senate was needed and five in the House for the bill to pass. The bill passed in the Senate on July 21 and in the House 34 votes to 28 on July 26, 1790.\n\nReport on a National Bank\n\nHamilton's Report on a National Bank was a projection from the first Report on the Public Credit. Although Hamilton had been forming ideas of a national bank as early as 1779,Schachner, p. 268. he gathered ideas in various ways over the past eleven years. These included theories from Adam Smith, extensive studies on the Bank of England, the blunders of the Bank of North America and his experience in establishing the Bank of New York. He also used American records from James Wilson, Pelatiah Webster, Gouverneur Morris, and from his assistant Treasury secretary Tench Coxe.\n\nHamilton suggested that Congress should charter the National Bank with a capitalization of $10 million, one-fifth of which would be handled by the Government. Since the Government did not have the money, it would borrow the money from the bank itself, and repay the loan in ten even annual installments.McDonald, p. 194. The rest was to be available to individual investors. The bank was to be governed by a twenty-five member board of directors that was to represent a large majority of the private shareholders, which Hamilton considered essential for his being under a private direction. Hamilton's bank model had many similarities to that of the Bank of England, except Hamilton wanted to exclude the Government from being involved in public debt, but provide a large, firm, and elastic money supply for the functioning of normal businesses and usual economic development, among other differences. For tax revenue to ignite the bank, it was the same as he had previously proposed; increases on imported spirits: rum, liquor, and whiskey. \n\nThe bill passed through the Senate practically without a problem, but objections of the proposal increased by the time it reached the House of Representatives. It was generally held by critics that Hamilton was serving the interests of the Northeast by means of the bank, and those of the agrarian lifestyle would not benefit from it.Schachner, p. 270. Among those critics was James Jackson of Georgia, who also attempted to refute the report by quoting from The Federalist Papers. Madison and Jefferson also opposed the bank bill; however, the potential of the capital not being moved to the Potomac if the bank was to have a firm establishment in Philadelphia (the current capital of the United States) was a more significant reason, and actions that Pennsylvania members of Congress took to keep the capital there made both men anxious. Madison warned the Pennsylvania congress members that he would attack the bill as unconstitutional in the House, and followed up on his threat. Madison argued his case of where the power of a bank could be established within the Constitution, but he failed to sway members of the House, and his authority on the constitution was questioned by a few members. The bill eventually passed in an overwhelming fashion 39 to 20, on February 8, 1791. \n\nWashington hesitated to sign the bill, as he received suggestions from Attorney-General Edmund Randolph and Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson dismissed the 'necessary and proper' clause as reasoning for the creation of a national bank, stating that the enumerated powers \"can all be carried into execution without a bank.\" Along with Randolph and Jefferson's objections, Washington's involvement in the movement of the capital from Philadelphia is also thought to be a reason for his hesitation. In response to the objection of the 'necessary and proper' clause, Hamilton stated that \"Necessary often means no more than needful, requisite, incidental, useful, or conductive to\", and the bank was a \"convenient species of medium in which they (taxes) are to be paid.\".Schachner, pp. 272–73. Washington would eventually sign the bill into law.\n\nEstablishing the U.S. Mint\n\nIn 1791, Hamilton submitted Report on the Establishment of a Mint to the House of Representatives. Most of Hamilton's ideas for this report were from European economists, resolutions from Continental Congress meetings from 1785 and 1786, and from people such as Gouverneur Morris and Thomas Jefferson. McDonald, p. 197. Due to the Spanish coin being the most circulated coin in the United States at the time, Alexander Hamilton proposed that the minting of the United States dollar weighing almost as much as the Spanish peso would be the simplest way to introduce a national currency. Hamilton wanted the U.S. dollar system to be set for decimals rather than the eights like the Spanish mint. In spite of preferring a monometallic gold standard,Studentski; Krooss, p. 62. he issued a bimetallic currency at ratio that was to be similar to most European countries. What was different from the European currencies was his desire to overprice the gold on the grounds that the United States would always receive an influx of silver from the West Indies. Hamilton desired the minting of small value coins such as silver ten-cent, copper, and half-cent pieces, for reducing the cost of living for the poor.Cooke, p. 88.McDonald, p. 198. One of his main objectives was for the general public to become accustomed to handling money on a frequent basis.\n\nBy 1792, Hamilton's principles were adopted by Congress, resulting in the Coinage Act of 1792, and the creation of the United States Mint. There was to be a ten dollar Gold Eagle coin, a silver dollar, and fractional money ranging from one-half to fifty cents. The coining of silver and gold was issued by 1795.\n\nRevenue Cutter Service\n\nSmuggling off American coasts was an issue before the Revolutionary War, and after the Revolution it was more problematic. Along with smuggling, lack of shipping control, pirating, and a revenue unbalance were also major problems.Gibowicz, p. 256. In response, Hamilton proposed to Congress to enact a naval police force called revenue cutters in order to patrol the waters and assist the custom collectors with confiscating contraband.Chernow, p. 340. This idea was also proposed to assist in tariff controlling, boosting the American economy, and promote the merchant marine. It is thought that his experience obtained during his apprenticeship with Nicholas Kruger was influential in his decision-making. \n\nConcerning some of the details of the \"System of Cutters\", Hamilton wanted the first ten cutters in different areas in the United States, from New England to Georgia. Hamilton also wanted those cutters to be armed with ten muskets and bayonets, twenty pistols, two chisels, one broad-ax and two lanterns. Hamilton also wanted the fabric of the sails to be domestically manufactured. Hamilton was also concerned of the employees' food supply and etiquette when boarding ships, and made provisions for each. Congress established the Revenue Cutter Service on August 4, 1790, which is viewed as the birth of the United States Coast Guard.\n\nWhiskey as tax revenue\n\nOne of the principal sources of revenue Hamilton prevailed upon Congress to approve was an excise tax on whiskey. In his first Tariff Bill in January of 1790, Hamilton proposed to raise the three million dollars needed to pay for government operating expenses and interest on domestic and foreign debts by means of an increase on duties on imported wines, distilled spirits, tea, coffee, and domestic spirits. It failed, with Congress complying with most recommendations excluding the excise tax on Whiskey (Madison's tariff of the same year was a modification of Hamilton's that involved only imported duties and was passed in September). \n\nIn response of diversifying revenues, as three-fourths of revenue gathered was from commerce with Great Britain, Hamilton attempted once again during his Report on Public Credit when presenting it in 1790 to implement an excise tax both imported and domestic spirits. The taxation rate was graduated in proportion to the whiskey proof, and Hamilton intended to equalize the tax burden on imported spirits with imported and domestic liquor. In lieu of the excise on production citizens could pay 60 cents by the gallon of dispensing capacity, along with an exemption on small stills used exclusively for domestic consumption. He realized the loathing that the tax would receive in rural areas, but thought of the taxing of spirits more reasonable than land taxes.\n\nOpposition initially came from Pennsylvania's House of Representatives protesting the tax. William Maclay had noted that not even the Pennsylvanian legislators had been able to enforce excise taxes in the western regions of the state. Hamilton was aware of the potential difficulties and proposed inspectors the ability to search buildings that distillers were designated to store their spirits, and would be able to search suspected illegal storage facilities to confiscate contraband with a warrant. Although the inspectors were not allowed to search houses and warehouses, they were to visit twice a day and file weekly reports in extensive detail. Hamilton cautioned against expedited judicial means, and favored a jury trial with potential offenders. As soon as 1791 locals began to shun or threaten inspectors, as they felt the inspection methods were intrusive. Inspectors were also tarred and feathered, blindfolded, and whipped. Hamilton had attempted to appease the opposition with lowered tax rates, but it did not suffice. \n\nStrong opposition to the whiskey tax by cottage producers in remote, rural regions erupted into the Whiskey Rebellion in 1794; in Western Pennsylvania and western Virginia, whiskey was the basic export product and was fundamental to the local economy. In response to the rebellion, believing compliance with the laws was vital to the establishment of federal authority, Hamilton accompanied to the rebellion's site President Washington, General Henry \"Light Horse Harry\" Lee, and more federal troops than were ever assembled in one place during the Revolution. This overwhelming display of force intimidated the leaders of the insurrection, ending the rebellion virtually without bloodshed. \n\nManufacturing and industry\n\nHamilton's next report was his Report on Manufactures. Although he was requested by Congress on January 15, 1790 for a report for manufacturing that would expand the United States' independence, the report was not submitted until December 5, 1791. In the report, Hamilton quoted from Wealth of Nations and used the French physiocrats as an example for rejecting agrarianism and the physiocratic theory; respectively.McDonald, p. 233. Hamilton also refuted Smith's ideas of government noninterference, as it would have been detrimental for trade with other countries. Hamilton also thought of the United States being a primarily agrarian country would be a disadvantage in dealing with Europe. In response to the agrarian detractors, Hamilton stated that the agriculturists' interest would be advanced by manufactures,Schachner, p. 276. and that agriculture was just as productive as manufacturing.\n\nAmong the ways that the government could assist in manufacturing, Hamilton mentioned levying protective duties on imported foreign goods that were also manufactured in the United States,Cooke, p. 101. to withdraw duties levied on raw materials needed for domestic manufacturing,Schachner, p. 277. pecuniary boundaries, and encouraging immigration for people to better themselves in similar employment opportunities. Congress shelved the report without much debate (except for Madison's objection to Hamilton's formulation of the General Welfare clause, which Hamilton construed liberally as a legal basis for his extensive programs). \n\nSubsequently in 1791, with his ideas for manufacturing being a major influence, Hamilton, along with Coxe and several entrepreneurs from New York and Philadelphia helped form the Society for the Establishment of Useful Manufactures, a private industrial corporation. The location at Great Falls of the Passaic River in New Jersey was selected due to access to raw materials, it being densely inhabited, and having access to water power from the falls of the Passaic. The factory town was named Paterson after New Jersey's Governor William Paterson, who signed the charter. The profits were to derive from specific corporates rather than the benefits to be conferred to the nation and the citizens, which was unlike the report.Cooke, p. 102. Hamilton also suggested the first stock to be offered at $500,000 and to eventually increase to $1 million, and welcomed state and national government subscriptions alike. The company was never successful: numerous shareholders reneged on stock payments, some members soon went bankrupt, and William Duer, the governor of the program, was sent to debtors' prison.Cooke, p. 103. In spite of Hamilton's efforts to mend the disaster, the company would expire by 1796.\n\nEmergence of parties\n\nDuring Hamilton's tenure as Treasury Secretary, political factions began to emerge. A Congressional caucus, led by James Madison and William Branch Giles, began as an opposition group to Hamilton's financial programs, and Thomas Jefferson joined this group when he returned from France. Hamilton and his allies began to call themselves Federalists. The opposition group, now called the Democratic-Republican Party by political scientists, was at the time known as Republicans. \n\nHamilton assembled a nationwide coalition to garner support for the Administration, including the expansive financial programs Hamilton had made Administration policy and especially the president's policy of neutrality in the European war between Britain and France. Hamilton's public relations campaign attacked the French minister Edmond-Charles Genêt (he called himself \"Citizen Genêt\") who tried to appeal to voters directly, which Federalists denounced as foreign interference in American affairs. If Hamilton's administrative republic was to succeed, Americans had to see themselves as nation citizens, and experience an administration that proved firm and demonstrated the concepts found within the United States Constitution. The Federalists did impose some internal direct taxes but they departed from the most implications of the Hamilton administrative republic as risky. \n\nThe Jeffersonian Republicans opposed banks and cities, and favored France. They built their own national coalition to oppose the Federalists. Both sides gained the support of local political factions; each side developed its own partisan newspapers. Noah Webster, John Fenno, and William Cobbett were energetic editors for the Federalists; Benjamin Franklin Bache and Philip Freneau were fiery Republican editors. All the newspapers were characterized by intense personal attacks, major exaggerations and invented claims. In 1801, Hamilton established a daily newspaper, the New York Evening Post and brought in William Coleman as editor. It is still publishing (as the New York Post). \n\nThe quarrel between Hamilton and Jefferson is the best known and historically the most important in American political history. Hamilton's and Jefferson's incompatibility was heightened by the unavowed wish of each to be Washington's principal and most trusted advisor. \n\nJay Treaty and Britain\n\nWhen France and Britain went to war in early 1793, all four members of the Cabinet were consulted on what to do. They and Washington unanimously agreed to remain neutral, and to send Genêt home. However, in 1794 policy toward Britain became a major point of contention between the two parties. Hamilton and the Federalists wished for more trade with Britain, the new nation's largest trading partner. The Republicans saw Britain as the main threat to republicanism and proposed instead a trade war. \n\nTo avoid war, Washington sent Chief Justice John Jay to negotiate with the British; Hamilton largely wrote Jay's instructions. The result was Jay's Treaty. It was denounced by the Republicans but Hamilton mobilized support up and down the land. The Jay Treaty passed the Senate in 1795 by exactly the required two-thirds majority. The Treaty resolved issues remaining from the Revolution, averted war, and made possible ten years of peaceful trade between the United States and Britain. Historian George Herring notes the \"remarkable and fortuitous economic and diplomatic gains\" produced by the Treaty. \n\nSeveral European nations had formed a League of Armed Neutrality against incursions on their neutral rights; the Cabinet was also consulted on whether the United States should join it, and decided not to. It kept that decision secret, but Hamilton revealed it in private to George Hammond, the British Minister to the United States, without telling Jay or anyone else. (His act remained unknown until Hammond's dispatches were read in the 1920s). This \"amazing revelation\" may have had limited effect on the negotiations; Jay did threaten to join the League at one point, but the British had other reasons not to view the League as a serious threat. \n\nSecond Report on Public Credit\n\nBefore leaving his post in 1795, Hamilton submitted Report on a Plan for the Further Support of Public Credit to Congress to curb the debt problem. Hamilton grew dissatisfied with what he viewed as a lack of a comprehensive plan to fix the public debt. He wished to have new taxes passed with older ones made permanent and stated that any surplus from the excise tax on liquor would be pledged to lower public debt. His proposals were included into a bill by Congress within slightly over a month after his departure as treasury secretary. \n\nPost-Secretary years\n\nThe Reynolds affair\n\nIn 1791, Hamilton became involved in an affair with Maria Reynolds over a nine-month period that would be revealed to the public several years afterward. Reynolds appeared to Hamilton as a woman who had been abandoned by her husband, James, at New York and wished to return to there.Schachner, pp. 366–69. Hamilton did not have any money on his person, so he retrieved her address in order to deliver the funds in person. After the brief dialogue in Reynolds' bedroom, he had frequent meetings with her. Hamilton then received two letters on December 15, 1791, one from both Mr. and Mrs. Reynolds. The first letter was Maria warning of her husband's knowledge and of James attempting to blackmail Hamilton. By this point Hamilton contemplated ending the relationship, and briefly ceased to visit, but both apparently were involved in the blackmailing scheme as both sent letters, and at one point James Reynolds requested to 'befriend' her. By May of 1792, James Reynolds had requested for Hamilton to no longer see his wife, but not before receiving fifty and two hundred dollars out of over $1300 in blackmail. Hamilton possibly was aware of both Reynolds' being involved before the blackmailing incident. \n\nWhen under suspicion of illegal actions while Secretary of the Treasury by associating with William Duer from John J. Beckley and Jacob Clingman, the latter also had alleged evidence of James Reynolds being an agent of Hamilton's, with accompanying letters gathered from Maria Reynolds that were from Hamilton. This information was relayed to James Monroe, who consulted with Congressmen Muhlenberg and Venable on what actions to take. When it was suggested by Clingman that James Reynolds had evidence that would incriminate Hamilton, after both were arrested for counterfeiting and Clingman was released, Monroe and the Congressmen soon confronted Hamilton on 15 December 1792. After Hamilton discussed the affair, the trio were to keep the documents privately with the utmost confidence.\n\nIn 1797, however, when \"notoriously scurrilous journalist\" James T. Callender published A History of the United States for the Year 1796, it contained accusations of James Reynolds being an agent of Hamilton using documents from the confrontation on December 15, 1792. On July 5, 1797, Hamilton wrote to all three men to confirm that there was nothing that would damage the perception of his integrity while Secretary of Treasury. All complied but Monroe, and after several rounds of argument, the two almost resorted to a duel. When Hamilton did not obtain an explicit response from Monroe, he published a pamphlet in order to preserve his public reputation, and discussed the affair in exquisite detail. His wife forgave him, but not Monroe. Though he faced ridicule from the Democratic-Republican faction, he maintained his availability for public service. \n\n1796 presidential election\n\nHamilton's resignation as Secretary of the Treasury in 1795 did not remove him from public life. With the resumption of his law practice, he remained close to Washington as an advisor and friend. Hamilton influenced Washington in the composition of his Farewell Address by writing drafts for Washington to compare with the latter's draft, although when Washington contemplated retirement in 1792, he had consulted James Madison for a draft that was used in a similar manner to Hamilton's. \n\nIn the election of 1796, under the Constitution as it stood then, each of the presidential electors had two votes, which they were to cast for different men. The one who received most votes would become President, the second-most, Vice President. This system was not designed with the operation of parties in mind, as they had been thought disreputable and factious. The Federalists planned to deal with this by having all their Electors vote for John Adams, the Vice President, and all but a few for Thomas Pinckney of South Carolina.\n\nAdams resented Hamilton's influence with Washington and considered him overambitious and scandalous in his private life; Hamilton compared Adams unfavorably with Washington and thought him too emotionally unstable to be President.Chernow, p. 510. Hamilton took the election as an opportunity: he urged all the northern electors to vote for Adams and Pinckney, lest Jefferson get in; but he cooperated with Edward Rutledge to have South Carolina's electors vote for Jefferson and Pinckney. If all this worked, Pinckney would have more votes than Adams, Pinckney would become President, and Adams would remain Vice President, but it did not work. The Federalists found out about it (even the French minister to the United States knew), and northern Federalists voted for Adams but not for Pinckney, in sufficient numbers that Pinckney came in third and Jefferson became Vice President. Adams resented the intrigue since he felt his service to the nation was much more extensive than Pinckney's. \n\nQuasi-War\n\nDuring the Quasi-War of 1798–1800, and with Washington's strong endorsement, Adams reluctantly appointed Hamilton a major general of the army; at Washington's insistence, Hamilton was made the senior major general, prompting Henry Knox to decline appointment to serve as Hamilton's junior (Knox had been a major general in the Continental Army and thought it would be degrading to serve beneath him). Hamilton served as inspector general of the United States Army from July 18, 1798, to June 15, 1800; because Washington was unwilling to leave Mount Vernon unless it were to command an army in the field, Hamilton was the de facto head of the army, to Adams's considerable displeasure. If full-scale war broke out with France, Hamilton argued that the army should conquer the North American colonies of France's ally, Spain, bordering the United States. \n\nTo fund this army, Hamilton wrote regularly to Oliver Wolcott, Jr., his successor at the Treasury; William Loughton Smith, of the House Ways and Means Committee; and Senator Theodore Sedgwick of Massachusetts. He directed them to pass a direct tax to fund the war. Smith resigned in July 1797, as Hamilton scolded him for slowness, and told Wolcott to tax houses instead of land. \n\nThe eventual program included a Stamp Act like that of the British before the Revolution and other taxes on land, houses, and slaves, calculated at different rates in different states, and requiring difficult and intricate assessment of houses. This provoked resistance in southeastern Pennsylvania, led primarily by men such as John Fries who had marched with Washington against the Whiskey Rebellion. \n\nHamilton aided in all areas of the army's development, and after Washington's death he was by default the Senior Officer of the United States Army from December 14, 1799, to June 15, 1800. The army was to guard against invasion from France. Adams, however, derailed all plans for war by opening negotiations with France. Adams had held it proper to retain the members of Washington's cabinet, except for cause; he found, in 1800 (after Washington's death), that they were obeying Hamilton rather than himself, and fired several of them. \n\n1800 presidential election\n\nIn the 1800 election, Hamilton worked to defeat not only the rival Democratic-Republican candidates, but also his party's own nominee, John Adams. In November 1799, the Alien and Sedition Acts had left one Democratic-Republican newspaper functioning in New York City; when the last, the New Daily Advertiser, reprinted an article saying that Hamilton had attempted to purchase the Philadelphia Aurora and close it down, Hamilton had the publisher prosecuted for seditious libel, and the prosecution compelled the owner to close the paper. \n\nAaron Burr had won New York for Jefferson in May; now Hamilton proposed a rerun of the election under different rules—with carefully drawn districts and each choosing an elector—such that the Federalists would split the electoral vote of New York. (John Jay, a Federalist who had given up the Supreme Court to be Governor of New York, wrote on the back of the letter the words, \"Proposing a measure for party purposes which it would not become me to adopt,\" and declined to reply.) \n\nJohn Adams was running this time with Charles Cotesworth Pinckney of South Carolina (the elder brother of candidate Thomas Pinckney from the 1796 election). Hamilton now toured New England, again urging northern electors to hold firm for Pinckney in the renewed hope of making Pinckney president; and he again intrigued in South Carolina.McDonald, pp. 350–51. Hamilton's ideas involved coaxing middle-state Federalists to assert their non-support for Adams if there was no support for Pinckney and writing to more of the modest supports of Adams concerning his supposed misconduct while president. Hamilton expected to see southern states such as the Carolinas cast their votes for Pinckney and Jefferson, and would result in the former being ahead of both Adams and Jefferson. \n\nIn accordance with the second of the aforementioned plans, and a recent personal rift with Adams, Hamilton wrote a pamphlet called Letter from Alexander Hamilton, Concerning the Public Conduct and Character of John Adams, Esq. President of the United States that was highly critical of him, though it closed with a tepid endorsement. He mailed this to two hundred leading Federalists; when a copy fell into the Democratic-Republicans' hands, they printed it. This hurt Adams's 1800 reelection campaign and split the Federalist Party, virtually assuring the victory of the Democratic-Republican Party, led by Jefferson, in the election of 1800; it destroyed Hamilton's position among the Federalists. \n\nJefferson had beaten Adams, but both he and his running mate, Aaron Burr, had received 73 votes in the Electoral College (Adams finished in third place, Pinckney in fourth, and Jay received one vote). With Jefferson and Burr tied, the United States House of Representatives had to choose between the two men.McDonald, p. 352. Several Federalists who opposed Jefferson supported Burr, and for the first 35 ballots, Jefferson was denied a majority. Before the 36th ballot, Hamilton threw his weight behind Jefferson, supporting the arrangement reached by James A. Bayard of Delaware, in which five Federalist Representatives from Maryland and Vermont abstained from voting, allowing those states' delegations to go for Jefferson, ending the impasse and electing Jefferson President rather than Burr. Even though Hamilton did not like Jefferson and disagreed with him on many issues, he viewed Jefferson as the lesser of two evils. Hamilton spoke of Jefferson as being \"by far not so a dangerous man\", and that Burr was a \"mischievous enemy\" to the principle measure of the past administration. There is strong circumstantial evidence, however, that what Hamilton really feared was Burr's appeal to the members of the Federalist Party and loss of his control over them. Many Federalists viewed Burr as a moderate who was willing to dialogue with them. It was for that reason, along with the fact that Burr was a northerner and not a Virginian, that many Federalist Representatives voted for him. Hamilton wrote an exceeding number of letters to friends in Congress to convince the members to see otherwise.Schachner, p. 401. However, the Federalists rejected Hamilton's diatribe as reasons to not vote for Burr. Nevertheless, Burr would become Vice President of the United States. When it became clear that Jefferson had developed his own concerns about Burr and would not support his return to the Vice Presidency, Burr sought the New York governorship in 1804 with Federalist support, against the Jeffersonian Morgan Lewis, but was defeated by forces including Hamilton. \n\nDuel with Burr and death\n\nSoon after the 1804 gubernatorial election in New York—in which Morgan Lewis, greatly assisted by Hamilton, defeated Aaron Burr—the Albany Register published Charles D. Cooper's letters, citing Hamilton's opposition to Burr and alleging that Hamilton had expressed \"a still more despicable opinion\" of the Vice President at an upstate New York dinner party. Cooper claimed that the letter was intercepted after relaying the information, but stated he was 'unusually cautious' in recollecting the information from the dinner. Burr, sensing an attack on his honor, and recovering from his defeat, demanded an apology in letter form. Hamilton wrote a letter in response and ultimately refused because he could not recall the instance of insulting Burr; also, Hamilton would have been accused of recanting Cooper's letter out of cowardice. After a series of attempts to reconcile were to no avail, the duel was accepted through liaisons on June 27, 1804. \n\nThe night before the duel, Hamilton wrote a defense of his decision to duel. Hamilton viewed his roles of being a father and husband, putting his creditors at risk, placing his family's welfare in jeopardy and his moral and religious stances as reasons not to duel, but he felt it impossible to avoid due to having made attacks on Burr which he was unable to recant, and because of Burr's behavior prior to the duel. He attempted to reconcile his moral and religious reasons and the codes of honor and politics. He intended to accept the duel and throw his fire in order to satisfy his morals and political codes, respectively. His desire to be available for future political matters also played a factor.\n\nThe duel began at dawn on July 11, 1804, along the west bank of the Hudson River on a rocky ledge in Weehawken, New Jersey. After the seconds measured the paces, Hamilton, according to both William P. Van Ness and Burr, raised his pistol \"as if to try the light\" and had to wear his spectacles to prevent his vision from being obscured. Hamilton also refused the hairspring set of dueling pistols (that would make the pulling of the trigger lighter) when offered by Nathaniel Pendleton. Vice President Burr shot Hamilton, delivering what proved to be a fatal wound. Hamilton's shot broke a tree branch directly above Burr's head.Chernow, p.704 Neither of the seconds, Pendleton nor Van Ness, could determine who fired first, as each claimed that the other man had fired first. Soon after, they measured and triangulated the shooting, but could not determine from which angle Hamilton fired. Burr's shot, however, hit Hamilton in the lower abdomen above the right hip. The bullet ricocheted off Hamilton's second or third false rib, fracturing it and causing considerable damage to his internal organs, particularly his liver and diaphragm, before becoming lodged in his first or second lumbar vertebra. Biographer Ron Chernow considered the circumstances to indicate that, after taking deliberate aim, Burr fired second, while biographer James Earnest Cooke suggested that Burr took careful aim and shot first, and Hamilton fired while falling, after being struck by Burr's bullet. \n\nThe paralyzed Hamilton, who knew himself to be mortally wounded, was ferried to the Greenwich Village home of his friend William Bayard Jr., who had been waiting on the dock. After final visits from his family and friends and considerable suffering, Hamilton died on the following afternoon, July 12, 1804, at Bayard's home at what is now 80–82 Jane Street. Gouverneur Morris gave the eulogy at his funeral and secretly established a fund to support his widow and children. Hamilton was buried in the Trinity Churchyard Cemetery in Manhattan. \n\nPersonal life\n\nFamily\n\nWhile Hamilton was stationed in Morristown, New Jersey, in the winter of 1779 and 1780, he met Elizabeth Schuyler, a daughter of Philip Schuyler and Catherine Van Rensselaer. The two were married on December 14, 1780, at the Schuyler Mansion in Albany, New York. He and Elizabeth had eight children, including two named Philip. The elder Philip, Hamilton's first child (born January 22, 1782), was killed in 1801 in a duel with George I. Eacker, whom he had publicly insulted in a Manhattan theater. The second Philip, Hamilton's last child, was born on June 2, 1802, after the first Philip was killed. Their other children were Angelica, born September 25, 1784; Alexander, born May 16, 1786; James Alexander (April 14, 1788 – September 1878); John Church, (August 22, 1792 – July 25, 1882); William Stephen (August 4, 1797 – October 9, 1850); and Eliza, born November 26, 1799.Chernow, p. 582.\n\nHamilton was also close to Elizabeth's older sister, Angelica, who eloped with John Barker Church, an Englishman who made a fortune in North America during the Revolution. She returned with Church to London after the war, where she later became a joint friend of Maria Cosway and Thomas Jefferson. \n\nHamilton's religion\n\nHamilton, as a youth in the West Indies, was an orthodox and conventional Presbyterian of the \"New Light\" evangelical type (as opposed to the \"Old Light\" Calvinists); he was being taught by a student of John Witherspoon, a moderate of the New School. He wrote two or three hymns, which were published in the local newspaper. Robert Troup, his college roommate, noted that Hamilton was \"in the habit of praying on his knees night and morning.\" \n\nGordon Wood says that Hamilton dropped his youthful religiosity during the Revolution and became, \"a conventional liberal with theistic inclinations who was an irregular churchgoer at best\"; however, he returned to religion in his last years. Chernow says he was nominally an Episcopalian but:\nhe was not clearly affiliated with the denomination and did not seem to attend church regularly or take communion. Like Adams, Franklin, and Jefferson, Hamilton had probably fallen under the sway of deism, which sought to substitute reason for revelation and dropped the notion of an active God that will intervene in human affairs. At the same time, he never doubted God's existence, embracing Christianity as a system of morality and cosmic justice. \n\nHamilton made jokes about God at the Constitutional Convention. During the French Revolution, he displayed an \"opportunistic religiosity\", using Christianity for political ends and insisting that Christianity and Jefferson's democracy were incompatible. After 1801, Hamilton further asserted the truth of Christianity; he proposed a Christian Constitutional Society in 1802, to take hold of \"some strong feeling of the mind\" to elect \"fit men\" to office, and he wrote of \"Christian welfare societies\" for the poor. He was not a member of any denomination. After being shot, Hamilton spoke of his belief in God's mercy, and of his desire to renounce dueling; Bishop Moore administered communion to Hamilton.\n\nHamilton had always had respect for Jews. His birthplace of Charlestown had a large Jewish population with whom Hamilton came into contact on a regular basis. As a boy, he had learned Hebrew and could recite the Ten Commandments in its original language. He believed that Jewish achievement was a result of divine providence and warned that those who discredit the Jews \"destroy the Christian religion.\" \n\nLegacy\n\nHamilton's interpretations of the Constitution set forth in the Federalist Papers remain highly influential, as seen in scholarly studies and court decisions. \n\nThough the Constitution was ambiguous as to the exact balance of power between national and state governments, Hamilton consistently took the side of greater federal power at the expense of the states. As Secretary of the Treasury, he established—against the intense opposition of Secretary of State Jefferson—the country's first national bank. Hamilton justified the creation of this bank, and other increased federal powers, under Congress's constitutional powers to issue currency, to regulate interstate commerce, and to do anything else that would be \"necessary and proper\" to enact the provisions of the Constitution. Jefferson, on the other hand, took a stricter view of the Constitution: parsing the text carefully, he found no specific authorization for a national bank. This controversy was eventually settled by the Supreme Court of the United States in McCulloch v. Maryland, which in essence adopted Hamilton's view, granting the federal government broad freedom to select the best means to execute its constitutionally enumerated powers, specifically the doctrine of implied powers. Nevertheless, the American Civil War and the Progressive Era demonstrated the sorts of crises and politics Hamilton's administrative republic sought to avoid. \n\nHamilton's policies as Secretary of the Treasury greatly affected the United States government and still continue to influence it. His constitutional interpretation, specifically of the Necessary and Proper Clause, set precedents for federal authority that are still used by the courts and are considered an authority on constitutional interpretation. The prominent French diplomat Charles Maurice de Talleyrand, who spent 1794 in the United States, wrote, \"I consider Napoleon, Fox, and Hamilton the three greatest men of our epoch, and if I were forced to decide between the three, I would give without hesitation the first place to Hamilton\", adding that Hamilton had intuited the problems of European conservatives. \n\nOpinions of Hamilton have run the gamut: both John Adams and Thomas Jefferson viewed him as unprincipled and dangerously aristocratic. Hamilton's reputation was mostly negative in the eras of Jeffersonian democracy and Jacksonian democracy. However, by the Progressive era, Herbert Croly, Henry Cabot Lodge, and Theodore Roosevelt praised his leadership of a strong government. Several nineteenth- and twentieth-century Republicans entered politics by writing laudatory biographies of Hamilton. \n\nHistorians have generally taken one of two main views of Hamilton. Wilentz says:\nIn recent years, Hamilton and his reputation have decidedly gained the initiative among scholars who portray him as the visionary architect of the modern liberal capitalist economy and of a dynamic federal government headed by an energetic executive. Jefferson and his allies, by contrast, have come across as naïve, dreamy idealists. \nThe older Jeffersonian view attacks him as a centralizer, to the point sometimes of advocating monarchy. \n\nMonuments and memorials\n\n \n\nSince the beginning of the American Civil War, Hamilton has been depicted on more denominations of US currency than anyone else. He has appeared on the $2, $5, $10, $20, $50, and $1,000. His likeness also began to appear on US postage in 1870. His portrait has continued to appear on U.S. postage and currency, and most notably appears on the modern $10 bill. On 18 June 2015 it was announced that his portrait would be replaced by that of a woman, to reflect the changing nature of American democracy and society, but it was later decided his portrait would remain and the portrait of a woman was moved to the $20 bill. Hamilton also appears on the $500 Series EE Savings Bond. The source of the face on the $10 bill is John Trumbull's 1805 portrait of Hamilton, in the portrait collection of New York City Hall. \n\nThe first postage stamp to honor Hamilton was issued by the U.S. Post Office in 1870. The portrayals on the 1870 and 1888 issues are from the same engraved die, which was modeled after a bust of Hamilton by Italian sculptor Giuseppe Ceracchi. The Hamilton 1870 issue was the first U.S. postage stamp to honor a Secretary of the Treasury. The three-cent red commemorative issue, which was released on the 200th anniversary of Hamilton's birth in 1957, includes a rendition of the Federal Hall building, located in New York City. On March 19, 1956, the United States Postal Service issued the $5 Liberty Issue postage stamp honoring Hamilton. \n\nThe only home Hamilton ever owned was a Federal style mansion designed by John McComb Jr., which he built on his 32-acre country estate in Hamilton Heights in upper Manhattan. He named the house, which was completed in 1802, the \"Grange\" after his grandfather Alexander's estate in Ayrshire, Scotland. The house remained in the family until 1833 when his widow sold it to Thomas E. Davis, a British born real estate developer, for $25,000. Part of the proceeds were used by Eliza to purchase a new townhouse from Davis (Hamilton-Holly House) in Greenwich Village with her son Alexander. The Grange, first moved from its original location in 1889, was moved again in 2008 to a spot in St. Nicholas Park on land that was once part of the Hamilton estate, in Hamilton Heights, a neighborhood in upper Manhattan. The historic structure was restored to its original 1802 appearance in 2011, and is maintained by the National Park service as Hamilton Grange National Memorial. \n\nAlexander Hamilton served as one of the first trustees of the Hamilton-Oneida Academy in New York state. Later the Academy received a college charter in 1812, and the school was formally renamed Hamilton College. Columbia University, Hamilton's alma mater, has official memorials to Hamilton on its campus in New York City. The college's main classroom building for the humanities is Hamilton Hall, and a large statue of Hamilton stands in front of it. The university press has published his complete works in a multivolume letterpress edition. Columbia University's student group for ROTC cadets and Marine officer candidates is named the Alexander Hamilton Society. \n\nThe main administration building of the Coast Guard Academy in New London, Connecticut, is named Hamilton Hall to commemorate Hamilton's creation of the United States Revenue Cutter Service, one of the predecessor services of the United States Coast Guard. The U.S. Army's Fort Hamilton in Brooklyn is named after Hamilton.\n\nIn 1990, the U.S. Custom House in New York City was renamed after Hamilton. \n\nIn 1880, his son John Church Hamilton commissioned Carl Conrads to sculpt a granite statue, now located in Central Park, New York City. \n\nOne statue honoring Alexander Hamilton in Chicago was mired in controversy, at least concerning the surrounding architecture. Kate Sturges Buckingham (1858–1937), of the Buckingham Fountain family, commissioned the monument. Its impetus was that Treasury Secretary Hamilton \"secured the nation's financial future\" and made it possible for her own family to make its fortune in grain elevators and banking. Consequently, John Angel was hired to model a figurative sculpture and the Finnish architect Eliel Saarinen was to create a \"colossal architectural setting\" for it. The proposed 80-foot tall columned shelter was poorly received. By Buckingham's death in 1937, the sculpture's setting, location, and design were uncertain. Conspiracy allegations surfaced, and the matter became mired in litigation. After the courts ordered the construction to be completed by 1953, the trustees hired architect Samuel A. Marx. The structure was completed, had structural problems, and was eventually demolished in 1993. The statue was gilded, and is still on display. \n\nA statue, by James Earle Fraser, was dedicated on May 17, 1923, on the south terrace of the Treasury Building, in Washington. \n\nHamilton County, New York, Hamilton County, Florida, Hamilton County, Illinois, Hamilton County, Indiana, Hamilton County, Kansas, Hamilton County, Nebraska, Hamilton County, Ohio and Hamilton County, Tennessee are all named in his honor. \n\nOn slavery\n\nUntil recently the prevailing scholarly view was that Hamilton, like the Founders generally, lacked a deep concern about slavery. John Patrick Diggins traced this animus of historians against Hamilton to Vernon L. Parrington, who, writing in the 1920s to praise Jefferson and the Enlightenment, denounced a reactionary and unenlightened Hamilton as greedy and evil. Sean Wilentz contends that the consensus has changed sharply in Hamilton's favor in recent years. For example, Michael D. Chan argues that the first U.S. Treasury Secretary was committed to ending slavery, Chernow calls him \"a fervent abolitionist\", David O. Stewart states he was a \"lifelong opponent of slavery\", and Braun says he \"was a leading anti-slavery advocate\". Historian Manning Marable says Hamilton \"vigorously opposed the slave trade and slavery's expansion.\" \n\nHamilton's first polemic against King George's ministers contains a paragraph that speaks of the evils that \"slavery\" to the British would bring upon the Americans. McDonald sees this as an attack on the institution of slavery. David Hackett Fischer believes the term is used in a symbolic way at that time. \n\nDuring the Revolutionary War, Hamilton took the lead in proposals to arm slaves, free them, and compensate their masters. In 1779, Hamilton worked closely with his friend John Laurens of South Carolina to propose that such a unit be formed, under Laurens' command. Hamilton proposed to the Continental Congress that it create up to four battalions of slaves for combat duty, and free them. Congress recommended that South Carolina (and Georgia) acquire up to three thousand slaves for service, if they saw fit. Although the South Carolina governor and Congressional delegation had supported the plan in Philadelphia, they did not implement it. \n\nHamilton believed that the natural faculties of blacks were probably as good as those of free whites, and he warned that the British would arm the slaves if the patriots did not. In his 21st-century biography, Chernow cites this incident as evidence that Hamilton and Laurens saw the Revolution and the struggle against slavery as inseparable. Hamilton attacked his political opponents as demanding freedom for themselves and refusing to allow it to blacks. \n\nIn January 1785, Hamilton attended the second meeting of the New York Manumission Society (NYMS). John Jay was president and Hamilton was the first secretary and later became president. Chernow notes how the membership soon included many of Hamilton's friends and associates. Hamilton was a member of the committee of the society that petitioned the legislature to end the slave trade, and that succeeded in passing legislation banning the export of slaves from New York. In the same period, Hamilton felt bound by the rule of law of the time and his law practice facilitated the return of a fugitive slave to Henry Laurens of South Carolina. He opposed the compromise at the 1787 Constitutional Convention by which the federal government could not abolish the slave trade for 20 years, and was disappointed when he lost that argument.\n\nHamilton never supported forced emigration for freed slaves. Horton has argued from this that he would be comfortable with a multiracial society, and that this distinguished him from his contemporaries. In international affairs, he supported Toussaint L'Ouverture's black government in Haiti after the revolt that overthrew French control, as he had supported aid to the slaveowners in 1791—both measures hurt France. Scant evidence has been interpreted by a few to indicate Hamilton may have owned household slaves, as did many wealthy New Yorkers (the evidence for this is indirect; McDonald interprets it as referring to paid employees). \n\nOn economics\n\nHamilton has been portrayed as the \"patron saint\" of the American School of economic philosophy that, according to one historian, dominated economic policy after 1861. He firmly supported government intervention in favor of business, after the manner of Jean-Baptiste Colbert, as early as the fall of 1781. Hamilton opposed the British ideas of free trade, which he believed skewed benefits to colonial and imperial powers, in favor of protectionism, which he believed would help develop the fledgling nation's emerging economy. Henry C. Carey was inspired by his writings. Hamilton influenced the ideas and work of the German Friedrich List. In Hamilton's view, a strong executive, linked to the support of the people, could become the linchpin of an administrative republic. The dominance of executive leadership in the formulation and carrying out of policy was essential to resist the deterioration of republican government. Ian Patrick Austin has explored the similarities between Hamiltonian recommendations and the development of Meiji Japan after 1860. \n\nIn popular culture \n\nApart from the $10 bill and an obscure 1931 film, Hamilton did not attract much attention in American popular culture until the advent of the 2015 hit Broadway musical Hamilton. The musical, which features music, lyrics, and a book by Lin-Manuel Miranda, is based on a biography by Ron Chernow. The New Yorker called the show \"an achievement of historical and cultural reimagining. In Miranda's telling, the headlong rise of one self-made immigrant becomes the story of America.\" The off-Broadway production of Hamilton won the 2015 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Musical as well as seven other Drama Desk Awards. In 2016, Hamilton received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and a record 16 Tony nominations, winning 11 of them including Best Musical. \n\nHamilton has also appeared as a significant figure in popular works focusing on other American political figures of his time. He is a major character in Gore Vidal's 1973 historical novel Burr and in episodes of the 1976 PBS miniseries The Adams Chronicles.", "Thomas Jefferson (April 13 [O.S. April 2] 1743 – July 4, 1826) was an American Founding Father who was the principal author of the Declaration of Independence (1776). He was elected the second Vice President of the United States (1797–1801), serving under John Adams and in 1800 was elected the third President (1801–09). Jefferson was a proponent of democracy, republicanism, and individual rights, which motivated American colonists to break from Great Britain and form a new nation. He produced formative documents and decisions at both the state and national level.\n\nPrimarily of English ancestry, Jefferson was born and educated in Virginia. He graduated from the College of William & Mary and briefly practiced law, at times defending slaves seeking their freedom. During the American Revolution, he represented Virginia in the Continental Congress that adopted the Declaration, drafted the law for religious freedom as a Virginia legislator, and served as a wartime governor (1779–1781). He became the United States Minister to France in May 1785, and subsequently the nation's first Secretary of State in 1790–1793 under President George Washington. Jefferson and James Madison organized the Democratic-Republican Party to oppose the Federalist Party during the formation of the First Party System. With Madison, he anonymously wrote the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions in 1798–1799, which sought to embolden states' rights in opposition to the national government by nullifying the Alien and Sedition Acts.\n\nAs President Jefferson pursued the nation's shipping and trade interests against Barbary pirates and aggressive British trade policies respectively. He also organized the Louisiana Purchase almost doubling the country's territory. As a result of peace negotiations with France, his administration reduced military forces. He was reelected in 1804. Jefferson's second term was beset with difficulties at home, including the trial of former Vice President Aaron Burr. American foreign trade was diminished when Jefferson implemented the Embargo Act of 1807, responding to British threats to U.S. shipping. In 1803, Jefferson began a controversial process of Indian tribe removal to the newly organized Louisiana Territory, and, in 1807, signed the Act Prohibiting Importation of Slaves.\n\nJefferson mastered many disciplines which ranged from surveying and mathematics to horticulture and mechanics. He was a proven architect in the classical tradition. Jefferson's keen interest in religion and philosophy earned him the presidency of the American Philosophical Society. He shunned organized religion, but was influenced by both Christianity and deism. He was well versed in linguistics and spoke several languages. He founded the University of Virginia after retiring from public office. He was a prolific letter writer and corresponded with many prominent and important people throughout his adult life. His only full-length book, Notes on the State of Virginia (1785), is considered the most important American book published before 1800.\n\nJefferson owned several plantations which were worked by hundreds of slaves. Most historians now believe that after the death of his wife in 1782, he had a relationship with his slave Sally Hemings and fathered at least one of her children. Historical opinion of Jefferson has generally been exalted over the years. Although in recent times he has been criticized by some historians over owning slaves, presidential scholars overall continue to rank Jefferson among the greatest presidents.\n\nEarly life and career \n\nThomas Jefferson was born on April 13, 1743 (April 2, 1743 OS), at the family home in Shadwell in the Colony of Virginia, the third of ten children. He was of English and possibly Welsh descent and was born a British subject.Malone, 1948, pp. 5–6 His father, Peter Jefferson, was a planter and surveyor who died when Jefferson was fourteen; his mother was Jane Randolph. Peter Jefferson moved his family to Tuckahoe Plantation in 1745 upon the death of a friend who had named him guardian of his children. The Jeffersons returned to Shadwell in 1752, where Peter died in 1757; his estate was divided between his two sons, young Thomas and Randolph. Thomas inherited approximately 5000 acre of land, including Monticello. He assumed full authority over his property at age 21.Malone, 1948, pp. 437–40\n\nEducation \n\nJefferson began his childhood education beside the Randolph children with tutors at Tuckahoe. In 1752, he began attending a local school run by a Scottish Presbyterian minister. At age nine, he started studying Latin, Greek, and French; he learned to ride horses and began nature studies. He was taught from 1758 to 1760 by Reverend James Maury near Gordonsville, Virginia, where he studied history, science, and the classics while boarding with Maury's family. \n\nJefferson entered the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, at age 16, and studied mathematics, metaphysics, and philosophy under Professor William Small. Small introduced him to the British Empiricists including John Locke, Francis Bacon, and Isaac Newton. Jefferson improved his French, Greek, and his skill at the violin. He graduated, two years after starting, in 1762. He read the law under Professor George Wythe's tutelage to obtain his law license, while working as a law clerk in Wythe's office. He also read a wide variety of English classics and political works. \n\nJefferson treasured his books. In 1770 his Shadwell home, including a library of 200 volumes inherited from his father, was destroyed by fire. Nevertheless, by 1773 he had replenished his library with 1,250 titles, and in 1814, his collection grew to almost 6,500 volumes. After the British burned the Library of Congress that year, he sold more than 6,000 books to the Library for $23,950. Though he had intended to pay off some of his large debt, he resumed collecting for his personal library, writing to John Adams, \"I cannot live without books\".Library of Congress\n\nLawyer and House of Burgesses \n\nJefferson was admitted to the Virginia bar in 1767 and then lived with his mother at Shadwell. In addition to practicing law, Jefferson represented Albemarle County as a delegate in the Virginia House of Burgesses from 1769 until 1775. He pursued reforms to slavery. He introduced legislation allowing masters to take control over the emancipation of slaves in 1769, taking discretion away from the royal Governor and General Court. Jefferson persuaded his cousin Richard Bland to spearhead the legislation's passage, but reaction was strongly negative. \n\nJefferson took seven cases for freedom-seeking slaves, and waived his fee for one client who claimed he should be freed before the statutory age of thirty-one required for emancipation in cases with inter-racial grandparents.Gordon-Reed, 2008, pp. 99–100 He invoked Natural Law to argue, \"everyone comes into the world with a right to his own person and using it at his own will ... This is what is called personal liberty, and is given him by the author of nature, because it is necessary for his own sustenance.\" The judge cut him off and ruled against his client. As a consolation, Jefferson gave his client some money, conceivably used to aid his escape shortly thereafter. He later incorporated this sentiment into the Declaration of Independence. He also took on 68 cases for the General Court of Virginia in 1767 in addition to three notable cases Howell v. Netherland (1770), Bolling v. Bolling (1771), and Blair v. Blair (1772).Konig, David T., Encyclopedia Virginia\n\nFollowing the British Parliament's passing the Intolerable Acts in 1774, Jefferson wrote a resolution calling for a 'Day of Fasting and Prayer' in protest, as well as a boycott of all British goods. His resolution was later expanded into A Summary View of the Rights of British America, in which he argued people have the right to govern themselves. \n\nMonticello, marriage and family \n\nIn 1768 Jefferson began constructing his primary residence, Monticello (Italian for \"Little Mountain\"), on a hilltop overlooking his 5,000-acre plantation. Construction was done mostly by local masons and carpenters, assisted by Jefferson's slaves. \n\nHe moved into the South Pavilion in 1770. Turning Monticello into a neoclassical masterpiece in the Palladian style was his perennial project. \nOn January 1, 1772, Jefferson married his third cousin Martha Wayles Skelton, the 23-year-old widow of Bathurst Skelton and she moved into the South Pavilion. She was a frequent hostess for Jefferson and managed the large household. Biographer Dumas Malone described the marriage as the happiest period of Jefferson's life. Martha read widely, did fine needlework and was a skilled pianist—Jefferson often accompanied her on the violin or cello. During their ten years of marriage, Martha bore six children: Martha \"Patsy\" (1772–1836); Jane (1774–1775); a son who lived for only a few weeks in 1777; Mary Wayles \"Polly\" (1778–1804); Lucy Elizabeth (1780–1781); and another Lucy Elizabeth (1782–1785). Only Martha and Mary survived more than a few years. After her father John Wayles died in 1773, the couple inherited 135 slaves, 11000 acre, and the estate's debts. The debts took Jefferson years to satisfy, contributing to his financial problems.\n\nMartha later suffered from ill health, including diabetes, and frequent childbirth further weakened her. Martha's mother had died young, and as a girl, Martha lived with two stepmothers. A few months after the birth of her last child, she died on September 6, 1782, at the age of 33 with Jefferson at her bedside. Shortly before her death, Martha made Jefferson promise never to marry again, telling him she could not bear to have another mother raise her children. Jefferson was grief-stricken by her death, relentlessly pacing back and forth, nearly to the point of exhaustion. After three weeks, he emerged, taking long rambling rides on secluded roads with his daughter Martha, by her description, \"a solitary witness to many a violent burst of grief\". \n\nAfter working as Secretary of State (1790–93), he returned to Monticello and initiated a remodeling based on the architectural concepts he had acquired in Europe. The work continued throughout most of his presidency, being finished in 1809. \n\nPolitical career 1775–1800 \n\nDeclaration of Independence \n\nJefferson was the primary author of the Declaration of Independence. At age 33 he was one of the youngest delegates to the Second Continental Congress beginning in 1775 at the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War where a formal declaration of independence from Britain was overwhelmingly favored. Jefferson chose his words for the Declaration in June 1775 shortly after the war had begun where the idea of Independence from Britain had long since become popular among the colonies. He was also inspired by the Enlightenment ideals of the sanctity of the individual as well as the writings of Locke and Montesquieu. \n\nHe sought out John Adams who, along with the latter's cousin Samuel, had emerged as a leader of the Congress. Jefferson and Adams established a permanent friendship which led to Jefferson's work on the Declaration of Independence. Adams supported Jefferson's appointment to the Committee of Five formed to write the Declaration in furtherance of the Lee Resolution passed by the Congress. After discussing the general outline of the document, the committee decided that Jefferson would write the first draft. The committee, including Jefferson particularly, initially thought Adams should write the document, but Adams persuaded the committee to choose Jefferson.\n\nConsulting with other committee members over the next seventeen days, Jefferson drew on his own proposed draft of the Virginia Constitution, George Mason's draft of the Virginia Declaration of Rights, and other sources. The other committee members made some changes. A final draft was presented to the Congress on June 28, 1776. \n\nThe declaration was introduced on Friday, June 28, and congress began debate over its contents on Monday, July 1. resulting in the omission of a fourth of the text, including a passage critical of King George III and the slave trade. While Jefferson resented the changes, he did not speak publicly about the revisions. On July 4, 1776, the Congress ratified the Declaration, and delegates signed it on August 2 and in doing so were committing an act of treason against the Crown. Jefferson's preamble is regarded as an enduring statement of human rights, and the phrase \"all men are created equal\" has been called \"one of the best-known sentences in the English language\" containing \"the most potent and consequential words in American history\". \n\nVirginia state legislator and governor \n\nAt the start of the Revolution Jefferson was a Colonel and named commander of the Albemarle County Militia on September 26, 1775. He was then elected to the Virginia House of Delegates for Albemarle County in September 1776, when finalizing a state constitution was a priority. Ferling, 2004, p. 26\nFor nearly three years, he assisted with the constitution and was especially proud of his Bill for Establishing Religious Freedom, which forbade state support of religious institutions or enforcement of religious doctrine. The bill failed to pass, as did his legislation to disestablish the Anglican church, but both were later revived by James Madison. \n\nIn 1778, Jefferson was given the task of studying and revising the state's laws. He drafted 126 bills in three years, including laws to establish fee simple tenure in land and to streamline the judicial system. Jefferson's proposed statutes abolished primogeniture and provided for general education, which he considered the basis of \"republican government\".\n\nJefferson was elected governor for one-year terms in 1779 and 1780. He transferred the state capital from Williamsburg to Richmond, and introduced measures for public education, religious freedom, and revision of inheritance laws. \n\nDuring General Benedict Arnold's 1781 invasion of Virginia, Jefferson escaped Richmond just ahead of the British forces, and the city was burned to the ground. General Charles Cornwallis that spring dispatched a cavalry force led by Banastre Tarleton to capture Jefferson and members of the Assembly at Monticello, but Jack Jouett of the Virginia militia thwarted the British plan. Jefferson escaped to Poplar Forest, his plantation to the west. When the General Assembly reconvened in June 1781, it conducted an inquiry into Jefferson's actions which eventually concluded Jefferson had acted with honor, but he was not re-elected. \n\nIn April of the same year, his daughter Lucy died at age one. A second daughter of that name was born the following year but died at age three. \n\nNotes on the State of Virginia \n\nJefferson received a letter of inquiry in 1780 about the geography, history, and government of Virginia from French diplomat François Barbé-Marbois, who was gathering data on the United States. Jefferson included his written responses in a book, Notes on the State of Virginia (1785). He compiled the book over five years, including reviews of scientific knowledge, Virginia's history, politics, laws, culture, and geography. The book explores what constitutes a good society, using Virginia as an exemplar. Jefferson included extensive data about the state's natural resources and economy, and wrote at length about slavery, miscegenation, and his belief that blacks and whites could not live together as free people in one society because of justified resentments of the enslaved. He also wrote of his views on the American Indian and considered them as equals in body and mind to European settlers. \n\nNotes was first published in 1785 in French and appeared in English in 1787. Biographer George Tucker considered the work \"surprising in the extent of the information which a single individual had been thus able to acquire, as to the physical features of the state\", and Merrill D. Peterson described it as an accomplishment for which all Americans should be grateful. \n\nMember of Congress \n\nFollowing victory in the Revolutionary War and a peace treaty with Great Britain in 1783, the United States formed a Congress of the Confederation, to which Jefferson was appointed as a Virginia delegate. As a member of the committee setting foreign exchange rates, he recommended an American currency based on the decimal system, and his plan was adopted. He advised formation of the Committee of the States, to fill the power vacuum when Congress was in recess. The Committee met when Congress adjourned, but disagreements rendered the Committee dysfunctional. \n\nIn the Congress's 1783–84 session, Jefferson acted as chairman of committees to establish a viable system of government for the new Republic and propose a policy for the settlement of the western territories. Jefferson was the principal author of the Land Ordinance of 1784, whereby Virginia ceded to the national government the vast area it claimed northwest of the Ohio River. He insisted this territory not be used as colonial territory by any of the thirteen states, but that it be divided into sections which could become states. He plotted borders for nine new states in their initial stages and wrote an ordinance banning slavery in all the nation's territories. Congress made extensive revisions, including rejection of the ban of slavery.Peterson, 1960, pp. 189–90 The provisions banning slavery, known later as the 'Jefferson Proviso', were modified and implemented three years later in the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 and became the law for the entire Northwest.\n\nMinister to France \n\nJefferson was sent by the Congress of the Confederation to join Benjamin Franklin and John Adams as ministers in Europe for negotiation of trade agreements with England, Spain, and France. Some believed the recently widowed Jefferson was depressed and that the assignment would distract him from his wife's death. With his young daughter Patsy and two servants, he departed in July 1784, arriving in Paris the next month.Stewart, 1997, p. 39 When Count de Vergennes, the French foreign minister, commented, \"You replace Monsieur Franklin, I hear,\" Jefferson replied, \"I succeed. No man can replace him.\" Franklin resigned as minister in March 1785, and departed in July. \n\nJefferson had Patsy educated at the Pentemont Abbey. In 1786, Jefferson met and fell in love with Maria Cosway, an accomplished, and married, Italian-English musician of 27. They saw each other frequently over a period of six weeks. She returned to Great Britain, but they maintained a lifelong correspondence. \n \nJefferson sent for his youngest surviving child, nine-year-old Polly, in June 1787. He brought some of his slaves, including James Hemings whom he had trained in French cuisine. That year Jefferson suffered a fall and fractured his right wrist, requiring him to write with his left hand for a time. \n\nWhile in France he became a regular companion of the Marquis de Lafayette, a French hero of the American Revolutionary War, and used his influence to procure trade agreements with France.Bowers, 1945, p. 328Burstein, 2010, p. 120 As the French Revolution began, Jefferson allowed his Paris residence, the Hôtel de Langeac, to be used for meetings by Lafayette and other republicans; he was in Paris during the storming of the Bastille and consulted with Lafayette while the latter drafted the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen. Jefferson often found his mail opened by postmasters, so he invented his own enciphering device, the 'Wheel Cipher'; he wrote important communications in code for the rest of his career. Jefferson left Paris in September 1789 intending to return soon; however, President George Washington appointed him the country's first Secretary of State, forcing him to remain. Jefferson remained a firm supporter of the French Revolution while opposing its more violent elements. \n\nSecretary of State \n\nSoon after returning from France, Jefferson accepted Washington's invitation to serve as Secretary of State. Jefferson had initially expected to return to France, but Washington insisted Jefferson be on his new Cabinet.Randall (1996), p. 1 Pressing issues at this time were the national debt and the permanent location of the capital. Jefferson opposed a national debt preferring each state retire its own, in contrast to Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton, who desired consolidation of various states' debts by the federal government. Hamilton also had bold plans to establish the national credit and a national bank, but Jefferson strenuously opposed this and attempted to undermine his agenda, which nearly led Washington to dismiss him from his cabinet. Though Jefferson later left the cabinet voluntarily, Washington never forgave him, and never spoke to him again. The second major issue was the capital's permanent location. Hamilton favored a capital close to the major commercial centers of the Northeast, while Washington, Jefferson, and other agrarians, wanted it located to the south. \n\nAfter lengthy deadlock, the Compromise of 1790 was struck permanently locating the capital on the Potomac River, and the federal government assumed the war debts of all thirteen states. In the Spring of 1791, Jefferson and Congressman James Madison took a vacation to Vermont. Jefferson had been suffering from migraines and he was tired of Hamilton infighting. In May 1792 Jefferson, alarmed at the political rivalries taking shape, wrote to Washington, urging him to run for re-election that year as a unifying influence. He urged the president to rally the citizenry to a party that would defend democracy against the corrupting influence of banks and monied interests, as espoused by the Federalists. Historians recognize this letter as the earliest delineation of Democratic-Republican Party principles. Jefferson, Madison, and other Democratic-Republican organizers favored states' rights and local control and opposed federal concentration of power, whereas Hamilton sought more power for the federal government. \n\nJefferson supported France against Britain when the two nations fought in 1793, though his arguments in the Cabinet were undercut by French Revolutionary envoy Edmond-Charles Genêt's open scorn for President Washington. In his discussions with British Minister George Hammond, Jefferson tried unsuccessfully to persuade the British to acknowledge their violation of the Treaty of Paris, to vacate their posts in the Northwest, and to compensate the U.S. for slaves whom the British had freed at the end of the war. Seeking a return to private life, Jefferson resigned the cabinet position in December 1793, perhaps to bolster his political influence from outside the administration. \n\nAfter the Washington administration negotiated the Jay Treaty with Great Britain (1794), Jefferson saw a cause around which to rally his party and organized a national opposition from Monticello. The treaty, designed by Hamilton, aimed to reduce tensions and increase trade. Jefferson warned that it would increase British influence and subvert republicanism, calling it \"the boldest act [Hamilton and Jay] ever ventured on to undermine the government\". The Treaty passed, but when it expired in 1805 during Jefferson's administration, it was not renewed. Jefferson continued his pro-French stance; during the violence of the Reign of Terror, he declined to disavow the revolution because \"To back away from France would be to undermine the cause of republicanism in America.\" \n\nElection of 1796 and Vice Presidency \n\nIn the presidential campaign of 1796, Jefferson lost the electoral college vote to Federalist John Adams by 71–68, and was elected vice president. As presiding officer of the Senate, Jefferson assumed a more passive role than his predecessor. He allowed the Senate to freely conduct debates and confined his participation to procedural issues, which he called an \"honorable and easy\" role. Jefferson had previously studied parliamentary law and procedure for forty years, making him unusually well qualified to serve as presiding officer. In 1800, he published his assembled notes on Senate procedure as A Manual of Parliamentary Practice. \n\nJefferson held four confidential talks with the French consul Joseph Létombe in the spring of 1797 where he attacked Adams, predicting his rival would serve only one term, and encouraged France to invade England. Jefferson advised Létombe to stall any American envoys sent to Paris by instructing him to \"listen to them and then drag out the negotiations at length and mollify them by the urbanity of the proceedings.\" This toughened the tone the French government adopted toward the Adams administration. After Adams' initial peace envoys were rebuffed, Jefferson and his supporters lobbied for the release of papers related to the incident, called the XYZ Affair after the letters used to disguise the identities of the French officials involved. However, the tactic backfired when it was revealed that French officials had demanded bribes, rallying public support against France. The U.S. began an undeclared naval war with France known as the Quasi-War. \n\nDuring the Adams presidency, the Federalists rebuilt the military, levied new taxes, and enacted the Alien and Sedition Acts. Jefferson believed these laws were intended to suppress Democratic-Republicans, rather than prosecute enemy aliens, and considered them unconstitutional. To rally opposition, he and James Madison anonymously wrote the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions, declaring that the federal government had no right to exercise powers not specifically delegated to it by the states. Though the resolutions followed the \"interposition\" approach of Madison—in which states may shield their citizens from federal laws they deem unconstitutional—Jefferson advocated nullification, allowing states to outright invalidate federal laws. Jefferson warned that, \"unless arrested at the threshold\", the Alien and Sedition Acts would \"necessarily drive these states into revolution and blood\". \n\nHistorian Ron Chernow opines that \"the theoretical damage of the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions was deep and lasting, and was a recipe for disunion\", contributing to the American Civil War as well as later events. Washington was so appalled by the resolutions that he told Patrick Henry that if \"systematically and pertinaciously pursued\", the resolutions would \"dissolve the union or produce coercion.\" \n\nIn the effort to counter Hamilton's Federalist policies, which he was promoting through the influential Federalist newspaper, the Gazette of the United States, Jefferson and Madison along, with the poet and writer Phillip Freneau, moved to Philadelphia and founded the National Gazette in 1791. The National Gazette made particular criticism of the policies promoted by Alexander Hamilton, often through, at Jefferson's urging, anonymous essays signed by the pen name Brutus, which were actually written by Madison. \n\nJefferson had always admired Washington's leadership skills but felt his Federalist party was leading the country in the wrong direction. Because of acute differences with Washington while serving as Secretary of State, Jefferson thought it wise not to attend his funeral in 1799 and remained at Monticello. \n\nElection of 1800 \n\nIn the 1800 presidential election, Jefferson contended once more against Federalist John Adams. Adams' campaign was weakened by unpopular taxes and vicious Federalist infighting over his actions in the Quasi-War. Republicans pointed to the Alien and Sedition Acts and accused the Federalists of being secret monarchists, while Federalists charged that Jefferson was a godless libertine in thrall to the French. Historian Joyce Appleby said the election was \"one of the most acrimonious in the annals of American history\". \n\nRepublicans ultimately won more electoral college votes, but Jefferson and his vice-presidential candidate Aaron Burr unexpectedly received an equal total. Due to the tie, the election was decided by the Federalist-dominated House of Representatives. Hamilton lobbied Federalist representatives on Jefferson's behalf, believing him a lesser political evil than Burr. On February 17, 1801, after thirty-six ballots, the House elected Jefferson president and Burr vice president.\n\nThe win was marked by Republican celebrations throughout the country. Some of Jefferson's opponents argued that he owed his victory over Adams to the South's inflated number of electors, due to counting slaves as partial population under the Three-Fifths Compromise.\" Others alleged that Jefferson secured James Asheton Bayard's tie-breaking electoral vote by guaranteeing the retention of various Federalist posts in the government.Wood, 2010, pp. 284–85 Jefferson disputed the allegation, and the historical record is inconclusive. \n\nThe transition proceeded smoothly, marking a watershed in American history. As historian Gordon S. Wood writes, \"it was one of the first popular elections in modern history that resulted in the peaceful transfer of power from one 'party' to another.\"\n\nPresidency (1801–1809) \n\nJefferson was sworn in by Chief Justice John Marshall at the new Capitol in Washington, D.C. on March 4, 1801. In contrast to his predecessors, Jefferson exhibited a dislike of formal etiquette; he arrived alone on horseback without escort, dressed plainly and after dismounting, retired his own horse to the nearby stable. His inaugural address struck a note of reconciliation, declaring, \"We have been called by different names brethren of the same principle. We are all Republicans, we are all Federalists.\" Ideologically Jefferson stressed \"equal and exact justice to all men\", minority rights, freedom of speech, religion and press.Peterson (2002), p. 40 Jefferson said that a free and democratic government was \"the strongest government on earth.\" Jefferson nominated moderate Republicans to his cabinet: James Madison as Secretary of State, Henry Dearborn as Secretary of War, Levi Lincoln as Attorney General, and Robert Smith as Secretary of Navy.\n\nUpon assuming office, he first confronted an $83 million national debt. He began dismantling Hamilton's Federalist fiscal system with help from Secretary of Treasury Albert Gallatin.Peterson, 2002, p. 41 Jefferson's administration eliminated the whiskey excise and other taxes after closing \"unnecessary offices\" and cutting \"useless establishments and expenses\". They attempted to disassemble the national bank and its effect of increasing national debt, but were dissuaded by Gallatin. Jefferson shrank the Navy, deeming it unnecessary in peacetime. Instead he incorporated a fleet of inexpensive gunboats used only for defense with the idea that they would not provoke foreign hostilities. After two terms, he had lowered the national debt from $83 million to $57 million.Meacham, 2012, p. 387\n\nJefferson pardoned several of those imprisoned under the Alien and Sedition Acts. Congressional Republicans repealed the Judiciary Act of 1801, which removed nearly all of Adams' 'midnight judges' from office. A subsequent appointment battle led to the Supreme Court's landmark decision in Marbury v. Madison, asserting judicial review over executive branch actions. Jefferson appointed three Supreme Court justices: William Johnson (1804), Henry Brockholst Livingston (1807), and Thomas Todd (1807). \n\nJefferson strongly felt the need for a national military university, producing an officer engineering corps for a national defense based on the advancement of the sciences, rather than having to rely on foreign sources for top grade engineers with questionable loyalty. He signed the Military Peace Establishment Act on March 16, 1802, thus founding the United States Military Academy at West Point. The Act documented in 29 sections a new set of laws and limits for the military. Jefferson was also hoping to bring reform to the Executive branch, replacing Federalists and active opponents throughout the officer corps to promote Republican values. \n\nFirst Barbary War \n\nAs long as the U.S. remained a colony, its merchant ships had been protected from Barbary Coast pirates by the British navy. After independence, however, pirates often captured U.S. merchant ships, pillaged cargoes and enslaved or held crew members for ransom. Jefferson had opposed paying tribute to the Barbary States since as far back as 1785.Fremont-Barnes, 2006, p. 36\nIn March 1786, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams went to London to negotiate with Tripoli's envoy, ambassador Sidi Haji Abdrahaman (or Sidi Haji Abdul Rahman Adja). \nIn 1801, he authorized a U.S. Navy fleet under Commodore Richard Dale to make a show of force in the Mediterranean, the first American naval squadron to cross the Atlantic. Following the fleet's first engagement, he successfully asked Congress for a declaration of war. The subsequent 'First Barbary War' was the first foreign war fought by the U.S. \n\nAfter Yusuf Karamanli, the pasha of Tripoli, captured the USS Philadelphia, Jefferson authorized William Eaton, the U.S. Consul to Tunis, to lead a force to restore the pasha's older brother to the throne. The American navy forced Tunis and Algiers into breaking their alliance with Tripoli. Jefferson ordered five separate naval bombardments of Tripoli, leading the pasha to sign a treaty that restored peace in the Mediterranean. Though this victory proved only temporary, according to Wood, \"many Americans celebrated it as a vindication of their policy of spreading free trade around the world and as a great victory for liberty over tyranny.\" \n\nLouisiana Purchase\n\nAfter Spain ceded ownership of the Louisiana territory in 1800 to the more predominant France, Jefferson was greatly concerned that Napoleon's broad interests in the vast territory would threaten the security of the continent and Mississippi River shipping. Jefferson wrote that the cession \"...works most sorely on the U.S. It completely reverses all the political relations of the U.S. ...\" and subsequently in 1802, instructed James Monroe and Robert R. Livingston to negotiate with Napoleon to purchase New Orleans and adjacent coastal areas from France. In early 1803 Jefferson offered Napoleon nearly $10 million for 40,000 square miles of tropical territory.Freehling, 2005, p. 69\n\nRealizing that French military control of such a vast remote territory was impractical, and in dire need of funds for their wars on the home front, Napoleon, in early April 1803, unexpectedly made negotiators a counteroffer to sell 827,987 square miles of French territory for $15 million doubling the size of the United States. U.S. negotiators seized this unique opportunity and accepted the offer and signed the treaty on April 30, 1803. Word of the unexpected purchase didn't reach Jefferson until July 3, 1803. He unknowingly acquired the most fertile tract of land of its size on Earth, making the new country self-sufficient in food and other resources. The sale also significantly curtailed British and French imperial ambitions in North America, removing obstacles to U.S. westward expansion.Ellis, 2008, pp. 207–08\n\nMost thought this was an exceptional opportunity, despite Republican reservations about the Constitutional authority of the federal government to acquire land. Jefferson initially thought a Constitutional amendment was necessary to purchase and govern the new territory, but later changed his mind fearing this would give cause to oppose the purchase and therefore urged a speedy debate and ratification. On October 20, 1803, the Senate ratified the purchase treaty by a vote of 24–7. \n\nAfter the purchase, Jefferson preserved the region's Spanish legal code and instituted a gradual approach for integrating settlers into American democracy; he believed a period of federal rule would be necessary while Louisianians adjusted to their new nation. Historians have differed in their assessments regarding the constitutional implications of the sale. Historians typically hail the Louisiana acquisition as a major accomplishment. Frederick Jackson Turner called the purchase the most formative event in American history.\n\nLewis and Clark expedition\n\nAnticipating further westward settlements due to the Louisiana Purchase, Jefferson arranged for the exploration and mapping of the uncharted territory. He sought to establish a U.S. claim ahead of competing European interests and find the rumored Northwest Passage. Influenced by exploration accounts of Le Page du Pratz in Louisiana (1763) and Captain James Cook in the Pacific (1784), Jefferson and others persuaded Congress in 1804 to fund an expedition to explore and map the newly acquired territory to the Pacific Ocean. \n\nJefferson appointed Meriwether Lewis and William Clark leaders of the Corps of Discovery (1803–1806). In the months leading up to the expedition, Jefferson tutored Lewis in the sciences of mapping, botany, natural history, mineralogy and astronomy/navigation, giving him unlimited access to his library at Monticello which included the largest collection of books in the world on the subject of the geography and natural history of the North American continent, along with an impressive collection of maps. \n\nThe expedition, lasting from May, 1804 to September, 1806, (see Timeline) obtained a wealth of scientific and geographic knowledge, including knowledge of many Indian tribes. \n;Other expeditions\n\nIn addition to the Corps of Discovery, Jefferson organized three other western expeditions: the William Dunbar and George Hunter expedition on the Ouachita River (1804–1805), the Thomas Freeman and Peter Custis expedition (1806) on the Red River, and the Zebulon Pike expedition (1806–1807) into the Rocky Mountains and the Southwest. All three produced valuable information about the American frontier. \n\nNative American policies\n\nJefferson's experiences with the American Indian began during his boyhood in Virginia and extended through his political career and into his retirement. He refuted the contemporary notion that Indians were an inferior people and maintained that they were equal in body and mind to people of European descent. \n\nAs governor of Virginia during the Revolutionary War, Jefferson recommended moving the Cherokee and Shawnee tribes who had allied with the British to west of the Mississippi River. But once in the White House, with American and native societies in collision and the British inciting Indian tribes from Canada, Jefferson quickly took measures to avert another major conflict. Sheehan, 1974, pp. 120–21 In Georgia, he stipulated the state would release its legal claims to lands to its west in exchange for military support for expelling the Cherokee from Georgia. This facilitated his policy of western expansion, to \"advance compactly as we multiply\". \n\nIn keeping with his Enlightenment thinking, President Jefferson adopted an assimilation policy towards Native Americans known as his \"civilization program\" which included securing peaceful U.S. - Indian treaty alliances, encouraging agriculture. Jefferson advocated that Indian tribes should make federal purchases by credit holding their lands as collateral for repayment. Various tribes accepted Jefferson's policies including the Shawnees led by Black Hoof, the Creek, and the Cherokees. However the Shawnees who broke off from Black Hoof, led by Tecumseh, opposed Jefferson's assimilation policies. \n\nHistorian Bernard Sheehan argues that Jefferson believed assimilation was best for Native Americans; second best was removal to the west. He felt the worst outcome of the cultural and resources conflict between European Americans and Native Americans would be their attacking the whites. Jefferson told his Secretary of War, General Henry Dearborn (Indian affairs were then under the War Department): \"if we are constrained to lift the hatchet against any tribe, we will never lay it down until that tribe is exterminated or driven beyond the Mississippi.\" Miller agrees that Jefferson believed that natives should assimilate to American customs and agriculture. Historians such as Peter S. Onuf and Merrill D. Peterson argue that Jefferson's actual Indian policies did little to promote assimilation and were a pretext to seize lands. \n\nRe-election in 1804 and second term\n\nJefferson's successful first term occasioned his re-nomination for president by the Republican party, with George Clinton replacing Burr as his running mate.Meacham, 2012, pp. 405–06 The Federalist party ran Charles Cotesworth Pinckney of South Carolina, John Adams' vice-presidential candidate in the 1800 election. The Jefferson-Clinton ticket won overwhelmingly in the electoral college vote, by 162 to 14, promoting their achievement of a strong economy, lower taxes, and the Louisiana Purchase.\n\nIn March 1806 a split developed in the Republican party led by fellow Virginian and former Republican ally John Randolph who viciously accused President Jefferson on the floor of the House of moving too far in the Federalist direction and in so doing permanently set himself apart politically from Jefferson. Jefferson and Madison had backed resolutions to limit or ban British imports in retaliation for British actions against American shipping. Also, in 1808 Jefferson was the first president to propose a broad Federal plan to build roads and canals across several states asking for $20 million, further alarming Randolph and believers of limited government. \n\nJefferson's popularity further suffered in his second term due to his response to wars in Europe. Positive relations with Great Britain had diminished due partly to the antipathy between Jefferson and the British diplomat Anthony Merry. And after Napoleon's decisive victory at the Battle of Austerlitz in 1805, Napoleon became more aggressive in his negotiations over trading rights, which American efforts failed to counter. Jefferson then led the enactment of the Embargo Act of 1807, directed at both France and Great Britain. This triggered economic chaos in the U.S. and was strongly criticized at the time, resulting in Jefferson having to abandon the policy a year later. \n\nDuring the revolutionary era the states abolished the international slave trade, but South Carolina reopened it. Jefferson in his annual message of December 1806 denounced the \"violations of human rights\" attending the international slave trade, calling on the newly elected Congress to criminalize it immediately. In 1807, Congress passed the Act Prohibiting Importation of Slaves, which Jefferson signed. While the act established severe punishment against international slave trade, it did not address the issue domestically. \n\nIn the wake of the Louisiana Purchase, Jefferson sought to annex Florida from Spain, as brokered by Napoleon.Peterson, 2002, p. 49 Congress agreed to the president's request to secretly appropriate purchase money, in the \"$2,000,000 Bill\". The Congressional funding drew criticism from Randolph who believed the money would wind up in the coffers of Napoleon. The bill was signed into law; however, negotiations for the project failed. Jefferson lost clout among fellow Republicans and his use of unofficial Congressional channels was sharply criticized. In Haiti, Jefferson's neutrality had allowed arms to enable the slave independence movement during its Revolution, and blocked attempts to assist Napoleon, who was defeated there in 1803.Jefferson, Haiti The Journal of Southern History 61, no. 2 (May, 1995), p. 221 But during his second term, in deference to southern complaints about the racial violence against slave-holders, he refused official recognition of the country, which was extended to Haiti in 1862. Domestically, Jefferson's grandson James Madison Randolph in 1806 became the first child born in the White House. \n\nBurr conspiracy and trial\n\nFollowing the 1801 electoral deadlock, Jefferson's relationship with his Vice President and former New York Senator, Aaron Burr rapidly eroded. Jefferson suspected Burr of seeking the presidency for himself, while Burr was angered by Jefferson's refusal to appoint some of his supporters to federal office. Burr was dropped from the Republican ticket in 1804.\n\nThe same year Burr was soundly defeated in his bid to be elected New York governor. During the campaign, Alexander Hamilton publicly made callous remarks regarding Burr's moral character.Chernow, 2004, p. 714 Subsequently Burr challenged Hamilton to a duel later that year, mortally wounding and killing Hamilton on July 11, 1804. Burr was indicted for Hamilton's murder in New York and New Jersey causing him to flee to Georgia, although he remained President of the Senate during Supreme Court Justice Samuel Chase's impeachment trial. Both indictments quietly died and Burr was not prosecuted.Banner (1974), p 34 Also during the election certain misguided New England separatists desiring a New England federation approached Burr intimating he would be their leader.Banner (1974), pp 34–35 However nothing became of the plot since Burr had lost the election and his reputation was ruined after killing Hamilton. In August 1804, Burr contacted British Minister Anthony Merry offering to capture U.S. western territory in return for money and British ships. \n\nIn April 1805, after leaving office, Burr traveled west and conspiring with Louisiana Territory governor James Wilkinson, began a large-scale recruitment for a military expedition.Peterson (2002), p. 50 Other plotters included Ohio Senator John Smith and a romantic Irishman Harmon Blennerhassett. Burr discussed a number of plots—seizing control of Mexico or Spanish Florida, or forming a secessionist state in New Orleans or the Western U.S., historians remain unclear as to his true goal. In the fall of 1806, Burr launched a military flotilla carrying about 60 men down the Ohio River. Wilkinson for apparent self-interested motives renounced the plot and reported Burr's expedition to Jefferson, who immediately ordered Burr's arrest. Banner (1974), p 37 On February 13, 1807 Burr was captured in Louisiana's Bayou Pierre wilderness and sent to Virginia to be tried for treason. \n\nBurr's 1807 conspiracy trial became a national issue. Jefferson attempted to preemptively influence the verdict by telling Congress that Burr's guilt was \"beyond question\", but the case came before his longtime political foe John Marshall, who dismissed the treason charge. Burr's legal team at one stage subpoenaed Jefferson, but Jefferson refused to testify, making the first argument for executive privilege. Instead Jefferson provided relevant legal documents. After a three-month trial, the jury found Burr not guilty while Jefferson denounced his acquittal.Banner, 1974, p. 37 Jefferson subsequently removed Wilkinson as territorial governor but retained him in the U.S. military. Historian James N. Banner criticized Jefferson for continuing to trust Wilkinson, a \"faithless plotter\".\n\nChesapeake–Leopard Affair and Embargo Act\n\nThe British conducted raids on American shipping and kidnapped seamen in 1806–07; thousands of Americans were thus impressed into their service. In 1806 Jefferson issued a call for a boycott of British goods; on April 18 Congress passed the Non-Importation Acts but they were never enforced. Later that year Jefferson asked James Monroe and William Pinkney to negotiate with Great Britain to end the harassment of American shipping, though Britain showed no signs of improving relations. The Monroe–Pinkney Treaty was finalized but lacked any provisions to end impressment and was rejected by Jefferson who refused to submit it to the Senate for ratification.Hayes, 2008, pp. 504–05\n\nThe British ship HMS Leopard fired upon the USS Chesapeake off the Virginia coast in June 1807, and Jefferson prepared for war.TJF: Embargo of 1807 He issued a proclamation banning armed British ships from U.S. waters. He presumed unilateral authority to call on the states to prepare 100,000 militia and ordered the purchase of arms, ammunition, and supplies, writing, \"The laws of necessity, of self-preservation, of saving our country when in danger, are of higher obligation [than strict observance of written laws]\". The USS Revenge, dispatched to demand an explanation from the British government, was also fired upon. Jefferson called for a special session of Congress in October to enact an embargo or in the alternative consider war. \n\nIn December news arrived that Napoleon had extended the Berlin Decree, globally banning British imports. In Britain, King George III ordered redoubling efforts at impressment, including American sailors. But the war fever of the summer faded–Congress had no appetite to prepare the U.S. for war. Jefferson asked for and received the Embargo Act, an alternative that allowed the U.S. more time to build up defensive works, militias and naval forces. Later historians have seen irony in Jefferson's assertion of such federal power. Meacham opines that the Embargo Act was a projection of power that surpassed the Alien and Sedition Acts, and R.B. Bernstein writes that Jefferson \"was pursuing policies resembling those he had cited in 1776 as grounds for independence and revolution\". \n\nSecretary of State James Madison supported the embargo with equal vigor to Jefferson, while Treasury Secretary Gallatin opposed it, due to its indefinite time frame and the risk it posed to the policy of American neutrality. The U.S. economy suffered, criticism grew, and opponents began evading the embargo. Instead of retreating, Jefferson sent federal agents to secretly track down smugglers and violators. Three acts were passed in Congress during 1807 and 1808, called the Supplementary, the Additional, and the Enforcement acts. Though the government could not prevent American vessels from trading with the European belligerents once they had left American ports, the embargo triggered a devastating decline in exports.\n\nMost historians consider Jefferson's embargo to have been ineffective and harmful to American interests. Appleby describes the strategy as Jefferson's \"least effective policy\", and Joseph Ellis calls it \"an unadulterated calamity\". Others, however, portray it as an innovative, nonviolent measure which aided France in its war with Britain while preserving American neutrality. Jefferson believed that the failure of the embargo was due to selfish traders and merchants showing a lack of \"republican virtue\", and maintained that had the embargo been widely observed, it would have avoided war in 1812. \n\nIn December 1807 Jefferson announced his intention to not to seek a third term. He turned his attention increasingly to Monticello during the last year of his presidency, giving Madison and Gallatin almost total control of affairs. Shortly before leaving office in March 1809, Jefferson signed the repeal of the Embargo. In its place the Non-Intercourse Act was passed, but it proved no more effective. The day before Madison was inaugurated as his successor, Jefferson said that he felt like \"a prisoner, released from his chains\". \n\nRetirement and later years \n\nFollowing his retirement from the presidency, Jefferson continued his pursuit of educational interests; he sold his vast collection of books to the Library of Congress, and founded and built the University of Virginia. As he settled into private life at Monticello, Jefferson developed a daily routine of rising early. He would spend several hours writing letters, with which he was often deluged. In the midday, he would often inspect the plantation on horseback. In the evenings, his family enjoyed leisure time in the gardens; late at night, Jefferson would retire to bed with a book. However, his routine was often interrupted by uninvited visitors and tourists eager to see the icon in his final days, turning Monticello into \"a virtual hotel\". \n\nUniversity of Virginia \n\nJefferson envisioned a university free of church influences where students could specialize in many new areas not offered at other colleges. He believed education engendered a stable society, which should provide publicly funded schools accessible to students from all social strata, based solely on ability. He initially proposed his University in a letter to Joseph Priestley in 1800, and in 1819 the 76-year-old Jefferson founded the University of Virginia. He organized the state legislative campaign for its charter and with the assistance of Edmund Bacon, purchased the location. He was the principal designer of the buildings, planned the University's curriculum and served as the first rector upon its opening in 1825. \n\nJefferson was a strong disciple of Greek and Roman architectural styles, which he believed to be most representative of American democracy. Each academic unit, called a pavilion, was designed with a two-story temple front, while the library 'Rotunda' was modeled on the Roman Pantheon. The layout of the university's grounds, which Jefferson called the 'Academical Village', reflected his educational ideas. The ten pavilions, which included classrooms and faculty residences, formed a quadrangle, and were connected by colonnades behind which stood the students' rows of rooms. Gardens and vegetable plots were placed behind the pavilions and were surrounded by serpentine walls, affirming the importance of the agrarian lifestyle. The university had a library rather than a church at its center, emphasizing its secular nature—a controversial aspect at the time. \n\nWhen Jefferson died in 1826, James Madison replaced him as rector. Jefferson bequeathed most of his library to the University. \n\nReconciliation with Adams \n\nIn the first decades of their political careers, Jefferson and John Adams had been good friends, serving together in the Continental Congress in the 1770s and in Europe in the 1780s. The Federalist/Republican split of the 1790s divided them, however, and Adams felt betrayed by Jefferson's sponsorship of partisan attacks, such as those of James Callender. Jefferson, on the other hand, was angered at Adams for his appointment of \"midnight judges\".Freeman, 2008, p.12 After Jefferson succeeded Adams as president, the two men did not communicate directly for more than a decade. In an attempt of reconciliation, unknown to Adams, a brief correspondence between Abigail Adams and Jefferson took place after Jefferson's daughter \"Polly\" died in 1804; however, an exchange of letters resumed open hostilities between Adams and Jefferson.\n\nAs early as 1809, Benjamin Rush, signer of the Declaration of Independence, desired that Jefferson and Adams reconcile and through correspondence began to prod the two to reestablish contact. In 1812, Adams, prompted earlier by Rush, wrote a short New Year's greeting to Jefferson, to which the latter warmly responded. Thus began what historian David McCullough calls \"one of the most extraordinary correspondences in American history\". Over the next fourteen years, the former presidents exchanged 158 letters discussing their political differences, justifying their respective roles in events, and debating the revolution's import to the world. When Adams died, his last words included an acknowledgement of his longtime friend and rival: \"Thomas Jefferson survives\", unaware that Jefferson had died several hours before. \n\nAutobiography \n\nIn 1821, at the age of 77 Jefferson began writing his autobiography, in order to \"state some recollections of dates and facts concerning myself.\"Autobiography of Thomas Jefferson, 1743–1790 He focused on the struggles and achievements he experienced until July 29, 1790, where the narrative stopped short.* He excluded his youth, emphasizing the revolutionary era. He related that his ancestors came from Wales to America in the early 17th century and settled in the western frontier of the Virginia colony, which influenced his zeal for individual and state rights. Jefferson described his father as uneducated, but with a \"strong mind and sound judgement.\" His enrollment in the College of William and Mary and election to the Continental Congress in Philadelphia in 1775 were included.\n\nHe also expressed opposition to the idea of a privileged aristocracy made up of large land owning families partial to the King, and instead promoted \"the aristocracy of virtue and talent, which nature has wisely provided for the direction of the interests of society, & scattered with equal hand through all it's conditions, was deemed essential to a well ordered republic.\" \n\nJefferson gave his insight about people, politics, and events. The work is primarily concerned with the Declaration and reforming the government of Virginia. He used notes, letters, and documents to tell many of the stories within the autobiography. He suggested that this history was so rich that his personal affairs were better overlooked, but he incorporated a self-analysis using the Declaration and other patriotism. \n\nLafayette's visit \n\nIn the summer of 1824, the Marquis de Lafayette accepted an invitation from President James Monroe to visit the country. Jefferson and Lafayette had not seen each other since 1789. After visits to New York, New England, and Washington, Lafayette arrived at Monticello on November 4.\n\nJefferson's grandson Randolph was present and recorded the reunion: \"As they approached each other, their uncertain gait quickened itself into a shuffling run, and exclaiming, 'Ah Jefferson!' 'Ah Lafayette!', they burst into tears as they fell into each other's arms.\" Jefferson and Lafayette then retired to the house to reminisce. The next morning Jefferson, Lafayette, and James Madison attended a tour and banquet at the University of Virginia. Jefferson had someone else read a speech he had prepared for Lafayette, as his voice was weak and could not carry. This was his last public presentation. After an 11-day visit, Lafayette bid Jefferson goodbye and departed Monticello. \n\nFinal days, death, and burial \n\nJefferson's approximately $100,000 of debt weighed heavily on his mind in his final months, as it became increasingly clear he would have little to leave to his heirs. In February 1826, he successfully applied to the General Assembly to hold a public lottery as a fundraiser.Ellis, 1996, pp. 287–88 His health began to deteriorate in July 1825, due to a combination of rheumatism from arm and wrist injuries, as well as intestinal and urinary disorders, and by June 1826 he was confined to bed. On July 3 Jefferson was overcome by fever and declined an invitation to Washington to attend an anniversary celebration of the Declaration. \n\nDuring the last hours of his life, he was accompanied by family members and friends. On July 4 at 12:50 p.m., Jefferson died at age 83 on the fiftieth anniversary of the Declaration of Independence and just a few hours before the death of John Adams. Bernstein, 2003, p. 189 The sitting president, Adams' son John Quincy, called the coincidence of their deaths on the nation's anniversary \"visible and palpable remarks of Divine Favor\". \n\nShortly after Jefferson had died, attendants found a gold locket on a chain around his neck, where it had rested for more than forty years, containing a small faded blue ribbon which tied a lock of his wife Martha's brown hair. \n\nJefferson's remains were buried at Monticello, under a self-written epitaph:\nHERE WAS BURIED THOMAS JEFFERSON, AUTHOR OF THE DECLARATION OF AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE, OF THE STATUTE OF VIRGINIA FOR RELIGIOUS FREEDOM, AND FATHER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA.\" \n\nJefferson died deeply in debt, unable to pass on his estate freely to his heirs. Though he gave instructions for disposal of his assets in his will, including the freeing of Sally Hemings' children, his estate, possessions, and slaves were sold at public auctions starting in 1827. In 1831 Monticello was sold by Martha Jefferson Randolph and the other heirs. \n\nPolitical, social and religious views\n\nJefferson subscribed to the political ideals expounded by John Locke, Francis Bacon, and Isaac Newton, whom he considered the three greatest men that ever lived. He was also influenced by the writings of Gibbon, Hume, Robertson, Bolingbroke, Montesquieu, and Voltaire. Jefferson thought the independent yeoman and agrarian life were ideals of republican virtues. He distrusted cities and financiers, favored decentralized government power, and believed that the tyranny that had plagued the common man in Europe was due to corrupt political establishments and monarchies. Having supported efforts to disestablish the Church of England, and having authored the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, he pressed for a wall of separation between church and state. The Republicans under Jefferson were strongly influenced by the 18th-century British Whig Party, who believed in limited government. His Democratic-Republican Party became dominant in early American politics, and his views became known as Jeffersonian democracy primarily intended for male European Americans. Smith, 2003, p. 314\n\nSociety and government\n\nAccording to Jefferson's philosophy, citizens have \"certain inalienable rights\" and \"rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will, within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others.\" A staunch advocate of the jury system to protect people's liberties, he proclaimed in 1801, \"I consider [trial by jury] as the only anchor yet imagined by man, by which a government can be held to the principles of its constitution.\" \nJeffersonian government not only prohibited individuals in society from infringing on the liberty of others, but also restrained itself from diminishing individual liberty as a protection against tyranny from the majority. Initially, Jefferson favored restricted voting to those who could actually have free exercise of their reason by escaping any corrupting dependence on others. He advocated enfranchising a majority of Virginians, seeking to expand suffrage to include \"yeoman farmers\" who owned their own land while excluding tenant farmers, city day laborers, vagrants, most Amerindians, and women.\n\nHe was convinced that individual liberties were the fruit of political equality, which were threatened by arbitrary government. Excesses of democracy in his view were caused by institutional corruptions rather than human nature. He was less suspicious of a working democracy than many contemporaries.Wood, 2011, pp. 220–27 As president, Jefferson feared that the Federalist system enacted by Washington and Adams had encouraged corrupting patronage and dependence. He tried to restore a balance between the state and federal governments more nearly reflecting the Articles of Confederation, seeking to reinforce state prerogatives where his party was in a majority.\n\nJefferson was steeped in the British Whig tradition of the oppressed majority set against a repeatedly unresponsive court party in the Parliament. He justified small outbreaks of rebellion as necessary to get monarchial regimes to amend oppressive measures compromising popular liberties. In a republican regime ruled by the majority, he acknowledged \"it will often be exercised when wrong\". But \"the remedy is to set them right as to facts, pardon and pacify them.\" As Jefferson saw his party triumph in two terms of his presidency and launch into a third term under James Madison, his view of the U.S. as a continental republic and an \"empire of liberty\" grew more upbeat. On departing the presidency in 1809, he described America as \"trusted with the destines of this solitary republic of the world, the only monument of human rights, and the sole depository of the sacred fire of freedom and self-government\". \n\nDemocracy \n\nJefferson considered democracy to be the expression of society, and promoted national self-determination, cultural uniformity, and education of all males of the commonwealth. He supported public education and a free press as essential components of a democratic nation. \n\nAfter resigning as secretary of state in 1795, Jefferson focused on the electoral bases of the Republicans and Federalists. The \"Republican\" classification for which he advocated included \"the entire body of landholders\" everywhere and \"the body of laborers\" without land. Republicans united behind Jefferson as vice president, with the election of 1796 expanding democracy nationwide at grassroots levels. Jefferson promoted Republican candidates for local offices. \n\nBeginning with Jefferson's electioneering for the \"revolution of 1800\", his political efforts were based on egalitarian appeals. In his later years, he referred to the 1800 election \"as real a revolution in the principles of our government as that of '76 was in its form\", one \"not effected indeed by the sword … but by the … suffrage of the people.\" Voter participation grew during Jefferson's presidency, increasing to \"unimaginable levels\" compared to the Federalist Era, with turnout of about 67,000 in 1800 rising to about 143,000 in 1804. \n\nAt the onset of the Revolution, Jefferson accepted William Blackstone's argument that property ownership would sufficiently empower voters' independent judgement, but he sought to further expand suffrage by land distribution to the poor. In the heat of the Revolutionary Era and afterward, several states expanded voter eligibility from landed gentry to all propertied male, tax-paying citizens with Jefferson's support. In retirement, he gradually became critical of his home state for violating \"the principle of equal political rights\"—the social right of universal male suffrage. He sought a \"general suffrage\" of all taxpayers and militia-men, and equal representation by population in the General Assembly to correct preferential treatment of the slave-holding regions. \n\nReligion \n\nBaptized in his youth, Jefferson became a governing member of his local Episcopal Church in Charlottesville, which he later attended with his daughters. Influenced by Deist authors during his college years Jefferson abandoned \"orthodox\" Christianity after his review of New Testament teachings. In 1803 he asserted, \"I am Christian, in the only sense in which [Jesus] wished any one to be.\" Jefferson later defined being a Christian as one who followed the simple teachings of Jesus. Jefferson compiled Jesus' biblical teachings, omitting miraculous or supernatural references. He titled the work The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth, known today as the Jefferson Bible. Peterson states Jefferson was a theist \"whose God was the Creator of the universe … all the evidences of nature testified to His perfection; and man could rely on the harmony and beneficence of His work.\" \n\nJefferson was firmly anticlerical, writing in \"every age, the priest has been hostile to liberty … they have perverted the purest religion ever preached to man into mystery and jargon.\" The full letter to Horatio Spatford can be read at the National Archives. Jefferson once supported banning clergy from public office but later relented. In 1777, he drafted the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom. Ratified in 1786, it made compelling attendance or contributions to any state-sanctioned religious establishment illegal and declared that men \"shall be free to profess … their opinions in matters of religion.\" The Statute is one of only three accomplishments he chose to have inscribed in the epitaph on his gravestone. Early in 1802, Jefferson wrote to the Danbury Connecticut Baptist Association, \"that religion is a matter which lies solely between Man and his God.\" He interpreted the First Amendment as having built \"a wall of separation between Church and State.\" The phrase 'Separation of Church and State' has been cited several times by the Supreme Court in its interpretation of the Establishment Clause.\n\nJefferson donated to the American Bible Society, saying the Four Evangelists delivered a \"pure and sublime system of morality\" to humanity. He thought Americans would rationally create \"Apiarian\" religion, extracting the best traditions of every denomination. And he contributed generously to several local denominations nearby Monticello. Acknowledging organized religion would always be factored into political life for good or ill, he encouraged reason over supernatural revelation to make inquiries into religion. He believed in a creator god, an afterlife, and the sum of religion as loving God and neighbors. But he also controversially renounced the conventional Christian Trinity, denying Jesus' divinity as the Son of God. \n\nJefferson's unorthodox religious beliefs became an important issue in the 1800 presidential election.Wood, 2010, p. 586 Federalists attacked him as an atheist. As president, Jefferson countered the accusations by praising religion in his inaugural address and attending services at the Capitol.\n\nBanks \n\nJefferson distrusted government banks and opposed public borrowing, which he thought created long-term debt, bred monopolies, and invited dangerous speculation as opposed to productive labor. In one letter to Madison, he argued each generation should curtail all debt within 19 years, and not impose a long-term debt on subsequent generations. \n\nIn 1791, President Washington asked Jefferson, then Secretary of State, and Hamilton, the Secretary of the Treasury, if the Congress had the authority to create a national bank. While Hamilton believed Congress had the authority, Jefferson and Madison thought a national bank would ignore the needs of individuals and farmers, and would violate the Tenth Amendment by assuming powers not granted to the federal government by the states. \n\nJefferson used agrarian resistance to banks and speculators as the first defining principle of an opposition party, recruiting candidates for Congress on the issue as early as 1792. As president, Jefferson was persuaded by Secretary of Treasury Albert Gallatin to leave the bank intact, but sought to restrain its influence. \n\nSlavery \n\nJefferson lived in a planter economy largely dependent upon slavery, and as a wealthy landholder, used slave labor for his household, plantation, and workshops. He first recorded his slaveholding in 1774, when he counted 41. Over his lifetime he owned about 600 slaves; he inherited about 175 while most of the remainder were born on his plantations.TJF: Slavery at Monticello - Property Jefferson purchased slaves in order to unite their families, and he sold about 110 for economic reasons, primarily slaves from his outlying farms. Many historians have described Jefferson as a benevolent slaveowner who didn't overwork his slaves by the conventions of his time, and provided them log cabins with fireplaces, food, clothing and some household provisions, though slaves often had to make many of their own provisions. Additionally Jefferson gave his slaves financial and other incentives while also allowing them to grow gardens and raise their own chickens. The use of the whip was employed only in rare and extreme cases of fighting and stealing.TJF - Thomas Jefferson's Monticello \"Slave Dwellings\" \n\nJefferson once said, “My first wish is that the labourers may be well treated”. Slaves were given Sundays and Christmas off and had more free time during the winter months. Some scholars doubt Jefferson's benevolence, however, noting cases of excessive slave whippings in his absence. His nail factory was also only staffed by child slaves, many of those boys became tradesmen. Burwell Colbert, who started his working life as a child in Monticello's Nailery, was later promoted to the supervisory position of butler.TJF: Thomas Jefferson's Monticello - Nailery,Wiencek, 2012, p.93\n\nJefferson felt slavery was harmful to both slave and master, but had reservations about releasing unprepared slaves into freedom and advocated gradual emancipation.TJF: Thomas Jefferson and Slavery In 1779, he proposed gradual voluntary training and resettlement to the Virginia legislature, and three years later drafted legislation allowing owners to free their own slaves. In his draft of the Declaration of Independence, he included a section, stricken by other Southern delegates, criticizing King George III's role in promoting slavery in the colonies. In 1784, Jefferson proposed the abolition of slavery in all western U.S. territories, limiting slave importation to 15 years.Ferling 2000, p 287 Congress, however, failed to pass his proposal by one vote. In 1787, Congress passed the Northwest Ordinance, a partial victory for Jefferson that terminated slavery in the Northwest Territory. Jefferson freed his slave Robert Hemings in 1794 and he freed his cook slave James Hemings in 1796. During his presidency Jefferson allowed the diffusion of slavery into the Louisiana Territory hoping to prevent slave uprisings in Virginia and to prevent South Carolina secession. In 1804, in a compromise on the slavery issue, Jefferson and Congress banned domestic slave trafficking for one year into the Louisiana Territory. In 1806 he officially called for anti-slavery legislation terminating the import or export of slaves. Congress passed the law in 1807, taking effect in 1818. Ferling 2000, p 288 In 1819, he strongly opposed a Missouri statehood application amendment that banned slave importation and freed slaves at the age of 25 on grounds it would destroy the union.Ferling 2000, pp 286, 294 Jefferson freed his runaway slave Harriet Hemings in 1822. Upon his death in 1826, Jefferson freed five male Hemings slaves in his will. \n\nJefferson shared the common belief of his day that blacks were mentally and physically inferior, but argued they nonetheless had innate human rights. In Notes on the State of Virginia, he created controversy by calling slavery a moral evil for which the nation would ultimately have to account to God. He therefore supported colonization plans that would transport freed slaves to another country, such as Liberia or Sierra Leone, though he recognized the impracticability of such proposals. \n\nDuring his presidency Jefferson was for the most part publicly silent on the issue of slavery and emancipation, TJF:Jefferson's Antislavery Actions as the Congressional debate over slavery and its extension caused a dangerous north-south rift among the states, with talk of a northern confederacy in New England. The violent attacks on white slave owners during the Haitian Revolution due to injustices under slavery supported Jefferson’s fears of a race war, increasing his reservations about promoting emancipation at that time. After numerous attempts and failures to bring about emancipation, Jefferson wrote privately in an 1805 letter to William A. Burwell, “I have long since given up the expectation of any early provision for the extinguishment of slavery among us. That same year he also related this idea to George Logan, writing, \"I have most carefully avoided every public act or manifestation on that subject.\" \n\nHistorical assessment\n\nScholars remain divided on whether Jefferson supported or condemned slavery and how he changed. Francis D. Cogliano traces the development of competing emancipationist then revisionist and finally contextualist interpretations from the 1960s to the present. The emancipationist view, held by the various scholars at the Thomas Jefferson Foundation, Douglas L. Wilson, and others maintains Jefferson was an opponent of slavery all his life, noting that he did what he could within the limited range of options available to him to undermine it, his many attempts at abolition legislation, the manner in which he provided for slaves, and his advocacy of their more humane treatment. The revisionist view, advanced by Paul Finkelman and others criticizes Jefferson for racism, for holding slaves, and for acting contrary to his words, as Jefferson never freed most of his slaves, and he remained silent on the issue while he was President. Contextualists such as Joseph J. Ellis emphasize a change in Jefferson’s thinking from emancipationist before 1783, noting a shift toward public passivity and procrastination on policy issues related to slavery. Jefferson seemed to yield to public opinion by 1794 as he laid the groundwork for his first presidential campaign against Adams in 1796. \n\nJefferson–Hemings controversy \n\nClaims that Jefferson fathered Sally Hemings' children have been debated since 1802. That year James T. Callender, after being denied a position as postmaster, alleged Jefferson had taken Hemings as a concubine and fathered several children with her. In 1998, a panel of researchers conducted a Y-DNA study of living descendants of Jefferson's uncle, Field, and of a descendant of Hemings' son, Eston Hemings. The results, published in the journal Nature, showed a match with the male Jefferson line. According to the Thomas Jefferson Foundation, since the results of the DNA tests were made public, most historians believe Jefferson had a relationship with Hemings. In 2000, the Thomas Jefferson Foundation (TJF) assembled a team of historians whose report concluded that \"the DNA study … indicates a high probability that Thomas Jefferson fathered Eston Hemings.\" Other scholars maintain the evidence is insufficient to prove Jefferson's paternity conclusively. They note the possibility that additional Jefferson males, including his brother Randolph Jefferson and Randolph's five sons, could have fathered Eston Hemings or Sally Hemings' other children. After Thomas Jefferson's death, although not formally manumitted, Sally Hemings was allowed by Jefferson's daughter Martha to live in Charlottesville as a free woman until her death in 1835. \n\nInterests and activities \n\nJefferson was a farmer, obsessed with new crops, soil conditions, garden designs, and scientific agricultural techniques. His main cash crop was tobacco, but its price was usually low and it was rarely profitable. He tried to achieve self-sufficiency with wheat, vegetables, flax, corn, hogs, sheep, poultry, and cattle to supply his family, slaves, and employees, but he had cash flow problems and was always in debt. \n\nIn the field of architecture, Jefferson helped popularize the Neo-Palladian style in the United States utilizing designs for the Virginia State Capitol, the University of Virginia, Monticello, and others. Jefferson mastered architecture through self-study, using various books and classical architectural designs of the day. His primary authority was Andrea Palladio's The Four Books of Architecture, which outlines the principles of classical design. \n\nHe was interested in birds and wine, and was a noted gourmet; he was also a prolific writer and linguist, and spoke several languages.Hayes, 2008, pp. 135–36 As a naturalist, he was fascinated by the Natural Bridge geological formation, and in 1774 successfully acquired the Bridge by grant from George III. \n\nAmerican Philosophical Society \n\nJefferson was a member of the American Philosophical Society for 35 years, beginning in 1780. Through the Society he advanced the sciences and Enlightenment ideals, emphasizing that knowledge of science reinforced and extended freedom.Hayes, 2008, p. 432 His Notes on the State of Virginia was written in part as a contribution to the Society.TJF: \"American Philosophical Society\"He became the Society's third president on March 3, 1797, a few months after he was elected Vice President of the United States.Bernstein, 2003, pp. 118–19 In accepting, Jefferson stated: \"I feel no qualification for this distinguished post but a sincere zeal for all the objects of our institution and an ardent desire to see knowledge so disseminated through the mass of mankind that it may at length reach even the extremes of society, beggars and kings.\"\n\nJefferson served as APS President for the next eighteen years, including through both terms of his presidency. He introduced Meriwether Lewis to the Society, where various scientists tutored him in preparation for the Lewis and Clark Expedition. He resigned on January 20, 1815, but remained active through correspondence. \n\nLinguistics \n\nJefferson had a lifelong interest in linguistics, could speak, read and write in a number of languages, including French, Greek, Italian, and German. He claimed to have taught himself Spanish during his nineteen-day journey to France, using only a grammar guide and a copy of Don Quixote. Linguistics played a significant role in how Jefferson modeled and expressed political and philosophical ideas. He believed that the study of ancient languages was essential in understanding the roots of modern language.Hellenbrand, 1990, pp. 155–56 He collected and understood a number of American Indian vocabularies and instructed Lewis and Clark to record and collect various Indian dialects during their Expedition. In his early years he excelled in classical language while at boarding school where he received a classical education in Greek and Latin. He later came to regard the Greek language as the \"perfect language\" as expressed in its laws.Bober, 2008, p. 16 While attending the College of William & Mary, he taught himself Italian.TJF: Italy – Language Here Jefferson first became familiar with the Anglo-Saxon language, especially as it was associated with English Common law and system of government and studied the language in a linguistic and philosophical capacity. He owned 17 volumes of Anglo-Saxon texts and grammar and later wrote an essay on the Anglo-Saxon language.\n\nJefferson was not a good orator and preferred to communicate through writing or remain silent if possible. Instead of delivering his State of the Union addresses himself, Jefferson wrote the annual messages and sent a representative to read them aloud in Congress. This started a tradition which continued until 1913, when President Woodrow Wilson (1913–1921) chose to deliver his own State of the Union address. \n\nInventions \n\nJefferson invented many small practical devices and improved contemporary inventions, including a revolving book-stand and a \"Great Clock\" powered by the gravitational pull on cannonballs. He improved the pedometer, the polygraph (a device for duplicating writing), and the moldboard plow, an idea he never patented and gave to posterity. Jefferson can also be credited as the creator of the swivel chair, the first of which he created and used to write much of the Declaration of Independence. \n\nAs Minister to France, Jefferson was impressed by the military standardization program known as the Système Gribeauval, and initiated a program as president to develop interchangeable parts for firearms. For his inventiveness and ingenuity, he received several honorary Doctor of Law degrees. \n\nHistorical reputation \n\nJefferson is an icon of individual liberty, democracy, and republicanism, hailed as the author of the Declaration of Independence, an architect of the American Revolution, and a renaissance man who promoted science and scholarship. The participatory democracy and expanded suffrage he championed defined his era and became a standard for later generations. Meacham opined, he was the most influential figure of the democratic republic in its first half century, succeeded by presidential adherents James Madison, James Monroe, Andrew Jackson, and Martin Van Buren. Jefferson is recognized for having written more than 18,000 letters of political and philosophical substance during his life, which Francis D. Cogliano describes as \"a documentary legacy … unprecedented in American history in its size and breadth.\" \n\nJefferson's reputation declined during the Civil War due to his support of states' rights. In the late 19th century, his legacy was widely criticized; conservatives felt his democratic philosophy had led to that era's populist movement, while Progressives sought a more activist federal government than Jefferson's philosophy allowed. Both groups saw Hamilton as vindicated by history, rather than Jefferson, and President Woodrow Wilson even described Jefferson as \"though a great man, not a great American\". \n\nIn the 1930s, Jefferson was held in higher esteem; President Franklin D. Roosevelt (1933–45) and New Deal Democrats celebrated his struggles for \"the common man\" and reclaimed him as their party's founder. Jefferson became a symbol of American democracy in the incipient Cold War, and the 1940s and '50s saw the zenith of his popular reputation. Following the African-American Civil Rights movement of the 1950s and '60s, Jefferson's slaveholding came under new scrutiny, particularly after a DNA test supported allegations he had a relationship with Sally Hemings. \n\nNoting the huge output of scholarly books on Jefferson in recent years, historian Gordon Wood summarizes the raging debates about Jefferson's stature:\nAlthough many historians and others are embarrassed about his contradictions and have sought to knock him off the democratic pedestal...his position, though shaky, still seems secure.\" \n\nThe Siena Research Institute poll of presidential scholars, begun in 1982, has consistently ranked Jefferson as one of the five best U.S. presidents, and a 2015 Brookings Institution poll of American Political Science Association members ranked him as the fifth greatest president. \n\nMemorials and honors \n\nJefferson has been memorialized with buildings, sculptures, postage, and currency. In the 1920s, Jefferson, together with George Washington, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln, was chosen by sculptor Gutzon Borglum and approved by President Calvin Coolidge to be depicted in stone at the Mount Rushmore Memorial. \n\nThe Jefferson Memorial was dedicated in Washington, D.C. in 1943, on the 200th anniversary of Jefferson's birth. The interior of the memorial includes a 19 ft statue of Jefferson and engravings of passages from his writings. Most prominent are the words inscribed around the monument near the roof: \"I have sworn upon the altar of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.\" \n\nWritings \n\n* A Summary View of the Rights of British America (1774)\n* Declaration of the Causes and Necessity of Taking Up Arms (1775)\n* [http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/declaration_transcript.html Declaration of Independence (1776)]\n* Memorandums taken on a journey from Paris into the southern parts of France and Northern Italy, in the year 1787\n* Notes on the State of Virginia (1781)\n* Plan for Establishing Uniformity in the Coinage, Weights, and Measures of the United States A report submitted to Congress (1790)\n* \"[https://archive.org/stream/anessaytowardsf00jeffgoog#page/n6/mode/2up An Essay Towards Facilitating Instruction in the Anglo-Saxon and Modern Dialects of the English Language]\" (1796)\n* Manual of Parliamentary Practice for the Use of the Senate of the United States (1801)\n* Autobiography (1821)\n* Jefferson Bible, or The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth", "Abraham Lincoln (; February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. Lincoln led the United States through its Civil War—its bloodiest war and its greatest moral, constitutional, and political crisis. In doing so, he preserved the Union, abolished slavery, strengthened the federal government, and modernized the economy.\n\nBorn in Hodgenville, Kentucky, Lincoln grew up on the western frontier in Kentucky and Indiana. Largely self-educated, he became a lawyer in Illinois, a Whig Party leader, and a member of the Illinois House of Representatives, in which he served for twelve years. Elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1846, Lincoln promoted rapid modernization of the economy through banks, tariffs, and railroads. Because he had originally agreed not to run for a second term in Congress, and because his opposition to the Mexican–American War was unpopular among Illinois voters, Lincoln returned to Springfield and resumed his successful law practice. Reentering politics in 1854, he became a leader in building the new Republican Party, which had a statewide majority in Illinois. In 1858, while taking part in a series of highly publicized debates with his opponent and rival, Democrat Stephen A. Douglas, Lincoln spoke out against the expansion of slavery, but lost the U.S. Senate race to Douglas.\n\nIn 1860, Lincoln secured the Republican Party presidential nomination as a moderate from a swing state. Though he gained very little support in the slaveholding states of the South, he swept the North and was elected president in 1860. Lincoln's victory prompted seven southern slave states to form the Confederate States of America before he moved into the White House - no compromise or reconciliation was found regarding slavery and secession. Subsequently, on April 12, 1861, a Confederate attack on Fort Sumter inspired the North to enthusiastically rally behind the Union in a declaration of war. As the leader of the moderate faction of the Republican Party, Lincoln confronted Radical Republicans, who demanded harsher treatment of the South, War Democrats, who called for more compromise, anti-war Democrats (called Copperheads), who despised him, and irreconcilable secessionists, who plotted his assassination. Politically, Lincoln fought back by pitting his opponents against each other, by carefully planned political patronage, and by appealing to the American people with his powers of oratory. His Gettysburg Address became an iconic endorsement of the principles of nationalism, republicanism, equal rights, liberty, and democracy.\n\nLincoln initially concentrated on the military and political dimensions of the war. His primary goal was to reunite the nation. He suspended habeas corpus, leading to the controversial ex parte Merryman decision, and he averted potential British intervention in the war by defusing the Trent Affair in late 1861. Lincoln closely supervised the war effort, especially the selection of top generals, including his most successful general, Ulysses S. Grant. He also made major decisions on Union war strategy, including a naval blockade that shut down the South's normal trade, moves to take control of Kentucky and Tennessee, and using gunboats to gain control of the southern river system. Lincoln tried repeatedly to capture the Confederate capital at Richmond; each time a general failed, Lincoln substituted another, until finally Grant succeeded. As the war progressed, his complex moves toward ending slavery included the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863; Lincoln used the U.S. Army to protect escaped slaves, encouraged the border states to outlaw slavery, and pushed through Congress the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which permanently outlawed slavery.\n\nAn exceptionally astute politician deeply involved with power issues in each state, Lincoln reached out to the War Democrats and managed his own re-election campaign in the 1864 presidential election. Anticipating the war's conclusion, Lincoln pushed a moderate view of Reconstruction, seeking to reunite the nation speedily through a policy of generous reconciliation in the face of lingering and bitter divisiveness. On April 14, 1865, five days after the April 9th surrender of Confederate commanding general Robert E. Lee, Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth, a Confederate sympathizer.\n\nLincoln has been consistently ranked both by scholars and the public[http://www.gallup.com/poll/146183/Americans-Say-Reagan-Greatest-President.aspx \"Americans Say Reagan Is the Greatest President\"]. Gallup Inc. February 28, 2011. as one of the three greatest U.S. presidents.\n\nFamily and childhood\n\nEarly life and family ancestry\n\nAbraham Lincoln was born February 12, 1809, the second child of Thomas and Nancy Hanks Lincoln, in a one-room log cabin on the Sinking Spring Farm in Hardin County, Kentucky (now LaRue County). He was a descendant of Samuel Lincoln, who migrated from Norfolk, England to Hingham, Massachusetts, in 1638. Samuel's grandson and great-grandson began the family's western migration, which passed through New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. Lincoln's paternal grandfather and namesake, Captain Abraham Lincoln, moved the family from Virginia to Jefferson County, Kentucky in the 1780s. Captain Lincoln was killed in an Indian raid in 1786. His children, including six-year-old Thomas, the future president's father, witnessed the attack. After his father's murder, Thomas was left to make his own way on the frontier, working at odd jobs in Kentucky and in Tennessee, before settling with members of his family in Hardin County, Kentucky, in the early 1800s. \n\nLincoln's mother, Nancy, is widely assumed to have been the daughter of Lucy Hanks, although no record of Nancy Hanks' birth has ever been found. According to William Ensign Lincoln's book The Ancestry of Abraham Lincoln, Nancy was the daughter of Joseph Hanks; however, the debate continues over whether she was born out of wedlock. Still another researcher, Adin Baber, claims that Nancy Hanks was the daughter of Abraham Hanks and Sarah Harper of Virginia.\n\nThomas Lincoln and Nancy Hanks were married on June 12, 1806, in Washington County, and moved to Elizabethtown, Kentucky, following their marriage. They became the parents of three children: Sarah, born on February 10, 1807; Abraham, on February 12, 1809; and another son, Thomas, who died in infancy. Thomas Lincoln bought or leased several farms in Kentucky, including the Sinking Spring farm, where Abraham was born; however, a land title dispute soon forced the Lincolns to move. Warren, p. 12. In 1811 the family moved eight miles north, to Knob Creek Farm, where Thomas acquired title to 230 acre of land. In 1815 a claimant in another land dispute sought to eject the family from the farm. Of the 816.5 acres that Thomas held in Kentucky, he lost all but 200 acre of his land in court disputes over property titles. Frustrated over the lack of security provided by Kentucky courts, Thomas sold the remaining land he held in Kentucky in 1814, and began planning a move to Indiana, where the land survey process was more reliable and the ability for an individual to retain land titles was more secure.Warren, p. 13.\n\nIn 1816 the family moved north across the Ohio River to Indiana, a free, non-slaveholding territory, where they settled in an \"unbroken forest\" in Hurricane Township, Perry County. (Their land in southern Indiana became part of Spencer County, Indiana, when the county was established in 1818.) The farm is preserved as part of the Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial. In 1860 Lincoln noted that the family's move to Indiana was \"partly on account of slavery\"; but mainly due to land title difficulties in Kentucky. During the family's years in Kentucky and Indiana, Thomas Lincoln worked as a farmer, cabinetmaker, and carpenter. He owned farms, several town lots and livestock, paid taxes, sat on juries, appraised estates, served on country slave patrols, and guarded prisoners. Thomas and Nancy Lincoln were also members of a Separate Baptists church, which had restrictive moral standards and opposed alcohol, dancing, and slavery. Within a year of the family's arrival in Indiana, Thomas claimed title to 160 acre of Indiana land. Despite some financial challenges he eventually obtained clear title to 80 acre of land in what became known as the Little Pigeon Creek Community in Spencer County. Prior to the family's move to Illinois in 1830, Thomas had acquired an additional twenty acres of land adjacent to his property. \n\nSeveral significant family events took place during Lincoln's youth in Indiana. On October 5, 1818, Nancy Lincoln died of milk sickness, leaving eleven-year-old Sarah in charge of a household that included her father, nine-year-old Abraham, and Dennis Hanks, Nancy's nineteen-year-old orphaned cousin. On December 2, 1819, Lincoln's father married Sarah \"Sally\" Bush Johnston, a widow from Elizabethtown, Kentucky, with three children of her own. Abraham became very close to his stepmother, whom he referred to as \"Mother\". Those who knew Lincoln as a teenager later recalled him being very distraught over his sister Sarah's death on January 20, 1828, while giving birth to a stillborn son. \n\nAs a youth, Lincoln disliked the hard labor associated with frontier life. Some of his neighbors and family members thought for a time that he was lazy for all his \"reading, scribbling, writing, ciphering, writing Poetry, etc.\", and must have done it to avoid manual labor. His stepmother also acknowledged he did not enjoy \"physical labor\", but loved to read. Lincoln was largely self-educated. His formal schooling from several itinerant teachers was intermittent, the aggregate of which may have amounted to less than a year; however, he was an avid reader and retained a lifelong interest in learning. Family, neighbors, and schoolmates of Lincoln's youth recalled that he read and reread the King James Bible, Aesop's Fables, Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress, Defoe's Robinson Crusoe, Weems's The Life of Washington, and Franklin's Autobiography, among others. \n\nAs he grew into his teens, Lincoln took responsibility for the chores expected of him as one of the boys in the household. He also complied with the customary obligation of a son giving his father all earnings from work done outside the home until the age of twenty-one. Abraham became adept at using an axe. Tall for his age, Lincoln was also strong and athletic. He attained a reputation for brawn and audacity after a very competitive wrestling match with the renowned leader of a group of ruffians known as \"the Clary's Grove boys\". \n\nIn early March 1830, fearing a milk sickness outbreak along the Ohio River, the Lincoln family moved west to Illinois, a non-slaveholding state. They settled on a site in Macon County, Illinois, 10 mi west of Decatur. Historians disagree on who initiated the move. After the family relocated to Illinois, Abraham became increasingly distant from his father,Bartelt, p. 71. in part because of his father's lack of education, and occasionally lent him money. In 1831, as Thomas and other members of the family prepared to move to a new homestead in Coles County, Illinois, Abraham was old enough to make his own decisions and struck out on his own. Traveling down the Sangamon River, he ended up in the village of New Salem in Sangamon County. Later that spring, Denton Offutt, a New Salem merchant, hired Lincoln and some friends to take goods by flatboat from New Salem to New Orleans via the Sangamon, Illinois, and Mississippi rivers. After arriving in New Orleans—and witnessing slavery firsthand—Lincoln returned to New Salem, where he remained for the next six years. \n\nMarriage and children\n\nLincoln's first romantic interest was Ann Rutledge, whom he met when he first moved to New Salem; by 1835, they were in a relationship but not formally engaged. She died at the age of 22 on August 25, 1835, most likely of typhoid fever. In the early 1830s, he met Mary Owens from Kentucky when she was visiting her sister. \n\nLate in 1836, Lincoln agreed to a match with Mary if she returned to New Salem. Mary did return in November 1836, and Lincoln courted her for a time; however, they both had second thoughts about their relationship. On August 16, 1837, Lincoln wrote Mary a letter suggesting he would not blame her if she ended the relationship. She never replied and the courtship ended.\n\nIn 1840, Lincoln became engaged to Mary Todd, who was from a wealthy slave-holding family in Lexington, Kentucky. They met in Springfield, Illinois, in December 1839 and were engaged the following December. \nA wedding set for January 1, 1841, was canceled when the two broke off their engagement at Lincoln's initiative. They later met again at a party and married on November 4, 1842, in the Springfield mansion of Mary's married sister. While preparing for the nuptials and feeling anxiety again, Lincoln, when asked where he was going, replied, \"To hell, I suppose.\" In 1844, the couple bought a house in Springfield near Lincoln's law office. Mary Todd Lincoln kept house, often with the help of a relative or hired servant girl. \n\nHe was an affectionate, though often absent, husband and father of four children. Robert Todd Lincoln was born in 1843 and Edward Baker Lincoln (Eddie) in 1846. Edward died on February 1, 1850, in Springfield, probably of tuberculosis. \"Willie\" Lincoln was born on December 21, 1850, and died of a fever on February 20, 1862. The Lincolns' fourth son, Thomas \"Tad\" Lincoln, was born on April 4, 1853, and died of heart failure at the age of 18 on July 16, 1871. Robert was the only child to live to adulthood and have children. His last descendant, great-grandson Robert Todd Lincoln Beckwith, died in 1985. Lincoln \"was remarkably fond of children\", and the Lincolns were not considered to be strict with their own. \n\nThe deaths of their sons had profound effects on both parents. Later in life, Mary struggled with the stresses of losing her husband and sons, and Robert Lincoln committed her temporarily to a mental health asylum in 1875. Abraham Lincoln suffered from \"melancholy\", a condition which now is referred to as clinical depression. \n\nLincoln's father-in-law and others of the Todd family were either slave owners or slave traders. Lincoln was close to the Todds, and he and his family occasionally visited the Todd estate in Lexington. \n\nDuring his term as President of the United States of America, Mary was known to cook for Lincoln often. Since she was raised by a wealthy family, her cooking abilities were simple, but satisfied Lincoln's tastes, which included, particularly, imported oysters. \n\nEarly career and militia service\n\nIn 1832, at age 23, Lincoln and a partner bought a small general store on credit in New Salem, Illinois. Although the economy was booming in the region, the business struggled and Lincoln eventually sold his share. That March he began his political career with his first campaign for the Illinois General Assembly. He had attained local popularity and could draw crowds as a natural raconteur in New Salem, though he lacked an education, powerful friends, and money, which may be why he lost. He advocated navigational improvements on the Sangamon River. \n\nBefore the election, Lincoln served as a captain in the Illinois Militia during the Black Hawk War. Following his return, Lincoln continued his campaign for the August 6 election for the Illinois General Assembly. At 6 ft, he was tall and \"strong enough to intimidate any rival\". At his first speech, when he saw a supporter in the crowd being attacked, Lincoln grabbed the assailant by his \"neck and the seat of his trousers\" and threw him. Lincoln finished eighth out of 13 candidates (the top four were elected), though he received 277 of the 300 votes cast in the New Salem precinct. \n\nLincoln served as New Salem's postmaster and later as county surveyor, all the while reading voraciously. He then decided to become a lawyer and began teaching himself law by reading Blackstone's Commentaries on the Laws of England and other law books. Of his learning method, Lincoln stated: \"I studied with nobody\". His second campaign in 1834 was successful. He won election to the state legislature; though he ran as a Whig, many Democrats favored him over a more powerful Whig opponent. \n\nAdmitted to the bar in 1836, he moved to Springfield, Illinois, and began to practice law under John T. Stuart, Mary Todd's cousin. Lincoln became an able and successful lawyer with a reputation as a formidable adversary during cross-examinations and closing arguments. He partnered with Stephen T. Logan from 1841 until 1844. Then Lincoln began his practice with William Herndon, whom Lincoln thought \"a studious young man\". \n\nSuccessful on his second run for office, Lincoln served four successive terms in the Illinois House of Representatives as a Whig representative from Sangamon County. He supported the construction of the Illinois and Michigan Canal, which he remained involved with later as a Canal Commissioner. In the 1835–36 legislative session, he voted to expand suffrage to white males, whether landowners or not. He was known for his \"free soil\" stance of opposing both slavery and abolitionism. He first articulated this in 1837, saying, \"[The] Institution of slavery is founded on both injustice and bad policy, but the promulgation of abolition doctrines tends rather to increase than abate its evils.\" His stance closely followed Henry Clay in supporting the American Colonization Society program of making the abolition of slavery practical by its advocation and helping the freed slaves to settle in Liberia in Africa. \n\nU.S. House of Representatives, 1847–49\n\nFrom the early 1830s, Lincoln was a steadfast Whig and professed to friends in 1861 to be \"an old line Whig, a disciple of Henry Clay\". The party, including Lincoln, favored economic modernization in banking, protective tariffs to fund internal improvements including railroads, and espoused urbanization as well. \n\nIn 1846, Lincoln was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, where he served one two-year term. He was the only Whig in the Illinois delegation, but he showed his party loyalty by participating in almost all votes and making speeches that echoed the party line. Lincoln, in collaboration with abolitionist Congressman Joshua R. Giddings, wrote a bill to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia with compensation for the owners, enforcement to capture fugitive slaves, and a popular vote on the matter. He abandoned the bill when it failed to garner sufficient Whig supporters. \n\nOn foreign and military policy, Lincoln spoke out against the Mexican–American War, which he attributed to President Polk's desire for \"military glory—that attractive rainbow, that rises in showers of blood\". Lincoln also supported the Wilmot Proviso, which, if it had been adopted, would have banned slavery in any U.S. territory won from Mexico. \n\nLincoln emphasized his opposition to Polk by drafting and introducing his Spot Resolutions. The war had begun with a Mexican slaughter of American soldiers in territory disputed by Mexico and the U.S. Polk insisted that Mexican soldiers had \"invaded our territory and shed the blood of our fellow-citizens on our own soil. Lincoln demanded that Polk show Congress the exact spot on which blood had been shed and prove that the spot was on American soil.\n\nCongress never enacted the resolution or even debated it, the national papers ignored it, and it resulted in a loss of political support for Lincoln in his district. One Illinois newspaper derisively nicknamed him \"spotty Lincoln\". Lincoln later regretted some of his statements, especially his attack on the presidential war-making powers. \n\nRealizing Clay was unlikely to win the presidency, Lincoln, who had pledged in 1846 to serve only one term in the House, supported General Zachary Taylor for the Whig nomination in the 1848 presidential election. Taylor won and Lincoln hoped to be appointed Commissioner of the General Land Office, but that lucrative patronage job went to an Illinois rival, Justin Butterfield, considered by the administration to be a highly skilled lawyer, but in Lincoln's view, an \"old fossil\". The administration offered him the consolation prize of secretary or governor of the Oregon Territory. This distant territory was a Democratic stronghold, and acceptance of the post would have effectively ended his legal and political career in Illinois, so he declined and resumed his law practice. \n\nPrairie lawyer\n\nLincoln returned to practicing law in Springfield, handling \"every kind of business that could come before a prairie lawyer\". Twice a year for 16 years, 10 weeks at a time, he appeared in county seats in the midstate region when the county courts were in session. Lincoln handled many transportation cases in the midst of the nation's western expansion, particularly the conflicts arising from the operation of river barges under the many new railroad bridges. As a riverboat man, Lincoln initially favored those interests, but ultimately represented whoever hired him. In fact, he later represented a bridge company against a riverboat company in a landmark case involving a canal boat that sank after hitting a bridge. In 1849, he received a patent for a flotation device for the movement of boats in shallow water. The idea was never commercialized, but Lincoln is the only president to hold a patent. \n\nIn 1851, he represented the Alton & Sangamon Railroad in a dispute with one of its shareholders, James A. Barret, who had refused to pay the balance on his pledge to buy shares in the railroad on the grounds that the company had changed its original train route. Lincoln successfully argued that the railroad company was not bound by its original charter extant at the time of Barret's pledge; the charter was amended in the public interest to provide a newer, superior, and less expensive route, and the corporation retained the right to demand Barret's payment. The decision by the Illinois Supreme Court has been cited by numerous other courts in the nation. Lincoln appeared before the Illinois Supreme Court in 175 cases, in 51 as sole counsel, of which 31 were decided in his favor. From 1853 to 1860, another of Lincoln's largest clients was the Illinois Central Railroad. Lincoln's reputation with clients gave rise to his nickname \"Honest Abe.\" \n\nLincoln's most notable criminal trial occurred in 1858 when he defended William \"Duff\" Armstrong, who was on trial for the murder of James Preston Metzker. The case is famous for Lincoln's use of a fact established by judicial notice in order to challenge the credibility of an eyewitness. After an opposing witness testified seeing the crime in the moonlight, Lincoln produced a Farmers' Almanac showing the moon was at a low angle, drastically reducing visibility. Based on this evidence, Armstrong was acquitted.\n\nLincoln rarely raised objections in the courtroom; but in an 1859 case, where he defended a cousin, Peachy Harrison, who was accused of stabbing another to death, Lincoln angrily protested the judge's decision to exclude evidence favorable to his client. Instead of holding Lincoln in contempt of court as was expected, the judge, a Democrat, reversed his ruling, allowing the evidence and acquitting Harrison. \n\nRepublican politics 1854–60\n\nSlavery and a \"House Divided\"\n\nBy the 1850s, slavery was still legal in the southern United States, but had been generally outlawed in the northern states, including Illinois, whose original 1818 Constitution forbade slavery, as required by the Northwest Ordinance. Lincoln disapproved of slavery, and the spread of slavery to new U.S. territory in the west. He returned to politics to oppose the pro-slavery Kansas–Nebraska Act (1854); this law repealed the slavery-restricting Missouri Compromise (1820). Senior Senator Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois had incorporated popular sovereignty into the Act. Douglas' provision, which Lincoln opposed, specified settlers had the right to determine locally whether to allow slavery in new U.S. territory, rather than have such a decision restricted by the national Congress. \n\nEric Foner (2010) contrasts the abolitionists and anti-slavery Radical Republicans of the Northeast who saw slavery as a sin, with the conservative Republicans who thought it was bad because it hurt white people and blocked progress. Foner argues that Lincoln was a moderate in the middle, opposing slavery primarily because it violated the republicanism principles of the Founding Fathers, especially the equality of all men and democratic self-government as expressed in the Declaration of Independence. \n\nOn October 16, 1854, in his \"Peoria Speech\", Lincoln declared his opposition to slavery, which he repeated en route to the presidency. Speaking in his Kentucky accent, with a very powerful voice, he said the Kansas Act had a \"declared indifference, but as I must think, a covert real zeal for the spread of slavery. I cannot but hate it. I hate it because of the monstrous injustice of slavery itself. I hate it because it deprives our republican example of its just influence in the world ...\" \n\nIn late 1854, Lincoln ran as a Whig for the U.S. Senate. At that time, senators were elected by the state legislature. After leading in the first six rounds of voting, but unable to obtain a majority, Lincoln instructed his backers to vote for Lyman Trumbull. Trumbull was an antislavery Democrat, and had received few votes in the earlier ballots; his supporters, also antislavery Democrats, had vowed not to support any Whig. Lincoln's decision to withdraw enabled his Whig supporters and Trumbull's antislavery Democrats to combine and defeat the mainstream Democratic candidate, Joel Aldrich Matteson. \n\nNationally, the Whigs had been irreparably split by the Kansas–Nebraska Act and other efforts to compromise on the slavery issue. Lincoln wrote, \"I think I am a Whig, but others say there are no Whigs, and that I am an abolitionist [...] I do no more than oppose the extension of slavery.\" Drawing on the antislavery portion of the Whig Party, and combining Free Soil, Liberty, and antislavery Democratic Party members, the new Republican Party formed as a northern party dedicated to antislavery. Lincoln was one of those instrumental in forging the shape of the new party; at the 1856 Republican National Convention, he placed second in the contest to become its candidate for vice president. \n\nIn 1857–1858, Douglas broke with President James Buchanan, leading to a fight for control of the Democratic Party. Some eastern Republicans even favored the reelection of Douglas for the Senate in 1858, since he had led the opposition to the Lecompton Constitution, which would have admitted Kansas as a slave state. In March 1857, the Supreme Court issued its decision in Dred Scott v. Sandford; Chief Justice Roger B. Taney opined that blacks were not citizens, and derived no rights from the Constitution. Lincoln denounced the decision, alleging it was the product of a conspiracy of Democrats to support the Slave Power. Lincoln argued, \"The authors of the Declaration of Independence never intended 'to say all were equal in color, size, intellect, moral developments, or social capacity', but they 'did consider all men created equal—equal in certain inalienable rights, among which are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness'.\" \n\nAfter the state Republican party convention nominated him for the U.S. Senate in 1858, Lincoln delivered his House Divided Speech, drawing on , \"A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this government cannot endure permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved—I do not expect the house to fall—but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing, or all the other.\" The speech created an evocative image of the danger of disunion caused by the slavery debate, and rallied Republicans across the North. The stage was then set for the campaign for statewide election of the Illinois legislature which would, in turn, select Lincoln or Douglas as its U.S. senator. \n\nLincoln–Douglas debates and Cooper Union speech\n\nThe Senate campaign featured the seven Lincoln–Douglas debates of 1858, the most famous political debates in American history. The principals stood in stark contrast both physically and politically. Lincoln warned that \"The Slave Power\" was threatening the values of republicanism, and accused Douglas of distorting the values of the Founding Fathers that all men are created equal, while Douglas emphasized his Freeport Doctrine, that local settlers were free to choose whether to allow slavery or not, and accused Lincoln of having joined the abolitionists. The debates had an atmosphere of a prize fight and drew crowds in the thousands. Lincoln stated Douglas' popular sovereignty theory was a threat to the nation's morality and that Douglas represented a conspiracy to extend slavery to free states. Douglas said that Lincoln was defying the authority of the U.S. Supreme Court and the Dred Scott decision. \n\nThough the Republican legislative candidates won more popular votes, the Democrats won more seats, and the legislature re-elected Douglas to the Senate. Despite the bitterness of the defeat for Lincoln, his articulation of the issues gave him a national political reputation. In May 1859, Lincoln purchased the Illinois Staats-Anzeiger, a German-language newspaper which was consistently supportive; most of the state's 130,000 German Americans voted Democratic but there was Republican support that a German-language paper could mobilize. \n\nOn February 27, 1860, New York party leaders invited Lincoln to give a speech at Cooper Union to a group of powerful Republicans. Lincoln argued that the Founding Fathers had little use for popular sovereignty and had repeatedly sought to restrict slavery. Lincoln insisted the moral foundation of the Republicans required opposition to slavery, and rejected any \"groping for some middle ground between the right and the wrong\". Despite his inelegant appearance—many in the audience thought him awkward and even ugly —Lincoln demonstrated an intellectual leadership that brought him into the front ranks of the party and into contention for the Republican presidential nomination. Journalist Noah Brooks reported, \"No man ever before made such an impression on his first appeal to a New York audience.\" \n\nHistorian Donald described the speech as a \"superb political move for an unannounced candidate, to appear in one rival's (William H. Seward) own state at an event sponsored by the second rival's (Salmon P. Chase) loyalists, while not mentioning either by name during its delivery\". In response to an inquiry about his presidential intentions, Lincoln said, \"The taste is in my mouth a little.\" \n\n1860 Presidential nomination and campaign\n\nOn May 9–10, 1860, the Illinois Republican State Convention was held in Decatur. Lincoln's followers organized a campaign team led by David Davis, Norman Judd, Leonard Swett, and Jesse DuBois, and Lincoln received his first endorsement to run for the presidency. Exploiting the embellished legend of his frontier days with his father (clearing the land and splitting fence rails with an ax), Lincoln's supporters adopted the label of \"The Rail Candidate\". In 1860 Lincoln described himself : \"I am in height, six feet, four inches, nearly; lean in flesh, weighing, on an average, one hundred and eighty pounds; dark complexion, with coarse black hair, and gray eyes.\" His biographers added that he had a: \nLarge head, with high crown of skull; thick, bushy hair; large and deep eye-caverns; heavy eyebrows; a large nose; large ears; large mouth; thin upper and somewhat thick under lip; very high and prominent cheek-bones; cheeks thin and sunken; strongly developed jawbone; chin slightly upturned; a thin but sinewy neck, rather long; long arms; large hands; chest thin and narrow as compared with his great height; legs of more than proportionate length, and large feet. \n\nOn May 18, at the Republican National Convention in Chicago, Lincoln's friends promised and manipulated and won the nomination on the third ballot, beating candidates such as William H. Seward and Salmon P. Chase. A former Democrat, Hannibal Hamlin of Maine, was nominated for Vice President to balance the ticket. Lincoln's success depended on his reputation as a moderate on the slavery issue, and his strong support for Whiggish programs of internal improvements and the protective tariff. \n\nOn the third ballot Pennsylvania put him over the top. Pennsylvania iron interests were reassured by his support for protective tariffs. Lincoln's managers had been adroitly focused on this delegation as well as the others, while following Lincoln's strong dictate to \"Make no contracts that bind me\". \n\nMost Republicans agreed with Lincoln that the North was the aggrieved party, as the Slave Power tightened its grasp on the national government with the Dred Scott decision and the presidency of James Buchanan. Throughout the 1850s, Lincoln doubted the prospects of civil war, and his supporters rejected claims that his election would incite secession. Meanwhile, Douglas was selected as the candidate of the Northern Democrats. Delegates from 11 slave states walked out of the Democratic convention, disagreeing with Douglas' position on popular sovereignty, and ultimately selected John C. Breckinridge as their candidate. \n\nThe Wide Awake Parade was formed in 1860 by Republicans in the Northern states to help nominate Abraham Lincoln as the President of the United States. As Lincoln's ideas of abolishing slavery grew, so did his supporters. People of the Northern states knew the Southern states would vote against Lincoln because of his ideas of anti-slavery and took action to rally supporters for Lincoln. \n\nAs Douglas and the other candidates went through with their campaigns, Lincoln was the only one of them who gave no speeches. Instead, he monitored the campaign closely and relied on the enthusiasm of the Republican Party. The party did the leg work that produced majorities across the North, and produced an abundance of campaign posters, leaflets, and newspaper editorials. There were thousands of Republican speakers who focused first on the party platform, and second on Lincoln's life story, emphasizing his childhood poverty. The goal was to demonstrate the superior power of \"free labor\", whereby a common farm boy could work his way to the top by his own efforts. The Republican Party's production of campaign literature dwarfed the combined opposition; a Chicago Tribune writer produced a pamphlet that detailed Lincoln's life, and sold 100,000 to 200,000 copies. \n\nPresidency\n\n1860 election and secession\n\nOn November 6, 1860, Lincoln was elected the 16th president of the United States, beating Democrat Stephen A. Douglas, John C. Breckinridge of the Southern Democrats, and John Bell of the new Constitutional Union Party. He was the first president from the Republican Party. His victory was entirely due to the strength of his support in the North and West; no ballots were cast for him in 10 of the 15 Southern slave states, and he won only two of 996 counties in all the Southern states. \n\nLincoln received 1,866,452 votes, Douglas 1,376,957 votes, Breckinridge 849,781 votes, and Bell 588,789 votes. Turnout was 82.2 percent, with Lincoln winning the free Northern states, as well as California and Oregon. Douglas won Missouri, and split New Jersey with Lincoln. Bell won Virginia, Tennessee, and Kentucky, and Breckinridge won the rest of the South. \n\nAlthough Lincoln won only a plurality of the popular vote, his victory in the electoral college was decisive: Lincoln had 180 and his opponents added together had only 123. There were fusion tickets in which all of Lincoln's opponents combined to support the same slate of Electors in New York, New Jersey, and Rhode Island, but even if the anti-Lincoln vote had been combined in every state, Lincoln still would have won a majority in the Electoral College. \n\nAs Lincoln's election became evident, secessionists made clear their intent to leave the Union before he took office the next March. On December 20, 1860, South Carolina took the lead by adopting an ordinance of secession; by February 1, 1861, Florida, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas followed. Six of these states then adopted a constitution and declared themselves to be a sovereign nation, the Confederate States of America. The upper South and border states (Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, Missouri, and Arkansas) listened to, but initially rejected, the secessionist appeal. President Buchanan and President-elect Lincoln refused to recognize the Confederacy, declaring secession illegal. The Confederacy selected Jefferson Davis as its provisional President on February 9, 1861. \n\nThere were attempts at compromise. The Crittenden Compromise would have extended the Missouri Compromise line of 1820, dividing the territories into slave and free, contrary to the Republican Party's free-soil platform.White, pp. 360–361. Lincoln rejected the idea, saying, \"I will suffer death before I consent ... to any concession or compromise which looks like buying the privilege to take possession of this government to which we have a constitutional right.\" \n\nLincoln, however, did tacitly support the proposed Corwin Amendment to the Constitution, which passed Congress before Lincoln came into office and was then awaiting ratification by the states. That proposed amendment would have protected slavery in states where it already existed and would have guaranteed that Congress would not interfere with slavery without Southern consent. Vile (2003), Encyclopedia of Constitutional Amendments: Proposed Amendments, and Amending Issues 1789–2002 pp. 280–281 A few weeks before the war, Lincoln sent a letter to every governor informing them Congress had passed a joint resolution to amend the Constitution.Lupton (2006), [http://www.lib.niu.edu/2006/ih060934.html Abraham Lincoln and the Corwin Amendment], Retrieved January 13, 2013 Lincoln was open to the possibility of a constitutional convention to make further amendments to the Constitution.Vile (2003), Encyclopedia of Constitutional Amendments: Proposed Amendments, and Amending Issues 1789–2002 p. 281\n\nEn route to his inauguration by train, Lincoln addressed crowds and legislatures across the North. The president-elect then evaded possible assassins in Baltimore, who were uncovered by Lincoln's head of security, Allan Pinkerton. On February 23, 1861, he arrived in disguise in Washington, D.C., which was placed under substantial military guard. Lincoln directed his inaugural address to the South, proclaiming once again that he had no intention, or inclination, to abolish slavery in the Southern states:\n\nThe President ended his address with an appeal to the people of the South: \"We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies ... The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield, and patriot grave, to every living heart and hearthstone, all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.\" The failure of the Peace Conference of 1861 signaled that legislative compromise was impossible. By March 1861, no leaders of the insurrection had proposed rejoining the Union on any terms. Meanwhile, Lincoln and the Republican leadership agreed that the dismantling of the Union could not be tolerated. Lincoln said as the war was ending:\nBoth parties deprecated war, but one of them would make war rather than let the Nation survive, and the other would accept war rather than let it perish, and the war came. \n\nBeginning of the war\n\nThe commander of Fort Sumter, South Carolina, Major Robert Anderson, sent a request for provisions to Washington, and the execution of Lincoln's order to meet that request was seen by the secessionists as an act of war. On April 12, 1861, Confederate forces fired on Union troops at Fort Sumter, forcing them to surrender, and began the war. Historian Allan Nevins argued that the newly inaugurated Lincoln made three miscalculations: underestimating the gravity of the crisis, exaggerating the strength of Unionist sentiment in the South, and not realizing the Southern Unionists were insisting there be no invasion. \n\nWilliam Tecumseh Sherman talked to Lincoln during inauguration week and was \"sadly disappointed\" at his failure to realize that \"the country was sleeping on a volcano\" and that the South was preparing for war. Historian Donald concludes that, \"His repeated efforts to avoid collision in the months between inauguration and the firing on Ft. Sumter showed he adhered to his vow not to be the first to shed fraternal blood. But he also vowed not to surrender the forts. The only resolution of these contradictory positions was for the confederates to fire the first shot; they did just that.\" \n\nOn April 15, Lincoln called on all the states to send detachments totaling 75,000 troops to recapture forts, protect Washington, and \"preserve the Union\", which, in his view, still existed intact despite the actions of the seceding states. This call forced the states to choose sides. Virginia declared its secession and was rewarded with the Confederate capital, despite the exposed position of Richmond so close to Union lines. North Carolina, Tennessee, and Arkansas also voted for secession over the next two months. Secession sentiment was strong in Missouri and Maryland, but did not prevail; Kentucky tried to be neutral. The Confederate attack on Fort Sumter rallied Americans north of the Mason-Dixon line to the defense of the American nation. Historian Allan Nevins says: \nThe thunderclap of Sumter produced a startling crystallization of Northern sentiment ... Anger swept the land. From every side came news of mass meetings, speeches, resolutions, tenders of business support, the muster of companies and regiments, the determined action of governors and legislatures.\" \n\nStates sent Union regiments south in response to Lincoln's call to save the capital and confront the rebellion. On April 19, mobs in Baltimore, which controlled the rail links, attacked Union troops who were changing trains, and local leaders' groups later burned critical rail bridges to the capital. The Army responded by arresting local Maryland officials. Lincoln suspended the writ of habeas corpus in areas the army felt it needed to secure for troops to reach Washington. John Merryman, a Maryland official involved in hindering the U.S. troop movements, petitioned Supreme Court Chief Justice and Marylander, Roger B. Taney, author of the controversial pro-slavery Dred Scott opinion, to issue a writ of habeas corpus, and in June Taney, acting as a circuit judge and not speaking for the Supreme Court, issued the writ, because in his opinion only Congress could suspend the writ. Lincoln continued the army policy that the writ was suspended in limited areas despite the Ex parte Merryman ruling. \n\nAssuming command for the Union in the war\n\nAfter the Battle of Fort Sumter, Lincoln realized the importance of taking immediate executive control of the war and making an overall strategy to put down the rebellion. Lincoln encountered an unprecedented political and military crisis, and he responded as commander-in-chief, using unprecedented powers. He expanded his war powers, and imposed a blockade on all the Confederate shipping ports, disbursed funds before appropriation by Congress, and after suspending habeas corpus, arrested and imprisoned thousands of suspected Confederate sympathizers. Lincoln was supported by Congress and the northern public for these actions. In addition, Lincoln had to contend with reinforcing strong Union sympathies in the border slave states and keeping the war from becoming an international conflict. \n\nThe war effort was the source of continued disparagement of Lincoln, and dominated his time and attention. From the start, it was clear that bipartisan support would be essential to success in the war effort, and any manner of compromise alienated factions on both sides of the aisle, such as the appointment of Republicans and Democrats to command positions in the Union Army. Copperheads criticized Lincoln for refusing to compromise on the slavery issue. Conversely, the Radical Republicans criticized him for moving too slowly in abolishing slavery. On August 6, 1861, Lincoln signed the Confiscation Act that authorized judiciary proceedings to confiscate and free slaves who were used to support the Confederate war effort. In practice, the law had little effect, but it did signal political support for abolishing slavery in the Confederacy. \n\nIn late August 1861, General John C. Frémont, the 1856 Republican presidential nominee, issued, without consulting his superiors in Washington, a proclamation of martial law in Missouri. He declared that any citizen found bearing arms could be court-martialed and shot, and that slaves of persons aiding the rebellion would be freed. Frémont was already under a cloud with charges of negligence in his command of the Department of the West compounded with allegations of fraud and corruption. Lincoln overruled Frémont's proclamation. Lincoln believed that Fremont's emancipation was political; neither militarily necessary nor legal. After Lincoln acted, Union enlistments from Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri increased by over 40,000 troops. \n\nLincoln left most diplomatic matters to his Secretary of State, William Seward. At times Seward was too bellicose, so for balance Lincoln stuck a close working relationship with Senator Charles Sumner, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. The Trent Affair of late 1861 threatened war with Great Britain. The U.S. Navy had illegally intercepted a British mail ship, the Trent, on the high seas and seized two Confederate envoys; Britain protested vehemently while the U.S. cheered. Lincoln ended the crisis by releasing the two diplomats. Biographer James G. Randall has dissected Lincoln's successful techniques:\nhis restraint, his avoidance of any outward expression of truculence, his early softening of State Department's attitude toward Britain, his deference toward Seward and Sumner, his withholding of his own paper prepared for the occasion, his readiness to arbitrate, his golden silence in addressing Congress, his shrewdness in recognizing that war must be averted, and his clear perception that a point could be clinched for America's true position at the same time that full satisfaction was given to a friendly country. \n\nLincoln painstakingly monitored the telegraphic reports coming into the War Department headquarters. He kept close tabs on all phases of the military effort, consulted with governors, and selected generals based on their past success (as well as their state and party). In January 1862, after many complaints of inefficiency and profiteering in the War Department, Lincoln replaced Simon Cameron with Edwin Stanton as War Secretary. Stanton was a staunchly Unionist pro-business conservative Democrat who moved toward the Radical Republican faction. Nevertheless, he worked more often and more closely with Lincoln than any other senior official. \"Stanton and Lincoln virtually conducted the war together,\" say Thomas and Hyman. \n\nIn terms of war strategy, Lincoln articulated two priorities: to ensure that Washington was well-defended, and to conduct an aggressive war effort that would satisfy the demand in the North for prompt, decisive victory; major Northern newspaper editors expected victory within 90 days. Twice a week, Lincoln would meet with his cabinet in the afternoon, and occasionally Mary Lincoln would force him to take a carriage ride because she was concerned he was working too hard. Lincoln learned from reading the theoretical book of his chief of staff General Henry Halleck, a disciple of the European strategist Jomini; he began to appreciate the critical need to control strategic points, such as the Mississippi River;. Lincoln saw the importance of Vicksburg and understood the necessity of defeating the enemy's army, rather than simply capturing territory. \n\nGeneral McClellan\n\nAfter the Union defeat at the First Battle of Bull Run and the retirement of the aged Winfield Scott in late 1861, Lincoln appointed Major General George B. McClellan general-in-chief of all the Union armies. McClellan, a young West Point graduate, railroad executive, and Pennsylvania Democrat, took several months to plan and attempt his Peninsula Campaign, longer than Lincoln wanted. The campaign's objective was to capture Richmond by moving the Army of the Potomac by boat to the peninsula and then overland to the Confederate capital. McClellan's repeated delays frustrated Lincoln and Congress, as did his position that no troops were needed to defend Washington. Lincoln insisted on holding some of McClellan's troops in defense of the capital; McClellan, who consistently overestimated the strength of Confederate troops, blamed this decision for the ultimate failure of the Peninsula Campaign. \n\nLincoln removed McClellan as general-in-chief in March 1862, after McClellan's \"Harrison's Landing Letter\", in which he offered unsolicited political advice to Lincoln urging caution in the war effort. The office remained empty until July, when Henry Halleck was selected for it. McClellan's letter incensed Radical Republicans, who successfully pressured Lincoln to appoint John Pope, a Republican, as head of the new Army of Virginia. Pope complied with Lincoln's strategic desire to move toward Richmond from the north, thus protecting the capital from attack. \n\nHowever, lacking requested reinforcements from McClellan, now commanding the Army of the Potomac, Pope was soundly defeated at the Second Battle of Bull Run in the summer of 1862, forcing the Army of the Potomac to defend Washington for a second time. The war also expanded with naval operations in 1862 when the CSS Virginia, formerly the USS Merrimack, damaged or destroyed three Union vessels in Norfolk, Virginia, before being engaged and damaged by the USS Monitor. Lincoln closely reviewed the dispatches and interrogated naval officers during their clash in the Battle of Hampton Roads. \n\nDespite his dissatisfaction with McClellan's failure to reinforce Pope, Lincoln was desperate, and restored him to command of all forces around Washington, to the dismay of all in his cabinet but Seward. Two days after McClellan's return to command, General Robert E. Lee's forces crossed the Potomac River into Maryland, leading to the Battle of Antietam in September 1862. The ensuing Union victory was among the bloodiest in American history, but it enabled Lincoln to announce that he would issue an Emancipation Proclamation in January. Having composed the Proclamation some time earlier, Lincoln had waited for a military victory to publish it to avoid it being perceived as the product of desperation. \n\nMcClellan then resisted the President's demand that he pursue Lee's retreating and exposed army, while his counterpart General Don Carlos Buell likewise refused orders to move the Army of the Ohio against rebel forces in eastern Tennessee. As a result, Lincoln replaced Buell with William Rosecrans; and, after the 1862 midterm elections, he replaced McClellan with Republican Ambrose Burnside. Both of these replacements were political moderates and prospectively more supportive of the Commander-in-Chief. \n\nBurnside, against the advice of the president, prematurely launched an offensive across the Rappahannock River and was stunningly defeated by Lee at Fredericksburg in December. Not only had Burnside been defeated on the battlefield, but his soldiers were disgruntled and undisciplined. Desertions during 1863 were in the thousands and they increased after Fredericksburg. Lincoln brought in Joseph Hooker, despite his record of loose talk about the need for a military dictatorship. \n\nThe mid-term elections in 1862 brought the Republicans severe losses due to sharp disfavor with the administration over its failure to deliver a speedy end to the war, as well as rising inflation, new high taxes, rumors of corruption, the suspension of habeas corpus, the military draft law, and fears that freed slaves would undermine the labor market. The Emancipation Proclamation announced in September gained votes for the Republicans in the rural areas of New England and the upper Midwest, but it lost votes in the cities and the lower Midwest. \n\nWhile Republicans were discouraged, Democrats were energized and did especially well in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, and New York. The Republicans did maintain their majorities in Congress and in the major states, except New York. The Cincinnati Gazette contended that the voters were \"depressed by the interminable nature of this war, as so far conducted, and by the rapid exhaustion of the national resources without progress\".\n\nIn the spring of 1863, Lincoln was optimistic about upcoming military campaigns to the point of thinking the end of the war could be near if a string of victories could be put together; these plans included Hooker's attack on Lee north of Richmond, Rosecrans' on Chattanooga, Grant's on Vicksburg, and a naval assault on Charleston. \n\nHooker was routed by Lee at the Battle of Chancellorsville in May, but continued to command his troops for some weeks. He ignored Lincoln's order to divide his troops, and possibly force Lee to do the same in Harper's Ferry, and tendered his resignation, which Lincoln accepted. He was replaced by George Meade, who followed Lee into Pennsylvania for the Gettysburg Campaign, which was a victory for the Union, though Lee's army avoided capture. At the same time, after initial setbacks, Grant laid siege to Vicksburg and the Union navy attained some success in Charleston harbor. \nAfter the Battle of Gettysburg, Lincoln clearly understood that his military decisions would be more effectively carried out by conveying his orders through his War Secretary or his general-in-chief on to his generals, who resented his civilian interference with their own plans. Even so, he often continued to give detailed directions to his generals as Commander-in-Chief. \n\nEmancipation Proclamation\n\nLincoln understood that the Federal government's power to end slavery was limited by the Constitution, which before 1865, committed the issue to individual states. He argued before and during his election that the eventual extinction of slavery would result from preventing its expansion into new U.S. territory. At the beginning of the war, he also sought to persuade the states to accept compensated emancipation in return for their prohibition of slavery. Lincoln believed that curtailing slavery in these ways would economically expunge it, as envisioned by the Founding Fathers, under the constitution. President Lincoln rejected two geographically limited emancipation attempts by Major General John C. Frémont in August 1861 and by Major General David Hunter in May 1862, on the grounds that it was not within their power, and it would upset the border states loyal to the Union. \n\nOn June 19, 1862, endorsed by Lincoln, Congress passed an act banning slavery on all federal territory. In July, the Confiscation Act of 1862 was passed, which set up court procedures that could free the slaves of anyone convicted of aiding the rebellion. Although Lincoln believed it was not within Congress's power to free the slaves within the states, he approved the bill in deference to the legislature. He felt such action could only be taken by the Commander-in-Chief using war powers granted to the president by the Constitution, and Lincoln was planning to take that action. In that month, Lincoln discussed a draft of the Emancipation Proclamation with his cabinet. In it, he stated that \"as a fit and necessary military measure, on January 1, 1863, all persons held as slaves in the Confederate states will thenceforward, and forever, be free\". \n\nPrivately, Lincoln concluded at this point that the slave base of the Confederacy had to be eliminated. However Copperheads argued that emancipation was a stumbling block to peace and reunification. Republican editor Horace Greeley of the highly influential New York Tribune fell for the ploy, and Lincoln refuted it directly in a shrewd letter of August 22, 1862. Although he said he personally wished all men could be free, Lincoln stated that the primary goal of his actions as the U.S. president (he used the first person pronoun and explicitly refers to his \"official duty\") was that of preserving the Union: \n\nThe Emancipation Proclamation, issued on September 22, 1862, and put into effect on January 1, 1863, declared free the slaves in 10 states not then under Union control, with exemptions specified for areas already under Union control in two states. Lincoln spent the next 100 days preparing the army and the nation for emancipation, while Democrats rallied their voters in the 1862 off-year elections by warning of the threat freed slaves posed to northern whites. \n\nOnce the abolition of slavery in the rebel states became a military objective, as Union armies advanced south, more slaves were liberated until all three million of them in Confederate territory were freed. Lincoln's comment on the signing of the Proclamation was: \"I never, in my life, felt more certain that I was doing right, than I do in signing this paper.\" For some time, Lincoln continued earlier plans to set up colonies for the newly freed slaves. He commented favorably on colonization in the Emancipation Proclamation, but all attempts at such a massive undertaking failed. A few days after Emancipation was announced, 13 Republican governors met at the War Governors' Conference; they supported the president's Proclamation, but suggested the removal of General George B. McClellan as commander of the Union Army. \n\nEnlisting former slaves in the military was official government policy after the issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation. By the spring of 1863, Lincoln was ready to recruit black troops in more than token numbers. In a letter to Andrew Johnson, the military governor of Tennessee, encouraging him to lead the way in raising black troops, Lincoln wrote, \"The bare sight of 50,000 armed and drilled black soldiers on the banks of the Mississippi would end the rebellion at once\". By the end of 1863, at Lincoln's direction, General Lorenzo Thomas had recruited 20 regiments of blacks from the Mississippi Valley. Frederick Douglass once observed of Lincoln: \"In his company, I was never reminded of my humble origin, or of my unpopular color\". \n\nGettysburg Address (1863)\n\nWith the great Union victory at the Battle of Gettysburg in July 1863, and the defeat of the Copperheads in the Ohio election in the fall, Lincoln maintained a strong base of party support and was in a strong position to redefine the war effort, despite the New York City draft riots. The stage was set for his address at the Gettysburg battlefield cemetery on November 19, 1863. Defying Lincoln's prediction that \"the world will little note, nor long remember what we say here\", the Address became the most quoted speech in American history. \n\nIn 272 words, and three minutes, Lincoln asserted the nation was born not in 1789, but in 1776, \"conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal\". He defined the war as an effort dedicated to these principles of liberty and equality for all. The emancipation of slaves was now part of the national war effort. He declared that the deaths of so many brave soldiers would not be in vain, that slavery would end as a result of the losses, and the future of democracy in the world would be assured, that \"government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth\". Lincoln concluded that the Civil War had a profound objective: a new birth of freedom in the nation. \n\nGeneral Grant\n\nMeade's failure to capture Lee's army as it retreated from Gettysburg, and the continued passivity of the Army of the Potomac, persuaded Lincoln that a change in command was needed. General Ulysses S. Grant's victories at the Battle of Shiloh and in the Vicksburg campaign impressed Lincoln and made Grant a strong candidate to head the Union Army. Responding to criticism of Grant after Shiloh, Lincoln had said, \"I can't spare this man. He fights.\" With Grant in command, Lincoln felt the Union Army could relentlessly pursue a series of coordinated offensives in multiple theaters, and have a top commander who agreed on the use of black troops. \n\nNevertheless, Lincoln was concerned that Grant might be considering a candidacy for President in 1864, as McClellan was. Lincoln arranged for an intermediary to make inquiry into Grant's political intentions, and being assured that he had none, submitted to the Senate Grant's promotion to commander of the Union Army. He obtained Congress's consent to reinstate for Grant the rank of Lieutenant General, which no officer had held since George Washington. \n\nGrant waged his bloody Overland Campaign in 1864. This is often characterized as a war of attrition, given high Union losses at battles such as the Battle of the Wilderness and Cold Harbor. Even though they had the advantage of fighting on the defensive, the Confederate forces had \"almost as high a percentage of casualties as the Union forces\". The high casualty figures of the Union alarmed the North; Grant had lost a third of his army, and Lincoln asked what Grant's plans were, to which the general replied, \"I propose to fight it out on this line if it takes all summer.\" \n\nThe Confederacy lacked reinforcements, so Lee's army shrank with every costly battle. Grant's army moved south, crossed the James River, forcing a siege and trench warfare outside Petersburg, Virginia. Lincoln then made an extended visit to Grant's headquarters at City Point, Virginia. This allowed the president to confer in person with Grant and William Tecumseh Sherman about the hostilities, as Sherman coincidentally managed a hasty visit to Grant from his position in North Carolina. Lincoln and the Republican Party mobilized support for the draft throughout the North, and replaced the Union losses. \n\nLincoln authorized Grant to target the Confederate infrastructure—such as plantations, railroads, and bridges—hoping to destroy the South's morale and weaken its economic ability to continue fighting. Grant's move to Petersburg resulted in the obstruction of three railroads between Richmond and the South. This strategy allowed Generals Sherman and Philip Sheridan to destroy plantations and towns in Virginia's Shenandoah Valley. The damage caused by Sherman's March to the Sea through Georgia in 1864 was limited to a 60 mi swath, but neither Lincoln nor his commanders saw destruction as the main goal, but rather defeat of the Confederate armies. Mark E. Neely Jr. has argued that there was no effort to engage in \"total war\" against civilians which he believed did take place during World War II. \n\nConfederate general Jubal Anderson Early began a series of assaults in the North that threatened the Capital. During Early's raid on Washington, D.C. in 1864, Lincoln was watching the combat from an exposed position; Captain Oliver Wendell Holmes shouted at him, \"Get down, you damn fool, before you get shot!\" After repeated calls on Grant to defend Washington, Sheridan was appointed and the threat from Early was dispatched. \n\nAs Grant continued to wear down Lee's forces, efforts to discuss peace began. Confederate Vice President Stephens led a group to meet with Lincoln, Seward, and others at Hampton Roads. Lincoln refused to allow any negotiation with the Confederacy as a coequal; his sole objective was an agreement to end the fighting and the meetings produced no results. On April 1, 1865, Grant successfully outflanked Lee's forces in the Battle of Five Forks and nearly encircled Petersburg, and the Confederate government evacuated Richmond. Days later, when that city fell, Lincoln visited the vanquished Confederate capital; as he walked through the city, white Southerners were stone-faced, but freedmen greeted him as a hero. On April 9, Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox and the war was effectively over. \n\n1864 re-election\n\nWhile the war was still being waged, Lincoln faced reelection in 1864. Lincoln was a master politician, bringing together—and holding together—all the main factions of the Republican Party, and bringing in War Democrats such as Edwin M. Stanton and Andrew Johnson as well. Lincoln spent many hours a week talking to politicians from across the land and using his patronage powers—greatly expanded over peacetime—to hold the factions of his party together, build support for his own policies, and fend off efforts by Radicals to drop him from the 1864 ticket. At its 1864 convention, the Republican Party selected Johnson, a War Democrat from the Southern state of Tennessee, as his running mate. To broaden his coalition to include War Democrats as well as Republicans, Lincoln ran under the label of the new Union Party. \n\nWhen Grant's 1864 spring campaigns turned into bloody stalemates and Union casualties mounted, the lack of military success wore heavily on the President's re-election prospects, and many Republicans across the country feared that Lincoln would be defeated. Sharing this fear, Lincoln wrote and signed a pledge that, if he should lose the election, he would still defeat the Confederacy before turning over the White House: \n Lincoln did not show the pledge to his cabinet, but asked them to sign the sealed envelope.\n\nWhile the Democratic platform followed the \"Peace wing\" of the party and called the war a \"failure\", their candidate, General George B. McClellan, supported the war and repudiated the platform. Lincoln provided Grant with more troops and mobilized his party to renew its support of Grant in the war effort. Sherman's capture of Atlanta in September and David Farragut's capture of Mobile ended defeatist jitters; the Democratic Party was deeply split, with some leaders and most soldiers openly for Lincoln. By contrast, the National Union Party was united and energized as Lincoln made emancipation the central issue, and state Republican parties stressed the perfidy of the Copperheads. On November 8, Lincoln was re-elected in a landslide, carrying all but three states, and receiving 78 percent of the Union soldiers' vote. \n\nOn March 4, 1865, Lincoln delivered his second inaugural address. In it, he deemed the high casualties on both sides to be God's will. Historian Mark Noll concludes it ranks \"among the small handful of semi-sacred texts by which Americans conceive their place in the world\". Lincoln said:\n\nReconstruction\n\nReconstruction began during the war, as Lincoln and his associates anticipated questions of how to reintegrate the conquered southern states, and how to determine the fates of Confederate leaders and freed slaves. Shortly after Lee's surrender, a general had asked Lincoln how the defeated Confederates should be treated, and Lincoln replied, \"Let 'em up easy.\" In keeping with that sentiment, Lincoln led the moderates regarding Reconstruction policy, and was opposed by the Radical Republicans, under Rep. Thaddeus Stevens, Sen. Charles Sumner and Sen. Benjamin Wade, political allies of the president on other issues. Determined to find a course that would reunite the nation and not alienate the South, Lincoln urged that speedy elections under generous terms be held throughout the war. His Amnesty Proclamation of December 8, 1863, offered pardons to those who had not held a Confederate civil office, had not mistreated Union prisoners, and would sign an oath of allegiance. \n\nAs Southern states were subdued, critical decisions had to be made as to their leadership while their administrations were re-formed. Of special importance were Tennessee and Arkansas, where Lincoln appointed Generals Andrew Johnson and Frederick Steele as military governors, respectively. In Louisiana, Lincoln ordered General Nathaniel P. Banks to promote a plan that would restore statehood when 10 percent of the voters agreed to it. Lincoln's Democratic opponents seized on these appointments to accuse him of using the military to ensure his and the Republicans' political aspirations. On the other hand, the Radicals denounced his policy as too lenient, and passed their own plan, the Wade-Davis Bill, in 1864. When Lincoln vetoed the bill, the Radicals retaliated by refusing to seat representatives elected from Louisiana, Arkansas, and Tennessee. \n\nLincoln's appointments were designed to keep both the moderate and Radical factions in harness. To fill Chief Justice Taney's seat on the Supreme Court, he named the choice of the Radicals, Salmon P. Chase, who Lincoln believed would uphold the emancipation and paper money policies. \n\nAfter implementing the Emancipation Proclamation, which did not apply to every state, Lincoln increased pressure on Congress to outlaw slavery throughout the entire nation with a constitutional amendment. Lincoln declared that such an amendment would \"clinch the whole matter\". By December 1863, a proposed constitutional amendment that would outlaw slavery was brought to Congress for passage. This first attempt at an amendment failed to pass, falling short of the required two-thirds majority on June 15, 1864, in the House of Representatives. Passage of the proposed amendment became part of the Republican/Unionist platform in the election of 1864. After a long debate in the House, a second attempt passed Congress on January 31, 1865, and was sent to the state legislatures for ratification. Upon ratification, it became the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution on December 6, 1865. \n\nAs the war drew to a close, Lincoln's presidential Reconstruction for the South was in flux; having believed the federal government had limited responsibility to the millions of freedmen. He signed into law Senator Charles Sumner's Freedmen's Bureau bill that set up a temporary federal agency designed to meet the immediate material needs of former slaves. The law assigned land for a lease of three years with the ability to purchase title for the freedmen. Lincoln stated that his Louisiana plan did not apply to all states under Reconstruction. Shortly before his assassination, Lincoln announced he had a new plan for southern Reconstruction. Discussions with his cabinet revealed Lincoln planned short-term military control over southern states, until readmission under the control of southern Unionists. \n\nHistorians agree that it is impossible to predict exactly what Lincoln would have done about Reconstruction if he had lived, but they make projections based on his known policy positions and political acumen. Lincoln biographers James G. Randall and Richard Current, according to David Lincove, argue that:\nIt is likely that had he lived, Lincoln would have followed a policy similar to Johnson's, that he would have clashed with congressional Radicals, that he would have produced a better result for the freedmen than occurred, and that his political skills would have helped him avoid Johnson's mistakes. \n\nEric Foner argues that:\nUnlike Sumner and other Radicals, Lincoln did not see Reconstruction as an opportunity for a sweeping political and social revolution beyond emancipation. He had long made clear his opposition to the confiscation and redistribution of land. He believed, as most Republicans did in April 1865, that the voting requirements should be determined by the states. He assumed that political control in the South would pass to white Unionists, reluctant secessionists, and forward-looking former Confederates. But time and again during the war, Lincoln, after initial opposition, had come to embrace positions first advanced by abolitionists and Radical Republicans. ... Lincoln undoubtedly would have listened carefully to the outcry for further protection for the former slaves ... It is entirely plausible to imagine Lincoln and Congress agreeing on a Reconstruction policy that encompassed federal protection for basic civil rights plus limited black suffrage, along the lines Lincoln proposed just before his death.\" \n\nRedefining the republic and republicanism\n\nThe successful reunification of the states had consequences for the name of the country. The term \"the United States\" has historically been used, sometimes in the plural (\"these United States\"), and other times in the singular, without any particular grammatical consistency. The Civil War was a significant force in the eventual dominance of the singular usage by the end of the 19th century. \n\nIn recent years, historians such as Harry Jaffa, Herman Belz, John Diggins, Vernon Burton and Eric Foner have stressed Lincoln's redefinition of republican values. As early as the 1850s, a time when most political rhetoric focused on the sanctity of the Constitution, Lincoln redirected emphasis to the Declaration of Independence as the foundation of American political values—what he called the \"sheet anchor\" of republicanism. The Declaration's emphasis on freedom and equality for all, in contrast to the Constitution's tolerance of slavery, shifted the debate. As Diggins concludes regarding the highly influential Cooper Union speech of early 1860, \"Lincoln presented Americans a theory of history that offers a profound contribution to the theory and destiny of republicanism itself.\" His position gained strength because he highlighted the moral basis of republicanism, rather than its legalisms. Nevertheless, in 1861, Lincoln justified the war in terms of legalisms (the Constitution was a contract, and for one party to get out of a contract all the other parties had to agree), and then in terms of the national duty to guarantee a republican form of government in every state. Burton (2008) argues that Lincoln's republicanism was taken up by the Freedmen as they were emancipated. \n\nIn March 1861, in Lincoln's first inaugural address, he explored the nature of democracy. He denounced secession as anarchy, and explained that majority rule had to be balanced by constitutional restraints in the American system. He said \"A majority held in restraint by constitutional checks and limitations, and always changing easily with deliberate changes of popular opinions and sentiments, is the only true sovereign of a free people.\" \n\nOther enactments\n\nLincoln adhered to the Whig theory of the presidency, which gave Congress primary responsibility for writing the laws while the Executive enforced them. Lincoln vetoed only four bills passed by Congress; the only important one was the Wade-Davis Bill with its harsh program of Reconstruction. He signed the Homestead Act in 1862, making millions of acres of government-held land in the West available for purchase at very low cost. The Morrill Land-Grant Colleges Act, also signed in 1862, provided government grants for agricultural colleges in each state. The Pacific Railway Acts of 1862 and 1864 granted federal support for the construction of the United States' First Transcontinental Railroad, which was completed in 1869. The passage of the Homestead Act and the Pacific Railway Acts was made possible by the absence of Southern congressmen and senators who had opposed the measures in the 1850s. \n\nOther important legislation involved two measures to raise revenues for the Federal government: tariffs (a policy with long precedent), and a new Federal income tax. In 1861, Lincoln signed the second and third Morrill Tariff, the first having become law under James Buchanan. Also in 1861, Lincoln signed the Revenue Act of 1861, creating the first U.S. income tax. This created a flat tax of 3 percent on incomes above $800 ($ in current dollar terms), which was later changed by the Revenue Act of 1862 to a progressive rate structure. \n\nLincoln also presided over the expansion of the federal government's economic influence in several other areas. The creation of the system of national banks by the National Banking Act provided a strong financial network in the country. It also established a national currency. In 1862, Congress created, with Lincoln's approval, the Department of Agriculture. In 1862, Lincoln sent a senior general, John Pope, to put down the \"Sioux Uprising\" in Minnesota. Presented with 303 execution warrants for convicted Santee Dakota who were accused of killing innocent farmers, Lincoln conducted his own personal review of each of these warrants, eventually approving 39 for execution (one was later reprieved). President Lincoln had planned to reform federal Indian policy. \n\nIn the wake of Grant's casualties in his campaign against Lee, Lincoln had considered yet another executive call for a military draft, but it was never issued. In response to rumors of one, however, the editors of the New York World and the Journal of Commerce published a false draft proclamation which created an opportunity for the editors and others employed at the publications to corner the gold market. Lincoln's reaction was to send the strongest of messages to the media about such behavior; he ordered the military to seize the two papers. The seizure lasted for two days. \n\nLincoln is largely responsible for the institution of the Thanksgiving holiday in the United States. Before Lincoln's presidency, Thanksgiving, while a regional holiday in New England since the 17th century, had been proclaimed by the federal government only sporadically and on irregular dates. The last such proclamation had been during James Madison's presidency 50 years before. In 1863, Lincoln declared the final Thursday in November of that year to be a day of Thanksgiving. In June 1864, Lincoln approved the Yosemite Grant enacted by Congress, which provided unprecedented federal protection for the area now known as Yosemite National Park. \n\nJudicial appointments\n\nSupreme Court appointments\n\n* Noah Haynes Swayne – 1862\n* Samuel Freeman Miller – 1862\n* David Davis – 1862\n* Stephen Johnson Field – 1863\n* Salmon Portland Chase – 1864 (Chief Justice)\n\nLincoln's declared philosophy on court nominations was that \"we cannot ask a man what he will do, and if we should, and he should answer us, we should despise him for it. Therefore we must take a man whose opinions are known.\" Lincoln made five appointments to the United States Supreme Court. Noah Haynes Swayne, nominated January 21, 1862 and appointed January 24, 1862, was chosen as an anti-slavery lawyer who was committed to the Union. Samuel Freeman Miller, nominated and appointed on July 16, 1862, supported Lincoln in the 1860 election and was an avowed abolitionist. David Davis, Lincoln's campaign manager in 1860, nominated December 1, 1862 and appointed December 8, 1862, had also served as a judge in Lincoln's Illinois court circuit. Stephen Johnson Field, a previous California Supreme Court justice, was nominated March 6, 1863 and appointed March 10, 1863, and provided geographic balance, as well as political balance to the court as a Democrat. Finally, Lincoln's Treasury Secretary, Salmon P. Chase, was nominated as Chief Justice, and appointed the same day, on December 6, 1864. Lincoln believed Chase was an able jurist, would support Reconstruction legislation, and that his appointment united the Republican Party. \n\nOther judicial appointments\n\nLincoln appointed 32 federal judges, including four Associate Justices and one Chief Justice to the Supreme Court of the United States, and 27 judges to the United States district courts. Lincoln appointed no judges to the United States circuit courts during his time in office.\n\nStates admitted to the Union\n\nWest Virginia, admitted to the Union June 20, 1863, contained the former north-westernmost counties of Virginia that seceded from Virginia after that commonwealth declared its secession from the Union. As a condition for its admission, West Virginia's constitution was required to provide for the gradual abolition of slavery. Nevada, which became the third State in the far-west of the continent, was admitted as a free state on October 31, 1864. \n\nAssassination and funeral\n\nAbraham Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth on Good Friday, April 14, 1865, while attending a play at Ford's Theatre as the American Civil War was drawing to a close. The assassination occurred five days after the surrender of Robert E. Lee and the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia. Booth was a well-known actor and a Confederate spy from Maryland; though he never joined the Confederate army, he had contacts with the Confederate secret service. In 1864, Booth formulated a plan (very similar to one of Thomas N. Conrad previously authorized by the Confederacy) to kidnap Lincoln in exchange for the release of Confederate prisoners. After attending an April 11, 1865, speech in which Lincoln promoted voting rights for blacks, an incensed Booth changed his plans and became determined to assassinate the president. Learning that the President and Grant would be attending Ford's Theatre, Booth formulated a plan with co-conspirators to assassinate Lincoln and Grant at the theater, as well as Vice President Johnson and Secretary of State Seward at their homes. Without his main bodyguard, Ward Hill Lamon, Lincoln left to attend the play Our American Cousin on April 14. At the last minute, Grant decided to go to New Jersey to visit his children instead of attending the play. \n\nLincoln's bodyguard, John Parker, left Ford's Theater during intermission to drink at the saloon next door. The now unguarded President sat in his state box in the balcony. Seizing the opportunity, Booth crept up from behind and at about 10:13 pm, aimed at the back of Lincoln's head and fired at point-blank range, mortally wounding the President. Major Henry Rathbone momentarily grappled with Booth, but Booth stabbed him and escaped. \n\nAfter being on the run for 12 days, Booth was tracked down and found on a farm in Virginia, some 70 mi south of Washington. After refusing to surrender to Union troops, Booth was killed by Sergeant Boston Corbett on April 26. \n\nDoctor Charles Leale, an Army surgeon, found the President unresponsive, barely breathing and with no detectable pulse. Having determined that the President had been shot in the head, and not stabbed in the shoulder as originally thought, he made an attempt to clear the blood clot, after which the President began to breathe more naturally. The dying President was taken across the street to Petersen House. After remaining in a coma for nine hours, Lincoln died at 7:22 am on April 15. Secretary of War Stanton saluted and said, \"Now he belongs to the ages.\" \n\nLincoln's flag-enfolded body was then escorted in the rain to the White House by bareheaded Union officers, while the city's church bells rang. President Johnson was sworn in at 10:00 am, less than 3 hours after Lincoln's death. The late President lay in state in the East Room, and then in the Capitol Rotunda from April 19 through April 21. For his final journey with his son Willie, both caskets were transported in the executive coach \"United States\" and for three weeks the Lincoln Special funeral train decorated in black bunting bore Lincoln's remains on a slow circuitous waypoint journey from Washington D.C. to Springfield, Illinois, stopping at many cities across the North for large-scale memorials attended by hundreds of thousands, as well as many people who gathered in informal trackside tributes with bands, bonfires, and hymn singing or silent reverence with hat in hand as the railway procession slowly passed by. Poet Walt Whitman composed When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd to eulogize Lincoln, one of four poems he wrote about the assassinated president. Historians have emphasized the widespread shock and sorrow, but also noted that some Lincoln haters cheered when they heard the news. African-Americans were especially moved; they had lost 'their Moses'. In a larger sense, the outpouring of grief and anguish was in response to the deaths of so many men in the war that had just ended. \n\nReligious and philosophical beliefs\n\nAs a young man, Lincoln was a religious skeptic, or, in the words of a biographer, an iconoclast. Later in life, Lincoln's frequent use of religious imagery and language might have reflected his own personal beliefs or might have been a device to appeal to his audiences, who were mostly evangelical Protestants. He never joined a church, although he frequently attended with his wife. However, he was deeply familiar with the Bible, and he both quoted and praised it. He was private about his beliefs and respected the beliefs of others. Lincoln never made a clear profession of Christian beliefs. However he did believe in an all-powerful God that shaped events and, by 1865, was expressing those beliefs in major speeches. \n\nIn the 1840s, Lincoln subscribed to the Doctrine of Necessity, a belief that asserted the human mind was controlled by some higher power. In the 1850s, Lincoln believed in \"providence\" in a general way, and rarely used the language or imagery of the evangelicals; he regarded the republicanism of the Founding Fathers with an almost religious reverence. When he suffered the death of his son Edward, Lincoln more frequently expressed a need to depend on God. The death of his son Willie in February 1862 may have caused Lincoln to look toward religion for answers and solace. After Willie's death, Lincoln considered why, from a divine standpoint, the severity of the war was necessary. He wrote at this time that God \"could have either saved or destroyed the Union without a human contest. Yet the contest began. And having begun He could give the final victory to either side any day. Yet the contest proceeds.\" On the day Lincoln was assassinated, he reportedly told his wife he desired to visit the Holy Land. \n\nHealth\n\nSeveral claims abound that Lincoln's health was declining before the assassination. These are often based on photographs appearing to show weight loss and muscle wasting. One such claim is that he suffered from a rare genetic disorder, MEN2b, which manifests with a medullary thyroid carcinoma, mucosal neuromas and a Marfanoid appearance. Others simply claim he had Marfan syndrome, based on his tall appearance with spindly fingers, and the association of possible aortic regurgitation, which can cause bobbing of the head (DeMusset's sign) — based on blurring of Lincoln's head in photographs, which back then had a long exposure time. , DNA analysis was being refused by the Grand Army of the Republic museum in Philadelphia.\n\nHistorical reputation\n\nIn surveys of U.S. scholars ranking presidents conducted since the 1940s, Lincoln is consistently ranked in the top three, often as number one. A 2004 study found that scholars in the fields of history and politics ranked Lincoln number one, while legal scholars placed him second after Washington. In presidential ranking polls conducted in the United States since 1948, Lincoln has been rated at the very top in the majority of polls: Schlesinger 1948, Schlesinger 1962, 1982 Murray Blessing Survey, Chicago Tribune 1982 poll, Schlesinger 1996, CSPAN 1996, Ridings-McIver 1996, Time 2008, and CSPAN 2009. Generally, the top three presidents are rated as 1. Lincoln; 2. George Washington; and 3. Franklin D. Roosevelt, although Lincoln and Washington, and Washington and Roosevelt, are occasionally reversed. \n\nPresident Lincoln's assassination increased his status to the point of making him a national martyr. Lincoln was viewed by abolitionists as a champion for human liberty. Republicans linked Lincoln's name to their party. Many, though not all, in the South considered Lincoln as a man of outstanding ability. \n\nSchwartz argues that Lincoln's reputation grew slowly in the late 19th century until the Progressive Era (1900–1920s) when he emerged as one of the most venerated heroes in American history, with even white Southerners in agreement. The high point came in 1922 with the dedication of the Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. In the New Deal era liberals honored Lincoln not so much as the self-made man or the great war president, but as the advocate of the common man who they believe would have supported the welfare state. In the Cold War years, Lincoln's image shifted to emphasize the symbol of freedom who brought hope to those oppressed by communist regimes. \n\nBy the 1970s Lincoln had become a hero to political conservatives for his intense nationalism, support for business, his insistence on stopping the spread of human bondage, his acting in terms of Lockean and Burkean principles on behalf of both liberty and tradition, and his devotion to the principles of the Founding Fathers. As a Whig activist, Lincoln was a spokesman for business interests, favoring high tariffs, banks, internal improvements, and railroads in opposition to the agrarian Democrats. William C. Harris found that Lincoln's \"reverence for the Founding Fathers, the Constitution, the laws under it, and the preservation of the Republic and its institutions undergirded and strengthened his conservatism\". James G. Randall emphasizes his tolerance and especially his moderation \"in his preference for orderly progress, his distrust of dangerous agitation, and his reluctance toward ill digested schemes of reform\". Randall concludes that, \"he was conservative in his complete avoidance of that type of so-called 'radicalism' which involved abuse of the South, hatred for the slaveholder, thirst for vengeance, partisan plotting, and ungenerous demands that Southern institutions be transformed overnight by outsiders.\" \n\nBy the late 1960s, liberals, such as historian Lerone Bennett, were having second thoughts, especially regarding Lincoln's views on racial issues. Bennett won wide attention when he called Lincoln a white supremacist in 1968. He noted that Lincoln used ethnic slurs, told jokes that ridiculed blacks, insisted he opposed social equality, and proposed sending freed slaves to another country. Defenders, such as authors Dirck and Cashin, retorted that he was not as bad as most politicians of his day; and that he was a \"moral visionary\" who deftly advanced the abolitionist cause, as fast as politically possible. The emphasis shifted away from Lincoln-the-emancipator to an argument that blacks had freed themselves from slavery, or at least were responsible for pressuring the government on emancipation. Historian Barry Schwartz wrote in 2009 that Lincoln's image suffered \"erosion, fading prestige, benign ridicule\" in the late 20th century. On the other hand, Donald opined in his 1996 biography that Lincoln was distinctly endowed with the personality trait of negative capability, defined by the poet John Keats and attributed to extraordinary leaders who were \"content in the midst of uncertainties and doubts, and not compelled toward fact or reason\". \n\nToday's U.S. President, however, seems to be promoting a sympathetic resurgence for his predecessor, Lincoln. Indeed, President Obama, has insisted on using Lincoln's Bible for his swearing in of office at both his inaugurations. \n\nLincoln has often been portrayed by Hollywood, almost always in a flattering light. \n\nMemory and memorials\n\nLincoln's portrait appears on two denominations of United States currency, the penny and the $5 bill. His likeness also appears on many postage stamps and he has been memorialized in many town, city, and county names, including the capital of Nebraska. \n\nThe most famous and most visited memorials are Lincoln's sculpture on Mount Rushmore; Lincoln Memorial, Ford's Theatre, and Petersen House (where he died) in Washington, D.C.; and the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield, Illinois, not far from Lincoln's home, as well as his tomb. \n\nThere was also the Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln exhibit in Disneyland, and the Hall of Presidents at Walt Disney World, which had to do with Walt Disney admiring Lincoln ever since he was a little boy.\n\nBarry Schwartz, a sociologist who has examined America's cultural memory, argues that in the 1930s and 1940s, the memory of Abraham Lincoln was practically sacred and provided the nation with \"a moral symbol inspiring and guiding American life\". During the Great Depression, he argues, Lincoln served \"as a means for seeing the world's disappointments, for making its sufferings not so much explicable as meaningful\". Franklin D. Roosevelt, preparing America for war, used the words of the Civil War president to clarify the threat posed by Germany and Japan. Americans asked, \"What would Lincoln do?\" However, Schwartz also finds that since World War II, Lincoln's symbolic power has lost relevance, and this \"fading hero is symptomatic of fading confidence in national greatness\". He suggested that postmodernism and multiculturalism have diluted greatness as a concept.", "George Washington (Contemporary records, which used the Julian calendar and the Annunciation Style of enumerating years, recorded his birth as February 11, 1731. The provisions of the British Calendar (New Style) Act 1750, implemented in 1752, altered the official British dating method to the Gregorian calendar with the start of the year on January 1 (it had been March 25). These changes resulted in dates being moved forward 11 days, and for those between January 1 and March 25, an advance of one year. For a further explanation, see Old Style and New Style dates. – , 1799) was the first President of the United States (1789–97), the Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War, and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. He presided over the convention that drafted the current United States Constitution and during his lifetime was called the \"father of his country\". \n\nWidely admired for his strong leadership qualities, Washington was unanimously elected president by the Electoral College in the first two national elections. He oversaw the creation of a strong, well-financed national government that maintained neutrality in the French Revolutionary Wars, suppressed the Whiskey Rebellion, and won acceptance among Americans of all types. Washington's incumbency established many precedents, still in use today, such as the cabinet system, the inaugural address, and the title Mr. President. His retirement from office after two terms established a tradition that lasted until 1940, when Franklin Delano Roosevelt won an unprecedented third term. The 22nd Amendment (1951) now limits the president to two elected terms. Born into the provincial gentry of Colonial Virginia, his family were wealthy planters who owned tobacco plantations and slaves which he inherited. In his youth he became a senior officer in the colonial militia during the first stages of the French and Indian War. In 1775 the Second Continental Congress commissioned Washington as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army in the American Revolution. In that command, Washington forced the British out of Boston in 1776, but was defeated and nearly captured later that year when he lost New York City. After crossing the Delaware River in the middle of winter, he defeated the British in two battles (Trenton and Princeton), retook New Jersey and restored momentum to the Patriot cause.\n\nHis strategy enabled Continental forces to capture two major British armies at Saratoga in 1777 and Yorktown in 1781. Historians laud Washington for the selection and supervision of his generals, preservation and command of the army, coordination with the Congress, state governors and their militia, and attention to supplies, logistics, and training. In battle, however, Washington was repeatedly outmaneuvered by British generals with larger armies. After victory had been finalized in 1783, Washington resigned as commander-in-chief rather than seize power, proving his opposition to dictatorship and his commitment to American republicanism. Washington presided over the Constitutional Convention in 1787, which devised a new form of federal government for the United States. Following his election as president in 1789, he worked to unify rival factions in the fledgling nation. He supported Alexander Hamilton's programs to satisfy all debts, federal and state, established a permanent seat of government, implemented an effective tax system, and created a national bank. In avoiding war with Great Britain, he guaranteed a decade of peace and profitable trade by securing the Jay Treaty in 1795, despite intense opposition from the Jeffersonians. Although he remained nonpartisan, never joining the Federalist Party, he largely supported its policies. Washington's Farewell Address was an influential primer on civic virtue, warning against partisanship, sectionalism, and involvement in foreign wars. He retired from the presidency in 1797, returning to his home and plantation at Mount Vernon.\n\nWhile in power, his use of national authority pursued many ends, especially the preservation of liberty, reduction of regional tensions, and promotion of a spirit of American nationalism. Upon his death, Washington was eulogized as \"first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen\" by Henry Lee. Revered in life and in death, scholarly and public polling consistently ranks him among the top three presidents in American history; he has been depicted and remembered in monuments, currency, and other dedications through the present day.\n\nEarly life (1732–1753)\n\nThe first child of Augustine Washington (1694–1743) and his second wife, Mary Ball Washington (1708–1789), George Washington was born on their Pope's Creek Estate near present-day Colonial Beach in Westmoreland County, Virginia. According to the Julian calendar and Annunciation Style of enumerating years (then in use in the British Empire), Washington was born on February 11, 1731; the Gregorian calendar, adopted later within the British Empire in 1752, renders a birth date of February 22, 1732. \n\nWashington was of primarily English gentry descent, especially from Sulgrave, England. His great-grandfather, John Washington, emigrated to Virginia in 1656 and began accumulating land and slaves, as did his son Lawrence and his grandson, George's father, Augustine. Augustine was a tobacco planter who also tried his hand in iron-mining ventures. In George's youth, the Washingtons were moderately prosperous members of the Virginia gentry, of \"middling rank\" rather than one of the leading planter families. At this time, Virginia and other southern colonies had employed slave labor, in which slaveholders (and the rich in general) formed the ruling class and much of the economy was based upon slave labor. \n\nSix of George's siblings reached maturity, including two older half-brothers, Lawrence and Augustine, from his father's first marriage to Jane Butler Washington, and four full siblings, Samuel, Elizabeth (Betty), John Augustine and Charles. Three siblings died before adulthood: his full sister Mildred died when she was about one, his half-brother Butler died in infancy,\nand his half-sister Jane died at age twelve, when George was about two. His father died of a sudden illness in April 1743 when George was eleven years old, and his half-brother Lawrence became a surrogate father and role model. William Fairfax, Lawrence's father-in-law and cousin of Virginia's largest landowner, Thomas, Lord Fairfax, was also a formative influence. \n\nWashington's father was the Justice of the Westmoreland County Court. Young Washington spent much of his boyhood at Ferry Farm in Stafford County near Fredericksburg. Lawrence Washington inherited another family property from his father, a plantation on the Potomac River at Little Hunting Creek, which he named Mount Vernon, in honor of his commanding officer, Admiral Edward Vernon. George inherited Ferry Farm upon his father's death and eventually acquired Mount Vernon after Lawrence's death. \n\nThe death of his father prevented Washington from an education at England's Appleby School, as his older brothers had received. He achieved the equivalent of an elementary school education from a variety of tutors, as well as from a school run by an Anglican clergyman in or near Fredericksburg. Talk of securing an appointment in the Royal Navy for him when he was 15 was dropped when his widowed mother objected. \n\nIn 1751 Washington traveled to Barbados with Lawrence, who was suffering from tuberculosis, with the hope that the climate would be beneficial to Lawrence's health. Washington contracted smallpox during the trip, which left his face slightly scarred, but immunized him against future exposures to the dreaded disease. However, Lawrence's health failed to improve, and he returned to Mount Vernon, where he died in the summer of 1752. Lawrence's position as Adjutant General (militia leader) of Virginia was divided into four district offices after his death. Washington was appointed by Governor Dinwiddie as one of the four district adjutants in February 1753, with the rank of major in the Virginia militia. During this period, Washington became a Freemason while in Fredericksburg, although his involvement was minimal. \n\nSurveyor\n\nWashington's introduction to surveying began at an early age through school exercises that taught him the basics of the profession, followed by practical experience in the field. His first experiences at surveying occurred in the surrounding territory of Mount Vernon. Washington's first opportunity as a surveyor occurred in 1748 when he was invited to join a survey party organized by his neighbor and friend George Fairfax of Belvoir. Fairfax organized a professional surveying party to layout large tracts of land along the border of western Virginia where the young Washington gained invaluable experience in the field. \n\nIn 1749, at the age of 17, Washington began his career as a professional surveyor. He subsequently received a commission and surveyor's license from the College of William and Mary and became the official surveyor for the newly formed Culpeper County. Thanks to his older brother Lawrence's connection to the prominent Fairfax family, Washington had been appointed to this well-paid official position. In less than two days he completed his first survey, plotting a 400 acre parcel of land and was well on his way to a promising career. He was subsequently able to purchase land in the Shenandoah Valley, the first of his many land acquisitions in western Virginia. For the next four years Washington worked surveying land in Western Virginia and for the Ohio Company, a land investment company funded by Virginia investors. Thanks to Lawrence's position as commander of the Virginia militia, Washington came to the notice of the new lieutenant governor of Virginia, Robert Dinwiddie. He was hard to miss: At over six feet, he was taller than most of his contemporaries. In October 1750, Washington resigned his position as an official surveyor, though he continued to work diligently over the next three years at his new profession. He continued to survey professionally for two more years, mostly in Frederick County before receiving a military appointment as adjutant for southern Virginia. By 1752, Washington completed close to 200 surveys on numerous properties totaling more than 60,000 acres. He would continue to survey at different times throughout his life and as late as 1799.\n\nFrench and Indian War\n\nWashington began his military service in the French and Indian War as a major in the militia of the British Province of Virginia. In 1753 he was sent as an ambassador from the British crown to the French officials and Indians as far north as present-day Erie, Pennsylvania. The Ohio Company was an important vehicle through which British investors planned to expand into the Ohio Valley, opening new settlements and trading posts for the Indian trade.. In 1753 the French themselves began expanding their military control into the Ohio Country, a territory already claimed by the British colonies of Virginia and Pennsylvania. These competing claims led to a war in the colonies called the French and Indian War (1754–62), and contributed to the start of the global Seven Years' War (1756–63). By chance, Washington became involved in its beginning.\n\nRobert Dinwiddie, lieutenant governor of colonial Virginia, was ordered by the British government to guard the British territorial claims including the Ohio River basin. In late 1753 Dinwiddie ordered Washington to deliver a letter asking the French to vacate the Ohio Valley; he was eager to prove himself as the new adjutant general of the militia, appointed by the Lieutenant Governor himself only a year before. During his trip Washington met with Tanacharison (also called \"Half-King\") and other Iroquois chiefs allied with England at Logstown to secure their support in case of a military conflict with the French—indeed Washington and Tanacharison became friends. He delivered the letter to the local French commander Jacques Legardeur de Saint-Pierre, who politely refused to leave. Washington kept a diary during his expedition which was printed by William Hunter on Dinwiddie's order and which made Washington's name recognizable in Virginia. This increased notoriety helped him to obtain a commission to raise a company of 100 men and start his military career. \n\nDinwiddie sent Washington back to the Ohio Country to safeguard an Ohio Company's construction of a fort at present-day Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. However, before he reached the area, a French force drove out colonial traders and began construction of Fort Duquesne. A small detachment of French troops led by Joseph Coulon de Jumonville, was discovered by Tanacharison and a few warriors east of present-day Uniontown, Pennsylvania. On May 28, 1754, Washington and some of his militia unit, aided by their Mingo allies, ambushed the French in what has come to be called the Battle of Jumonville Glen. Exactly what happened during and after the battle is a matter of contention, but several primary accounts agree that the battle lasted about 15 minutes, that Jumonville was killed, and that most of his party were either killed or taken prisoner. Whether Jumonville died at the hands of Tanacharison in cold blood or was somehow shot by an onlooker with a musket as he sat with Washington or by another means, is not completely clear. He was given the epithet Town Destroyer by Tanacharison. \n\nThe French responded by attacking and capturing Washington at Fort Necessity in July 1754. However, he was allowed to return with his troops to Virginia. Historian Joseph Ellis concludes that the episode demonstrated Washington's bravery, initiative, inexperience and impetuosity. These events had international consequences; the French accused Washington of assassinating Jumonville, who they claimed was on a diplomatic mission. Both France and Great Britain were ready to fight for control of the region and both sent troops to North America in 1755; war was formally declared in 1756. \n\nBraddock disaster 1755\n\nIn 1755 Washington became the senior American aide to British General Edward Braddock on the ill-fated Braddock expedition. This was the largest British expedition to the colonies, and was intended to expel the French from the Ohio Country; the first objective was the capture of Fort Duquesne. Washington initially sought an appointment as a major from Braddock, but upon advice that no rank above captain could be given except by London, he agreed to serve as a staff volunteer. During the passage of the expedition, Washington fell ill with severe headaches and fever; nevertheless, when the pace of the troops continued to slow, Washington recommended to Braddock that the army be split into two divisions – a primary and more lightly, but adequately equipped, \"flying column\" offensive which could move at a more rapid pace, to be followed by a more heavily armed reinforcing division. Braddock accepted the recommendation (likely made in a council of war including other officers) and took command of the lead division. \n\nIn the Battle of the Monongahela the French and their Indian allies ambushed Braddock's reduced forces and the general was mortally wounded. After suffering devastating casualties, the British panicked and retreated in disarray; however, Washington rode back and forth across the battlefield, rallying the remnants of the British and Virginian forces into an organized retreat. In the process, despite his lingering illness, he demonstrated much bravery and stamina—he had two horses shot from underneath him, while his coat was pierced with four bullets. In his report, Washington chiefly blamed the disaster on the conduct of the redcoats while praising that of the Virginia contingent. Whatever responsibility rested on him for the defeat as a result of his recommendation to Braddock, Washington was not included by the succeeding commander, Col. Thomas Dunbar, in planning subsequent force movements. \n\nCommander of Virginia Regiment\n\nLt. Governor Dinwiddie rewarded Washington in 1755 with a commission as \"Colonel of the Virginia Regiment and Commander in Chief of all forces now raised in the defense of His Majesty's Colony\" and gave him the task of defending Virginia's frontier. The Virginia Regiment was the first full-time American military unit in the colonies (as opposed to part-time militias and the British regular units). Washington was ordered to \"act defensively or offensively\" as he thought best. While Washington happily accepted the commission, the coveted redcoat of a British officer as well as the accompanying pay continued to elude him. Dinwiddie as well pressed in vain for the British military to incorporate the Virginia Regiment into its ranks. \n\nIn command of a thousand soldiers, Washington was a disciplinarian who emphasized training. He led his men in brutal campaigns against the Indians in the west; in 10 months his regiment fought 20 battles, and lost a third of its men. Washington's strenuous efforts meant that Virginia's frontier population suffered less than that of other colonies; Ellis concludes \"it was his only unqualified success\" in the war. \n\nIn 1758 Washington participated in the Forbes Expedition to capture Fort Duquesne. He was embarrassed by a friendly fire episode in which his unit and another British unit thought the other was the French enemy and opened fire, with 14 dead and 26 wounded in the mishap. Washington was not involved in any other major fighting on the expedition, and the British scored a major strategic victory, gaining control of the Ohio Valley, when the French abandoned the fort. Following the expedition, he retired from his Virginia Regiment commission in December 1758. Washington did not return to military life until the outbreak of the revolution in 1775. \n\nLessons learned\n\nAlthough Washington never gained the commission in the British army he yearned for, in these years the young man gained valuable military, political, and leadership skills. ;   ;   ;   ;   . He closely observed British military tactics, gaining a keen insight into their strengths and weaknesses that proved invaluable during the Revolution. Washington learned to organize, train, drill, and discipline his companies and regiments. From his observations, readings and conversations with professional officers, he learned the basics of battlefield tactics, as well as a good understanding of problems of organization and logistics. He gained an understanding of overall strategy, especially in locating strategic geographical points. \n\nWashington demonstrated his resourcefulness and courage in the most difficult situations, including disasters and retreats. He developed a command presence, given his size, strength, stamina, and bravery in battle that demonstrated to soldiers he was a natural leader whom they could follow without question. However Washington's fortitude in his early years was sometimes manifested in less constructive ways. Biographer John R. Alden contends Washington offered \"fulsome and insincere flattery to British generals in vain attempts to win great favor\" and on occasion showed youthful arrogance, as well as jealousy and ingratitude in the midst of impatience. \n\nHistorian Ron Chernow is of the opinion that his frustrations in dealing with government officials during this conflict led him to advocate the advantages of a strong national government and a vigorous executive agency that could get results; other historians tend to ascribe Washington's position on government to his later American Revolutionary War service. He developed a very negative idea of the value of militia, who seemed too unreliable, too undisciplined, and too short-term compared to regulars. On the other hand, his experience was limited to command of at most 1000 men, and came only in remote frontier conditions that were far removed from the urban situations he faced during the Revolution at Boston, New York, Trenton and Philadelphia. \n\nBetween the wars: Mount Vernon (1759–1774)\n\nOn January 6, 1759, Washington married the wealthy widow Martha Dandridge Custis, then 28 years old. Surviving letters suggest that he may have been in love at the time with Sally Fairfax, the wife of a friend. Nevertheless, George and Martha made a compatible marriage, because Martha was intelligent, gracious, and experienced in managing a planter's estate. \n\nTogether the two raised her two children from her previous marriage, John Parke Custis and Martha Parke (Patsy) Custis; later the Washingtons raised two of Mrs. Washington's grandchildren, Eleanor Parke Custis and George Washington Parke Custis. George and Martha never had any children together—his earlier bout with smallpox in 1751 may have made him sterile. The newlywed couple moved to Mount Vernon, near Alexandria, where he took up the life of a planter and political figure.\n\nWashington's marriage to Martha greatly increased his property holdings and social standing, and made him one of Virginia's wealthiest men. He acquired one-third of the 18000 acre Custis estate upon his marriage, worth approximately $100,000, and managed the remainder on behalf of Martha's children, for whom he sincerely cared. \n\nIn 1754 Lieutenant Governor Dinwiddie had promised land bounties to the soldiers and officers who volunteered to serve during the French and Indian War. After Washington prevailed upon Lord Botetourt, the new governor, he finally fulfilled Dinwiddie's promise in 1769–1770, with Washington subsequently receiving title to 23200 acre where the Kanawha River flows into the Ohio River, in what is now western West Virginia. He also frequently bought additional land in his own name. By 1775 Washington had doubled the size of Mount Vernon to 6500 acre, and had increased its slave population to over 100. As a respected military hero and large landowner, he held local office and was elected to the Virginia provincial legislature, representing Frederick County in the House of Burgesses for seven years, beginning in 1758. \n\nWashington lived an aristocratic lifestyle—fox hunting was a favorite leisure activity. He also enjoyed going to dances and parties, in addition to the theater, races, and cockfights. Washington also was known to play cards, backgammon, and billiards. Like most Virginia planters, he imported luxuries and other goods from England and paid for them by exporting his tobacco crop. Washington began to pull himself out of debt in the mid-1760s by diversifying his previously tobacco-centric business interests into other ventures and paying more attention to his affairs.\n\nIn 1766 he started switching Mount Vernon's primary cash crop away from tobacco to wheat, a crop that could be processed and then sold in various forms in the colonies, and further diversified operations to include flour milling, fishing, horse breeding, spinning, weaving and (in the 1790s) erected a distillery for whiskey production which yielded more than 1000 gallons a month. After several prior epileptic attacks Patsy Custis died in Washington arms in 1773. Her early and unexpected death proved to be one of the saddest moments in his life. He intimated his hopes to Martha and others that she had gone to a \"happier place\". Washington cancelled all business activity and for the next three months was not away from Martha for one single night. Patsy's death enabled Washington to pay off his British creditors, since half of her inheritance passed to him. \n\nA successful planter of tobacco and wheat, Washington was a leader in the social elite in Virginia. From 1768 to 1775, he invited some 2000 guests to his Mount Vernon estate, mostly those he considered \"people of rank\". As for people not of high social status, his advice was to \"treat them civilly\" but \"keep them at a proper distance, for they will grow upon familiarity, in proportion as you sink in authority\". In 1769 he became more politically active, presenting the Virginia Assembly with legislation to ban the importation of goods from Great Britain. \n\nAmerican Revolution (1775–1783)\n\nWashington played a leading military and political role in the American Revolution. His involvement began in 1767, when he first took political stands against the various acts of the British Parliament. He opposed the 1765 Stamp Act, the first direct tax on the colonies imposed by the British Parliament, which included no representatives from the colonies; he began taking a leading role in the growing colonial resistance when protests against the Townshend Acts (enacted in 1767) became widespread. In May 1769 Washington introduced a proposal, drafted by his friend George Mason, calling for Virginia to boycott English goods until the Acts were repealed. Parliament repealed the Townshend Acts in 1770. However, Washington regarded the passage of the Intolerable Acts in 1774 as \"an Invasion of our Rights and Privileges\". Washington told friend Bryan Fairfax, \"I think the Parliament of Great Britain has no more right to put their hands in my pocket without my consent than I have to put my hands into yours for money.\" He also said that Americans must not submit to acts of tyranny \"till custom and use shall make us as tame and abject slaves, as the blacks we rule over with such arbitrary sway.\" \n\nIn July 1774 he chaired the meeting at which the \"Fairfax Resolves\" were adopted, which called for the convening of a Continental Congress, among other things. In August, Washington attended the First Virginia Convention, where he was selected as a delegate to the First Continental Congress. \n\nCommander in chief\n\nAfter the Battles of Lexington and Concord near Boston in April 1775, the colonies went to war. Washington appeared at the Second Continental Congress in a military uniform, signaling that he was prepared for war. Washington had the prestige, military experience, charisma and military bearing of a military leader and was known as a strong patriot. Virginia, the largest colony, deserved recognition, and New England—where the fighting began—realized it needed Southern support. Washington did not explicitly seek the office of commander and said that he was not equal to it, but there was no serious competition. Congress created the Continental Army on June 14, 1775. Nominated by John Adams of Massachusetts, Washington was then appointed as a full General and Commander-in-chief. The British then articulated the peril of Washington and his army—on August 23, 1775 Britain issued a Royal proclamation labeling American rebels as traitors; if they resorted to force, they faced confiscation of their property. Their leaders were subject to execution upon the scaffold. \nGeneral Washington essentially assumed three roles during the war. First, in 1775–77, and again in 1781 he provided leadership of troops against the main British forces. Although he lost many of his battles, he never surrendered his army during the war, and he continued to fight the British relentlessly until the war's end. He plotted the overall strategy of the war, in cooperation with Congress. \n\nSecondly, he was charged with organizing and training the army. He recruited regulars and assigned Baron von Steuben, a veteran of the Prussian general staff, to train them. The war effort and getting supplies to the troops were under the purview of Congress, but Washington pressured the Congress to provide the essentials. In June 1776 Congress' first attempt at running the war effort was established with the committee known as \"Board of War and Ordnance\", succeeded by the Board of War in July 1777, a committee which eventually included members of the military. The command structure of the armed forces was a hodgepodge of Congressional appointees (and Congress sometimes made those appointments without Washington's input) with state-appointments filling the lower ranks and of all of the militia-officers. The results of his general staff were mixed, as some of his favorites (like John Sullivan) never mastered the art of command.\n\nEventually, he found capable officers, such as General Nathanael Greene, General Daniel Morgan—\"the old wagoner\" that he had served with in The French and Indian War, Colonel Henry Knox—chief of artillery, and Colonel Alexander Hamilton—chief-of-staff. The American officers never equaled their opponents in tactics and maneuver, and consequently they lost most of the pitched battles. The great successes, at Boston (1776), Saratoga (1777) and Yorktown (1781), came from trapping the British far from base with much larger numbers of troops. Daniel Morgan's annihilation of Banastre Tarleton's legion of dragoons at Cowpens in February 1781, came as a result of Morgan's employment of superior line tactics against his British opponent, resulting in one of the very few double envelopments in military history, another being Hannibal's defeat of the Romans at Cannae in 216 b.c. The decisive defeat of Col. Patrick Ferguson's Tory Regiment at King's Mountain demonstrated the superiority of the riflery of American \"over-mountain men\" over British-trained troops armed with musket and bayonet. These \"over-mountain men\" were led by a variety of elected officers, including the 6'6\" William Campbell who had become one of Washington's officers by the time of Yorktown. Similarly, Morgan's Virginia riflemen proved themselves superior to the British at Saratoga, a post-revolutionary war development being the creation of trained \"rifle battalions\" in the European armies.\n\nWashington's third, and most important role in the war effort, was the embodiment of armed resistance to the Crown—the representative man of the Revolution. His long-term strategy was to maintain an army in the field at all times, and eventually this strategy worked. His enormous personal and political stature and his political skills kept Congress, the army, the French, the militias, and the states all pointed toward a common goal. Furthermore, by voluntarily resigning his commission and disbanding his army when the war was won (rather than declaring himself monarch), he permanently established the principle of civilian supremacy in military affairs. Yet his constant reiteration of the point that well-disciplined professional soldiers counted for twice as much as erratic militias (clearly demonstrated in the rout at Camden, where only the Maryland and Delaware Continentals under Baron DeKalb held firm), helped overcome the ideological distrust of a standing army. \n\nVictory at Boston\n\nWashington assumed command of the Continental Army in the field at Cambridge, Massachusetts, in July 1775, during the ongoing siege of Boston. Realizing his army's desperate shortage of gunpowder, Washington asked for new sources. American troops raided British arsenals, including some in the Caribbean, and some manufacturing was attempted. They obtained a barely adequate supply (about 2.5 million pounds) by the end of 1776, mostly from France. \n\nWashington reorganized the army during the long standoff, and forced the British to withdraw by putting artillery on Dorchester Heights overlooking the city. The British evacuated Boston in March 1776 and Washington moved his army to New York City. \n\nAlthough highly disparaging toward most of the Patriots, British newspapers routinely praised Washington's personal character and qualities as a military commander. These articles were bold, as Washington was an enemy general who commanded an army in a cause that many Britons believed would ruin the empire. \n\nDefeat at New York\n\nIn August 1776 British General William Howe launched a massive naval and land campaign designed to seize New York. The Continental Army under Washington engaged the enemy for the first time as an army of the newly independent United States at the Battle of Long Island, the largest battle of the entire war. The Americans were heavily outnumbered, many men deserted, and Washington was badly defeated. After conferring with other generals of the situation a plan of retreat was decided. Washington instructed General Heath to make available every flat bottom river boat and sloop in the area. In little time Washington's army under the cover of darkness crossed the East River safely to Manhattan Island, and did so without loss of life or materiel. \n\nWashington had considered abandoning the island and Fort Washington, but heeding Generals Greene and Putnam's recommendation to attempt a defense of this fort, he belatedly retreated further across the Hudson to Fort Lee, to avoid encirclement. With the Americans in retreat Howe was then able to take the offensive and on November 16, landed his troops on the island and surrounded and captured Fort Washington, resulting in high Continental casualties. Biographer Alden opines that \"although Washington was responsible for the decision to delay the patriots' retreat, he tried to ascribe blame for the decision to defend Fort Washington to the wishes of Congress and the bad advice of Nathaniel Greene.\" \n\nCrossing the Delaware\n\nWashington then continued his flight across New Jersey; the future of the Continental Army was in doubt due to expiring enlistments and the string of losses. On the night of December 25, 1776, Washington staged a comeback with a surprise attack on a Hessian outpost in western New Jersey. He led his army across the Delaware River to capture nearly 1,000 Hessians in Trenton, New Jersey. Washington followed up his victory at Trenton with another over British regulars at Princeton in early January. The British retreated to New York City and its environs, which they held until the peace treaty of 1783. Washington's victories wrecked the British carrot-and-stick strategy of showing overwhelming force then offering generous terms. The Americans would not negotiate for anything short of independence. These victories alone were not enough to ensure ultimate Patriot victory, however, since many soldiers did not reenlist or deserted during the harsh winter. Washington and Congress reorganized the army with increased rewards for staying and punishment for desertion, which raised troop numbers effectively for subsequent battles. \n\nIn February 1777, while encamped at Morristown, New Jersey, Washington became convinced that only smallpox inoculation would prevent the destruction of his Army, by using variolation. Washington ordered the inoculation of all troops and by some reports, death by smallpox in the ranks dropped from 17% of all deaths to 1% of all reported deaths. \n\nHistorians debate whether or not Washington preferred a Fabian strategy to harass the British with quick, sharp attacks followed by a retreat so the larger British army could not catch him, or whether he preferred to fight major battles. While his southern commander Greene in 1780–81 did use Fabian tactics, Washington did so only in fall 1776 to spring 1777, after losing New York City and seeing much of his army melt away. Trenton and Princeton were Fabian examples. By summer 1777, however, Washington had rebuilt his strength and his confidence; he stopped using raids and went for large-scale confrontations, as at Brandywine, Germantown, Monmouth and Yorktown. \n\n1777 campaigns\n\nIn late summer of 1777, British General John Burgoyne led a major invasion army south from Quebec, with the intention of splitting off rebellious New England; but General Howe in New York took his army south to Philadelphia instead of going up the Hudson River to join with Burgoyne near Albany—a major strategic mistake. Meanwhile, Washington rushed to Philadelphia to engage Howe, while closely following the action in upstate New York, where the patriots were led by General Philip Schuyler and his successor Horatio Gates. The ensuing pitched battles at Philadelphia were too complex for Washington's relatively inexperienced men and they were defeated. At the Battle of Brandywine on September 11, 1777, Howe outmaneuvered Washington, and marched into the American capital at Philadelphia unopposed on September 26. Washington's army unsuccessfully attacked the British garrison at Germantown in early October. Meanwhile, to the north, Burgoyne, beyond the reach of help from Howe, was trapped and forced to surrender after the Battles of Saratoga. This was a major turning point militarily and diplomatically—the French responded to Burgoyne's defeat by entering the war, allying with America and expanding the Revolutionary War into a major worldwide affair.\n\nWashington's loss at Philadelphia prompted some members of Congress to consider removing Washington from command. This movement, termed the Conway Cabal, failed after Washington's supporters rallied behind him. Biographer Alden relates, \"it was inevitable that the defeats of Washington's forces and the concurrent victory of the forces in upper New York should be compared.\" The zealous admiration of Washington indeed inevitably waned. John Adams (never a fan of the southern delegation to the Continental Congress) wrote \"Congress will appoint a thanksgiving; and one cause of it ought to be that the glory of turning the tide of arms is not immediately due to the commander-in-chief nor to southern troops. If it had been, idolatry and adulation would have been unbounded...Now we can allow a certain citizen to be wise, virtuous, and good, without thinking him a deity or a savior.\" \n\nValley Forge\n\nWashington's army of 11,000 went into winter quarters at Valley Forge north of Philadelphia in December 1777. Over the next six months, the deaths in camp numbered in the thousands (the majority being from disease, compounded by lack of food, proper clothing, poor shelter and the extreme cold), with historians' death toll estimates ranging from 2,000 to over 3,000 men. While the British were comfortably quartered in Philadelphia and paid for their supplies in sterling, Washington had difficulty procuring supplies from the few farmers in the area who would not accept rapidly depreciating American paper currency, while the woodlands about the valley had soon been exhausted of game. As conditions worsened, Washington was faced with the task of maintaining morale and discouraging desertion which by February had become common. Washington had repeatedly petitioned the Continental Congress for badly needed provisions but with no success. Finally, on January 24, 1778, five Congressmen came to Valley Forge to examine the conditions of the Continental Army. Washington expressed the urgency of the situation exclaiming, \"Something must be done. Important alterations must be made.\" At this time he also contended that Congress should take control of the army supply system, pay for its supplies and promptly expedite them as they became necessary. In response to Washington's urgent appeal, Congress soon gave full support to funding the supply lines of the army, an advent which also resulted in the reorganizing the commissary department, which controlled the gathering of the supplies for the army. By late February, there were adequate supplies flowing throughout camp.\n\nThe next spring, a revitalized army emerged from Valley Forge in good order, thanks in part to a full-scale training program supervised by General von Steuben. The British evacuated Philadelphia to New York in June, 1778. After Washington summoned a council of war with Generals Lee, Greene and Wayne and Lafayette, Washington decided to make a partial attack on the retreating British at the Battle of Monmouth. Lee and Lafayette, moving with 4000 men and without Washington's immediate knowledge, attempted to launch but bungled the first attack at the British rear guard, where Clinton, also with 4000 men and waiting in anticipation, came about and offered stiff resistance, keeping the Americans in check. After sharp words of criticism Washington relieved Lee and continued fighting to an effective draw in one of the war's largest battles. When night fall came the fighting came to a stop and the British continued their retreat and headed towards New York, where Washington soon moved his army just outside that city. \n\nSullivan Expedition\n\nIn the summer of 1779 Washington and Congress decided to strike the Iroquois warriors of the \"Six Nations\" in a campaign to force Britain's Indian allies out of New York, which they had used as a base to attack American settlements across New England. In June 1779 the warriors had joined with Tory rangers led by Colonel William Butler, using barbarities normally shunned, slew over 200 frontiersmen and laid waste to the Wyoming Valley in Pennsylvania. Indeed, one British officer who witnessed the Tory brutality said the redcoats on return to England would \"scalp every son of a bitch of them.\" In August of 1779 General John Sullivan led a military operation that destroyed at least 40 Iroquois villages, burned all available crops. Few people were killed as the Indians fled to British protection in Canada. Sullivan later reported that \"the immediate objects of this expedition are accomplished, viz: total ruin of the Indian settlements and the destruction of their crops, which were designed for the support of those inhuman barbarians.\" \n\nHudson River and Southern battles\n\nWashington at this time moved his headquarters from Middlebrook in New Jersey up to New Windsor on the Hudson, with an army of 10,000. The British, led by Howe's successor, Sir Henry Clinton made a move up the Hudson against American posts at Verplanck's Point and Stony Point and both places succumbed, but a counter-offensive by the patriots led by General Anthony Wayne was briefly successful. Clinton was in the end able to shut off Kings Ferry but it was a strategic loss; he could proceed no further up the river, due to American fortifications and Washington's army. The skirmishes at Verplanck's Point and at Stony Point demonstrated that the continental infantry had become quite formidable and were an enormous boost to morale. \n\nThe winter of 1779–1780, when Washington went into quarters at Morristown, represented the worst suffering for the army during the war. The temperatures fell to 16 below zero, the New York Harbor was frozen over, and snow and ice covered the ground for weeks, with the troops again lacking provisions for a time as at Valley Forge. In late 1779 Clinton moved his forces south to Charleston for an offensive against the patriots, led by Benjamin Lincoln. After his success there Clinton returned victorious to New York, leaving Cornwallis in the south. Congress replaced Lincoln with Gates, despite Washington's recommendation of Greene. When Gates failed in South Carolina, he was then replaced by Greene. The British at the time seemed to have the South almost in their grasp. Despite this news, Washington was encouraged to learn in mid-1780 that Lafayette had returned from France with additional naval assets and forces.\n\nArnold's treason\n\nIn the summer of 1778 George Washington ordered Major Benjamin Tallmadge to form the Culper Ring. This group was composed of select few trustworthy individuals, whose purpose was to collect information about the British movements and activities in New York City. The Ring is famous for uncovering the intentions of treason of Benedict Arnold, which shocked Washington because Arnold was someone who had contributed significantly to the war effort. Embittered by his dealings with Congress over rank and finances, as well as the alliance with France, Arnold joined the British cause; he conspired with the British in a plan to seize the post he commanded at West Point. Washington just missed apprehending him, but did capture his conspirator, Major John André, a British intelligence officer under Clinton, who was later hanged by order of a court-martial called by Washington. \n\nWashington's army went into winter quarters at New Windsor in 1780 and suffered again for lack of supplies. There resulted a considerable mutiny by Pennsylvania troops; Washington prevailed upon Congress as well as state officials to come to their aid with provisions. He very much sympathized with their suffering, saying he hoped the army would not \"continue to struggle under the same difficulties they have hitherto endured, which I cannot help remarking seem to reach the bounds of human patience\". \n\nVictory at Yorktown\n\nIn July 1780, 5,000 veteran French troops led by the comte de Rochambeau arrived at Newport, Rhode Island to aid in the war effort; French naval forces then landed, led by Admiral François Joseph Paul de Grasse. Though it was Washington's hope initially to bring the allied fight to New York and to end the war there, de Grasse was advised by Rochambeau that Cornwallis in Virginia was the better target. de Grasse followed Rochambeau's advice and arrived off the Virginia Coast. Washington immediately saw the advantage created, made a feinting move with his force towards Clinton in New York and then headed south to Virginia. \n\nWashington's Continental Army, also newly funded by $20,000 in French gold, delivered the final blow to the British in 1781, after a French naval victory allowed American and French forces to trap a British army in Virginia, preventing reinforcement by Clinton from the North. The surrender at Yorktown on October 19, 1781, marked the end of major fighting in continental North America. Cornwallis failed to appear at the official surrender ceremony, and sent General Charles Oharrow as his proxy; Washington then assigned his role to Benjamin Lincoln of equal rank. \n\nDemobilization\n\nThough substantial combat had ended, the war had not, and a formal treaty of peace was months away, creating tension. The British still had 26,000 troops occupying New York City, Charleston and Savannah, together with a powerful fleet. The French army and navy departed, so the Americans were on their own in 1782–83. Money matters fed the anxiety—the treasury was empty, and the unpaid soldiers were growing restive, almost to the point of mutiny. At one point the mutineers forced an adjournment of the Congress from Philadelphia to Princeton. Washington dispelled unrest among officers by suppressing the Newburgh Conspiracy in March 1783, and Congress came up with the promise of a five-year bonus. \n\nWith the initial peace treaty articles ratified in April, a recently formed Congressional committee under Hamilton was considering needs and plans for a peacetime army. On May 2, 1783, the Commander in Chief submitted his Sentiments on a Peace Establishment to the Committee, essentially providing an official Continental Army position. The original proposal was defeated in Congress in two votes (May 1783, October 1783) with a truncated version also being rejected in April 1784. \n\nBy the Treaty of Paris (signed that September), Great Britain recognized the independence of the United States. Washington disbanded his army and, on November 2, gave an eloquent farewell address to his soldiers. On November 25, the British evacuated New York City, and Washington and the governor took possession. At Fraunces Tavern on December 4, Washington formally bade his officers farewell and on December 23, 1783, he resigned his commission as commander-in-chief, saying \"I consider it an indispensable duty to close this last solemn act of my official life, by commending the interests of our dearest country to the protection of Almighty God, and those who have the superintendence of them, to his holy keeping.\" Historian Gordon Wood concludes that the greatest act in his life was his resignation as commander of the armies. King George III called Washington \"the greatest character of the age\" because of this. \n\nWashington later submitted a formal account of the expenses he had personally advanced the army over the eight year conflict, of about $450,000. It is said to have been detailed regarding small items, vague concerning large ones and included the expenses incurred from Martha's visits to his headquarters, as well as his compensation for service, none of which had been drawn during the war. \n\nHistorian John Shy says that by 1783 Washington was \"a mediocre military strategist but had become a master political tactician with an almost perfect sense of timing and a developed capacity to exploit his charismatic reputation, using people who thought they were using him\". \n\nConstitutional Convention\n\nWashington's retirement to personal business at Mount Vernon was short-lived. Making an exploratory trip to the western frontier in 1784, he inspected his land holdings in Western Pennsylvania that had been earned decades earlier for his service in the French and Indian War. There, he confronted squatters, including David Reed and the Covenanters, who vacated, but only after losing a court decision heard in Washington, Pennsylvania in 1786.\nAfter much reluctance, he was persuaded to attend the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia during the summer of 1787 as a delegate from Virginia, where he was elected in unanimity as president of the Convention. He held considerable criticism of the Articles of Confederation of the thirteen colonies, for the weak central government it established, referring to the Articles as no more than \"a rope of sand\" to support the new nation. Washington's view for the need of a strong federal government grew out of the recent war, moreover, the inability of the Continental Congress to rally the states to provide for the needs of the military, as was clearly demonstrated for him during the winter at Valley Forge. The general populace however did not share Washington's views of a strong federal government binding the states together, comparing such a prevailing entity to the British Parliament that previously ruled and taxed the colonies. \n\nWashington's participation in the debates was minor, although he cast his vote when called upon; his prestige facilitated the collegiality and productivity of the delegates. After a couple of months into the task, Washington told Alexander Hamilton, \"I almost despair of seeing a favorable issue to the proceedings of our convention and do therefore repent having had any agency in the business.\"\nFollowing the Convention, his support convinced many, but not all of his colleagues, to vote for ratification. He unsuccessfully lobbied anti-federalist Patrick Henry, saying that \"the adoption of it under the present circumstances of the Union is in my opinion desirable;\" he declared that the only alternative would be anarchy. Nevertheless, he did not consider it appropriate to cast his vote in favor of adoption for Virginia, since he was expected to be nominated president thereunder. The new Constitution was subsequently ratified by all thirteen states. The delegates to the convention designed the presidency with Washington in mind, allowing him to define the office by establishing precedent once elected. In the end after agreements were hatched however, Washington thought the achievements finally made were monumental.\n\nPresidency (1789–1797)\n\nThe Electoral College unanimously elected Washington as the first president in 1789, and again 1792; He remains the only president to receive the totality of electoral votes. John Adams, who received the next highest vote total, was elected vice president. On April 30, 1789, Washington was inaugurated, taking the first presidential oath of office on the balcony of Federal Hall in New York City. The oath, as follows, was administered by Chancellor Robert R. Livingston: \"I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.\" Historian John R. Alden indicates that Washington added the words \"So help me God.\" \n\nThe 1st United States Congress voted to pay Washington a salary of $25,000 a year—a large sum in 1789, valued at about $340,000 in 2015 dollars. Washington, despite facing financial troubles then, initially declined the salary, valuing his image as a selfless public servant. At the urging of Congress, however, he ultimately accepted the payment, to avoid setting a precedent whereby the presidency would be perceived as limited only to independently wealthy individuals who could serve without any salary. The president, aware that everything he did set a precedent, attended carefully to the pomp and ceremony of office, making sure that the titles and trappings were suitably republican and never emulated European royal courts. To that end, he preferred the title \"Mr. President\" to the more majestic names proposed by the Senate. \n\nWashington proved an able administrator, and established many precedents in the functions of the presidency, including messages to Congress and the cabinet form of government. Despite fears that a democratic system would lead to political violence, he set the standard for tolerance of opposition voices and conducted a smooth transition of power to his successor. An excellent delegator and judge of talent and character, he talked regularly with department heads and listened to their advice before making a final decision. In handling routine tasks, he was \"systematic, orderly, energetic, solicitous of the opinion of others ... but decisive, intent upon general goals and the consistency of particular actions with them.\" After reluctantly serving a second term, Washington refused to run for a third, establishing the tradition of a maximum of two terms for a president, which was solidified by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. \n\nDomestic issues\n\nWashington was not a member of any political party and hoped that they would not be formed, fearing conflict that would undermine republicanism. His closest advisors formed two factions, setting the framework for the future First Party System. Secretary of Treasury Alexander Hamilton had bold plans to establish the national credit and build a financially powerful nation, and formed the basis of the Federalist Party. Secretary of the State Thomas Jefferson, founder of the Jeffersonian Republicans, strenuously opposed Hamilton's agenda, but Washington typically favored Hamilton over Jefferson, and it was Hamilton's agenda that went into effect. Jefferson's political actions, his support of Philip Freneau's National Gazette, and his attempt to undermine Hamilton, nearly led George Washington to dismiss Jefferson from his cabinet. Though Jefferson left the cabinet voluntarily, Washington never forgave him, and never spoke to him again. \n\nIn early 1790 Hamilton devised a plan with the approval of Washington, culminating in The Residence Act of 1790, that established the creditworthiness of the new government, as well as its permanent location. Congress had previously issued almost $22 million in certificates of debt during the war to suppliers; some of the states had incurred debt as well (more so in the north). In accordance with the plan, Congress authorized the \"assumption\" and payment of these debts, and provided funding through customs duties and excise taxes. The proposal was largely favored in the north and opposed in the south. Hamilton obtained the approval of the southern states in exchange for an agreement to place the new national capitol on the Potomac River. While the national debt increased as a result during Hamilton's service as Secretary of the Treasury, the nation established its good credit. Many in the Congress and elsewhere in the government profited from trading in the debt paper which was assumed. Though many of Washington's fellow Virginians, as well as others, were vexed by this, he considered they had adequate redress through their Congressional representatives. \n\nThe Revenue Act authorized the president to select the specific location of the seat of the government on the Potomac; the president was to appoint three commissioners to survey and acquire property for this seat. Washington personally oversaw this effort throughout his term in office. In 1791 the commissioners named the permanent seat of government \"The City of Washington in the Territory of Columbia\" to honor Washington. In 1800, the Territory of Columbia became the District of Columbia when the federal government moved to the site according to the provisions of the Residence Act. \n\nIn 1791 partly as a result of the Copper Panic of 1789, Congress imposed an excise tax on distilled spirits, which led to protests in frontier districts, especially Pennsylvania. By 1794 after Washington ordered the protesters to appear in U.S. district court, the protests turned into full-scale defiance of federal authority known as the Whiskey Rebellion. The federal army was too small to be used, so Washington invoked the Militia Act of 1792 to summon militias from Pennsylvania, Virginia, Maryland and New Jersey. The governors sent the troops, with Washington taking initial command. He subsequently named Henry \"Lighthorse Harry\" Lee as field commander to lead the troops into the rebellious districts. The rebels dispersed and there was no fighting, as Washington's forceful action proved the new government could protect itself. This represented the premier instance of the federal government using military force to exert authority over the states and citizens and is also the only time a sitting U.S. president personally commanded troops in the field. \n\nForeign affairs\n\nIn February 1793 the French Revolutionary Wars broke out between Great Britain and its allies and revolutionary France, and engulfed Europe until 1815; Washington, with cabinet approval, proclaimed American neutrality. The revolutionary government of France sent diplomat Edmond-Charles Genêt, called \"Citizen Genêt\", to America. Genêt was welcomed with great enthusiasm, and began promoting the case for France using a network of new Democratic Societies in major cities. He even issued French letters of marque and reprisal to French ships manned by American sailors so they could capture British merchant ships. Washington denounced the societies and demanded the French government recall Genêt, which they did. \n\nHamilton formulated the Jay Treaty to normalize trade relations with Great Britain, remove them from western forts, and resolve financial debts remaining from the Revolution; John Jay negotiated and signed the treaty on November 19, 1794. Jeffersonians supported France and strongly attacked the treaty. Washington listened to both sides then announced his strong support, which mobilized public opinion and was pivotal in securing ratification in the Senate by the requisite two-thirds majority. \n\nThe British agreed to depart from their forts around the Great Lakes and the United States-Canadian boundary had to be re-adjusted; numerous pre-Revolutionary debts were liquidated, and the British opened their West Indies colonies to American trade. Most importantly, the treaty delayed war with Great Britain and instead brought a decade of prosperous trade with the British. The treaty angered the French and became a central issue in many political debates. Relations with France deteriorated after the treaty was signed, leaving the succeeding president, John Adams, with the prospect of war. \n\nFarewell Address\n\nWashington's Farewell Address (issued as a public letter in 1796) was one of the most influential statements of republicanism. Drafted primarily by Washington himself, with help from Hamilton, it gives advice on the necessity and importance of national union, the value of the Constitution and the rule of law, the evils of political parties and the proper virtues of a republican people. He referred to morality as \"a necessary spring of popular government\", and said, \"Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.\" The address warned against foreign influence in domestic affairs and American meddling in European affairs, and as well against bitter partisanship in domestic politics; he also called for men to move beyond partisanship and serve the common good. He cautioned against \"permanent alliances with any portion of the foreign world\", saying the United States must concentrate primarily on American interests. He counseled friendship and commerce with all nations, but advised against involvement in European wars and entering into long-term \"entangling\" alliances. While advancing the general idea of noninvolvement in foreign affairs the Farewell Address made no clear distinction between domestic and foreign policies—John Quincy Adams interpreted Washington's policy as advocating a strong nationalist foreign policy while not limiting America's international activities. The address, however, quickly set American values regarding foreign affairs. Washington's policy of noninvolvement in the foreign affairs of the old world was largely embraced by the founding generation of American Statesmen, including John Adams, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. \n\nRetirement (1797–1799)\n\nAfter retiring from the presidency in March 1797, Washington returned to Mount Vernon with a profound sense of relief. He devoted much time to his plantations and other business interests, including his distillery which produced its first batch of spirits in February 1797. As explains, his plantation operations were only minimally profitable. The lands out west yielded little income because they were under attack by Indians and the squatters living there refused to pay him rent. Most Americans assumed he was rich because of the well-known \"glorified façade of wealth and grandeur\" at Mount Vernon. Historians estimate his estate was worth about $1 million in 1799 dollars, equivalent to about $19.9 million in 2014 purchasing power. \n\nBy 1798 relations with France had deteriorated to the point that war seemed imminent, and on July 4, 1798, President Adams offered Washington a commission as lieutenant general and Commander-in-chief of the armies raised or to be raised for service in a prospective war. He accepted, and served as the senior officer of the United States Army from July 13, 1798 until his death seventeen months later. He participated in the planning for a Provisional Army to meet any emergency that might arise, but avoided involvement in details as much as possible; he delegated most of the work, including leadership of the army, to Hamilton, then serving as a major general in the U.S. Army. \n\nComparisons with Cincinnatus\n\nDuring the Revolutionary and Early Republican periods of American history, many commentators compared Washington with the Roman aristocrat and statesman Cincinnatus. The comparison arose as Washington, like Cincinnatus, remained in command of the Continental Army only until the British had been defeated. Thereafter, instead of seeking great political power, he returned as quickly as possible to cultivating his lands. Remarking on Washington's resignation in December 1783, and his decision to retire to Mount Vernon, poet Philip Freneau wrote: Thus He, whom Rome's proud legions sway'd/Return'd, and sought his sylvan shade. Lord Byron's Ode to Napoleon also lionized Washington as \"the Cincinnatus of the West\". \n\nDeath\n\nOn Thursday, December 12, 1799, Washington spent several hours inspecting his plantation on horseback, in snow, hail, and freezing rain; later that evening he ate his supper without changing from his wet clothes. That Friday he awoke with a severe sore throat and became increasingly hoarse as the day progressed, yet still rode out in the heavy snow, marking trees on the estate that he wanted cut. Sometime around 3 a.m. that Saturday, he suddenly awoke with severe difficulty breathing and almost completely unable to speak or swallow. A firm believer in bloodletting, a standard medical practice of that era which he had used to treat various ailments of slaves on his plantation, he ordered estate overseer Albin Rawlins to remove half a pint of his blood.\n\nA total of three physicians were sent for, including Washington's personal physician Dr. James Craik along with Dr. Gustavus Brown and Dr. Elisha Dick. Craik and Brown thought that Washington had \"quinsey\" or \"quincy\", while Dick, the younger man, thought the condition was more serious or a \"violent inflammation of the throat\". By the time the three physicians finished their treatments and bloodletting of the president, there had been a massive volume of blood loss—half or more of his total blood content was removed over the course of just a few hours. Recognizing that the bloodletting and other treatments were failing, Dr. Dick proposed performing an emergency tracheotomy, a procedure that few American physicians were familiar with at the time, as a last-ditch effort to save Washington's life, but the other two doctors disapproved.\n\nWashington died at home around 10 p.m. on Saturday, December 14, 1799, aged 67. In his journal, Lear recorded Washington's last words as being \"'Tis well.\" \n\nThe diagnosis of Washington's final illness and the immediate cause of his death have been subjects of debate since the day he died. In the days immediately following his death, Craik and Dick's published account stated that they felt his symptoms had been consistent with \"cynanche trachealis\", a term of that period used to describe severe inflammation of the structures of the upper airway. Even at that early date, there were accusations of medical malpractice, with some believing that Washington had been bled to death. Various modern medical authors have speculated that Washington probably died from a severe case of epiglottitis which was complicated by the given treatments (all of which were accepted medical practice in Washington's day)—most notably the massive deliberate blood loss, which almost certainly caused hypovolemic shock.\n\nThroughout the world, people were saddened by Washington's death. In the United States, memorial processions were held in major cities and thousands wore mourning clothes for months. Martha Washington wore a black mourning cape for one year. In France, First Consul Napoleon Bonaparte ordered ten days of mourning throughout the country; \n\nTo protect their privacy, Martha Washington burned the correspondence they had exchanged; only five letters between the couple are known to have survived, two letters from Martha to George and three from him to Martha. \n\nOn December 18, 1799, a funeral was held at Mount Vernon, where his body was interred. Congress passed a joint resolution to construct a marble monument in the planned crypt below the rotunda of the center section of the Capitol (then still under construction) for his body, a plan supported by Martha. In December 1800, the House passed an appropriations bill for $200,000 to build the mausoleum, which was to be a pyramid with a 100 ft square base. Southern representatives and senators, in later opposition to the plan, defeated the measure because they felt it was best to have Washington's body remain at Mount Vernon. \n\nIn 1831, for the centennial of his birth, a new tomb was constructed to receive his remains. That year, an unsuccessful attempt was made to steal the body of Washington. Despite this, a joint Congressional committee in early 1832, debated the removal of President Washington's body from Mount Vernon to a crypt in the Capitol, built by architect Charles Bulfinch in the 1820s during the reconstruction of the burned-out structure after the British set it afire in August 1814, during the \"Burning of Washington\". Southern opposition was intense, antagonized by an ever-growing rift between North and South. Congressman Wiley Thompson of Georgia expressed the fear of Southerners when he said, \"Remove the remains of our venerated Washington from their association with the remains of his consort and his ancestors, from Mount Vernon and from his native State, and deposit them in this capitol, and then let a severance of the Union occur, and behold the remains of Washington on a shore foreign to his native soil.\"\n\nWashington's remains were moved on October 7, 1837 to the new tomb constructed at Mount Vernon, presented by John Struthers of Philadelphia. After the ceremony, the inner vault's door was closed and the key was thrown into the Potomac.\n\nPersonal life\n\nAlong with Martha's biological family, George Washington had a close relationship with his nephew and heir, Bushrod Washington, son of George's younger brother, John Augustine Washington. The year before his uncle's death, Bushrod became an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. George, however, apparently had difficulty getting along with his mother, Mary Ball Washington (Augustine's second wife), a very difficult and exacting woman. \n\nAs a young man, Washington had red hair. A popular myth is that he wore a wig, as was the fashion among some at the time. However, Washington did not wear a wig; instead, he powdered his hair, as is represented in several portraits, including the well-known, unfinished Gilbert Stuart depiction called the \"Athenaeum Portrait.\" \n\nWashington's height was variously recorded as 6 ft to 6 ft, and he had unusually great physical strength that amazed younger men. Jefferson called Washington \"the best horseman of his age\", and both American and European observers praised his riding; the horsemanship benefited his hunting, a favorite hobby. Washington was an excellent dancer and frequently attended the theater, often referencing Shakespeare in letters. He drank in moderation and precisely recorded gambling wins and losses, but Washington disliked the excessive drinking, gambling, smoking, and profanity that was common in colonial Virginia. Although he grew tobacco, he eventually stopped smoking, and considered drunkenness a man's worst vice; Washington was glad that post-Revolutionary Virginia society was less likely to \"force [guests] to drink and to make it an honor to send them home drunk.\" \n\nWashington suffered from problems with his teeth throughout his life, and historians have tracked his experiences in great detail. He lost his first adult tooth when he was twenty-two and had only one left by the time he became president. John Adams claims he lost them because he used them to crack Brazil nuts but modern historians suggest the mercury oxide, which he was given to treat illnesses such as smallpox and malaria, probably contributed to the loss. He had several sets of false teeth made, four of them by a dentist named John Greenwood. None of the sets were made from wood. The set made when he became president was carved from hippopotamus and elephant ivory, held together with gold springs. Prior to these, he had a set made with real human teeth, likely ones he purchased from \"several unnamed 'Negroes,' presumably Mount Vernon slaves\" in 1784. Dental problems left Washington in constant pain, for which he took laudanum. This distress may be apparent in many of the portraits painted while he was still in office, including the one still used on the $1 bill.\n\nReligion\n\nFor his entire life Washington was affiliated with the Anglican Church, later called the Episcopal Church. He served as a vestryman and as church warden for both Fairfax Parish in Alexandria and Truro Parish, administrative positions that, like all positions in Virginia while it had an official religion, required one to swear they would not speak or act in a way that did not conform to the tenets of the Church. Numerous historians have suggested that theologically, Washington agreed largely with the Deists. However, he never spoke about any particular Deist beliefs he may of have had. He often used words for the deity, such as \"God\" and \"Providence,\" while avoiding using the words \"Jesus\" and \"Christ.\" In his collected works, they appear in an official letter to Indians that might have been drafted by an aide. At the time, Deism was a theological outlook, not an organized denomination, and was compatible with being an Episcopalian. Historian Gregg Frazer argues that Washington was not a deist but a \"theistic rationalist.\" This theological position rejected core beliefs of Christianity, such as the divinity of Christ, the Trinity and original sin. However, unlike the deists, the theological rationalists believed in the efficacy of prayer to God. Historian Peter A. Lillback argues that Washington was neither a deist nor a \"theistic rationalist\" but a Christian who believed in the core beliefs of Christianity.\n\nWashington frequently accompanied his wife to church services. Although third-hand reports say he took communion, he is usually characterized as never or rarely participating in the rite. He would regularly leave services before communion with the other non-communicants (as was the custom of the day), until, after being admonished by a rector, he ceased attending at all on communion Sundays. \n\nWashington regarded religion as a protective influence for America's social and political order, and recognized the church's \"laudable endeavors to render men sober, honest, and good citizens, and the obedient subjects of a lawful government\". \n\nWhile it is generally conceded that Washington was a Christian, the exact nature of his religious beliefs has still been debated by some historians and biographers for over two hundred years. Washington biographer Don Higginbotham notes that in such instances people with diametrically opposing opinions frequently base their views of Washington's beliefs on their own beliefs. Though Washington was in ways conventionally enlightened about religion, once saying, \"being no bigot myself to any mode of worship\" he harbored no contempt of organized Christianity and its clergy as did Jefferson. Washington, as commander of the army and as president, was a vigorous promoter of tolerance for all religious denominations. He believed religion was an important support for public order, morality and virtue. He often attended services of different denominations. He suppressed anti-Catholic celebrations in the Army. \n\nMichael Novak and Jana Novak suggest that it may have been \"Washington's intention to maintain a studied ambiguity (and personal privacy) regarding his own deepest religious convictions, so that all Americans, both in his own time and for all time to come, might feel free to approach him on their own terms—and might also feel like full members of the new republic, equal with every other\". They conclude: \"He was educated in the Episcopal Church, to which he always adhered; and my[sic] conviction is, that he believed in the fundamental doctrines of Christianity as usually taught in that Church, according to his understanding of them; but without a particle of intolerance, or disrespect for the faith and modes of worship adopted by Christians of other denominations.\" \n\nFreemasonry\n\nWashington was initiated into Freemasonry in 1752. He had a high regard for the Masonic Order and often praised it, but he seldom attended lodge meetings. He was attracted by the movement's dedication to the Enlightenment principles of rationality, reason and fraternalism; the American lodges did not share the anti-clerical perspective that made the European lodges so controversial. In 1777 a convention of Virginia lodges recommended Washington to be the Grand Master of the newly established Grand Lodge of Virginia; however, Washington declined, due to his necessity to lead the Continental Army at a critical stage, and because he had never been installed as Master or Warden of a lodge, he did not consider it Masonically legal to serve as Grand Master. In 1788 Washington, with his personal consent, was named Master in the Virginia charter of Alexandria Lodge No. 22. \n\nSlavery\n\nWashington was the only prominent Founding Father to arrange in his will for the manumission of all his slaves following his death. He privately opposed slavery as an institution which he viewed as economically unsound and morally indefensible. He also regarded the divisiveness of his countrymen's feelings about slavery as a potentially mortal threat to the unity of the nation. He never publicly challenged the institution of slavery, possibly because he wanted to avoid provoking a split in the new republic over so inflammatory an issue, but he did pass the Slave Trade Act of 1794, which limited American involvement in the Atlantic slave trade. Washington had owned slaves since the death of his father in 1743, when at the age of eleven, he inherited 10 slaves. At the time of his marriage to Martha Custis in 1759, he personally owned at least 36 slaves, which meant he had achieved the status of a major planter. The wealthy widow Martha brought at least 85 \"dower slaves\" to Mount Vernon by inheriting a third of her late husband's estate. Using his wife's great wealth, Washington bought more land, tripling the size of the plantation at Mount Vernon, and purchased the additional slaves needed to work it. By 1774 he paid taxes on 135 slaves (this figure does not include the \"dowers\"). The last record of a slave purchase by him was in 1772, although he later received some slaves in repayment of debts. Washington also used some hired staff and white indentured servants; in April 1775, he offered a reward for the return of two runaway white servants. \n\nLegacy\n\nAs Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army, hero of the Revolution and the first president of the United States, George Washington's legacy remains among the two or three greatest in American history. Congressman Henry \"Light-Horse Harry\" Lee, a Revolutionary War comrade, famously eulogized Washington, \"First in war—first in peace—and first in the hearts of his countrymen\". \n\nLee's words set the standard by which Washington's overwhelming reputation was impressed upon the American memory. Biographers hailed him as the great exemplar of republicanism. Washington set many precedents for the national government, and the presidency in particular, and was called the \"Father of His Country\" as early as 1778. Washington's Birthday, is a federal holiday in the United States. In terms of personality, a leading biographer Douglas Southall Freeman concluded, \"the great big thing stamped across that man is character.\" By character, says David Hackett Fischer \"Freeman meant integrity, self-discipline, courage, absolute honesty, resolve, and decision, but also forbearance, decency, and respect for others.\" \n\nAs the leader of the first successful revolution against a colonial empire in world history, Washington became an international icon for liberation and nationalism. The Federalists made him the symbol of their party but for many years, the Jeffersonians continued to distrust his influence and delayed building the Washington Monument. After Yorktown, his service as Commander in Chief brought him election as a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.\n\nDuring the United States Bicentennial year, George Washington was posthumously appointed to the grade of General of the Armies of the United States by the congressional joint resolution Public Law 94-479 passed on January 19, 1976, with an effective appointment date of July 4, 1976. This restored Washington's position as the highest-ranking military officer in U.S. history.\n\nPapers\n\nThe serious collection and publication of Washington's documentary record began with the pioneer work of Jared Sparks in the 1830s, Life and Writings of George Washington (12 vols., 1834–1837). The Writings of George Washington from the Original Manuscript Sources, 1745–1799 (1931–44) is a 37 volume set edited by John C. Fitzpatrick. It contains over 17,000 letters and documents and is available online from the University of Virginia. The definitive letterpress edition of his writings was begun by the University of Virginia in 1968, and today comprises 52 published volumes, with more to come. It contains everything written by Washington, or signed by him, together with most of his incoming letters. Part of the collection is available online from the University of Virginia. \n\nMonuments and memorials\n\nStarting with victory in their Revolution, there were many proposals to build a monument to Washington. After his death, Congress authorized a suitable memorial in the national capital, but the decision was reversed when the Democratic-Republicans took control of Congress in 1801. The Democratic-Republicans were dismayed that Washington had become the symbol of the Federalist Party. Construction of the 554 foot memorial didn't begin until 1848.\n\nSeveral naval vessels, including the USS George Washington, are named in Washington's honor. \n\nWashington, together with Theodore Roosevelt, Thomas Jefferson, and Lincoln, is depicted in stone at the Mount Rushmore Memorial. The Washington Monument, one of the best known American landmarks, was built in his honor. The George Washington Masonic National Memorial in Alexandria, Virginia, was constructed between 1922 and 1932 with voluntary contributions from all 52 local governing bodies of the Freemasons in the United States. \n\nMany places and entities have been named in honor of Washington. Washington's name became that of the nation's capital, Washington, D.C., one of two national capitals across the globe to be named after an American president (the other is Monrovia, Liberia). The state of Washington is the only state to be named after a United States president. Mount Washington in New Hampshire, the tallest mountain in the Northeastern United States, was named soon after the American Revolution by Colonel John Whipple and others who were the first to climb to the summit for scientific observations in 1784. \n\nThere are many other \"Washington Monuments\" in the United States, including two well-known equestrian statues: one in Manhattan and one in Richmond, Virginia. The first statue to show Washington on horseback was dedicated in 1856 and is located in Manhattan's Union Square. \n\nPostage and currency\n\nGeorge Washington appears on contemporary U.S. currency, including the one-dollar bill and the quarter-dollar coin (the Washington quarter).\n\nWashington, along with Benjamin Franklin, appeared on the nation's first postage stamps in 1847. Since that time Washington has appeared on many postage issues, more than all other presidents combined. \n\nWashington's victory over Cornwallis at the Battle of Yorktown was commemorated with a two-cent stamp on the battle's 150th anniversary on October 19, 1931. The 150th anniversary of the signing of the Constitution with George Washington as presiding officer was celebrated with a three-cent issue on September 17, 1937, was adapted from the painting by Julius Brutus Stearns. Washington's presidential inauguration at Federal Hall in New York City was celebrated on its 150th anniversary on April 30, 1939. \n\nSelected Issues :\n\nSelected currency :\n\nCherry tree\n\nPerhaps the best known story about Washington's childhood is that he chopped down his father's favorite cherry tree and admitted the deed when questioned: \"I can't tell a lie, Pa.\" The anecdote was first reported by biographer Parson Weems, who after Washington's death interviewed people who knew him as a child over a half-century earlier. The Weems text was very widely reprinted throughout the 19th century, for example in McGuffey Readers. Adults wanted children to learn moral lessons from history, especially as taught by example from the lives of great national heroes like Washington. After 1890 however, historians insisted on scientific research methods to validate every statement, and there was no documentation for this anecdote apart from Weems' report that he learned it from one of the neighbors who knew the young Washington. Joseph Rodman in 1904 claimed that Weems plagiarized other Washington tales from published fiction set in England, but no one has found an alternative source for the cherry tree story. Austin Washington, the great-nephew of George Washington, maintains that it is unlikely that Parson Weems, a man of the clergy, while writing an account about truth and honesty, would then turn around and outright lie about such a story. He further maintains that if Weems was making up a story he would have more dramatically depicted the young Washington 'chopping down' the cherry tree, not merely \"barking it\", (i.e.removing some if the bark). i.e.Weems never claimed the tree was chopped down. There has been much conjecture and ad hominem attacks from some historians about Weems and his story, but none have proven or disproven the story to this date. \n\nPersonal property auction record\n\nOn June 22, 2012, George Washington's personal annotated copy of the \"Acts Passed at a Congress of the United States of America\" from 1789, which includes the Constitution of the United States and a draft of the Bill of Rights, was sold at Christie's for a $9,826,500 (with fees added to the final cost), to The Mount Vernon Ladies' Association. This was the record for a document sold at auction." ] }

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{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe" ], "filename": [ "President_of_the_United_States.txt" ], "title": [ "President of the United States" ], "wiki_context": [ "The President of the United States of America (POTUS) is the elected head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces.\n\nThe President of the United States is considered one of the world's most powerful people, leading the world's only contemporary superpower. The role includes being the commander-in-chief of the world's most expensive military with the largest nuclear arsenal and leading the nation with the largest economy by real and nominal GDP. The office of the president holds significant hard and soft power both in the United States and abroad.\n\nArticle II of the U.S. Constitution vests the executive power of the United States in the president. The power includes execution of federal law, alongside the responsibility of appointing federal executive, diplomatic, regulatory and judicial officers, and concluding treaties with foreign powers with the advice and consent of the Senate. The president is further empowered to grant federal pardons and reprieves, and to convene and adjourn either or both houses of Congress under extraordinary circumstances. The president is largely responsible for dictating the legislative agenda of the party to which the president is enrolled. The president also directs the foreign and domestic policy of the United States. Since the founding of the United States, the power of the president and the federal government has grown substantially. \n\nThe president is indirectly elected by the people through the Electoral College to a four-year term, and is one of only two nationally elected federal officers, the other being the Vice President of the United States. The Twenty-second Amendment, adopted in 1951, prohibits anyone from ever being elected to the presidency for a third full term. It also prohibits a person from being elected to the presidency more than once if that person previously had served as president, or acting president, for more than two years of another person's term as president. In all, 43 individuals have served 44 presidencies (counting Cleveland's two non-consecutive terms separately) spanning 56 full four-year terms. On January 20, 2009, Barack Obama became the 44th and current president. On November 6, 2012, he was re-elected and is currently serving the 57th term. The next presidential election is scheduled to take place on November 8, 2016; on January 20, 2017, the newly elected president will take office.\n\nOrigin\n\nIn 1776, the Thirteen Colonies, acting through the Second Continental Congress, declared political independence from Great Britain during the American Revolution. The new states, though independent of each other as nation states, recognized the necessity of closely coordinating their efforts against the British. Desiring to avoid anything that remotely resembled a monarchy, Congress negotiated the Articles of Confederation to establish a weak alliance between the states. As a central authority, Congress under the Articles was without any legislative power; it could make its own resolutions, determinations, and regulations, but not any laws, nor any taxes or local commercial regulations enforceable upon citizens. This institutional design reflected the conception of how Americans believed the deposed British system of Crown and Parliament ought to have functioned with respect to the royal dominion: a superintending body for matters that concerned the entire empire. Out from under any monarchy, the states assigned some formerly royal prerogatives (e.g., making war, receiving ambassadors, etc.) to Congress, while severally lodging the rest within their own respective state governments. Only after all the states agreed to a resolution settling competing western land claims did the Articles take effect on March 1, 1781, when Maryland became the final state to ratify them.\n\nIn 1783, the Treaty of Paris secured independence for each of the former colonies. With peace at hand, the states each turned toward their own internal affairs. By 1786, Americans found their continental borders besieged and weak, their respective economies in crises as neighboring states agitated trade rivalries with one another, witnessed their hard currency pouring into foreign markets to pay for imports, their Mediterranean commerce preyed upon by North African pirates, and their foreign-financed Revolutionary War debts unpaid and accruing interest. Civil and political unrest loomed.\n\nFollowing the successful resolution of commercial and fishing disputes between Virginia and Maryland at the Mount Vernon Conference in 1785, Virginia called for a trade conference between all the states, set for September 1786 in Annapolis, Maryland, with an aim toward resolving further-reaching interstate commercial antagonisms. When the convention failed for lack of attendance due to suspicions among most of the other states, the Annapolis delegates called for a convention to offer revisions to the Articles, to be held the next spring in Philadelphia. Prospects for the next convention appeared bleak until James Madison and Edmund Randolph succeeded in securing George Washington's attendance to Philadelphia as a delegate for Virginia.\n\nWhen the Constitutional Convention convened in May 1787, the 12 state delegations in attendance (Rhode Island did not send delegates) brought with them an accumulated experience over a diverse set of institutional arrangements between legislative and executive branches from within their respective state governments. Most states maintained a weak executive without veto or appointment powers, elected annually by the legislature to a single term only, sharing power with an executive council, and countered by a strong legislature. New York offered the greatest exception, having a strong, unitary governor with veto and appointment power elected to a three-year term, and eligible for reelection to an indefinite number of terms thereafter. It was through the closed-door negotiations at Philadelphia that the presidency framed in the U.S. Constitution emerged.\n\nPowers and duties\n\nArticle I legislative role\n\nThe first power the Constitution confers upon the president is the veto. The Presentment Clause requires any bill passed by Congress to be presented to the president before it can become law. Once the legislation has been presented, the president has three options:\n# Sign the legislation; the bill then becomes law.\n# Veto the legislation and return it to Congress, expressing any objections; the bill does not become law, unless each house of Congress votes to override the veto by a two-thirds vote.\n# Take no action. In this instance, the president neither signs nor vetoes the legislation. After 10 days, not counting Sundays, two possible outcomes emerge:\n#* If Congress is still convened, the bill becomes law.\n#* If Congress has adjourned, thus preventing the return of the legislation, the bill does not become law. This latter outcome is known as the pocket veto.\n\nIn 1996, Congress attempted to enhance the president's veto power with the Line Item Veto Act. The legislation empowered the president to sign any spending bill into law while simultaneously striking certain spending items within the bill, particularly any new spending, any amount of discretionary spending, or any new limited tax benefit. Congress could then repass that particular item. If the president then vetoed the new legislation, Congress could override the veto by its ordinary means, a two-thirds vote in both houses. In Clinton v. City of New York, , the U.S. Supreme Court ruled such a legislative alteration of the veto power to be unconstitutional.\n\nArticle II executive powers\n\nWar and foreign affairs powers\n\nPerhaps the most important of all presidential powers is the command of the United States Armed Forces as its commander-in-chief. While the power to declare war is constitutionally vested in Congress, the president has ultimate responsibility for direction and disposition of the military. The present-day operational command of the Armed Forces (belonging to the Department of Defense) is normally exercised through the Secretary of Defense, with assistance of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, to the Combatant Commands, as outlined in the presidentially approved Unified Command Plan (UCP). The framers of the Constitution took care to limit the president's powers regarding the military; Alexander Hamilton explains this in Federalist No. 69: Congress, pursuant to the War Powers Resolution, must authorize any troop deployments longer than 60 days, although that process relies on triggering mechanisms that have never been employed, rendering it ineffectual. Additionally, Congress provides a check to presidential military power through its control over military spending and regulation. While historically presidents initiated the process for going to war, critics have charged that there have been several conflicts in which presidents did not get official declarations, including Theodore Roosevelt's military move into Panama in 1903, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and the invasions of Grenada in 1983 and Panama in 1990.\n\nAlong with the armed forces, the president also directs U.S. foreign policy. Through the Department of State and the Department of Defense, the president is responsible for the protection of Americans abroad and of foreign nationals in the United States. The president decides whether to recognize new nations and new governments, and negotiates treaties with other nations, which become binding on the United States when approved by two-thirds vote of the Senate.\n\nAlthough not constitutionally provided, presidents also sometimes employ \"executive agreements\" in foreign relations. These agreements frequently regard administrative policy choices germane to executive power; for example, the extent to which either country presents an armed presence in a given area, how each country will enforce copyright treaties, or how each country will process foreign mail. However, the 20th century witnessed a vast expansion of the use of executive agreements, and critics have challenged the extent of that use as supplanting the treaty process and removing constitutionally prescribed checks and balances over the executive in foreign relations. Supporters counter that the agreements offer a pragmatic solution when the need for swift, secret, and/or concerted action arises.\n\nAdministrative powers\n\nThe president is the head of the executive branch of the federal government and is constitutionally obligated to \"take care that the laws be faithfully executed.\" The executive branch has over four million employees, including members of the military. \n\nPresidents make numerous executive branch appointments: an incoming president may make up to 6,000 before taking office and 8,000 more while serving. Ambassadors, members of the Cabinet, and other federal officers, are all appointed by a president with the \"advice and consent\" of a majority of the Senate. When the Senate is in recess for at least ten days, the president may make recess appointments. Recess appointments are temporary and expire at the end of the next session of the Senate.\n\nThe power of a president to fire executive officials has long been a contentious political issue. Generally, a president may remove purely executive officials at will. However, Congress can curtail and constrain a president's authority to fire commissioners of independent regulatory agencies and certain inferior executive officers by statute. \n\nThe president additionally possesses the ability to direct much of the executive branch through executive orders that are grounded in federal law or constitutionally granted executive power. Executive orders are reviewable by federal courts and can be superseded by federal legislation.\n\nTo manage the growing federal bureaucracy, Presidents have gradually surrounded themselves with many layers of staff, who were eventually organized into the Executive Office of the President of the United States. Within the Executive Office, the President's innermost layer of aides (and their assistants) are located in the White House Office.\n\nJuridical powers\n\nThe president also has the power to nominate federal judges, including members of the United States courts of appeals and the Supreme Court of the United States. However, these nominations do require Senate confirmation. Securing Senate approval can provide a major obstacle for presidents who wish to orient the federal judiciary toward a particular ideological stance. When nominating judges to U.S. district courts, presidents often respect the long-standing tradition of Senatorial courtesy. Presidents may also grant pardons and reprieves, as is often done just before the end of a presidential term, not without controversy.\n\nHistorically, two doctrines concerning executive power have developed that enable the president to exercise executive power with a degree of autonomy. The first is executive privilege, which allows the president to withhold from disclosure any communications made directly to the president in the performance of executive duties. George Washington first claimed privilege when Congress requested to see Chief Justice John Jay's notes from an unpopular treaty negotiation with Great Britain. While not enshrined in the Constitution, or any other law, Washington's action created the precedent for the privilege. When Richard Nixon tried to use executive privilege as a reason for not turning over subpoenaed evidence to Congress during the Watergate scandal, the Supreme Court ruled in United States v. Nixon, , that executive privilege did not apply in cases where a president was attempting to avoid criminal prosecution. When President Bill Clinton attempted to use executive privilege regarding the Lewinsky scandal, the Supreme Court ruled in Clinton v. Jones, , that the privilege also could not be used in civil suits. These cases established the legal precedent that executive privilege is valid, although the exact extent of the privilege has yet to be clearly defined. Additionally, federal courts have allowed this privilege to radiate outward and protect other executive branch employees, but have weakened that protection for those executive branch communications that do not involve the president. \n\nThe state secrets privilege allows the president and the executive branch to withhold information or documents from discovery in legal proceedings if such release would harm national security. Precedent for the privilege arose early in the 19th century when Thomas Jefferson refused to release military documents in the treason trial of Aaron Burr and again in Totten v. United States , when the Supreme Court dismissed a case brought by a former Union spy. However, the privilege was not formally recognized by the U.S. Supreme Court until United States v. Reynolds , where it was held to be a common law evidentiary privilege. Before the September 11 attacks, use of the privilege had been rare, but increasing in frequency. Since 2001, the government has asserted the privilege in more cases and at earlier stages of the litigation, thus in some instances causing dismissal of the suits before reaching the merits of the claims, as in the Ninth Circuit's ruling in Mohamed v. Jeppesen Dataplan, Inc. Critics of the privilege claim its use has become a tool for the government to cover up illegal or embarrassing government actions. \n\nLegislative facilitator\n\nThe Constitution's Ineligibility Clause prevents the President (and all other executive officers) from simultaneously being a member of Congress. Therefore, the president cannot directly introduce legislative proposals for consideration in Congress. However, the president can take an indirect role in shaping legislation, especially if the president's political party has a majority in one or both houses of Congress. For example, the president or other officials of the executive branch may draft legislation and then ask senators or representatives to introduce these drafts into Congress. The president can further influence the legislative branch through constitutionally mandated, periodic reports to Congress. These reports may be either written or oral, but today are given as the State of the Union address, which often outlines the president's legislative proposals for the coming year. Additionally, the president may attempt to have Congress alter proposed legislation by threatening to veto that legislation unless requested changes are made.\n\nIn the 20th century critics began charging that too many legislative and budgetary powers have slid into the hands of presidents that should belong to Congress. As the head of the executive branch, presidents control a vast array of agencies that can issue regulations with little oversight from Congress. One critic charged that presidents could appoint a \"virtual army of 'czars' – each wholly unaccountable to Congress yet tasked with spearheading major policy efforts for the White House.\" Presidents have been criticized for making signing statements when signing congressional legislation about how they understand a bill or plan to execute it. This practice has been criticized by the American Bar Association as unconstitutional. Conservative commentator George Will wrote of an \"increasingly swollen executive branch\" and \"the eclipse of Congress.\"\n\nAccording to Article II, Section 3, Clause 2 of the Constitution, the president may convene either or both houses of Congress. If both houses cannot agree on a date of adjournment, the president may appoint a date for Congress to adjourn.\n\nCeremonial roles\n\nAs head of state, the president can fulfill traditions established by previous presidents. William Howard Taft started the tradition of throwing out the ceremonial first pitch in 1910 at Griffith Stadium, Washington, D.C., on the Washington Senators' Opening Day. Every president since Taft, except for Jimmy Carter, threw out at least one ceremonial first ball or pitch for Opening Day, the All-Star Game, or the World Series, usually with much fanfare. \n\nThe President of the United States has served as the honorary president of the Boy Scouts of America since the founding of the organization. \n\nOther presidential traditions are associated with American holidays. Rutherford B. Hayes began in 1878 the first White House egg rolling for local children. Beginning in 1947 during the Harry S. Truman administration, every Thanksgiving the president is presented with a live domestic turkey during the annual national thanksgiving turkey presentation held at the White House. Since 1989, when the custom of \"pardoning\" the turkey was formalized by George H. W. Bush, the turkey has been taken to a farm where it will live out the rest of its natural life. \n\nPresidential traditions also involve the president's role as head of government. Many outgoing presidents since James Buchanan traditionally give advice to their successor during the presidential transition. Ronald Reagan and his successors have also left a private message on the desk of the Oval Office on Inauguration Day for the incoming president. \n\nDuring a state visit by a foreign head of state, the president typically hosts a State Arrival Ceremony held on the South Lawn, a custom begun by John F. Kennedy in 1961. This is followed by a state dinner given by the president which is held in the State Dining Room later in the evening. \n\nThe modern presidency holds the president as one of the nation's premier celebrities. Some argue that images of the presidency have a tendency to be manipulated by administration public relations officials as well as by presidents themselves. One critic described the presidency as \"propagandized leadership\" which has a \"mesmerizing power surrounding the office.\" Administration public relations managers staged carefully crafted photo-ops of smiling presidents with smiling crowds for television cameras. One critic wrote the image of John F. Kennedy was described as carefully framed \"in rich detail\" which \"drew on the power of myth\" regarding the incident of PT 109 and wrote that Kennedy understood how to use images to further his presidential ambitions. As a result, some political commentators have opined that American voters have unrealistic expectations of presidents: voters expect a president to \"drive the economy, vanquish enemies, lead the free world, comfort tornado victims, heal the national soul and protect borrowers from hidden credit-card fees.\"\n\nCritics of presidency's evolution\n\nMost of the nation's Founding Fathers expected the Congress, which was the first branch of government described in the Constitution, to be the dominant branch of government; they did not expect a strong executive. However, presidential power has shifted over time, which has resulted in claims that the modern presidency has become too powerful, unchecked, unbalanced, and \"monarchist\" in nature. Critic Dana D. Nelson believes presidents over the past thirty years have worked towards \"undivided presidential control of the executive branch and its agencies.\" She criticizes proponents of the unitary executive for expanding \"the many existing uncheckable executive powers – such as executive orders, decrees, memorandums, proclamations, national security directives and legislative signing statements – that already allow presidents to enact a good deal of foreign and domestic policy without aid, interference or consent from Congress.\" Activist Bill Wilson opined that the expanded presidency was \"the greatest threat ever to individual freedom and democratic rule.\"\n\nSelection process\n\nEligibility\n\nArticle II, Section 1, Clause 5 of the Constitution sets the following qualifications for holding the presidency:\n* be a natural-born citizen of the United States;Foreign-born American citizens who met the age and residency requirements at the time the Constitution was adopted were also eligible for the presidency. However, this allowance has since become obsolete.\n* be at least thirty-five years old;\n* be a resident in the United States for at least fourteen years.\n\nThe Twelfth Amendment precludes anyone ineligible to being the president from becoming the vice president.\n\nA person who meets the above qualifications is still disqualified from holding the office of president under any of the following conditions:\n* Under the Twenty-second Amendment, no person can be elected president more than twice. The amendment also specifies that if any eligible person serves as president or acting president for more than two years of a term for which some other eligible person was elected president, the former can only be elected president once. Scholars disagree over whether a person precluded by the Twenty-second Amendment to being elected president is also precluded to being vice president. \n* Under Article I, Section 3, Clause 7, upon conviction in impeachment cases, the Senate has the option of disqualifying convicted individuals from holding federal office, including that of president. \n* Under Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment, no person who swore an oath to support the Constitution, and later rebelled against the United States, can become president. However, this disqualification can be lifted by a two-thirds vote of each house of Congress.\n\nCampaigns and nomination\n\nThe modern presidential campaign begins before the primary elections, which the two major political parties use to clear the field of candidates before their national nominating conventions, where the most successful candidate is made the party's nominee for president. Typically, the party's presidential candidate chooses a vice presidential nominee, and this choice is rubber-stamped by the convention. The most common previous profession by U.S. presidents is lawyer. \n\nNominees participate in nationally televised debates, and while the debates are usually restricted to the Democratic and Republican nominees, third party candidates may be invited, such as Ross Perot in the 1992 debates. Nominees campaign across the country to explain their views, convince voters and solicit contributions. Much of the modern electoral process is concerned with winning swing states through frequent visits and mass media advertising drives.\n\nElection and oath\n\nThe president is elected indirectly. A number of electors, collectively known as the Electoral College, officially select the president. On Election Day, voters in each of the states and the District of Columbia cast ballots for these electors. Each state is allocated a number of electors, equal to the size of its delegation in both Houses of Congress combined. Generally, the ticket that wins the most votes in a state wins all of that state's electoral votes and thus has its slate of electors chosen to vote in the Electoral College.\n\nThe winning slate of electors meet at its state's capital on the first Monday after the second Wednesday in December, about six weeks after the election, to vote. They then send a record of that vote to Congress. The vote of the electors is opened by the sitting vice president—acting in that role's capacity as President of the Senate—and read aloud to a joint session of the incoming Congress, which was elected at the same time as the president.\n\nPursuant to the Twentieth Amendment, the president's term of office begins at noon on January 20 of the year following the election. This date, known as Inauguration Day, marks the beginning of the four-year terms of both the president and the vice president. Before executing the powers of the office, a president is constitutionally required to take the presidential oath:\n\nAlthough not required, presidents have traditionally palmed a Bible while swearing the oath and have added, \"So help me God!\" to the end of the oath. Further, although the oath may be administered by any person authorized by law to administer oaths, presidents are traditionally sworn in by the Chief Justice of the United States.\n\nTenure and term limits\n\nThe term of office for president and vice president is four years. George Washington, the first president, set an unofficial precedent of serving only two terms, which subsequent presidents followed until 1940. Before Franklin D. Roosevelt, attempts at a third term were encouraged by supporters of Ulysses S. Grant and Theodore Roosevelt; neither of these attempts succeeded. In 1940, Franklin D. Roosevelt declined to seek a third term, but allowed his political party to \"draft\" him as its presidential candidate and was subsequently elected to a third term. In 1941, the United States entered World War II, leading voters to elect Roosevelt to a fourth term in 1944. But Roosevelt died only 82 days after taking office for the fourth term on 12 April 1945.\n\nAfter the war, and in response to Roosevelt being elected to third and fourth terms, the Twenty-second Amendment was adopted. The amendment bars anyone from being elected president more than twice, or once if that person served more than half of another president's term. Harry S. Truman, president when this amendment was adopted, was exempted from its limitations and briefly sought a third (a second full) term before withdrawing from the 1952 election.\n\nSince the amendment's adoption, four presidents have served two full terms: Dwight D. Eisenhower, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush. Barack Obama has been elected to a second term, and will complete his term on 20 January 2017, if he does not die or resign before that date. Jimmy Carter and George H. W. Bush sought a second term, but were defeated. Richard Nixon was elected to a second term, but resigned before completing it. Lyndon B. Johnson was the only president under the amendment to be eligible to serve more than two terms in total, having served for only fourteen months following John F. Kennedy's assassination. However, Johnson withdrew from the 1968 Democratic Primary, surprising many Americans. Gerald Ford sought a full term, after serving out the last two years and five months of Nixon's second term, but was not elected.\n\nVacancy or disability\n\nVacancies in the office of President may arise under several possible circumstances: death, resignation and removal from office.\n\nArticle II, Section 4 of the Constitution allows the House of Representatives to impeach high federal officials, including the president, for \"treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors.\" Article I, Section 3, Clause 6 gives the Senate the power to remove impeached officials from office, given a two-thirds vote to convict. The House has thus far impeached two presidents: Andrew Johnson in 1868 and Bill Clinton in 1998. Neither was subsequently convicted by the Senate; however, Johnson was acquitted by just one vote.\n\nUnder Section 3 of the Twenty-fifth Amendment, the president may transfer the presidential powers and duties to the vice president, who then becomes acting president, by transmitting a statement to the Speaker of the House and the President pro tempore of the Senate stating the reasons for the transfer. The president resumes the discharge of the presidential powers and duties upon transmitting, to those two officials, a written declaration stating that resumption. This transfer of power may occur for any reason the president considers appropriate; in 2002 and again in 2007, President George W. Bush briefly transferred presidential authority to Vice President Dick Cheney. In both cases, this was done to accommodate a medical procedure which required Bush to be sedated; both times, Bush returned to duty later the same day. \n\nUnder Section 4 of the Twenty-fifth Amendment, the vice president, in conjunction with a majority of the Cabinet, may transfer the presidential powers and duties from the president to the vice president by transmitting a written declaration to the Speaker of the House and the president pro tempore of the Senate that the president is unable to discharge the presidential powers and duties. If this occurs, then the vice president will assume the presidential powers and duties as acting president; however, the president can declare that no such inability exists and resume the discharge of the presidential powers and duties. If the vice president and Cabinet contest this claim, it is up to Congress, which must meet within two days if not already in session, to decide the merit of the claim.\n\nThe United States Constitution mentions the resignation of the president, but does not regulate its form or the conditions for its validity. Pursuant to federal law, the only valid evidence of the president's resignation is a written instrument to that effect, signed by the president and delivered to the office of the Secretary of State. This has only occurred once, when Richard Nixon delivered a letter to Henry Kissinger to that effect.\n\nSection 1 of the Twenty-fifth Amendment states that the vice president becomes president upon the removal from office, death or resignation of the preceding president. The Presidential Succession Act of 1947 provides that if the offices of President and Vice President are each either vacant or are held by a disabled person, the next officer in the presidential line of succession, the Speaker of the House, becomes acting president. The line then extends to the President pro tempore of the Senate, followed by every member of the Cabinet. These persons must fulfill all eligibility requirements of the office of President to be eligible to become acting president; ineligible individuals are skipped. There has never been a special election for the office of President.\n\nCompensation\n\nSince 2001, the president has earned a $400,000 annual salary, along with a $50,000 annual expense account, a $100,000 nontaxable travel account, and $19,000 for entertainment. The most recent raise in salary was approved by Congress and President Bill Clinton in 1999 and went into effect in 2001.\n\nThe White House in Washington, D.C., serves as the official place of residence for the president. As well as access to the White House staff, facilities available to the president include medical care, recreation, housekeeping, and security services. The government pays for state dinners and other official functions, but the president pays for personal, family and guest dry cleaning and food; the high food bill often amazes new residents. Naval Support Facility Thurmont, popularly known as Camp David, is a mountain-based military camp in Frederick County, Maryland, used as a country retreat and for high alert protection of the president and guests. Blair House, located next to the Eisenhower Executive Office Building at the White House Complex and Lafayette Park, is a complex of four connected townhouses exceeding 70000 sqft of floor space which serves as the president's official guest house and as a secondary residence for the president if needed. \n\nFor ground travel, the president uses the presidential state car, which is an armored limousine built on a heavily modified Cadillac-based chassis.[http://www.secretservice.gov/press/GPA02-09_Limo.pdf New Presidential Limousine enters Secret Service Fleet] U.S. Secret Service Press Release (January 14, 2009) Retrieved on January 20, 2009. One of two identical Boeing VC-25 aircraft, which are extensively modified versions of Boeing 747-200B airliners, serve as long distance travel for the president and are referred to as Air Force One while the president is on board (although any U.S. Air Force aircraft the President is aboard is designated as \"Air Force One\" for the duration of the flight). In-country trips are typically handled with just one of the two planes while overseas trips are handled with both, one primary and one backup. Any civilian aircraft the President is aboard is designated Executive One for the flight. The president also has access to a fleet of thirty-five U.S. Marine Corps helicopters of varying models, designated Marine One when the president is aboard any particular one in the fleet. Flights are typically handled with as many as five helicopters all flying together and frequently swapping positions as to disguise which helicopter the President is actually aboard to any would-be threats.\n\nThe U.S. Secret Service is charged with protecting the sitting president and the first family. As part of their protection, presidents, first ladies, their children and other immediate family members, and other prominent persons and locations are assigned Secret Service codenames. The use of such names was originally for security purposes and dates to a time when sensitive electronic communications were not routinely encrypted; today, the names simply serve for purposes of brevity, clarity, and tradition. \n\nFile:White House lawn (1).tif|The White House\n\nFile:Camp David 1959.jpg|Camp David\nFile:Blair House daylight.jpg|Blair House\nFile:GPA02-09 US SecretService press release 2009 Limousine Page 3 Image.jpg|State car\nFile:Air Force One over Mt. Rushmore.jpg|Air Force One\nFile:Marine One (1970).jpg|Marine One\n\nPost-presidency\n\nBeginning in 1959, all living former presidents were granted a pension, an office, and a staff. The pension has increased numerous times with Congressional approval. Retired presidents now receive a pension based on the salary of the current administration's cabinet secretaries, which was $199,700 each year in 2012. Former presidents who served in Congress may also collect congressional pensions. The Former Presidents Act, as amended, also provides former presidents with travel funds and franking privileges. Prior to 1997, all former presidents, their spouses, and their children until age 16 were protected by the Secret Service until the president's death. In 1997, Congress passed legislation limiting secret service protection to no more than 10 years from the date a president leaves office. On January 10, 2013, President Obama signed legislation reinstating lifetime secret service protection for him, George W. Bush, and all subsequent presidents. A spouse who remarries is no longer eligible for secret service protection.\n\nSome presidents have had significant careers after leaving office. Prominent examples include William Howard Taft's tenure as Chief Justice of the United States and Herbert Hoover's work on government reorganization after World War II. Grover Cleveland, whose bid for reelection failed in 1888, was elected president again four years later in 1892. Two former presidents served in Congress after leaving the White House: John Quincy Adams was elected to the House of Representatives, serving there for seventeen years, and Andrew Johnson returned to the Senate in 1875. John Tyler served in the provisional Congress of the Confederate States during the Civil War and was elected to the Confederate House of Representatives, but died before that body first met.\n\nPresidents may use their predecessors as emissaries to deliver private messages to other nations or as official representatives of the United States to state funerals and other important foreign events. Richard Nixon made multiple foreign trips to countries including China and Russia and was lauded as an elder statesman. Jimmy Carter has become a global human rights campaigner, international arbiter, and election monitor, as well as a recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. Bill Clinton has also worked as an informal ambassador, most recently in the negotiations that led to the release of two American journalists, Laura Ling and Euna Lee, from North Korea. Clinton has also been active politically since his presidential term ended, working with his wife Hillary on her 2008 and 2016 presidential bids and President Obama on his reelection campaign.\n\nFile:Carter 2k14.tif|Jimmy Carter39th (1977–81)\nFile:President George H. W.tif|George H. W. Bush41st (1989–93)\nFile:Clinton 2k15.tif|Bill Clinton42nd (1993–2001)\nFile:Bush 2k14.tif|George W. Bush43rd (2001–09)\n\nPresidential libraries\n\nSince Herbert Hoover, each president has created a repository known as a presidential library for preserving and making available his papers, records and other documents and materials. Completed libraries are deeded to and maintained by the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA); the initial funding for building and equipping each library must come from private, non-federal sources. There are currently thirteen presidential libraries in the NARA system. There are also presidential libraries maintained by state governments and private foundations and Universities of Higher Education, such as the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum, which is run by the State of Illinois, the George H.W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum, which is run by Texas A&M University and the Lyndon Baines Johnson Presidential Library and Museum, which is run by the University of Texas at Austin.\n\nAs many presidents live for many years after leaving office, several of them have personally overseen the building and opening of their own presidential libraries, some even making arrangements for their own burial at the site. Several presidential libraries therefore contain the graves of the president they document, such as the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum in Yorba Linda, California and the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California. The graves are viewable by the general public visiting these libraries.\n\nTimeline of Presidents" ] }

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{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe" ], "filename": [ "Green_Bay_Packers.txt" ], "title": [ "Green Bay Packers" ], "wiki_context": [ "The Green Bay Packers are a professional American football team based in Green Bay, Wisconsin. They compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) North division. They are also the third-oldest franchise in the NFL, organized and starting play in 1919. It is the only non-profit, community-owned major league professional sports team based in the United States. Home games are played at Lambeau Field.\n\nThe Packers are the last vestige of \"small town teams\" common in the NFL during the 1920s and '30s. Founded in 1919 by Earl \"Curly\" Lambeau and George Whitney Calhoun, the franchise traces its lineage to other semi-professional teams in Green Bay dating back to 1896. Between 1919 and 1920, the Packers competed against other semi-pro clubs from around Wisconsin and the Midwest. They joined the American Professional Football Association (APFA), the forerunner of today's NFL, in 1921. Although Green Bay is by far the smallest professional sports market in North America, its local fan and media base extends 120 miles south into Milwaukee, where it played selected home games between 1933 and 1994.\n\nThe Packers have won 13 league championships, the most in NFL history, with nine NFL titles before the Super Bowl era and four Super Bowl victories. They won the first two Super Bowls in 1967 and 1968 and were the only NFL team to defeat the American Football League (AFL) before to the AFL–NFL merger. The Vince Lombardi Trophy is named after the Packers head coach of the same name, who guided them to their first two Super Bowls. Their two further Super Bowl wins came in 1997 and 2011.[http://www.packers.com/history/super-bowls-and-championships.html Super Bowls & Championships] from Packers.com. Obtained November 7, 2011.\n\nThe Packers are long-standing adversaries of the Chicago Bears, Minnesota Vikings, and Detroit Lions, who together comprise the NFL's NFC North division. The Bears–Packers rivalry is one of the oldest in NFL history, dating back to 1921.\n\nFounding\n\nThe Green Bay Packers were founded on August 11, 1919 by former high-school football rivals Earl \"Curly\" Lambeau and George Whitney Calhoun. Lambeau solicited funds for uniforms from his employer, the Indian Packing Company. He was given $500 ($ today) for uniforms and equipment, on the condition that the team be named for its sponsor. The Green Bay Packers have played in their original city longer than any other team in the NFL.\n\nOn August 27, 1921, the Packers were granted a franchise in the new national pro football league that had been formed the previous year. Financial troubles plagued the team and the franchise was forfeited within the year, before Lambeau found new financial backers and regained the franchise the next year. These backers, known as the \"Hungry Five\", formed the Green Bay Football Corporation.\n\nNotable seasons\n\n1929–1931: Lambeau's team arrives\n\nAfter a near-miss in 1927, Lambeau's squad claimed the Packers' first NFL title in 1929 with an undefeated 12–0–1 campaign, behind a stifling defense which registered eight shutouts. Green Bay would repeat as league champions in 1930 and 1931, bettering teams from New York, Chicago and throughout the league, with all-time greats and future Hall of Famers Mike Michalske, Johnny (Blood) McNally, Cal Hubbard and Green Bay native Arnie Herber. Among the many impressive accomplishments of these years was the Packers' streak of 30 consecutive home games without defeat, an NFL record which still stands. \n\n1935–1945: The Don Hutson era\n\nThe arrival of end Don Hutson from Alabama in 1935 gave Lambeau and the Packers the most-feared and dynamic offensive weapon in the game. Credited with inventing pass patterns, Hutson would lead the league in receptions eight seasons and spur the Packers to NFL championships in 1936, 1939 and 1944. An iron man, Hutson played both ways, leading the league in interceptions as a safety in 1940. Hutson claimed 18 NFL records when he retired in 1945, many of which still stand. In 1951, his number 14 was the first to be retired by the Packers, and he was inducted as a charter member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1963.\n\n1946–1958: Wilderness\n\nAfter Hutson's retirement, Lambeau could not stop the Packers' slide. He purchased a large lodge near Green Bay for team members and families to live. Rockwood Lodge was the home of the 1946-1949 Packers, though the 1947 and 1948 seasons produced a record of 12-10-1, and 1949 was even worse at 3-9. The lodge burned down on January 24, 1950, and the insurance money paid for many of the Packers' debts. \n\nCurly Lambeau departed after the 1949 season. Gene Ronzani and Lisle Blackbourn could not coach the Packers back to their former magic, even as a new stadium was unveiled in 1957. The losing would descend to the disastrous 1958 campaign under coach Ray \"Scooter\" McLean, whose lone 1–10–1 year at the helm is the worst in Packer history. \n\n1959–1967: The Lombardi era and the glory years\n\nFormer New York Giants assistant Vince Lombardi was hired as Packers head coach and general manager on February 2, 1959. Few suspected the hiring represented the beginning of a remarkable, immediate turnaround. Under Lombardi, the Packers would become the team of the 1960s, winning five World Championships over a seven-year span, including victories in the first two Super Bowls. During the Lombardi era, the stars of the Packers' offense included Bart Starr, Jim Taylor, Carroll Dale, Paul Hornung (as halfback and placekicker), Forrest Gregg, and Jerry Kramer. The defense included Willie Davis, Henry Jordan, Willie Wood, Ray Nitschke, Dave Robinson, and Herb Adderley.\n\n1959\n\nThe Packers' first regular season game under Lombardi was on September 27, 1959, a 9–6 victory over the Chicago Bears in Green Bay. After winning their first three, the Packers lost the next five before finishing strong by sweeping their final four. The 7–5 record represented the Packers' first winning season since 1947, enough to earn rookie head coach Lombardi the NFL Coach of the Year.\n\n1960\n\nThe next year, the Packers, led by Paul Hornung's 176 points, won the NFL West title and played in the NFL Championship against the Philadelphia Eagles at Philadelphia. In a see-saw game, the Packers trailed by only four points when All-Pro Eagle linebacker Chuck Bednarik tackled Jim Taylor just nine yards short of the goal line as time expired. The Packers claimed that they did not \"lose\" the game, they were simply behind in the score when time ran out.\n\n1961\n\nThe Packers returned to the NFL Championship game the following season and faced the New York Giants in the first league title game to be played in Green Bay. The Packers scored 24 second-quarter points, including a championship-record 19 by Paul Hornung, on special \"loan\" from the Army (one touchdown, four extra-points and three field goals), powering the Packers to a 37–0 rout of the Giants, their first NFL Championship since 1944. It was in 1961 that Green Bay became known as \"Titletown.\"\n\n1962\n\nThe Packers stormed back in the 1962 season, jumping out to a 10–0 start, on their way to a 13–1 season. This consistent level of success would lead to Lombardi's Packers becoming one of the most prominent teams of their era, and even to their being featured as the face of the NFL on the cover of Time on December 21, 1962, as part of the magazine's cover story on \"The Sport of the '60s\". Shortly after Time's article, the Packers faced the Giants in a much more brutal championship game than the previous year, but the Packers prevailed on the surprising foot of Jerry Kramer and the determined running of Jim Taylor. The Packers defeated the Giants in New York, 16–7.\n\n1965\n\nThe Packers returned to the championship game in 1965 following a two-year absence, when they defeated the Colts in a playoff for the Western Conference title. That game would be remembered for Don Chandler's controversial tying field goal in which the ball allegedly went wide right, but the officials signaled \"good.\" The 13–10 overtime win earned the Packers a trip to the NFL Championship game, where Hornung and Taylor ran through the defending champion Cleveland Browns, helping the Packers win, 23–12, to earn their third NFL Championship under Lombardi and ninth overall. Goalpost uprights would be made taller the next year.\n\n1966\n\nThe 1966 season saw the Packers led to the first ever Super Bowl by MVP quarterback Bart Starr. The team went 12–2, and as time wound down in the NFL Championship against the Dallas Cowboys, the Packers clung to a 34–27 lead. Dallas had the ball on the Packers' two-yard line, threatening to tie the ballgame. But on fourth down the Packers' Tom Brown intercepted Don Meredith's pass in the end zone to seal the win. The team crowned its season by rolling over the AFL champion Kansas City Chiefs 35–10 in Super Bowl I.\n\n1967\n\nThe 1967 season was the last for Lombardi as the Packers' head coach. The NFL Championship game, a rematch of the 1966 contest against Dallas, became indelibly known as the \"Ice Bowl\" as a result of the brutal conditions at Lambeau Field. Still the coldest NFL game ever played, it remains one of the most famous football games at any level in the history of the sport. With 16 seconds left, Bart Starr's touchdown on a quarterback sneak brought the Packers a 21–17 victory and their still unequaled third straight NFL Championship. They then won Super Bowl II with a 33–14 victory over the Oakland Raiders. Lombardi stepped down as head coach after the game, and Phil Bengtson was named his successor. Lombardi remained as general manager for one season, but left in 1969 to become head coach and minority owner of the Washington Redskins.\n\nAfter Lombardi died unexpectedly on September 3, 1970, a shocked NFL renamed the Super Bowl trophy the Vince Lombardi Trophy in recognition of his accomplishments with the Packers. The city of Green Bay renamed Highland Avenue in his honor in 1968, placing Lambeau Field at 1265 Lombardi Avenue ever since.\n\n1968–91\n\nFor about a quarter century after Lombardi's departure the Packers had relatively little on-field success. In the 24 seasons from 1968 to 1991, they had only five seasons with a winning record, one being the shortened 1982 strike season. They appeared in the playoffs twice, with a 1–2 record. The period saw five different head coaches – Phil Bengtson, Dan Devine, Bart Starr, Forrest Gregg, and Lindy Infante – two of whom, Starr and Gregg, were Lombardi's era stars, while Bengtson was a former Packer coach. Each led the Packers to a poorer record than his predecessor. Poor personnel decisions were rife, notoriously the 1974 trade by acting GM Dan Devine which sent five 1975 or 1976 draft picks (two first-rounders, two second-rounders and a third) to the Los Angeles Rams for aging quarterback John Hadl, who would spend only 1½ seasons in Green Bay. Another came in the 1989 NFL Draft, when offensive lineman Tony Mandarich was taken with the second overall pick ahead of Barry Sanders, Deion Sanders, and Derrick Thomas. Though rated highly by nearly every professional scout at the time, Mandarich's performance failed to meet expectations, earning him ESPN's ranking as the third \"biggest sports flop\" in the last 25 years. \n\n1992–2007: The Brett Favre era\n\nThe Packers' performance throughout the 1970s, 1980s, and early 1990s led to a shakeup, with Ron Wolf hired as GM and given full control of the team's football operations to start the 1991 season. In 1992, Wolf hired San Francisco 49ers offensive coordinator Mike Holmgren as the Packers' new head coach.\n\nSoon afterward, Wolf acquired quarterback Brett Favre from the Atlanta Falcons for a first-round pick. Favre got the Packers their first win of the 1992 season, stepping in for injured quarterback Don Majkowski and leading a comeback over the Cincinnati Bengals. He started the following week, a win against the Pittsburgh Steelers, and never missed another start for Green Bay through the end of the 2007 season. He would go on to break the record for consecutive starts by an NFL quarterback, starting 297 consecutive games including stints with the New York Jets and Minnesota Vikings with the streak finally coming to an end late in the 2010 season.\n\nThe Packers had a 9–7 record in 1992, and began to turn heads around the league when they signed perhaps the most prized free agent in NFL history in Reggie White on the defense in 1993. White believed that Wolf, Holmgren, and Favre had the team heading in the right direction with a \"total commitment to winning.\" With White on board the Packers made it to the second round of the playoffs during both the 1993 and 1994 seasons but lost their 2nd-round matches to their playoff rival, the Dallas Cowboys, playing in Dallas on both occasions. In 1995, the Packers won the NFC Central Division championship for the first time since 1972. After a home playoff 37–20 win against Favre's former team, the Atlanta Falcons, the Packers defeated the defending Super Bowl champion San Francisco 49ers 27–17 in San Francisco on the road to advance to the NFC Championship Game, where they lost again to the Dallas Cowboys 38–27.\n\n1996, Super Bowl XXXI champions\n\nIn 1996, the Packers' turnaround was complete. The team posted a league-best 13–3 record in the regular season, dominating the competition and securing home-field advantage throughout the playoffs. They were ranked no. 1 in offense with Brett Favre leading the way, no. 1 in defense with Reggie White as the leader of the defense and no. 1 in special teams with former Heisman Trophy winner Desmond Howard returning punts and kickoffs for touchdowns. After relatively easy wins against the 49ers in a muddy 35–14 beatdown and Carolina Panthers 30–13 in what was referred to as \"Ice Bowl 2\", the Packers advanced to the Super Bowl for the first time in 29 years. In Super Bowl XXXI, Green Bay defeated the New England Patriots 35–21 to win their 12th world championship. Desmond Howard was named MVP of the game for his kickoff return for a touchdown that ended the Patriots' bid for a comeback. Then-Packers President Bob Harlan credited Wolf, Holmgren, Favre, and White for ultimately changing the fortunes of the organization and turning the Green Bay Packers into a model NFL franchise. A 2007 panel of football experts at ESPN ranked the 1996 Packers the 6th-greatest team ever to play in the Super Bowl.\n\n1997\n\nThe following season the Packers recorded another 13–3 record and won their second consecutive NFC championship. After defeating the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 21–7 and San Francisco 49ers 23–10 in the playoffs, the Packers returned to the Super Bowl as an 11½ point favorite. The team ended up losing in an upset to John Elway and the Denver Broncos in Super Bowl XXXII, by the score of 31–24.\n\n1998–2006\n\nIn 1998, the Packers went 11–5 and met the San Francisco 49ers in the first-round of the NFC playoffs. It was the fourth consecutive year these teams had met in the playoffs, and the sixth overall contest since the 1995 season. The Packers had won all previous games, and the media speculated that another 49ers loss would result in the dismissal of San Francisco head coach Steve Mariucci. Unlike the previous playoff matches, this game was hotly contested, with the teams frequently exchanging leads. With 4:19 left in the 4th quarter, Brett Favre and the Packers embarked on an 89-yard drive, which concluded with a Favre touchdown pass to receiver Antonio Freeman. This play appeared to give Green Bay the victory. But San Francisco quarterback Steve Young led the 49ers on an improbable touchdown drive, which culminated when Terrell Owens caught Young's pass between several defenders to give the 49ers a lead with three seconds remaining. Afterwards, the game was mired in controversy. Many argued that during the 49ers game winning drive, Niners receiver Jerry Rice fumbled the ball but officials stated he was down by contact. Television replays appeared to confirm these sentiments, and the next season the NFL re instituted an instant replay system. In the end, this game turned out to be the end of an era in Green Bay. Days later Mike Holmgren left the Packers to become Vice President, General Manager and Head Coach of the Seattle Seahawks. Much of Holmgren's coaching staff went with him, and Reggie White also retired after the season (but later played one season for the Carolina Panthers in 2000). In 1999 and 2000, the team struggled to find an identity after the departure of so many of the individuals responsible for their Super Bowl run.\n\nRay Rhodes was hired in 1999 as the team's new head coach. Rhodes had served around the league as a highly regarded defensive coordinator, and more recently experienced moderate success as head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles from 1995 to 1998. Ron Wolf believed that Rhodes' experience and player-friendly demeanor would fit nicely in Green Bay's veteran locker room. But Rhodes was fired after one 8–8 season. Wolf visited team practice late in the 1999 season and believed that players had become too comfortable with Rhodes' style, and said the atmosphere resembled a country club.\n\nIn 2000, Wolf replaced Rhodes with Mike Sherman. Sherman had never been a head coach at any level of football and was relatively unknown in NFL circles. He had only coached in professional football for three years starting as the Packers' tight ends coach in 1997 and 1998. In 1999, he followed Mike Holmgren to Seattle and became the Seahawks' offensive coordinator, although Sherman did not call the plays during games. Despite Sherman's apparent anonymity, Wolf was blown away in the interview process by the coach's organizational skills and attention to detail. Sherman's inaugural season started slowly, but the Packers won their final four games to achieve a 9–7 record. Brett Favre praised the atmosphere Sherman had cultivated in Green Bay's locker room and fans were optimistic about the team's future. In the offseason, however, Wolf suddenly announced his own resignation as GM to take effect after the April 2001 draft. Packers President Bob Harlan was surprised by Wolf's decision and felt unsure of how to replace him. Harlan preferred the structure Green Bay had employed since 1991; a general manager who ran football operations and hired a subservient head coach. But with the momentum and locker room chemistry that was built during the 2000 season, Harlan was reluctant to bring in a new individual with a potentially different philosophy. Wolf recommended that Harlan give the job to Sherman. Though Harlan was wary of the structure in principle, he agreed with Wolf that it was the best solution. In 2001, Sherman assumed the duties of both GM and head coach.\n\nFrom 2001 to 2004, Sherman coached the Packers to respectable regular-season success, led by the spectacular play of Brett Favre, Ahman Green, and a formidable offensive line. But Sherman's teams faltered in the playoffs. Prior to 2003, the Packers had never lost a home playoff game since the NFL instituted a post-season in 1933 (they were 13–0, with 11 of the wins at Lambeau and two more in Milwaukee.). That ended January 4, 2003, when the Atlanta Falcons defeated the Packers 27–7 in an NFC Wild Card game. The Packers would also lose at home in the playoffs to the Minnesota Vikings two years later.\n\nBy the end of the 2004 season, the Packers team depth appeared to be diminishing. Sherman also seemed overworked and reportedly had trouble communicating with players on the practice field with whom he was also negotiating contracts. Harlan felt the dual roles were too much for one man to handle and removed Sherman from the GM position in early 2005, while retaining him as a head coach. Harlan hired Seattle Seahawks Vice President of Operations Ted Thompson as the new Executive Vice President, General Manager and Director of Football Operations. The relationship between Thompson and Sherman appeared strained, as Thompson immediately began rebuilding Green Bay's roster. Following a dismal 4–12 season, Thompson fired Sherman. Thompson hired Mike McCarthy, the former offensive coordinator for the San Francisco 49ers and New Orleans Saints as his new head coach. McCarthy had also previously served as the quarterbacks coach for the Packers in 1999.\n\n2007\n\nAfter missing the playoffs in 2006, Brett Favre announced that he would return for the 2007 season; it would turn out to be one of his best. The Packers won 10 of their first 11 games and finished 13–3, earning a first round bye in the playoffs. The Packers' passing offense, led by Favre and a very skilled wide receiver group, finished second in the NFC, behind the Dallas Cowboys, and third overall in the league. Running back Ryan Grant, acquired for a sixth-round draft pick from the New York Giants, became the featured back in Green Bay and rushed for 956 yards and 8 touchdowns in the final 10 games of the regular season. In the divisional playoff round, in a heavy snowstorm, the Packers beat the Seattle Seahawks 42–20. Grant rushed for three touchdowns and over 200 yards, while Favre tossed three touchdown passes and 1 snowball to receiver Donald Driver in celebration.\n\nOn January 20, 2008, Green Bay appeared in their first NFC Championship Game in 10 years facing the New York Giants in Green Bay. The game was lost 23–20 on an overtime field goal by Lawrence Tynes. This would be Brett Favre's final game as a Green Bay Packer with his final pass being an interception in overtime.\n\nMike McCarthy coached the NFC team during the 2008 Pro Bowl in Hawaii. Al Harris and Aaron Kampman were also picked to play for the NFC Pro Bowl team as starters. Donald Driver was named as a third-string wideout on the Pro Bowl roster. Brett Favre was named the first-string quarterback for the NFC, but he declined to play in the Pro Bowl and was replaced on the roster by Tampa Bay Buccaneers' quarterback Jeff Garcia. The Packers also had several first alternates, including Chad Clifton and Nick Barnett.\n\nIn December 2007, Ted Thompson was signed to a 5-year contract extension with the Packers, while it was announced on February 5, 2008 that head coach Mike McCarthy signed a 5-year contract extension as well.\n\n2008–present: The Aaron Rodgers era\n\n2008\n\nOn March 4, 2008, Brett Favre tearfully announced his retirement. Within five months, however, he filed for reinstatement with the NFL on July 29. Favre's petition was granted by Commissioner Roger Goodell, effective August 4, 2008. On August 6, 2008, it was announced that Brett Favre was traded to the New York Jets for a conditional draft pick in 2009. \n\nThe Packers began their 2008 season with their 2005 first-round draft pick, quarterback Aaron Rodgers, under center, as the first QB other than Favre to start for the Packers in 16 years. Rodgers played well in his first year starting for the Packers, throwing for over 4000 yards and 28 touchdowns. However, injuries plagued the Packers' defense, as they lost 7 close games by 4 points or less, finishing with a 6–10 record. After the season, eight assistant coaches were dismissed by McCarthy, including Bob Sanders, the team's defensive coordinator, who was replaced by Dom Capers.\n\n2009\n\nIn March 2009, the organization assured fans that Brett Favre's jersey number would be retired, but not during the 2009 season. In April 2009, the Packers selected defensive lineman B.J. Raji of Boston College as the team's first pick in the draft. The team then traded three draft picks (including the pick the Packers acquired from the Jets for Brett Favre) for another first-round pick, selecting linebacker Clay Matthews III of the University of Southern California.\n\nDuring the 2009 NFL season, two match-ups between the franchise and its former legendary QB, Brett Favre, were highly anticipated after Favre's arrival with the division-rival Vikings in August. The first encounter took place in week 4, on a Monday Night Football game which broke several TV audience records. The scheduling of this game was made possible when Baseball Commissioner and Packer Board of Directors member Bud Selig forced baseball's Minnesota Twins to play 2 games within a 12-hour span. The Vikings won the game 30–23. Brett Favre threw 3 TDs, no interceptions, and had a passer rating of 135. The teams met for a second time in week 8, Favre leading the Vikings to a second win, 38–26, in Green Bay. Rodgers was heavily pressured in both games, being sacked 14 times total, but still played exceptionally well, throwing five touchdowns and only one interception. The next week, the Packers were upset by the win-less Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Following a players only meeting, the team started to roll and found some stability on the offensive line with the return of tackle Mark Tauscher bringing a minor halt to sacks to Rodgers and opening the running game to Ryan Grant and the other running backs. Green Bay finished the season strongly, winning 7 out of their last 8 games, including winning their 16th regular season finale in the past 17 seasons, and earning a NFC wild-card playoff bid with an 11–5 regular-season record. The Packers defense was ranked No. 2 and the offense was ranked No. 6 with rookies Brad Jones and Clay Matthews III becoming sensations at linebacker and young players like James Jones, Brandon Jackson, Jermichael Finley and Jordy Nelson becoming threats on offense. Rodgers also became the first quarterback in NFL history to throw for at least 4000 yards in each of his first two seasons as a starter. Also, cornerback Charles Woodson won NFL Defensive Player of the Year honors after recording 9 interceptions, forcing four fumbles, 3 touchdowns and registering 74 tackles and 2 sacks. In fact, Woodson's 9 interceptions were more than the 8 collected by all Packer opponents that season. Though the defense was ranked high, injuries to Al Harris, Tramon Williams, Will Blackmon, Atari Bigby and Brandon Underwood severely limited the depth of the secondary and teams like the Minnesota Vikings and Pittsburgh Steelers used that to their advantage by unleashing aerial assaults against inexperienced players with the NFL's best receivers. The season ended with an overtime loss in a wild card round shoot out at the Arizona Cardinals, 51–45.\n\n2010: Super Bowl XLV championship\n\nAfter finishing the 2009 season with an 11–5 record, the Packers began the 2010 NFL Draft holding the 23rd pick. They selected Offensive tackle Bryan Bulaga from Iowa; with pick 2–56 they selected Defensive end Mike Neal from Purdue. They then traded picks 3–86 and 4–122 to the Philadelphia Eagles for pick 3–71, choosing Safety Morgan Burnett from Georgia Tech. With pick 5–154 they selected Tight end Andrew Quarless from Penn State. With their compensatory selection pick 5–169 they chose Offensive guard Marshall Newhouse from Texas Christian. With pick 6–193 they selected Running back James Starks from Buffalo. In their final selection, 7–230. they chose Defensive end C. J. Wilson of East Carolina.\n\nThe team lost Johnny Jolly to a season-long suspension after he violated the NFL drug policy. Their running corps suffered a blow when RB Ryan Grant sustained a season-ending ankle injury in week 1. By the end of the season, the tean had 16 people on injured reserve, including 7 starters: running back Ryan Grant, tight end Jermichael Finley, linebacker Nick Barnett, safety Morgan Burnett, linebacker Brandon Chillar, tackle Mark Tauscher, and linebacker Brad Jones.\n\nAfter finishing the regular season 10–6 the Packers clinched the No. 6 seed in the NFC playoffs. They first faced No. 3 seeded Philadelphia, winning 21–16. In the Divisional round they defeated No. 1 seeded Atlanta 48–21. They then played the Chicago Bears at Soldier Field in the NFC Championship Game – only the second playoff meeting between the two storied rivals (the other a 33–14 Chicago victory which sent them to the 1941 NFL Championship Game). Green Bay won 21–14 to move on to Super Bowl XLV. On February 6, 2011, they defeated the AFC champion Pittsburgh Steelers 31–25, becoming the first No. 6 seed from the NFC to win a Super Bowl. Aaron Rodgers was named Super Bowl MVP. \n\n2011\n\nIn 2011, the Packers went 15–1, a franchise best record in the regular season. However, the team faltered in the playoffs, losing to the New York Giants 37-20 in the second round after a first round bye.\n\n2012\n\nIn 2012, the Packers went 11-5. They beat the Minnesota Vikings in the NFC Wildcard round 24-10, and lost in the Divisional round 45-31 to the San Francisco 49ers.\n\nThe Packers topped the first-ever AP Pro32 rankings, a new pro football version of the AP Top 25 college football and basketball polls. \n\n2013\n\nIn 2013, the Packers went 8-7-1, losing to the San Francisco 49ers 20-23 in the first round of the playoffs.\n\n2014\n\nThe Packers recorded their 700th victory against the Bears in week four. Overall, the team went 12-4 and clinched the #2 seed in the NFC Playoffs. They advanced to the NFC Championship and faced the Seattle Seahawks. After leading throughout most of regulation they lost 28-22 in a historic overtime rally by Seattle.\n\n2015\n\nDuring Week 2 of the Preseason against the Pittsburgh Steelers, Wide Receiver Jordy Nelson caught an eight-yard pass from Aaron Rodgers, but then fell to the turf without contact. A few days later, it was revealed that Nelson had Torn his ACL. He would remain inactive for the rest of the 2015 season. Even without Nelson, the Packers managed to get off to a 6-0 start. But the Packers then lost 4 of their next 5 games, falling to 7-4. On the December 3rd game against the Detroit Lions, the Packers quickly fell to a 20-0 deficit going into Halftime. Green Bay started to make a comeback in the 2nd half thanks to a touchdown by Davante Adams and a 27-yard touchdown run by Aaron Rodgers to bring the game within 2 points at 23-21. The Packers then got the ball back in their possession with 23 seconds left in the game. While attempting a \"lateral\" play, Rodgers was sacked with no time remaining but then a flag was thrown for a Facemask penalty on Detroit. The Packers now had one more un-timed play, which Aaron Rodgers through a 61-yard Hail Mary touchdown to Tight End Richard Rodgers. It was the longest Hail Mary thrown in NFL History. Green Bay then finished the season 10-6 and 2nd in the NFC North behind the Minnesota Vikings. They beat the Washington Redskins in the NFC Wild Card game to advance to the Divisional round with the Arizona Cardinals. A similar play to tie the game against the Cardinals happened between Aaron Rodgers and Jeff Janis. Janis caught a 41-yard touchdown from Rodgers which sent the game into overtime. Unfortunately, the Packers fell to the Cardinals 26-20, ending their season.\n\nRecord 13 NFL world championships\n\nThe Packers have been World Champions a record 13 times, topping their nearest rival, the Chicago Bears, by four. The first three were decided by league standing, the next six by the NFL Title Game, and the final four by Super Bowl victories. The Packers are also the only team to win three consecutive NFL titles, having accomplished this twice, 1929-30-31 under Lambeau, and 1965-66-67 under Lombardi.\n\nCommunity ownership\n\nThe Packers are the only community-owned franchise in American professional sports. Rather than being the property of an individual, partnership, or corporate entity, they are held in 2014 by 360,584 stockholders. No one is allowed to hold more than 200,000 shares; approximately 4% of the 5,011,557 shares currently outstanding. It is this broad-based community support and non-profit structure which has kept the team in Green Bay for nearly a century in spite of being the smallest market in all of North American professional sports.\n\nThe city of Green Bay had a population of only 104,057 as of the 2010 census, and only 600,000 in its television market, significantly less than the average NFL figures. The team, however, has long had an extended fan base throughout Wisconsin and parts of the Midwest, thanks in part to playing one pre-season and three regular-season home games each year in Milwaukee through 1995. It was only when baseball-only Miller Park preempted football there that the Packers' home slate became played entirely in Green Bay.\n\nThere have been five stock sales to fund Packer operations over the team's history, beginning with $5,000 being raised through 1,000 shares offered at $5 apiece in 1923. Most recently, $64 million was raised in 2011-2012 towards a $143-million Lambeau Field expansion. Demand exceeded expectations, and the original 250,000 share limit had to be increased before some 250,000 new buyers from all 50 U.S. states and Canada purchased 269,000 shares at $250 apiece, approximately 99% online.\n\nBased on the original \"Articles of Incorporation for the Green Bay Football Corporation\" enacted in 1923, should the franchise to have been sold any post-expenses money would have gone to the Sullivan-Wallen Post of the American Legion to build \"a proper soldier's memorial.\" This stipulation was included to ensure there could never be any financial inducement for shareholders to move the club from Green Bay. At the November 1997 annual meeting, shareholders voted to change the beneficiary from the Sullivan-Wallen Post to the Green Bay Packers Foundation, which makes donations to many charities and institutions throughout Wisconsin.\n\nEven though it is referred to as \"common stock\" in corporate offering documents, a share of Packers stock does not share the same rights traditionally associated with common or preferred stock. It does not include an equity interest, does not pay dividends, can not be traded, has no securities-law protection, and brings no season ticket purchase privileges. All shareholders receive are voting rights, an invitation to the corporation's annual meeting, and an opportunity to purchase exclusive shareholder-only merchandise. Shares of stock cannot be resold, except back to the team for a fraction of the original price. While new shares can be given as gifts, transfers are technically allowed only between immediate family members once ownership has been established.\n\nGreen Bay is the only team with this form of ownership structure in the NFL, which is in direct violation of current league rules stipulating a maximum of 32 owners per team, with one holding a minimum 30% stake. The Packers' corporation was grandfathered when the NFL's current ownership policy was established in the 1980s. As a publicly held nonprofit, the Packers are also the only American major-league sports franchise to release its financial balance sheet every year.\n\nBoard of Directors\n\nGreen Bay Packers, Inc., is governed by a seven-member Executive Committee elected from a 45-member board of directors. It consists of a president, vice president, treasurer, secretary and three members-at-large; only the president is compensated. Responsibilities include directing corporate management, approving major capital expenditures, establishing broad policy, and monitoring management performance.\n\nThe team's elected president normally represents the Packers in NFL owners meetings. During his time as coach Vince Lombardi generally represented the team at league meetings in his role as GM, except at owners-only meetings, where president Dominic Olejniczak appeared.\n\nGreen Bay Packers Foundation\n\nThe team created the Green Bay Packers Foundation in December 1986. It assists in a wide variety of activities and programs benefiting education, civic affairs, health services, human services and youth-related programs.\n\nAt the team's 1997 annual stockholders meeting the foundation was designated in place of a Sullivan-Wallen Post soldiers memorial as recipient of any residual assets upon the team's sale or dissolution.\n\nFan base\n\nThe Packers have an exceptionally loyal fan base. Regardless of team performance, every game played in Green Bay has been sold out since 1960. Despite the Packers having by far the smallest local TV market, the team consistently ranks as one of the most popular in the NFL. They also have one of the longest season ticket waiting lists in professional sports, 86,000 names long, more than there are seats at Lambeau Field. The average wait is said to be over 30 years, but with only 90 or so tickets turned over annually it would be 955 years before the newest name on the list got theirs. As a result, season tickets are willed to next of kin and newborns placed optimistically on the waiting list. \n\nPackers fans are often referred to as cheeseheads, a nickname for Wisconsin residents reflecting the state's bountiful cheese production first leveled as an insult at a 1987 game between the Chicago White Sox and Milwaukee Brewers. Instead, it came to be a statewide source of pride, and particularly since 1994 has been embraced by Packers fans. Bright orange triangular cheesehead hats are a fixture wherever the team plays.\n\nDuring training camp in the summer months, held outside the Don Hutson Center, young Packers fans can bring their bikes and have their favorite players ride them from the locker room to practice at Ray Nitschke Field. This old tradition began around the time of Lambeau Field's construction in 1957. Gary Knafelc, a Packers end at the time, said, \"I think it was just that kids wanted us to ride their bikes. I can remember kids saying, 'Hey, ride my bike.'\" Each new generation of Packer fan delights at the opportunity. \n\nThe team holds an annual scrimmage called Family Night, typically an intra-squad affair, at Lambeau Field. During 2004 and 2005 sellout crowds of over 60,000 fans showed up, with an all-time mark of 62,492 set in 2005 when the Buffalo Bills appeared. \n\nIn August 2008, ESPN.com ranked Packers fans as second-best in the NFL. The team initially finished tied with the Pittsburgh Steelers (who finished ahead of the Packers) as having the best fans, but the tie was broken by ESPN's own John Clayton, a Pittsburgh native.\n\nNickname, logos, and uniforms\n\nNeeding to outfit his new squad, team founder Curly Lambeau solicited funds from his employer, the Indian Packing Company. He was given $500 for uniforms and equipment in return for the team being named for its sponsor. An early newspaper article referred to the fledglings as \"the Indians\", but by the time they played their first game \"Packers\" had taken hold.\n\nIndian Packing was purchased in 1920 by the Acme Packing Company. Acme continued to support the team, which played its first NFL season with \"ACME PACKERS\" emblazoned on its jerseys.\n\nLambeau, a Notre Dame alumnus, borrowed its Irish's navy blue and gold team colors, much as George Halas borrowed his Illinois alma mater's for the Chicago Bears. As a result, the early Packers were often referred to as the \"Bays\" or the \"Blues\" (and even occasionally as \"the Big Bay Blues\").\n\nBy 1950, Green Bay had changed its colors to hunter green and gold. Navy blue was kept as a secondary color, seen primarily on sideline capes, but was quietly dropped on all official materials shortly thereafter. The team's current uniform combination of forest green or white jerseys and metallic gold pants was adopted soon after Vince Lombardi arrived in 1959. However, to celebrate the NFL's 75th anniversary in 1994, the Packers joined in a league-wide donning of \"throwback\" jerseys, back to navy blue and gold. The team would go throwback again for two Thanksgiving Day games against the Detroit Lions, in blue and gold 1930s-era uniforms in 2001, and 1960s green and gold (only slightly different from the current ones) in 2003. \n\nIn 1951, the team finally stopped wearing leather helmets, adopting the metallic gold plastic headgear it has used ever since. The oval \"G\" logo was added in 1961 when Lombardi asked Packers equipment manager Gerald \"Dad\" Braisher to design a logo. Braisher tasked his assistant, St. Norbert College art student John Gordon. Satisfied with a football-shaped letter \"G\", the pair presented it to Lombardi, who then approved the addition. Tiki Barber falsely reported it to stand for \"greatness\" without a reliable source to back up his claims. Other reputable media outlets then published similar stories using Barber's false claim as a source. The Packers' Assistant Director of PR and Corporate Communications had the following to say: \"There’s nothing in our history that suggests there's any truth to this. The Packers Hall of Fame archivist said the same thing.\" The team used a number of different logos prior to 1961, but the \"G\" is the only logo that has ever appeared on the helmet. The Packers hold the trademark on the \"G\" logo, and have granted limited permission to other organizations to utilize a similar logo, such as the University of Georgia and Grambling State University. Adopted in 1964, the Georgia \"G\", though different in design and color, was similar to the Packers' \"G\". Then-Georgia head coach Vince Dooley thought it best to clear the use of Georgia's new emblem with the Packers.\n\nWhile several NFL teams choose to wear white jerseys at home early in the season due to white's ability to reflect the late summer sunrays, the Packers have done so only twice, during the opening two games of the 1989 season. Although alternate gold jerseys with green numbers are sold on a retail basis, the team currently has no plans to introduce such a jersey to be used in actual games.\n\nDuring the 2010 season, the Packers paid tribute to their historical brethren with a third jersey modeled after that worn by the club in 1929, during its first world championship season. The jersey was navy blue, again making the Packers \"the Blues.\" \n\nUpon the NFL's switch of uniform suppliers in 2012 to Nike from Reebok, the Packers refused any changes to their uniform in any way outside of the required supplier's logo and new league uniform logos, declining all of Nike's \"Elite 51\" enhancements, including retaining the traditional striped collar of the jersey rather than Nike's new collar design. \n\nStadium history\n\nAfter their early seasons at Bellevue Park and Hagemeister Park the Packers played home games in City Stadium from 1925 to 1956. The team won its first six NFL world championships there.\n\nBy the 1950s the wooden 25,000 seat arena was considered outmoded. The NFL threatened to move the franchise to Milwaukee full-time unless it got a better stadium. The city responded by building a new 32,150 seat City Stadium for the team, the first built exclusively for an NFL team, which opened in time for the 1957 season. It was renamed Lambeau Field in 1965 to honor Curly Lambeau, who had died earlier in the year.\n\nExpanded seven times before the end of the 1990s, Lambeau Field capacity reached 60,890. In 2003, it was extensively renovated to expand seating, modernize stadium facilities, and add an atrium area. Even with a current seating capacity of 72,928, ticket demand far outpaces supply, as all Packers games have been sold out since 1960. About 86,000 names are on the waiting list for season tickets.\n\nThe Packers played part of their home slate in Milwaukee starting in 1933, including two to three home games each year in Milwaukee's County Stadium from 1953 to 1994. Indeed, County Stadium had been built partly to entice the Packers to move to Milwaukee full-time. The Packers worked to capture their growing fan base in Milwaukee and the larger crowds. By the 1960s, threat of an American Football League franchise in Milwaukee prompted the Packers to stay, including scheduling a Western Conference Playoff in 1967.\n\nCounty Stadium was built primarily as a baseball stadium, and made only the bare minimum adjustments to accommodate football. At its height, it only seated 56,000 people, just barely above the NFL minimum; many of those seats were badly obstructed. The field was just barely large enough to fit a football field. Both teams shared the same sideline (separated by a piece of tape) and the end zones extended onto the warning track. By 1994, improvements and seating expansions at Lambeau, along with the Brewers preparing to campaign for their new stadium prompted the Packers to play their full slate in Green Bay for the first time in 62 years. Former season ticketholders for the Milwaukee package continue to receive preference for one pre-season and the second and fifth regular season games at Lambeau Field each season, along with playoff games through a lottery under the \"Gold Package\" plan. \n\nThe Packers have three practice facilities across the street from Lambeau Field: the Don Hutson Center, an indoor facility; Ray Nitschke Field, an outdoor field with artificial FieldTurf; and Clarke Hinkle Field, an outdoor field with natural grass.\n\nStatistics and records\n\nRecent seasonal results\n\nThe results of the last seven completed Packer seasons, including current results, are listed below. For full season-by-season franchise results, see List of Green Bay Packers seasons.\n\nNote: The Finish, Wins, Losses, and Ties columns list regular season results and exclude any postseason play.\n\nRecord as of February 3, 2012\n\nRecords\n\nPlayoff record\n\n*1936 NFL Championship: Green Bay Packers 21, Boston Braves 6\n*1938 NFL Championship: New York Giants 23, Green Bay Packers 17\n*1939 NFL Championship: Green Bay Packers 27, New York Giants 0\n*1941 Western Division Championship: Chicago Bears 33, Green Bay Packers 14\n*1944 NFL Championship: Green Bay Packers 14, New York Giants 7\n*1960 NFL Championship: Philadelphia Eagles 17, Green Bay Packers 13\n*1961 NFL Championship: Green Bay Packers 37, New York Giants 0\n*1962 NFL Championship: Green Bay Packers 16, New York Giants 7\n*1965 Western Conference Championship: Green Bay Packers 13, Baltimore Colts 10 (OT)\n*1965 NFL Championship: Green Bay Packers 23, Cleveland Browns 12\n*1966 NFL Championship: Green Bay Packers 34, Dallas Cowboys 27\n*Super Bowl I: Green Bay Packers 35, Kansas City Chiefs 10\n*1967 Conference Championship: Green Bay Packers 28, Los Angeles Rams 7\n*1967 NFL Championship: Green Bay Packers 21, Dallas Cowboys 17\n*Super Bowl II: Green Bay Packers 33, Oakland Raiders 14\n*1972 Divisional: Washington Redskins 16, Green Bay Packers 3\n*1982 First Round: Green Bay Packers 41, St. Louis Cardinals 16\n*1982 Second Round: Dallas Cowboys 37, Green Bay Packers 26\n*1994 Wild Card: Green Bay Packers 16, Detroit Lions 12\n*1994 Divisional: Dallas Cowboys 35, Green Bay Packers 9\n*1995 Wild Card: Green Bay Packers 37, Atlanta Falcons 20\n*1995 Divisional: Green Bay Packers 27, San Francisco 49ers 17\n*1995 NFC Championship: Dallas Cowboys 38, Green Bay Packers 27\n*1996 Divisional: Green Bay Packers 35, San Francisco 49ers 14\n*1996 NFC Championship: Green Bay Packers 30, Carolina Panthers 13\n*Super Bowl XXXI: Green Bay Packers 35, New England Patriots 21\n*1997 Divisional: Green Bay Packers 21, Tampa Bay Buccaneers 7\n*1997 NFC Championship: Green Bay Packers 23, San Francisco 49ers 10\n*Super Bowl XXXII: Denver Broncos 31, Green Bay Packers 24\n*1998 Wild Card: San Francisco 49ers 30, Green Bay Packers 27\n*2001 NFC Wild Card: Green Bay Packers 25, San Francisco 49ers 15\n*2001 Divisional: St. Louis Rams 45, Green Bay Packers 17\n*2002 NFC Wild Card: Atlanta Falcons 27, Green Bay Packers 7\n*2003 NFC Wild Card: Green Bay Packers 33, Seattle Seahawks 27 (OT)\n*2003 Divisional: Philadelphia Eagles 20, Green Bay Packers 17 (OT)\n*2004 NFC Wild Card: Minnesota Vikings 31, Green Bay Packers 17\n*2007 Divisional: Green Bay Packers 42, Seattle Seahawks 20\n*2007 NFC Championship: New York Giants 23, Green Bay Packers 20 (OT)\n*2009 NFC Wild Card: Arizona Cardinals 51, Green Bay Packers 45 (OT)\n*2010 NFC Wild Card: Green Bay Packers 21, Philadelphia Eagles 16\n*2010 NFC Divisional: Green Bay Packers 48, Atlanta Falcons 21\n*2010 NFC Championship: Green Bay Packers 21, Chicago Bears 14\n*Super Bowl XLV: Green Bay Packers 31, Pittsburgh Steelers 25\n*2011 NFC Divisional: New York Giants 37, Green Bay Packers 20\n*2012 NFC Wild Card: Green Bay Packers 24, Minnesota Vikings 10\n*2012 NFC Divisional: San Francisco 49ers 45, Green Bay Packers 31\n*2013 NFC Wild Card: San Francisco 49ers 23, Green Bay Packers 20\n*2014 NFC Divisional: Green Bay Packers 26, Dallas Cowboys 21\n*2014 NFC Championship: Seattle Seahawks 28, Green Bay Packers 22 (OT)\n*2016 NFL Divisional: Arizona Cardinals 26, Green Bay Packers 20 (OT)\n\nOverall record 31 wins, 21 losses \n\nChampionships\n\nLeague Championships\n\nPackers have won 13 World Championships.\n\nNFL Championship by Standings\n\nFrom 1920-1932, the NFL championship was awarded based on standings, with no championship game taking place. The Packers won three such championships.\n\nPre Super Bowl NFL Championships\n\nFrom 1933-1969, the NFL held a championship game to decide their champion. The Packers won 8 NFL championship games. From 1966-1969, the NFL Championship Game was followed by the Super Bowl. Due to this, any NFL Championship Game win taking place in that time was not considered world championships.\n\nSuper Bowl Championships\n\nStarting in 1966, the NFL began holding the Super Bowl. The Packers have won 4 Super Bowls.\n\nNFC Championships\n\nThe Packers have won three NFC Championship Games.\n\nDivision Championships\n\nThe Packers have won 17 divisional championships.\n\nNotable players\n\nCurrent roster\n\nPro Football Hall of Fame members\n\nThe Packers have the second most members in the Pro Football Hall of Fame with 24. They trail only the Chicago Bears (with 27). \n\nRetired numbers\n\nIn nearly nine decades of Packers football, the Packers have formally retired 6 numbers.[http://www.packers.com/history/record_book/honors_and_awards/retired_numbers/ Retired Numbers] from Packers.com. Obtained April 3, 2009. All six Packers are members of the Pro Football Hall of Fame and their numbers and names are displayed on the green facade of Lambeau Field's north endzone as well as in the Lambeau Field Atrium.\n\nNotable coaches\n\nCurrent staff\n\nHead coaches\n\n*Interim Head Coaches\n\nCSVA Sports Film and Video Hall of Famers\n\n* Al Treml (2014) \n\nRadio, television and film\n\nThe Packers are unique in having their market area cover two media markets, both Green Bay and Milwaukee. NFL blackout restrictions for the team apply within both areas. However, Packers games have not been blacked out locally since 1972 (the last year home game local telecasts were prohibited regardless of sellout status) due to strong home attendance and popularity. As mentioned above, every Packers home game—preseason, regular season and playoffs—has been sold out since 1960.\n\nThe flagship station of the Packers Radio Network is Scripps Radio's WTMJ in Milwaukee, which was the former flagship of the Journal Broadcast Group before its merger with Scripps in April 2015. WTMJ has aired Packers games since 1929, the longest association between a radio station and an NFL team to date, and the only rights deal in American professional sports where a station outside of the team's main metro area is the radio flagship. While this might be unusual, the station can be heard at city-grade strength at all hours in Green Bay proper. Games air in Green Bay on WTAQ (1360/97.5) and WIXX-FM (101.1), and WAPL (105.7) and WHBY (1150) in Appleton and the Fox Cities. Wayne Larrivee is the play-by-play announcer and Larry McCarren is the color analyst. Larrivee joined the team after many years as the Chicago Bears' announcer. Jim Irwin and Max McGee were the longtime radio announcers before Larrivee and McCarren. When victory is assured for the Packers, either a game winning touchdown, interception or a crucial 4th down defensive stop, Larrivee's trademark declaration of \"And there is your dagger!\" signifies the event. In limited circumstances where the Milwaukee Brewers are in either playoff or post-season contention and their play-by-play takes priority, WTMJ's sister FM station WKTI (94.5) currently airs Packer games to avert game conflicts.\n\nThe TV rights for pre-season games not nationally broadcast are held by Scripps television stations WGBA-TV (Channel 26) in Green Bay and WTMJ-TV (Channel 4) in Milwaukee, along with Quincy Newspapers' six ABC stations in the central, northern and western parts of the state, KQDS-TV (Channel 21) in Duluth-Superior, and in Escanaba/Marquette, Michigan, WLUC-TV (Channel 6), along with their Fox subchannel. As such, these stations are all allowed to use the tagline Your official Packers station in their market area by the team, and also carry the weekly coach's show, The Mike McCarthy Show on Tuesday evenings at 6:30 pm throughout the football season. Until the end of the 2011 season, the team's partner in Green Bay was WFRV-TV (Channel 5), and sister satellite WJMN-TV in Escanaba. As part of the 2012 deal, McCarren resigned his duties as sports director of WFRV to move to WTMJ/WGBA as a Packers analyst, becoming WGBA's official sports director on April 1, 2013 as his non-compete clause to appear as a sports anchor in Green Bay expired, though he retired as sports director in March 2015 to focus full-time on his duties for the Packer radio and television networks. WFRV/WJMN still airs any Packers regular season home games against an AFC team.\n\nThe 2012 TV rights deal expanded the team's preseason network further across the Midwest. Additional stations include the Quad Cities region of Iowa/Illinois where game coverage is carried by KLJB (Channel 18) in Davenport, Iowa and KGCW (Channel 26) in Burlington, Iowa, both owned by Grant Broadcasting System II, KCWI-TV (Channel 23) in Des Moines, KWWL (Channel 7) in Waterloo, Iowa, and in Omaha, Nebraska, KMTV-TV (Channel 3), a sister Scripps station to WTMJ and WGBA. As part of a large package of preseason football from various team networks, KFVE (Channel 9) in Honolulu, Hawaii also carried Packers state network games in the 2012 preseason. The network also added its first affiliate with Spanish language play-by-play, Milwaukee's WYTU-LD (Channel 63/49.4), a Telemundo affiliate, which airs statewide on the cable systems of Charter Communications and throughout Time Warner Cable's eastern Wisconsin systems, including Green Bay. The Spanish broadcast is also simulcast by Scripps' WACY-TV (Channel 32) in the Green Bay/Appleton market (WACY is an otherwise English-language MyNetworkTV affiliate).\n\nPre-season coverage is produced by CBS, formerly using the NFL on CBS graphics package until the last contract ended as a remnant of WFRV's former ownership by the CBS Corporation itself until 2007. In 2012, the pre-season coverage began to use the NBC Sports Sunday Night Football graphics package due to WTMJ/WGBA's NBC affiliation. The TV play-by-play announcer, Kevin Harlan (also on loan from CBS), is the son of former Packers president Bob Harlan, with Rich Gannon joining him as color commentator. Since the 2008 pre-season all Packers preseason games on the statewide network are produced and aired in high definition, with WTMJ-TV subcontracting the games to minor network affiliates in Milwaukee during Summer Olympics years due to mandatory non-preemption policies by their network, NBC (this was not done in 2012 as the pre-season opener was a national ESPN game). In Green Bay, WACY carries preseason games in English if WGBA is unable to during Olympics years.\n\nESPN Monday Night Football games, both pre-season and season, are broadcast over the air on Fox affiliate WLUK-TV in Green Bay and ABC affiliate WISN-TV (Channel 12) in Milwaukee (ABC affiliate WBAY-TV in Green Bay carried those games from 2006 until 2015; the 2016 season may be the first where that station has not carried a Packer game), while the stations airing Packers games in the NFL Network Thursday Night Football package have varied over the years depending on arrangements for syndication or co-network productions and simulcasts with CBS or NBC. WBAY's evening news anchor Bill Jartz also serves as the public address system announcer for Lambeau Field.\n\nThe team's intra-squad Lambeau scrimmage at the beginning of the season, marketed as Packers Family Night, is broadcast by WITI (Channel 6) in Milwaukee, and produced by WLUK-TV in Green Bay, both Fox affiliates which broadcast the bulk of the team's regular-season games. The scrimmage is also broadcast by the state's other Fox affiliates. It was aired for the first time in 2011 in high definition.\n\nIn 2015, six members of the Green Bay Packers — namely David Bakhtiari; Don Barclay; T.J. Lang; Clay Matthews; Jordan Rodgers and Josh Sitton — made an appearance as an a cappella group in the musical comedy, Pitch Perfect 2." ] }

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{ "doc_source": [ "Search" ], "filename": [ "History_of_the_United_States_Constitution.txt" ], "title": [ "History of the United States Constitution" ], "wiki_context": [ "The United States Constitution was written in 1787 during the Philadelphia Convention. The old Congress set the rules the new government followed in terms of writing and ratifying the new constitution. After ratification in eleven states, in 1789 its elected officers of government assembled in New York City, replacing the Articles of Confederation government. The original Constitution has been amended twenty-seven times. The meaning of the Constitution is interpreted and extended by judicial review in the federal courts. The original parchment copies are on display at the National Archives Building.\n\nTwo alternative plans were developed in Convention. The nationalist majority, soon to be called \"Federalists,\" put forth the Virginia Plan, a consolidated government based on proportional representation among the states by population. The \"old patriots,\" later called \"Anti-Federalists,\" advocated the New Jersey Plan, a purely federal proposal, based on providing each state with equal representation. The Connecticut Compromise allowed for both plans to work together. Other controversies developed regarding slavery and a Bill of Rights in the original document.\n\nThe drafted Constitution was submitted to the Confederation Congress. It in turn forwarded the Constitution as drafted to the states for ratification by the Constitutional method proposed. The Federalist Papers provided background and justification for the Constitution. Some states agreed to ratify the Constitution only if the amendments that were to become the Bill of Rights would be taken up immediately by the new government, and they were duly proposed in the first session of the First Congress.\n\nOnce the Articles Congress certified that eleven states had ratified the Constitution, elections were held, the new government began on March 4, 1789, and the Articles Congress dissolved itself. Later Amendments address individual liberties and freedoms, federal relationships, election procedures, terms of office, expanding the electorate, ending slavery, financing government, consumption of alcohol and Congressional pay. Criticism over the life of the Constitution has centered on expanding democracy and states rights.\n\nDeclaration of Independence\n\nOn June 4, 1776, a resolution was introduced in the Second Continental Congress declaring the union with Great Britain to be dissolved, proposing the formation of foreign alliances, and suggesting the drafting of a plan of confederation to be submitted to the respective states. Independence was declared on July 4, 1776; the preparation of a plan of confederation was postponed. Although the Declaration was a statement of principles, it did not create a government or even a framework for how politics would be carried out. It was the Articles of Confederation that provided the necessary structure to the new nation during and after the American Revolution. The Declaration, however, did set forth the ideas of natural rights and the social contract that would help form the foundation of constitutional government.\n\nThe era of the Declaration of Independence is sometimes called the \"Continental Congress\" period. John Adams famously estimated as many as one-third of those resident in the original thirteen colonies were patriots. Scholars such as Gordon Wood describe how Americans were caught up in the Revolutionary fervor and excitement of creating governments, societies, a new nation on the face of the earth by rational choice as Thomas Paine declared in Common Sense.\n\nRepublican government and personal liberty for \"the people\" were to overspread the New World continents and to last forever, a gift to posterity. These goals were influenced by Enlightenment philosophy. The adherents to this cause seized on English Whig political philosophy as described by historian Forrest McDonald as justification for most of their changes to received colonial charters and traditions. It was rooted in opposition to monarchy they saw as venal and corrupting to the \"permanent interests of the people.\"\n\nTo these partisans, voting was the only permanent defense of the people. Elected terms for legislature were cut to one year, for Virginia's Governor, one year without re-election. Property requirements for suffrage for men were reduced to taxes on their tools in some states. Free blacks in New York could vote if they owned enough property. New Hampshire was thinking of abolishing all voting requirements for men but residency and religion. New Jersey let women vote. In some states, senators were now elected by the same voters as the larger electorate for the House, and even judges were elected to one-year terms.\n\nThese \"radical Whigs\" were called the people \"out-of-doors.\" They distrusted not only royal authority, but any small, secretive group as being unrepublican. Crowds of men and women massed at the steps of rural Court Houses during market-militia-court days. Shays Rebellion is a famous example. Urban riots began by the out-of-doors rallies on the steps of an oppressive government official with speakers such as members of the Sons of Liberty holding forth in the \"people's \"committees\" until some action was decided upon, including hanging his effigy outside a bedroom window, or looting and burning down the offending tyrant's home.\n\nRevolutionary Congress\n\nThe government of the First and Second Continental Congress, the period from September 1774 to March 1, 1781 is referred to as the Revolutionary Congress. Beginning in 1777, the substantial powers assumed by Congress “made the league of states as cohesive and strong as any similar sort of republican confederation in history.” The process created the United States \"by the people in collectivity, rather than by the individual states.” because only four had state constitutions at the time of the Declaration of Independence founding the nation, and three of those were provisional. Prior to the Articles of Confederation, and the Articles Congress, the Supreme Court in Ware v. Hylton and again in Penhallow v. Doane's Administrators, perceived Congress as exercising powers derived from the people, expressly conferred through the medium of state conventions or legislatures, and, once exercised, \"impliedly ratified by the acquiescence and obedience of the people.” \n\nArticles of Confederation\n\nThe Articles of Confederation was unanimously adopted in 1781 once Maryland agreed. Over the previous four years, it had been used by Congress as a \"working document\" to administer the early United States government, win the Revolutionary War and secure the Treaty of Paris (1783) with Great Britain. Lasting successes during its life prior to the Constitutional Convention included the Land Ordinance of 1785 whereby Congress promised settlers west of the Appalachian Mountains full citizenship and eventual statehood. Some historians characterize this period from 1781 to 1789 as weakness, dissension, and turmoil. Other scholars view the evidence as reflecting an underlying stability and prosperity. But signs of returning prosperity in some areas did not slow growing domestic and foreign problems. Nationalists saw that the confederation's central government was not strong enough to establish a sound financial system, regulate trade, enforce treaties, or go to war when needed. \n\nThe Congress was the sole organ of the national government, without a national court to interpret law nor an executive branch to enforce them, in the states or on individuals. Governmental functions, including declarations of war and calls for an army, were supported in some degree for some time, by each state voluntarily, or not. These newly independent states separated from Britain no longer received favored treatment at British ports. The British refused to negotiate a commercial treaty in 1785 because the individual American states would not be bound by it. Congress could not act directly upon the States nor upon individuals. It had no authority to regulate foreign or interstate commerce. Every act of government was left to the individual States. Each state levied taxes and tariffs on other states at will, which invited retaliation. Congress could vote itself mediator and judge in state disputes, but states did not have to accept its decisions.\n\nThe weak central government could not back its policies with military strength, embarrassing it in foreign affairs. The British refused to withdraw their troops from the forts and trading posts in the new nation's Northwest Territory, as they had agreed to do in the Treaty of Paris of 1783. British officers on the northern boundaries and Spanish officers to the south supplied arms to Native American tribes, allowing them to attack American settlers. The Spanish refused to allow western American farmers to use their port of New Orleans to ship produce.\n\nRevenues were requisitioned by Congressional petition to each state. None paid what they were asked; sometimes some paid nothing. Congress appealed to the thirteen states for an amendment to the Articles to tax enough to pay the public debt as principal came due. Twelve states agreed, Rhode Island did not, so it failed. The Articles required super majorities. Amendment proposals to states required ratification by all thirteen states, all important legislation needed 70% approval, at least nine states. Repeatedly, one or two states defeated legislative proposals of major importance.\n\nWithout taxes the government could not pay its debt. Seven of the thirteen states printed large quantities of its own paper money, backed by gold, land, or nothing, so there was no fair exchange rate among them. State courts required state creditors to accept payments at face value with a fraction of real purchase power. The same legislation that these states used to wipe out the Revolutionary debt to patriots was used to pay off promised veteran pensions. The measures were popular because they helped both small farmers and plantation owners pay off their debts. \n\nThe Massachusetts legislature was one of the five against paper money. It imposed a tightly limited currency and high taxes. Without paper money veterans without cash lost their farms for back taxes. This triggered Shays Rebellion to stop tax collectors and close the courts. Troops quickly suppressed the rebellion, but nationalists like George Washington warned, \"There are combustibles in every state which a spark might set fire to.\" \n\nSteps to a convention\n\nMount Vernon Conference \n\nAn important milestone in interstate cooperation outside the framework of the Articles of Confederation occurred in March 1785, when delegates representing Maryland and Virginia met in Virginia, to address navigational rights in the states's common waterways. On March 28, 1785, the group drew up a thirteen-point proposal to govern the two states' rights on the Potomac River, Pocomoke River, and Chesapeake Bay. Known as the Mount Vernon Compact (formally titled the \"Compact of 1785\"), this agreement not only covered tidewater navigation but also extended to issues such as toll duties, commerce regulations, fishing rights, and debt collection. Ratified by the legislatures of both states, the compact, which is still in force, helped set a precedent for later meetings between states for discussions into areas of mutual concern.\n\nThe conference’s success encouraged James Madison to introduce a proposal in the Virginia General Assembly for further debate of interstate issues. With Maryland's agreement, on January 21, 1786, Virginia invited all the states to attend another interstate meeting later that year in Annapolis, Maryland, to discuss the trade barriers between the various states. \n\nConstitutional reforms considered\n\nThe Articles Congress received a report on August 7, 1786 from a twelve-member \"Grand Committee\", appointed to develop and present \"such amendments to the Confederation, and such resolutions as it may be necessary to recommend to the several states, for the purpose of obtaining from them such powers as will render the federal government adequate to\" its declared purposes. Seven amendments to the Articles of Confederation were proposed. Under these reforms, Congress would gain \"sole and exclusive\" power to regulate trade. States could not favor foreigners over citizens. Tax bills would require 70% vote, public debt 85%, not 100%. Congress could charge states a late payment penalty fee. A state withholding troops would be charged for them, plus a penalty. If a state did not pay, Congress could collect directly from its cities and counties. A state payment on another's requisition would earn annual 6%. There would have been a national court of seven. No-shows at Congress would have been banned from any U.S. or state office. These proposals were, however, sent back to committee without a vote and were not taken up again. \n\nAnnapolis Convention \n\nThe Annapolis Convention, formally titled \"A Meeting of Commissioners to Remedy Defects of the Federal Government\", convened at George Mann's Tavern on September 11, 1786. Delegates from five states gathered to discuss ways to facilitate commerce between the states and establish standard rules and regulations. At the time, each state was largely independent from the others and the national government had no authority in these matters. \n\nAppointed delegates from four states either arrived too late to participate or otherwise decided not attend. Because so few states were present, delegates did not deem \"it advisable to proceed on the business of their mission.\" However, they did adopt a report calling for another convention of the states to discuss possible improvements to the Articles of Confederation. They desired that Constitutional Convention take place in Philadelphia in the summer of 1787. \n\nVirginia and five other states immediately approved and appointed their delegations. New York and others hesitated thinking that only the Continental Congress could propose amendments to the Articles. George Washington was unwilling to attend an irregular convention like failed Annapolis Convention. Congress then called the convention at Philadelphia. The \"Federal Constitution\" was to be changed to meet the requirements of good government and \"the preservation of the Union\". Congress would then approve what measures it allowed, then the state legislatures would unanimously confirm whatever changes of those were to take effect.\n\nConstitutional Convention\n\nTwelve state legislatures, Rhode Island being the only exception, sent delegates to convene at Philadelphia in May 1787. While the resolution calling the Convention specified that its purpose was to propose amendments to the Articles, through discussion and debate it became clear by mid-June that the Convention would propose a Constitution with a fundamentally new design. \n\nSessions\n\nThe Congress of the Confederation endorsed a plan to revise the Articles of Confederation on February 21, 1787. It called on each state legislature to send delegates to a convention \"'for the sole and express purpose of revising the Articles of Confederation' in ways that, when approved by Congress and the states, would 'render the federal constitution adequate to the exigencies of government and the preservation of the Union.'\"\n\nTo amend the Articles into a workable government, 74 delegates from the twelve states were named by their state legislatures; 55 showed up, and 39 eventually signed. On May 3, eleven days early, James Madison arrived to Philadelphia and met with James Wilson of the Pennsylvania delegation to plan strategy. Madison outlined his plan in letters that (1) State legislatures each send delegates, not the Articles Congress. (2) Convention reaches agreement with signatures from every state. (3) The Articles Congress approves forwarding it to the state legislatures. (4) The state legislatures independently call one-time conventions to ratify, selecting delegates by each state's various rules of suffrage. The Convention was to be \"merely advisory\" to the people voting in each state.\n\nConvening\n\nGeorge Washington arrived on time, Sunday, the day before the scheduled opening. For the entire duration of the Convention, Washington was a guest at the home of Robert Morris, Congress' financier for the American Revolution and a Pennsylvania delegate. Morris entertained the delegates lavishly. William Jackson, in two years to be the president of the Society of the Cincinnati, had been Morris' agent in England for a time; and he won election as a non-delegate to be the convention secretary.\n\nThe convention was scheduled to open May 14, but only Pennsylvania and Virginia delegations were present. The Convention was postponed until a quorum of seven states gathered on Friday the 25th. George Washington was elected the Convention president, and Chancellor (judge) George Wythe (Va) was chosen Chair of the Rules Committee. The rules of the Convention were published the following Monday.\n\nNathaniel Gorham (Ma) was elected Chair of the \"Committee of the Whole\". These were the same delegates in the same room, but they could use informal rules for the interconnected provisions in the draft articles to be made, remade and reconnected as the order of business proceeded. The Convention officials and adopted procedures were in place before the arrival of nationalist opponents such as John Lansing (NY) and Luther Martin (MD). By the end of May, the stage was set.\n\nThe Constitutional Convention voted to keep the debates secret so that the delegates could speak freely, negotiate, bargain, compromise and change. Yet the proposed Constitution as reported from the Convention was an \"innovation\", the most dismissive epithet a politician could use to condemn any new proposal. It promised a fundamental change from the old confederation into a new, consolidated yet federal government. The accepted secrecy of usual affairs conducted in regular order did not apply. It became a major issue in the very public debates leading up to the crowd-filled ratification conventions.\n\nDespite the public outcry against secrecy among its critics, the delegates continued in positions of public trust. State legislatures chose ten Convention delegates of their 33 total for the Articles Congress that September.\n\nAgenda\n\nEvery few days, new delegates arrived, happily noted in Madison's Journal. But as the Convention went on, individual delegate coming and going meant that a state's vote could change with the change of delegation composition. The volatility added to the inherent difficulties, making for an \"ever-present danger that the Convention might dissolve and the entire project be abandoned.\"\n\nAlthough twelve states sent delegations, there were never more than eleven represented in the floor debates, often fewer. State delegations absented themselves at votes different times of day. There was no minimum for a state delegation; one would do. Daily sessions would have thirty members present. Members came and went on public and personal business. The Articles Congress was meeting at the same time, so members would absent themselves to New York City on Congressional business for days and weeks at a time.\n\nBut the work before them was continuous, even if attendance was not. The Convention resolved itself into a \"Committee of the Whole\", and could remain so for days. It was informal, votes could be taken and retaken easily, positions could change without prejudice, and importantly, no formal quorum call was required. The nationalists were resolute. As Madison put it, the situation was too serious for despair. They used the same State House, later named Independence Hall, as the Declaration signers. The building setback from the street was still dignified, but the \"shaky\" steeple was gone. When they adjourned each day, they lived in nearby lodgings, as guests, roomers or renters. They ate supper with one another in town and taverns, \"often enough in preparation for tomorrow's meeting.\"\n\nDelegates reporting to the Convention presented their credentials to the Secretary, Major William Jackson of South Carolina. The state legislatures of the day used these occasions to say why they were sending representatives abroad. New York thus publicly enjoined its members to pursue all possible \"alterations and provisions\" for good government and \"preservation of the Union\". New Hampshire called for \"timely measures to enlarge the powers of Congress\". Virginia stressed the \"necessity of extending the revision of the federal system to all its defects\".\n\nOn the other hand, Delaware categorically forbade any alteration of the Articles one-state, equal vote, one-vote-only provision in the Articles Congress. The Convention would have a great deal of work to do to reconcile the many expectations in the chamber. At the same time, delegates wanted to finish their work by fall harvest and its commerce.\n\nMay 29, Edmund Randolph (VA) proposed the Virginia Plan that would serve as the unofficial agenda for the Convention. It was weighted toward the interests of the larger, more populous states. The intent was to meet the purposes set out in the Articles of Confederation, \"common defense, security of liberty and general welfare\". The Virginia Plan was national, authority flowed from the people. If the people will ratify them, changes for better republican government and national union should be proposed.\n\nMuch of the Virginia Plan was adopted. All the powers in the Articles transfer to the new government. Congress has two houses, the 'house' apportioned by population. It can enact laws affecting more than one state and Congress can override a veto. The President can enforce the law. The Supreme Court and inferior courts rule on international, U.S. and state law. The Constitution is the supreme law and all state officers swear to uphold the Constitution. Every state is a republic, and new states can be admitted. The Articles Congress continued until the new system started. Amendments are possible without Congress. The Convention recommendations went to Congress, from them to the states. State legislatures set the election rules for ratification conventions, and the people \"expressly\" chose representatives to consider and decide about the Constitution.\n\nJune 15, William Patterson (NJ) proposed the Convention minority's New Jersey Plan. It was weighted toward the interests of the smaller, less populous states. The intent was to preserve the states from a plan to \"destroy or annihilate\" them. The New Jersey Plan was purely federal, authority flowed from the states. Gradual change should come from the states. If the Articles could not be amended, then advocates argued that should be the report from the Convention to the states. \n\nAlthough the New Jersey Plan only survived three days as an alternate proposal, substantial elements of it were adopted. The articles were \"revised, corrected and enlarged\" for good government and preservation of the Union. The Senate is elected by the states, at first by the state legislatures. Congress passes acts for revenue collected directly in the states, and the rulings of state courts are reviewed by the Supreme Court. State apportionment for taxes failed, but the 'house' is apportioned by the population count of free inhabitants and three-fifths of others originally. States can be added to the Union. Presidents appoint federal judges. Treaties entered into by Congress are the supreme law of the land. All state judiciaries are bound to enforce treaties, state laws notwithstanding. The President can raise an army to enforce treaties in any state. States treat a violation of law in another state as though it happened there.\n\nCurrent knowledge of drafting the Constitution comes primarily from the Journal left by James Madison, found chronologically incorporated in Max Farrand's \"The Records of the Federal Convention of 1787\", which included the Convention Journal and sources from other Federalists and Anti-Federalists. \n\nScholars observe that it is unusual in world history for the minority in a revolution to have the influence that the \"old patriot\" Anti-Federalists had over the \"nationalist\" Federalists who had the support of the revolutionary army in the Society of the Cincinnati. Both factions were intent on forging a nation in which both could be full participants in the changes which were sure to come, since that was most likely to allow for their national union, guarantee liberty for their posterity, and promote their mutual long-term material prosperity.\n\nSlavery in debate\n\nThe contentious issue of slavery was too controversial to be resolved during the Convention. But it was at center stage in the Convention three times, June 7 regarding who would vote for Congress, June 11 in debate over how to proportion relative seating in the 'house', and August 22 relating to commerce and the future wealth of the nation.\n\nOnce the Convention looked at how to proportion the House representation, tempers among several delegates exploded over slavery. When the Convention progressed beyond the personal attacks, it adopted the existing \"federal ratio\" for taxing states by three-fifths of slaves held.\n\nOn August 6, the Committee of Detail reported its proposed revisions to the Randolph Plan. Again the question of slavery came up, and again the question was met with attacks of outrage. Over the next two weeks, delegates wove a web of mutual compromises relating to commerce and trade, east and west, slave-holding and free. The transfer of power to regulate slave trade from states to central government could happen in 20 years, but only then. Later generations could try out their own answers. The delegates were trying to make a government that might last that long.\n\nMigration of the free or \"importation\" of indentures and slaves could continue by states, defining slaves as persons, not property. Long-term power would change by population as counted every ten years. Apportionment in the House would not be by wealth, it would be by people, the free citizens and three-fifths the number of other persons meaning propertyless slaves and taxed Indian farming families.\n\nIn 1806, President Thomas Jefferson sent a message to the 9th Congress on their constitutional opportunity to remove U.S. citizens from the transatlantic slave trade \"[violating] human rights\". The 1807 \"Act Prohibiting Importation of Slaves\" took effect the first instant the Constitution allowed, January 1, 1808. The United States joined the British Parliament that year in the first \"international humanitarian campaign\". \n\nIn the 1840-1860 era abolitionists denounced the Fugitive Slave Clause and other protections of slavery. William Lloyd Garrison famously declared the Constitution \"a covenant with death and an agreement with Hell.\" \n\nIn ratification conventions, the anti-slavery delegates sometimes began as anti-ratification votes. Still, the Constitution \"as written\" was an improvement over the Articles from an abolitionist point of view. The Constitution provided for abolition of the slave trade but the Articles did not. The outcome could be determined gradually over time. Sometimes contradictions among opponents were used to try to gain abolitionist converts. In Virginia, Federalist George Nicholas dismissed fears on both sides. Objections to the Constitution were inconsistent, \"At the same moment it is opposed for being promotive and destructive of slavery!\" But the contradiction was never resolved peaceably, and the failure to do so contributed to the Civil War. \n\n\"Great Compromise\"\n\nRoger Sherman (CT), although something of a political broker in Connecticut, was an unlikely leader in the august company of the Convention. But on June 11, he proposed the first version of the Convention's \"Great Compromise\". It was like the proposal he made in the 1776 Continental Congress. Representation in Congress should be both by states and by population. There, he was voted down by the small states in favor of all states equal, one vote only. Now in 1787 Convention, he wanted to balance all the big-state victories for population apportionment. He proposed that in the second 'senate' branch of the legislature, each state should be equal, one vote and no more. The motion for equal state representation in a 'senate' failed: 6 against, 5 for. \n\nAfter these defeats, the delegates who called themselves the \"old patriots\" of 1776 and the \"men of original principles\" organized a caucus in the Convention. William Paterson (NJ) spoke for them introducing his \"New Jersey Plan\". Roger Sherman (CT), a signer of the Declaration of Independence, was with them. Supporters explained that it \"sustained the sovereignty of the states\", while the Edmund Randolph (VA) \"Virginia Plan\" erased it. The Convention had no authority to propose anything not sent up from state legislatures, and the states were not likely to adopt anything new. The \"nationalists\" answered, The Convention could not conclude anything, but it could recommend anything.\n\n\"Patriots\" said if their legislature knew anything about proposals for consolidated government, it would not have sent anyone. \"Nationalists\" countered, that it would be treason to withhold any proposal for good government when the salvation of the American republic was at stake. Three sessions after its introduction, the New Jersey Plan failed : 7 against, 3 for, 1 divided. For nearly a month there was no progress; small states were seriously thinking of walking out of the Convention.\n\nThen June 25, the \"original principles\" men finally won a vote. The 'senate' would be chosen by the state legislatures, not the people, passed: 9 for, 2 against. The basis of representation for both the 'house' and the 'senate' re-surfaced. Sherman tried a second time to get his idea for a 'house' on the basis of population and a 'senate' on an equal states basis. The \"big states\" got their population 'house' win, then his equal state 'senate' motion was dropped without a vote. The majority adjourned \"before a determination was taken in the House.\" Luther Martin (MD) insisted that he would rather divide the Union into regional governments than submit to a consolidated government under the Randolph Plan.\n\nSherman's proposal came up again for the third time from Oliver Ellsworth (CT). In the \"senate\", the states should have equal representation. Advocates said that if could not be agreed to, the union would fall apart somehow. Big states would not be trusted, the small states could confederate with a foreign power showing \"more good faith\". If delegates could not unite behind this here, one day the states could be united by \"some foreign sword\". On the question of equal state representation, the Convention adjourned in the same way again, \"before a determination was taken in the House.\". \n\nOn July 2, the Convention for the fourth time considered a \"senate\" with equal state votes. This time a vote was taken, but it stalled again, tied at 5 yes, 5 no, 1 divided. The Convention elected one delegate out of the delegation of each state onto a Committee to make a proposal; it reported July 5. Nothing changed over five days. July 10, Lansing and Yates (NY) quit the Convention in protest over the big state majorities repeatedly overrunning the small state delegations in vote after vote. No direct vote on the basis of 'senate' representation was pushed on the floor for another week.\n\nBut the Convention floor leaders kept moving forward where they could. First the new 'house' seat apportionment was agreed, balancing big and small, north and south. The big states got a decennial census for 'house' apportionment to reflect their future growth. Northerners had insisted on counting only free citizens for the 'house'; southern delegations wanted to add property. Benjamin Franklin's compromise was that there would be no \"property\" provision to add representatives, but states with large slave populations would get a bonus added to their free persons by counting three-fifths other persons.\n\nOn July 16, Sherman's \"Great Compromise\" prevailed on its fifth try. Every state was to have equal numbers in the United States Senate. Washington ruled it passed on the vote 5 yes, 4 no, 1 divided. It was not that five was a majority of twelve, but to keep the business moving forward, he used precedent established in the Convention earlier. Now some of the big-state delegates talked of walking out, but none did. Debate over the next ten days developed an agreed general outline for the Constitution. Small states readily yielded on many questions. Most remaining delegates, big-state and small, now felt safe enough to chance a new plan.\n\nTwo new branches\n\nThe Constitution innovated two branches of government that were not a part of the U.S. government during the Articles of Confederation. Previously, a thirteen-member committee had been left behind in Philadelphia when Congress adjourned to carry out the \"executive\" functions. Suits between states were referred to the Articles Congress, and treated as a private bill to be determined by majority vote of members attending that day.\n\nOn June 7, the \"national executive\" was taken up in Convention. The \"chief magistrate\", or 'presidency' was of serious concern for a formerly colonial people fearful of concentrated power in one person. But to secure a \"vigorous executive\", nationalist delegates such as James Wilson (PA), Charles Pinckney (SC), and John Dickenson (DE) favored a single officer. They had someone in mind whom everyone could trust to start off the new system, George Washington.\n\nAfter introducing the item for discussion, there was a prolonged silence. Benjamin Franklin (Pa) and John Rutledge (SC) had urged everyone to speak their minds freely. When addressing the issue with George Washington in the room, delegates were careful to phrase their objections to potential offenses by officers chosen in the future who would be 'president' \"subsequent\" to the start-up. Roger Sherman (CT), Edmund Randolph (VA) and Pierce Butler (SC) all objected, preferring two or three persons in the executive, as had the ancient Roman Republic.\n\nNathaniel Gorham was Chair of the Committee of the Whole, so Washington sat in the Virginia delegation where everyone could see how he voted. The vote for a one-man 'presidency' carried 7-for, 3-against, New York, Delaware and Maryland in the negative. Virginia, along with George Washington, had voted yes. As of that vote for a single 'presidency', George Mason (VA) gravely announced to the floor, that as of that moment, the Confederation's federal government was \"in some measure dissolved by the meeting of this Convention.\"\n\nThe Convention was following the Randolph Plan for an agenda, taking each resolve in turn to move proceedings forward. They returned to items when overnight coalitions required adjustment to previous votes to secure a majority on the next item of business. June 19, and it was Randolph's Ninth Resolve next, about the national court system. On the table was the nationalist proposal for the inferior (lower) courts in the national judiciary.\n\nPure 1776 republicanism had not given much credit to judges, who would set themselves up apart from and sometimes contradicting the state legislature, the voice of the sovereign people. Under the precedent of English Common Law according to William Blackstone, the legislature, following proper procedure, was for all constitutional purposes, \"the people.\" This dismissal of unelected officers sometimes took an unintended turn among the people. One of John Adams clients believed the First Continental Congress in 1775 had assumed the sovereignty of Parliament, and so abolished all previously established courts in Massachusetts.\n\nIn the Convention, looking at a national system, Judge Wilson (PA) sought appointments by a single person to avoid legislative payoffs. Judge Rutledge (SC) was against anything but one national court, a Supreme Court to receive appeals from the highest state courts, like the South Carolina court he presided over as Chancellor. Rufus King (MA) thought national district courts in each state would cost less than appeals that otherwise would go to the 'supreme court' in the national capital. National inferior courts passed but making appointments by 'congress' was crossed out and left blank so the delegates could take it up later after \"maturer reflection.\"\n\nRe-allocate power\n\nThe Constitutional Convention created a new, unprecedented form of government by reallocating powers of government. Every previous national authority had been either a centralized government, or a \"confederation of sovereign constituent states.\" The American power-sharing was unique at the time. The sources and changes of power were up to the states. The foundations of government and extent of power came from both national and state sources. But the new government would have a national operation. To meet their goals of cementing the Union and securing citizen rights, Framers allocated power among executive, senate, house and judiciary of the central government. But each state government in their variety continued exercising powers in their own sphere.\n\nIncrease Congress\n\nThe Convention did not start with national powers from scratch, it began with the powers already vested in the Articles Congress with control of the military, international relations and commerce. The Constitution added ten more. Five were minor relative to power sharing, including business and manufacturing protections. One important new power authorized Congress to protect states from the \"domestic violence\" of riot and civil disorder, but it was conditioned by a state request.\n\nThe Constitution increased Congressional power to organize, arm and discipline the state militias, to use them to enforce the laws of Congress, suppress rebellions within the states and repel invasions. But the Second Amendment would ensure that Congressional power could not be used to disarm state militias. \n\nTaxation substantially increased the power of Congress relative to the states. It was limited by restrictions, forbidding taxes on exports, per capita taxes, requiring import duties to be uniform and that taxes be applied to paying U.S. debt. But the states were stripped of their ability to levy taxes on imports, which was at the time, \"by far the most bountiful source of tax revenues\".\n\nCongress had no further restrictions relating to political economy. It could institute protective tariffs, for instance. Congress overshadowed state power regulating interstate commerce; the United States would be the \"largest area of free trade in the world.\" The most undefined grant of power was the power to \"make laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution\" the Constitution's enumerated powers.\n\nLimit governments\n\nAs of ratification, sovereignty was no longer to be theoretically indivisible. With a wide variety of specific powers among different branches of national governments and thirteen republican state governments, now \"each of the portions of powers delegated to the one or to the other ... is ... sovereign with regard to its proper objects\". There were some powers that remained beyond the reach of both national powers and state powers, so the logical seat of American \"sovereignty\" belonged directly with the people-voters of each state.\n\nBesides expanding Congressional power, the Constitution limited states and central government. Six limits on the national government addressed property rights such as slavery and taxes. Six protected liberty such as prohibiting ex post facto laws and no religious tests for national offices in any state, even if they had them for state offices. Five were principles of a republic, as in legislative appropriation. These restrictions lacked systematic organization, but all constitutional prohibitions were practices that the British Parliament had \"legitimately taken in the absence of a specific denial of the authority.\"\n\nThe regulation of state power presented a \"qualitatively different\" undertaking. In the state constitutions, the people did not enumerate powers. They gave their representatives every right and authority not explicitly reserved to themselves. The Constitution extended the limits that the states had previously imposed upon themselves under the Articles of Confederation, forbidding taxes on imports and disallowing treaties among themselves, for example.\n\nIn light of the repeated abuses by ex post facto laws passed by the state legislatures, 1783–1787, the Constitution prohibited ex post facto laws and bills of attainder to protect United States citizen property rights and right to a fair trial. Congressional power of the purse was protected by forbidding taxes or restraint on interstate commerce and foreign trade. States could make no law \"impairing the obligation of contracts.\" To check future state abuses the framers searched for a way to review and veto state laws harming the national welfare or citizen rights. They rejected proposals for Congressional veto of state laws and gave the Supreme Court appellate case jurisdiction over state law because the Constitution is the supreme law of the land. The United States had such a geographical extent that it could only be safely governed using a combination of republics. Federal judicial districts would follow those state lines.\n\nPopulation power\n\nThe British had relied upon a concept of \"virtual representation\" to give legitimacy to their House of Commons. It was not necessary to elect anyone from a large port city, or the American colonies, because the representatives of \"rotten boroughs\", the mostly abandoned medieval fair towns with twenty voters, \"virtually represented\" them. Philadelphia in the colonies was second in population only to London.\n\nThey were all Englishmen, supposed to be a single people, with one definable interest. Legitimacy came from membership in Parliament of the sovereign realm, not elections from people. As Blackstone explained, the Member is \"not bound ... to consult with, or take the advice, of his constituents.\" As Constitutional historian Gordon Wood elaborated, \"The Commons of England contained all of the people's power and were considered to be the very persons of the people they represented.\"\n\nWhile the English \"virtual representation\" was hardening into a theory of Parliamentary sovereignty, the American theory of representation was moving towards a theory of sovereignty of the people. In their new constitutions written since 1776, Americans required community residency of voters and representatives, expanded suffrage, and equalized populations in voting districts. There was a sense that representation \"had to be proportioned to the population.\" The Convention would apply the new principle of \"sovereignty of the people\" both to the House of Representatives, and to the United States Senate.\n\nHouse changes\n\nOnce the Great Compromise was reached, delegates in Convention then agreed to a decennial census to count the population. The Americans themselves did not allow for universal suffrage for all adults. Their sort of \"virtual representation\" said that those voting in a community could understand and themselves represent non-voters when they had like interests that were unlike other political communities. There were enough differences among people in different American communities for those differences to have a meaningful social and economic reality. Thus New England colonial legislatures would not tax communities which had not yet elected representatives. When the royal governor of Georgia refused to allow representation to be seated from four new counties, the legislature refused to tax them.\n\nThe 1776 Americans had begun to demand expansion of the franchise, and in each step, they found themselves pressing towards a philosophical \"actuality of consent.\" The Convention determined that the power of the people, should be felt in the House of Representatives. For the U.S. Congress, persons alone were counted. Property was not counted.\n\nSenate changes\n\nThe Convention found it more difficult to give expression to the will of the people in new states. What state might be \"lawfully arising\" outside the boundaries of the existing thirteen states? The new government was like the old, to be made up of pre-existing states. Now there was to be admission of new states. Regular order would provide new states by state legislatures for Kentucky, Tennessee and Maine. But the Articles Congress had by its Northwest Ordnance presented the Convention with a new issue. Settlers in the Northwest Territory might one day constitute themselves into \"no more than five\" states. More difficult still, most delegates anticipated adding alien peoples of Canada, Louisiana and Florida to United States territory. Generally in American history, European citizens of empire were given U.S. citizenship on territorial acquisition. Should they become states?\n\nSome delegates were reluctant to expand into any so \"remote wilderness\". It would retard the commercial development of the east. They would be easily influenced, \"foreign gold\" would corrupt them. Western peoples were the least desirable Americans, only good for perpetual provinces. There were so many foreigners moving out west, there was no telling how things would turn out. These were poor people, they could not pay their fair share of taxes. It would be \"suicide\" for the original states. New states could become a majority in the Senate, they would abuse their power, \"enslaving\" the original thirteen. If they also loved liberty, and could not tolerate eastern state dominance, they would be justified in civil war. Western trade interests could drag the country into an inevitable war with Spain for the Mississippi River. As time wore on, any war for the Mississippi River was obviated by the 1803 Louisiana Purchase and the 1812 American victory at New Orleans.\n\nEven if there were to be western states, a House representation of 40,000 might be too small, too easy for the westerners. \"States\" had been declared out west already. They called themselves republics, and set up their own courts directly from the people without colonial charters. In Transylvania, Westsylvania, Franklin, and Vandalia, \"legislatures\" met with emissaries from British and Spanish Empires in violation of the Articles of Confederation, just as the sovereign states had done. In the Constitution as written, no majorities in Congress could break up the larger states without their consent.\n\n\"New state\" advocates had no fear of western states achieving a majority one day. For example, the British sought to curb American growth. That brought hate, then separation. Follow the same rule, get the same results. Congress has never been able to discover a better rule than majority rule. If they grow, let them rule. As they grow, they must get all their supplies from eastern businesses. Character is not determined by points of a compass. States admitted are equals, they will be made up of our brethren. Commit to right principles, even if the right way, one day, benefits other states. They will be free like ourselves, their pride will not allow anything but equality.\n\nIt was at this time in the Convention that Reverend Manasseh Cutler arrived to lobby for western land sales. He brought acres of land grants to parcel out. Their sales would fund most of the U.S. government expenditures for its first few decades. There were allocations for the Ohio Company stockholders at the Convention, and for others delegates too. Good to his word, in December 1787, Cutler led a small band of pioneers into the Ohio Valley.\n\nThe provision for admitting new states became relevant at the purchase of Louisiana. It was constitutionally justifiable under the \"treaty making\" power of the federal government. The agrarian advocates sought to make the purchase of land that had never been administered, conquered, or formally ceded to any of the original thirteen states. Jefferson's Democratic-Republicans would divide the Louisiana Purchase into states, speeding land sales to finance the federal government with no new taxes. The new populations of new states would swamp the commercial states in the Senate. They would populate the House with egalitarian Democrat-Republicans to overthrow the Federalists. Jefferson dropped the proposal of Constitutional amendment to permit the purchase, and with it, his notion of a confederation of sovereign states.\n\nFinal document\n\nAfter nearly four months of debate, on September 8, 1787, the final text of the Constitution was set down and revised. Then, an official copy of the document was engrossed by Jacob Shallus. The effort consisted of copying the text (prelude, articles and endorsement) on four sheets of vellum parchment, made from treated animal skin and measuring approximately 28 in by 23 in, probably with a goose quill. Shallus engrossed the entire document except for the list of states at the end of the document, which are in Alexander Hamilton's handwriting. On September 17, 1787, following a speech given by Benjamin Franklin, 39 delegates endorsed and submitted the Constitution to the Congress of the Confederation. \n\nRatification of the Constitution\n\nMassachusetts' Rufus King assessed the Convention as a creature of the states, independent of the Articles Congress, submitting its proposal to Congress only to satisfy forms. Though amendments were debated, they were all defeated. On September 28, 1787, the Articles Congress resolved \"unanimously\" to transmit the Constitution to state legislatures for submitting to a ratification convention according to the Constitutional procedure. Several states enlarged the numbers qualified just for electing ratification delegates. In doing so, they went beyond the Constitution's provision for the most voters for the state legislature.\n\nDelaware, on December 7, 1787, became the first State to ratify the new Constitution, with its vote being unanimous. Pennsylvania ratified on December 12, 1787, by a vote of 46 to 23 (66.67%). New Jersey ratified on December 19, 1787, and Georgia on January 2, 1788, both with unanimous votes. The requirement of ratification by nine states, set by Article Seven of the Constitution, was met when New Hampshire voted to ratify, on June 21, 1788.\n\nIn New York, fully two thirds of the convention delegates were at first opposed to the Constitution. Hamilton led the Federalist campaign, which included the fast-paced appearance of The Federalist Papers in New York newspapers. An attempt to attach conditions to ratification almost succeeded, but on July 26, 1788, New York ratified, with a recommendation that a bill of rights be appended. The vote was close – yeas 30 (52.6%), nays 27 – due largely to Hamilton's forensic abilities and his reaching a few key compromises with moderate anti-Federalists led by Melancton Smith.\n\nFollowing Massachusetts's lead, the Federalist minorities in both Virginia and New York were able to obtain ratification in convention by linking ratification to recommended amendments. A minority of the Constitution's critics continued to oppose the Constitution. Maryland's Luther Martin argued that the federal convention had exceeded its authority; he still called for amending the Articles. Article 13 of the Articles of Confederation stated that the union created under the Articles was \"perpetual\" and that any alteration must be \"agreed to in a Congress of the United States, and be afterwards confirmed by the legislatures of every State\". \n\nHowever, the unanimity required under the Articles made all attempts at reform impossible. Martin's allies such as New York's John Lansing, Jr., dropped moves to obstruct the Convention's process. They began to take exception to the Constitution \"as it was\", seeking amendments. Several conventions saw supporters for \"amendments before\" shift to a position of \"amendments after\" for the sake of staying in the Union. New York Anti's \"circular letter\" was sent to each state legislature proposing a second constitutional convention for \"amendments before\". It failed in the state legislatures. Ultimately only North Carolina and Rhode Island would wait for amendments from Congress before ratifying.\n\nArticle VII of the proposed constitution stipulated that only nine of the thirteen states would have to ratify for the new government to go into effect for the participating states. By the end of July 1788, eleven states had ratified the Constitution, and soon thereafter, the process of organizing the new government began. On September 13, 1788, the Articles Congress certified that the new Constitution had been ratified by more than enough states for it to go into effect. Congress fixed the city of New York as the temporary seat of the new government and set the dates for the election of representatives and presidential electors. It also set the date for operations to begin under the new government. This occurred on March 4, 1789, when the First Congress convened.\n\nThe membership of the new Congress was decidedly federalist. In the eleven-state (minus North Carolina and Rhode Island) Senate 20 were Federalist and two Anti-federalist (both from Virginia). The House included 48 Federalists and 11 Anti-federalists (from four states: Massachusetts, New York, South Carolina, and Virginia). On April 6 the House and Senate held a joint meeting to count the electoral vote. George Washington was unanimously elected the first president, even receiving the electoral vote of ardent anti-federalist Patrick Henry. John Adams of Massachusetts was elected vice president. Both were sworn into office on April 30, 1789. The business of setting up the new government was completed.\n\nAnti-Federalists' fears of personal oppression by Congress were allayed by amendments passed under the floor leadership of James Madison during the first session of Congress. These first ten Amendments became known as the Bill of Rights. Objections to a potentially remote federal judiciary were reconciled with 13 federal courts (11 states, plus Maine and Kentucky), and three federal riding circuits out of the Supreme Court: Eastern, Middle and South. Suspicion of a powerful federal executive was answered by Washington's cabinet appointments of once-Anti-Federalists Edmund Jennings Randolph as Attorney General and Thomas Jefferson as Secretary of State. What Constitutional historian Pauline Maier termed a national \"dialogue between power and liberty\" had begun anew.\n\nAmendments to the Constitution\n\nSince the beginning of federal operations under the Constitution in 1789 through the beginning of 2013, approximately 11,539 proposals to amend the Constitution have been introduced in the United States Congress. Of these, thirty-three have been approved by Congress and sent to the states for ratification. Twenty-seven of these amendments have been ratified and are now part of the Constitution. The first ten amendments were adopted and ratified simultaneously and are known collectively as the Bill of Rights. Prior to the Twenty-seventh Amendment, which languished for 202 years, 7 months, 12 days before being ratified (submitted for ratification in 1789 as part of the Bill of Rights, but not ratified until 1992), the Twenty-second Amendment held the record for longest time taken to successfully complete the ratification process – 3 years, 11 months, 6 days. The Twenty-sixth Amendment holds the record for shortest time taken – 3 months, 8 days. Six amendments adopted by Congress and sent to the states have not been ratified by the required number of states and are not part of the Constitution. Four of these are still technically open and pending, one is closed and has failed by its own terms, and one is closed and has failed by the terms of the resolution proposing it.\n\nBill of Rights\n\nMuch of opposition to the proposed Constitution within several states arose, not because the machinery of the new frame of government was considered unworkable or because strengthening the union between the 13 states viewed as undesirable. The debates in the state ratifying conventions centered around the absence of anything equivalent to the bill of rights found in several state constitutions. George Mason, a delegate to the 1787 Constitutional Convention, and the author of the Virginia Declaration of Rights, refused to sign the document because he felt it did not specifically spell out or protect individual rights sufficiently. He also opposed the constitution when it was brought before the state for ratification. He acquiesced and the convention voted narrowly to give its assent only after it was decided that a list of twenty proposed amendments be sent along with the state's resolution of ratification. Delegates to Massachusetts' convention had many of the same concerns, and along with its notification of approval made a request for nine alterations, the first among them being \"that it be explicitly declared that all powers not specifically delegated to Congress by the Constitution are reserved to the states to be exercised by them.\" New York, not to be outdone, appended a list of thirty-two requested amendments plus a lengthy statement of impressions and explanations about the new Constitution to their affirmative vote.\n\nThe sharp Anti-Federalist critique of the Constitution did not abate after it became operational, and by the time the First Congress convened in March 1789, there existed widespread sentiment in both the House and Senate in favor of making alterations. That September, Congress adopted twelve amendments and sent to the states for ratification. Ten of these were ratified by the required number of states in December 1791 and became part of the Constitution. These amendments enumerate freedoms not explicitly indicated in the main body of the Constitution, such as freedom of religion, freedom of speech, a free press, and free assembly; the right to keep and bear arms; freedom from unreasonable search and seizure, security in personal effects, and freedom from warrants issued without probable cause; indictment by a grand jury for a capital or \"infamous crime\"; guarantee of a speedy, public trial with an impartial jury; and prohibition of double jeopardy. In addition, the Bill of Rights reserves for the people any rights not specifically mentioned in the Constitution and reserves all powers not specifically granted to the federal government to the people or the States.\n\nSubsequent amendments\n\nAmendments to the Constitution subsequent to the Bill of Rights cover a wide range of subjects. Several have added significant content to the original document. One of the most far-reaching is the Fourteenth, ratified in 1868, which establishes a clear and simple definition of citizenship and guarantees equal treatment under the law. Also significant are the Fifteenth, Nineteenth, Twenty-fourth, and Twenty-sixth, which were enacted to extend the right to vote to persons previously considered ineligible and also to protect their exercise of that right. One Amendment, the Eighteenth, which criminalized the production, transport and sale of alcohol nationwide, was later repealed by another, the Twenty-first. Nine ratified amendments (11, 12, 13, 14, 16, 17, 20, 22, and 25 ) have explicitly superseded or modified the text of the original Constitution.\n\nCriticism of the Constitution\n\nExpand democracy\n\nIn the early twentieth century Lochner era, the Supreme Court ruled unconstitutional various state laws that limited labor contracts. The Constitution was criticized as putting the government at the beck and call of big business. \n\nMore recent criticism has often been academic and limited to particular features. University of Texas law professor Sanford Levinson wonders whether it makes sense for the Connecticut Compromise to give \"Wyoming the same number of votes as California, which has roughly seventy times the population\". Levinson thinks this imbalance causes a \"steady redistribution of resources from large states to small states.\" Levinson is critical of the Electoral College as it allows the possibility of electing presidents who do not win the majority, or even plurality, of votes. Four times in American history, presidents have been elected despite failing to win a plurality of the popular vote: 1824 (John Quincy Adams), 1876 (Rutherford B. Hayes), 1888 (Benjamin Harrison) and 2000 (George W. Bush). The current impeachment powers do not give the people a quick way to remove incompetent or ill presidents, in his view. Others have criticized gerrymandering.\n\nYale professor Robert A. Dahl sees a problem with an American tendency towards worship of the Constitution itself. (See American civil religion) He sees aspects of American governance which are \"unusual and potentially undemocratic: the federal system, the bicameral legislature, judicial review, presidentialism, and the electoral college system.\" Levinson and Labunski and others have called for a Second Constitutional Convention, although professors like Dahl believe there is no real hope this would ever happen. French journalist Jean-Philippe Immarigeon wrote in Harper's that the \"nearly 230-year-old constitution stretched past the limits of its usefulness\", and suggested key problem points were the inability to call an election when government became gridlocked, a several month period between inauguration of a president and when he or she takes office, and inability of the lower house of Congress to influence serious foreign policy decisions such as ending a war when faced with a veto. \n\nUniversity of Virginia professor Larry Sabato advocates an amendment to organize presidential primaries. Sabato details more objections in his book A More Perfect Constitution.\n He opposes life tenure for Federal Court judges, including Supreme Court justices. He also writes that \"If the 26 least populated states voted as a bloc, they would control the U.S. Senate with a total of just under 17% of the country's population.\" Sabato further contends that the Constitution is in need of an overhaul, and argues that only a national constitutional convention can bring the document up to date and settle many of the issues that have arisen over the past two centuries. \n\nStates' rights\n\nIn United States history, four periods of widespread Constitutional criticism have been characterized by the idea that specific political powers belong to state governments and not to the federal government—a doctrine commonly known as states rights. At each stage, states' rights advocates failed to develop a preponderance in public opinion or to sustain the democratic political will required to alter the generally held constitutional understanding and political practice in the United States. At its adoption among the people in the state ratification conventions, the \"men of original principles\" opposed the new national government as violating the Whig philosophy generally accepted among the original thirteen colonies in 1776. According to this view, Congress as a legislature should be only equal to any state legislature, and only the people in each state might be sovereign. They are now referred to as the Anti-Federalists in American historiography. The proponents of \"state sovereignty\" and \"states rights\" were outvoted in eleven of thirteen state ratification conventions, then thirteen of thirteen, to \"ordain and establish\" the Constitution.\n\nDuring Andrew Jackson's administration, South Carolina objected to U.S. government's \"tariff of abominations\" collected as federal duties in Charleston Harbor. The Nullification Crisis ensued. Justification for the nullifiers was found in the U.S. Senate speeches and writings of John C. Calhoun. He defended slavery against the Constitutional provisions allowing its statutory regulation or its eventual abolition by Constitutional amendment, most notably in his Disquisition on Government. The crisis was averted when once General Jackson declared he would march a U.S. army into South Carolina and hang the first nullifier he saw from the first tree, and a new negotiated tariff, the Compromise Tariff of 1833, satisfactory to South Carolina was enacted. Despite this, a states-rights-based defense of slavery persisted amongst Southerners until the American Civil War; conversely, Northerners explored nullification of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. Abraham Lincoln kept a portrait of Andrew Jackson above his desk at the War Department during efforts to defend the Constitution as understood by a national majority of people and states at that time.\n\nIn the mid-19th Century during the administrations of Abraham Lincoln, Andrew Johnson and Ulysses S. Grant, the United States suffered a tragic passage through the Civil War and Reconstruction. An important survey of the philosophical and legal underpinnings of \"States Rights\" as held by secessionists and Lost Cause advocates afterwards is found in the speeches of Confederate President Jefferson Davis and his Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government. Davis defended secession by appealing to the \"original principles\" of the Founders' 1776 Revolutionary generation, and by expanding on William Blackstone's doctrine of legislative supremacy. By the elections of 1872, all states which had been admitted to the United States in accordance with the Constitution were fully represented in the U.S. Congress.\n\nFollowing the Supreme Court 1954 holding in Brown v. Board of Education, President Dwight D. Eisenhower used National Guard and U.S. paratroopers to enforce the rulings of the Federal Courts as they pertained to the Constitution. The \"States Rights\" doctrine was again appealed to during the mid-20th Century resistance to racial integration in the schools, notably in Arkansas' Little Rock Nine, Alabama's Stand in the Schoolhouse Door, and Virginia's Massive Resistance. Public schools in every state are now racially integrated by law under the authority of the U.S. Constitution.\n\nThe tradition is seen in many shorter episodes of limited minority protest against the United States. During the War of 1812, Federalists conducted a Hartford Convention proposing New England secession during wartime to reopen trade with the declared enemy of the United States. It led to accusations of treason and the demise of the Federalist Party as a force in American politics. In 1921, the Maryland Attorney General sued to block woman suffrage. He argued in Leser v. Garnett that state legislatures were Constitutionally the sole determiners of who should vote in what federal or state elections, and that the 19th Amendment was improper. The Supreme Court's judicial review of the state court findings held that the 19th Amendment was Constitutional, and that it applied to the women's right to vote in every state. Women now vote in every state under the authority of the U.S. Constitution.\n\nOne exceptional example of \"states rights\" persuading overwhelming majorities in a democratic and sustained way, and so transforming the nation came in the John Adams administration. Fear had spread that radical democratic sentiment might turn subversive as it had in the French Reign of Terror. But the Federalist-sponsored Alien and Sedition Acts meant to preempt the danger led to suppression of opposition press. The political reaction in the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions sparked public opposition against the Federalist policy and led to twenty-four years of Constitutionally elected Democratic-Republican Party rule through six administrations of Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and James Monroe.\n\nIn the late 20th and early 21st centuries, opponents of federal laws prohibiting the sale and possession of marijuana have based their objections partially on states' rights grounds, as have opponents of federal laws and regulations pertaining to firearms. States' rights under the constitution has also been recently raised as an issue on a number of other occasions, most notably regarding Common Core, the Affordable Care Act, and same-sex marriage. \n\nHistory of the physical document\n\nAt first, little interest was shown in the parchment object itself. Madison had custody of it as Secretary of State (1801–9) but having left Washington, he had lost track of it in the years leading to his death. A publisher had access to it in 1846 for a book on the Constitution. In 1883 historian J. Franklin Jameson found the parchment folded in a small tin box on the floor of a closet at the State, War and Navy Building. In 1894 the State Department sealed the Declaration and Constitution between two glass plates and kept them in a safe. \n\nThe two parchment documents were turned over to the Library of Congress by executive order, and in 1924 President Coolidge dedicated the bronze-and-marble shrine for public display of the Constitution in the main building. The parchments were laid over moisture absorbing cellulose paper, vacuum-sealed between double panes of insulated plate glass, and protected from light by a gelatin film. Although building construction of the Archives Building was completed in 1935, in December 1941 they were moved from the Library of Congress until September 1944, and stored at the U.S. Bullion Depository, Fort Knox, Kentucky, along with the Declaration of Independence and the Gettysburg Address. In 1951 following a study by the National Bureau of Standards to protect from atmosphere, insects, mold and light, the parchments were re-encased with special light filters, inert helium gas and proper humidity. They were transferred to the National Archives in 1952. \n\nSince 1952, the \"Charters of Freedom\" have been displayed in the Rotunda of the National Archives Building. Visual inspections have been enhanced by electronic imaging. Changes in the cases led to removal from their cases July 2001, preservation treatment by conservators, and installment in new encasements for public display in September 2003.Since 1987, inspections were enhanced by an electronic imaging monitoring system developed for NARA by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California. In 1995, conservators noticed changes in the glass encasements of the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights. Glass experts from Libby-Owens-Ford (the original manufacturer of the encasement glass) and the Corning Glass Museum identified signs of deterioration. Both the glass experts and the National Archives Advisory Committee on Preservation recommended that the Charters be re-encased by 2002 for document safety. (NARA website)" ] }

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{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe" ], "filename": [ "President_of_the_United_States.txt" ], "title": [ "President of the United States" ], "wiki_context": [ "The President of the United States of America (POTUS) is the elected head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces.\n\nThe President of the United States is considered one of the world's most powerful people, leading the world's only contemporary superpower. The role includes being the commander-in-chief of the world's most expensive military with the largest nuclear arsenal and leading the nation with the largest economy by real and nominal GDP. The office of the president holds significant hard and soft power both in the United States and abroad.\n\nArticle II of the U.S. Constitution vests the executive power of the United States in the president. The power includes execution of federal law, alongside the responsibility of appointing federal executive, diplomatic, regulatory and judicial officers, and concluding treaties with foreign powers with the advice and consent of the Senate. The president is further empowered to grant federal pardons and reprieves, and to convene and adjourn either or both houses of Congress under extraordinary circumstances. The president is largely responsible for dictating the legislative agenda of the party to which the president is enrolled. The president also directs the foreign and domestic policy of the United States. Since the founding of the United States, the power of the president and the federal government has grown substantially. \n\nThe president is indirectly elected by the people through the Electoral College to a four-year term, and is one of only two nationally elected federal officers, the other being the Vice President of the United States. The Twenty-second Amendment, adopted in 1951, prohibits anyone from ever being elected to the presidency for a third full term. It also prohibits a person from being elected to the presidency more than once if that person previously had served as president, or acting president, for more than two years of another person's term as president. In all, 43 individuals have served 44 presidencies (counting Cleveland's two non-consecutive terms separately) spanning 56 full four-year terms. On January 20, 2009, Barack Obama became the 44th and current president. On November 6, 2012, he was re-elected and is currently serving the 57th term. The next presidential election is scheduled to take place on November 8, 2016; on January 20, 2017, the newly elected president will take office.\n\nOrigin\n\nIn 1776, the Thirteen Colonies, acting through the Second Continental Congress, declared political independence from Great Britain during the American Revolution. The new states, though independent of each other as nation states, recognized the necessity of closely coordinating their efforts against the British. Desiring to avoid anything that remotely resembled a monarchy, Congress negotiated the Articles of Confederation to establish a weak alliance between the states. As a central authority, Congress under the Articles was without any legislative power; it could make its own resolutions, determinations, and regulations, but not any laws, nor any taxes or local commercial regulations enforceable upon citizens. This institutional design reflected the conception of how Americans believed the deposed British system of Crown and Parliament ought to have functioned with respect to the royal dominion: a superintending body for matters that concerned the entire empire. Out from under any monarchy, the states assigned some formerly royal prerogatives (e.g., making war, receiving ambassadors, etc.) to Congress, while severally lodging the rest within their own respective state governments. Only after all the states agreed to a resolution settling competing western land claims did the Articles take effect on March 1, 1781, when Maryland became the final state to ratify them.\n\nIn 1783, the Treaty of Paris secured independence for each of the former colonies. With peace at hand, the states each turned toward their own internal affairs. By 1786, Americans found their continental borders besieged and weak, their respective economies in crises as neighboring states agitated trade rivalries with one another, witnessed their hard currency pouring into foreign markets to pay for imports, their Mediterranean commerce preyed upon by North African pirates, and their foreign-financed Revolutionary War debts unpaid and accruing interest. Civil and political unrest loomed.\n\nFollowing the successful resolution of commercial and fishing disputes between Virginia and Maryland at the Mount Vernon Conference in 1785, Virginia called for a trade conference between all the states, set for September 1786 in Annapolis, Maryland, with an aim toward resolving further-reaching interstate commercial antagonisms. When the convention failed for lack of attendance due to suspicions among most of the other states, the Annapolis delegates called for a convention to offer revisions to the Articles, to be held the next spring in Philadelphia. Prospects for the next convention appeared bleak until James Madison and Edmund Randolph succeeded in securing George Washington's attendance to Philadelphia as a delegate for Virginia.\n\nWhen the Constitutional Convention convened in May 1787, the 12 state delegations in attendance (Rhode Island did not send delegates) brought with them an accumulated experience over a diverse set of institutional arrangements between legislative and executive branches from within their respective state governments. Most states maintained a weak executive without veto or appointment powers, elected annually by the legislature to a single term only, sharing power with an executive council, and countered by a strong legislature. New York offered the greatest exception, having a strong, unitary governor with veto and appointment power elected to a three-year term, and eligible for reelection to an indefinite number of terms thereafter. It was through the closed-door negotiations at Philadelphia that the presidency framed in the U.S. Constitution emerged.\n\nPowers and duties\n\nArticle I legislative role\n\nThe first power the Constitution confers upon the president is the veto. The Presentment Clause requires any bill passed by Congress to be presented to the president before it can become law. Once the legislation has been presented, the president has three options:\n# Sign the legislation; the bill then becomes law.\n# Veto the legislation and return it to Congress, expressing any objections; the bill does not become law, unless each house of Congress votes to override the veto by a two-thirds vote.\n# Take no action. In this instance, the president neither signs nor vetoes the legislation. After 10 days, not counting Sundays, two possible outcomes emerge:\n#* If Congress is still convened, the bill becomes law.\n#* If Congress has adjourned, thus preventing the return of the legislation, the bill does not become law. This latter outcome is known as the pocket veto.\n\nIn 1996, Congress attempted to enhance the president's veto power with the Line Item Veto Act. The legislation empowered the president to sign any spending bill into law while simultaneously striking certain spending items within the bill, particularly any new spending, any amount of discretionary spending, or any new limited tax benefit. Congress could then repass that particular item. If the president then vetoed the new legislation, Congress could override the veto by its ordinary means, a two-thirds vote in both houses. In Clinton v. City of New York, , the U.S. Supreme Court ruled such a legislative alteration of the veto power to be unconstitutional.\n\nArticle II executive powers\n\nWar and foreign affairs powers\n\nPerhaps the most important of all presidential powers is the command of the United States Armed Forces as its commander-in-chief. While the power to declare war is constitutionally vested in Congress, the president has ultimate responsibility for direction and disposition of the military. The present-day operational command of the Armed Forces (belonging to the Department of Defense) is normally exercised through the Secretary of Defense, with assistance of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, to the Combatant Commands, as outlined in the presidentially approved Unified Command Plan (UCP). The framers of the Constitution took care to limit the president's powers regarding the military; Alexander Hamilton explains this in Federalist No. 69: Congress, pursuant to the War Powers Resolution, must authorize any troop deployments longer than 60 days, although that process relies on triggering mechanisms that have never been employed, rendering it ineffectual. Additionally, Congress provides a check to presidential military power through its control over military spending and regulation. While historically presidents initiated the process for going to war, critics have charged that there have been several conflicts in which presidents did not get official declarations, including Theodore Roosevelt's military move into Panama in 1903, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and the invasions of Grenada in 1983 and Panama in 1990.\n\nAlong with the armed forces, the president also directs U.S. foreign policy. Through the Department of State and the Department of Defense, the president is responsible for the protection of Americans abroad and of foreign nationals in the United States. The president decides whether to recognize new nations and new governments, and negotiates treaties with other nations, which become binding on the United States when approved by two-thirds vote of the Senate.\n\nAlthough not constitutionally provided, presidents also sometimes employ \"executive agreements\" in foreign relations. These agreements frequently regard administrative policy choices germane to executive power; for example, the extent to which either country presents an armed presence in a given area, how each country will enforce copyright treaties, or how each country will process foreign mail. However, the 20th century witnessed a vast expansion of the use of executive agreements, and critics have challenged the extent of that use as supplanting the treaty process and removing constitutionally prescribed checks and balances over the executive in foreign relations. Supporters counter that the agreements offer a pragmatic solution when the need for swift, secret, and/or concerted action arises.\n\nAdministrative powers\n\nThe president is the head of the executive branch of the federal government and is constitutionally obligated to \"take care that the laws be faithfully executed.\" The executive branch has over four million employees, including members of the military. \n\nPresidents make numerous executive branch appointments: an incoming president may make up to 6,000 before taking office and 8,000 more while serving. Ambassadors, members of the Cabinet, and other federal officers, are all appointed by a president with the \"advice and consent\" of a majority of the Senate. When the Senate is in recess for at least ten days, the president may make recess appointments. Recess appointments are temporary and expire at the end of the next session of the Senate.\n\nThe power of a president to fire executive officials has long been a contentious political issue. Generally, a president may remove purely executive officials at will. However, Congress can curtail and constrain a president's authority to fire commissioners of independent regulatory agencies and certain inferior executive officers by statute. \n\nThe president additionally possesses the ability to direct much of the executive branch through executive orders that are grounded in federal law or constitutionally granted executive power. Executive orders are reviewable by federal courts and can be superseded by federal legislation.\n\nTo manage the growing federal bureaucracy, Presidents have gradually surrounded themselves with many layers of staff, who were eventually organized into the Executive Office of the President of the United States. Within the Executive Office, the President's innermost layer of aides (and their assistants) are located in the White House Office.\n\nJuridical powers\n\nThe president also has the power to nominate federal judges, including members of the United States courts of appeals and the Supreme Court of the United States. However, these nominations do require Senate confirmation. Securing Senate approval can provide a major obstacle for presidents who wish to orient the federal judiciary toward a particular ideological stance. When nominating judges to U.S. district courts, presidents often respect the long-standing tradition of Senatorial courtesy. Presidents may also grant pardons and reprieves, as is often done just before the end of a presidential term, not without controversy.\n\nHistorically, two doctrines concerning executive power have developed that enable the president to exercise executive power with a degree of autonomy. The first is executive privilege, which allows the president to withhold from disclosure any communications made directly to the president in the performance of executive duties. George Washington first claimed privilege when Congress requested to see Chief Justice John Jay's notes from an unpopular treaty negotiation with Great Britain. While not enshrined in the Constitution, or any other law, Washington's action created the precedent for the privilege. When Richard Nixon tried to use executive privilege as a reason for not turning over subpoenaed evidence to Congress during the Watergate scandal, the Supreme Court ruled in United States v. Nixon, , that executive privilege did not apply in cases where a president was attempting to avoid criminal prosecution. When President Bill Clinton attempted to use executive privilege regarding the Lewinsky scandal, the Supreme Court ruled in Clinton v. Jones, , that the privilege also could not be used in civil suits. These cases established the legal precedent that executive privilege is valid, although the exact extent of the privilege has yet to be clearly defined. Additionally, federal courts have allowed this privilege to radiate outward and protect other executive branch employees, but have weakened that protection for those executive branch communications that do not involve the president. \n\nThe state secrets privilege allows the president and the executive branch to withhold information or documents from discovery in legal proceedings if such release would harm national security. Precedent for the privilege arose early in the 19th century when Thomas Jefferson refused to release military documents in the treason trial of Aaron Burr and again in Totten v. United States , when the Supreme Court dismissed a case brought by a former Union spy. However, the privilege was not formally recognized by the U.S. Supreme Court until United States v. Reynolds , where it was held to be a common law evidentiary privilege. Before the September 11 attacks, use of the privilege had been rare, but increasing in frequency. Since 2001, the government has asserted the privilege in more cases and at earlier stages of the litigation, thus in some instances causing dismissal of the suits before reaching the merits of the claims, as in the Ninth Circuit's ruling in Mohamed v. Jeppesen Dataplan, Inc. Critics of the privilege claim its use has become a tool for the government to cover up illegal or embarrassing government actions. \n\nLegislative facilitator\n\nThe Constitution's Ineligibility Clause prevents the President (and all other executive officers) from simultaneously being a member of Congress. Therefore, the president cannot directly introduce legislative proposals for consideration in Congress. However, the president can take an indirect role in shaping legislation, especially if the president's political party has a majority in one or both houses of Congress. For example, the president or other officials of the executive branch may draft legislation and then ask senators or representatives to introduce these drafts into Congress. The president can further influence the legislative branch through constitutionally mandated, periodic reports to Congress. These reports may be either written or oral, but today are given as the State of the Union address, which often outlines the president's legislative proposals for the coming year. Additionally, the president may attempt to have Congress alter proposed legislation by threatening to veto that legislation unless requested changes are made.\n\nIn the 20th century critics began charging that too many legislative and budgetary powers have slid into the hands of presidents that should belong to Congress. As the head of the executive branch, presidents control a vast array of agencies that can issue regulations with little oversight from Congress. One critic charged that presidents could appoint a \"virtual army of 'czars' – each wholly unaccountable to Congress yet tasked with spearheading major policy efforts for the White House.\" Presidents have been criticized for making signing statements when signing congressional legislation about how they understand a bill or plan to execute it. This practice has been criticized by the American Bar Association as unconstitutional. Conservative commentator George Will wrote of an \"increasingly swollen executive branch\" and \"the eclipse of Congress.\"\n\nAccording to Article II, Section 3, Clause 2 of the Constitution, the president may convene either or both houses of Congress. If both houses cannot agree on a date of adjournment, the president may appoint a date for Congress to adjourn.\n\nCeremonial roles\n\nAs head of state, the president can fulfill traditions established by previous presidents. William Howard Taft started the tradition of throwing out the ceremonial first pitch in 1910 at Griffith Stadium, Washington, D.C., on the Washington Senators' Opening Day. Every president since Taft, except for Jimmy Carter, threw out at least one ceremonial first ball or pitch for Opening Day, the All-Star Game, or the World Series, usually with much fanfare. \n\nThe President of the United States has served as the honorary president of the Boy Scouts of America since the founding of the organization. \n\nOther presidential traditions are associated with American holidays. Rutherford B. Hayes began in 1878 the first White House egg rolling for local children. Beginning in 1947 during the Harry S. Truman administration, every Thanksgiving the president is presented with a live domestic turkey during the annual national thanksgiving turkey presentation held at the White House. Since 1989, when the custom of \"pardoning\" the turkey was formalized by George H. W. Bush, the turkey has been taken to a farm where it will live out the rest of its natural life. \n\nPresidential traditions also involve the president's role as head of government. Many outgoing presidents since James Buchanan traditionally give advice to their successor during the presidential transition. Ronald Reagan and his successors have also left a private message on the desk of the Oval Office on Inauguration Day for the incoming president. \n\nDuring a state visit by a foreign head of state, the president typically hosts a State Arrival Ceremony held on the South Lawn, a custom begun by John F. Kennedy in 1961. This is followed by a state dinner given by the president which is held in the State Dining Room later in the evening. \n\nThe modern presidency holds the president as one of the nation's premier celebrities. Some argue that images of the presidency have a tendency to be manipulated by administration public relations officials as well as by presidents themselves. One critic described the presidency as \"propagandized leadership\" which has a \"mesmerizing power surrounding the office.\" Administration public relations managers staged carefully crafted photo-ops of smiling presidents with smiling crowds for television cameras. One critic wrote the image of John F. Kennedy was described as carefully framed \"in rich detail\" which \"drew on the power of myth\" regarding the incident of PT 109 and wrote that Kennedy understood how to use images to further his presidential ambitions. As a result, some political commentators have opined that American voters have unrealistic expectations of presidents: voters expect a president to \"drive the economy, vanquish enemies, lead the free world, comfort tornado victims, heal the national soul and protect borrowers from hidden credit-card fees.\"\n\nCritics of presidency's evolution\n\nMost of the nation's Founding Fathers expected the Congress, which was the first branch of government described in the Constitution, to be the dominant branch of government; they did not expect a strong executive. However, presidential power has shifted over time, which has resulted in claims that the modern presidency has become too powerful, unchecked, unbalanced, and \"monarchist\" in nature. Critic Dana D. Nelson believes presidents over the past thirty years have worked towards \"undivided presidential control of the executive branch and its agencies.\" She criticizes proponents of the unitary executive for expanding \"the many existing uncheckable executive powers – such as executive orders, decrees, memorandums, proclamations, national security directives and legislative signing statements – that already allow presidents to enact a good deal of foreign and domestic policy without aid, interference or consent from Congress.\" Activist Bill Wilson opined that the expanded presidency was \"the greatest threat ever to individual freedom and democratic rule.\"\n\nSelection process\n\nEligibility\n\nArticle II, Section 1, Clause 5 of the Constitution sets the following qualifications for holding the presidency:\n* be a natural-born citizen of the United States;Foreign-born American citizens who met the age and residency requirements at the time the Constitution was adopted were also eligible for the presidency. However, this allowance has since become obsolete.\n* be at least thirty-five years old;\n* be a resident in the United States for at least fourteen years.\n\nThe Twelfth Amendment precludes anyone ineligible to being the president from becoming the vice president.\n\nA person who meets the above qualifications is still disqualified from holding the office of president under any of the following conditions:\n* Under the Twenty-second Amendment, no person can be elected president more than twice. The amendment also specifies that if any eligible person serves as president or acting president for more than two years of a term for which some other eligible person was elected president, the former can only be elected president once. Scholars disagree over whether a person precluded by the Twenty-second Amendment to being elected president is also precluded to being vice president. \n* Under Article I, Section 3, Clause 7, upon conviction in impeachment cases, the Senate has the option of disqualifying convicted individuals from holding federal office, including that of president. \n* Under Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment, no person who swore an oath to support the Constitution, and later rebelled against the United States, can become president. However, this disqualification can be lifted by a two-thirds vote of each house of Congress.\n\nCampaigns and nomination\n\nThe modern presidential campaign begins before the primary elections, which the two major political parties use to clear the field of candidates before their national nominating conventions, where the most successful candidate is made the party's nominee for president. Typically, the party's presidential candidate chooses a vice presidential nominee, and this choice is rubber-stamped by the convention. The most common previous profession by U.S. presidents is lawyer. \n\nNominees participate in nationally televised debates, and while the debates are usually restricted to the Democratic and Republican nominees, third party candidates may be invited, such as Ross Perot in the 1992 debates. Nominees campaign across the country to explain their views, convince voters and solicit contributions. Much of the modern electoral process is concerned with winning swing states through frequent visits and mass media advertising drives.\n\nElection and oath\n\nThe president is elected indirectly. A number of electors, collectively known as the Electoral College, officially select the president. On Election Day, voters in each of the states and the District of Columbia cast ballots for these electors. Each state is allocated a number of electors, equal to the size of its delegation in both Houses of Congress combined. Generally, the ticket that wins the most votes in a state wins all of that state's electoral votes and thus has its slate of electors chosen to vote in the Electoral College.\n\nThe winning slate of electors meet at its state's capital on the first Monday after the second Wednesday in December, about six weeks after the election, to vote. They then send a record of that vote to Congress. The vote of the electors is opened by the sitting vice president—acting in that role's capacity as President of the Senate—and read aloud to a joint session of the incoming Congress, which was elected at the same time as the president.\n\nPursuant to the Twentieth Amendment, the president's term of office begins at noon on January 20 of the year following the election. This date, known as Inauguration Day, marks the beginning of the four-year terms of both the president and the vice president. Before executing the powers of the office, a president is constitutionally required to take the presidential oath:\n\nAlthough not required, presidents have traditionally palmed a Bible while swearing the oath and have added, \"So help me God!\" to the end of the oath. Further, although the oath may be administered by any person authorized by law to administer oaths, presidents are traditionally sworn in by the Chief Justice of the United States.\n\nTenure and term limits\n\nThe term of office for president and vice president is four years. George Washington, the first president, set an unofficial precedent of serving only two terms, which subsequent presidents followed until 1940. Before Franklin D. Roosevelt, attempts at a third term were encouraged by supporters of Ulysses S. Grant and Theodore Roosevelt; neither of these attempts succeeded. In 1940, Franklin D. Roosevelt declined to seek a third term, but allowed his political party to \"draft\" him as its presidential candidate and was subsequently elected to a third term. In 1941, the United States entered World War II, leading voters to elect Roosevelt to a fourth term in 1944. But Roosevelt died only 82 days after taking office for the fourth term on 12 April 1945.\n\nAfter the war, and in response to Roosevelt being elected to third and fourth terms, the Twenty-second Amendment was adopted. The amendment bars anyone from being elected president more than twice, or once if that person served more than half of another president's term. Harry S. Truman, president when this amendment was adopted, was exempted from its limitations and briefly sought a third (a second full) term before withdrawing from the 1952 election.\n\nSince the amendment's adoption, four presidents have served two full terms: Dwight D. Eisenhower, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush. Barack Obama has been elected to a second term, and will complete his term on 20 January 2017, if he does not die or resign before that date. Jimmy Carter and George H. W. Bush sought a second term, but were defeated. Richard Nixon was elected to a second term, but resigned before completing it. Lyndon B. Johnson was the only president under the amendment to be eligible to serve more than two terms in total, having served for only fourteen months following John F. Kennedy's assassination. However, Johnson withdrew from the 1968 Democratic Primary, surprising many Americans. Gerald Ford sought a full term, after serving out the last two years and five months of Nixon's second term, but was not elected.\n\nVacancy or disability\n\nVacancies in the office of President may arise under several possible circumstances: death, resignation and removal from office.\n\nArticle II, Section 4 of the Constitution allows the House of Representatives to impeach high federal officials, including the president, for \"treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors.\" Article I, Section 3, Clause 6 gives the Senate the power to remove impeached officials from office, given a two-thirds vote to convict. The House has thus far impeached two presidents: Andrew Johnson in 1868 and Bill Clinton in 1998. Neither was subsequently convicted by the Senate; however, Johnson was acquitted by just one vote.\n\nUnder Section 3 of the Twenty-fifth Amendment, the president may transfer the presidential powers and duties to the vice president, who then becomes acting president, by transmitting a statement to the Speaker of the House and the President pro tempore of the Senate stating the reasons for the transfer. The president resumes the discharge of the presidential powers and duties upon transmitting, to those two officials, a written declaration stating that resumption. This transfer of power may occur for any reason the president considers appropriate; in 2002 and again in 2007, President George W. Bush briefly transferred presidential authority to Vice President Dick Cheney. In both cases, this was done to accommodate a medical procedure which required Bush to be sedated; both times, Bush returned to duty later the same day. \n\nUnder Section 4 of the Twenty-fifth Amendment, the vice president, in conjunction with a majority of the Cabinet, may transfer the presidential powers and duties from the president to the vice president by transmitting a written declaration to the Speaker of the House and the president pro tempore of the Senate that the president is unable to discharge the presidential powers and duties. If this occurs, then the vice president will assume the presidential powers and duties as acting president; however, the president can declare that no such inability exists and resume the discharge of the presidential powers and duties. If the vice president and Cabinet contest this claim, it is up to Congress, which must meet within two days if not already in session, to decide the merit of the claim.\n\nThe United States Constitution mentions the resignation of the president, but does not regulate its form or the conditions for its validity. Pursuant to federal law, the only valid evidence of the president's resignation is a written instrument to that effect, signed by the president and delivered to the office of the Secretary of State. This has only occurred once, when Richard Nixon delivered a letter to Henry Kissinger to that effect.\n\nSection 1 of the Twenty-fifth Amendment states that the vice president becomes president upon the removal from office, death or resignation of the preceding president. The Presidential Succession Act of 1947 provides that if the offices of President and Vice President are each either vacant or are held by a disabled person, the next officer in the presidential line of succession, the Speaker of the House, becomes acting president. The line then extends to the President pro tempore of the Senate, followed by every member of the Cabinet. These persons must fulfill all eligibility requirements of the office of President to be eligible to become acting president; ineligible individuals are skipped. There has never been a special election for the office of President.\n\nCompensation\n\nSince 2001, the president has earned a $400,000 annual salary, along with a $50,000 annual expense account, a $100,000 nontaxable travel account, and $19,000 for entertainment. The most recent raise in salary was approved by Congress and President Bill Clinton in 1999 and went into effect in 2001.\n\nThe White House in Washington, D.C., serves as the official place of residence for the president. As well as access to the White House staff, facilities available to the president include medical care, recreation, housekeeping, and security services. The government pays for state dinners and other official functions, but the president pays for personal, family and guest dry cleaning and food; the high food bill often amazes new residents. Naval Support Facility Thurmont, popularly known as Camp David, is a mountain-based military camp in Frederick County, Maryland, used as a country retreat and for high alert protection of the president and guests. Blair House, located next to the Eisenhower Executive Office Building at the White House Complex and Lafayette Park, is a complex of four connected townhouses exceeding 70000 sqft of floor space which serves as the president's official guest house and as a secondary residence for the president if needed. \n\nFor ground travel, the president uses the presidential state car, which is an armored limousine built on a heavily modified Cadillac-based chassis.[http://www.secretservice.gov/press/GPA02-09_Limo.pdf New Presidential Limousine enters Secret Service Fleet] U.S. Secret Service Press Release (January 14, 2009) Retrieved on January 20, 2009. One of two identical Boeing VC-25 aircraft, which are extensively modified versions of Boeing 747-200B airliners, serve as long distance travel for the president and are referred to as Air Force One while the president is on board (although any U.S. Air Force aircraft the President is aboard is designated as \"Air Force One\" for the duration of the flight). In-country trips are typically handled with just one of the two planes while overseas trips are handled with both, one primary and one backup. Any civilian aircraft the President is aboard is designated Executive One for the flight. The president also has access to a fleet of thirty-five U.S. Marine Corps helicopters of varying models, designated Marine One when the president is aboard any particular one in the fleet. Flights are typically handled with as many as five helicopters all flying together and frequently swapping positions as to disguise which helicopter the President is actually aboard to any would-be threats.\n\nThe U.S. Secret Service is charged with protecting the sitting president and the first family. As part of their protection, presidents, first ladies, their children and other immediate family members, and other prominent persons and locations are assigned Secret Service codenames. The use of such names was originally for security purposes and dates to a time when sensitive electronic communications were not routinely encrypted; today, the names simply serve for purposes of brevity, clarity, and tradition. \n\nFile:White House lawn (1).tif|The White House\n\nFile:Camp David 1959.jpg|Camp David\nFile:Blair House daylight.jpg|Blair House\nFile:GPA02-09 US SecretService press release 2009 Limousine Page 3 Image.jpg|State car\nFile:Air Force One over Mt. Rushmore.jpg|Air Force One\nFile:Marine One (1970).jpg|Marine One\n\nPost-presidency\n\nBeginning in 1959, all living former presidents were granted a pension, an office, and a staff. The pension has increased numerous times with Congressional approval. Retired presidents now receive a pension based on the salary of the current administration's cabinet secretaries, which was $199,700 each year in 2012. Former presidents who served in Congress may also collect congressional pensions. The Former Presidents Act, as amended, also provides former presidents with travel funds and franking privileges. Prior to 1997, all former presidents, their spouses, and their children until age 16 were protected by the Secret Service until the president's death. In 1997, Congress passed legislation limiting secret service protection to no more than 10 years from the date a president leaves office. On January 10, 2013, President Obama signed legislation reinstating lifetime secret service protection for him, George W. Bush, and all subsequent presidents. A spouse who remarries is no longer eligible for secret service protection.\n\nSome presidents have had significant careers after leaving office. Prominent examples include William Howard Taft's tenure as Chief Justice of the United States and Herbert Hoover's work on government reorganization after World War II. Grover Cleveland, whose bid for reelection failed in 1888, was elected president again four years later in 1892. Two former presidents served in Congress after leaving the White House: John Quincy Adams was elected to the House of Representatives, serving there for seventeen years, and Andrew Johnson returned to the Senate in 1875. John Tyler served in the provisional Congress of the Confederate States during the Civil War and was elected to the Confederate House of Representatives, but died before that body first met.\n\nPresidents may use their predecessors as emissaries to deliver private messages to other nations or as official representatives of the United States to state funerals and other important foreign events. Richard Nixon made multiple foreign trips to countries including China and Russia and was lauded as an elder statesman. Jimmy Carter has become a global human rights campaigner, international arbiter, and election monitor, as well as a recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. Bill Clinton has also worked as an informal ambassador, most recently in the negotiations that led to the release of two American journalists, Laura Ling and Euna Lee, from North Korea. Clinton has also been active politically since his presidential term ended, working with his wife Hillary on her 2008 and 2016 presidential bids and President Obama on his reelection campaign.\n\nFile:Carter 2k14.tif|Jimmy Carter39th (1977–81)\nFile:President George H. W.tif|George H. W. Bush41st (1989–93)\nFile:Clinton 2k15.tif|Bill Clinton42nd (1993–2001)\nFile:Bush 2k14.tif|George W. Bush43rd (2001–09)\n\nPresidential libraries\n\nSince Herbert Hoover, each president has created a repository known as a presidential library for preserving and making available his papers, records and other documents and materials. Completed libraries are deeded to and maintained by the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA); the initial funding for building and equipping each library must come from private, non-federal sources. There are currently thirteen presidential libraries in the NARA system. There are also presidential libraries maintained by state governments and private foundations and Universities of Higher Education, such as the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum, which is run by the State of Illinois, the George H.W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum, which is run by Texas A&M University and the Lyndon Baines Johnson Presidential Library and Museum, which is run by the University of Texas at Austin.\n\nAs many presidents live for many years after leaving office, several of them have personally overseen the building and opening of their own presidential libraries, some even making arrangements for their own burial at the site. Several presidential libraries therefore contain the graves of the president they document, such as the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum in Yorba Linda, California and the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California. The graves are viewable by the general public visiting these libraries.\n\nTimeline of Presidents" ] }

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{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe" ], "filename": [ "Canada.txt" ], "title": [ "Canada" ], "wiki_context": [ "Canada (; French:) is a country in the northern half of North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic to the Pacific and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering , making it the world's second-largest country by total area and the fourth-largest country by land area. Canada's border with the United States is the world's longest land border. Canada is sparsely populated, the majority of its land territory being dominated by forest and tundra and the Rocky Mountains; about four-fifths of the country's population of 35 million people live near the southern border. The majority of Canada has a cold or severely cold winter climate, but southerly areas are warm in summer.\n\nCanada has been inhabited for millennia by various Aboriginal peoples. Beginning in the 15th and 16th centuries, British and French claims were made on the area, with the colony of Canada first being established by the French in 1537. As a consequence of various conflicts, the United Kingdom gained and lost territories within British North America until it was left, in the late 18th century, with what mostly geographically comprises Canada today. Pursuant to the British North America Act, on July 1, 1867, the colonies of Canada, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia joined to form the semi-autonomous federal Dominion of Canada. This began an accretion of provinces and territories to the mostly self-governing Dominion to the present ten provinces and three territories forming modern Canada.\n\nIn 1931, Canada achieved near total independence from the United Kingdom with the Statute of Westminster 1931, and full sovereignty was attained when the Canada Act 1982 removed the last remaining ties of legal dependence on the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Canada is a federal parliamentary democracy and a constitutional monarchy, with Queen Elizabeth II being the head of state. The country is officially bilingual at the federal level. It is one of the world's most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, the product of large-scale immigration from many other countries. Its advanced economy is the eleventh largest in the world, relying chiefly upon its abundant natural resources and well-developed international trade networks. Canada's long and complex relationship with the United States has had a significant impact on its economy and culture.\n\nCanada is a developed country and has the tenth highest nominal per capita income globally as well as the ninth highest ranking in the Human Development Index. It ranks among the highest in international measurements of government transparency, civil liberties, quality of life, economic freedom, and education. Canada is a Commonwealth Realm member of the Commonwealth of Nations, a member of the Francophonie, and part of several major international and intergovernmental institutions or groupings including the United Nations, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the G8, the Group of Ten, the G20, the North American Free Trade Agreement and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum.\n\nEtymology\n\nWhile a variety of theories have been postulated for the etymological origins of Canada, the name is now accepted as coming from the St. Lawrence Iroquoian word kanata, meaning \"village\" or \"settlement\". In 1535, indigenous inhabitants of the present-day Quebec City region used the word to direct French explorer Jacques Cartier to the village of Stadacona. Cartier later used the word Canada to refer not only to that particular village, but the entire area subject to Donnacona (the chief at Stadacona); by 1545, European books and maps had begun referring to this small region along the St Lawrence River as Canada.\n\nFrom the 16th to the early 18th century \"Canada\" referred to the part of New France that lay along the St. Lawrence River. In 1791, the area became two British colonies called Upper Canada and Lower Canada collectively named The Canadas; until their union as the British Province of Canada in 1841. Upon Confederation in 1867, Canada was adopted as the legal name for the new country, and the word Dominion was conferred as the country's title. The transition away from the use of Dominion was formally reflected in 1982 with the passage of the Canada Act, which refers only to Canada. Later that year, the national holiday was renamed from Dominion Day to Canada Day. The term Dominion is also used to distinguish the federal government from the provinces, though after the Second World War the term federal had replaced dominion. \n\nHistory\n\nAboriginal peoples\n\nAboriginal peoples in present-day Canada include the First Nations, Inuit, and Métis, the latter being a mixed-blood people who originated in the mid-17th-century when First Nations and Inuit people married European settlers. The first inhabitants of North America migrated from Siberia by way of the Bering land bridge and arrived at least 15,000 years ago, though increasing evidence suggests an even earlier arrival. The Paleo-Indian archeological sites at Old Crow Flats and Bluefish Caves are two of the oldest sites of human habitation in Canada. The characteristics of Canadian Aboriginal societies included permanent settlements, agriculture, complex societal hierarchies, and trading networks. Some of these cultures had collapsed by the time European explorers arrived in the late 15th and early 16th centuries and have only been discovered through archeological investigations. \n\nThe aboriginal population at the time of the first European settlements is estimated to have been between 200,000 and two million, with a figure of 500,000 accepted by Canada's Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples. As a consequence of contact with European diseases, Canada's aboriginal peoples suffered from repeated outbreaks of newly introduced infectious diseases, such as influenza, measles, and smallpox (to which they had no natural immunity), resulting in a forty to eighty percent population decrease in the centuries after the European arrival. \n\nAlthough not without conflict, European Canadians' early interactions with First Nations and Inuit populations were relatively peaceful. The Crown and Aboriginal peoples began interactions during the European colonialization period, though, the Inuit, in general, had more limited interaction with European settlers. From the late 18th century, European Canadians encouraged Aboriginals to assimilate into their own culture. These attempts reached a climax in the late 19th and early 20th centuries with forced integration and relocations. A period of redress is underway, which started with the appointment of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada by the Canadian government. \n\nEuropean colonization\n\nThe first known attempt at European colonization began when Norsemen settled briefly at L'Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland around 1000 AD. No further European exploration occurred until 1497, when Italian seafarer John Cabot explored and claimed Canada's Atlantic coast in the name of King Henry VII of England. Then Basque and Portuguese mariners established seasonal whaling and fishing outposts along the Atlantic coast in the early 16th century. In 1534, French explorer Jacques Cartier explored the Saint Lawrence River, where, on July 24, he planted a 10 m cross bearing the words \"Long Live the King of France\" and took possession of the territory (known as the colony of Canada) in the name of King Francis I. In general the settlements appear to have been short-lived, possibly due to the similarity of outputs producible in Scandinavia and northern Canada and the problems of navigating trade routes at that time. \n\nIn 1583, Sir Humphrey Gilbert, by the royal prerogative of Queen Elizabeth I, founded St. John's, Newfoundland, as the first North American English colony. French explorer Samuel de Champlain arrived in 1603 and established the first permanent European settlements at Port Royal (in 1605) and Quebec City (in 1608). Among the colonists of New France, Canadiens extensively settled the Saint Lawrence River valley and Acadians settled the present-day Maritimes, while fur traders and Catholic missionaries explored the Great Lakes, Hudson Bay, and the Mississippi watershed to Louisiana. The Beaver Wars broke out in the mid-17th-century over control of the North American fur trade. \n\nThe English established additional colonies in Cupids and Ferryland, Newfoundland, beginning in 1610. The Thirteen Colonies to the south were founded soon after. A series of four wars erupted in colonial North America between 1689 and 1763; the later wars of the period constituted the North American theatre of the Seven Years' War. Mainland Nova Scotia came under British rule with the 1713 Treaty of Utrecht and the 1763 Treaty of Paris ceded Canada and most of New France to Britain after the Seven Years' War. \n\nThe Royal Proclamation of 1763 created the Province of Quebec out of New France, and annexed Cape Breton Island to Nova Scotia. St. John's Island (now Prince Edward Island) became a separate colony in 1769. To avert conflict in Quebec, the British parliament passed the Quebec Act of 1774, expanding Quebec's territory to the Great Lakes and Ohio Valley. It re-established the French language, Catholic faith, and French civil law there. This angered many residents of the Thirteen Colonies, fuelling anti-British sentiment in the years prior to the 1775 outbreak of the American Revolution.\n\nThe 1783 Treaty of Paris recognized American independence and ceded the newly added territories south (but not north) of the Great Lakes to the new United States. New Brunswick was split from Nova Scotia as part of a reorganization of Loyalist settlements in the Maritimes. To accommodate English-speaking Loyalists in Quebec, the Constitutional Act of 1791 divided the province into French-speaking Lower Canada (later Quebec) and English-speaking Upper Canada (later Ontario), granting each its own elected legislative assembly. \n\nThe Canadas were the main front in the War of 1812 between the United States and Britain. Peace came in 1815; no boundaries were changed. Immigration now resumed at a higher level, with over 960,000 arrivals from Britain 1815-50. New arrivals included Irish refugees escaping the Great Irish Famine as well as Gaelic-speaking Scots displaced by the Highland Clearances. Infectious diseases killed between 25 and 33 per cent of Europeans who immigrated to Canada before 1891.\n\nThe desire for responsible government resulted in the abortive Rebellions of 1837. The Durham Report subsequently recommended responsible government and the assimilation of French Canadians into English culture. The Act of Union 1840 merged the Canadas into a united Province of Canada and responsible government was established for all provinces of British North America by 1849. The signing of the Oregon Treaty by Britain and the United States in 1846 ended the Oregon boundary dispute, extending the border westward along the 49th parallel. This paved the way for British colonies on Vancouver Island (1849) and in British Columbia (1858). \n\nConfederation and expansion\n\nFollowing several constitutional conferences, the 1867 Constitution Act officially proclaimed Canadian Confederation on July 1, 1867, initially with four provinces: Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick. Canada assumed control of Rupert's Land and the North-Western Territory to form the Northwest Territories, where the Métis' grievances ignited the Red River Rebellion and the creation of the province of Manitoba in July 1870. British Columbia and Vancouver Island (which had been united in 1866) joined the confederation in 1871, while Prince Edward Island joined in 1873.\n\nThe Canadian parliament passed a bill introduced by the Conservative Cabinet that established a National Policy of tariffs to protect the nascent Canadian manufacturing industries. To open the West, parliament also approved sponsoring the construction of three transcontinental railways (including the Canadian Pacific Railway), opening the prairies to settlement with the Dominion Lands Act, and establishing the North-West Mounted Police to assert its authority over this territory. In 1898, during the Klondike Gold Rush in the Northwest Territories, parliament created the Yukon Territory. The Cabinet of Liberal Prime Minister Wilfrid Laurier fostered continental European immigrants settling the prairies and Alberta and Saskatchewan became provinces in 1905.\n\nEarly 20th century\n\nBecause Britain still maintained control of Canada's foreign affairs under the Confederation Act, its declaration of war in 1914 automatically brought Canada into World War I. Volunteers sent to the Western Front later became part of the Canadian Corps, which played a substantial role in the Battle of Vimy Ridge and other major engagements of the war. Out of approximately 625,000 Canadians who served in World War I, some 60,000 were killed and another 172,000 were wounded. The Conscription Crisis of 1917 erupted when the Unionist Cabinet's proposal to augment the military's dwindling number of active members with conscription was met with vehement objections from French-speaking Quebecers. The Military Service Act brought in compulsory military service, though, it, coupled with disputes over French language schools outside Quebec, deeply alienated Francophone Canadians and temporarily split the Liberal Party. In 1919, Canada joined the League of Nations independently of Britain, and the 1931 Statute of Westminster affirmed Canada's independence.\n\nThe Great Depression in Canada during the early 1930s saw an economic downturn, leading to hardship across the country. In response to the downturn, the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) in Saskatchewan introduced many elements of a welfare state (as pioneered by Tommy Douglas) in the 1940s and 1950s. On the advice of Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King, war with Germany was declared effective 10 September 1939 by King George VI, seven days after the United Kingdom. The delay underscored Canada's independence.\n\nThe first Canadian Army units arrived in Britain in December 1939. In all, over a million Canadians served in the armed forces during World War II and approximately 42,000 were killed and another 55,000 were wounded. Canadian troops played important roles in many key battles of the war, including the failed 1942 Dieppe Raid, the Allied invasion of Italy, the Normandy landings, the Battle of Normandy, and the Battle of the Scheldt in 1944. Canada provided asylum for the Dutch monarchy while that country was occupied and is credited by the Netherlands for major contributions to its liberation from Nazi Germany. The Canadian economy boomed during the war as its industries manufactured military materiel for Canada, Britain, China, and the Soviet Union. Despite another Conscription Crisis in Quebec in 1944, Canada finished the war with a large army and strong economy. \n\nModern times\n\nThe financial crisis of the great depression had led the Dominion of Newfoundland to relinquish responsible government in 1934 and become a crown colony ruled by a British governor. After two bitter referendums, Newfoundlanders voted to join Canada in 1949 as a province. \nCanada's post-war economic growth, combined with the policies of successive Liberal governments, led to the emergence of a new Canadian identity, marked by the adoption of the current Maple Leaf Flag in 1965, the implementation of official bilingualism (English and French) in 1969, and the institution of official multiculturalism in 1971. Socially democratic programs were also instituted, such as Medicare, the Canada Pension Plan, and Canada Student Loans, though provincial governments, particularly Quebec and Alberta, opposed many of these as incursions into their jurisdictions. Finally, another series of constitutional conferences resulted in the 1982 patriation of Canada's constitution from the United Kingdom, concurrent with the creation of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. In 1999, Nunavut became Canada's third territory after a series of negotiations with the federal government. \n\nAt the same time, Quebec underwent profound social and economic changes through the Quiet Revolution of the 1960s, giving birth to a modern nationalist movement. The radical Front de libération du Québec (FLQ) ignited the October Crisis with a series of bombings and kidnappings in 1970 and the Quebec sovereignty movement| Parti Québécois was elected in 1976, organizing an unsuccessful referendum on sovereignty-association in 1980. Attempts to accommodate Quebec nationalism constitutionally through the Meech Lake Accord failed in 1990. This led to the formation of the Bloc Québécois in Quebec and the invigoration of the Reform Party of Canada in the West. A second referendum followed in 1995, in which sovereignty was rejected by a slimmer margin of 50.6 to 49.4 percent. In 1997, the Supreme Court ruled that unilateral secession by a province would be unconstitutional and the Clarity Act was passed by parliament, outlining the terms of a negotiated departure from Confederation.\n\nIn addition to the issues of Quebec sovereignty, a number of crises shook Canadian society in the late 1980s and early 1990s. These included the explosion of Air India Flight 182 in 1985, the largest mass murder in Canadian history; the École Polytechnique massacre in 1989, a university shooting targeting female students; and the Oka Crisis of 1990, the first of a number of violent confrontations between the government and Aboriginal groups. Canada also joined the Gulf War in 1990 as part of a US-led coalition force and was active in several peacekeeping missions in the 1990s, including the UNPROFOR mission in the former Yugoslavia. \n\nCanada sent troops to Afghanistan in 2001, but declined to join the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003. In 2009, Canada's economy suffered in the worldwide Great Recession, but it has since largely rebounded. In 2011, Canadian forces participated in the NATO-led intervention into the Libyan civil war, and also became involved in battling the Islamic State insurgency in Iraq in the mid-2010s. \n\nGeography and climate\n\nCanada occupies much of the continent of North America, sharing land borders with the contiguous United States to the south, and the US state of Alaska to the northwest. Canada stretches from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west; to the north lies the Arctic Ocean. Greenland is to the northeast. By total area (including its waters), Canada is the second-largest country in the world, after Russia. By land area alone, however, Canada ranks fourth, the difference being due to it having the worlds largest proportion of fresh water lakes. \n\nSince 1925, Canada has claimed the portion of the Arctic between 60° and 141°W longitude, but this claim is not universally recognized. Canada is home to the world's northernmost settlement, Canadian Forces Station Alert, on the northern tip of Ellesmere Island – latitude 82.5°N – which lies 817 km from the North Pole. Much of the Canadian Arctic is covered by ice and permafrost. Canada has the longest coastline in the world, with a total length of ; additionally, its border with the United States is the world's longest land border, stretching 8891 km. \n\nSince the end of the last glacial period, Canada has consisted of eight distinct forest regions, including extensive boreal forest on the Canadian Shield. Canada has over 2,000,000 lakes (563 greater than 100 km2), more than any other country, containing much of the world's fresh water. \nThere are also fresh-water glaciers in the Canadian Rockies and the Coast Mountains.\n\nCanada is geologically active, having many earthquakes and potentially active volcanoes, notably Mount Meager, Mount Garibaldi, Mount Cayley, and the Mount Edziza volcanic complex. The volcanic eruption of the Tseax Cone in 1775 was among Canada's worst natural disasters, killing 2,000 Nisga'a people and destroying their village in the Nass River valley of northern British Columbia. The eruption produced a lava flow, and, according to Nisga'a legend, blocked the flow of the Nass River. Canada's population density, at , is among the lowest in the world. The most densely populated part of the country is the Quebec City – Windsor Corridor, situated in Southern Quebec and Southern Ontario along the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence River.\n\nAverage winter and summer high temperatures across Canada vary from region to region. Winters can be harsh in many parts of the country, particularly in the interior and Prairie provinces, which experience a continental climate, where daily average temperatures are near −15 °C (5 °F), but can drop below with severe wind chills. In noncoastal regions, snow can cover the ground for almost six months of the year, while in parts of the north snow can persist year-round. Coastal British Columbia has a temperate climate, with a mild and rainy winter. On the east and west coasts, average high temperatures are generally in the low 20s °C (70s °F), while between the coasts, the average summer high temperature ranges from 25 to, with temperatures in some interior locations occasionally exceeding 40 °C. \n\nGovernment and politics\n\nCanada has a parliamentary system within the context of a constitutional monarchy, the monarchy of Canada being the foundation of the executive, legislative, and judicial branches. The sovereign is Queen Elizabeth II, who is also monarch of 15 other Commonwealth countries and each of Canada's 10 provinces. As such, the Queen's representative, the Governor General of Canada (at present David Johnston), carries out most of the federal royal duties in Canada. \n\nThe direct participation of the royal and viceroyal figures in areas of governance is limited. In practice, their use of the executive powers is directed by the Cabinet, a committee of ministers of the Crown responsible to the elected House of Commons and chosen and headed by the Prime Minister of Canada (at present Justin Trudeau), the head of government. The governor general or monarch may, though, in certain crisis situations exercise their power without ministerial advice. To ensure the stability of government, the governor general will usually appoint as prime minister the person who is the current leader of the political party that can obtain the confidence of a plurality in the House of Commons. The Prime Minister's Office (PMO) is thus one of the most powerful institutions in government, initiating most legislation for parliamentary approval and selecting for appointment by the Crown, besides the aforementioned, the governor general, lieutenant governors, senators, federal court judges, and heads of Crown corporations and government agencies. The leader of the party with the second-most seats usually becomes the Leader of Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition and is part of an adversarial parliamentary system intended to keep the government in check. \n\nEach of the 338 members of parliament in the House of Commons is elected by simple plurality in an electoral district or riding. General elections must be called by the governor general, either on the advice of the prime minister, within four years of the previous election, or if the government loses a confidence vote in the House. The 105 members of the Senate, whose seats are apportioned on a regional basis, serve until age 75. Five parties had representatives elected to the federal parliament in the 2015 election: the Liberal Party of Canada who currently form the government, the Conservative Party of Canada who are the Official Opposition, the New Democratic Party, the Bloc Québécois, and the Green Party of Canada. The list of historical parties with elected representation is substantial.\n\nCanada's federal structure divides government responsibilities between the federal government and the ten provinces. Provincial legislatures are unicameral and operate in parliamentary fashion similar to the House of Commons. Canada's three territories also have legislatures, but these are not sovereign and have fewer constitutional responsibilities than the provinces. The territorial legislatures also differ structurally from their provincial counterparts. \n\nThe Bank of Canada is the central bank of the country. In addition, the Minister of Finance and Minister of Industry utilize the Statistics Canada agency for financial planning and economic policy development. The Bank of Canada is the sole authority authorized to issue currency in the form of Canadian bank notes. The bank does not issue Canadian coins; they are issued by the Royal Canadian Mint. \n\nLaw\n\nThe Constitution of Canada is the supreme law of the country, and consists of written text and unwritten conventions. The Constitution Act, 1867 (known as the British North America Act prior to 1982), affirmed governance based on parliamentary precedent and divided powers between the federal and provincial governments. The Statute of Westminster 1931 granted full autonomy and the Constitution Act, 1982, ended all legislative ties to the UK, as well as adding a constitutional amending formula and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The Charter guarantees basic rights and freedoms that usually cannot be over-ridden by any government—though a notwithstanding clause allows the federal parliament and provincial legislatures to override certain sections of the Charter for a period of five years. \n\nThe Indian Act, various treaties and case laws were established to mediate relations between Europeans and native peoples. Most notably, a series of eleven treaties known as the Numbered Treaties were signed between Aboriginals in Canada and the reigning Monarch of Canada between 1871 and 1921. These treaties are agreements with the Canadian Crown-in-Council, administered by Canadian Aboriginal law, and overseen by the Minister of Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development. The role of the treaties and the rights they support were reaffirmed by Section Thirty-five of the Constitution Act, 1982. These rights may include provision of services, such as health care, and exemption from taxation. The legal and policy framework within which Canada and First Nations operate was further formalized in 2005, through the First Nations–Federal Crown Political Accord.\n\nCanada's judiciary plays an important role in interpreting laws and has the power to strike down Acts of Parliament that violate the constitution. The Supreme Court of Canada is the highest court and final arbiter and has been led since 2000 by the Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin (the first female Chief Justice). Its nine members are appointed by the governor general on the advice of the prime minister and minister of justice. All judges at the superior and appellate levels are appointed after consultation with nongovernmental legal bodies. The federal Cabinet also appoints justices to superior courts in the provincial and territorial jurisdictions. \n\nCommon law prevails everywhere except in Quebec, where civil law predominates. Criminal law is solely a federal responsibility and is uniform throughout Canada. Law enforcement, including criminal courts, is officially a provincial responsibility, conducted by provincial and municipal police forces. However, in most rural areas and some urban areas, policing responsibilities are contracted to the federal Royal Canadian Mounted Police. \n\nForeign relations and military\n\nCanada is recognized as a middle power for its role in international affairs with a tendency to pursue multilateral solutions. Canada's foreign policy based on international peacekeeping and security is carried out through coalitions and international organizations, and through the work of numerous federal institutions. Canada's peacekeeping role during the 20th century has played a major role in its global image. The strategy of the Canadian government's foreign aid policy reflects an emphasis to meet the Millennium Development Goals, while also providing assistance in response to foreign humanitarian crises. \n\nCanada was a founding member of the United Nations and has membership in the World Trade Organization, the G20 and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Canada is also a member of various other international and regional organizations and forums for economic and cultural affairs. Canada acceded to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights in 1976. Canada joined the Organization of American States (OAS) in 1990 and hosted the OAS General Assembly in 2000 and the 3rd Summit of the Americas in 2001. Canada seeks to expand its ties to Pacific Rim economies through membership in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum (APEC). \n\nCanada and the United States share the world's longest undefended border, co-operate on military campaigns and exercises, and are each other's largest trading partner. Canada nevertheless has an independent foreign policy, most notably maintaining full relations with Cuba since, and declining to officially participate in the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Canada also maintains historic ties to the United Kingdom and France and to other former British and French colonies through Canada's membership in the Commonwealth of Nations and the Francophonie. Canada is noted for having a positive relationship with the Netherlands, owing, in part, to its contribution to the Dutch liberation during World War II.\n\nCanada's strong attachment to the British Empire and Commonwealth led to major participation in British military efforts in the Second Boer War, World War I and World War II. Since then, Canada has been an advocate for multilateralism, making efforts to resolve global issues in collaboration with other nations. During the Cold War, Canada was a major contributor to UN forces in the Korean War and founded the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) in co-operation with the United States to defend against potential aerial attacks from the Soviet Union. \n\nDuring the Suez Crisis of 1956, future Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson eased tensions by proposing the inception of the United Nations Peacekeeping Force, for which he was awarded the 1957 Nobel Peace Prize. As this was the first UN peacekeeping mission, Pearson is often credited as the inventor of the concept. Canada has since served in over 50 peacekeeping missions, including every UN peacekeeping effort until 1989, and has since maintained forces in international missions in Rwanda, the former Yugoslavia, and elsewhere; Canada has sometimes faced controversy over its involvement in foreign countries, notably in the 1993 Somalia Affair. \n\nIn 2001, Canada deployed troops to Afghanistan as part of the US stabilization force and the UN-authorized, NATO-led International Security Assistance Force. In February 2007, Canada, Italy, the United Kingdom, Norway, and Russia announced their joint commitment to a $1.5-billion project to help develop vaccines for developing nations, and called on other countries to join them. In August 2007, Canada's territorial claims in the Arctic were challenged after a Russian underwater expedition to the North Pole; Canada has considered that area to be sovereign territory since 1925. \n\nCanada currently employs a professional, volunteer military force of 92,000 active personnel and approximately 51,000 reserve personnel. The unified Canadian Forces (CF) comprise the Canadian Army, Royal Canadian Navy, and Royal Canadian Air Force. In 2013, Canada's military expenditure totalled approximately C$19 billion, or around 1% of the country's GDP. \n\nProvinces and territories\n\nCanada is a federation composed of ten provinces and three territories. In turn, these may be grouped into four main regions: Western Canada, Central Canada, Atlantic Canada, and Northern Canada (Eastern Canada refers to Central Canada and Atlantic Canada together). Provinces have more autonomy than territories, having responsibility for social programs such as health care, education, and welfare. Together, the provinces collect more revenue than the federal government, an almost unique structure among federations in the world. Using its spending powers, the federal government can initiate national policies in provincial areas, such as the Canada Health Act; the provinces can opt out of these, but rarely do so in practice. Equalization payments are made by the federal government to ensure that reasonably uniform standards of services and taxation are kept between the richer and poorer provinces. \n\nEconomy\n\nCanada is the world's eleventh-largest economy , with a nominal GDP of approximately US$1.79 trillion. It is a member of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the Group of Eight (G8), and is one of the world's top ten trading nations, with a highly globalized economy. Canada is a mixed economy, ranking above the US and most western European nations on the Heritage Foundation's index of economic freedom, and experiencing a relatively low level of income disparity. The country's average household disposable income per capita is over US$23,900, higher than the OECD average. Furthermore, the Toronto Stock Exchange is the seventh largest stock exchange in the world by market capitalization, listing over 1,500 companies with a combined market capitalization of over US$2 trillion . \n\nIn 2014, Canada's exports totalled over C$528 billion, while its imported goods were worth over $523 billion, of which approximately $349 billion originated from the United States, $49 billion from the European Union, and $35 billion from China. The country's 2014 trade surplus totalled C$5.1 billion, compared with a C$46.9 billion surplus in 2008. \n\nSince the early 20th century, the growth of Canada's manufacturing, mining, and service sectors has transformed the nation from a largely rural economy to an urbanized, industrial one. Like many other developed nations, the Canadian economy is dominated by the service industry, which employs about three-quarters of the country's workforce. However, Canada is unusual among developed countries in the importance of its primary sector, in which the forestry and petroleum industries are two of the most prominent components. \n\nCanada is one of the few developed nations that are net exporters of energy. Atlantic Canada possesses vast offshore deposits of natural gas, and Alberta also hosts large oil and gas resources. The vastness of the Athabasca oil sands and other assets results in Canada having a 13% share of global oil reserves, comprising the world's third-largest share after Venezuela and Saudi Arabia. Canada is additionally one of the world's largest suppliers of agricultural products; the Canadian Prairies are one of the most important global producers of wheat, canola, and other grains. Canada's Ministry of Natural Resources provides statistics regarding its major exports; the country is a leading exporter of zinc, uranium, gold, nickel, aluminum, steel, iron ore, coking coal and lead. Many towns in northern Canada, where agriculture is difficult, are sustainable because of nearby mines or sources of timber. Canada also has a sizeable manufacturing sector centred in southern Ontario and Quebec, with automobiles and aeronautics representing particularly important industries. \n\nCanada's economic integration with the United States has increased significantly since World War II. The Automotive Products Trade Agreement of 1965 opened Canada's borders to trade in the automobile manufacturing industry. In the 1970s, concerns over energy self-sufficiency and foreign ownership in the manufacturing sectors prompted Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau's Liberal government to enact the National Energy Program (NEP) and the Foreign Investment Review Agency (FIRA). In the 1980s, Prime Minister Brian Mulroney's Progressive Conservatives abolished the NEP and changed the name of FIRA to Investment Canada, to encourage foreign investment. The Canada – United States Free Trade Agreement (FTA) of 1988 eliminated tariffs between the two countries, while the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) expanded the free-trade zone to include Mexico in 1994. In the mid-1990s, Jean Chrétien's Liberal government began to post annual budgetary surpluses, and steadily paid down the national debt. \n\nThe global financial crisis of 2008 caused a major recession, which led to a significant rise in unemployment in Canada. By October 2009, Canada's national unemployment rate had reached 8.6 percent, with provincial unemployment rates varying from a low of 5.8 percent in Manitoba to a high of 17 percent in Newfoundland and Labrador. Between October 2008 and October 2010, the Canadian labour market lost 162,000 full-time jobs and a total of 224,000 permanent jobs. Canada's federal debt was estimated to total $566.7 billion for the fiscal year 2010–11, up from $463.7 billion in 2008–09. In addition, Canada's net foreign debt rose by $41 billion to $194 billion in the first quarter of 2010. However, Canada's regulated banking sector (comparatively conservative among G8 nations), the federal government's pre-crisis budgetary surpluses, and its long-term policies of lowering the national debt, resulted in a less severe recession compared to other G8 nations. , the Canadian economy has largely stabilized and has seen a modest return to growth, although the country remains troubled by volatile oil prices, sensitivity to the Eurozone crisis and higher-than-normal unemployment rates. The federal government and many Canadian industries have also started to expand trade with emerging Asian markets, in an attempt to diversify exports; Asia is now Canada's second-largest export market after the United States. Widely debated oil pipeline proposals, in particular, are hoped to increase exports of Canadian oil reserves to China. \n\nScience and technology\n\nIn 2012, Canada spent approximately C$31.3 billion on domestic research and development, of which around $7 billion was provided by the federal and provincial governments. , the country has produced thirteen Nobel laureates in physics, chemistry, and medicine, and was ranked fourth worldwide for scientific research quality in a major 2012 survey of international scientists. It is furthermore home to the headquarters of a number of global technology firms. Canada has one of the highest levels of Internet access in the world, with over 33 million users, equivalent to around 94 percent of its total 2014 population. \n\nThe Canadian Space Agency operates a highly active space program, conducting deep-space, planetary, and aviation research, and developing rockets and satellites. Canada was the third country to launch a satellite into space after the USSR and the United States, with the 1962 Alouette 1 launch. In 1984, Marc Garneau became Canada's first male astronaut. Canada is a participant in the International Space Station (ISS), and is a pioneer in space robotics, having constructed the Canadarm, Canadarm2 and Dextre robotic manipulators for the ISS and NASA's Space Shuttle. Since the 1960s, Canada's aerospace industry has designed and built numerous marques of satellite, including Radarsat-1 and 2, ISIS and MOST. Canada has also produced one of the world's most successful and widely used sounding rockets, the Black Brant; over 1,000 Black Brants have been launched since the rocket's introduction in 1961. \n\nDemographics\n\nThe 2011 Canadian census counted a total population of 33,476,688, an increase of around 5.9 percent over the 2006 figure. By December 2012, Statistics Canada reported a population of over 35 million, signifying the fastest growth rate of any G8 nation. Between 1990 and 2008, the population increased by 5.6 million, equivalent to 20.4 percent overall growth. The main drivers of population growth are immigration and, to a lesser extent, natural growth. Canada has one of the highest per-capita immigration rates in the world, driven mainly by economic policy and, to a lesser extent family reunification. The Canadian public as-well as the major political parties support the current level of immigration. In 2010, a record 280,636 people immigrated to Canada. The Canadian government anticipated between 280,000 and 305,000 new permanent residents in 2016, a similar number of immigrants as in recent years. New immigrants settle mostly in major urban areas such as Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver. Canada also accepts large numbers of refugees, accounting for over 10 percent of annual global refugee resettlements. \n\nAbout four-fifths of the population lives within 150 km of the contiguous United States border. Approximately 50 percent of Canadians live in urban areas concentrated along the Quebec City–Windsor Corridor, with an additional 30 percent living along the British Columbia Lower Mainland, and the Calgary–Edmonton Corridor in Alberta. Canada spans latitudinally from the 83rd parallel north to the 41st parallel north, and approximately 95% of the population is found below the 55th parallel north. In common with many other developed countries, Canada is experiencing a demographic shift towards an older population, with more retirees and fewer people of working age. In 2006, the average age was 39.5 years; by 2011, it had risen to approximately 39.9 years. , the average life expectancy for Canadians is 81 years. The majority of Canadians (69.9%) live in family households, 26.8% report living alone, and those living with unrelated persons reported at 3.7%. The average size of a household in 2006 was 2.5 people.\n\nEducation\n\nAccording to a 2012 report by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Canada is the most educated country in the world; the country ranks first worldwide in the number of adults having tertiary education, with 51 percent of Canadian adults having attained at least an undergraduate college or university degree. Canada spends about 5.3% of its GDP on education. The country invests heavily in tertiary education (more than 20 000 USD per student). , 89 percent of adults aged 25 to 64 have earned the equivalent of a high-school degree, compared to an OECD average of 75 percent.\n\nSince the adoption of section 23 of the Constitution Act, 1982, education in both English and French has been available in most places across Canada. Canadian provinces and territories are responsible for education provision. The mandatory school age ranges between 5–7 to 16–18 years, contributing to an adult literacy rate of 99 percent. In 2002, 43 percent of Canadians aged 25 to 64 possessed a post-secondary education; for those aged 25 to 34, the rate of post-secondary education reached 51 percent. The Programme for International Student Assessment indicates that Canadian students perform well above the OECD average, particularly in mathematics, science, and reading. \n\nEthnicity\n\nAccording to the 2006 census, the country's largest self-reported ethnic origin is Canadian (accounting for 32% of the population), followed by English (21%), French (15.8%), Scottish (15.1%), Irish (13.9%), German (10.2%), Italian (4.6%), Chinese (4.3%), First Nations (4.0%), Ukrainian (3.9%), and Dutch (3.3%). There are 600 recognized First Nations governments or bands, encompassing a total of 1,172,790 people. Canada's aboriginal population is growing at almost twice the national rate, and four percent of Canada's population claimed aboriginal identity in 2006. Another 16.2 percent of the population belonged to a non-aboriginal visible minority. In 2006, the largest visible minority groups were South Asian (4.0%), Chinese (3.9%) and Black (2.5%). Between 2001 and 2006, the visible minority population rose by 27.2 percent. In 1961, less than two percent of Canada's population (about 300,000 people) were members of visible minority groups. By 2007, almost one in five (19.8%) were foreign-born, with nearly 60 percent of new immigrants coming from Asia (including the Middle East). The leading sources of immigrants to Canada were China, the Philippines and India. According to Statistics Canada, visible minority groups could account for a third of the Canadian population by 2031. \n\nReligion\n\nCanada is religiously diverse, encompassing a wide range of beliefs and customs. Canada has no official church, and the government is officially committed to religious pluralism. Freedom of religion in Canada is a constitutionally protected right, allowing individuals to assemble and worship without limitation or interference. The practice of religion is now generally considered a private matter throughout society and the state. With Christianity in decline after having once been central and integral to Canadian culture and daily life, Canada has become a post-Christian, secular state. The majority of Canadians consider religion to be unimportant in their daily lives, but still believe in God. According to the 2011 census, 67.3% of Canadians identify as Christian; of these, Roman Catholics make up the largest group, accounting for 38.7% of the population. The largest Protestant denomination is the United Church of Canada (accounting for 6.1% of Canadians), followed by Anglicans (5.0%), and Baptists (1.9%). Secularization has been growing since the 1960s. In 2011, 23.9% declared no religious affiliation, compared to 16.5% in 2001. The remaining 8.8% are affiliated with non-Christian religions, the largest of which are Islam (3.2%) and Hinduism (1.5%).\n\nLanguages\n\nA multitude of languages are used by Canadians, with English and French (the official languages) being the mother tongues of approximately 60% and 20% of Canadians respectively. Nearly 6.8 million Canadians listed a non-official language as their mother tongue. Some of the most common non-official first languages include Chinese (mainly Cantonese; 1,072,555 first-language speakers), Punjabi (430,705), Spanish (410,670), German (409,200), and Italian (407,490). Canada's federal government practices official bilingualism, which is applied by the Commissioner of Official Languages in consonance with Section 16 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the Federal Official Languages Act. English and French have equal status in federal courts, parliament, and in all federal institutions. Citizens have the right, where there is sufficient demand, to receive federal government services in either English or French and official-language minorities are guaranteed their own schools in all provinces and territories. \n\nThe 1977 Charter of the French Language established French as the official language of Quebec. Although more than 85 percent of French-speaking Canadians live in Quebec, there are substantial Francophone populations in New Brunswick, Alberta, and Manitoba; Ontario has the largest French-speaking population outside Quebec. New Brunswick, the only officially bilingual province, has a French-speaking Acadian minority constituting 33 percent of the population. There are also clusters of Acadians in southwestern Nova Scotia, on Cape Breton Island, and through central and western Prince Edward Island. \n\nOther provinces have no official languages as such, but French is used as a language of instruction, in courts, and for other government services, in addition to English. Manitoba, Ontario, and Quebec allow for both English and French to be spoken in the provincial legislatures, and laws are enacted in both languages. In Ontario, French has some legal status, but is not fully co-official. There are 11 Aboriginal language groups, composed of more than 65 distinct dialects. Of these, only the Cree, Inuktitut and Ojibway languages have a large enough population of fluent speakers to be considered viable to survive in the long term. Several aboriginal languages have official status in the Northwest Territories. Inuktitut is the majority language in Nunavut, and is one of three official languages in the territory. \n\nCulture\n\nCanada's culture draws influences from its broad range of constituent nationalities, and policies that promote a \"just society\" are constitutionally protected. Canada has placed emphasis on equality and inclusiveness for all its people. Multiculturalism is often cited as one of Canada's significant accomplishments, and a key distinguishing element of Canadian identity. In Quebec, cultural identity is strong, and many commentators speak of a culture of Quebec that is distinct from English Canadian culture. However, as a whole, Canada is in theory a cultural mosaic—a collection of several regional, aboriginal, and ethnic subcultures. \n\nCanada's approach to governance emphasizing multiculturalism, which is based on selective immigration, social integration, and suppression of far right politics, has wide public support. Government policies such as publicly funded health care, higher taxation to redistribute wealth, the outlawing of capital punishment, strong efforts to eliminate poverty, strict gun control, and the legalization of same-sex marriage are further social indicators of Canada's political and cultural values. Canadians also identify with the countries institutions of health care, peacekeeping, the National park system and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. \n\nHistorically, Canada has been influenced by British, French, and aboriginal cultures and traditions. Through their language, art and music, aboriginal peoples continue to influence the Canadian identity. During the 20th-century Canadians with African, Caribbean and Asian nationalities have added to the Canadian identity and its culture. Canadian humour is an integral part of the Canadian Identity and is reflected in its folklore, literature, music, art and media. The primary characteristics of Canadian humour are irony, parody, and satire. Many Canadian comedians have archived international success in the American TV and film industries and are amongst the most recognized in the world. \n\nCanada has a well-developed media sector, but its cultural output; particularly in English films, television shows, and magazines, is often overshadowed by imports from the United States. As a result, the preservation of a distinctly Canadian culture is supported by federal government programs, laws, and institutions such as the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), the National Film Board of Canada (NFB), and the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC). \n\nSymbols\n\nCanada's national symbols are influenced by natural, historical, and Aboriginal sources. The use of the maple leaf as a Canadian symbol dates to the early 18th century. The maple leaf is depicted on Canada's current and previous flags, and on the Arms of Canada. The Arms of Canada is closely modelled after the royal coat of arms of the United Kingdom with French and distinctive Canadian elements replacing or added to those derived from the British version. The Great Seal of Canada is a governmental seal used for purposes of state, being set on letters patent, proclamations and commissions, for representatives of the Queen and for the appointment of cabinet ministers, lieutenant governors, senators, and judges. Other prominent symbols include the beaver, Canada goose, common loon, the Crown, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, and more recently, the totem pole and Inuksuk. Canadian coins feature many of these symbols: the loon on the $1 coin, the Arms of Canada on the 50¢ piece, the beaver on the nickel. The penny, removed from circulation in 2013, featured the maple leaf. The Queen' s image appears on $20 bank notes, and on the obverse of all current Canadian coins.\n\nLiterature\n\nCanadian literature is often divided into French- and English-language literatures, which are rooted in the literary traditions of France and Britain, respectively. There are four major themes that can be found within historical Canadian literature; nature, frontier life, Canada's position within the world, all three of which tie into the garrison mentality. By the 1990s, Canadian literature was viewed as some of the world's best. Canada's ethnic and cultural diversity are reflected in its literature, with many of its most prominent modern writers focusing on ethnic life. Arguably, the best-known living Canadian writer internationally (especially since the deaths of Robertson Davies and Mordecai Richler) is Margaret Atwood, a prolific novelist, poet, and literary critic. Numerous other Canadian authors have accumulated international literary awards; including Nobel Laureate Alice Munro, who has been called the best living writer of short stories in English; and Booker Prize recipient Michael Ondaatje, who is perhaps best known for the novel The English Patient, which was adapted as a film of the same name that won the Academy Award for Best Picture. \n\nVisual arts\n\nCanadian visual art has been dominated by figures such as Tom Thomson – the country's most famous painter – and by the Group of Seven. Thomson's career painting Canadian landscapes spanned a decade up to his death in 1917 at age 39. The Group were painters with a nationalistic and idealistic focus, who first exhibited their distinctive works in May 1920. Though referred to as having seven members, five artists—Lawren Harris, A. Y. Jackson, Arthur Lismer, J. E. H. MacDonald, and Frederick Varley—were responsible for articulating the Group's ideas. They were joined briefly by Frank Johnston, and by commercial artist Franklin Carmichael. A. J. Casson became part of the Group in 1926. Associated with the Group was another prominent Canadian artist, Emily Carr, known for her landscapes and portrayals of the indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast. Since the 1950s, works of Inuit art have been given as gifts to foreign dignitaries by the Canadian government. \n\nMusic\n\nThe Canadian music industry is the sixth largest in the world producing internationally renowned composers, musicians and ensembles. Music broadcasting in the country is regulated by the CRTC. The Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences presents Canada's music industry awards, the Juno Awards, which were first awarded in 1970. The Canadian Music Hall of Fame established in 1976 honours Canadian musicians for their lifetime achievements. Patriotic music in Canada dates back over 200 years as a distinct category from British patriotism, preceding the first legal steps to independence by over 50 years. The earliest, The Bold Canadian, was written in 1812. The national anthem of Canada, \"O Canada\", was originally commissioned by the Lieutenant Governor of Quebec, the Honourable Théodore Robitaille, for the 1880 St. Jean-Baptiste Day ceremony, and was officially adopted in 1980. Calixa Lavallée wrote the music, which was a setting of a patriotic poem composed by the poet and judge Sir Adolphe-Basile Routhier. The text was originally only in French, before it was translated to English in 1906. \n\nSport\n\nThe roots of organized sports in Canada date back to the 1770s. Canada's official national sports are ice hockey and lacrosse. Seven of Canada's eight largest metropolitan areas – Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Ottawa, Calgary, Edmonton and Winnipeg – have franchises in the National Hockey League (NHL) while Quebec City had the Quebec Nordiques until they relocated to Colorado in 1995. Canada does have one Major League Baseball team, the Toronto Blue Jays, one professional basketball team, the Toronto Raptors, three Major League Soccer teams and four National Lacrosse League teams. Canada has participated in almost every Olympic Games since its Olympic debut in 1900, and has hosted several high-profile international sporting events, including the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, the 1994 Basketball World Championship, the 2007 FIFA U-20 World Cup, the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver and Whistler, British Columbia and the 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup. Other popular and professional spectator sports in Canada include curling, Canadian football and rugby league; the latter is played professionally in the Canadian Football League (CFL) and League 1 (Toronto Wolfpack). Golf, tennis, baseball, skiing, cricket, volleyball, rugby union, Australian Rules Football, soccer and basketball are widely played at youth and amateur levels, but professional leagues and franchises are not widespread." ] }

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{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe" ], "filename": [ "Killer_whale.txt" ], "title": [ "Killer whale" ], "wiki_context": [ "The killer whale or orca (Orcinus orca) is a toothed whale belonging to the oceanic dolphin family, of which it is the largest member. Killer whales are found in all oceans, from Arctic and Antarctic regions to tropical seas. Killer whales have a diverse diet, although individual populations often specialize in particular types of prey. Some feed exclusively on fish, while others hunt marine mammals such as seals and dolphins. They have been known to attack baleen whale calves, and even adult whales. Killer whales are apex predators, as there is no animal which preys on them.\n\nKiller whales are highly social; some populations are composed of matrilineal family groups (pods) which are the most stable of any animal species. Their sophisticated hunting techniques and vocal behaviours, which are often specific to a particular group and passed across generations, have been described as manifestations of animal culture.\n\nThe IUCN (International Union for the Conservation of Nature) currently assesses the orca's conservation status as data deficient because of the likelihood that two or more killer whale types are separate species. Some local populations are considered threatened or endangered due to prey depletion, habitat loss, pollution (by PCBs), capture for marine mammal parks, and conflicts with human fisheries. In late 2005, the Southern Resident Killer Whales, the population that inhabits British Columbia and Washington state waters, were placed on the U.S. Endangered Species list.\n\nWild killer whales are not considered a threat to humans, but there have been cases of captive orcas killing or injuring their handlers at marine theme parks. Killer whales feature strongly in the mythologies of indigenous cultures, with their reputation ranging from being the souls of humans to merciless killers.\n\nTaxonomy and evolution\n\nOrcinus orca is the only recognized extant species in the genus Orcinus, one of many animal species originally described by Linnaeus in 1758 in Systema Naturae. Konrad Gessner wrote the first scientific description of a killer whale in his \"Fish book\" of 1558, based on examination of a dead stranded animal in the Bay of Greifswald that had attracted a great deal of local interest. \n\nThe killer whale is one of 35 species in the oceanic dolphin family, which first appeared about 11 million years ago. The killer whale lineage probably branched off shortly thereafter. Although it has morphological similarities with the pygmy killer whale, the false killer whale and the pilot whales, a study of cytochrome b gene sequences by Richard LeDuc indicated that its closest extant relatives are the snubfin dolphins of the genus Orcaella.\n\nCommon names\n\nEnglish-speaking scientists most often use the term \"killer whale\", although the term \"orca\" is increasingly used. Killer whale advocates point out it has a long heritage. Indeed, the genus name Orcinus means \"of the kingdom of the dead\", or \"belonging to Orcus\". \nAncient Romans originally applied orca (plural orcae) to these animals, possibly borrowing it from the Greek , which referred (among other things) to a whale species. Since the 1960s, \"orca\" has steadily grown in popularity; both names are now used. The term \"orca\" is euphemistically preferred by some to avoid the negative connotations of \"killer\", and because, being part of the family Delphinidae, the species is more closely related to other dolphins than to whales. \n\nAccording to some authors, the name killer whale is a mistranslation of the 18th century Spanish name asesina de ballenas which means literally whale killer. Basque whalers would have given it such name after observing pods of orcas hunting baleen whales.\n\nThey are sometimes referred to as \"blackfish\", a name also used for other whale species. \"Grampus\" is a former name for the species, but is now seldom used. This meaning of \"grampus\" should not be confused with the genus Grampus, whose only member is Risso's dolphin. \n\nTypes\n\nThe three to five types of killer whales may be distinct enough to be considered different races,. [http://courses.washington.edu/mb351/readings/baird.pdf Status of Killer Whales in Canada]. Contract report to the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada, Ottawa, ON, Canada. Also published as [http://www.cascadiaresearch.org/robin/kwstatus2001.pdf Status of Killer Whales, Orcinus orca, in Canada] The Canadian Field-Naturalist 115 (4) (2001), 676–701. Retrieved January 26, 2010. subspecies, or possibly even species (see Species problem). The IUCN reported in 2008, \"The taxonomy of this genus is clearly in need of review, and it is likely that O. orca will be split into a number of different species or at least subspecies over the next few years.\"\n Although large variation in the ecological distinctiveness of different killer whale groups complicate simple differentiation into types, research off the west coast of Canada and the United States in the 1970s and 1980s identified the following three types:\n*Resident: These are the most commonly sighted of the three populations in the coastal waters of the northeast Pacific. Residents' diets consist primarily of fish and sometimes squid, and they live in complex and cohesive family groups called pods. Female residents characteristically have rounded dorsal fin tips that terminate in a sharp corner. They visit the same areas consistently. British Columbia and Washington resident populations are amongst the most intensively studied marine mammals anywhere in the world. Researchers have identified and named over 300 killer whales over the past 30 years.\n*Transient: The diets of these whales consist almost exclusively of marine mammals. Transients generally travel in small groups, usually of two to six animals, and have less persistent family bonds than residents. Transients vocalize in less variable and less complex dialects. Female transients are characterized by more triangular and pointed dorsal fins than those of residents. The gray or white area around the dorsal fin, known as the \"saddle patch\", often contains some black colouring in residents. However, the saddle patches of transients are solid and uniformly gray. Transients roam widely along the coast; some individuals have been sighted in both southern Alaska and California. Transients are also referred to as Bigg's killer whale in honor of cetologist Michael Bigg. The term has become increasingly common and may eventually replace the transient label. \n*Offshore: A third population of killer whales in the northeast Pacific was discovered in 1988, when a humpback whale researcher observed them in open water. As their name suggests, they travel far from shore and feed primarily on schooling fish. However, because they have large, scarred and nicked dorsal fins resembling those of mammal-hunting transients, it may be that they also eat mammals and sharks. They have mostly been encountered off the west coast of Vancouver Island and near Haida Gwaii. Offshores typically congregate in groups of 20–75, with occasional sightings of larger groups of up to 200. Currently, little is known about their habits, but they are genetically distinct from residents and transients. Offshores appear to be smaller than the others, and females are characterized by dorsal fin tips that are continuously rounded.\n\nTransients and residents live in the same areas, but avoid each other. The name \"transient\" originated from the belief that these killer whales were outcasts from larger resident pods. Researchers later discovered transients are not born into resident pods. The evolutionary split between the two groups is believed to have begun two million years ago. Genetic data indicate the types have not interbred for up to 10,000 years. \n\nOther populations have not been as well studied, although specialized fish and mammal eating killer whales have been distinguished elsewhere. In addition, separate populations of \"generalist\" (fish- and mammal-eating) and \"specialist\" (mammal-eating) killer whales have been identified off northwestern Europe. As with residents and transients, the lifestyle of these whales appears to reflect their diet; fish-eating killer whales in Alaska and Norway have resident-like social structures, while mammal-eating killer whales in Argentina and the Crozet Islands behave more like transients.\n\nThree types have been documented in the Antarctic. Two dwarf species, named Orcinus nanus and Orcinus glacialis, were described during the 1980s by Soviet researchers, but most cetacean researchers are skeptical about their status, and linking these directly to the types described below is difficult.\n\n*Type A looks like a \"typical\" killer whale, a large, black and white form with a medium-sized white eye patch, living in open water and feeding mostly on minke whales.\n*Type B is smaller than type A. It has a large white eye patch. Most of the dark parts of its body are medium gray instead of black, although it has a dark gray patch called a \"dorsal cape\" stretching back from its forehead to just behind its dorsal fin. The white areas are stained slightly yellow. It feeds mostly on seals.\n*Type C is the smallest type and lives in larger groups than the others. Its eye patch is distinctively slanted forwards, rather than parallel to the body axis. Like type B, it is primarily white and medium gray, with a dark gray dorsal cape and yellow-tinged patches. Its only observed prey is the Antarctic cod.\n*Type D was identified based on photographs of a 1955 mass stranding in New Zealand and six at-sea sightings since 2004. The first video record of this type in life happened between the Kerguelen and Crozet Islands in 2014. It is immediately recognizable by its extremely small white eye patch, narrower and shorter than usual dorsal fin, bulbous head (similar to a pilot whale), and smaller teeth. Its geographic range appears to be circumglobal in subantarctic waters between latitudes 40°S and 60°S. And although nothing is known about the type D diet, it is suspected to include fish because groups have been photographed around longline vessels, where they reportedly prey on Patagonian toothfish (Dissostichus eleginoides). \n\nTypes B and C live close to the ice pack, and diatoms in these waters may be responsible for the yellowish colouring of both types. Mitochondrial DNA sequences support the theory that these are recently diverged separate species. More recently, complete mitochondrial sequencing indicates the two Antarctic groups that eat seals and fish should be recognized as distinct species, as should the North Pacific transients, leaving the others as subspecies pending additional data. Advanced methods that sequenced the entire mitochondrial genome revealed systematic differences in DNA between different populations.\n\nMammal-eating killer whales were long thought likely to be closely related to other mammal-eating killer whales from different regions, but genetic testing refuted this hypothesis.\n\nThe identified seven ecotypes in isolated ecological niches. Of three orca ecotypes in the Antarctic, one preys on minke whales, the second on seals and penguins and the third on fish. Another ecotype lives in the eastern North Atlantic, while the three Northeast Pacific ecotypes are labeled the transient, resident and offshore populations, as discussed above. The research supported a proposal to reclassify the Antarctic seal- and fish-eating populations and the North Pacific transients as a distinct species, leaving the remaining ecotypes as subspecies. The first split in the orca population, between the North Pacific transients and the rest, occurred an estimated 700,000 years ago. Such a designation would mean that each new species becomes subject to separate conservation assessments. \n\nAppearance and morphology\n\nA typical killer whale distinctively bears a black back, white chest and sides, and a white patch above and behind the eye. Calves are born with a yellowish or orange tint, which fades to white. It has a heavy and robust body with a large dorsal fin up to tall. Behind the fin, it has a dark grey \"saddle patch\" across the back. Antarctic killer whales may have pale grey to nearly white backs. Adult killer whales are very distinctive and are not usually confused with any other sea creature. When seen from a distance, juveniles can be confused with other cetacean species, such as the false killer whale or Risso's dolphin. The killer whale's teeth are very strong and its jaws exert a powerful grip; the upper teeth fall into the gaps between the lower teeth when the mouth is closed. The front teeth are inclined slightly forward and outward, thus allowing the killer whale to withstand powerful jerking movements from its prey while the middle and back teeth hold it firmly in place.\n\nKiller whales are the largest extant members of the dolphin family. Males typically range from 6 to long and weigh in excess of 6 t. Females are smaller, generally ranging from 5 to and weighing about 3 to. The largest male killer whale on record was , weighing 10 t, while the largest female was , weighing . Calves at birth weigh about 180 kg and are about long. The killer whale's large size and strength make it among the fastest marine mammals, able to reach speeds in excess of 56 km/h. The skeleton of the killer whale is of the typical delphinid structure, but is more robust. Its integument, unlike that of most other dolphin species, is characterised by a well-developed dermal layer with a dense network of fascicles of collagen fibers.\n\nKiller whale pectoral fins, analogous to forelimbs, are large and rounded, resembling paddles. Males have significantly larger pectoral fins than females. At about the male's dorsal fin is more than twice the size of the female's and is more of a triangular shape—a tall, elongated isosceles triangle—whereas hers is shorter and more curved. Males and females also have different patterns of black and white skin in their genital areas. Sexual dimorphism is also apparent in the skull; adult males have longer lower jaws than females, and have larger occipital crests.\n\nAn individual killer whale can often be identified from its dorsal fin and saddle patch. Variations such as nicks, scratches, and tears on the dorsal fin and the pattern of white or grey in the saddle patch are unique. Published directories contain identifying photographs and names for hundreds of North Pacific animals. Photographic identification has enabled the local population of killer whales to be counted each year rather than estimated, and has enabled great insight into lifecycles and social structures.\n\nOccasionally a killer whale is white; they have been spotted in the northern Bering Sea and around St. Lawrence Island, and near the Russian coast. In February 2008, a white killer whale was photographed off Kanaga Volcano in the Aleutian Islands.\n[http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2008/20080306_whiteorca.html Rare White Killer Whale Spotted in Alaskan Waters From NOAA Ship Oscar Dyson], news release, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, March 6, 2008. Retrieved March 20, 2010 In 2010, the Far East Russia Orca Project (FEROP), co-founded and co-directed by Alexander M. Burdin and Erich Hoyt, filmed an adult male nicknamed Iceberg\n. \n\nKiller whales have good eyesight above and below the water, excellent hearing, and a good sense of touch. They have exceptionally sophisticated echolocation abilities, detecting the location and characteristics of prey and other objects in their environments by emitting clicks and listening for echoes, as do other members of the dolphin family.\n\nThe mean body temperature of the orca is 36 to. Like most marine mammals, orcas have a layer of insulating blubber ranging from thick beneath its skin.\n\nThe heart beats at a rate of about 60 beats/min when the orca is at the surface, dropping to 30 beats/min when submerged. \n\nLife cycle\n\nFemale killer whales begin to mature at around the age of 10 (reaching peak fertility around 20), which consists of periods of polyestrous cycling with noncycling periods of between three and 16 months. Females can often breed until age 40, after which comes a rapid decrease in fertility. Orcas are not the only animals to go through menopause and live for decades after they have finished breeding. The lifespans of wild females average 50 years, with a maximum of 90 years. An exception is Granny (J2), who is the oldest known orca, estimated to be 103 years old. \n\nTo avoid inbreeding, males mate with females from other pods. Gestation varies from 15 to 18 months. Mothers calve, with usually a single offspring, about once every five years. In resident pods, births occur at any time of year, although winter is the most common. Mortality is extremely high during the first seven months of life, when 37–50% of all calves die. Weaning begins at about 12 months and completes by the age of two. According to observations in several regions, all male and female pod members participate in the care of the young.\n\nMales sexually mature at the age of 15, but do not typically reproduce until age 21. Wild males live around 29 years on average, with a maximum of about 60 years. One male, known as Old Tom, was reportedly spotted every winter between the 1840s and 1930 off New South Wales, Australia. This would have made him up to 90 years old. Examination of his teeth indicated he died around age 35, but this method of age determination is now believed to be inaccurate for older animals. One male known to researchers in the Pacific Northwest (identified as J1) was estimated to have been 59 years old when he died in 2010. \n\nCaptive killer whale lifespans are typically significantly shorter, usually less than 25 years; however, numerous individuals are alive in their 30s, and a few have reached their 40s. Killer whales are unique among cetaceans, as their heads become relatively shorter as they age, i.e., the orca's caudal section enlongates more-so relative to its head.\n\nRange and habitat\n\nKiller whales are found in all oceans and most seas. Due to their enormous range, numbers, and density, distributional estimates are difficult to compare, but they clearly prefer higher latitudes and coastal areas over pelagic environments.\n\nSystematic surveys indicate the highest densities of killer whales (>0.40 individuals per 100 km²) in the northeast Atlantic around the Norwegian coast, in the north Pacific along the Aleutian Islands, the Gulf of Alaska and in the Southern Ocean off much of the coast of Antarctica. They are considered \"common\" (0.20–0.40 individuals per 100 km²) in the eastern Pacific along the coasts of British Columbia, Washington and Oregon, in the North Atlantic Ocean around Iceland and the Faroe Islands. High densities have also been reported but not quantified in the western North Pacific around the Sea of Japan (in very limited areas and more abundant on the side of Primorsky Krai ), Shiretoko Peninsula and off Kushiro (Resident and Transient groups began colonizing in these areas possibly after in 2000s), Sea of Okhotsk, Kuril Islands, Kamchatka and the Commander Islands and in the Southern Hemisphere off the coasts of South Australia, off the coast of northern to southern Brazil and the tip of southern Africa. They are reported as seasonally common in the Canadian Arctic, including Baffin Bay between Greenland and Nunavut, and around Tasmania and Macquarie Island. The northwest Atlantic population of at least 67 individuals ranges from Labrador and Newfoundland to New England with sightings to Cape Cod and Long Island. \n\nInformation for offshore regions and tropical waters is more scarce, but widespread, if not frequent, sightings indicate the killer whale can survive in most water temperatures. They have been sighted, for example, in the Mediterranean, the Arabian Sea, the Gulf of Mexico and the Indian Ocean around the Seychelles. In the Mediterranean, killer whales are considered \"visitors\" with the exception of one small population which lives in the Strait of Gibraltar. Except for northeastern basins from Black Sea, records have been among almost entire basin including Aegean and Levantine basins such as off Israel.[https://www.researchgate.net/publication/266459808_Update_on_the_Cetacean_Fauna_of_the_Mediterranean_Levantine_Basin Update on the Cetacean Fauna of the Mediterranean Levantine Basin] A distinct population may also exist in Papua New Guinea. Distributions and abundances in other Aisan waters are very unclear, only with sightings time to time have been reported, such as off Phuket and Mergui Archipelago. \n\nPopulation structure in mid to lower latitudes of the North Pacific is unclear especially in coastal waters. Large concentrations are known to occur north of the Northern Mariana Islands and in the Gulf of Sendai, and repeated sightings are reported off Bali, the east coast of Taiwan, Ryukyu Islands, Izu Islands, in Tsushima Strait, and Izu Peninsula. The modern status of the species along coastal mainland China and its vicinity is unknown. Recorded sightings have been made from almost the entire shoreline; from Bohai and the Yellow Sea in the north to the Zhoushan Islands in the east and the Vietnam coast in the south.\n\nIn the Antarctic, killer whales range up to the edge of the pack ice and are believed to venture into the denser pack ice, finding open leads much like beluga whales in the Arctic. However, killer whales are merely seasonal visitors to Arctic waters, and do not approach the pack ice in the summer. With the rapid Arctic sea ice decline in the Hudson Strait, their range now extends deep into the northwest Atlantic. Occasionally, killer whales swim into freshwater rivers. They have been documented 100 mi up the Columbia River in the United States. They have also been found in the Fraser River in Canada and the Horikawa River in Japan.\n\nMigration patterns are poorly understood. Each summer, the same individuals appear off the coasts of British Columbia and Washington. Despite decades of research, where these animals go for the rest of the year remains unknown. Transient pods have been sighted from southern Alaska to central California.\n\nPopulation\n\nWorldwide population estimates are uncertain, but recent consensus suggests an absolute minimum of 50,000.[http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/pr/species/mammals/cetaceans/killerwhale.htm Killer Whale (Orcinus orca)] NOAA Fisheries, Office of Protected Resources. Retrieved March 14, 2010 Local estimates include roughly 25,000 in the Antarctic, 8,500 in the tropical Pacific, 2,250–2,700 off the cooler northeast Pacific and 500–1,500 off Norway. Japan's Fisheries Agency estimated 2,321 killer whales were in the seas around Japan. \n\nFeeding\n\nKiller whales are apex predators, meaning that they themselves have no natural predators. They are sometimes called the wolves of the sea, because they hunt in groups like wolf packs. Killer whales hunt varied prey including fish, cephalopods, mammals, sea birds and sea turtles. However, different populations or species tend to specialize and some can have a dramatic impact on certain prey species. Those that feed on mammals may not even recognize fish as food. This specialization in diet and hunting is another reason to suggest that the orca is in fact several species, as discussed above.\n\nFish\n\nFish-eating killer whales prey on around 30 species of fish. Some populations in the Norwegian and Greenland sea specialize in herring and follow that fish's autumnal migration to the Norwegian coast. Salmon account for 96% of northeast Pacific residents' diet. About 65% of them are large, fatty Chinook. Chum salmon are also eaten, but smaller sockeye and pink salmon are not a significant food item. Depletion of specific prey species in an area is, therefore, cause for concern for local populations, despite the high diversity of prey. On average, a killer whale eats 227 kg each day. While salmon are usually hunted by an individual or a small group of individuals, herring are often caught using carousel feeding; the killer whales force the herring into a tight ball by releasing bursts of bubbles or flashing their white undersides. They then slap the ball with their tail flukes, either stunning or killing up to 15 fish at a time. The herring are then eaten one at a time. Carousel feeding has only been documented in the Norwegian killer whale population and with some oceanic dolphin species. \n\nIn New Zealand, sharks and rays appear to be important prey; species taken include eagle rays, long-tail and short-tail stingrays, common threshers, smooth hammerheads, blue sharks and shortfin mako sharks. With sharks, orcas may herd them to the surface and strike them with their tail flukes, while bottom-dwelling rays are cornered, pinned to the ground and taken to the surface. Killer whales can induce tonic immobility in sharks and rays by holding them upside down, rendering them helpless and incapable of injuring the whale. Some sharks suffocate within about 15 minutes while the whale holds them still, because these sharks need to move to breathe. In one incident filmed near the Farallon Islands in October 1997, a female killed a 3 – great white shark, apparently after swimming with it upside-down in her mouth and inducing tonic immobility in it. She and another pod member ate the shark's liver and allowed the rest of the carcass to sink. In February 2015, a pod of orcas was recorded to have killed a white shark off South Australia. Interspecific competition between the two species is probable in regions where dietary preferences overlap. In July 1992, two killer whales attacked, killed and fed on an 8 m long whale shark, Rhincodon typus, in the waters off Bahia de los Angeles in Baja California. \n\nMammals\n\nKiller whales are very sophisticated and effective predators of marine mammals. Thirty-two cetacean species have been recorded as prey, from observing orcas' feeding activity, examining the stomach contents of dead orcas, and seeing scars on the bodies of surviving prey animals. Groups even attack larger cetaceans such as minke whales, gray whales, and rarely sperm whales or blue whales. \n\nHunting large whales usually takes several hours. Killer whales generally choose to attack young or weak animals; however, a group of five or more may attack a healthy adult. When hunting a young whale, a group chases it and its mother until they wear out. Eventually, they separate the pair and surround the calf, preventing it from surfacing to breathe, drowning it. Pods of female sperm whales sometimes protect themselves by forming a protective circle around their calves with their flukes facing outwards, using them to repel the attackers. Rarely, large killer whale pods can overwhelm even adult female sperm whales. Adult bull sperm whales, which are large, powerful and aggressive when threatened, and fully grown adult blue whales, which are possibly too large to overwhelm, are not believed to be prey for killer whales. \n\nPrior to the advent of industrial whaling, great whales may have been the major food source for killer whales. The introduction of modern whaling techniques may have aided killer whales by the sound of exploding harpoons indicating availability of prey to scavenge, and compressed air inflation of whale carcasses causing them to float, thus exposing them to scavenging. However, the toll on great whale populations by unfettered whaling had possibly reduced their availability as prey for killer whales, and caused them to expand their consumption of smaller marine mammals, thus contributing to their decline as well. \n\nPredation by orcas on whale calves in high productivity, high latitude areas has been hypothesised to be the reason for great whale migrations to low productivity tropical waters, to reduce the risk of attacks on the highly vulnerable calves due to lower density of orcas in these waters.\n\nOther marine mammal prey species include nearly 20 species of seal, sea lion and fur seal. Walruses and sea otters are less frequently taken. Often, to avoid injury, killer whales disable their prey before killing and eating it. This may involve throwing it in the air, slapping it with their tails, ramming it, or breaching and landing on it. Sea lions are killed by head-butting or after a stunning blow from a tail fluke. In the Aleutian Islands, a decline in sea otter populations in the 1990s was controversially attributed by some scientists to killer whale predation, although with no direct evidence. The decline of sea otters followed a decline in harbour seal and Steller sea lion populations, the killer whale's preferred prey, which in turn may be substitutes for their original prey, now decimated by industrial whaling. \n\nIn steeply banked beaches off Península Valdés, Argentina, and the Crozet Islands, killer whales feed on South American sea lions and southern elephant seals in shallow water, even beaching temporarily to grab prey before wriggling back to the sea. Beaching, usually fatal to cetaceans, is not an instinctive behaviour, and can require years of practice for the young. Killer whales can then release the animal near juvenile whales, allowing the younger whales to practice the difficult capture technique on the now-weakened prey. \"Wave-hunting\" killer whales spy-hop to locate Weddell seals, crabeater seals, leopard seals, and penguins resting on ice floes, and then swim in groups to create waves that wash over the floe. This washes the prey into the water, where other killer whales lie in wait. \n\nKiller whales have also been observed preying on terrestrial mammals, such as deer swimming between islands off the northwest coast of North America. Killer whale cannibalism has also been reported based on analysis of stomach contents, but this is likely to be the result of scavenging remains dumped by whalers. One killer whale was also attacked by its companions after being shot. Although resident killer whales have never been observed to eat other marine mammals, they occasionally harass and kill porpoises and seals for no apparent reason.\n\nBirds\n\nKiller whales in many areas may prey on cormorants and gulls. A captive killer whale at MarineLand discovered it could regurgitate fish onto the surface, attracting sea gulls, and then eat the birds. Four others then learned to copy the behaviour. \n\nBehaviour\n\nDay-to-day killer whale behaviour generally consists of foraging, travelling, resting and socializing. Killer whales engage in frequent behaviour at the surface such as breaching (jumping completely out of the water) and tail-slapping. These activities may have a variety of purposes, such as courtship, communication, dislodging parasites, or play. Spyhopping, a behaviour in which a whale holds its head above water, helps the animal view its surroundings.\n\nResident killer whales swim with porpoises, other dolphins, seals, and sea lions, which are common prey for transient killer whales.\n\nSocial structure\n\nKiller whales are notable for their complex societies. Only elephants and higher primates, such as humans, live in comparably complex social structures. Due to orcas' complex social bonds and society, many marine experts have concerns about how humane it is to keep these animals in captive situations. \n\nResident killer whales in the eastern North Pacific have a particularly complex and stable social grouping system. Unlike any other mammal species whose social structure is known, residents live with their mothers for their entire lives. These family groups are based on matrilines consisting of the eldest female (matriarch) and her sons and daughters, and the descendants of her daughters, etc. The average size of a matriline is 5.5 animals. Because females can reach age 90, as many as four generations travel together. These matrilineal groups are highly stable. Individuals separate for only a few hours at a time, to mate or forage. With one exception, the killer whale named Luna, no permanent separation of an individual from a resident matriline has been recorded.\n\nClosely related matrilines form loose aggregations called pods, usually consisting of one to four matrilines. Unlike matrilines, pods may separate for weeks or months at a time. DNA testing indicates resident males nearly always mate with females from other pods.Clans, the next level of resident social structure, are composed of pods with similar dialects, and common but older maternal heritage. Clan ranges overlap, mingling pods from different clans. The final association layer, perhaps more arbitrarily defined than the familial groupings, is called the community, and is defined as a set of clans that regularly commingle. Clans within a community do not share vocal patterns.\n\nTransient pods are smaller than resident pods, typically consisting of an adult female and one or two of her offspring. Males typically maintain stronger relationships with their mothers than other females. These bonds can extend well into adulthood. Unlike residents, extended or permanent separation of transient offspring from natal matrilines is common, with juveniles and adults of both sexes participating. Some males become \"rovers\" and do not form long-term associations, occasionally joining groups that contain reproductive females. As in resident clans, transient community members share an acoustic repertoire, although regional differences in vocalizations have been noted.\n\nVocalizations\n\nLike all cetaceans, killer whales depend heavily on underwater sound for orientation, feeding, and communication. They produce three categories of sounds: clicks, whistles, and pulsed calls. Clicks are believed to be used primarily for navigation and discriminating prey and other objects in the surrounding environment, but are also commonly heard during social interactions.\n\nNortheast Pacific resident groups tend to be much more vocal than transient groups in the same waters. Residents feed primarily on Chinook and chum salmon, species that are insensitive to killer whale calls (inferred from the audiogram of Atlantic salmon). In contrast, the marine mammal prey of transients hear well underwater at the frequencies used in killer whale calls. As such, transients are typically silent, probably to avoid alerting their mammalian prey. They sometimes use a single click (called a cryptic click) rather than the long train of clicks observed in other populations. Residents are only silent when resting.\n\nAll members of a resident pod use similar calls, known collectively as a dialect. Dialects are composed of specific numbers and types of discrete, repetitive calls. They are complex and stable over time. Call patterns and structure are distinctive within matrilines. Newborns produce calls similar to their mothers, but have a more limited repertoire. Individuals likely learn their dialect through contact with their mother and other pod members. For instance, family-specific calls have been observed more frequently in the days following a calf's birth, which may help the calf learn them. Dialects are probably an important means of maintaining group identity and cohesiveness. Similarity in dialects likely reflects the degree of relatedness between pods, with variation building over time. When pods meet, dominant call types decrease and subset call types increase. The use of both call types is called biphonation. The increased subset call types may be the distinguishing factor between pods and inter-pod relations.\n\nDialects of killer whales not only distinguish them between pods, but also between types. Resident dialects contain seven to 17 (mean = 11) distinctive call types. All members of the North American west coast transient community express the same basic dialect, although minor regional variation in call types is evident. Preliminary research indicates offshore killer whales have group-specific dialects unlike those of residents and transients.\n\nThe vocalizations of killer whales in other parts of the world have also been studied. Norwegian and Icelandic herring-eating orcas appear to have different vocalizations for activities like hunting and traveling. \n\nIntelligence\n\nKiller whales have the second-heaviest brains among marine mammals\nSpear, Kevin. [http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2010-03-06/news/os-seaworld-killer-whale-brains-20100302_1_killer-whales-orcas-dolphin-or-porpoise Killer whales: How smart are they?] Orlando Sentinel, March 7, 2010. Retrieved March 7, 2010 (after sperm whales, which have the largest brain of any animal). They can be trained in captivity and are often described as intelligent, although defining and measuring \"intelligence\" is difficult in a species whose environment and behavioural strategies are very different from those of humans.\n\nKiller whales imitate others, and seem to deliberately teach skills to their kin. Off the Crozet Islands, mothers push their calves onto the beach, waiting to pull the youngster back if needed.\n\nPeople who have interacted closely with killer whales offer numerous anecdotes demonstrating the whales' curiosity, playfulness, and ability to solve problems. Alaskan killer whales have not only learned how to steal fish from longlines, but have also overcome a variety of techniques designed to stop them, such as the use of unbaited lines as decoys. Once, fishermen placed their boats several miles apart, taking turns retrieving small amounts of their catch, in the hope that the whales would not have enough time to move between boats to steal the catch as it was being retrieved. A researcher described what happened next:\n\nIn other anecdotes, researchers describe incidents in which wild killer whales playfully tease humans by repeatedly moving objects the humans are trying to reach, or suddenly start to toss around a chunk of ice after a human throws a snowball. \n\nThe killer whale's use of dialects and the passing of other learned behaviours from generation to generation have been described as a form of animal culture. \n\n(Two species or populations are considered sympatric when they exist in the same geographic area and thus regularly encounter one another.)\n\nConservation\n\nIn 2008, the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) changed its assessment of the killer whale's conservation status from conservation dependent to data deficient, recognizing that one or more killer whale types may actually be separate, endangered species. Depletion of prey species, pollution, large-scale oil spills, and habitat disturbance caused by noise and conflicts with boats are currently the most significant worldwide threats.\n\nLike other animals at the highest trophic levels, the killer whale is particularly at risk of poisoning from bioaccumulation of toxins, including polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). European harbour seals have problems in reproductive and immune functions associated with high levels of PCBs and related contaminants, and a survey off the Washington coast found PCB levels in killer whales were higher than levels that had caused health problems in harbour seals. Blubber samples in the Norwegian Arctic show higher levels of PCBs, pesticides and brominated flame-retardants than in polar bears. When food is scarce, killer whales metabolize blubber for energy, which increases pollutant concentrations in their blood.\n\nIn the Pacific Northwest, wild salmon stocks, a main resident food source, have declined dramatically in recent years. On the west coast of Alaska and the Aleutian Islands, seal and sea lion populations have also substantially declined.\n\nIn 2005, the United States government listed the southern resident community as an endangered population under the Endangered Species Act. This community comprises three pods which live mostly in the Georgia and Haro Straits and Puget Sound in British Columbia and Washington. They do not breed outside of their community, which was once estimated at around 200 animals and later shrank to around 90.M. L. Lyke, [http://www.seattlepi.com/specials/brokenpromises/288674_granny614.html Granny's Struggle: When Granny is gone, will her story be the last chapter?], Seattle Post Intelligencer, October 14, 2006 In October 2008, the annual survey revealed seven were missing and presumed dead, reducing the count to 83. This is potentially the largest decline in the population in the past ten years. These deaths can be attributed to declines in Chinook salmon.Le Phuong. [http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/environment/2008-10-25-orcas-puget-sound_N.htm Researchers: 7 Orcas Missing from Puget Sound], Associated Press. USA Today, October 25, 2008\n\nScientist Ken Balcomb has extensively studied killer whales since 1976; he is the research biologist responsible for discovering U.S. Navy sonar may harm killer whales. He studied killer whales from the Center for Whale Research, located in Friday Harbor, Washington. He was also able to study killer whales from \"his home porch perched above Puget Sound, where the animals hunt and play in summer months\". In May 2003, Balcomb (along with other whale watchers near the Puget Sound coastline) noticed uncharacteristic behaviour displayed by the killer whales. The whales seemed \"agitated and were moving haphazardly, attempting to lift their heads free of the water\" to escape the sound of the sonars. \"Balcomb confirmed at the time that strange underwater pinging noises detected with underwater microphones were sonar. The sound originated from a U.S. Navy frigate 12 miles (19 kilometers) distant, Balcomb said.\" The impact of sonar waves on killer whales is potentially life-threatening. Three years prior to Balcomb's discovery, research in the Bahamas showed 14 beaked whales washed up on the shore. These whales were beached on the day U.S. Navy destroyers were activated into sonar exercise. Of the 14 whales beached, six of them died. These six dead whales were studied, and CAT scans of the two of the whale heads showed hemorrhaging around the brain and the ears, which is consistent with decompression sickness.\n\nAnother conservation concern was made public in September 2008 when the Canadian government decided it was not necessary to enforce further protections (including the Species at Risk Act in place to protect endangered animals along their habitats) for killer whales aside from the laws already in place. In response to this decision, six environmental groups sued the federal government, claiming killer whales were facing many threats on the British Columbia Coast and the federal government did nothing to protect them from these threats. A legal and scientific nonprofit organization, Ecojustice, led the lawsuit and represented the David Suzuki Foundation, Environmental Defence, Greenpeace Canada, International Fund for Animal Welfare, the Raincoast Conservation Foundation, and the Wilderness Committee. Many scientists involved in this lawsuit, including Bill Wareham, a marine scientist with the David Suzuki Foundation, noted increased boat traffic, water toxic wastes, and low salmon population as major threats, putting approximately 87 killer whales on the British Columbia Coast in danger.\n\nUnderwater noise from shipping, drilling, and other human activities is a significant concern in some key killer whale habitats, including Johnstone Strait and Haro Strait. In the mid-1990s, loud underwater noises from salmon farms were used to deter seals. Killer whales also avoided the surrounding waters. High-intensity sonar used by the Navy disturbs killer whales along with other marine mammals. Killer whales are popular with whale watchers, which may stress the whales and alter their behaviour, particularly if boats approach too closely or block their lines of travel. \n\nThe Exxon Valdez oil spill adversely affected killer whales in Prince William Sound and Alaska's Kenai Fjords region. Eleven members (about half) of one resident pod disappeared in the following year. The spill damaged salmon and other prey populations, which in turn damaged local killer whales. By 2009, scientists estimated the AT1 transient population (considered part of a larger population of 346 transients), numbered only seven individuals and had not reproduced since the spill. This population is expected to die out. \n\nRelationship with humans\n\nIndigenous cultures\n\nThe indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast feature killer whales throughout their art, history, spirituality and religion. The Haida regarded killer whales as the most powerful animals in the ocean, and their mythology tells of killer whales living in houses and towns under the sea. According to these myths, they took on human form when submerged, and humans who drowned went to live with them. For the Kwakwaka'wakw, the killer whale was regarded as the ruler of the undersea world, with sea lions for slaves and dolphins for warriors. In Nuu-chah-nulth and Kwakwaka'wakw mythology, killer whales may embody the souls of deceased chiefs. The Tlingit of southeastern Alaska regarded the killer whale as custodian of the sea and a benefactor of humans.\n\nThe Maritime Archaic people of Newfoundland also had great respect for killer whales, as evidenced by stone carvings found in a 4,000-year-old burial at the Port au Choix Archaeological Site. \n\nIn the tales and beliefs of the Siberian Yupik people, killer whales are said to appear as wolves in winter, and wolves as killer whales in summer.The orphan boy with his sister, p. 156 in Rubcova, E. S. (1954). Materials on the Language and Folklore of the Eskimoes, Vol. I, Chaplino Dialect. Leningrad: Academy of Sciences of the USSR. Original data: Е.С. Рубцова: Материалы по языку и фольклору эскимосов (чаплинский диалект). Академия Наук СССР. Москва-Ленинград, 1954Menovshchikov, G. A. (1962). Grammar of the language of Asian Eskimos. Vol. I., pp. 439, 441. Moscow and Leningrad: Academy of Sciences of the USSR. Original data: Г. А. Меновщиков: Грамматиκа языка азиатских эскимосов. Часть первая. Академия Наук СССР. Москва-Ленинград, 1962 Killer whales are believed to assist their hunters in driving walrus. A radio interview with Russian scientists about man and animal, examples taken especially from Asian Eskimos Reverence is expressed in several forms: the boat represents the animal, and a wooden carving hung from the hunter's belt. Small sacrifices such as tobacco are strewn into the sea for them. Killer whales were believed to have helped the hunters even when in wolf guise, by forcing reindeer to allow themselves to be killed.\n\n\"Killer\" stereotype\n\nIn Western cultures, killer whales were historically feared as dangerous, savage predators. The first written description of a killer whale was given by Pliny the Elder circa AD 70, who wrote, \"Orcas (the appearance of which no image can express, other than an enormous mass of savage flesh with teeth) are the enemy of [other whales]... they charge and pierce them like warships ramming.\" \n\nOf the very few confirmed attacks on humans by wild killer whales, none have been fatal. In one instance, killer whales tried to tip ice floes on which a dog team and photographer of the Terra Nova Expedition was standing. The sled dogs' barking is speculated to have sounded enough like seal calls to trigger the killer whale's hunting curiosity. In the 1970s, a surfer in California was bitten, and in 2005, a boy in Alaska who was splashing in a region frequented by harbor seals was bumped by a killer whale that apparently misidentified him as prey.\nThe Associated Press. [http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2002444869_webwhale18.html \"Boy survives bump from killer whale.\"] The Seattle Times, August 18, 2005. Retrieved January 3, 2010 Unlike wild killer whales, captive killer whales are reported to have made nearly two dozen attacks on humans since the 1970s, some of which have been fatal. \n\nCompetition with fishermen also led to killer whales being regarded as pests. In the waters of the Pacific Northwest and Iceland, the shooting of killer whales was accepted and even encouraged by governments. As an indication of the intensity of shooting that occurred until fairly recently, about 25% of the killer whales captured in Puget Sound for aquaria through 1970 bore bullet scars. The U.S. Navy claimed to have deliberately killed hundreds of killer whales in Icelandic waters in 1956 with machine-guns, rockets, and depth charges. \n\nModern Western attitudes\n\nWestern attitudes towards killer whales have changed dramatically in recent decades. In the mid-1960s and early 1970s, killer whales came to much greater public and scientific awareness, starting with the first live-capture and display of a killer whale known as Moby Doll, a resident harpooned off Saturna Island in 1964. So little was known at the time, it was nearly two months before the whale's keepers discovered what food (fish) it was willing to eat. To the surprise of those who saw him, Moby Doll was a docile, nonaggressive whale that made no attempts to attack humans.\n\nBetween 1964 and 1976, 50 killer whales from the Pacific Northwest were captured for display in aquaria, and public interest in the animals grew. In the 1970s, research pioneered by Michael Bigg led to the discovery of the species' complex social structure, its use of vocal communication, and its extraordinarily stable mother–offspring bonds. Through photo-identification techniques, individuals were named and tracked over decades.\n\nBigg's techniques also revealed the Pacific Northwest population was in the low hundreds rather than the thousands that had been previously assumed. The southern resident community alone had lost 48 of its members to captivity; by 1976, only 80 remained. In the Pacific Northwest, the species that had unthinkingly been targeted became a cultural icon within a few decades.\n\nThe public's growing appreciation also led to growing opposition to whale–keeping in aquaria. Only one whale has been taken in North American waters since 1976. In recent years, the extent of the public's interest in killer whales has manifested itself in several high-profile efforts surrounding individuals. Following the success of the 1993 film Free Willy, the movie's captive star Keiko was returned to the coast of his native Iceland in 1998. The director of the International Marine Mammal Project for the Earth Island Institute, David Phillips, led the efforts to return Keiko to the Iceland waters. In 2002 the orphan Springer was discovered in Puget Sound, Washington. She became the first whale to be successfully reintegrated into a wild pod after human intervention, crystallizing decades of research into the vocal behaviour and social structure of the region's killer whales. The saving of Springer raised hopes that another young killer whale named Luna, which had become separated from his pod, could be returned to it. However, his case was marked by controversy about whether and how to intervene, and in 2006, Luna was killed by a boat propeller. \n\nWhaling\n\nThe earlier of known records of commercial hunting of killer whales date to the 18th century in Japan. During the 19th and early 20th centuries, the global whaling industry caught immense numbers of baleen and sperm whales, but largely ignored killer whales because of their limited amounts of recoverable oil, their smaller populations, and the difficulty of taking them. Once the stocks of larger species were depleted, killer whales were targeted by commercial whalers in the mid-20th century. Between 1954 and 1997, Japan took 1,178 killer whales (although the Ministry of the Environment claims that there had been domestic catches of about 1,600 whales between late 1940s to 1960s ) and Norway took 987. Over 3,000 killer whales were taken by Soviet whalers, including an Antarctic catch of 916 in 1979–80 alone, prompting the International Whaling Commission to recommend a ban on commercial hunting of the species pending further research. (Compare with the situation on land, Commercial hunting.) Today, no country carries out a substantial hunt, although Indonesia and Greenland permit small subsistence hunts (see Aboriginal whaling). Other than commercial hunts, killer whales were hunted along Japanese coasts out of public concern for potential conflicts with fisheries. Such cases include a semi-resident male-female pair in Akashi Strait and Harimanada being killed in the Seto Inland Sea in 1957, the killing of five whales from a pod of 11 members that swam into Tokyo Bay in 1970, and a catch record in southern Taiwan in the 1990s. \n\nCooperation with humans\n\nKiller whales have helped humans hunting other whales. One well-known example was the killer whales of Eden, Australia, including the male known as Old Tom. Whalers more often considered them a nuisance, however, as orcas would gather to scavenge meat from the whalers' catch. Some populations, such as in Alaska's Prince William Sound, may have been reduced significantly by whalers shooting them in retaliation.\n\nCaptivity\n\nThe killer whale's intelligence, trainability, striking appearance, playfulness in captivity and sheer size have made it a popular exhibit at aquaria and aquatic theme parks. From 1976 to 1997, 55 whales were taken from the wild in Iceland, 19 from Japan, and three from Argentina. These figures exclude animals that died during capture. Live captures fell dramatically in the 1990s, and by 1999, about 40% of the 48 animals on display in the world were captive-born.\n\nOrganizations such as World Animal Protection and the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society campaign against the practice of keeping them in captivity. In captivity, they often develop pathologies, such as the dorsal fin collapse seen in 60–90% of captive males. Captives have vastly reduced life expectancies, on average only living into their 20s. In the wild, females who survive infancy live 46 years on average, and up to 70–80 years in rare cases. Wild males who survive infancy live 31 years on average, and up to 50–60 years. Captivity usually bears little resemblance to wild habitat, and captive whales' social groups are foreign to those found in the wild. Critics claim captive life is stressful due to these factors and the requirement to perform circus tricks that are not part of wild killer whale behaviour, see above. Wild killer whales may travel up to 160 km in a day, and critics say the animals are too big and intelligent to be suitable for captivity.\nAssociated Press. [http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/03/01/national/main6255297.shtml Whale Attack Renews Captive Animal Debate] CBS News, March 1, 2010. Retrieved March 7, 2010 Captives occasionally act aggressively towards themselves, their tankmates, or humans, which critics say is a result of stress. Between 1991 and 2010, the bull orca known as Tilikum was involved in the death of three people, and was featured in the critically acclaimed 2013 film, Blackfish. Tilikum has lived at SeaWorld since 1992. \n\nA 2015 study coauthored by staff at SeaWorld and the Minnesota Zoo indicates that there is no significant difference in survivorship between free-ranging and captive killer whales. The authors speculate about the future utility of studying captive populations for the purposes of understanding orca biology and the implications of such research of captive animals in the overall health of both wild and marine park populations. The study has been criticised by Dr Trevor Willis, senior lecture in marine biology at the University of Portsmouth, who stated that the study is misleading, \"clearly wrong\" and indicative of \"poor practice\". He said that this is the case because it compares swimming pools to the wild ocean and the extrapolates the survival rates of calves to life expectancy in adulthood. \n\nGallery\n\n[https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Orcinus_orca Orcinus orca] on Wikimedia Commons.\n\nFile:Post0055 - Flickr - NOAA Photo Library.jpg|Critically endangered \"southern resident\" killer whale off San Juan Island\nFile:Orca, Killer Whale, breaching - Morro Bay, CA May 8, 2014 Orcinus orca.jpg|Breaching off Morro Bay\nFile:07052016 Orca Capeshores Charters Captain Bruce Peters.jpg|\"Old Thom\" off Cape Cod recognized by notch in dorsal fin. Courtesy Capeshores Charters July 2016\nFile:Four killer whales.JPG|A pod in in McMurdo Sound\nFile:091201 orca 5439 (4173394086).jpg\nFile:091201 south georgia orca 5018 (4172632051).jpg|Off South Georgia\nFile:Post0006 - Flickr - NOAA Photo Library.jpg\nFile:Pods of Killer Whales Patrol the Ice Edges (8559242799).jpg|Swimming near ice edge in Ross Sea\nFile:Anim1083 - Flickr - NOAA Photo Library.jpg\nFile:White Killer Whale 2008-02-23 001.jpg|White male off Kanaga Volcano in Aleutian Islands\nFile:White Killer Whale 2008-02-23 002.jpg\nFile:White Killer Whale 2008-02-23 003.jpg" ] }

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{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe", "TagMe" ], "filename": [ "Pelvic_floor.txt", "Urinary_incontinence.txt" ], "title": [ "Pelvic floor", "Urinary incontinence" ], "wiki_context": [ "The pelvic floor or pelvic diaphragm is composed of muscle fibers of the levator ani, the coccygeus muscle, and associated connective tissue which span the area underneath the pelvis. The pelvic diaphragm is a muscular partition formed by the levatores ani and coccygei, with which may be included the parietal pelvic fascia on their upper and lower aspects. The pelvic floor separates the pelvic cavity above from the perineal region (including perineum) below.\n\nStructure\n\nThe right and left levator ani lie almost horizontally in the floor of the pelvis, separated by a narrow gap that transmits the urethra, vagina, and anal canal. The levator ani is usually considered in three parts: pubococcygeus, puborectalis, and iliococcygeus. The pubococcygeus, the main part of the levator, runs backward from the body of the pubis toward the coccyx and may be damaged during parturition. Some fibers are inserted into the prostate, urethra, and vagina. The right and left puborectalis unite behind the anorectal junction to form a muscular sling. Some regard them as a part of the sphincter ani externus. The iliococcygeus, the most posterior part of the levator ani, is often poorly developed.\n\nThe coccygeus, situated behind the levator ani and frequently tendinous as much as muscular, extends from the ischial spine to the lateral margin of the sacrum and coccyx.\n\nThe pelvic cavity of the true pelvis has the pelvic floor as its inferior border (and the pelvic brim as its superior border). The perineum has the pelvic floor as its superior border.\n\nSome sources do not consider \"pelvic floor\" and \"pelvic diaphragm\" to be identical, with the \"diaphragm\" consisting of only the levator ani and coccygeus, while the \"floor\" also includes the perineal membrane and deep perineal pouch. However, other sources include the fascia as part of the diaphragm. In practice, the two terms are often used interchangeably.\n\nPosteriorly, the pelvic floor extends into the anal triangle.\n\nThe pelvic floor has two hiatuses (gaps): Anteriorly urogenital hiatus through which urethra and vagina pass through and posteriorly rectal hiatus through which anal canal passes. \n\nFunction\n\nIt is important in providing support for pelvic viscera (organs), e.g. the bladder, intestines, the uterus (in females), and in maintenance of continence as part of the urinary and anal sphincters. It facilitates birth by resisting the descent of the presenting part, causing the fetus to rotate forwards to navigate through the pelvic girdle. It helps maintain optimal intra-abdominal pressure.\n\nClinical significance\n\nIn women, the levator muscles or their supplying nerves can be damaged in pregnancy or childbirth. There is some evidence that these muscles may also be damaged during a hysterectomy. Pelvic surgery using the \"perineal approach\" (between the anus and coccyx) is an established cause of damage to the pelvic floor. This surgery includes coccygectomy.\n\nIn female high-level athletes, perineal trauma is rare and is associated with certain sports (each with a distinct type of trauma): water-skiing, bicycle racing, and equestrian sports. \n\nDamage to the pelvic floor not only contributes to urinary incontinence but can lead to pelvic organ prolapse. Pelvic organ prolapse occurs in women when pelvic organs (e.g. the vagina, bladder, rectum, or uterus) protrude into or outside of the vagina. The causes of pelvic organ prolapse are not unlike those that also contribute to urinary incontinence. These include inappropriate (asymmetrical, excessive, insufficient) muscle tone and asymmetries caused by trauma to the pelvis. Age, pregnancy, family history, and hormonal status all contribute to the development of pelvic organ prolapse. The vagina is suspended by attachments to the perineum, pelvic side wall and sacrum via attachments that include collagen, elastin, and smooth muscle. Surgery can be performed to repair pelvic floor muscles. The pelvic floor muscles can be strengthened with Kegel exercises.\n\nDisorders of the posterior pelvic floor include rectal prolapse, rectocele, perineal hernia, and a number of functional disorders including anismus. Constipation due to any of these disorders is called \"functional constipation\" and is identifiable by clinical diagnostic criteria. \n\nPelvic floor exercise (PFE), also known as Kegel exercises, may improve the tone and function of the pelvic floor muscles, which is of particular benefit for women (and less commonly men) who experience stress urinary incontinence. However, compliance with PFE programs often is poor, PFE generally is ineffective for urinary incontinence unless performed with biofeedback and trained supervision, and in severe cases it may have no benefit. Pelvic floor muscle tone may be estimated using a perineometer, which measures the pressure within the vagina. Medication may also be used to improve continence. In severe cases, surgery may be used to repair or even to reconstruct the pelvic floor.\n\nPerineology or pelviperineology is a speciality dealing with the functional troubles of the three axes (urological, gynaecological and coloproctological) of the pelvic floor.", "Urinary incontinence (UI), also known as involuntary urination, is any leakage of urine. It is a common and distressing problem, which may have a large impact on quality of life. Urinary incontinence is often a result of an underlying medical condition but is under-reported to medical practitioners. Enuresis is often used to refer to urinary incontinence primarily in children, such as nocturnal enuresis (bed wetting). \n\nThere are four main types of incontinence:\n\n*Urge incontinence due to an overactive bladder\n*Stress incontinence due to poor closure of the bladder\n*Overflow incontinence due to either poor bladder contraction or blockage of the urethra\n*Functional incontinence due to medications or health problems making it difficult to reach the bathroom\n\nTreatments include pelvic floor muscle training, bladder training, and electrical stimulation. The benefit of medications is small and long term safety is unclear.\n\nCauses\n\nThe most common types of urinary incontinence in women are stress urinary incontinence and urge urinary incontinence. Women with both problems have mixed urinary incontinence.\nStress urinary incontinence is caused by loss of support of the urethra which is usually a consequence of damage to pelvic support structures as a result of childbirth. It is characterized by leaking of small amounts of urine with activities which increase abdominal pressure such as coughing, sneezing and lifting. Additionally, frequent exercise in high-impact activities can cause athletic incontinence to develop.\nUrge urinary incontinence is caused by uninhibited contractions of the detrusor muscle . It is characterized by leaking of large amounts of urine in association with insufficient warning to get to the bathroom in time.\n* Polyuria (excessive urine production) of which, in turn, the most frequent causes are: uncontrolled diabetes mellitus, primary polydipsia (excessive fluid drinking), central diabetes insipidus and nephrogenic diabetes insipidus.[http://www.merck.com/mmpe/sec17/ch226/ch226i.html merck.com > Polyuria]: A Merck Manual of Patient Symptoms podcast. Last full review/revision September 2009 by Seyed-Ali Sadjadi, MD Polyuria generally causes urinary urgency and frequency, but doesn't necessarily lead to incontinence.\n* Enlarged prostate is the most common cause of incontinence in men after the age of 40; sometimes prostate cancer may also be associated with urinary incontinence. Moreover, drugs or radiation used to treat prostate cancer can also cause incontinence.\n* Disorders like multiple sclerosis, spina bifida, Parkinson's disease, strokes and spinal cord injury can all interfere with nerve function of the bladder.\n* Urinary incontinence is a likely outcome following a radical prostatectomy procedure. \n\nMechanism\n\nContinence and micturition involve a balance between urethral closure and detrusor muscle activity. Urethral pressure normally exceeds bladder pressure, resulting in urine remaining in the bladder. The proximal urethra and bladder are both within the pelvis. Intra abdominal pressure increases (from coughing and sneezing) are transmitted to both urethra and bladder equally, leaving the pressure differential unchanged, resulting in continence. Normal voiding is the result of changes in both of these pressure factors: urethral pressure falls and bladder pressure rises.\n\nThe body stores urine — water and wastes removed by the kidneys — in the urinary bladder, a balloon-like organ. The bladder connects to the urethra, the tube through which urine leaves the body.\n\nDuring urination, detrusor muscles in the wall of the bladder contract, forcing urine out of the bladder and into the urethra. At the same time, sphincter muscles surrounding the urethra relax, letting urine pass out of the body. Incontinence will occur if the bladder muscles suddenly contract (detrusor muscle) or muscles surrounding the urethra suddenly relax (sphincter muscles).\n\nChildren\n\nUrination, or voiding, is a complex activity. The bladder is a balloonlike muscle that lies in the lowest part of the abdomen. The bladder stores urine, then releases it through the urethra, the canal that carries urine to the outside of the body. Controlling this activity involves nerves, muscles, the spinal cord and the brain.\n\nThe bladder is made of two types of muscles: the detrusor, a muscular sac that stores urine and squeezes to empty, and the sphincter, a circular group of muscles at the bottom or neck of the bladder that automatically stay contracted to hold the urine in and automatically relax when the detrusor contracts to let the urine into the urethra. A third group of muscles below the bladder (pelvic floor muscles) can contract to keep urine back.\n\nA baby's bladder fills to a set point, then automatically contracts and empties. As the child gets older, the nervous system develops. The child's brain begins to get messages from the filling bladder and begins to send messages to the bladder to keep it from automatically emptying until the child decides it is the time and place to void.\n\nFailures in this control mechanism result in incontinence. Reasons for this failure range from the simple to the complex.\n\nDiagnosis\n\nPatients with incontinence should be referred to a medical practitioner specializing in this field. Urologists specialize in the urinary tract, and some urologists further specialize in the female urinary tract. A urogynecologist is a gynecologist who has special training in urological problems in women. Family physicians and internists see patients for all kinds of complaints, and are well trained to diagnose and treat this common problem. These primary care specialists can refer patients to urology specialists if needed.\n\nA careful history taking is essential especially in the pattern of voiding and urine leakage as it suggests the type of incontinence faced. Other important points include straining and discomfort, use of drugs, recent surgery, and illness.\n\nThe physical examination will focus on looking for signs of medical conditions causing incontinence, such as tumors that block the urinary tract, stool impaction, and poor reflexes or sensations, which may be evidence of a nerve-related cause.\n\nA test often performed is the measurement of bladder capacity and residual urine for evidence of poorly functioning bladder muscles.\n\nOther tests include:\n* Stress test – the patient relaxes, then coughs vigorously as the doctor watches for loss of urine.\n* Urinalysis – urine is tested for evidence of infection, urinary stones, or other contributing causes.\n* Blood tests – blood is taken, sent to a laboratory, and examined for substances related to causes of incontinence.\n* Ultrasound – sound waves are used to visualize the kidneys, ureters, bladder, and urethra.\n* Cystoscopy – a thin tube with a tiny camera is inserted in the urethra and used to see the inside of the urethra and bladder.\n* Urodynamics – various techniques measure pressure in the bladder and the flow of urine.\n\nPatients are often asked to keep a diary for a day or more, up to a week, to record the pattern of voiding, noting times and the amounts of urine produced.\n\nResearch projects that assess the efficacy of anti-incontinence therapies often quantify the extent of urinary incontinence. The methods include the 1-h pad test, measuring leakage volume; using a voiding diary, counting the number of incontinence episodes (leakage episodes) per day; and assessing of the strength of pelvic floor muscles, measuring the maximum vaginal squeeze pressure.\n\nTypes\n\n* Stress incontinence, also known as effort incontinence, is due essentially to insufficient strength of the pelvic floor muscles to prevent the passage of urine, especially during activities that increase intra-abdominal pressure, such as coughing, sneezing, or bearing down.\n* Urge incontinence is involuntary loss of urine occurring for no apparent reason while suddenly feeling the need or urge to urinate.\n* Overflow incontinence: Sometimes people find that they cannot stop their bladders from constantly dribbling or continuing to dribble for some time after they have passed urine. It is as if their bladders were constantly overflowing, hence the general name overflow incontinence.\n* Mixed incontinence is not uncommon in the elderly female population and can sometimes be complicated by urinary retention, which makes it a treatment challenge requiring staged multimodal treatment. \n* Structural incontinence: Rarely, structural problems can cause incontinence, usually diagnosed in childhood (for example, an ectopic ureter). Fistulas caused by obstetric and gynecologic trauma or injury are commonly known as obstetric fistulas and can lead to incontinence. These types of vaginal fistulas include, most commonly, vesicovaginal fistula and, more rarely, ureterovaginal fistula. These may be difficult to diagnose. The use of standard techniques along with a vaginogram or radiologically viewing the vaginal vault with instillation of contrast media. \n* Functional incontinence occurs when a person recognizes the need to urinate but cannot make it to the bathroom. The loss of urine may be large. There are several causes of functional incontinence including confusion, dementia, poor eyesight, mobility or dexterity, unwillingness to toilet because of depression or anxiety or inebriation due to alcohol. Functional incontinence can also occur in certain circumstances where no biological or medical problem is present. For example, a person may recognise the need to urinate but may be in a situation where there is no toilet nearby or access to a toilet is restricted. \n* Nocturnal enuresis is episodic UI while asleep. It is normal in young children.\n* Transient incontinence is a temporary version of incontinence. It can be triggered by medications, adrenal insufficiency, mental impairment, restricted mobility, and stool impaction (severe constipation), which can push against the urinary tract and obstruct outflow.\n* Giggle incontinence is an involuntary response to laughter. It usually affects children.\n* Double incontinence. There is also a related condition for defecation known as fecal incontinence. Due to involvement of the same muscle group (levator ani) in bladder and bowel continence, patients with urinary incontinence are more likely to have fecal incontinence in addition. This is sometimes termed \"double incontinence\".\n* Post-void dribbling is the phenomenon where urine remaining in the urethra after voiding the bladder slowly leaks out after urination.\n* Coital incontinence (CI) is urinary leakage that occurs during either penetration or orgasm and can occur with a sexual partner or with masturbation. It has been reported to occur in 10% to 24% of sexually active women with pelvic floor disorders. \n\nTreatment\n\nTreatment options range from conservative treatment, behavior management, bladder retraining, pelvic floor therapy, collecting devices (for men), fixer-occluder devices for incontinence (in men), medications and surgery. The success of treatment depends on the correct diagnoses. Weight loss is recommended in those who are obese.\n\nExercises\n\nExercising the muscles of the pelvis such as with Kegel exercises are a first line treatment for women with stress incontinence. Efforts to increase the time between urination, known as bladder training, is recommended in those with urge incontinence. Both these may be used in those with mixed incontinence.\n\nSmall vaginal cones of increasing weight may be used to help with exercise. \n\nBiofeedback uses measuring devices to help the patient become aware of his or her body's functioning. By using electronic devices or diaries to track when the bladder and urethral muscles contract, the patient can gain control over these muscles. Biofeedback can be used with pelvic muscle exercises and electrical stimulation to relieve stress and urge incontinence.\n\nTime voiding while urinating and bladder training are techniques that use biofeedback. In time voiding, the patient fills in a chart of voiding and leaking. From the patterns that appear in the chart, the patient can plan to empty his or her bladder before he or she would otherwise leak. Biofeedback and muscle conditioning, known as bladder training, can alter the bladder's schedule for storing and emptying urine. These techniques are effective for urge and overflow incontinence\n\nA 2013 randomized controlled trial found no benefit of adding biofeedback to pelvic floor muscle exercise in stress urinary incontinence, but observing improvements in both groups. In another randomized controlled trial the addition of biofeedback to the training of pelvic floor muscles for the treatment of stress urinary incontinence, improved pelvic floor muscle function, reduced urinary symptoms, and improved of the quality of life. \n\nPreoperative pelvic floor muscle training (PFMT) in men undergoing radical prostatectomy was not effective in reducing urinary incontinence.\n\nAlternative exercises have been studied for stress urinary incontinence in women. Evidence was insufficient to support the use of Paula method, abdominal muscle training, Pilates, Tai Chi, breathing exercises, postural training, and generalized fitness.\n\nDevices\n\nIndividuals who continue to experience urinary incontinence need to find a management solution that matches their individual situation. The use of devices has not been well studied in women as of 2014. \n\nCollecting systems (for men) – consists of a sheath worn over the penis funneling the urine into a urine bag worn on the leg. These products come in a variety of materials and sizes for individual fit. Studies show that urisheaths and urine bags are preferred over absorbent products – in particular when it comes to ‘limitations to daily activities’. Solutions exist for all levels of incontinence. Advantages with collecting systems are that they are discreet, the skin stays dry all the time, and they are convenient to use both day and night. Disadvantages are that it is necessary to get measured to ensure proper fit and you need a health care professional to write a prescription for them.\n \nAbsorbent products (include shields, undergarments, protective underwear, briefs, diapers, adult diapers and underpants) are the best known product types to manage incontinence. They are generally easy to get hold of in pharmacies or supermarkets and thus very popular. The advantages of using these are that they barely need any fitting or introduction by a health care specialist. The disadvantages with absorbent products are that they can be bulky, leak, have odors and can cause skin breakdown.\n\nFixer-occluder devices (for men) are strapped around the penis, softly pressing the urethra and stopping the flow of urine. This management solution is only suitable for light or moderate incontinence.\n\nIndwelling catheters (also known as foleys) are very often used in hospital settings or if the user is not able to handle any of the above solutions himself. The indwelling catheter is typically connected to a urine bag that can be worn on the leg or hang on the side of the bed. Indwelling catheters need to be changed on a regular basis by a health care professional. The advantage of indwelling catheters are, that the urine gets funneled away from the body keeping the skin dry. The disadvantage, however, is that it is very common to get urinary tract infections when using indwelling catheters. \n\nIntermittent catheters are single use catheters that are inserted into the bladder to empty it, and once the bladder is empty they are removed and discarded. Intermittent catheters are primarily used for retention (inability to empty the bladder) but for some people can be used to reduce / avoid incontinence.\n\nMedications\n\nA number of medications exist to treat incontinence including: fesoterodine, tolterodine and oxybutynin. While a number appear to have a small benefit, the risk of side effects are a concern. For every ten or so people treated only one will become able to control their urine and all medication are of similar benefit. \n\nMedications are not recommended for those with stress incontinence and are only recommended in those who have urge incontinence who do not improve with bladder training.\n\nSurgery\n\nSurgery may be used to help stress or overflow incontinence. Common surgical techniques for stress incontinence include slings, tension-free vaginal tape, and bladder suspension among others. Urodynamic testing seems to confirm that surgical restoration of vault prolapse can cure motor urge incontinence. In those with problems following prostate surgery there is little evidence regarding the use of surgery. \n\nEpidemiology \n\nGlobally, up to 35% of the population over the age of 60 years is estimated to be incontinent. \nIn 2014, urinary leakage affected between 30% and 40% of people over 65 years of age living in their own homes or apartments in the U.S. Twenty-four percent of older adults in the U.S. have moderate or severe urinary incontinence that should be treated medically.\n\nBladder control problems have been found to be associated with higher incidence of many other health problems such as obesity and diabetes. Difficulty with bladder control results in higher rates of depression and limited activity levels. \n\nIncontinence is expensive both to individuals in the form of bladder control products and to the health care system and nursing home industry. Injury related to incontinence is a leading cause of admission to assisted living and nursing care facilities. More than 50% of nursing facility admissions are related to incontinence. \n\nChildren \n\nIncontinence happens less often after age 5: About 10 percent of 5-year-olds, 5 percent of 10-year-olds, and 1 percent of 18-year-olds experience episodes of incontinence. It is twice as common in girls as in boys.\n\nWomen\n\nBladder symptoms affect women of all ages. However, bladder problems are most prevalent among older women. Women over the age of 60 years are twice as likely as men to experience incontinence; one in three women over the age of 60 years are estimated to have bladder control problems. One reason why women are more affected is the weakening of pelvic floor muscles by pregnancy. \n\nMen\n\nMen tend to experience incontinence less often than women, and the structure of the male urinary tract accounts for this difference. It is common with prostate cancer treatments. Both women and men can become incontinent from neurologic injury, congenital defects, strokes, multiple sclerosis, and physical problems associated with aging.\n\nWhile urinary incontinence affects older men more often than younger men, the onset of incontinence can happen at any age. Estimates in the mid-2000s suggested that 17 percent of men over age 60, an estimated 600,000 men, experienced urinary incontinence, with this percentage increasing with age. \n\nHistory\n\nThe management of urinary incontinence with pads is mentioned in the earliest medical book known, the Ebers Papyrus (1500 BC)." ] }

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{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe" ], "filename": [ "Time_Person_of_the_Year.txt" ], "title": [ "Time Person of the Year" ], "wiki_context": [ "Person of the Year (called Man of the Year until 1999 ) is an annual issue of the United States news magazine, Time, that features and profiles a person, a group, an idea, or an object that \"for better or for worse...has done the most to influence the events of the year\". \n\nBackground\n\nThe tradition of selecting a \"Man of the Year\" began in 1927, with Time editors contemplating the news makers of the year. The idea was also an attempt to remedy the editorial embarrassment earlier that year of not having aviator Charles Lindbergh on its cover following his historic trans-Atlantic flight. By the end of the year, it was decided that a cover story featuring Lindbergh as the Man of the Year would serve both purposes. \n\nSince then, individual people, classes of people, the computer (\"Machine of the Year\" in 1982), and \"Endangered Earth\" (\"Planet of the Year\" in 1988) have all been selected for the special year-end issue. Despite the magazine's frequent statements to the contrary, the designation is often regarded as an honor, and spoken of as an award or prize, simply based on many previous selections of admirable people. However, Time magazine points out that controversial figures such as Adolf Hitler (1938), Joseph Stalin (1939 and 1942), Nikita Khrushchev (1957) and Ayatollah Khomeini (1979) have also been granted the title for their impacts. \n\nIn 1999, the title was changed to Person of the Year. Women who have been selected for recognition after the renaming include \"The Whistleblowers\" (Cynthia Cooper, Coleen Rowley and Sherron Watkins in 2002), Melinda Gates (jointly with Bill Gates and Bono, in 2005), and Angela Merkel in 2015. Prior to 1999, four women were granted the title as individuals, as \"Woman of the Year\"—Wallis Simpson (1936), Soong Mei-ling (1937), Queen Elizabeth II (1952) and Corazon Aquino (1986). \"American Women\" were recognized as a group in 1975. Other classes of people recognized comprise both men and women, such as \"Hungarian Freedom Fighters\" (1956), \"U.S. Scientists\" (1960), \"The Inheritors\" (1966), \"The Middle Americans\" (1969), \"The American Soldier\" (2003), \"You\" (2006), \"The Protester\" (2011) represented on the cover by a woman, and \"Ebola fighters\" (2014).\n\nSince the list began, every serving President of the United States has been a Person of the Year at least once with the exceptions of Calvin Coolidge, in office at time of the first issue, Herbert Hoover, the next U.S. president, and Gerald Ford. Most were named Person of the Year either the year they were elected or while they were in office; the only one to be given the title before being elected is Dwight D. Eisenhower, in 1944 as Supreme Commander of the Allied Invasion Force, eight years before his election. He subsequently received the title again in 1959, while in office. Franklin D. Roosevelt is the only person to have received the title three times, first as President-elect (1932) and later as the incumbent President (1934 and 1941).\n\nThe last issue of 1989 named Mikhail Gorbachev as \"Man of the Decade\". The December 31, 1999 issue of Time named Albert Einstein the \"Person of the Century\". Franklin D. Roosevelt and Mahatma Gandhi were chosen as runners-up. \n\nAs a result of the public backlash it received from the United States for naming the Khomeini as Man of the Year in 1979, Time has shied away from using figures who are controversial in the United States due to commercial reasons. Times Person of the Year 2001, immediately following the September 11, 2001 attacks, was New York City mayor Rudolph Giuliani, although the stated rules of selection, the individual or group of individuals who have had the biggest effect on the year's news, made Osama bin Laden a more likely choice. The issue that declared Giuliani the Person of the Year included an article that mentioned Time's earlier decision to select the Ayatollah Khomeini and the 1999 rejection of Hitler as \"Person of the Century\". The article seemed to imply that Osama bin Laden was a stronger candidate than Giuliani, as Adolf Hitler was a stronger candidate than Albert Einstein. The selections were ultimately based on what the magazine describes as who they believed had a stronger influence on history and who represented either the year or the century the most. According to Time, Rudolph Giuliani was selected for symbolizing the American response to the September 11th attacks, and Albert Einstein selected for representing a century of scientific exploration and wonder.\n\nAnother controversial choice was the 2006 selection of \"You\", representing most if not all people for advancing the information age by using the Internet (via e.g. blogs, YouTube, MySpace and Wikipedia). \n\nTime magazine also holds online poll for the readers to vote for who they believe to be the Person of the Year. While many mistakenly believe the winner of the poll to be the Person of the Year, the title, as mentioned above, is decided by the editors of Time. In the first online poll held in 1998, wrestler and activist Mick Foley won with over 50% of votes. Foley was removed from the poll, and the title was given to Clinton and Starr, which led to the outrage from the fans of Foley who mistakenly believed the winner of the poll would be the winner of the title. In 2006, the poll winner by a wide margin was Hugo Chávez, with 35% of the votes. The president of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad came in second. Time again ignored those results, not mentioning them in the announcement of the Person of the Year. Time continues to annually run an online poll for the \"People's Choice\", but stresses the decision on who the magazine recognizes is made independently of this poll by the magazine's editors. \n\nPersons of the Year" ] }

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{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe" ], "filename": [ "California.txt" ], "title": [ "California" ], "wiki_context": [ "California ( , ) is the most populous state in the United States. It is also the third most extensive by area. Los Angeles, in Southern California, is the state's most populous city and the country's second largest after New York City. California also includes the nation's most populous county, Los Angeles County, and the largest county by area, San Bernardino County. Geographically located in the western part of the United States, California is bordered by the other U.S. states of Oregon to the north, Nevada to the east, and Arizona to the southeast. California shares an international border with the Mexican state of Baja California to the south and the Pacific Ocean is on the state's western coastline. The state capital is Sacramento, which is located in the northern part of the state.\n\nWhat is now California was first settled by various Native American tribes before being explored by a number of European expeditions during the 16th and 17th centuries. It was then claimed by the Spanish Empire as part of Alta California in the larger territory of New Spain. Alta California became a part of Mexico in 1821 following its successful war for independence, but was ceded to the United States in 1848 after the Mexican–American War. The western portion of Alta California was organized as the State of California, which was admitted as the 31st state on September 9, 1850. The California Gold Rush starting in 1848 led to dramatic social and demographic changes, with large-scale immigration from the east and abroad with an accompanying economic boom.\n\nCalifornia's diverse geography ranges from the Sierra Nevada in the east to the Pacific Coast in the west, from the redwood–Douglas fir forests of the northwest, to the Mojave Desert areas in the southeast. The center of the state is dominated by the Central Valley, a major agricultural area. California contains both the highest point (Mount Whitney) and the lowest point (Death Valley) in the contiguous United States. Earthquakes are common because of the state's location along the Pacific Ring of Fire. About 37,000 earthquakes are recorded each year, but most are too small to be felt. Drought has also become a notable feature. \n\nCalifornia is regarded as a global trendsetter in both popular culture and politics, and is the birthplace of the film industry, the hippie counterculture, the Internet, and the personal computer. The state's economy is centered on finance, government, real estate services, technology, and professional, scientific and technical business services; together comprising 58% of the state's economy. Three of the world's largest 20 firms by revenue, Chevron, Apple, and McKesson, are headquartered in the state. Although only 1.5% of the state's economy, California's agriculture industry has the highest output of any U.S. state. If it were a country, California would be the 6th largest economy in the world and the 35th most populous.\n\nEtymology\n\nThe word California originally referred to the entire region composed of the Baja California Peninsula of Mexico, the current U.S. states of California, Nevada, and Utah, and parts of Arizona, New Mexico, Texas and Wyoming.\n\nThe name California is most commonly believed to have derived from a fictional paradise peopled by Black Amazons and ruled by Queen Calafia, who fought alongside Muslims and whose name was chosen to echo the title of a Muslim leader, the Caliph, fictionally implying that California was the Caliphate. The story of Calafia is recorded in a 1510 work The Adventures of Esplandián, written as a sequel to Amadis de Gaula by Spanish adventure writer Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo.Gudde, Erwin G. and William Bright. 2004. California Place Names: The Origin and Etymology of Current Geographical Names. p. 59–60 The kingdom of Queen Calafia, according to Montalvo, was said to be a remote land inhabited by griffins and other strange beasts, and rich in gold.\n\nShortened forms of the state's name include CA, Cal., Calif. and US-CA.\n\nHistory\n\nPre-contact\n\nSettled by successive waves of arrivals during the last 10,000 years, California was one of the most culturally and linguistically diverse areas in pre-Columbian North America. Various estimates of the native population range from 100,000 to 300,000. The Indigenous peoples of California included more than 70 distinct groups of Native Americans, ranging from large, settled populations living on the coast to groups in the interior. California groups also were diverse in their political organization with bands, tribes, villages, and on the resource-rich coasts, large chiefdoms, such as the Chumash, Pomo and Salinan. Trade, intermarriage and military alliances fostered many social and economic relationships among the diverse groups.\n\n16th, 17th and 18th centuries\n\nThe first European effort to explore the coast as far north as the Russian River was a Spanish sailing expedition, led by Portuguese captain Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo, in 1542. Some 37 years later English explorer Francis Drake also explored and claimed an undefined portion of the California coast in 1579. Spanish traders made unintended visits with the Manila galleons on their return trips from the Philippines beginning in 1565. The first Asians to set foot on what would be the United States occurred in 1587, when Filipino sailors arrived in Spanish ships at Morro Bay. Sebastián Vizcaíno explored and mapped the coast of California in 1602 for New Spain.\n\nDespite the on-the-ground explorations of California in the 16th century, Rodríguez's idea of California as an island persisted. That depiction appeared on many European maps well into the 18th century. \n\nAfter the Portolà expedition of 1769-70, Spanish missionaries began setting up 21 California Missions on or near the coast of Alta (Upper) California, beginning in San Diego. During the same period, Spanish military forces built several forts (presidios) and three small towns (pueblos). Two of the pueblos grew into the cities of Los Angeles and San Jose. The Spanish colonization brought the genocide of the indigenous Californian peoples.\n\n19th century\n\nImperial Russia explored the California coast and established a trading post at Fort Ross. Its early 19th-century coastal settlements north of San Francisco Bay constituted the southernmost Russian colony in North America and were spread over an area stretching from Point Arena to Tomales Bay. \n\nIn 1821 the Mexican War of Independence gave Mexico (including California) independence from Spain; for the next 25 years, Alta California remained a remote northern province of the nation of Mexico.\n\nCattle ranches, or ranchos, emerged as the dominant institutions of Mexican California. After Mexican independence from Spain, the chain of missions became the property of the Mexican government and were secularized by 1834. The ranchos developed under ownership by Californios (Spanish-speaking Californians) who had received land grants, and traded cowhides and tallow with Boston merchants.\n\nFrom the 1820s, trappers and settlers from the U.S. and Canada arrived in Northern California. These new arrivals used the Siskiyou Trail, California Trail, Oregon Trail and Old Spanish Trail to cross the rugged mountains and harsh deserts in and surrounding California.\n\nBetween 1831 and 1836, California experienced a series of revolts against Mexico; this culminated in the 1836 California revolt led by Juan Bautista Alvarado, which ended after Mexico appointed him governor of the department.Starr, Kevin. California: A History. [https://books.google.com/books?idZd3L-BAN_04C&pg\nPR17&dq1836+California+revolt&hl\nen&saX&ei\nrq5EUfmyNMrm2QXbo4GQBQ&ved0CFEQ6AEwBg#v\nonepage&q1836%20California%20revolt&f\nfalse p. 17] The revolt, which had momentarily declared California an independent state, was successful with the assistance of American and British residents of California, including Isaac Graham; after 1840, 100 of those residents who did not have passports were arrested, leading to the Graham affair in 1840.\n\nOne of the largest ranchers in California was John Marsh. After failing to obtain justice against squatters on his land from the Mexican courts, he determined that California should become part of the United States. Marsh conducted a letter-writing campaign espousing the California climate, soil and other reasons to settle there, as well as the best route to follow, which became known as \"Marsh's route.\" His letters were read, reread, passed around, and printed in newspapers throughout the country, and started the first wagon trains rolling to California. He invited immigrants to stay on his ranch until they could get settled, and assisted in their obtaining passports. \n\nAfter ushering in the period of organized emigration to California, Marsh helped end the rule of the last Mexican governor of California, thereby paving the way to California's ultimate acquisition by the United States. \n\nIn 1846 settlers rebelled against Mexican rule during the Bear Flag Revolt. Afterwards, rebels raised the Bear Flag (featuring a bear, a star, a red stripe and the words \"California Republic\") at Sonoma. The Republic's only president was William B. Ide, who played a pivotal role during the Bear Flag Revolt.\n\nThe California Republic was short lived; the same year marked the outbreak of the Mexican–American War (1846–48). When Commodore John D. Sloat of the United States Navy sailed into Monterey Bay and began the military occupation of California by the United States, Northern California capitulated in less than a month to the U.S. forces. After a series of defensive battles in Southern California, the Treaty of Cahuenga was signed by the Californios on January 13, 1847, securing American control in California.\n\nFollowing the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo that ended the war, the western territory of Alta California, became the U.S. state of California, and Arizona, Nevada, Colorado and Utah became U.S. Territories. The Lightly populated lower region of California, the Baja Peninsula, remained in the possession of Mexico.\n\nIn 1846 the non-native population of California was estimated to be no more than 8,000, plus about 100,000 Native Americans down from about 300,000 before Hispanic settlement in 1769. After gold was discovered, the population burgeoned with U.S. citizens, Europeans, Chinese and other immigrants during the great California Gold Rush. By 1854 over 300,000 settlers had come. Between 1847 and 1870, the population of San Francisco increased from 500 to 150,000. On September 9, 1850, as part of the Compromise of 1850, California was admitted to the United States undivided as a free state, denying the expansion of slavery to the Pacific Coast.\n\nCalifornia's native population precipitously declined, above all, from Eurasian diseases to which they had no natural immunity. As in other states, the native inhabitants were forcibly removed from their lands by incoming miners, ranchers, and farmers. And although California entered the union as a free state, the \"loitering or orphaned Indians\" were de facto enslaved by Mexican and Anglo-American masters under the 1853 Act for the Government and Protection of Indians. There were massacres in which hundreds of indigenous people were killed. Between 1850 and 1860, California paid around 1.5 million dollars (some 250,000 of which was reimbursed by the federal government) to hire militias whose purpose was to protect settlers from the indigenous populations. In later decades, the native population was placed in reservations and rancherias, which were often small and isolated and without enough natural resources or funding from the government to sustain the populations living on them. As a result, the rise of California was a calamity for the native inhabitants. Several scholars and Native American activists, including Benjamin Madley and Ed Castillo, have described the actions of the California government as a genocide. \n\nThe seat of government for California under Spanish and later Mexican rule was located at Monterey from 1777 until 1845. Pio Pico, last Mexican governor of Alta California, moved the capital to Los Angeles in 1845. The United States consulate was also located in Monterey, under consul Thomas O. Larkin.\n\nIn 1849, the Constitutional Convention was first held in Monterey. Among the tasks was a decision on a location for the new state capital. The first legislative sessions were held in San Jose (1850–1851). Subsequent locations included Vallejo (1852–1853), and nearby Benicia (1853–1854); these locations eventually proved to be inadequate as well. The capital has been located in Sacramento since 1854 with only a short break in 1861 when legislative sessions were held in San Francisco due to flooding in Sacramento.\n\nInitially, travel between California and the rest of the continental U.S. was time consuming and dangerous. A more direct connection came in 1869 with the completion of the First Transcontinental Railroad through Donner Pass in the Sierra Nevada mountains. Once completed, hundreds of thousands of U.S. citizens came west, where new Californians were discovering that land in the state, if irrigated during the dry summer months, was extremely well suited to fruit cultivation and agriculture in general. Vast expanses of wheat, other cereal crops, vegetable crops, cotton, and nut and fruit trees were grown (including oranges in Southern California), and the foundation was laid for the state's prodigious agricultural production in the Central Valley and elsewhere.\n\n20th century\n\nMigration to California accelerated during the early 20th century with the completion of major transcontinental highways like the Lincoln Highway and Route 66. In the period from 1900 to 1965, the population grew from fewer than one million to become the most populous state in the Union. In 1940, the Census Bureau reported California's population as 6.0% Hispanic, 2.4% Asian, and 89.5% non-Hispanic white. \n\nTo meet the population's needs, major engineering feats like the California and Los Angeles Aqueducts; the Oroville and Shasta Dams; and the Bay and Golden Gate Bridges were built across the state. The state government also adopted the California Master Plan for Higher Education in 1960 to develop a highly efficient system of public education.\n\nMeanwhile, attracted to the mild Mediterranean climate, cheap land, and the state's wide variety of geography, filmmakers established the studio system in Hollywood in the 1920s. California manufactured 8.7 percent of total United States military armaments produced during World War II, ranking third (behind New York and Michigan) among the 48 states. After World War II, California's economy greatly expanded due to strong aerospace and defense industries, whose size decreased following the end of the Cold War. Stanford University and its Dean of Engineering Frederick Terman began encouraging faculty and graduates to stay in California instead of leaving the state, and develop a high-tech region in the area now known as Silicon Valley. As a result of these efforts, California is regarded as a world center of the entertainment and music industries, of technology, engineering, and the aerospace industry, and as the U.S. center of agricultural production. Just before the \"Dot Com Bust\" California had the 5th largest economy in the world among nations. Yet since 1991, and starting in the late 1980s in Southern California, California has seen a net loss of domestic migrants most years. This is often referred to by the media as the California exodus. \n\nHowever, during the 20th century, two great disasters happened in California. The 1906 San Francisco earthquake and 1928 St. Francis Dam flood remain the deadliest in U.S history. \n\nGeography\n\nCalifornia is the 3rd largest state in the United States in area, after Alaska and Texas. California is often geographically bisected into two regions, Southern California, comprising the 10 southernmost counties, and Northern California, comprising the 48 northernmost counties. \n\nIn the middle of the state lies the California Central Valley, bounded by the Sierra Nevada in the east, the coastal mountain ranges in the west, the Cascade Range to the north and by the Tehachapi Mountains in the south. The Central Valley is California's productive agricultural heartland.\n\nDivided in two by the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, the northern portion, the Sacramento Valley serves as the watershed of the Sacramento River, while the southern portion, the San Joaquin Valley is the watershed for the San Joaquin River. Both valleys derive their names from the rivers that flow through them. With dredging, the Sacramento and the San Joaquin Rivers have remained deep enough for several inland cities to be seaports.\n\nThe Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta is a critical water supply hub for the state. Water is diverted from the delta and through an extensive network of pumps and canals that traverse nearly the length of the state, to the Central Valley and the State Water Projects and other needs. Water from the Delta provides drinking water for nearly 23 million people, almost two-thirds of the state's population as well as water for farmers on the west side of the San Joaquin Valley.\n\nThe Channel Islands are located off the Southern coast.\n\nThe Sierra Nevada (Spanish for \"snowy range\") includes the highest peak in the contiguous 48 states, Mount Whitney, at 14505 ft.Elevation adjusted to North American Vertical Datum of 1988. The range embraces Yosemite Valley, famous for its glacially carved domes, and Sequoia National Park, home to the giant sequoia trees, the largest living organisms on Earth, and the deep freshwater lake, Lake Tahoe, the largest lake in the state by volume.\n\nTo the east of the Sierra Nevada are Owens Valley and Mono Lake, an essential migratory bird habitat. In the western part of the state is Clear Lake, the largest freshwater lake by area entirely in California. Though Lake Tahoe is larger, it is divided by the California/Nevada border. The Sierra Nevada falls to Arctic temperatures in winter and has several dozen small glaciers, including Palisade Glacier, the southernmost glacier in the United States.\n\nAbout 45 percent of the state's total surface area is covered by forests, and California's diversity of pine species is unmatched by any other state. California contains more forestland than any other state except Alaska. Many of the trees in the California White Mountains are the oldest in the world; an individual bristlecone pine is over 5,000 years old.\n\nIn the south is a large inland salt lake, the Salton Sea. The south-central desert is called the Mojave; to the northeast of the Mojave lies Death Valley, which contains the lowest and hottest place in North America, the Badwater Basin at . The horizontal distance from the bottom of Death Valley to the top of Mount Whitney is less than 90 mi. Indeed, almost all of southeastern California is arid, hot desert, with routine extreme high temperatures during the summer. The southeastern border of California with Arizona is entirely formed by the Colorado River, from which the southern part of the state gets about half of its water.\n\nAlong the California coast are several major metropolitan areas, including the Greater Los Angeles Area, the San Francisco Bay Area, and the San Diego metropolitan area.\n\nAs part of the Ring of Fire, California is subject to tsunamis, floods, droughts, Santa Ana winds, wildfires, landslides on steep terrain, and has several volcanoes. It has many earthquakes due to several faults running through the state, in particular the San Andreas Fault.\n\nClimate\n\nAlthough most of the state has a Mediterranean climate, due to the state's large size, the climate ranges from subarctic to subtropical. The cool California Current offshore often creates summer fog near the coast. Farther inland, there are colder winters and hotter summers. The maritime moderation results in the shoreline summertime temperatures of Los Angeles and San Francisco being the coolest of all major metropolitan areas of the United States and uniquely cool compared to areas on the same latitude in the interior and on the east coast of the North American continent. Even the San Diego shoreline bordering Mexico is cooler in summer than most areas in the contiguous United States. Just a few miles inland, summer temperature extremes are significantly higher, with downtown Los Angeles being several degrees warmer than at the coast. The same microclimate phenomenon is seen in the climate of the Bay Area, where areas sheltered from the sea sees significantly hotter summers than nearby areas close to the ocean.\n\nNorthern parts of the state have more rain than the south. California's mountain ranges also influence the climate: some of the rainiest parts of the state are west-facing mountain slopes. Northwestern California has a temperate climate, and the Central Valley has a Mediterranean climate but with greater temperature extremes than the coast. The high mountains, including the Sierra Nevada, have an alpine climate with snow in winter and mild to moderate heat in summer.\n\nCalifornia's mountains produce rain shadows on the eastern side, creating extensive deserts. The higher elevation deserts of eastern California have hot summers and cold winters, while the low deserts east of the Southern California mountains have hot summers and nearly frostless mild winters. Death Valley, a desert with large expanses below sea level, is considered the hottest location in the world; the highest temperature in the world, (The 136.4 °F (58 °C), claimed by 'Aziziya, Libya, on September 13, 1922, has been officially deemed invalid by the World Meteorological Organization.) 134 °F, was recorded there on July 10, 1913. The lowest temperature in California was in 1937 in Boca.\n\nThe table below lists average temperatures for August and December in some of the major urban areas of California. Since extremes like the cool summers of the Humboldt Bay and the extreme heat of Death Valley do not effect any major urban areas these are not listed.\n\nEcology\n\nCalifornia is one of the richest and most diverse parts of the world, and includes some of the most endangered ecological communities. California is part of the Nearctic ecozone and spans a number of terrestrial ecoregions. \n\nCalifornia's large number of endemic species includes relict species, which have died out elsewhere, such as the Catalina ironwood (Lyonothamnus floribundus). Many other endemics originated through differentiation or adaptive radiation, whereby multiple species develop from a common ancestor to take advantage of diverse ecological conditions such as the California lilac (Ceanothus). Many California endemics have become endangered, as urbanization, logging, overgrazing, and the introduction of exotic species have encroached on their habitat.\n\nFlora and fauna\n\nCalifornia boasts several superlatives in its collection of flora: the largest trees, the tallest trees, and the oldest trees. California's native grasses are perennial plants. After European contact, these were generally replaced by invasive species of European annual grasses; and, in modern times, California's hills turn a characteristic golden-brown in summer. \n\nBecause California has the greatest diversity of climate and terrain, the state has six life zones which are the lower Sonoran (desert); upper Sonoran (foothill regions and some coastal lands), transition (coastal areas and moist northeastern counties); and the Canadian, Hudsonian, and Arctic Zones, comprising the state's highest elevations. \n\nPlant life in the dry climate of the lower Sonoran zone contains a diversity of native cactus, mesquite, and paloverde. The Joshua tree is found in the Mojave Desert. Flowering plants include the dwarf desert poppy and a variety of asters. Fremont cottonwood and valley oak thrive in the Central Valley. The upper Sonoran zone includes the chaparral belt, characterized by forests of small shrubs, stunted trees, and herbaceous plants. Nemophila, mint, Phacelia, Viola, and the California poppy (Eschscholzia californica) – the state flower – also flourish in this zone, along with the lupine, more species of which occur here than anywhere else in the world.\n\nThe transition zone includes most of California's forests with the redwood (Sequoia sempervirens) and the \"big tree\" or giant sequoia (Sequoiadendron giganteum), among the oldest living things on earth (some are said to have lived at least 4,000 years). Tanbark oak, California laurel, sugar pine, madrona, broad-leaved maple, and Douglas-fir also grow here. Forest floors are covered with swordfern, alumnroot, barrenwort, and trillium, and there are thickets of huckleberry, azalea, elder, and wild currant. Characteristic wild flowers include varieties of mariposa, tulip, and tiger and leopard lilies. \n\nThe high elevations of the Canadian zone allow the Jeffrey pine, red fir, and lodgepole pine to thrive. Brushy areas are abundant with dwarf manzanita and ceanothus; the unique Sierra puffball is also found here. Right below the timberline, in the Hudsonian zone, the whitebark, foxtail, and silver pines grow. At about 10500 ft, begins the Arctic zone, a treeless region whose flora include a number of wildflowers, including Sierra primrose, yellow columbine, alpine buttercup, and alpine shooting star. \n\nCommon plants that have been introduced to the state include the eucalyptus, acacia, pepper tree, geranium, and Scotch broom. The species that are federally classified as endangered are the Contra Costa wallflower, Antioch Dunes evening primrose, Solano grass, San Clemente Island larkspur, salt marsh bird's beak, McDonald's rock-cress, and Santa Barbara Island liveforever. , 85 plant species were listed as threatened or endangered.\n\nIn the deserts of the lower Sonoran zone, the mammals include the jackrabbit, kangaroo rat, squirrel, and opossum. Common birds include the owl, roadrunner, cactus wren, and various species of hawk. The area's reptilian life include the sidewinder viper, desert tortoise, and horned toad. The upper Sonoran zone boasts mammals such as the antelope, brown-footed woodrat, and ring-tailed cat. Birds unique to this zone are the California thrasher, bushtit, and California condor. \n\nIn the transition zone, there are Colombian black-tailed deer, black bears, gray foxes, cougars, bobcats, and Roosevelt elk. Reptiles such as the garter snakes and rattlesnakes inhabit the zone. In addition, amphibians such as the water puppy and redwood salamander are common too. Birds such as the kingfisher, chickadee, towhee, and hummingbird thrive here as well. \n\nThe Canadian zone mammals include the mountain weasel, snowshoe hare, and several species of chipmunks. Conspicuous birds include the blue-fronted jay, Sierra chickadee. Sierra hermit thrush, water ouzel, and Townsend's solitaire. As one ascends into the Hudsonian zone, birds become scarcer. While the Sierra rosy finch is the only bird native to the high Arctic region, other bird species such as the hummingbird and Clark's nutcracker. Principal mammals found in this region include the Sierra coney, white-tailed jackrabbit, and the bighorn sheep. , the bighorn sheep was listed as endangered by the US Fish and Wildlife Service. The fauna found throughout several zones are the mule deer, coyote, mountain lion, northern flicker, and several species of hawk and sparrow.\n\nAquatic life in California thrives, from the state's mountain lakes and streams to the rocky Pacific coastline. Numerous trout species are found, among them rainbow, golden, and cutthroat. Migratory species of salmon are common as well. Deep-sea life forms include sea bass, yellowfin tuna, barracuda, and several types of whale. Native to the cliffs of northern California are seals, sea lions, and many types of shorebirds, including migratory species.\n\nAs of April 2003, 118 California animals were on the federal endangered list; 181 plants were listed as endangered or threatened. Endangered animals include the San Joaquin kitfox, Point Arena mountain beaver, Pacific pocket mouse, salt marsh harvest mouse, Morro Bay kangaroo rat (and five other species of kangaroo rat), Amargosa vole, California least tern, California condor, loggerhead shrike, San Clemente sage sparrow, San Francisco garter snake, five species of salamander, three species of chub, and two species of pupfish. Eleven butterflies are also endangered and two that are threatened are on the federal list. Among threatened animals are the coastal California gnatcatcher, Paiute cutthroat trout, southern sea otter, and northern spotted owl. California has a total of 290821 acre of National Wildlife Refuges. , 123 California animals were listed as either endangered or threatened on the federal list provided by the US Fish & Wildlife Service. Also, , 178 species of California plants were listed either as endangered or threatened on this federal list.\n\nRivers\n\nThe vast majority of rivers in California are dammed as part of two massive water projects: the Central Valley Project, providing water to the agricultural central valley, the California State Water Project diverting water from northern to southern California. The state's coasts, rivers, and other bodies of water are regulated by the California Coastal Commission.\n\nThe two most prominent rivers within California are the Sacramento River and the San Joaquin River, which drain the Central Valley and the west slope of the Sierra Nevada and flow to the Pacific Ocean through San Francisco Bay. Several major tributaries feed into the Sacramento and the San Joaquin, including the Pit River, the Tuolumne River, and the Feather River.\n\nThe Eel River and Salinas River each drain portions of the California coast, north and south of San Francisco Bay, respectively, and the Eel River is the largest river in the state to remain in its natural un-dammed state. The Mojave River is the primary watercourse in the Mojave Desert, and the Santa Ana River drains much of the Transverse Ranges as it bisects Southern California. Some other important rivers are the Klamath River and the Trinity River in the far north coast, and the Colorado River on the southeast border with Arizona.\n\nRegions\n\nDemographics\n\nPopulation\n\nThe United States Census Bureau estimates that the population of California was 39,144,818 on July 1, 2015, a 5.08% increase since the 2010 United States Census. Between 2000 and 2009, there was a natural increase of 3,090,016 (5,058,440 births minus 2,179,958 deaths). During this time period, international migration produced a net increase of 1,816,633 people while domestic migration produced a net decrease of 1,509,708, resulting in a net in-migration of 306,925 people. The state of California's own statistics show a population of 38,292,687 for January 1, 2009. However, according to the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, since 1990 almost 3.4 million Californians have moved to other states, with most leaving to Texas, Nevada, and Arizona. \n\nCalifornia is the second-most-populous sub-national entity in the Western Hemisphere and the Americas, with a population second to that of State of São Paulo, Brazil. California's population is greater than that of all but 34 countries of the world. The Greater Los Angeles Area is the second-largest metropolitan area in the United States, after the New York metropolitan area, while Los Angeles, with nearly half the population of New York City, is the second-largest city in the United States. Also, Los Angeles County has held the title of most populous U.S. county for decades, and it alone is more populous than 42 U.S. states. In addition to Los Angeles, California is home to seven of the other 50 most populous cities in the United States: San Diego (8th), San Jose (10th), San Francisco (13th), Fresno (34th), Sacramento (35th), Long Beach (36th), and Oakland (47th). The center of population of California is located in the town of Buttonwillow, Kern County.\n\nCities and metropolitan areas\n\nThe state has 482 incorporated cities and towns; of which 460 are cities and 22 are towns. Under California law, the terms \"city\" and \"town\" are explicitly interchangeable; the name of an incorporated municipality in the state can either be \"City of (Name)\" or \"Town of (Name)\". \n\nSacramento became California's first incorporated city on February 27, 1850. San Jose, San Diego and Benicia tied for California's second incorporated city, each receiving incorporation on March 27, 1850. Jurupa Valley became the state's most recent and 482nd incorporated municipality on July 1, 2011. \n\nThe majority of these cities and towns are within one of five metropolitan areas: the Los Angeles Metropolitan Area, the San Francisco Bay Area, the Riverside-San Bernardino Area, the San Diego metropolitan area and the Sacramento metropolitan area.\n\nImmigration\n\nStarting in the year 2010, for the first time since the California Gold Rush, California-born residents make up the majority of the state's population. Along with the rest of the U.S., California's immigration pattern has also shifted over the course of the late 2000s-early 2010s. Immigration from Latin American countries has dropped significantly with most immigrants now coming from Asia. In total for 2011, there were 277,304 immigrants. 57% came from Asian countries vs. 22% from Latin American countries. Net immigration from Mexico, previously the most common country of origin for new immigrants has dropped to zero/less than zero, since more Mexican nationals are departing for their home country than immigrating. As a result it is estimated that Hispanics citizens will constitute 49% of the population by 2060, instead of the previously projected 2050, due primarily to domestic births. \n\nIllegal immigration\n\nThe state's population of illegal immigrants has been shrinking in recent years, due to increased enforcement and decreased job opportunities for lower-skilled workers. The number of migrants arrested attempting to cross the Mexican border in the Southwest plunged from a high of 1.1 million in 2005 to just 367,000 in 2011. Despite these recent trends, illegal aliens constituted an estimated 7.3 percent of the state's population, the third highest percentage of any state in the country, behind Nevada and Arizona totaling nearly 2.6 million. In particular, illegal immigrants tended to be concentrated in Los Angeles, Monterey, San Benito, Imperial, and Napa Counties – the latter four of which have significant agricultural industries that depend on manual labor. More than half of illegal immigrants originate from Mexico.\n\nRacial and ancestral makeup\n\nAccording to the U.S. Census Bureau during the 2010 Census the population self-identifies as (alone or in combination): \n* 61.6% White (22,953,374)(57.6% single-race White) \n* 14.9% Asian (5,556,592)(13.0% single-race Asian)(Filipino 1,474,707; Chinese 1,349,111; Vietnamese 647,589; Indian 590,445; Korean 505,225; Japanese 428,014; Taiwanese 109,928; Cambodian 102,317) \n* 7.2% Black or African American (2,684,914)(6.2% single-race Black or African American)\n* 1.9% Native American and Alaska Native (723,225)(1.0% single-race Native American and Alaska Native)(Cherokee 92,246; Mexican American 66,424; Apache 24,799; Choctaw 23,403; Navajo 17,080) \n* 0.8% Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander (286,145)(0.4% single-race Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander)(Hawaiian 74,932; Samoan 60,876; Chamorro 44,425) \n37.6% are Hispanic or Latino (of any race) (14,013,719) (19.3% White Hispanic or Latino, 0.9% Asian Hispanic or Latino, 0.7% Black Hispanic or Latino, 0.9% Native American Hispanic or Latino, 0.1% Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander Hispanic or Latino)\n\nIn terms of total numbers, California has the largest population of White Americans in the U.S., an estimated 22,200,000 residents. The state has the 5th largest population of African Americans in the U.S., an estimated 2,250,000 residents. California's Asian American population is estimated at 4.4 million, constituting a third of the nation's total. California's Native American population of 285,000 is the most of any state. \n\nAccording to estimates from 2011, California has the largest minority population in the United States by numbers, making up 60% of the state population. Over the past 25 years, the population of non-Hispanic whites has declined, while Hispanic and Asian populations have grown. Between 1970 and 2011, non-Hispanic whites declined from 80% of the State's population to 40%, while Hispanics grew from 32% in 2000 to 38% in 2011. It is currently projected that Hispanics will rise to 49% of the population by 2060, primarily due to domestic births rather than immigration. With the decline of immigration from Latin America, Asian Americans now constitute the fastest growing racial/ethnic group in California; this growth primarily driven by immigration from China, India and the Philippines, respectively. \n\nLanguages\n\nEnglish serves as California's De jure and De facto official language. In 2010, the Modern Language Association of America estimated that 57.02% (19,429,309) of California residents age 5 and older spoke only English at home, while 42.98% spoke another primary language at home. According to the 2007 American Community Survey, 73% of people who speak a language other than English at home are able to speak English well or very well, with 9.8% not speaking English at all. Unlike most U.S. States, California law enshrines English as its official language (rather than it being simply the most commonly used), since the passage of Proposition 63 by California voters. Additionally, Proposition 227 requires instruction in public schools take place in English. Yet, various government agencies do, and are often required to, furnish documents in the various languages needed to reach their intended audiences. \n\nIn total, 16 languages other than English were spoken as primary languages at home by more than 100,000 persons, more than any other state in the nation. New York State, in second place, had 9 languages other than English spoken by more than 100,000 persons. The most common language spoken besides English was Spanish, spoken by 28.46% (9,696,638) of the population. As the primary driver of the Hispanic population is domestic births, however, it is estimated the Spanish language use will peak and then decline over the course of the coming decades. With Asia contributing most of California's new immigrants, California had the highest concentration nationwide of Vietnamese and Chinese speakers, the second highest concentration of Korean, and the third highest concentration of Tagalog speakers.\n\nCalifornia has historically been one of the most linguistically diverse areas in the world, with more than 70 indigenous languages derived from 64 root languages in 6 language families. A survey conducted between 2007 and 2009 identified 23 different indigenous languages of Mexico that are spoken among California farmworkers. All of California's indigenous languages are endangered, although there are now efforts toward language revitalization.The following are a list of the indigenous languages: Root languages of California: Athabaskan Family: Hupa, Mattole, Lassik, Wailaki, Sinkyone, Cahto, Tolowa, Nongatl, Wiyot, Chilula; Hokan Family: Pomo, Shasta, Karok, Chimiriko; Algonquian Family: Whilkut, Yurok; Yukian Family: Wappo; Penutian Family: Modok, Wintu, Nomlaki, Konkow, Maidu, Patwin, Nisenan, Miwok, Coast Miwok, Lake Miwok, Ohlone, Northern Valley Yokuts, Southern Valley Yokuts, Foothill Yokuts; Hokan Family: Esselen, Salinan, Chumash, Ipai, Tipai, Yuma, Halchichoma, Mohave; Uto-Aztecan Family: Mono Paiute, Monache, Owens Valley Paiute, Tubatulabal, Panamint Shoshone, Kawaisu, Kitanemuk, Tataviam, Gabrielino, Juaneno, Luiseno, Cuipeno, Cahuilla, Serrano, Chemehuevi\n\nAs a result of the state's increasing diversity and migration from other areas across the country and around the globe, linguists began noticing a noteworthy set of emerging characteristics of spoken English in California since the late 20th century. This dialect, known as California English, has a vowel shift and several other phonological processes that are different from the dialects used in other regions of the country. \n\nCulture\n\nThe culture of California is a Western culture and most clearly has its modern roots in the culture of the United States, but also, historically, many Hispanic influences. As a border and coastal state, Californian culture has been greatly influenced by several large immigrant populations, especially those from Latin America and Asia. \n\nCalifornia has long been a subject of interest in the public mind and has often been promoted by its boosters as a kind of paradise. In the early 20th century, fueled by the efforts of state and local boosters, many Americans saw the Golden State as an ideal resort destination, sunny and dry all year round with easy access to the ocean and mountains. In the 1960s, popular music groups such as The Beach Boys promoted the image of Californians as laid-back, tanned beach-goers.\n\nThe California Gold Rush of the 1850s is still seen as a symbol of California's economic style, which tends to generate technology, social, entertainment, and economic fads and booms and related busts.\n\nReligion\n\nThe largest religious denominations by number of adherents as a percentage of California's population in 2014 were the Catholic Church with 28 percent; Evangelical Protestants with 20 percent; and Mainline Protestants with 10 percent. Those unaffiliated with any religion represented 27 percent of the population. The breakdown of other religions is 1% Muslim, 2% Hindu and 2% Buddhist. This is a change from 2008, when the population identified their religion with the Catholic Church with 31 percent; Evangelical Protestants with 18 percent; and Mainline Protestants with 14 percent. In 2008, those unaffiliated with any religion represented 21 percent of the population. The breakdown of other religions in 2008 was 0.5% Muslim, 1% Hindu and 2% Buddhist. The American Jewish Year Book placed the total Jewish population of California at about 1,194,190 in 2006. According to the Association of Religion Data Archives (ARDA) the largest denominations by adherents in 2010 were the Roman Catholic Church with 10,233,334; The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints with 763,818; and the Southern Baptist Convention with 489,953. \n\nThe first priests to come to California were Roman Catholic missionaries from Spain. Roman Catholics founded 21 missions along the California coast, as well as the cities of Los Angeles and San Francisco. California continues to have a large Roman Catholic population due to the large numbers of Mexicans and Central Americans living within its borders. California has twelve dioceses and two archdioceses, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles and the Archdiocese of San Francisco, the former being the largest archdiocese in the United States.\n\nA Pew Research Center survey revealed that California is somewhat less religious than the rest of the US: 62 percent of Californians say they are \"absolutely certain\" of their belief in God, while in the nation 71 percent say so. The survey also revealed 48 percent of Californians say religion is \"very important\", compared to 56 percent nationally. \n\nEconomy\n\nThe economy of California is large enough to be comparable to that of the largest of countries. , the gross state product (GSP) is about $2.203 trillion, the largest in the United States. California is responsible for 13.2 percent of the United States' approximate $16.7 trillion gross domestic product (GDP). California's GSP is larger than the GDP of all but 7 countries in dollar terms (the United States, China, Japan, Germany, France, Brazil, and the United Kingdom), larger than Russia, Italy, India, Canada, Australia, Spain and Turkey. In Purchasing Power Parity, it is larger than all but 10 countries (the United States, China, India, Japan, Germany, Russia, Brazil, France, the United Kingdom, and Indonesia), larger than Italy, Mexico, Spain, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, Canada and Turkey. \n\nThe five largest sectors of employment in California are trade, transportation, and utilities; government; professional and business services; education and health services; and leisure and hospitality. In output, the five largest sectors are financial services, followed by trade, transportation, and utilities; education and health services; government; and manufacturing. , California has the 5th highest unemployment rate in the nation at 7.6%. \n\nCalifornia's economy is dependent on trade and international related commerce accounts for about one-quarter of the state's economy. In 2008, California exported $144 billion worth of goods, up from $134 billion in 2007 and $127 billion in 2006. \nComputers and electronic products are California's top export, accounting for 42 percent of all the state's exports in 2008.\n\nAgriculture is an important sector in California's economy. Farming-related sales more than quadrupled over the past three decades, from $7.3 billion in 1974 to nearly $31 billion in 2004. This increase has occurred despite a 15 percent decline in acreage devoted to farming during the period, and water supply suffering from chronic instability. Factors contributing to the growth in sales-per-acre include more intensive use of active farmlands and technological improvements in crop production. In 2008, California's 81,500 farms and ranches generated $36.2 billion products revenue. In 2011, that number grew to $43.5 billion products revenue. The Agriculture sector accounts for two percent of the state's GDP and employs around three percent of its total workforce. According to the USDA in 2011, the three largest California agricultural products by value were milk and cream, shelled almonds, and grapes. \n\nPer capita GDP in 2007 was $38,956, ranking eleventh in the nation. Per capita income varies widely by geographic region and profession. The Central Valley is the most impoverished, with migrant farm workers making less than minimum wage. According to a 2005 report by the Congressional Research Service, the San Joaquin Valley was characterized as one of the most economically depressed regions in the U.S., on par with the region of Appalachia. California has a poverty rate of 23.5%, the highest of any state in the country. Many coastal cities include some of the wealthiest per-capita areas in the U.S. The high-technology sectors in Northern California, specifically Silicon Valley, in Santa Clara and San Mateo counties, have emerged from the economic downturn caused by the dot-com bust.\n\nIn 2010, there were more than 663,000 millionaires in the state, more than any other state in the nation. In 2010, California residents were ranked first among the states with the best average credit score of 754. \n\nState finances\n\nState spending increased from $56 billion in 1998 to $127 billion in 2011. California, with 12% of the U.S. population, has one-third of the nation's welfare recipients. California has the third highest per capita spending on welfare among the states, as well as the highest spending on welfare at $6.67 billion. In January 2011 the California's total debt was at least $265 billion. On June 27, 2013, Governor Jerry Brown signed a balanced budget (no deficit) for the state, its first in decades; however the state's debt remains at $132 billion. \n\nWith the passage of Proposition 30 in 2012, California now levies a 13.3% maximum marginal income tax rate with ten tax brackets, ranging from 1% at the bottom tax bracket of $0 annual individual income to 13.3% for annual individual income over $1,000,000. California has a state sales tax of 7.5%, though local governments can and do levy additional sales taxes. Many of these taxes are temporary for a seven-year period (as stipulated in Proposition 30) and afterwards will revert to a previous maximum marginal income tax bracket of 10.3% and state sales tax rate of 7.25%. \n\nAll real property is taxable annually; the tax is based on the property's fair market value at the time of purchase or new construction. Property tax increases are capped at 2% per year (see Proposition 13).\n\nInfrastructure\n\nEnergy\n\n \n\nBecause it is the most populous U.S. state, California is one of the country's largest users of energy. However because of its high energy rates, conservation mandates, mild weather in the largest population centers and strong environmental movement, its per capita energy use is one of the smallest of any U.S. state. Due to the high electricity demand, California imports more electricity than any other state, primarily hydroelectric power from states in the Pacific Northwest (via Path 15 and Path 66) and coal- and natural gas-fired production from the desert Southwest via Path 46. \n\nAs a result of the state's strong environmental movement, California has some of the most aggressive renewable energy goals in the United States, with a target for California to obtain a third of its electricity from renewables by 2020. Currently, several solar power plants such as the Solar Energy Generating Systems facility are located in the Mojave Desert. California's wind farms include Altamont Pass, San Gorgonio Pass, and Tehachapi Pass. Several dams across the state provide hydro-electric power. It would be possible to convert the total supply to 100% renewable energy, including heating, cooling and mobility, by 2050. \n\nThe state's crude oil and natural gas deposits are located in the Central Valley and along the coast, including the large Midway-Sunset Oil Field. Natural gas-fired power plants typically account for more than one-half of state electricity generation.\n\nCalifornia is also home to two major nuclear power plants: Diablo Canyon and San Onofre, the latter having been shut down in 2013. Also voters banned the approval of new nuclear power plants since the late 1970s because of concerns over radioactive waste disposal. In addition, several cities such as Oakland, Berkeley and Davis have declared themselves as nuclear-free zones.\n\nTransportation\n\nCalifornia's vast terrain is connected by an extensive system of controlled-access highways ('freeways'), limited-access roads ('expressways'), and highways. California is known for its car culture, giving California's cities a reputation for severe traffic congestion. Construction and maintenance of state roads and statewide transportation planning are primarily the responsibility of the California Department of Transportation, nicknamed \"Caltrans\". The rapidly growing population of the state is straining all of its transportation networks, and California has some of the worst roads in the United States. The Reason Foundation's 19th Annual Report on the Performance of State Highway Systems ranked California's highways the third-worst of any state, with Alaska second, and Rhode Island first. \n\nThe state has been a pioneer in road construction. One of the state's more visible landmarks, the Golden Gate Bridge, was once the longest suspension bridge main span in the world at 4200 ft when it opened in 1937. With its orange paint and panoramic views of the bay, this highway bridge is a popular tourist attraction and also accommodates pedestrians and bicyclists. The San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge (often abbreviated the \"Bay Bridge\"), completed in 1936, transports about 280,000 vehicles per day on two-decks. Its two sections meet at Yerba Buena Island through the world's largest diameter transportation bore tunnel, at 76 ft wide by 58 ft high. The Arroyo Seco Parkway, connecting Los Angeles and Pasadena, opened in 1940 as the first freeway in the Western United States. It was later extended south to the Four Level Interchange in downtown Los Angeles, regarded as the first stack interchange ever built. \n\nLos Angeles International Airport (LAX), the 6th busiest airport in the world, and San Francisco International Airport (SFO), the 21st busiest airport in the world, are major hubs for trans-Pacific and transcontinental traffic. There are about a dozen important commercial airports and many more general aviation airports throughout the state.\n\nCalifornia also has several important seaports. The giant seaport complex formed by the Port of Los Angeles and the Port of Long Beach in Southern California is the largest in the country and responsible for handling about a fourth of all container cargo traffic in the United States. The Port of Oakland, fourth largest in the nation, also handles trade entering from the Pacific Rim to the rest of the country.\n\nThe California Highway Patrol is the largest statewide police agency in the United States in employment with over 10,000 employees. They are responsible for providing any police-sanctioned service to anyone on California's state maintained highways and on state property.\n\nThe California Department of Motor Vehicles is by far the largest in North America. By the end of 2009, the California DMV had 26,555,006 driver's licenses and ID cards on file. In 2010, there were 1.17 million new vehicle registrations in force. \n\nIntercity rail travel is provided by Amtrak California, which manages the three busiest intercity rail lines in the U.S. outside the Northeast Corridor, all of which are funded by Caltrans. This service is becoming increasingly popular over flying and ridership is continuing to set records, especially on the LAX-SFO route. Integrated subway and light rail networks are found in Los Angeles (Metro Rail) and San Francisco (MUNI Metro). Light rail systems are also found in San Jose (VTA), San Diego (San Diego Trolley), Sacramento (RT Light Rail), and Northern San Diego County (Sprinter). Furthermore, commuter rail networks serve the San Francisco Bay Area (ACE, BART, Caltrain), Greater Los Angeles (Metrolink), and San Diego County (Coaster).\n\nThe California High-Speed Rail Authority was created in 1996 by the state to implement an extensive 700 mi rail system. Construction was approved by the voters during the November 2008 general election, a $9.95 billion state bond will go toward its construction. Nearly all counties operate bus lines, and many cities operate their own city bus lines as well. Intercity bus travel is provided by Greyhound and Amtrak Thruway Coach.\n\nWater\n\nCalifornia's interconnected water system is the world's largest, managing over 40,000,000 acre feet of water per year, centered on six main systems of aqueducts and infrastructure projects. Water use and conservation in California is a politically divisive issue, as the state experiences periodic droughts and has to balance the demands of its large agricultural and urban sectors, especially in the arid southern portion of the state. The state's widespread redistribution of water also invites the frequent scorn of environmentalists.\n\nThe California Water Wars, a conflict between Los Angeles and the Owens Valley over water rights, is one of the most well-known examples of the struggle to secure adequate water supplies. Former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger said: \"We've been in crisis for quite some time because we're now 38 million people and not anymore 18 million people like we were in the late 60s. So it developed into a battle between environmentalists and farmers and between the south and the north and between rural and urban. And everyone has been fighting for the last four decades about water.\" \n\nGovernment and politics\n\nGovernment\n\nThe state's capital is Sacramento.\n\nCalifornia is organized into three branches of government – the executive branch consisting of the Governor and the other independently elected constitutional officers; the legislative branch consisting of the Assembly and Senate; and the judicial branch consisting of the Supreme Court of California and lower courts. The state also allows ballot propositions: direct participation of the electorate by initiative, referendum, recall, and ratification. Before the passage of California Proposition 14 (2010), California allowed each political party to choose whether to have a closed primary or a primary where only party members and independents vote. After June 8, 2010 when Proposition 14 was approved, excepting only the U.S. President and county central committee offices, all candidates in the primary elections are listed on the ballot with their preferred party affiliation, but they are not the official nominee of that party. At the primary election, the two candidates with the top votes will advance to the general election regardless of party affiliation. If at a special primary election, one candidate receives more than 50% of all the votes cast, they are elected to fill the vacancy and no special general election will be held.\n\n;Executive branch\nThe California executive branch consists of the Governor of California and seven other elected constitutional officers: Lieutenant Governor, Attorney General, Secretary of State, State Controller, State Treasurer, Insurance Commissioner, and State Superintendent of Public Instruction. They serve four-year terms and may be re-elected only once. \n\n;Legislative branch\nThe California State Legislature consists of a 40-member Senate and 80-member Assembly. Senators serve four-year terms and Assembly members two. Members of the Assembly are subject to term limits of three terms, and members of the Senate are subject to term limits of two terms.\n\n;Judicial branch\nCalifornia's legal system is explicitly based upon English common law (as is the case with all other states except Louisiana) but carries a few features from Spanish civil law, such as community property. California's prison population grew from 25,000 in 1980 to over 170,000 in 2007. Capital punishment is a legal form of punishment and the state has the largest \"Death Row\" population in the country (though Texas is far more active in carrying out executions).\n\nCalifornia's judiciary system is the largest in the United States (with a total of 1,600 judges, while the federal system has only about 840). At the apex is the seven Justices of the Supreme Court of California, while the California Courts of Appeal serve as the primary appellate courts and the California Superior Courts serve as the primary trial courts. Justices of the Supreme Court and Courts of Appeal are appointed by the Governor, but are subject to retention by the electorate every 12 years. The administration of the state's court system is controlled by the Judicial Council, composed of the Chief Justice of the California Supreme Court, 14 judicial officers, four representatives from the State Bar of California, and one member from each house of the state legislature.\n\nLocal government\n\nCounties\n\nCalifornia is divided into 58 counties. Per Article 11, Section 1, of the Constitution of California, they are the legal subdivisions of the state. The county government provides countywide services such as law enforcement, jails, elections and voter registration, vital records, property assessment and records, tax collection, public health, health care, social services, libraries, flood control, fire protection, animal control, agricultural regulations, building inspections, ambulance services, and education departments in charge of maintaining statewide standards. In addition, the county serves as the local government for all unincorporated areas. Each county is governed by an elected board of supervisors.\n\nCity and town governments\n\nIncorporated cities and towns in California are either charter or general-law municipalities. General-law municipalities owe their existence to state law and are consequently governed by it; charter municipalities are governed by their own city or town charters. Municipalities incorporated in the 19th century tend to be charter municipalities. All ten of the state's most populous cities are charter cities. Most small cities have a council-manager form of government, where the elected city council appoints a city manager to supervise the operations of the city. Some larger cities have a directly-elected mayor who oversees the city government. In many council-manager cities, the city council selects one of its members as a mayor, sometimes rotating through the council membership—but this type of mayoral position is primarily ceremonial.\n\nThe Government of San Francisco is the only consolidated city-county in California, where both the city and county governments have been merged into one unified jurisdiction. The San Francisco Board of Supervisors also acts as the city council and the Mayor of San Francisco also serves as the county administrative officer.\n\nSchool districts and special districts\n\nAbout 1,102 school districts, independent of cities and counties, handle California's public education. California school districts may be organized as elementary districts, high school districts, unified school districts combining elementary and high school grades, or community college districts.\n\nThere are about 3,400 special districts in California. A special district, defined by California Government Code § 16271(d) as \"any agency of the state for the local performance of governmental or proprietary functions within limited boundaries\", provides a limited range of services within a defined geographic area. The geographic area of a special district can spread across multiple cities or counties, or could consist of only a portion of one. Most of California's special districts are single-purpose districts, and provide one service.\n\nFederal representation\n\nThe state of California sends 53 members to the House of Representatives, the nation's largest congressional state delegation. Consequently California also has the largest number of electoral votes in national presidential elections, with 55. California's U.S. Senators are Dianne Feinstein, a native and former mayor of San Francisco, and Barbara Boxer, a former congresswoman from Marin County. As of the beginning of the 114th Congress this is the current longest continuous representation of a state by the same senators, dating from Boxer's accession in 1993.\n\nPolitics\n\nCalifornia has an idiosyncratic political culture compared to the rest of the country, and is sometimes regarded as a trendsetter. In socio-cultural mores and national politics, Californians are perceived as more liberal than other Americans, especially those who live in the inland states.\n\nAmong the political idiosyncrasies and trendsetting, California was the second state to recall their state governor, the second state to legalize abortion, and the only state to ban marriage for gay couples twice by voters (including Proposition 8 in 2008). Voters also passed Proposition 71 in 2004 to fund stem cell research, and Proposition 14 in 2010 to completely change the state's primary election process. California has also experienced disputes over water rights; and a tax revolt, culminating with the passage of Proposition 13 in 1978, limiting state property taxes.\n\nThe state's trend towards the Democratic Party and away from the Republican Party can be seen in state elections. From 1899 to 1939, California had Republican governors. Since 1990, California has generally elected Democratic candidates to federal, state and local offices, including current Governor Jerry Brown; however, the state has elected Republican Governors, though many of its Republican Governors, such as Arnold Schwarzenegger, tend to be considered moderate Republicans and more centrist than the national party.\n\nThe Democrats also now hold a majority in both houses of the state legislature. There are 56 Democrats and 24 Republicans in the Assembly; and 26 Democrats and 12 Republicans in the Senate.\n\nThe trend towards the Democratic Party is most obvious in presidential elections; Republicans have not won California's electoral votes since 1988. Additionally, both the state's current Democratic U.S. Senators, Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer, have held onto their seats since they were first elected in 1992.\n\nIn the U.S. House, the Democrats held a 34–19 edge in the CA delegation of the 110th United States Congress in 2007. As the result of gerrymandering, the districts in California were usually dominated by one or the other party, and few districts were considered competitive. In 2008, Californians passed Proposition 20 to empower a 14-member independent citizen commission to redraw districts for both local politicians and Congress. After the 2012 elections, when the new system took effect, Democrats gained 4 seats and held a 38-15 majority in the delegation.\n\nIn general, Democratic strength is centered in the populous coastal regions of the Los Angeles metropolitan area and the San Francisco Bay Area. Republican strength is still greatest in eastern parts of the state. Orange County also remains mostly Republican. One study ranked Berkeley, Oakland, Inglewood and San Francisco in the top 20 most liberal American cities; and Bakersfield, Orange, Escondido, Garden Grove, and Simi Valley in the top 20 most conservative cities. \n\nIn October 2012, out of the 23,802,577 people eligible to vote, 18,245,970 people were registered to vote. Of the people registered, the three largest registered groups were Democrats (7,966,422), Republicans (5,356,608), and Decline to State (3,820,545). Los Angeles County had the largest number of registered Democrats (2,430,612) and Republicans (1,037,031) of any county in the state.\n\nLGBT\n\nCalifornia is considered generally liberal in its policies regarding the LGBT community, and the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people have received greater recognition since 1960 at both the state and municipal level. California is home to a number of gay villages such as the Castro District in San Francisco, Hillcrest in San Diego, and West Hollywood. Through the Domestic Partnership Act of 1999, California became the first state in the United States to recognize same-sex relationships in any legal capacity. In 2000, voters passed Proposition 22, which restricted state recognition of marriage to opposite-sex couples. This was struck down by the California Supreme Court in May 2008, effectively legalizing same-sex marriage; however, this was overruled later that same year when California voters passed Proposition 8. After further judicial cases, in 2013 the U.S. Supreme Court rendered the law void, allowing same-sex marriages in California to resume.\n\nArmed forces\n\nIn California, , the U.S. Department of Defense had a total of 117,806 active duty servicemembers of which 88,370 were Sailors or Marines, 18,339 were Airmen, and 11,097 were Soldiers, with 61,365 Department of Defense civilian employees. Additionally, there were a total of 57,792 Reservists and Guardsman in California.\n\nIn 2010, Los Angeles County was the largest origin of military recruits in the United States by county, with 1,437 individuals enlisting in the military.\n However, as of 2002, Californians were relatively under-represented in the military as a proportion to its population. \n\nIn 2000, California, had 2,569,340 veterans of U.S. military service: 504,010 served in World War II, 301,034 in the Korean War, 754,682 during the Vietnam War, and 278,003 during 1990–2000 (including the Persian Gulf War). , there were 1,942,775 veterans living in California, of which 1,457,875 served during a period of armed conflict, and just over four thousand served before World War II (the largest population of this group of any state).\n\nCalifornia's military forces consist of the Army and Air National Guard, the naval and state military reserve (militia), and the California Cadet Corps.\n\nEducation\n\nPublic secondary education consists of high schools that teach elective courses in trades, languages, and liberal arts with tracks for gifted, college-bound and industrial arts students. California's public educational system is supported by a unique constitutional amendment that requires a minimum annual funding level for grades K–12 and community colleges that grows with the economy and student enrollment figures. \n\nCalifornia had over 6.2 million school students in the 2005–06 school year. Funding and staffing levels in California schools lag behind other states. In expenditure per pupil, California ranked 29th (of the 50 states and the District of Columbia) in 2005–06. In teaching staff expenditure per pupil, California ranked 49th of 51. In overall teacher-pupil ratio, California was also 49th, with 21 students per teacher. Only Arizona and Utah were lower. \n\nA 2007 study concluded that California's public school system was \"broken\" in that it suffered from over-regulation. \n\nCalifornia's public postsecondary education offers three separate systems:\n* The research university system in the state is the University of California (UC), a public university system. As of fall 2011, the University of California had a combined student body of 234,464 students. There are ten general UC campuses, and a number of specialized campuses in the UC system. The system was originally intended to accept the top one-eighth of California high school students, but several of the schools have become even more selective. The UC system was originally given exclusive authority in awarding Ph.Ds, but this has since changed and the CSU is also able to award several Doctoral degrees.\n* The California State University (CSU) system has almost 430,000 students, making it the largest university system in the United States. The CSU was originally intended to accept the top one-third of California high school students, but several of the schools have become much more selective. The CSU was originally set up to award only bachelor's and master's degrees, but has since been granted the authority to award several Doctoral degrees.\n* The California Community Colleges System provides lower division coursework as well as basic skills and workforce training. It is the largest network of higher education in the US, composed of 112 colleges serving a student population of over 2.6 million.\n\nCalifornia is also home to such notable private universities as Stanford University, the University of Southern California, the California Institute of Technology, and the Claremont Colleges. California has hundreds of other private colleges and universities, including many religious and special-purpose institutions.\n\nSports\n\nCalifornia has twenty major professional sports league franchises, far more than any other state. The San Francisco Bay Area has seven major league teams spread in its three major cities: San Francisco, San Jose, and Oakland. While the Greater Los Angeles Area is home to ten major league franchises. San Diego has two major league teams, and Sacramento has one. The NFL Super Bowl has been hosted in California 11 times at four different stadiums: Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, the Rose Bowl, Stanford Stadium, and San Diego's Qualcomm Stadium. A twelfth, Super Bowl 50, was held at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara on February 7, 2016. \n\nCalifornia has long had many respected collegiate sports programs. California is home to the oldest college bowl game, the annual Rose Bowl, among others.\n\nCalifornia is the only US state to have hosted both the Summer and Winter Olympics. The 1932 and 1984 Summer Olympics were held in Los Angeles. Squaw Valley Ski Resort in the Lake Tahoe region hosted the 1960 Winter Olympics. Multiple games during the 1994 FIFA World Cup took place in California, with the Rose Bowl hosting eight matches including the final, while Stanford Stadium hosted six matches.\n\nBelow is a list of major league sports teams in California:" ] }

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{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe", "TagMe" ], "filename": [ "Santa's_Little_Helper.txt", "Family_Dog_(TV_series).txt" ], "title": [ "Santa's Little Helper", "Family Dog (TV series)" ], "wiki_context": [ "Santa's Little Helper is a recurring character in the American animated television series The Simpsons. He is the pet greyhound of the Simpson family. The dog was introduced in the first episode of the show, the 1989 Christmas special \"Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire\", in which his owner abandons him for finishing last in a greyhound race. Homer Simpson and his son Bart, who are at the race track in hope of winning some money for Christmas presents, see this and decide to adopt the dog.\n\nSanta's Little Helper has since appeared frequently on The Simpsons and the plots of many episodes center on him. During the course of the show, he has, for example, fathered litters of puppies, passed obedience school, had surgery for bloat, replaced Duffman as the mascot for Duff Beer, and been trained as a police dog at Springfield's Animal Police Academy. Some of the episodes that focus on Santa's Little Helper have been inspired by popular culture or real experiences that staff members of the show have gone through.\n\nAlthough cartoon animals are often anthropomorphized, Santa's Little Helper generally exhibits canine behavior. Cast member Dan Castellaneta currently provides the dog's sounds on the show, although voice artist Frank Welker has also voiced him. Santa's Little Helper has become a popular character following his appearances on The Simpsons. He ranked 27th in Animal Planet's 2003 television special 50 Greatest TV Animals that was based on popularity, name recognition, and the longevity of the shows. He has also been featured in merchandise relating to The Simpsons, such as video games, board games, and comics.\n\nRole in The Simpsons\n\nSanta's Little Helper is a greyhound that appears on the animated television series The Simpsons and is the pet dog of the Simpson family. He can often be seen on the show in minor appearances, although there have been some episodes that feature him heavily, including the first episode of The Simpsons. In that episode, \"Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire\" (season one, 1989), Homer discovers that he has no money to buy Christmas presents for the family. Desperate for a miracle, he and Bart go to the greyhound racing track on Christmas Eve in hopes of earning some money. Although Homer has inside information on which dog is the most likely to win, he instead bets on a last-minute entry, Santa's Little Helper, believing the dog's Christmas-inspired name to be a sign. However, the greyhound finishes last. As Homer and Bart leave the track, they watch the dog's owner abandon him for losing the race. Bart pleads with Homer to keep the dog as a pet and he agrees after it affectionately licks him on the cheek. When Bart and Homer return home, Santa's Little Helper is assumed by the rest of the family to be a Christmas present. \n\nIn various episodes, Santa's Little Helper can be seen chewing on newspapers and other objects in the Simpsons' household, destroying furniture, and digging holes in the backyard. In \"Bart's Dog Gets an F\" (season two, 1991), he manages to infuriate the entire family by destroying valued items in the home. As a result, Homer and Marge want to get rid of the dog, but Bart and Lisa convince them that he can be trained at an obedience school. Santa's Little Helper does not do well there as Bart is unwilling to use a choke chain suggested by the instructor. The night before the final exam, Bart and Santa's Little Helper play, thinking it will be their last few hours together. This bonding breaks down the communication barrier, allowing the dog to understand Bart's commands, and consequently pass the obedience school. \n\nSanta's Little Helper has fathered several puppies. In \"Two Dozen and One Greyhounds\" (season six, 1995), he runs away to the dog racing track where he mates with a female greyhound named She's the Fastest. She later gives birth to 25 puppies and when the Simpsons cannot take care of them any longer, they decide to sell them; however, Mr. Burns steals the puppies and decides to make a tuxedo out of them. Before he does this, however, he becomes emotionally touched by them. This convinces him to never wear fur again and instead raise the puppies to be world-class racing dogs. Santa's Little Helper sires another litter of puppies with Dr. Hibbert's poodle in the episode \"Today I Am a Clown\" (season 15, 2003). These puppies are given away to townspeople. \n\nThe dog has been neglected or treated unfavorably by the family in some episodes. In \"Dog of Death\" (season three, 1992), he nearly dies of bloat and they decide to make budget cuts in order to pay for the required operation. Although the dog's life is saved, the family begins to feel the strain of their sacrifices and starts treating him badly, causing him to run away. He ends up in the possession of Mr. Burns, who trains him to become a vicious attack dog. Several days later, Bart stumbles upon the trained Santa's Little Helper and is attacked, but the greyhound eventually recognizes his old friend and stops. In \"The Canine Mutiny\" (season eight, 1997), Bart uses a fake charge card to buy a well-trained rough collie named Laddie from a mail-order catalog. Laddie learns many tricks that Santa's Little Helper is completely unable to perform, and the Simpson family nearly forgets about their old pet. Bart eventually gives Santa's Little Helper away instead of Laddie when repo men take back everything he fraudulently purchased. Feeling guilty about this disloyalty and bored with his too perfect new dog, Bart tries to get him back. When he finally finds him, Santa's Little Helper is serving as a seeing-eye dog for a blind man, but eventually decides to return to the family. \n\nIn \"Stop or My Dog Will Shoot\" (season 18, 2007), Santa's Little Helper becomes a local hero after finding a lost Homer, and the Simpsons decide to enroll him in the Animal Police Academy. However, his new crime-fighting job makes him jaded and one day at home he bites Bart. The Simpsons must therefore send the dog away to live with officer Lou. However, he gets to return after saving Bart from a toxic smoke cloud at school and then leaving the police force. In \"How Munched is That Birdie in the Window?\" (season 22, 2010), after Santa's Little Helper devours a pigeon with a broken leg that Bart was nursing, Bart gets mad at the dog and is unable to forgive him. The Simpsons therefore give him away to an ostrich farm. There, Bart says goodbye to him and explains that he should never, ever devour a bird. Bart then gets into a fight with an angry ostrich. After remembering that he was told that it's wrong to kill birds, he ceases to aid Bart in the fight, confused at his own loyalty (for Bart's sake or his orders) leaving Bart to strangle the ostrich to death. Bart then realizes that he could not help killing the pigeon and apologizes. Afterwards, the family goes back home with the dog. \n\nThe dog once replaced Duffman as the mascot for Duff Beer in the episode \"Old Yeller Belly\" (season 14, 2003), after he was seen drinking from a can of beer by balancing it on his nose. He becomes known as Suds McDuff and boosts sales of Duff Beer, making the family's fortunes explode. However, this prompts his original sleazy owner and racing trainer to visit the Simpsons and prove that he's the owner of the dog. The family later figures that if they can get Duffman to replace Suds as the Duff mascot, they can get their dog back. They plan to turn Duffman into a hero at a Duff Beer-sponsored beach volleyball event; however, their plan fails and a drunk shark that's discovered at the event becomes the new mascot instead. Santa's Little Helper gladly returns to the Simpson family. \n\nCreation and development\n\nSanta's Little Helper's initial appearance on The Simpsons was in the first episode of the series, \"Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire\", which aired on Dec. 17, 1989. Since then, he has become a recurring character. The Simpsons creator Matt Groening told TV Guide in 2000 that \"we [the staff] painted ourselves into a corner with our Christmas episode. Once we wrote the dog into the show, we were stuck with him.\" The name \"Santa's Little Helper\" was chosen because, according to writer Al Jean in the same TV Guide article, \"we needed a name that would inspire Homer to bet on him, an omen, a Christmas name since he was betting on Christmas Eve. But, at that point, nobody was thinking long-term. We weren't considering what might happen in ten years, when we've got to use this name.\" Although \"Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire\" was the first episode of the series to air on TV, it was the eighth episode produced by the staff. It was chosen to air first because there were animation problems with the others. Jean told the Houston Chronicle in 2001 that after the first episode was broadcast and \"the next seven didn't have the dog, people wondered why.\" He also said in 2003 that the staff enjoyed the first episodes that centered on him, particularly \"Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire\", which is the reason that more episodes about him were written.\n\nWriter John Swartzwelder has noted that the staff members of the show write the character Homer in the same way that they write Santa's Little Helper: \"Both are loyal. Both have the same emotional range. And both will growl and possibly snap if you try to take their food.\" Although animals in cartoons often behave with \"semi-human awareness\", Groening said on the DVD audio commentary for the episode \"Two Dozen and One Greyhounds\" that he prefers animals in cartoons to behave exactly the way they do in real life. As a result, Santa's Little Helper is depicted in this way on the show. There have, however, been some exceptions for gags, but most of the time the staff of The Simpsons tries to keep animals acting realistically. Several journalists have commented on the greyhound's lack of intelligence. In an article that compared The Simpsons to the animated series Family Guy, Todd Camp of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram noted that \"though Santa's Little Helper may be the only Simpson who's dumber than Homer, the Griffins' pooch [Brian Griffin] is the brainiest member of the household\". In 1991, Copley News Service's Alison Ashton described Santa's Little Helper as a \"sweet and stupid dog\". Tom Coombe of The Morning Call wrote in 2002 that \"fans of The Simpsons will tell you that the cartoon family's dog [...] is often dumb, disobedient and skittish. Fans of the real-life breed will paint a different picture — of dogs that are peaceful, affectionate, [and] not given to drooling, panting\". \n\nSome ideas for episodes featuring Santa's Little Helper come from reality. The plot of \"Dog of Death\" was based on Swartzwelder's experiences with his own dog, which had also suffered from bloat. However, unlike the events in the episode, Swartzwelder's dog did not receive treatment as the operation was too expensive and the dog was too old. The Gold Coast Bulletins Ryan Ellem commented in 2005 that the Simpson family's dilemma with the cost of the veterinary procedure is a realistic dilemma faced by many families who own dogs. Other episode ideas come from popular culture. For example, Santa's Little Helper fathering 25 puppies in \"Two Dozen and One Greyhounds\" is a parody of the Disney film One Hundred and One Dalmatians, and Mr. Burns' technique of brainwashing him into an attack dog in \"Dog of Death\" parodies A Clockwork Orange. Susan McHugh, who teaches theories of animals, literature, and culture at the University of New England, wrote in her 2004 book Dog that, \"remaining loyal to his unlikely saviours, the boy Bart and his father Homer, this greyhound has prompted satires of contemporary dog culture, from Barbara Woodhouse's authoritarian training methods [in \"Bart's Dog Gets an F\"] to Lassie's flawless service to the status quo [in \"The Canine Mutiny\"].\"\n\nSounds\n\nAlthough cast member Dan Castellaneta occasionally voiced Santa's Little Helper for bit parts, American voice artist Frank Welker most often provided the sounds of the dog and other animals on the show from \"Bart's Dog Gets an F\", which aired on March 7, 1991, to \"Home Sweet Homediddly-Dum-Doodily\", which aired on October 1, 1995. He said on his official website in 2007 that he liked portraying Santa's Little Helper because the dog was a \"sympathetic\" character. Welker has been praised by staff members for his performances on the show. David Mirkin has noted that \"he can do anything, and it fits perfectly. You forget you're listening to a guy, and he's a pleasure to work with.\" Groening has commented that he was \"unbelievably good\" at doing animal noises. After 1995, Castellaneta voiced Santa's Little Helper on his own while Welker performed other animal noises until his full departure in 2002, when he was denied a pay raise. In the \"questions and answers\" section on his website, Welker revealed that the reason he stopped performing as Santa's Little Helper was because \"The producers thought... 'Hmmm, Dan barks pretty good, and we are already paying him and he seems to like doing the dog thing... why do we need to pay Welker who comes in here, spends less than an hour, eats all the doughnuts, refuses to come to rehearsals... let's just give the damn dog to Dan!'\"\n\nReception\n\nSanta's Little Helper has become a well-known dog because of his appearances in the series. A writer for The Grand Rapids Press wrote in 2002 that \"we all know who Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie are—heck, most Americans probably recognize their pets, Santa's Little Helper and Snowball II\". McHugh wrote in Dog that while Master McGrath was the most famous greyhound of the 19th century, \"the most popular greyhound a hundred years later\" is Santa's Little Helper. In the television special 50 Greatest TV Animals that was hosted by Mario Lopez and aired on Animal Planet in 2003, the dog ranked 27th. Other dogs featured on the list were Lassie (first), Eddie (fifth), Snoopy (sixth), Scooby-Doo (13th), Rin Tin Tin (14th), Max (20th), Triumph, the Insult Comic Dog (24th), Buck (29th), Chipper (44th), and Tiger (50th). According to a writer for McClatchy News Service, the rankings were \"determined by popularity, name recognition and how long the show lasted.\"\n\nAmong fans and critics, Santa's Little Helper has been mostly well received. He ranked seventh in a 2008 poll by Dog Whisperers Cesar Millan that determined the \"best-loved television dog of all time.\" Lassie ranked first in the poll. In addition, he was voted the tenth favorite Simpsons character by readers of Simpsons Comics in the United Kingdom in 2010. In a list of their top twelve favorite dogs from cartoons, comics, and animation, writers for The Tampa Tribune listed Santa's Little Helper at number six, writing: \"We admire his upbeat nature even after having his legs broken by Mr. Burns and being abandoned by Bart for another dog, Laddie.\" He also ranked 75th on Retrocrush author Robert Berry's list of \"The 100 Greatest Dogs of Pop Culture History\" in 2006. The character has attracted some criticism too, though. While reviewing the episode \"Bart's Dog Gets an F\" in 2010, Nathan Rabin of The A.V. Club wrote:\n\n\"As cartoon dogs go, Santa’s Little Helper is spectacularly unspectacular. In a realm of aggressively anthropomorphic canines, some of whom, admittedly, have strong speech impediments, he doesn’t talk or wisecrack or engage in shenanigans. His abilities and powers begin and end with masticating, defecating, and regular napping. You know, just like a real dog. Consequently, episodes devoted to Santa’s Little Helper tend to be a little on the sleepy side, even the Simpsons Christmas special that launched the series.\"\n\nInfluence\n\nSince his first appearance on The Simpsons, Santa's Little Helper has appeared in merchandise relating to the show. On the board art of The Simpsons Clue, a 2000 board game by USAopoly based on Clue, he is shown drinking Duff Beer that has been spilled on the floor. In another board game published by USAopoly called The Simpsons Monopoly, based on Monopoly and released in 2001, the dog is featured as one of the six pewter playing pieces. Santa's Little Helper has also appeared in issues of Simpsons Comics, in the 2007 film The Simpsons Movie, and in video games based on The Simpsons such as Night of the Living Treehouse of Horror and The Simpsons Game. In addition, the dog has been made into action figures by McFarlane Toys, action figures by Playmates Toys in the World of Springfield series, and plush toys.\n\nSanta's Little Helper has made an impact on real life in that an espresso-based drink has been named after him at the award-winning restaurant and bar Bambara in Salt Lake City's Hotel Monaco. Bartender Ethan Moore told The Salt Lake Tribune in 2004 that it is \"one of the most popular holiday drinks\" at Bambara. In addition, a dog walking and pet sitting company in New York City, called \"Santa's Little Helper Dog Walking and Pet Sitting\", has been named after him. The greyhound has also appeared by himself on the cover of the issue of TV Guide. This issue was released with 24 different covers, all featuring different characters from The Simpsons.", "Family Dog is a Canadian-American animated television series that aired in the summer of 1993 on CBS. Created by Brad Bird, the series was about an average suburban family, the Binsfords, as told through the eyes of their dog. It first appeared as an episode of the TV show Amazing Stories, then was expanded into a series of its own. \n\nOriginal episode\n\nIn the original Amazing Stories episode, which aired in the show's second season in 1987, a dog (a Bull Terrier simply called \"the dog\") is the main character, portrayed in three stories:\n\nThe first story involves general misadventures around the house, with him being both ignored and somewhat mistreated by his owners, originally named the Binfords.\n\nThe second part is a \"home movie\" showing their Christmas (in which the family narrates), that culminates with the dog eating the ham.\n\nIn the third, final and elongated segment of the episode, a couple of robbers break into the family's house twice (the first time was when the Binfords had to go out to see a movie at a movie theater, and the dog was given one more chance before the second time), so the father sends the dog to Gerta LeStrange's Dog Obedience School, so he can learn how to become a \"quivering, snarling, white-hot ball of canine terror\" in order to fend off the robbers. However, when they return to try to rob the house the third time, they run away from it to try to avoid and escape from the dog, but when they return to their hideout, which is full of their stolen stuff (they came back with nothing from their third robbery), the second, shorter-bodied robber discovers the dog attached to his arm, with his teeth. Time passes, and the dog is still stuck to his arm. A policeman investigating the robberies approaches the door, burst in and the dog attacks him. The villains praise the dog, and decide to use him as a weapon in a crime spree (featuring the dog and his attacks and robberies). Later the robbers threaten to get a cat when the newspaper refers to them as \"The Dog Gang\". Already angered by this annoying humiliation, the dog becomes too much for the robbers to take, as he turns on them, causing an auto accident in which the robbers hit a cop car and are busted. The dog is returned to the Binford family, who now consider him their hero. The story ends with a catch-up gag, with the father stuck outside the house, as he tries to whisper to his wife to let him in. He then sneaks behind the house into the backyard, only to be attacked by the still-quivering, snarling, white-hot ball of canine terror.\n\nWritten and directed by Brad Bird, with music by Danny Elfman and Steve Bartek, it was one of the most popular episodes of the Amblin Television/Universal Television weekly anthology television series, Amazing Stories. The story was animated by Dan Jeup, Ralph Eggleston, Chris Buck, Sue Kroyer, Gregg Vanzo, David Cutler, Rob Minkoff, Alan Smart, and Darrell Rooney from an animation production design by Tim Burton. The animation production was outsourced to Hyperion Pictures (then under The Kushner-Locke Company), and was shot in Sydney, Australia by Cinemagic Animated Films under animation director Cam Ford, with Kim Humphries as camera operator. \n\nSpielberg's choice to make the episode using animation – especially combining the expense of high-quality animation with well-known voice actors – was considered risky and bold at the time.\n\nCast\n\nMain cast\n\n*Skip Binsford (the father) was voiced by Stan Freberg\n*Bev Binsford (the mother) was voiced by Annie Potts\n*Billy Binsford (the son) was voiced by Scott Menville\n*Buffy Binsford (the daughter) was voiced by Brooke Ashley\n*The Family Dog (the main character) was voiced by Brad Bird\n*Gerte LeStrange (the dog trainer) was voiced by Mercedes McCambridge\n*The two robbers were voiced by Marshall Efron and Stanley Ralph Ross\n*An additional voice was given to Jack Angel for the security guard of the dog school\n\nThe first half of the special was attached to the theatrical release of another Spielberg-produced project, The Land Before Time, because of the film's short length of just over an hour. \n\nOther character voices\n\n*Charlie Adler\n*Mary Kay Bergman\n*Jim Dugan\n*Dan Gilvezan\n*Aaron Luftig\n\n*Norman Parker\n*Kevin Schon\n*Kimberly Scott\n*Lynn Marie Stewart\n*Eric Welch\n\nCBS series\n\nSix years after the original Amazing Stories episode, a CBS series based on the episode was produced by Steven Spielberg and Tim Burton (who were involved in the original episodes by contributing to the story's production and character designs). It was written by Dennis Klein, Sherri Stoner and Paul Dini and animated by Nelvana, but notably lacking the involvement of the original writer and director, Brad Bird. Largely hyped due to the involvement of Spielberg, the series suffered various noted production delays that plagued the show. It did not get past its original network order of 13 episodes. 10 episodes were finished and sent back from the Wang Film Productions animation house in Taiwan but the producers were dissatisfied with the results, so they halted production on the final three episodes and outsourced the ten episodes to Nelvana for \"fixes and completions\". The series was scheduled to debut on March 20, 1991 (and it was heavily promoted during the February 1991 broadcast of the Grammy Awards), but the animation production was not completed in time for this premiere, so the series was ultimately pushed back until 1993. Frederick Coffin was originally cast as the voice of Skip Binsford, but Spielberg decided to replace him with Martin Mull, after animation was completed on the first three episodes.\n\nDespite the Amazing Stories short airing two months before the launch of the new Fox network and the original The Simpsons shorts as part of The Tracy Ullman Show, Family Dog eventually was lumped into a category of failed primetime animated series produced for the \"Big Three\" networks to compete with The Simpsons, which had by then been established as a successful (and as of 2016, still ongoing) series, alongside ABC's Capitol Critters and CBS's own Fish Police. Every program was canceled in its first season, after only a few weeks. Those programs and their reception likely resulted in CBS burning off Family Dog in six weeks over the 1992-93 summer season.\n\nEpisodes\n\nReception\n\nWhen the show debuted, it was roundly panned for its crude scripts and cheap production values, both of drastically lesser quality than the episode which had spawned the series. Brad Bird did not participate in making the show because he did not believe the show's premise would work as a television show. The entire series was later released as a Laserdisc box-set, and various episodes of the show were released on VHS around the same time.\n\nHome media\n\nAll 10 episodes of the series have been released as a laserdisc box set, and a few episodes have also been released on VHS.\n\nIt hasn't seen a DVD, Blu-ray or digital release of any kind, however.\n\nVideo game\n\nThe show was later adapted into a Super NES video game about the life of an everyday family dog. The player has to go three places such as the home where the dog lives, a dog pound and the woods to defeat stereotypical obstacles and enemies like dog catchers and cats." ] }

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{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe", "TagMe" ], "filename": [ "Omnipotence.txt", "Omniscience.txt" ], "title": [ "Omnipotence", "Omniscience" ], "wiki_context": [ "Omnipotence is the quality of having unlimited power. Monotheistic religions generally attribute omnipotence to only the deity of their faith. In the monotheistic philosophies of Abrahamic religions, omnipotence is often listed as one of a deity's characteristics among many, including omniscience, omnipresence, and omnibenevolence. The presence of all these properties in a single entity has given rise to considerable theological debate, prominently including the problem of theodicy, the question of why such a deity would permit the manifestation of evil.\n\nMeanings\n\nThe term omnipotent has been used to connote a number of different positions. These positions include, but are not limited to, the following:\n# A deity is able to do anything that it chooses to do. \n# A deity is able to do anything that is in accord with its own nature (thus, for instance, if it is a logical consequence of a deity's nature that what it speaks is truth, then it is not able to lie).\n# Hold that it is part of a deity's nature to be consistent and that it would be inconsistent for said deity to go against its own laws unless there was a reason to do so. \n# A deity can bring about any state of affairs which is logically possible for anyone to bring about in that situation.\n# A deity is able to do anything that corresponds with its omniscience and therefore with its worldplan.\n# Every action performed in the world is 'actually' being performed by the deity, either due to omni-immanence, or because all actions must be 'supported' or 'permitted' by the deity.\n\nUnder many philosophical definitions of the term \"deity\", senses 2, 3 and 4 can be shown to be equivalent. However, on all understandings of omnipotence, it is generally held that a deity is able to intervene in the world by superseding the laws of physics, since they are not part of its nature, but the principles on which it has created the physical world. However many modern scholars (such as John Polkinghorne) hold that it is part of a deity's nature to be consistent and that it would be inconsistent for a deity to go against its own laws unless there were an overwhelming reason to do so.\n\nThe word \"Omnipotence\" derives from the Latin term \"Omni Potens\", meaning \"All-Powerful\" instead of \"Infinite Power\" implied by its English counterpart. The term could be applied to both deities and Roman Emperors. Being the one with \"All the power\", it was not uncommon for nobles to attempt to prove their Emperor's \"Omni Potens\" to the people, by demonstrating his effectiveness at leading the Empire. \n\nScholastic definition\n\nSt. Thomas Aquinas, OP acknowledged difficulty in comprehending the Deity's power: \"All confess that God is omnipotent; but it seems difficult to explain in what His omnipotence precisely consists: for there may be doubt as to the precise meaning of the word 'all' when we say that God can do all things. If, however, we consider the matter aright, since power is said in reference to possible things, this phrase, 'God can do all things,' is rightly understood to mean that God can do all things that are possible; and for this reason He is said to be omnipotent.\" In the scholastic understanding, omnipotence is generally understood to be compatible with certain limitations or restrictions. A proposition that is necessarily true is one whose negation is self-contradictory.\n\"It is sometimes objected that this aspect of omnipotence involves the contradiction that God cannot do all that He can do; but the argument is sophistical; it is no contradiction to assert that God can realize whatever is possible, but that no number of actualized possibilities exhausts His power. Omnipotence is perfect power, free from all mere potentiality. Hence, although God does not bring into external being all that He is able to accomplish, His power must not be understood as passing through successive stages before its effect is accomplished. The activity of God is simple and eternal, without evolution or change. The transition from possibility to actuality or from act to potentiality, occurs only in creatures. When it is said that God can or could do a thing, the terms are not to be understood in the sense in which they are applied to created causes, but as conveying the idea of a Being possessed of infinite unchangeable power, the range of Whose activity is limited only by His sovereign Will\". \n\nSt. Thomas explains that:\n\"Power is predicated of God not as something really distinct from His knowledge and will, but as differing from them logically; inasmuch as power implies a notion of a principle putting into execution what the will commands, and what knowledge directs, which three things in God are identified. Or we may say, that the knowledge or will of God, according as it is the effective principle, has the notion of power contained in it. Hence the consideration of the knowledge and will of God precedes the consideration of His power, as the cause precedes the operation and effect.\" \n\nOmnipotence is all-sufficient power. The adaptation of means to ends in the universe does not argue, as J. S. Mill would have it, that the power of the designer is limited, but only that God has willed to manifest His glory by a world so constituted rather than by another. Indeed, the production of secondary causes, capable of accomplishing certain effects, requires greater power than the direct accomplishment of these same effects. On the other hand, even though no creature existed, God's power would not be barren, for \"creatures are not an end to God.\" Regarding the Deity's power, medieval theologians contended that there are certain things that even an omnipotent deity cannot do. The statement \"a deity can do anything\" is only sensible with an assumed suppressed clause, \"that implies the perfection of true power\". This standard scholastic answer allows that acts of creatures such as walking can be performed by humans but not by a deity. Rather than an advantage in power, human acts such as walking, sitting, or giving birth were possible only because of a defect in human power. The capacity to sin, for example, is not a power but a defect or infirmity. In response to questions of a deity performing impossibilities, e.g. making square circles, St. Thomas says that \"everything that does not imply a contradiction in terms, is numbered amongst those possible things, in respect of which God is called omnipotent: whereas whatever implies contradiction does not come within the scope of divine omnipotence, because it cannot have the aspect of possibility. Hence it is better to say that such things cannot be done, than that God cannot do them. Nor is this contrary to the word of the angel, saying: 'No word shall be impossible with God.' For whatever implies a contradiction cannot be a word, because no intellect can possibly conceive such a thing.\"\n\nIn recent times, C. S. Lewis has adopted a scholastic position in the course of his work The Problem of Pain. Lewis follows Aquinas' view on contradiction:\n\nIn psychology\n\nEarly Freudianism saw a feeling of omnipotence as intrinsic to early childhood. 'As Freud and Ferenczi have shown, the child lives in a sort of megalomania for a long period...the \"fiction of omnipotence\"'. At birth. 'the baby is everything as far as he knows - \"all powerful\"...every step he takes towards establishing his own limits and boundaries will be painful because he'll have to lose this original God-like feeling of omnipotence'. \n\nFreud considered that in a neurotic 'the omnipotence which he ascribed to his thoughts and feelings...is a frank acknowledgement of a relic of the old megalomania of infancy'. In some narcissists, the 'period of primary narcissism which subjectively did not need any objects and was entirely independent...may be retained or regressively regained...\"omnipotent\" behavior'. \n\nD. W. Winnicott took a more positive view of a belief in early omnipotence, seeing it as essential to the child's well-being; and \"good-enough\" mothering as essential to enable the child to 'cope with the immense shock of loss of omnipotence' - as opposed to whatever 'prematurely forces it out of its narcissistic universe'. \n\nRejection or limitation\n\nSome monotheists reject the view that a deity is or could be omnipotent, or take the view that, by choosing to create creatures with freewill, a deity has chosen to limit divine omnipotence. In Conservative and Reform Judaism, and some movements within Protestant Christianity, including open theism, deities are said to act in the world through persuasion, and not by coercion (this is a matter of choice—a deity could act miraculously, and perhaps on occasion does so—while for process theism it is a matter of necessity—creatures have inherent powers that a deity cannot, even in principle, override). Deities are manifested in the world through inspiration and the creation of possibility, not necessarily by miracles or violations of the laws of nature.\n\nThe rejection of omnipotence often follows from either philosophical or scriptural considerations, discussed below.\n\nPhilosophical grounds\n\nProcess theology rejects unlimited omnipotence on a philosophical basis, arguing that omnipotence as classically understood would be less than perfect, and is therefore incompatible with the idea of a perfect deity. The idea is grounded in Plato's oft-overlooked statement that \"being is power.\"\n\nFrom this premise, Charles Hartshorne argues further that:\n\nThe argument can be stated as follows:\n1) If a being exists, then it must have some active tendency.\n2) If a being has some active tendency, then it has some power to resist its creator.\n3) If a being has the power to resist its creator, then the creator does not have absolute power.\n\nFor example, though someone might control a lump of jelly-pudding almost completely, the inability of that pudding to stage any resistance renders that person's power rather unimpressive. Power can only be said to be great if it is over something that has defenses and its own agenda. If a deity's power is to be great, it must therefore be over beings that have at least some of their own defenses and agenda. Thus, if a deity does not have absolute power, it must therefore embody some of the characteristics of power, and some of the characteristics of persuasion. This view is known as dipolar theism.\n\nThe most popular works espousing this point are from Harold Kushner (in Judaism). The need for a modified view of omnipotence was also articulated by Alfred North Whitehead in the early 20th century and expanded upon by the aforementioned philosopher Charles Hartshorne. Hartshorne proceeded within the context of the theological system known as process theology.\n\nScriptural grounds\n\nIn the Authorized King James Version of the Bible, as well as several other versions, in Revelation 19:6 it is stated \"...the Lord God omnipotent reigneth\" (the original Greek word is παντοκράτωρ, \"all-mighty\"). Although much of the narrative of the Old Testament describes the Judeo-Christian God as interacting with creation primarily through persuasion, and only occasionally through force. However, it could further be argued that the ability to conflict with truth is not an appropriate representation of accepted definitions of power, which negates the assertion that a deity does not have infinite powers.\n\nMany other verses in the Christian Bible do assert omnipotence of its deity without actually using the word itself. There are several mentions of the Christian deity being referred to as simply \"Almighty\", showing that the Christian Bible supports the belief of an omnipotent deity. Some such verses are listed below:\n\nPsalms 33:8-9: Let all the earth fear the LORD: let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him. For he spoke, and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast.\n\nGenesis 17:1: And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the LORD appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect. (The Hebrew word used here is \"shadday\") \n\nJeremiah 32:27: Behold, I am the LORD, the God of all flesh: is there any thing too hard for me?\n\nAt his command a storm arose and covered the sea. (Psalm 107:25)\n\nSeveral parts of the New Testament claim Jesus to be one with the Father, who is omnipotent, and others show Jesus to have some separation from the Father and even self-imposed limitations on his power. (Gospel of John)\n\nParadoxes\n\nA classical example goes as follows:\n\"Can a deity create a rock so heavy that even the deity itself cannot lift it? If so, then the rock is now unliftable, limiting the deity's power. But if not, then the deity is still not omnipotent because it cannot create that rock.\" \n\nAugustine, in his City of God, argued, instead, that God could not do anything that would make God non-omnipotent:\n\nFor He is called omnipotent on account of His doing what He wills, not on account of His suffering what He wills not; for if that should befall Him, He would by no means be omnipotent. Wherefore, He cannot do some things for the very reason that He is omnipotent. \n\nUncertainty and other views\n\nAll the above stated claims of power are each based on scriptual grounds and upon empirical human perception. This perception is limited to our senses. The power of a deity is related to its existence.There are however other ways of perception like: reason, intuition, revelation, divine inspiration, religious experience, mystical states, and historical testimony.\n\nAccording to the Hindu philosophy the essence of God or Brahman can never be understood or known since Brahman is beyond both existence and non-existence, transcending and including time, causation and space, and thus can never be known in the same material sense as one traditionally 'understands' a given concept or object. \n\nSo presuming there is a god-like entity consciently taking actions, we cannot comprehend the limits of a deity's powers. \n\nSince the current laws of physics are only known to be valid in this universe, it is possible that the laws of physics are different in parallel universes, giving a God-like entity more power. If the number of universes is unlimited, then the power of a certain God-like entity is also unlimited, since the laws of physics may be different in other universes, and accordingly making this entity omnipotent. Unfortunately concerning a multiverse there is a lack of empirical correlation. To the extreme there are theories about realms beyond this multiverse (Nirvana, Chaos, Nothingness).\n\nAlso trying to develop a theory to explain, assign or reject omnipotence on grounds of logic has little merit, since being omnipotent, in a Cartesian sense, would mean the omnipotent being is above logic. A view supported by René Descartes He issues this idea in his Meditations on First Philosophy. This view is called universal possibilism. \n\nAllowing assumption that a deity exists, further debate may be provoked that said deity is consciously taking actions. It could be concluded from an emanationism point of view, that all actions and creations by a deity are simply flows of divine energy (the flowing Tao in conjunction with qi is often seen as a river; Dharma (Buddhism) the law of nature discovered by Buddha has no beginning or end.)\nPantheism and pandeism see the universe/multiverse itself as God (or, at least, the current state of God), while panentheism sees the universe/multiverse as 'the body of God', making 'God' everybody and everything. So if one does something, actually 'God' is doing it. We are 'God's' means according to this view.\n\nIn the Taoist religious or philosophical tradition, the Tao is in some ways equivalent to a deity or the logos. The Tao is understood to have inexhaustible power, yet that power is simply another aspect of its weakness.", "Omniscience, mainly in religion, is the capacity to know everything that there is to know. In particular, Dharmic religions (Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism and Sikhism) and the Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam) believe that there is a divine being who is omniscient. An omniscient point-of-view, in writing, is to know everything that can be known about a character, including past history, thoughts, feelings, etc. In Latin, omnis means \"all\" and science means \"knowing\".\n\nDefinitions\n\nThere is a distinction between:\n* inherent omniscience - the ability to know anything that one chooses to know and can be known.\n* total omniscience - actually knowing everything that can be known.\nSome modern Christian theologians argue that God's omniscience is inherent rather than total, and that God chooses to limit his omniscience in order to preserve the freewill and dignity of his creatures. John Calvin, among other theologians of the 16th century, comfortable with the definition of God as being omniscient in the total sense, in order for worthy beings' abilities to choose freely, embraced the doctrine of predestination.\n\nJain view\n\nIn Jainism, omniscience is considered the highest type of perception. In the words of a Jain scholar, Jainism view infinite knowledge as an inherent capability of every soul. Arihanta is the word used by Jains to refer to those human beings who have conquered all inner passions (like attachment, greed, pride, anger) and possess Kevala Jnana (infinite knowledge). They are said to be of two kinds-\n#Sāmānya kevali- Omniscient beings (Kevalins) who are concerned with their own liberation.\n#Tirthankara kevali- Human beings who attain omniscience and then help others to achieve the same.\n\nControversies\n\nOmnipotence (unlimited power) is sometimes understood to also imply the capacity to know everything that will be.\n\nNontheism often claims that the very concept of omniscience is inherently contradictory.\n\nWhether omniscience, particularly regarding the choices that a human will make, is compatible with free will has been debated by theists and philosophers. The argument that divine foreknowledge is not compatible with free will is known as theological fatalism. Generally, if humans are truly free to choose between different alternatives, it is very difficult to understand how God could know what this choice will be. \n\nGod created knowledge\n\nSome theists argue that God created all knowledge and has ready access thereto. This statement invokes a circular time contradiction: presupposing the existence of God, before knowledge existed, there was no knowledge at all, which means that God was unable to possess knowledge prior to its creation. Alternately if knowledge was not a \"creation\" but merely existed in God's mind for all time there would be no contradiction. In Thomistic thought, which holds God to exist outside of time due to his ability to perceive everything at once, everything which God knows in his mind already exists. Hence, God would know of nothing that was not in existence (or else it would exist), and God would also know everything that was in existence (or else it would not exist), and God would possess this knowledge of what did exist and what did not exist at any point in the history of time.\n\nThe circular time contradiction can suppose anything concerning God, such as the creation of life, meaning before God created life, he wasn't alive. Moreover, to assume any more attributes, to then say God is merciful, but before the creation of mercy, he wouldn't have been merciful, and before the creation of the concept of negation (meaning to assume something as not), no one would have any concept of what is not. These apparent contradictions, however, presuppose that such attributes are separately defined and detached from God, which is not necessarily so. It is not a given that attributes which can be assigned to or used to describe mankind, can be equally (or even similarly) ascribed to God. Take good and evil for example: goodness is biblically defined as that which is of God; it is intrinsic to his being and is revealed most prominently through his provision of Old Testament Law, the keeping of which is the very definition of goodness and the neglecting of which (on even the slightest of grounds), is the epitome of evil. A similar argument could be laid down concerning God's omniscience (i.e. knowledge). It even eludes the idea a lot more even to assume the concept of \"nothing\" or negation was created, therefore it is seemingly impossible to conceive such a notion where it draws down to a paradox. Assuming that the creator and creation is separate, and not the same one thing, or process. That it is a \"this or that\" notion, instead of a \"this and that\" idea.\n\nTo assume that knowledge in Plato's sense as described to be a belief that's true, it then means that before everything came into being, it was all to be conceived as total imagination by God until the set of truth.\nOne verse \"God created man in his own Image\" states that God imagined the form of humans, taking image as a root word for imagine, mistakenly understood as man to look like God. [this verse from Genesis 1 is in the Hebrew Scriptures. The word 'Image' is translated from two Hebrew words 'demuth' - likeness or similitude and 'tselem'- an obscure word which translates as image or idol. It is difficult, therefore to make a case for the author's reading of this verse to mean 'God imagined the form of humans'. Or that 'God is imagined in the form of humans'.\n\nThe above definitions of omniscience cover what is called propositional knowledge (knowing that), as opposed to experiential knowledge (knowing how).\nThat some entity is omniscient in the sense of possessing all possible propositional knowledge does not imply that it also possesses all possible experiential knowledge.\nOpinions differ as to whether the propositionally omniscient God of the theists is able to possess all experiential knowledge as well. But it seems at least obvious that a divine infinite being conceived of as necessary infinitely knowledgeable would also know how, for example, a finite person (man) dying feels as He (God) would have access to all knowledge including the obvious experiences of the dying human. There is a third type of knowledge: practical or procedural knowledge (knowing how to do). If omniscience is taken to be all knowledge then all knowledge of all types would be fully known and comprehended.\n\nOmniscience vs free will\n\nA question arises: an omniscient entity knows everything even about his/her/its own decisions in the future, does it therefore forbid any free will to that entity? William Lane Craig states that the question subdivides into two: (1) If God foreknows the occurrence of some event E, does E happen necessarily?, and (2) If some event E is contingent, how can God foreknow E’s occurrence? \n\nSee : Determinism, Freewill and argument from free will\n\nNon-theological uses\n\nThe field of literary analysis and criticism can discuss omniscience in the point of view of a narrator. An omniscient narrator, almost always a third-person narrator, can reveal insights into characters and settings that would not be otherwise apparent from the events of the story and which no single character could be aware of.\n\nA collection of surveillance techniques which together contribute to much disparate knowledge about the movements, actions, conversation, appearance, etc. of an individual (or organisation) is sometimes called omniscient technology.\n\nThe word \"omniscient\" characterizes a fictional character in the Devin Townsend album \"Ziltoid the Omniscient\".\n\nOmniscience in Buddhism \n\nThe topic of omniscience has been much debated in various Indian traditions, but no more so than by the Buddhists. After Dharmakirti's excursions into the subject of what constitutes a valid cognition, Śāntarakṣita and his student Kamalaśīla thoroughly investigated the subject in the Tattvasamgraha and its commentary the Panjika. The arguments in the text can be broadly grouped into four sections:\n* The refutation that cognitions, either perceived, inferred, or otherwise, can be used to refute omniscience.\n* A demonstration of the possibility of omniscience through apprehending the selfless universal nature of all knowables, by examining what it means to be ignorant and the nature of mind and awareness.\n* A demonstration of the total omniscience where all individual characteristics (svalaksana) are available to the omniscient being.\n* The specific demonstration of Shakyamuni Buddha's non-exclusive omniscience." ] }

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{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe", "TagMe" ], "filename": [ "Boll_weevil.txt", "Beetle.txt" ], "title": [ "Boll weevil", "Beetle" ], "wiki_context": [ "The boll weevil (Anthonomus grandis) is a beetle which feeds on cotton buds and flowers. Thought to be native to Central America, it migrated into the United States from Mexico in the late 19th century and had infested all U.S. cotton-growing areas by the 1920s, devastating the industry and the people working in the American South. During the late 20th century, it became a serious pest in South America as well. Since 1978, the Boll Weevil Eradication Program in the U.S. allowed full-scale cultivation to resume in many regions.\n\nLifecycle\n\nAdult weevils overwinter in well-drained areas in or near cotton fields after diapause. They emerge and enter cotton fields from early spring through midsummer, with peak emergence in late spring, and feed on immature cotton bolls. The female lays about 200 eggs over a 10- to 12-day period. The oviposition leaves wounds on the exterior of the flower bud. The eggs hatch in 3 to 5 days within the cotton squares (larger buds before flowering), feed for 8 to 10 days, and finally pupate. The pupal stage lasts another 5 to 7 days. The lifecycle from egg to adult spans about three weeks during the summer. Under optimal conditions, 8 to 10 generations per season may occur.\n\nBoll weevils begin to die at temperatures at or below −5 °C (23 °F). Research at the University of Missouri indicates they cannot survive more than an hour at −15 °C (5 °F). The insulation offered by leaf litter, crop residues, and snow may enable the beetle to survive when air temperatures drop to these levels. The boll weevil lays its eggs inside buds and ripening bolls (fruits) of the cotton plants. The adult insect has a long snout, is grayish color, and is usually less than 6 mm long.\n\nOther limitations on boll weevil populations include extreme heat and drought. Its natural predators include fire ants, insects, spiders, birds, and a parasitic wasp, Catolaccus grandis. The insects sometimes emerge from diapause before cotton buds are available.\n\nInfestation\n\nThe insect crossed the Rio Grande near Brownsville, Texas, to enter the United States from Mexico in 1892 and reached southeastern Alabama in 1909. By the mid-1920s, it had entered all cotton-growing regions in the U.S., travelling 40 to 160 miles per year. It remains the most destructive cotton pest in North America. Since the boll weevil entered the United States, it has cost U.S. cotton producers about $13 billion, and in recent times about $300 million per year. \n\nThe boll weevil contributed to the economic woes of Southern farmers during the 1920s, a situation exacerbated by the Great Depression in the 1930s.\n\nThe boll weevil appeared in Venezuela in 1949 and in Colombia in 1950. The Amazon Rainforest was thought to present a barrier to its further spread, but it was detected in Brazil in 1983, and an estimated 90% of the cotton farms in Brazil are now infested. During the 1990s, the weevil spread to Paraguay and Argentina. The International Cotton Advisory Committee has proposed a control program similar to that used in the U.S.\n\nControl\n\nFollowing World War II, the development of new pesticides such as DDT enabled U.S. farmers again to grow cotton as an economic crop. DDT was initially extremely effective, but U.S. weevil populations developed resistance by the mid-1950s. Methyl parathion, malathion, and pyrethroids were subsequently used, but environmental and resistance concerns arose as they had with DDT, and control strategies changed.\n\nWhile many control methods have been investigated since the boll weevil entered the United States, insecticides have always remained the main control methods. In the 1980s, entomologists at Texas A&M University pointed to the spread of another invasive pest, the red imported fire ant, as a factor in the weevils' population decline in some areas. \n\nOther avenues of control that have been explored include weevil-resistant strains of cotton, the parasitic wasp Catolaccus grandis, the fungus Beauveria bassiana, and the Chilo iridescent virus. Genetically engineered Bt cotton is not protected from the boll weevil. \n\nAlthough it was possible to control the boll weevil, to do so was costly in terms of insecticide costs. The goal of many cotton entomologists was to eventually eradicate the pest from U. S. cotton. In 1978, a large-scale test was begun in eastern North Carolina and in Southampton County, Virginia, to determine the feasibility of eradication. Based on the success of this test, area-wide programs were begun in the 1980s to eradicate the insect from whole regions. These are based on cooperative effort by all growers together with the assistance of the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service of the United States Department of Agriculture(USDA).\n\nThe program has been successful in eradicating boll weevils from all cotton-growing states with the exception of Texas, and most of this state is free of boll weevils. Problems along the southern border with Mexico have delayed eradication in the extreme southern portions of this state. Follow-up programs are in place in all cotton-growing states to prevent the reintroduction of the pest. These monitoring programs rely on pheromone-baited traps for detection. The boll weevil eradication program, although slow and costly, has paid off for cotton growers in reduced pesticide costs. This program and the screwworm program of the 1950s are among the biggest and most successful insect control programs in history.\n\nImpact\n\nThe Library of Congress American Memory Project contains a number of oral history materials on the boll weevil's impact. \n\nThe boll weevil infestation has been credited with bringing about economic diversification in the Southern US, including the expansion of peanut cropping. The citizens of Enterprise, Alabama, erected the Boll Weevil Monument in 1919, perceiving that their economy had been overly dependent on cotton, and that mixed farming and manufacturing were better alternatives.\n\nThe boll weevil is the mascot for the University of Arkansas at Monticello and is listed on several \"silliest\" or \"weirdest\" mascots of all time. It was also the mascot of a short-lived minor league baseball team, the Temple Boll Weevils, which were alternatively called the \"Cotton Bugs.\"", "Beetles are a group of insects that form the order Coleoptera. The word \"coleoptera\" is from the Greek , koleos, meaning \"sheath\"; and , pteron, meaning \"wing\", thus \"sheathed wing\", because most beetles have two pairs of wings, the front pair, the \"elytra\", being hardened and thickened into a shell-like protection for the rear pair and the beetle's abdomen. The order contains more species than any other order, constituting almost 25% of all known life-forms. About 40% of all described insect species are beetles (about 400,000 species), and new species are discovered frequently. The largest taxonomic family, the Curculionidae (the weevils or snout beetles), also belongs to this order.\n\nThe diversity of beetles is very wide-ranging. They are found in almost all types of habitats, but are not known to occur in the sea or in the polar regions. They interact with their ecosystems in several ways. They often feed on plants and fungi, break down animal and plant debris, and eat other invertebrates. Some species are prey of various animals including birds and mammals. Certain species are agricultural pests, such as the Colorado potato beetle Leptinotarsa decemlineata, the boll weevil Anthonomus grandis, the red flour beetle Tribolium castaneum, and the mungbean or cowpea beetle Callosobruchus maculatus, while other species of beetles are important controls of agricultural pests. For example, beetles in the family Coccinellidae (\"ladybirds\" or \"ladybugs\") consume aphids, scale insects, thrips, and other plant-sucking insects that damage crops.\n\nSpecies in the order Coleoptera are generally characterized by a particularly hard exoskeleton and hard forewings (elytra, singular elytron). These elytra distinguish beetles from most other insect species, except for a few species of Hemiptera. The beetle's exoskeleton is made up of numerous plates called sclerites, separated by thin sutures. This design creates the armored defenses of the beetle while maintaining flexibility. The general anatomy of a beetle is quite uniform, although specific organs and appendages may vary greatly in appearance and function between the many families in the order. Like all insects, beetles' bodies are divided into three sections: the head, the thorax, and the abdomen. Coleopteran internal morphology is similar to other insects, although there are several examples of novelty. Such examples include species of water beetle which use air bubbles in order to dive under the water, and can remain submerged thanks to passive diffusion as oxygen moves from the water into the bubble.\n\nBeetles are endopterygotes, which means that they undergo complete metamorphosis, a biological process by which an animal physically develops after birth or hatching, undergoing a series of conspicuous and relatively abrupt change in their body structure. Coleopteran species have an extremely intricate behavior when mating, using such methods as pheromones for communication to locate potential mates. Males may fight for females using very elongated mandibles, causing a strong divergence between males and females in sexual dimorphism.\n\nEtymology\n\nColeoptera comes from the Greek koleopteros, literally \"sheath-wing\", from koleos meaning \"sheath\", and pteron, meaning \"wing\". The name was given to the group by Aristotle for their elytra, hardened shield-like forewings. The English name \"beetle\" comes from the Old English word bitela, literally meaning small biter, deriving from the word bitel, which means biting. This word is related to the word bītan (to bite) The name also derives from the Middle English word betylle from Old English bitula (also meaning to bite). Another Old English name for beetle is ceafor, chafer, used in names such as cockchafer, from the Proto-Germanic *kabraz- (compare German Käfer). These terms have been in use since the 12th century. In addition to names including the words \"beetle\" or \"chafer\", many groups of Coleoptera have common names such as fireflies, June bugs, ladybugs and weevils.\n\nTaxonomy\n\nThe Coleopterans include more species than any other order, constituting almost 25% of all known types of animal life forms.Powell (2009) About 450,000 species of beetles occur – representing about 40% of all known insects. Such a large number of species poses special problems for classification, with some families consisting of thousands of species and needing further division into subfamilies and tribes. This immense number of species allegedly led evolutionary biologist J. B. S. Haldane to quip, when some theologians asked him what could be inferred about the mind of the Creator from the works of His Creation, that God displayed \"an inordinate fondness for beetles\". \n\nPolyphaga is the largest suborder, containing more than 300,000 described species in more than 170 families, including rove beetles (Staphylinidae), scarab beetles (Scarabaeidae), blister beetles (Meloidae), stag beetles (Lucanidae) and true weevils (Curculionidae). These beetles can be identified by the presence of cervical sclerites (hardened parts of the head used as points of attachment for muscles) absent in the other suborders.\nThe suborder Adephaga contains about 10 families of largely predatory beetles, includes ground beetles (Carabidae), Dytiscidae and whirligig beetles (Gyrinidae). In these beetles, the testes are tubular and the first abdominal sternum (a plate of the exoskeleton) is divided by the hind coxae (the basal joints of the beetle's legs).\nArchostemata contains four families of mainly wood-eating beetles, including reticulated beetles (Cupedidae) and the telephone-pole beetle.\nMyxophaga contains about 100 described species in four families, mostly very small, including Hydroscaphidae and the genus Sphaerius.\n\nEvolution\n\nThe oldest known insect that unequivocally resembles species of Coleoptera date back to the Lower Permian (270 mya), though it instead has 13-segmented antennae, elytra with more fully developed venation and more irregular longitudinal ribbing, and an abdomen and ovipositor extending beyond the apex of the elytra. At the end of the Permian, the biggest mass extinction in history took place, collectively called the Permian–Triassic extinction event (P-Tr): 30% of all insect species became extinct; however, it is the only mass extinction of insects in Earth's history until today.\n\nDue to the P-Tr extinction, the fossil record of insects only includes beetles from the Lower Triassic (). Around this time, during the Late Triassic, mycetophagous, or fungus-feeding species (e.g. Cupedidae) appear in the fossil record. In the stages of the Upper Triassic, representatives of the algophagous, or algae-feeding species (e.g. Triaplidae and Hydrophilidae) begin to appear, as well as predatory water beetles. The first primitive weevils appear (e.g. Obrienidae), as well as the first representatives of the rove beetles (e.g. Staphylinidae), which show no marked difference in morphology compared to recent species.\n\nDuring the Jurassic (), a dramatic increase in the known diversity of family-level Coleoptera occurred, including the development and growth of carnivorous and herbivorous species. Species of the superfamily Chrysomeloidea are believed to have developed around the same time, which include a wide array of plant hosts ranging from cycads and conifers, to angiosperms. Close to the Upper Jurassic, the portion of the Cupedidae decreased, but at the same time the diversity of the early plant-eating, or phytophagous species increased. Most of the recent phytophagous species of Coleoptera feed on flowering plants or angiosperms. The increase in diversity of the angiosperms is also believed to have influenced the diversity of the phytophagous species, which doubled during the Middle Jurassic. However, doubts have been raised recently, since the increase of the number of beetle families during the Cretaceous does not correlate with the increase of the number of angiosperm species. Also around the same time, numerous primitive weevils (e.g. Curculionoidea) and click beetles (e.g. Elateroidea) appeared. Also, the first jewel beetles (e.g. Buprestidae) are present, but they were rather rare until the Cretaceous. The first scarab beetles appeared around this time, but they were not coprophagous (feeding upon fecal matter), instead presumably feeding upon the rotting wood with the help of fungus; they are an early example of a mutualistic relationship.\n\nThe Cretaceous included the initiation of the most recent round of southern landmass fragmentation, via the opening of the southern Atlantic ocean and the isolation of New Zealand, while South America, Antarctica, and Australia grew more distant. During the Cretaceous, the diversity of Cupedidae and Archostemata decreased considerably. Predatory ground beetles (Carabidae) and rove beetles (Staphylinidae) began to distribute into different patterns; whereas the Carabidae predominantly occurred in the warm regions, the Staphylinidae and click beetles (Elateridae) preferred many areas with temperate climates. Likewise, predatory species of Cleroidea and Cucujoidea hunted their prey under the bark of trees together with the jewel beetles (Buprestidae). The jewel beetles' diversity increased rapidly during the Cretaceous, as they were the primary consumers of wood, while longhorn beetles (Cerambycidae) were rather rare, and their diversity increased only towards the end of the Upper Cretaceous. The first coprophagous beetles have been recorded from the Upper Cretaceous, and are believed to have lived on the excrement of herbivorous dinosaurs, but discussion is still ongoing as to whether the beetles were always tied to mammals during their development. Also, the first species with an adaption of both larvae and adults to the aquatic lifestyle are found. Whirligig beetles (Gyrinidae) were moderately diverse, although other early beetles (e.g. Dytiscidae) were less, with the most widespread being the species of Coptoclavidae, which preyed on aquatic fly larvae.\n\nBetween the Paleogene and the Neogene is when today's beetles developed. During this time, the continents began to be located closer to where they are today. Around , the land bridge between South America and North America was formed, and the fauna exchange between Asia and North America started. Though many recent genera and species already existed during the Miocene, their distribution differed considerably from today's.\n\nFossil record\n\nA 2007 study based on DNA of living beetles and maps of likely beetle evolution indicated beetles may have originated during the Lower Permian, up to 285 million years ago. In 2009, a fossil beetle was described from the Pennsylvanian of Mazon Creek, Illinois, pushing the origin of the beetles to an earlier date, . Fossils from this time have been found in Asia and Europe, for instance in the red slate fossil beds of Niedermoschel near Mainz, Germany. Further fossils have been found in Obora, Czech Republic and Tshekarda in the Ural mountains, Russia. However, there are only a few fossils from North America before the middle Permian, although both Asia and North America had been united to Euramerica. The first discoveries from North America made in the Wellington formation of Oklahoma were published in 2005 and 2008. \n\nAs a consequence of the Permian–Triassic extinction event, the fossil record of insects is scant, including beetles from the Lower Triassic. However, a few exceptions are noted, as in Eastern Europe; at the Babiy Kamen site in the Kuznetsk Basin, numerous beetle fossils were discovered, even entire specimen of the infraorders Archostemata (e.g. Ademosynidae, Schizocoleidae), Adephaga (e.., Triaplidae, Trachypachidae) and Polyphaga (e.g. Hydrophilidae, Byrrhidae, Elateroidea) and in nearly a perfectly preserved condition. However, species from the families Cupedidae and Schizophoroidae are not present at this site, whereas they dominate at other fossil sites from the Lower Triassic. Further records are known from Khey-Yaga, Russia, in the Korotaikha Basin. There are many important sites from the Jurassic, with more than 150 important sites with beetle fossils, the majority being situated in Eastern Europe and North Asia. In North America and especially in South America and Africa, the number of sites from that time period is smaller, and the sites have not been exhaustively investigated yet. Outstanding fossil sites include Solnhofen in Upper Bavaria, Germany, Karatau in South Kazakhstan, the Yixian formation in Liaoning, North China, as well as the Jiulongshan formation and further fossil sites in Mongolia. In North America there are only a few sites with fossil records of insects from the Jurassic, namely the shell limestone deposits in the Hartford basin, the Deerfield basin and the Newark basin. \n\nA large number of important fossil sites worldwide contain beetles from the Cretaceous. Most are located in Europe and Asia and belong to the temperate climate zone during the Cretaceous. A few of the fossil sites mentioned in the chapter Jurassic also shed some light on the early Cretaceous beetle fauna (for example, the Yixian formation in Liaoning, North China). Further important sites from the Lower Cretaceous include the Crato fossil beds in the Araripe basin in the Ceará, North Brazil, as well as overlying Santana formation, with the latter was situated near the paleoequator, or the position of the earth's equator in the geologic past as defined for a specific geologic period. In Spain, important sites are located near Montsec and Las Hoyas. In Australia, the Koonwarra fossil beds of the Korumburra group, South Gippsland, Victoria, are noteworthy. Important fossil sites from the Upper Cretaceous include Kzyl-Dzhar in South Kazakhstan and Arkagala in Russia.\n\nPhylogeny\n\nThe superficial consistency of most beetles' morphology, in particular their possession of elytra, has long suggested that Coleoptera is a monophyletic group. Growing evidence indicates this is unjustified, there being arguments for example, in favor of allocating the current suborder Adephaga their own order, or very likely even more than one. The suborders diverged in the Permian and Triassic. Their phylogenetic relationship is uncertain, with the most popular hypothesis being that Polyphaga and Myxophaga are most closely related, with Adephaga as the sister group to those two, and Archostemata as sister to the other three collectively. Although six other competing hypotheses are noted, the other most widely discussed one has Myxophaga as the sister group of all remaining beetles rather than just of Polyphaga. Evidence for a close relationship of the two suborders, Polyphaga and Myxophaga, includes the shared reduction in the number of larval leg articles. Adephaga is further considered as sister to Myxophaga and Polyphaga, based on their completely sclerotized elytra, reduced number of crossveins in the hind wings, and the folded (as opposed to rolled) hind wings of those three suborders.\n\nRecent cladistic analysis of some of the structural characteristics supports the Polyphaga and Myxophaga hypothesis. The membership of the clade Coleoptera is not in dispute, with the exception of the twisted-wing parasites, Strepsiptera. These odd insects have been regarded as related to the beetle families Rhipiphoridae and Meloidae, with which they share first-instar larvae that are active, host-seeking triungulins and later-instar larvae that are endoparasites of other insects, or the sister group of beetles, or more distantly related to insects. Recent molecular genetic analysis strongly supports the hypothesis that Strepsiptera is the sister group to beetles. \n\nDistribution and diversity\n\nBeetles are by far the largest order of insects, with 350,000–400,000 species in four suborders (Adephaga, Archostemata, Myxophaga, and Polyphaga), making up about 40% of all insect species described, and about 30% of all animals. Though classification at the family level is a bit unstable, about 500 families and subfamilies are recognized. One of the first proposed estimates of the total number of beetle species on the planet is based on field data rather than on catalog numbers. The technique used for this original estimate, possibly as many as 12 million species, was criticized, and was later revised, with estimates of 850,000–4,000,000 species proposed. Some 70–95% of all beetle species, depending on the estimate, remain undescribed. The beetle fauna is not equally well known in all parts of the world. For example, the known beetle diversity of Australia is estimated at 23,000 species in 3265 genera and 121 families. This is slightly lower than reported for North America, a land mass of similar size with 25,160 species in 3526 genera and 129 families. While other predictions show there could be as many as 28,000 species in North America, including those currently undescribed, a realistic estimate of the little-studied Australian beetle fauna's true diversity could vary from 80,000 to 100,000. \n\nColeoptera are found in nearly all natural habitats, including freshwater and marine habitats, everywhere vegetative foliage is found, from trees and their bark to flowers, leaves, and underground near roots- even inside plants in galls, in every plant tissue, including dead or decaying ones. \n\nExternal morphology\n\nBeetles are generally characterized by a particularly hard exoskeleton and hard forewings (elytra). The beetle's exoskeleton is made up of numerous plates, called sclerites, separated by thin sutures. This design provides armored defenses while maintaining flexibility. The general anatomy of a beetle is quite uniform, although specific organs and appendages may vary greatly in appearance and function between the many families in the order. Like all insects, beetles' bodies are divided into three sections: the head, the thorax, and the abdomen.\n\nHead\n\nThe head, having mouthparts projecting forward or sometimes downturned, is usually heavily sclerotized and varies in size. The eyes are compound and may display remarkable adaptability, as in the case of whirligig beetles (family Gyrinidae), where they are split to allow a view both above and below the waterline. Other species also have divided eyes – some longhorn beetles (family Cerambycidae) and weevils – while many have eyes that are notched to some degree. A few beetle genera also possess ocelli, which are small, simple eyes usually situated farther back on the head (on the vertex).\n\nBeetles' antennae are primarily organs of smell, but may also be used to feel a beetle's environment physically. They may also be used in some families during mating, or among a few beetle species for defence. Antennae vary greatly in form within the Coleoptera, but are often similar within any given family. Males and females sometimes have different antennal forms. Antennae may be clavate (flabellate and lamellate are subforms of clavate, or clubbed antennae), filiform, geniculate, moniliform, pectinate, or serrate.\n\nBeetles have mouthparts similar to those of grasshoppers. Of these parts, the most commonly known are probably the mandibles, which appear as large pincers on the front of some beetles. The mandibles are a pair of hard, often tooth-like structures that move horizontally to grasp, crush, or cut food or enemies (see defence, below). Two pairs of finger-like appendages, the maxillary and labial palpi, are found around the mouth in most beetles, serving to move food into the mouth. In many species, the mandibles are sexually dimorphic, with the males' enlarged enormously compared with those of females of the same species.\n\nThorax\n\nThe thorax is segmented into the two discernible parts, the pro- and pterathorax. The pterathorax is the fused meso- and metathorax, which are commonly separated in other insect species, although flexibly articulate from the prothorax. When viewed from below, the thorax is that part from which all three pairs of legs and both pairs of wings arise. The abdomen is everything posterior to the thorax. When viewed from above, most beetles appear to have three clear sections, but this is deceptive: on the beetle's upper surface, the middle \"section\" is a hard plate called the pronotum, which is only the front part of the thorax; the back part of the thorax is concealed by the beetle's wings. This further segmentation is usually best seen on the abdomen.\n\nExtremities\n\nThe multisegmented legs end in two to five small segments called tarsi. Like many other insect orders, beetles bear claws, usually one pair, on the end of the last tarsal segment of each leg. While most beetles use their legs for walking, legs may be variously modified and adapted for other uses. Among aquatic families – Dytiscidae, Haliplidae, many species of Hydrophilidae and others – the legs, most notably the last pair, are modified for swimming and often bear rows of long hairs to aid this purpose. Other beetles have fossorial legs that are widened and often spined for digging. Species with such adaptations are found among the scarabs, ground beetles, and clown beetles (family Histeridae). The hind legs of some beetles, such as flea beetles (within Chrysomelidae) and flea weevils (within Curculionidae), are enlarged and designed for jumping.\n\nWings\n\nThe elytra are connected to the pterathorax, so named because it is where the wings are connected (pteron meaning \"wing\" in Greek). The elytra are not used for flight, but tend to cover the hind part of the body and protect the second pair of wings (alae). They must be raised to move the hind flight wings. A beetle's flight wings are crossed with veins and are folded after landing, often along these veins, and stored below the elytra. A fold (jugum) of the membrane at the base of each wing is a characteristic feature. In some beetles, the ability to fly has been lost. These include some ground beetles (family Carabidae) and some \"true weevils\" (family Curculionidae), but also desert- and cave-dwelling species of other families. Many have the two elytra fused together, forming a solid shield over the abdomen. In a few families, both the ability to fly and the elytra have been lost, with the best known example being the glow-worms of the family Phengodidae, in which the females are larviform throughout their lives.\n\nAbdomen\n\nThe abdomen is the section behind the metathorax, made up of a series of rings, each with a hole for breathing and respiration, called a spiracle, composing three different segmented sclerites: the tergum, pleura, and the sternum. The tergum in almost all species is membranous, or usually soft and concealed by the wings and elytra when not in flight. The pleura are usually small or hidden in some species, with each pleuron having a single spiracle. The sternum is the most widely visible part of the abdomen, being a more or less sclerotized segment. The abdomen itself does not have any appendages, but some (for example, Mordellidae) have articulating sternal lobes. \n\nInternal morphology\n\nDigestive system\n\nThe digestive system of beetles is primarily based on plants, upon which they, for the most part, feed, with mostly the anterior midgut performing digestion, although in predatory species (for example Carabidae), most digestion occurs in the crop by means of midgut enzymes. In Elateridae species, the predatory larvae defecate enzymes on their prey, with digestion being extraorally. The alimentary canal basically consists of a short, narrow pharynx, a widened expansion, the crop, and a poorly developed gizzard. After is the midgut, that varies in dimensions between species, with a large amount of cecum, with a hindgut, with varying lengths. Typically, four to six Malpighian tubules occur.\n\nNervous system\n\nThe nervous system in beetles contains all the types found in insects, varying between different species, from three thoracic and seven or eight abdominal ganglia which can be distinguished to that in which all the thoracic and abdominal ganglia are fused to form a composite structure.\n\nRespiratory system\n\nLike most insects, beetles inhale oxygen and exhale carbon dioxide via a tracheal system. Air enters the body through spiracles, and circulates within the haemocoel in a system of tracheae and tracheoles, through the walls of which the relevant gases can diffuse appropriately.\n\nDiving beetles, such as the Dytiscidae, carry a bubble of air with them when they dive. Such a bubble may be contained under the elytra or against the body by specialized hydrophobic hairs. The bubble covers at least some of the spiracles, thereby permitting the oxygen to enter the tracheae.\n\nThe function of the bubble is not so much as to contain a store of air, but to act as a physical gill. The air that it traps is in contact with oxygenated water, so as the animal's consumption depletes the oxygen in the bubble, more oxygen can diffuse in to replenish it. Carbon dioxide is more soluble in water than either oxygen or nitrogen, so it readily diffuses out faster than in. Nitrogen is the most plentiful gas in the bubble, and the least soluble, so it constitutes a relatively static component of the bubble and acts as a stable medium for respiratory gases to accumulate in and pass through. Occasional visits to the surface are sufficient for the beetle to re-establish the constitution of the bubble. \n\nCirculatory system\n\nLike other insects, beetles have open circulatory systems, based on hemolymph rather than blood. Also as in other insects, a segmented tube-like heart is attached to the dorsal wall of the hemocoel. It has paired inlets or ostia at intervals down its length, and circulates the hemolymph from the main cavity of the haemocoel and out through the anterior cavity in the head.\n\nSpecialized organs\n\nDifferent glands specialize for different pheromones produced for finding mates. Pheromones from species of Rutelinea are produced from epithelial cells lining the inner surface of the apical abdominal segments; amino acid-based pheromones of Melolonthinae are produced from eversible glands on the abdominal apex. Other species produce different types of pheromones. Dermestids produce esters, and species of Elateridae produce fatty acid-derived aldehydes and acetates. For means of finding a mate also, fireflies (Lampyridae) use modified fat body cells with transparent surfaces backed with reflective uric acid crystals to biosynthetically produce light, or bioluminescence. The light produce is highly efficient, as it is produced by oxidation of luciferin by enzymes (luciferases) in the presence of adenosine triphosphate (ATP) and oxygen, producing oxyluciferin, carbon dioxide, and light.\n\nA notable number of species have developed special glands to produce chemicals for deterring predators (see Defense and predation). The ground beetle's (of Carabidae) defensive glands, located at the posterior, produce a variety of hydrocarbons, aldehydes, phenols, quinones, esters, and acids released from an opening at the end of the abdomen. African carabid beetles (for example, Anthia and Thermophilum – Thermophilum generally included within Anthia) employ the same chemicals as ants: formic acid. Bombardier beetles have well-developed, like other carabid beetles, pygidial glands that empty from the lateral edges of the intersegment membranes between the seventh and eighth abdominal segments. The gland is made of two containing chambers. The first holds hydroquinones and hydrogen peroxide, with the second holding just hydrogen peroxide plus catalases. These chemicals mix and result in an explosive ejection, forming temperatures of around 100 C, with the breakdown of hydroquinone to H2 + O2 + quinone, with the O2 propelling the excretion.\n\nTympanal organs or hearing organs, which is a membrane (tympanum) stretched across a frame backed by an air sac and associated sensory neurons, are described in two families. Several species of the genus Cicindela (Cicindelidae) have ears on the dorsal surfaces of their first abdominal segments beneath the wings; two tribes in the subfamily Dynastinae (Scarabaeidae) have ears just beneath their pronotal shields or neck membranes. The ears of both families are sensitive to ultrasonic frequencies, with strong evidence indicating they function to detect the presence of bats by their ultrasonic echolocation. Though beetles constitute a large order and live in a variety of niches, examples of hearing are surprisingly lacking amongst species, though likely most simply remain undiscovered.\n\nReproduction and development\n\nBeetles are members of the superorder Endopterygota, and accordingly most of them undergo complete metamorphosis. The typical form of metamorphosis in beetles passes through four main stages: the egg, the larva, the pupa, and the imago or adult. The larvae are commonly called grubs and the pupa sometimes is called the chrysalis. In some species, the pupa may be enclosed in a cocoon constructed by the larva towards the end of its final instar. Going beyond \"complete metamorphosis\", however, some beetles, such as typical members of the families Meloidae and Rhipiphoridae, undergo hypermetamorphosis in which the first instar takes the form of a triungulin.\n\nMating\n\nBeetles may display extremely intricate behavior when mating. Pheromone communication is likely to be important in the location of a mate.\n\nDifferent species use different chemicals for their pheromones. Some scarab beetles (for example, Rutelinae) utilize pheromones derived from fatty acid synthesis, while other scarab beetles use amino acids and terpenoid compounds (for example, Melolonthinae). Another way species of Coleoptera find mates is the use of biosynthesized light, or bioluminescence. This special form of a mating call is confined to fireflies (Lampyridae) by the use of abdominal light-producing organs. The males and females engage in complex dialogue before mating, identifying different species by differences in duration, flight patterns, composition, and intensity.\n\nBefore mating, males and females may engage in various forms of behavior. They may stridulate, or vibrate the objects they are on. In some species (for example, Meloidae), the male climbs onto the dorsum of the female and strokes his antennae on her head, palps, and antennae. In the genus Eupompha of said family, the male draws the antennae along his longitudinal vertex. They may not mate at all if they do not perform the precopulatory ritual.\n\nConflict can play a part in the mating rituals of species such as burying beetles (genus Nicrophorus), where conflicts between males and females rage until only one of each is left, thus ensuring reproduction by the strongest and fittest. Many male beetles are territorial and fiercely defend their small patches of territory from intruding males. In such species, the male often has horns on the head or thorax, making its body length greater than that of a female. Pairing is generally quick, but in some cases lasts for several hours. During pairing, sperm cells are transferred to the female to fertilize the egg.\n\nLifecycle\n\nEgg\n\nA single female may lay from several dozen to several thousand eggs during her lifetime. Eggs are usually laid according to the substrate on which the larvae feed upon hatching. Among others, they can be laid loose in the substrate (for example, flour beetle), laid in clumps on leaves (for example, Colorado potato beetle), individually attached (for example, mungbean beetle and other seed borers), or buried in the medium (for example, carrot weevil).\n\nParental care varies between species, ranging from the simple laying of eggs under a leaf to certain scarab beetles, which construct underground structures complete with a supply of dung to house and feed their young. Other beetles are leaf rollers, biting sections of leaves to cause them to curl inwards, then laying their eggs, thus protected, inside.\n\nLarva\n\nThe larva is usually the principal feeding stage of the beetle lifecycle. Larvae tend to feed voraciously once they emerge from their eggs. Some feed externally on plants, such as those of certain leaf beetles, while others feed within their food sources. Examples of internal feeders are most Buprestidae and longhorn beetles. The larvae of many beetle families are predatory like the adults (ground beetles, ladybirds, rove beetles). The larval period varies between species, but can be as long as several years. The larvae are highly varied amongst species, with well-developed and sclerotized heads, and have distinguishable thoracic and abdominal segments (usually the tenth, though sometimes the eighth or ninth).\n\nBeetle larvae can be differentiated from other insect larvae by their hardened, often darkened heads, the presence of chewing mouthparts, and spiracles along the sides of their bodies. Like adult beetles, the larvae are varied in appearance, particularly between beetle families. Beetles with somewhat flattened, highly mobile larvae include the ground beetles, some rove beetles, and others; their larvae are described as campodeiform. Some beetle larvae resemble hardened worms with dark head capsules and minute legs. These are elateriform larvae, and are found in the click beetle (Elateridae) and darkling beetle (Tenebrionidae) families. Some elateriform larvae of click beetles are known as wireworms. Beetles in the Scarabaeoidea have short, thick larvae described as scarabaeiform, more commonly known as grubs.\n\nAll beetle larvae go through several instars, which are the developmental stages between each moult. In many species, the larvae simply increase in size with each successive instar as more food is consumed. In some cases, however, more dramatic changes occur. Among certain beetle families or genera, particularly those that exhibit parasitic lifestyles, the first instar (the planidium) is highly mobile to search out a host, while the following instars are more sedentary and remain on or within their host. This is known as hypermetamorphosis; examples include the blister beetles (family Meloidae) and some rove beetles, particularly those of the genus Aleochara.\n\nPupa\n\nAs with all endopterygotes, beetle larvae pupate, and from these pupae emerge fully formed, sexually mature adult beetles, or imagos. Adults have extremely variable lifespans, from weeks to years, depending on the species. In some species, the pupa may go through all four forms during its development, called hypermetamorphosis (for example, Meloidae). Pupae always have no mandibles (are adecticous). In most, the appendages are not attached to the pupae; ones that do have appendages are mostly obtect, and the rest are exarate.\n\nBehavior\n\nLocomotion\n\nAquatic beetles use several techniques for retaining air beneath the water's surface. Beetles of the family Dytiscidae hold air between the abdomen and the elytra when diving. Hydrophilidae have hairs on their under surface that retain a layer of air against their bodies. Adult crawling water beetles use both their elytra and their hind coxae (the basal segment of the back legs) in air retention, while whirligig beetles simply carry an air bubble down with them whenever they dive.\n\nThe elytra allow beetles and weevils to both fly and move through confined spaces, doing so by folding the delicate wings under the elytra while not flying, and folding their wings out just before take off. The unfolding and folding of the wings is operated by muscles attached to the wing base; as long as the tension on the radial and cubital veins remains, the wings remain straight. In day-flying species (for example, Buprestidae, Scarabaeidae), flight does not include large amounts of lifting of the elytra, having the metathorac wings extended under the lateral elytra margins.\n\nCommunication\n\nBeetles have a variety of ways to communicate, some of which include a sophisticated chemical language through the use of pheromones. From the host tree, mountain pine beetles have many forms of communication. They can emit both an aggregative pheromone and an anti-aggregative pheromone. The aggregative pheromone attracts other beetles to the tree, and the anti-aggregative pheromone neutralizes the aggregative pheromone. This helps to avoid the harmful effects of having too many beetles on one tree competing for resources. The mountain pine beetle can also stridulate to communicate, or rub body parts together to create sound, having a \"scraper\" on their abdomens that they rub against a grooved surface on the underside of their left wing cover to create a sound that is not audible to humans. Once the female beetles have arrived on a suitable pine tree host, they begin to stridulate and produce aggregative pheromones to attract other unmated males and females. New females arrive and do the same as they land and bore into the tree. As the males arrive, they enter the galleries that the females have tunneled, and begin to stridulate to let the females know they have arrived, and to also warn others that the female in that gallery is taken. At this point, the female stops producing aggregative pheromones and starts producing anti-aggregative pheromone to deter more beetles from coming. \n\nSince species of Coleoptera use environmental stimuli to communicate, they are affected by the climate. Microclimates, such as wind or temperature, can disturb the use of pheromones; wind would blow the pheromones while they travel through the air. Stridulating can be interrupted when the stimulus is vibrated by something else.\n\nParental care\n\nAmong insects, parental care is very uncommon, only found in a few species. Some beetles also display this unique social behavior. One theory states parental care is necessary for the survival of the larvae, protecting them from adverse environmental conditions and predators. One species, a rover beetle (Bledius spectabilis) displays both causes for parental care: physical and biotic environmental factors. Said species lives in salt marshes, so the eggs and/or larvae are endangered by the rising tide. The maternal beetle patrols the eggs and larvae and applies the appropriate burrowing behavior to keep them from flooding and from asphyxiating. Another advantage is that the mother protects the eggs and larvae from the predatory carabid beetle Dicheirotrichus gustavi and from the parasitoid wasp Barycnemis blediator. Up to 15% of larvae are killed by this parasitoid wasp, being only protected by maternal beetles in their dens. \n\nSome species of dung beetle also display a form of parental care. Dung beetles collect animal feces, or \"dung\", from which their name is derived, and roll it into a ball, sometimes being up to 50 times their own weight; albeit sometimes it is also used to store food. Usually it is the male that rolls the ball, with the female hitch-hiking or simply following behind. In some cases the male and the female roll together. When a spot with soft soil is found, they stop and bury the dung ball. They then mate underground. After the mating, one or both of them prepares the brooding ball. When the ball is finished, the female lays eggs inside it, a form of mass provisioning. Some species do not leave after this stage, but remain to safeguard their offspring. \n\nFeeding\n\nBesides being abundant and varied, beetles are able to exploit the wide diversity of food sources available in their many habitats. Some are omnivores, eating both plants and animals. Other beetles are highly specialized in their diet. Many species of leaf beetles, longhorn beetles, and weevils are very host-specific, feeding on only a single species of plant. Ground beetles and rove beetles (family Staphylinidae), among others, are primarily carnivorous and catch and consume many other arthropods and small prey, such as earthworms and snails. While most predatory beetles are generalists, a few species have more specific prey requirements or preferences. \n\nDecaying organic matter is a primary diet for many species. This can range from dung, which is consumed by coprophagous species (such as certain scarab beetles of the family Scarabaeidae), to dead animals, which are eaten by necrophagous species (such as the carrion beetles of the family Silphidae). Some of the beetles found within dung and carrion are in fact predatory. These include the clown beetles, preying on the larvae of coprophagous and necrophagous insects.\n\nEcology\n\nDefense and predation\n\nBeetles and their larvae have a variety of strategies to avoid being attacked by predators or parasitoids. These include camouflage, mimicry, toxicity, and active defense. Camouflage involves the use of coloration or shape to blend into the surrounding environment. This sort of protective coloration is common and widespread among beetle families, especially those that feed on wood or vegetation, such as many of the leaf beetles (family Chrysomelidae) or weevils. In some of these species, sculpturing or various colored scales or hairs cause the beetle to resemble bird dung or other inedible objects. Many of those that live in sandy environments blend in with the coloration of the substrate. The giant African longhorn beetle (Petrognatha gigas) resembles the moss and bark of the tree it feeds on. Another defense that often uses color or shape to deceive potential enemies is mimicry. Some longhorn beetles (family Cerambycidae) bear a striking resemblance to wasps, which helps them avoid predation even though the beetles are in fact harmless. This defense is an example of Batesian mimicry and, together with other forms of mimicry and camouflage occurs widely in other beetle families, such as the Scarabaeidae. Beetles may combine their color mimicry with behavioral mimicry, acting like the wasps they already closely resemble. Many beetle species, including ladybirds, blister beetles, and lycid beetles can secrete distasteful or toxic substances to make them unpalatable or even poisonous. These same species are often aposematic, where bright or contrasting color patterns warn away potential predators; many beetles and other insects mimic these chemically protected species.\n\nChemical defense is another important defense found amongst species of Coleoptera, usually being advertised by bright colors. Others may utilize behaviors that would be done when releasing noxious chemicals (for example, Tenebrionidae). Chemical defense may serve purposes other than just protection from vertebrates, such as protection from a wide range of microbes, and repellents. Some species release chemicals in the form of a spray with surprising accuracy, such as ground beetles (Carabidae), may spray chemicals from their abdomen to repel predators. Some species take advantage of the plants from which they feed, and sequester the chemicals from the plant that would protect it and incorporate into their own defense. African carabid beetles (for example, Anthia and Thermophilum) employ the same chemicals used by ants, while bombardier beetles have a their own unique separate gland, spraying potential predators from far distances.\n\nLarge ground beetles and longhorn beetles may defend themselves using strong mandibles, spines or horns to forcibly persuade a predator to seek out easier prey. Many species such as the rhinoceros beetle have large protrusions from their thorax and head, which can be used to defend themselves from predators. Many species of weevil that feed out in the open on leaves of plants react to attack by employing a \"drop-off reflex\". Some combine it with thanatosis, in which they close up their appendages and \"play dead\". \n\nParasitism\n\nOver 1000 species of beetles are known to be either parasitic, predatory, or commensals in the nests of ants. \n\nA few species of beetles are actually ectoparasitic on mammals. One such species, Platypsyllus castoris, parasitises beavers (Castor spp.). This beetle lives as a parasite both as a larva and as an adult, feeding on epidermal tissue and possibly on skin secretions and wound exudates. They are strikingly flattened dorsoventrally, no doubt as an adaptation for slipping between the beavers' hairs. They also are wingless and eyeless, as are many other ectoparasites. \n\nOther parasitic beetles include those that are kleptoparasites of other invertebrates, such as the small hive beetle (Aethina tumida) that infests honey bee hives. The larvae tunnel through comb towards stored honey or pollen, damaging or destroying cappings and comb in the process. Larvae defecate in honey and the honey becomes discolored from the feces, which causes fermentation and a frothiness in the honey; the honey develops a characteristic odor of decaying oranges. Damage and fermentation cause honey to run out of combs, destroying large amounts of it both in hives and sometimes also in honey extracting rooms. Heavy infestations cause bees to abscond; though the beetle is only a minor pest in Africa, beekeepers in other regions have reported the rapid collapse of even strong colonies. \n\nPollination\n\nBeetle-pollinated flowers are usually large, greenish or off-white in color, and heavily scented. Scents may be spicy, fruity, or similar to decaying organic material. Most beetle-pollinated flowers are flattened or dish-shaped, with pollen easily accessible, although they may include traps to keep the beetle longer. The plants' ovaries are usually well protected from the biting mouthparts of their pollinators. Beetles may be particularly important in some parts of the world such as semiarid areas of southern Africa and southern California and the montane grasslands of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa. \n\nMutualism\n\nAmongst most orders of insects, mutualism is not common, but some examples occur in species of Coleoptera, such as the ambrosia beetle, the ambrosia fungus, and probably bacteria. The beetles excavate tunnels in dead trees in which they cultivate fungal gardens, their sole source of nutrition. After landing on a suitable tree, an ambrosia beetle excavates a tunnel in which it releases spores of its fungal symbiont. The fungus penetrates the plant's xylem tissue, digests it, and concentrates the nutrients on and near the surface of the beetle gallery, so the weevils and the fungus both benefit. The beetles cannot eat the wood due to toxins, and uses its relationship with fungi to help overcome its host tree defenses and to provide nutrition for their larvae. Chemically mediated by a bacterially produced polyunsaturated peroxide, this mutualistic relationship between the beetle and the fungus is coevolved. \n\nCommensalism\n\nPseudoscorpions are small arachnids with flat, pear-shaped bodies and pincers that resemble those of scorpions (only distant relatives), usually ranging from 2 to in length. Their small size allows them to hitch rides under the elytra of giant harlequin beetles to be dispersed over wide areas while simultaneously being protected from predators. They may also find mating partners as other individuals join them on the beetle. This would be a form of parasitism if the beetle were harmed in the process, but the beetle is, presumably, unaffected by the presence of the hitchhikers. \n\nEusociality\n\nAustroplatypus incompertus is eusocial, one of the few organisms outside Hymenoptera to do so, and the only species of Coleoptera. \n\nRelationship to humans\n\nAs pests\n\nAbout 75% of beetle species are phytophagous in both the larval and adult stages, and live in or on plants, wood, fungi, and a variety of stored products, including cereals, tobacco, and dried fruits. Because many of these plants are important for agriculture, forestry, and the household, beetles can be considered pests. Some of these species cause significant damage, such as the boll weevil, which feeds on cotton buds and flowers. The boll weevil crossed the Rio Grande near Brownsville, Texas, to enter the United States from Mexico around 1892, and had reached southeastern Alabama by 1915. By the mid-1920s, it had entered all cotton-growing regions in the US, traveling 40 to- per year. It remains the most destructive cotton pest in North America. Mississippi State University has estimated, since the boll weevil entered the United States, it has cost cotton producers about $13 billion, and in recent times about $300 million per year. Many other species also have done extensive damage to plant populations, such as the bark beetle, elm leaf beetle and Asian longhorned beetle. The bark beetle, elm leaf beetle and Asian longhorned beetle, among other species, have been known to nest in elm trees. Bark beetles in particular carry Dutch elm disease as they move from infected breeding sites to feed on healthy elm trees, which in turn allows the Asian longhorned beetle to continue killing more elms. The spread of Dutch elm disease by the beetle has led to the devastation of elm trees in many parts of the Northern Hemisphere, notably in Europe and North America. \n\nSituations in which a species has developed immunity to pesticides are worse, as in the case of the Colorado potato beetle, Leptinotarsa decemlineata, which is a notorious pest of potato plants. Crops are destroyed and the beetle can only be treated by employing expensive pesticides, to many of which it has begun to develop resistance. Suitable hosts can include a number of plants from the potato family (Solanaceae), such as nightshade, tomato, eggplant and capsicum, as well as potatoes. The Colorado potato beetle has developed resistance to all major insecticide classes, although not every population is resistant to every chemical. \n\nPests do not only affect agriculture, but can also even affect houses, such as the death watch beetle. The death watch beetle, Xestobium rufovillosum (family Anobiidae), is of considerable importance as a pest of older wooden buildings in Great Britain. It attacks hardwoods such as oak and chestnut, always where some fungal decay has taken or is taking place. The actual introduction of the pest into buildings is thought to take place at the time of construction. \n\nOther pest include the coconut hispine beetle, Brontispa longissima, which feeds on young leaves and damages seedlings and mature coconut palms. On September 27, 2007, Philippines' Metro Manila and 26 provinces were quarantined due to having been infested with this pest (to save the $800-million Philippine coconut industry). The mountain pine beetle normally attacks mature or weakened lodgepole pine. It can be the most destructive insect pest of mature pine forests. The current infestation in British Columbia is the largest Canada has ever seen. \n\nAs beneficial resources\n\nBeetles are not only pests, but can also be beneficial, usually by controlling the populations of pests. One of the best, and widely known, examples are the ladybugs or ladybirds (family Coccinellidae). Both the larvae and adults are found feeding on aphid colonies. Other ladybugs feed on scale insects and mealybugs. If normal food sources are scarce, they may feed on small caterpillars, young plant bugs, or honeydew and nectar. Ground beetles (family Carabidae) are common predators of many different insects and other arthropods, including fly eggs, caterpillars, wireworms, and others. \n\nDung beetles (Scarabidae) have been successfully used to reduce the populations of pestilent flies and parasitic worms that breed in cattle dung. The beetles make the dung unavailable to breeding pests by quickly rolling and burying it in the soil, with the added effect of improving soil fertility, tilth, and nutrient cycling. The Australian Dung Beetle Project (1965–1985), led by Dr. George Bornemissza of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, introduced species of dung beetle to Australia from South Africa and Europe, and effectively reduced the bush fly (Musca vetustissima) population by 90%.\n\nDung beetles play a remarkable role in agriculture. By burying and consuming dung, they improve nutrient recycling and soil structure. They also protect livestock, such as cattle, by removing dung, which, if left, could provide habitat for pests such as flies. Therefore, many countries have introduced the creatures for the benefit of animal husbandry. In developing countries, the beetle is especially important as an adjunct for improving standards of hygiene. The American Institute of Biological Sciences reports that dung beetles save the United States cattle industry an estimated US$380 million annually through burying above-ground livestock feces. \n\nSome beetles help in a professional setting, doing things that people cannot; those of the family Dermestidae are often used in taxidermy and preparation of scientific specimens to clean bones of remaining soft tissue. The beetle larvae are used to clean skulls because they do a thorough job of cleaning, and do not leave the tool marks that taxidermists' tools do. Another benefit is, with no traces of meat remaining and no emulsified fats in the bones, the trophy does not develop the unpleasant dead odor. Using the beetle larvae means that all cartilage is removed along with the flesh, leaving the bones spotless. \n\nAs food\n\nInsects are used as human food in 80% of the world's nations. Beetles are the most widely eaten insects. About 344 species are known to be used as food, usually eaten in the larval stage. The mealworm is the most commonly eaten beetle species. The larvae of the darkling beetle and the rhinoceros beetle are also commonly eaten.\n\nIn art\n\nMany beetles have beautiful and durable elytra that have been used as material in arts, with beetlewing the best example. Sometimes, they are also incorporated into ritual objects for their religious significance. Whole beetles, either as-is or encased in clear plastic, are also made into objects varying from cheap souvenirs such as key chains to expensive fine-art jewelry. In parts of Mexico, beetles of the genus Zopherus are made into living brooches by attaching costume jewelry and golden chains, which is made possible by the incredibly hard elytra and sedentary habits of the genus. \n\nIn ancient cultures\n\nSome beetles were prominent in ancient cultures, the most prominent being the dung beetle in Ancient Egypt. Several species of dung beetle, especially the \"sacred scarab\" Scarabaeus sacer, were revered by the ancient Egyptians. The hieroglyphic image of the beetle may have had existential, fictional, or ontologic significance. Images of the scarab in bone, ivory, stone, Egyptian faience, and precious metals are known from the Sixth Dynasty and up to the period of Roman rule. The scarab was of prime significance in the funerary cult of ancient Egypt. \n\nThe scarab was linked to Khepri, the god of the rising sun, from the supposed resemblance of the dung ball rolled by the beetle to the rolling of the sun by the god. Plutarch wrote:\n\nIn contrast to funerary contexts, some of ancient Egypt's neighbors adopted the scarab motif for seals of varying types. The best-known of these are the Judean LMLK seals (eight of 21 designs contained scarab beetles), which were used exclusively to stamp impressions on storage jars during the reign of Hezekiah. \n\nFile:Egyptian Dung beetle2008.jpg|A scarab statue in the Karnak temple complex\nFile:Egypt.KV6.04.jpg|A scarab on a wall of Tomb KV6 in the Valley of the Kings\n\nIn modern cultures\n\nBeetles still play roles in culture. One example is in insect fighting for entertainment and gambling. This sport exploits the territorial behavior and mating competition of certain species of large beetles. In the Chiang Mai district of northern Thailand, male Xylotrupes rhinoceros beetles are caught in the wild and trained for fighting. Females are held inside a log to stimulate the fighting males with their pheromones." ] }

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{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe", "TagMe", "TagMe", "TagMe", "TagMe", "Search" ], "filename": [ "Conservation_movement.txt", "President_of_the_United_States.txt", "United_States_Forest_Service.txt", "National_park.txt", "National_Monument_(United_States).txt", "Presidency_of_Theodore_Roosevelt.txt" ], "title": [ "Conservation movement", "President of the United States", "United States Forest Service", "National park", "National Monument (United States)", "Presidency of Theodore Roosevelt" ], "wiki_context": [ "The conservation movement, also known as nature conservation, is a political, environmental and a social movement that seeks to protect natural resources including animal and plant species as well as their habitat for the future.\n\nThe early conservation movement included fisheries and wildlife management, water, soil conservation and sustainable forestry. The contemporary conservation movement has broadened from the early movement's emphasis on use of sustainable yield of natural resources and preservation of wilderness areas to include preservation of biodiversity. Some say the conservation movement is part of the broader and more far-reaching environmental movement, while others argue that they differ both in ideology and practice. Chiefly in the United States, conservation is seen as differing from environmentalism in that it aims to preserve natural resources expressly for their continued sustainable use by humans. In other parts of the world conservation is used more broadly to include the setting aside of natural areas and the active protection of wildlife for their inherent value, as much as for any value they may have for humans.\n\nHistory \n\nEarly history\n\nThe conservation movement can be traced back to John Evelyn's work Sylva, presented as a paper to the Royal Society in 1662. Published as a book two years later, it was one of the most highly influential texts on forestry ever published. Timber resources in England were becoming dangerously depleted at the time, and Evelyn advocated the importance of conserving the forests by managing the rate of depletion and ensuring that the cut down trees get replenished.\n\nThe field developed during the 18th century, especially in Prussia and France where scientific forestry methods were developed. These methods were first applied rigorously in British India from the early-19th century. The government was interested in the use of forest produce and began managing the forests with measures to reduce the risk of wildfire in order to protect the \"household\" of nature, as it was then termed. This early ecological idea was in order to preserve the growth of delicate teak trees, which was an important resource for the Royal Navy. Concerns over teak depletion were raised as early as 1799 and 1805 when the Navy was undergoing a massive expansion during the Napoleonic Wars; this pressure led to the first formal conservation Act, which prohibited the felling of small teak trees. The first forestry officer was appointed in 1806 to regulate and preserve the trees necessary for shipbuilding. This promising start received a setback in the 1820s and 30s, when laissez-faire economics and complaints from private landowners brought these early conservation attempts to an end.\n\nOrigins of the modern conservation movement\n\nConservation was revived in the mid-19th century, with the first practical application of scientific conservation principles to the forests of India. The conservation ethic that began to evolve included three core principles: that human activity damaged the environment, that there was a civic duty to maintain the environment for future generations, and that scientific, empirically based methods should be applied to ensure this duty was carried out. Sir James Ranald Martin was prominent in promoting this ideology, publishing many medico-topographical reports that demonstrated the scale of damage wrought through large-scale deforestation and desiccation, and lobbying extensively for the institutionalization of forest conservation activities in British India through the establishment of Forest Departments. Edward Percy Stebbing warned of desertification of India. The Madras Board of Revenue started local conservation efforts in 1842, headed by Alexander Gibson, a professional botanist who systematically adopted a forest conservation program based on scientific principles. This was the first case of state management of forests in the world. \n\nThese local attempts gradually received more attention by the British government as the unregulated felling of trees continued unabated. In 1850, the British Association in Edinburgh formed a committee to study forest destruction at the behest of Dr. Hugh Cleghorn a pioneer in the nascent conservation movement.\n\nHe had become interested in forest conservation in Mysore in 1847 and gave several lectures at the Association on the failure of agriculture in India. These lectures influenced the government under Governor-General Lord Dalhousie to introduce the first permanent and large-scale forest conservation program in the world in 1855, a model that soon spread to other colonies, as well the United States. In the same year, Cleghorn organised the Madras Forest Department and in 1860 the Department banned the use shifting cultivation. Cleghorn's 1861 manual, The forests and gardens of South India, became the definitive work on the subject and was widely used by forest assistants in the subcontinent. In 1861, the Forest Department extended its remit into the Punjab. \n\nSir Dietrich Brandis, a German forester, joined the British service in 1856 as superintendent of the teak forests of Pegu division in eastern Burma. During that time Burma's teak forests were controlled by militant Karen tribals. He introduced the \"taungya\" system, in which Karen villagers provided labour for clearing, planting and weeding teak plantations. After seven years in Burma, Brandis was appointed Inspector General of Forests in India, a position he served in for 20 years. He formulated new forest legislation and helped establish research and training institutions. The Imperial Forest School at Dehradun was founded by him. \n\nGermans were prominent in the forestry administration of British India. As well as Brandis, Berthold Ribbentrop and Sir William P.D. Schlich brought new methods to Indian conservation, the latter becoming the Inspector-General in 1883 after Brandis stepped down. Schlich helped to establish the journal Indian Forester in 1874, and became the founding director of the first forestry school in England at Cooper's Hill in 1885. He authored the five-volume Manual of Forestry (1889–96) on silviculture, forest management, forest protection, and forest utilisation, which became the standard and enduring textbook for forestry students.\n\nConservation in the United States\n\nThe American movement received its inspiration from 19th century works that exalted the inherent value of nature, quite apart from human usage. Author Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) made key philosophical contributions that exalted nature. Thoreau was interested in peoples' relationship with nature and studied this by living close to nature in a simple life. He published his experiences in the book Walden, which argued that people should become intimately close with nature. The ideas of Sir Brandis, Sir William P.D. Schlich and Carl A. Schenck were also very influential - Gifford Pinchot, the first chief of the USDA Forest Service, relied heavily upon Brandis' advice for introducing professional forest management in the U.S. and on how to structure the Forest Service. \n\nBoth Conservationists and Preservationists appeared in political debates during the Progressive Era in the early 20th century. There were three main positions. The laissez-faire position held that owners of private property—including lumber and mining companies, should be allowed to do anything they wished for their property. \n\nThe conservationists, led by future President Theodore Roosevelt and his close ally George Bird Grinnell, were motivated by the wanton waste that was taking place at the hand of market forces, including logging and hunting. This practice resulted in placing a large number of North American game species on the edge of extinction. Roosevelt recognized that the laissez-faire approach of the U.S. Government was too wasteful and inefficient. In any case, they noted, most of the natural resources in the western states were already owned by the federal government. The best course of action, they argued, was a long-term plan devised by national experts to maximize the long-term economic benefits of natural resources. To accomplish the mission, Roosevelt and Grinnell formed the Boone and Crockett Club in 1887. The Club was made up of the best minds and influential men of the day. The Boone and Crockett Club's contingency of conservationists, scientists, politicians, and intellectuals became Roosevelt's closest advisers during his march to preserve wildlife and habitat across North America. Preservationists, led by John Muir (1838–1914), argued that the conservation policies were not strong enough to protect the interest of the natural world because they continued to focus on the natural world as a source of economic production.\n\nThe debate between conservation and preservation reached its peak in the public debates over the construction of California's Hetch Hetchy dam in Yosemite National Park which supplies the water supply of San Francisco. Muir, leading the Sierra Club, declared that the valley must be preserved for the sake of its beauty: \"No holier temple has ever been consecrated by the heart of man.\"\n\nPresident Roosevelt put conservationist issue high on the national agenda. He worked with all the major figures of the movement, especially his chief advisor on the matter, Gifford Pinchot and was deeply committed to conserving natural resources. He encouraged the Newlands Reclamation Act of 1902 to promote federal construction of dams to irrigate small farms and placed 230 million acres (360,000 mi2 or 930,000 km2) under federal protection. Roosevelt set aside more federal land for national parks and nature preserves than all of his predecessors combined. \n\nRoosevelt established the United States Forest Service, signed into law the creation of five national parks, and signed the year 1906 Antiquities Act, under which he proclaimed 18 new national monuments. He also established the first 51 bird reserves, four game preserves, and 150 national forests, including Shoshone National Forest, the nation's first. The area of the United States that he placed under public protection totals approximately 230000000 acre.\n\nGifford Pinchot had been appointed by McKinley as chief of Division of Forestry in the Department of Agriculture. In 1905, his department gained control of the national forest reserves. Pinchot promoted private use (for a fee) under federal supervision. In 1907, Roosevelt designated 16 million acres (65,000 km2) of new national forests just minutes before a deadline. \n\nIn May 1908, Roosevelt sponsored the Conference of Governors held in the White House, with a focus on natural resources and their most efficient use. Roosevelt delivered the opening address: \"Conservation as a National Duty.\".\n\nIn 1903 Roosevelt toured the Yosemite Valley with John Muir, who had a very different view of conservation, and tried to minimize commercial use of water resources and forests. Working through the Sierra Club he founded, Muir succeeded in 1905 in having Congress transfer the Mariposa Grove and Yosemite Valley to the federal government. While Muir wanted nature preserved for its own sake, Roosevelt subscribed to Pinchot's formulation, \"to make the forest produce the largest amount of whatever crop or service will be most useful, and keep on producing it for generation after generation of men and trees.\" \n\nTheodore Roosevelt's view on conservationism remained dominant for decades; - Franklin D. Roosevelt authorised the building of many large-scale dams and water projects, as well as the expansion of the National Forest System to buy out sub-marginal farms. In 1937, the Pittman–Robertson Federal Aid in Wildlife Restoration Act was signed into law, providing funding for state agencies to carry out their conservation efforts.\n\nSince 1970\n\nEnvironmental reemerged on the national agenda in 1970, with Republican Richard Nixon playing a major role, especially with his creation of the Environmental Protection Agency. The debates over the public lands and environmental politics played a supporting role in the decline of liberalism and the rise of modern environmentalism. Although Americans consistently rank environmental issues as \"important\", polling data indicates that in the voting booth voters rank the environmental issues low relative to other political concerns.\n\nThe growth of the Republican party's political power in the inland West (apart from the Pacific coast) was facilitated by the rise of popular opposition to public lands reform. Successful Democrats in the inland West and Alaska typically take more conservative positions on environmental issues than Democrats from the Coastal states. Conservatives drew on new organizational networks of think tanks, industry groups, and citizen-oriented organizations, and they began to deploy new strategies that affirmed the rights of individuals to their property, protection of extraction rights, to hunt and recreate, and to pursue happiness unencumbered by the federal government at the expense of resource conservation. \n\nAreas of concern\n\nDeforestation and overpopulation are issues affecting all regions of the world. The consequent destruction of wildlife habitat has prompted the creation of conservation groups in other countries, some founded by local hunters who have witnessed declining wildlife populations first hand. Also, it was highly important for the conservation movement to solve problems of living conditions in the cities and the overpopulation of such places.\n\nBoreal forest and the Arctic \n\nThe idea of incentive conservation is a modern one but its practice has clearly defended some of the sub Arctic wildernesses and the wildlife in those regions for thousands of years, especially by indigenous peoples such as the Evenk, Yakut, Sami, Inuit and Cree. The fur trade and hunting by these peoples have preserved these regions for thousands of years. Ironically, the pressure now upon them comes from non-renewable resources such as oil, sometimes to make synthetic clothing which is advocated as a humane substitute for fur. (See Raccoon dog for case study of the conservation of an animal through fur trade.) Similarly, in the case of the beaver, hunting and fur trade were thought to bring about the animal's demise, when in fact they were an integral part of its conservation. For many years children's books stated and still do, that the decline in the beaver population was due to the fur trade. In reality however, the decline in beaver numbers was because of habitat destruction and deforestation, as well as its continued persecution as a pest (it causes flooding). In Cree lands however, where the population valued the animal for meat and fur, it continued to thrive. The Inuit defend their relationship with the seal in response to outside critics.\n\nLatin America (Bolivia) \n\nThe Izoceño-Guaraní of Santa Cruz Department, Bolivia is a tribe of hunters who were influential in establishing the Capitania del Alto y Bajo Isoso (CABI). CABI promotes economic growth and survival of the Izoceno people while discouraging the rapid destruction of habitat within Bolivia's Gran Chaco. They are responsible for the creation of the 34,000 square kilometre Kaa-Iya del Gran Chaco National Park and Integrated Management Area (KINP). The KINP protects the most biodiverse portion of the Gran Chaco, an ecoregion shared with Argentina, Paraguay and Brazil. In 1996, the Wildlife Conservation Society joined forces with CABI to institute wildlife and hunting monitoring programs in 23 Izoceño communities. The partnership combines traditional beliefs and local knowledge with the political and administrative tools needed to effectively manage habitats. The programs rely solely on voluntary participation by local hunters who perform self-monitoring techniques and keep records of their hunts. The information obtained by the hunters participating in the program has provided CABI with important data required to make educated decisions about the use of the land. Hunters have been willing participants in this program because of pride in their traditional activities, encouragement by their communities and expectations of benefits to the area.\n\nAfrica (Botswana) \n\nIn order to discourage illegal South African hunting parties and ensure future local use and sustainability, indigenous hunters in Botswana began lobbying for and implementing conservation practices in the 1960s. The Fauna Preservation Society of Ngamiland (FPS) was formed in 1962 by the husband and wife team: Robert Kay and June Kay, environmentalists working in conjunction with the Batawana tribes to preserve wildlife habitat.\n\nThe FPS promotes habitat conservation and provides local education for preservation of wildlife. Conservation initiatives were met with strong opposition from the Botswana government because of the monies tied to big-game hunting. In 1963, BaTawanga Chiefs and tribal hunter/adventurers in conjunction with the FPS founded Moremi National Park and Wildlife Refuge, the first area to be set aside by tribal people rather than governmental forces. Moremi National Park is home to a variety of wildlife, including lions, giraffes, elephants, buffalo, zebra, cheetahs and antelope, and covers an area of 3,000 square kilometers. Most of the groups involved with establishing this protected land were involved with hunting and were motivated by their personal observations of declining wildlife and habitat.", "The President of the United States of America (POTUS) is the elected head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces.\n\nThe President of the United States is considered one of the world's most powerful people, leading the world's only contemporary superpower. The role includes being the commander-in-chief of the world's most expensive military with the largest nuclear arsenal and leading the nation with the largest economy by real and nominal GDP. The office of the president holds significant hard and soft power both in the United States and abroad.\n\nArticle II of the U.S. Constitution vests the executive power of the United States in the president. The power includes execution of federal law, alongside the responsibility of appointing federal executive, diplomatic, regulatory and judicial officers, and concluding treaties with foreign powers with the advice and consent of the Senate. The president is further empowered to grant federal pardons and reprieves, and to convene and adjourn either or both houses of Congress under extraordinary circumstances. The president is largely responsible for dictating the legislative agenda of the party to which the president is enrolled. The president also directs the foreign and domestic policy of the United States. Since the founding of the United States, the power of the president and the federal government has grown substantially. \n\nThe president is indirectly elected by the people through the Electoral College to a four-year term, and is one of only two nationally elected federal officers, the other being the Vice President of the United States. The Twenty-second Amendment, adopted in 1951, prohibits anyone from ever being elected to the presidency for a third full term. It also prohibits a person from being elected to the presidency more than once if that person previously had served as president, or acting president, for more than two years of another person's term as president. In all, 43 individuals have served 44 presidencies (counting Cleveland's two non-consecutive terms separately) spanning 56 full four-year terms. On January 20, 2009, Barack Obama became the 44th and current president. On November 6, 2012, he was re-elected and is currently serving the 57th term. The next presidential election is scheduled to take place on November 8, 2016; on January 20, 2017, the newly elected president will take office.\n\nOrigin\n\nIn 1776, the Thirteen Colonies, acting through the Second Continental Congress, declared political independence from Great Britain during the American Revolution. The new states, though independent of each other as nation states, recognized the necessity of closely coordinating their efforts against the British. Desiring to avoid anything that remotely resembled a monarchy, Congress negotiated the Articles of Confederation to establish a weak alliance between the states. As a central authority, Congress under the Articles was without any legislative power; it could make its own resolutions, determinations, and regulations, but not any laws, nor any taxes or local commercial regulations enforceable upon citizens. This institutional design reflected the conception of how Americans believed the deposed British system of Crown and Parliament ought to have functioned with respect to the royal dominion: a superintending body for matters that concerned the entire empire. Out from under any monarchy, the states assigned some formerly royal prerogatives (e.g., making war, receiving ambassadors, etc.) to Congress, while severally lodging the rest within their own respective state governments. Only after all the states agreed to a resolution settling competing western land claims did the Articles take effect on March 1, 1781, when Maryland became the final state to ratify them.\n\nIn 1783, the Treaty of Paris secured independence for each of the former colonies. With peace at hand, the states each turned toward their own internal affairs. By 1786, Americans found their continental borders besieged and weak, their respective economies in crises as neighboring states agitated trade rivalries with one another, witnessed their hard currency pouring into foreign markets to pay for imports, their Mediterranean commerce preyed upon by North African pirates, and their foreign-financed Revolutionary War debts unpaid and accruing interest. Civil and political unrest loomed.\n\nFollowing the successful resolution of commercial and fishing disputes between Virginia and Maryland at the Mount Vernon Conference in 1785, Virginia called for a trade conference between all the states, set for September 1786 in Annapolis, Maryland, with an aim toward resolving further-reaching interstate commercial antagonisms. When the convention failed for lack of attendance due to suspicions among most of the other states, the Annapolis delegates called for a convention to offer revisions to the Articles, to be held the next spring in Philadelphia. Prospects for the next convention appeared bleak until James Madison and Edmund Randolph succeeded in securing George Washington's attendance to Philadelphia as a delegate for Virginia.\n\nWhen the Constitutional Convention convened in May 1787, the 12 state delegations in attendance (Rhode Island did not send delegates) brought with them an accumulated experience over a diverse set of institutional arrangements between legislative and executive branches from within their respective state governments. Most states maintained a weak executive without veto or appointment powers, elected annually by the legislature to a single term only, sharing power with an executive council, and countered by a strong legislature. New York offered the greatest exception, having a strong, unitary governor with veto and appointment power elected to a three-year term, and eligible for reelection to an indefinite number of terms thereafter. It was through the closed-door negotiations at Philadelphia that the presidency framed in the U.S. Constitution emerged.\n\nPowers and duties\n\nArticle I legislative role\n\nThe first power the Constitution confers upon the president is the veto. The Presentment Clause requires any bill passed by Congress to be presented to the president before it can become law. Once the legislation has been presented, the president has three options:\n# Sign the legislation; the bill then becomes law.\n# Veto the legislation and return it to Congress, expressing any objections; the bill does not become law, unless each house of Congress votes to override the veto by a two-thirds vote.\n# Take no action. In this instance, the president neither signs nor vetoes the legislation. After 10 days, not counting Sundays, two possible outcomes emerge:\n#* If Congress is still convened, the bill becomes law.\n#* If Congress has adjourned, thus preventing the return of the legislation, the bill does not become law. This latter outcome is known as the pocket veto.\n\nIn 1996, Congress attempted to enhance the president's veto power with the Line Item Veto Act. The legislation empowered the president to sign any spending bill into law while simultaneously striking certain spending items within the bill, particularly any new spending, any amount of discretionary spending, or any new limited tax benefit. Congress could then repass that particular item. If the president then vetoed the new legislation, Congress could override the veto by its ordinary means, a two-thirds vote in both houses. In Clinton v. City of New York, , the U.S. Supreme Court ruled such a legislative alteration of the veto power to be unconstitutional.\n\nArticle II executive powers\n\nWar and foreign affairs powers\n\nPerhaps the most important of all presidential powers is the command of the United States Armed Forces as its commander-in-chief. While the power to declare war is constitutionally vested in Congress, the president has ultimate responsibility for direction and disposition of the military. The present-day operational command of the Armed Forces (belonging to the Department of Defense) is normally exercised through the Secretary of Defense, with assistance of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, to the Combatant Commands, as outlined in the presidentially approved Unified Command Plan (UCP). The framers of the Constitution took care to limit the president's powers regarding the military; Alexander Hamilton explains this in Federalist No. 69: Congress, pursuant to the War Powers Resolution, must authorize any troop deployments longer than 60 days, although that process relies on triggering mechanisms that have never been employed, rendering it ineffectual. Additionally, Congress provides a check to presidential military power through its control over military spending and regulation. While historically presidents initiated the process for going to war, critics have charged that there have been several conflicts in which presidents did not get official declarations, including Theodore Roosevelt's military move into Panama in 1903, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and the invasions of Grenada in 1983 and Panama in 1990.\n\nAlong with the armed forces, the president also directs U.S. foreign policy. Through the Department of State and the Department of Defense, the president is responsible for the protection of Americans abroad and of foreign nationals in the United States. The president decides whether to recognize new nations and new governments, and negotiates treaties with other nations, which become binding on the United States when approved by two-thirds vote of the Senate.\n\nAlthough not constitutionally provided, presidents also sometimes employ \"executive agreements\" in foreign relations. These agreements frequently regard administrative policy choices germane to executive power; for example, the extent to which either country presents an armed presence in a given area, how each country will enforce copyright treaties, or how each country will process foreign mail. However, the 20th century witnessed a vast expansion of the use of executive agreements, and critics have challenged the extent of that use as supplanting the treaty process and removing constitutionally prescribed checks and balances over the executive in foreign relations. Supporters counter that the agreements offer a pragmatic solution when the need for swift, secret, and/or concerted action arises.\n\nAdministrative powers\n\nThe president is the head of the executive branch of the federal government and is constitutionally obligated to \"take care that the laws be faithfully executed.\" The executive branch has over four million employees, including members of the military. \n\nPresidents make numerous executive branch appointments: an incoming president may make up to 6,000 before taking office and 8,000 more while serving. Ambassadors, members of the Cabinet, and other federal officers, are all appointed by a president with the \"advice and consent\" of a majority of the Senate. When the Senate is in recess for at least ten days, the president may make recess appointments. Recess appointments are temporary and expire at the end of the next session of the Senate.\n\nThe power of a president to fire executive officials has long been a contentious political issue. Generally, a president may remove purely executive officials at will. However, Congress can curtail and constrain a president's authority to fire commissioners of independent regulatory agencies and certain inferior executive officers by statute. \n\nThe president additionally possesses the ability to direct much of the executive branch through executive orders that are grounded in federal law or constitutionally granted executive power. Executive orders are reviewable by federal courts and can be superseded by federal legislation.\n\nTo manage the growing federal bureaucracy, Presidents have gradually surrounded themselves with many layers of staff, who were eventually organized into the Executive Office of the President of the United States. Within the Executive Office, the President's innermost layer of aides (and their assistants) are located in the White House Office.\n\nJuridical powers\n\nThe president also has the power to nominate federal judges, including members of the United States courts of appeals and the Supreme Court of the United States. However, these nominations do require Senate confirmation. Securing Senate approval can provide a major obstacle for presidents who wish to orient the federal judiciary toward a particular ideological stance. When nominating judges to U.S. district courts, presidents often respect the long-standing tradition of Senatorial courtesy. Presidents may also grant pardons and reprieves, as is often done just before the end of a presidential term, not without controversy.\n\nHistorically, two doctrines concerning executive power have developed that enable the president to exercise executive power with a degree of autonomy. The first is executive privilege, which allows the president to withhold from disclosure any communications made directly to the president in the performance of executive duties. George Washington first claimed privilege when Congress requested to see Chief Justice John Jay's notes from an unpopular treaty negotiation with Great Britain. While not enshrined in the Constitution, or any other law, Washington's action created the precedent for the privilege. When Richard Nixon tried to use executive privilege as a reason for not turning over subpoenaed evidence to Congress during the Watergate scandal, the Supreme Court ruled in United States v. Nixon, , that executive privilege did not apply in cases where a president was attempting to avoid criminal prosecution. When President Bill Clinton attempted to use executive privilege regarding the Lewinsky scandal, the Supreme Court ruled in Clinton v. Jones, , that the privilege also could not be used in civil suits. These cases established the legal precedent that executive privilege is valid, although the exact extent of the privilege has yet to be clearly defined. Additionally, federal courts have allowed this privilege to radiate outward and protect other executive branch employees, but have weakened that protection for those executive branch communications that do not involve the president. \n\nThe state secrets privilege allows the president and the executive branch to withhold information or documents from discovery in legal proceedings if such release would harm national security. Precedent for the privilege arose early in the 19th century when Thomas Jefferson refused to release military documents in the treason trial of Aaron Burr and again in Totten v. United States , when the Supreme Court dismissed a case brought by a former Union spy. However, the privilege was not formally recognized by the U.S. Supreme Court until United States v. Reynolds , where it was held to be a common law evidentiary privilege. Before the September 11 attacks, use of the privilege had been rare, but increasing in frequency. Since 2001, the government has asserted the privilege in more cases and at earlier stages of the litigation, thus in some instances causing dismissal of the suits before reaching the merits of the claims, as in the Ninth Circuit's ruling in Mohamed v. Jeppesen Dataplan, Inc. Critics of the privilege claim its use has become a tool for the government to cover up illegal or embarrassing government actions. \n\nLegislative facilitator\n\nThe Constitution's Ineligibility Clause prevents the President (and all other executive officers) from simultaneously being a member of Congress. Therefore, the president cannot directly introduce legislative proposals for consideration in Congress. However, the president can take an indirect role in shaping legislation, especially if the president's political party has a majority in one or both houses of Congress. For example, the president or other officials of the executive branch may draft legislation and then ask senators or representatives to introduce these drafts into Congress. The president can further influence the legislative branch through constitutionally mandated, periodic reports to Congress. These reports may be either written or oral, but today are given as the State of the Union address, which often outlines the president's legislative proposals for the coming year. Additionally, the president may attempt to have Congress alter proposed legislation by threatening to veto that legislation unless requested changes are made.\n\nIn the 20th century critics began charging that too many legislative and budgetary powers have slid into the hands of presidents that should belong to Congress. As the head of the executive branch, presidents control a vast array of agencies that can issue regulations with little oversight from Congress. One critic charged that presidents could appoint a \"virtual army of 'czars' – each wholly unaccountable to Congress yet tasked with spearheading major policy efforts for the White House.\" Presidents have been criticized for making signing statements when signing congressional legislation about how they understand a bill or plan to execute it. This practice has been criticized by the American Bar Association as unconstitutional. Conservative commentator George Will wrote of an \"increasingly swollen executive branch\" and \"the eclipse of Congress.\"\n\nAccording to Article II, Section 3, Clause 2 of the Constitution, the president may convene either or both houses of Congress. If both houses cannot agree on a date of adjournment, the president may appoint a date for Congress to adjourn.\n\nCeremonial roles\n\nAs head of state, the president can fulfill traditions established by previous presidents. William Howard Taft started the tradition of throwing out the ceremonial first pitch in 1910 at Griffith Stadium, Washington, D.C., on the Washington Senators' Opening Day. Every president since Taft, except for Jimmy Carter, threw out at least one ceremonial first ball or pitch for Opening Day, the All-Star Game, or the World Series, usually with much fanfare. \n\nThe President of the United States has served as the honorary president of the Boy Scouts of America since the founding of the organization. \n\nOther presidential traditions are associated with American holidays. Rutherford B. Hayes began in 1878 the first White House egg rolling for local children. Beginning in 1947 during the Harry S. Truman administration, every Thanksgiving the president is presented with a live domestic turkey during the annual national thanksgiving turkey presentation held at the White House. Since 1989, when the custom of \"pardoning\" the turkey was formalized by George H. W. Bush, the turkey has been taken to a farm where it will live out the rest of its natural life. \n\nPresidential traditions also involve the president's role as head of government. Many outgoing presidents since James Buchanan traditionally give advice to their successor during the presidential transition. Ronald Reagan and his successors have also left a private message on the desk of the Oval Office on Inauguration Day for the incoming president. \n\nDuring a state visit by a foreign head of state, the president typically hosts a State Arrival Ceremony held on the South Lawn, a custom begun by John F. Kennedy in 1961. This is followed by a state dinner given by the president which is held in the State Dining Room later in the evening. \n\nThe modern presidency holds the president as one of the nation's premier celebrities. Some argue that images of the presidency have a tendency to be manipulated by administration public relations officials as well as by presidents themselves. One critic described the presidency as \"propagandized leadership\" which has a \"mesmerizing power surrounding the office.\" Administration public relations managers staged carefully crafted photo-ops of smiling presidents with smiling crowds for television cameras. One critic wrote the image of John F. Kennedy was described as carefully framed \"in rich detail\" which \"drew on the power of myth\" regarding the incident of PT 109 and wrote that Kennedy understood how to use images to further his presidential ambitions. As a result, some political commentators have opined that American voters have unrealistic expectations of presidents: voters expect a president to \"drive the economy, vanquish enemies, lead the free world, comfort tornado victims, heal the national soul and protect borrowers from hidden credit-card fees.\"\n\nCritics of presidency's evolution\n\nMost of the nation's Founding Fathers expected the Congress, which was the first branch of government described in the Constitution, to be the dominant branch of government; they did not expect a strong executive. However, presidential power has shifted over time, which has resulted in claims that the modern presidency has become too powerful, unchecked, unbalanced, and \"monarchist\" in nature. Critic Dana D. Nelson believes presidents over the past thirty years have worked towards \"undivided presidential control of the executive branch and its agencies.\" She criticizes proponents of the unitary executive for expanding \"the many existing uncheckable executive powers – such as executive orders, decrees, memorandums, proclamations, national security directives and legislative signing statements – that already allow presidents to enact a good deal of foreign and domestic policy without aid, interference or consent from Congress.\" Activist Bill Wilson opined that the expanded presidency was \"the greatest threat ever to individual freedom and democratic rule.\"\n\nSelection process\n\nEligibility\n\nArticle II, Section 1, Clause 5 of the Constitution sets the following qualifications for holding the presidency:\n* be a natural-born citizen of the United States;Foreign-born American citizens who met the age and residency requirements at the time the Constitution was adopted were also eligible for the presidency. However, this allowance has since become obsolete.\n* be at least thirty-five years old;\n* be a resident in the United States for at least fourteen years.\n\nThe Twelfth Amendment precludes anyone ineligible to being the president from becoming the vice president.\n\nA person who meets the above qualifications is still disqualified from holding the office of president under any of the following conditions:\n* Under the Twenty-second Amendment, no person can be elected president more than twice. The amendment also specifies that if any eligible person serves as president or acting president for more than two years of a term for which some other eligible person was elected president, the former can only be elected president once. Scholars disagree over whether a person precluded by the Twenty-second Amendment to being elected president is also precluded to being vice president. \n* Under Article I, Section 3, Clause 7, upon conviction in impeachment cases, the Senate has the option of disqualifying convicted individuals from holding federal office, including that of president. \n* Under Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment, no person who swore an oath to support the Constitution, and later rebelled against the United States, can become president. However, this disqualification can be lifted by a two-thirds vote of each house of Congress.\n\nCampaigns and nomination\n\nThe modern presidential campaign begins before the primary elections, which the two major political parties use to clear the field of candidates before their national nominating conventions, where the most successful candidate is made the party's nominee for president. Typically, the party's presidential candidate chooses a vice presidential nominee, and this choice is rubber-stamped by the convention. The most common previous profession by U.S. presidents is lawyer. \n\nNominees participate in nationally televised debates, and while the debates are usually restricted to the Democratic and Republican nominees, third party candidates may be invited, such as Ross Perot in the 1992 debates. Nominees campaign across the country to explain their views, convince voters and solicit contributions. Much of the modern electoral process is concerned with winning swing states through frequent visits and mass media advertising drives.\n\nElection and oath\n\nThe president is elected indirectly. A number of electors, collectively known as the Electoral College, officially select the president. On Election Day, voters in each of the states and the District of Columbia cast ballots for these electors. Each state is allocated a number of electors, equal to the size of its delegation in both Houses of Congress combined. Generally, the ticket that wins the most votes in a state wins all of that state's electoral votes and thus has its slate of electors chosen to vote in the Electoral College.\n\nThe winning slate of electors meet at its state's capital on the first Monday after the second Wednesday in December, about six weeks after the election, to vote. They then send a record of that vote to Congress. The vote of the electors is opened by the sitting vice president—acting in that role's capacity as President of the Senate—and read aloud to a joint session of the incoming Congress, which was elected at the same time as the president.\n\nPursuant to the Twentieth Amendment, the president's term of office begins at noon on January 20 of the year following the election. This date, known as Inauguration Day, marks the beginning of the four-year terms of both the president and the vice president. Before executing the powers of the office, a president is constitutionally required to take the presidential oath:\n\nAlthough not required, presidents have traditionally palmed a Bible while swearing the oath and have added, \"So help me God!\" to the end of the oath. Further, although the oath may be administered by any person authorized by law to administer oaths, presidents are traditionally sworn in by the Chief Justice of the United States.\n\nTenure and term limits\n\nThe term of office for president and vice president is four years. George Washington, the first president, set an unofficial precedent of serving only two terms, which subsequent presidents followed until 1940. Before Franklin D. Roosevelt, attempts at a third term were encouraged by supporters of Ulysses S. Grant and Theodore Roosevelt; neither of these attempts succeeded. In 1940, Franklin D. Roosevelt declined to seek a third term, but allowed his political party to \"draft\" him as its presidential candidate and was subsequently elected to a third term. In 1941, the United States entered World War II, leading voters to elect Roosevelt to a fourth term in 1944. But Roosevelt died only 82 days after taking office for the fourth term on 12 April 1945.\n\nAfter the war, and in response to Roosevelt being elected to third and fourth terms, the Twenty-second Amendment was adopted. The amendment bars anyone from being elected president more than twice, or once if that person served more than half of another president's term. Harry S. Truman, president when this amendment was adopted, was exempted from its limitations and briefly sought a third (a second full) term before withdrawing from the 1952 election.\n\nSince the amendment's adoption, four presidents have served two full terms: Dwight D. Eisenhower, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush. Barack Obama has been elected to a second term, and will complete his term on 20 January 2017, if he does not die or resign before that date. Jimmy Carter and George H. W. Bush sought a second term, but were defeated. Richard Nixon was elected to a second term, but resigned before completing it. Lyndon B. Johnson was the only president under the amendment to be eligible to serve more than two terms in total, having served for only fourteen months following John F. Kennedy's assassination. However, Johnson withdrew from the 1968 Democratic Primary, surprising many Americans. Gerald Ford sought a full term, after serving out the last two years and five months of Nixon's second term, but was not elected.\n\nVacancy or disability\n\nVacancies in the office of President may arise under several possible circumstances: death, resignation and removal from office.\n\nArticle II, Section 4 of the Constitution allows the House of Representatives to impeach high federal officials, including the president, for \"treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors.\" Article I, Section 3, Clause 6 gives the Senate the power to remove impeached officials from office, given a two-thirds vote to convict. The House has thus far impeached two presidents: Andrew Johnson in 1868 and Bill Clinton in 1998. Neither was subsequently convicted by the Senate; however, Johnson was acquitted by just one vote.\n\nUnder Section 3 of the Twenty-fifth Amendment, the president may transfer the presidential powers and duties to the vice president, who then becomes acting president, by transmitting a statement to the Speaker of the House and the President pro tempore of the Senate stating the reasons for the transfer. The president resumes the discharge of the presidential powers and duties upon transmitting, to those two officials, a written declaration stating that resumption. This transfer of power may occur for any reason the president considers appropriate; in 2002 and again in 2007, President George W. Bush briefly transferred presidential authority to Vice President Dick Cheney. In both cases, this was done to accommodate a medical procedure which required Bush to be sedated; both times, Bush returned to duty later the same day. \n\nUnder Section 4 of the Twenty-fifth Amendment, the vice president, in conjunction with a majority of the Cabinet, may transfer the presidential powers and duties from the president to the vice president by transmitting a written declaration to the Speaker of the House and the president pro tempore of the Senate that the president is unable to discharge the presidential powers and duties. If this occurs, then the vice president will assume the presidential powers and duties as acting president; however, the president can declare that no such inability exists and resume the discharge of the presidential powers and duties. If the vice president and Cabinet contest this claim, it is up to Congress, which must meet within two days if not already in session, to decide the merit of the claim.\n\nThe United States Constitution mentions the resignation of the president, but does not regulate its form or the conditions for its validity. Pursuant to federal law, the only valid evidence of the president's resignation is a written instrument to that effect, signed by the president and delivered to the office of the Secretary of State. This has only occurred once, when Richard Nixon delivered a letter to Henry Kissinger to that effect.\n\nSection 1 of the Twenty-fifth Amendment states that the vice president becomes president upon the removal from office, death or resignation of the preceding president. The Presidential Succession Act of 1947 provides that if the offices of President and Vice President are each either vacant or are held by a disabled person, the next officer in the presidential line of succession, the Speaker of the House, becomes acting president. The line then extends to the President pro tempore of the Senate, followed by every member of the Cabinet. These persons must fulfill all eligibility requirements of the office of President to be eligible to become acting president; ineligible individuals are skipped. There has never been a special election for the office of President.\n\nCompensation\n\nSince 2001, the president has earned a $400,000 annual salary, along with a $50,000 annual expense account, a $100,000 nontaxable travel account, and $19,000 for entertainment. The most recent raise in salary was approved by Congress and President Bill Clinton in 1999 and went into effect in 2001.\n\nThe White House in Washington, D.C., serves as the official place of residence for the president. As well as access to the White House staff, facilities available to the president include medical care, recreation, housekeeping, and security services. The government pays for state dinners and other official functions, but the president pays for personal, family and guest dry cleaning and food; the high food bill often amazes new residents. Naval Support Facility Thurmont, popularly known as Camp David, is a mountain-based military camp in Frederick County, Maryland, used as a country retreat and for high alert protection of the president and guests. Blair House, located next to the Eisenhower Executive Office Building at the White House Complex and Lafayette Park, is a complex of four connected townhouses exceeding 70000 sqft of floor space which serves as the president's official guest house and as a secondary residence for the president if needed. \n\nFor ground travel, the president uses the presidential state car, which is an armored limousine built on a heavily modified Cadillac-based chassis.[http://www.secretservice.gov/press/GPA02-09_Limo.pdf New Presidential Limousine enters Secret Service Fleet] U.S. Secret Service Press Release (January 14, 2009) Retrieved on January 20, 2009. One of two identical Boeing VC-25 aircraft, which are extensively modified versions of Boeing 747-200B airliners, serve as long distance travel for the president and are referred to as Air Force One while the president is on board (although any U.S. Air Force aircraft the President is aboard is designated as \"Air Force One\" for the duration of the flight). In-country trips are typically handled with just one of the two planes while overseas trips are handled with both, one primary and one backup. Any civilian aircraft the President is aboard is designated Executive One for the flight. The president also has access to a fleet of thirty-five U.S. Marine Corps helicopters of varying models, designated Marine One when the president is aboard any particular one in the fleet. Flights are typically handled with as many as five helicopters all flying together and frequently swapping positions as to disguise which helicopter the President is actually aboard to any would-be threats.\n\nThe U.S. Secret Service is charged with protecting the sitting president and the first family. As part of their protection, presidents, first ladies, their children and other immediate family members, and other prominent persons and locations are assigned Secret Service codenames. The use of such names was originally for security purposes and dates to a time when sensitive electronic communications were not routinely encrypted; today, the names simply serve for purposes of brevity, clarity, and tradition. \n\nFile:White House lawn (1).tif|The White House\n\nFile:Camp David 1959.jpg|Camp David\nFile:Blair House daylight.jpg|Blair House\nFile:GPA02-09 US SecretService press release 2009 Limousine Page 3 Image.jpg|State car\nFile:Air Force One over Mt. Rushmore.jpg|Air Force One\nFile:Marine One (1970).jpg|Marine One\n\nPost-presidency\n\nBeginning in 1959, all living former presidents were granted a pension, an office, and a staff. The pension has increased numerous times with Congressional approval. Retired presidents now receive a pension based on the salary of the current administration's cabinet secretaries, which was $199,700 each year in 2012. Former presidents who served in Congress may also collect congressional pensions. The Former Presidents Act, as amended, also provides former presidents with travel funds and franking privileges. Prior to 1997, all former presidents, their spouses, and their children until age 16 were protected by the Secret Service until the president's death. In 1997, Congress passed legislation limiting secret service protection to no more than 10 years from the date a president leaves office. On January 10, 2013, President Obama signed legislation reinstating lifetime secret service protection for him, George W. Bush, and all subsequent presidents. A spouse who remarries is no longer eligible for secret service protection.\n\nSome presidents have had significant careers after leaving office. Prominent examples include William Howard Taft's tenure as Chief Justice of the United States and Herbert Hoover's work on government reorganization after World War II. Grover Cleveland, whose bid for reelection failed in 1888, was elected president again four years later in 1892. Two former presidents served in Congress after leaving the White House: John Quincy Adams was elected to the House of Representatives, serving there for seventeen years, and Andrew Johnson returned to the Senate in 1875. John Tyler served in the provisional Congress of the Confederate States during the Civil War and was elected to the Confederate House of Representatives, but died before that body first met.\n\nPresidents may use their predecessors as emissaries to deliver private messages to other nations or as official representatives of the United States to state funerals and other important foreign events. Richard Nixon made multiple foreign trips to countries including China and Russia and was lauded as an elder statesman. Jimmy Carter has become a global human rights campaigner, international arbiter, and election monitor, as well as a recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. Bill Clinton has also worked as an informal ambassador, most recently in the negotiations that led to the release of two American journalists, Laura Ling and Euna Lee, from North Korea. Clinton has also been active politically since his presidential term ended, working with his wife Hillary on her 2008 and 2016 presidential bids and President Obama on his reelection campaign.\n\nFile:Carter 2k14.tif|Jimmy Carter39th (1977–81)\nFile:President George H. W.tif|George H. W. Bush41st (1989–93)\nFile:Clinton 2k15.tif|Bill Clinton42nd (1993–2001)\nFile:Bush 2k14.tif|George W. Bush43rd (2001–09)\n\nPresidential libraries\n\nSince Herbert Hoover, each president has created a repository known as a presidential library for preserving and making available his papers, records and other documents and materials. Completed libraries are deeded to and maintained by the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA); the initial funding for building and equipping each library must come from private, non-federal sources. There are currently thirteen presidential libraries in the NARA system. There are also presidential libraries maintained by state governments and private foundations and Universities of Higher Education, such as the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum, which is run by the State of Illinois, the George H.W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum, which is run by Texas A&M University and the Lyndon Baines Johnson Presidential Library and Museum, which is run by the University of Texas at Austin.\n\nAs many presidents live for many years after leaving office, several of them have personally overseen the building and opening of their own presidential libraries, some even making arrangements for their own burial at the site. Several presidential libraries therefore contain the graves of the president they document, such as the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum in Yorba Linda, California and the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California. The graves are viewable by the general public visiting these libraries.\n\nTimeline of Presidents", "The United States Forest Service (USFS) is an agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture that administers the nation's 154 national forests and 20 national grasslands, which encompass 193 e6acre. Major divisions of the agency include the National Forest System, State and Private Forestry, Business Operations, and the Research and Development branch. Managing approximately 25% of federal lands, it is the only major national land agency that is outside the U.S. Department of the Interior. \n\nHistory \n\nIn 1876, Congress created the office of Special Agent in the Department of Agriculture to assess the quality and conditions of forests in the United States. Franklin B. Hough was appointed the head of the office. In 1881, the office was expanded into the newly formed Division of Forestry. The Forest Reserve Act of 1891 authorized withdrawing land from the public domain as \"forest reserves,\" managed by the Department of the Interior. In 1901, the Division of Forestry was renamed the Bureau of Forestry. The Transfer Act of 1905 transferred the management of forest reserves from the General Land Office of the Interior Department to the Bureau of Forestry, henceforth known as the United States Forest Service. Gifford Pinchot was the first United States Chief Forester in the Presidency of Theodore Roosevelt.\n\nSignificant federal legislation affecting the Forest Service includes the Weeks Act of 1911, the Multiple Use – Sustained Yield Act of 1960, P.L. 86-517; the Wilderness Act, P.L. 88-577; the National Forest Management Act, P.L. 94-588; the National Environmental Policy Act, P.L. 91-190; the Cooperative Forestry Assistance Act, P.L. 95-313; and the Forest and Rangelands Renewable Resources Planning Act, P.L. 95-307.\n\nIn February 2009, the Government Accountability Office evaluated whether the Forest Service should be moved from the Department of Agriculture to the Department of the Interior, which already includes the National Park Service, the Fish and Wildlife Service, and the Bureau of Land Management, managing some 438000000 acre of public land.\n\nOrganization \n\nOverview \n\nAs of 2009, the Forest Service has a total budget authority of $5.5 billion, of which 42% is spent fighting fires. The Forest Service employs 34,250 employees in 750 locations, including 10,050 firefighters, 737 law enforcement personnel, and 500 scientists.\n\nThe mission of the Forest Service is \"To sustain the health, diversity, and productivity of the Nation's forests and grasslands to meet the needs of present and future generations.\" Its motto is \"Caring for the land and serving people.\" As the lead federal agency in natural resource conservation, the US Forest Service provides leadership in the protection, management, and use of the nation's forest, rangeland, and aquatic ecosystems. The agency's ecosystem approach to management integrates ecological, economic, and social factors to maintain and enhance the quality of the environment to meet current and future needs. Through implementation of land and resource management plans, the agency ensures sustainable ecosystems by restoring and maintaining species diversity and ecological productivity that helps provide recreation, water, timber, minerals, fish, wildlife, wilderness, and aesthetic values for current and future generations of people. \n\nThe everyday work of the Forest Service balances resource extraction, resource protection, and providing recreation. The work includes managing 193000000 acres of national forest and grasslands, including 59000000 acres of roadless areas; 14,077 recreation sites; 143346 mi of trails; 374883 mi of roads; and the harvesting of 1.5 billion trees per year. Further, the Forest Service fought fires on 2996000 acres of land.\n\nThe Forest Service organization includes ranger districts, national forests, regions, research stations and research work units and the Northeastern Area Office for State and Private Forestry. Each level has responsibility for a variety of functions.\n\nNational \n\nThe Chief of the Forest Service is a career federal employee who oversees the entire agency. The Chief reports to the Under Secretary for Natural Resources and Environment in the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), an appointee of the President confirmed by the Senate. The Chief's staff provides broad policy and direction for the agency, works with the Administration to develop a budget to submit to Congress, provides information to Congress on accomplishments, and monitors activities of the agency. There are five deputy chiefs for the following areas: National Forest System, State and Private Forestry, Research and Development, Business Operations, and Finance.\n\nResearch Stations and Research Work Units \n\nThe Forest Service Research and Development deputy area includes five research stations, the Forest Products Laboratory, and the International Institute of Tropical Forestry, in Puerto Rico. Station directors, like regional foresters, report to the Chief. Research stations include Northern, Pacific Northwest, Pacific Southwest, Rocky Mountain, and Southern. There are 92 research work units located at 67 sites throughout the United States. there are 80 Experimental Forests and Ranges that have been established progressively since 1908; many sites are more than 50 years old. The system provides places for long-term science and management studies in major vegetation types of the 195 e6acre of public land administered by the Forest Service. Individual sites range from 47 to 22,500 ha in size.\n\nOperations of Experimental Forests and Ranges are directed by local research teams for the individual sites, by Research Stations for the regions in which they are located, and at the level of the Forest Service.\n\nMajor themes in research at the Experimental Forests and Ranges includes:\ndevelop of systems for managing and restoring forests, range lands, and watersheds; investigate the workings of forest and stream ecosystems; characterize plant and animal communities; observe and interpret long-term environmental change and many other themes.\n\nRegions \n\nThere are nine regions in the USDA Forest Service; numbered 1 through 10 (Region 7 was eliminated\nin 1965 when the current Eastern Region was created from the former Eastern and\nNorth Central regions. \n). Each encompasses a broad geographic area and is headed by a regional forester who reports directly to the Chief. The regional forester has broad responsibility for coordinating activities among the various forests within the region, for providing overall leadership for regional natural resource and social programs, and for coordinated regional land use planning.\n*Northern Region: based in Missoula, Montana, the Northern Region (R1) covers six states (Montana, Northern Idaho, North Dakota, Northwestern South Dakota, Northeast Washington, and Northwest Wyoming), twelve National Forests and one National Grassland.\n* Rocky Mountain: based in Golden, Colorado, the Rocky Mountain Region (R2) covers five states (Colorado, Nebraska, Kansas and most of Wyoming and South Dakota), sixteen National Forests and seven National Grasslands.\n*Southwestern: based in Albuquerque, New Mexico, the Southwestern Region (R3) covers two states (New Mexico and Arizona) and eleven National Forests.\n*Intermountain: based in Ogden, Utah, the Intermountain Region (R4) covers four states (Southern Idaho, Nevada, Utah and Western Wyoming), twelve national forests.\n*Pacific Southwest: based in Vallejo, California, The Pacific Southwest Region (R5) covers two states (California and Hawaii), eighteen National Forests and one Management Unit.\n* Pacific Northwest: based in Portland, Oregon the Pacific Northwest Region (R6) covers two states (Washington and Oregon), twenty-one National Forests and one National Scenic Area.\n* Southern: based in Atlanta, Georgia, the Southern Region (R8) covers thirteen states (Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North and South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Oklahoma and Virginia; and Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands), and thirty-four National Forests.\n* Eastern: based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the Eastern Region (R9) covers twenty states (Maine, Illinois, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, Indiana, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Maryland, New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, Delaware, and New Jersey), seventeen National Forests, one Grassland and America's Outdoors Center for Conservation, Recreation, and Resources.\n* Alaska: based in Juneau, Alaska, the Alaska Region (R10) covers one state (Alaska), and two National Forests.\n\nNational Forest or Grassland \n\nThe Forest Service oversees 155 national forests and 20 grasslands. Each administrative unit typically comprises several ranger districts, under the overall direction of a forest supervisor. Within the supervisor's office, the staff coordinates activities among districts, allocates the budget, and provides technical support to each district. Forest supervisors are line officers and report to regional foresters.\n\nRanger District \n\nThe Forest Service has over 600 ranger districts. Each district has a staff of 10 to 100 people under the direction of a district ranger, a line officer who reports to a forest supervisor. The districts vary in size from 50000 acre to more than 1 e6acre. Most on-the-ground activities occur on ranger districts, including trail construction and maintenance, operation of campgrounds, and management of vegetation and wildlife habitat.\n\nMajor divisions \n\nLaw Enforcement & Investigations \n\nThe U.S. Forest Service Law Enforcement & Investigations unit (LEI), headquartered in Washington, D.C., is a federal law enforcement agency of the U.S. government. It is responsible for enforcement of federal laws and regulations governing national forest lands and resources. All Law Enforcement Officers and Special Agents Receive their training through Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (FLETC).\n\nOperations are divided into two major functional areas:\n* Law enforcement: uniformed, high-visibility enforcement of laws\n* Investigations: special agents who investigate crimes against property, visitors, and employees\n\nUniformed Law Enforcement Officers (LEOs) enforce federal laws and regulations governing national forest lands and resources. LEOs also enforce some or all state laws on National Forest Lands. As part of that mission, LEOs carry firearms, defensive equipment, make arrests, execute search warrants, complete reports, and testify in court. They establish a regular and recurring presence on a vast amount of public lands, roads, and recreation sites. The primary focus of their jobs is the protection of natural resources, protection of Forest Service employees and the protection of visitors. To cover the vast and varied terrain under their jurisdiction, they use Ford Crown Victoria Police Interceptors, special service SUVs, horses, K-9 units, helicopters, snowmobiles, dirt bikes, and boats.\n\nSpecial Agents are criminal investigators who plan and conduct investigations concerning possible violations of criminal and administrative provisions of the Forest Service and other statues under the United States Code. Special agents are normally plainclothes officers who carry concealed firearms, and other defensive equipment, make arrests, carry out complex criminal investigations, present cases for prosecution to U.S. Attorneys, and prepare investigative reports. All field agents are required to travel a great deal and usually maintain a case load of ten to fifteen ongoing criminal investigations at one time. Criminal investigators occasionally conduct internal and civil claim investigations.\n\nNational Forest System \n\nThe 193 e6acre of public land that are managed as national forests and grasslands are collectively known as the National Forest System. These lands are located in 44 states, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands and comprise about 9% of the total land area in the United States. The lands are organized into 155 national forests and 20 national grasslands. The mission of the National Forest System is to protect and manage the forest lands so they best demonstrate the sustainable multiple-use management concept, using an ecological approach, to meet the diverse needs of people.\n\nState and Private Forestry \n\nThe mission of the State and Private Forestry program is to provide technical and financial assistance to private landowners, state agencies, tribes, and community resource managers to help sustain the United States' urban and rural forests and to protect communities and the environment from wildland fires, insects, disease, and invasive plants. The program employs approximately 537 staff located at 17 sites throughout the country. The delivery of the State and Private Forestry program is carried out by eight National Forest System regions and the Northeastern Area.\n\nResearch and Development \n\nThe research and development (R&D) arm of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Forest Service works to improve the health and use of the United States' forests and grasslands. Research has been part of the Forest Service mission since the agency's inception in 1905. Today, Forest Service researchers work in a range of biological, physical, and social science fields to promote sustainable management of United States' diverse forests and rangelands. Research employs about 550 scientists and several hundred technical and support staff, located at 67 sites throughout the United States and in Puerto Rico. Discovery and technology development and transfer is carried out through seven research stations.\n\nResearch focuses on informing policy and land management decisions and includes addressing invasive insects, degraded river ecosystems, or sustainable ways to harvest forest products. The researchers work independently and with a range of partners, including other agencies, academia, nonprofit groups, and industry. The information and technology produced through basic and applied science programs is available to the public for its benefit and use.\n\nInternational Programs \n\nThe Forest Service plays a key role in formulating policy and coordinating U.S. support for the protection and sound management of the world's forest resources. It works closely with other agencies such as USAID, the State Department, and the Environmental Protection Agency, as well as with nonprofit development organizations, wildlife organizations, universities, and international assistance organizations. The Forest Service's international work serves to link people and communities striving to protect and manage forests throughout the world. The program also promotes sustainable land management overseas and brings important technologies and innovations back to the United States. The program focuses on conserving key natural resource in cooperation with countries across the world.\n\nActivities \n\nAlthough a large volume of timber is logged every year, not all National Forests are entirely forested. There are tidewater glaciers in the Tongass National Forest in Alaska and ski areas such as Alta, Utah in the Wasatch-Cache National Forest. In addition, the Forest Service is responsible for managing National Grasslands in the midwest. Furthermore, areas designated as wilderness by acts of Congress, prohibit logging, mining, road and building construction and land leases for purposes of farming and or livestock grazing.\n\nSince 1978, several Presidents have directed the USFS to administer National Monuments inside of preexisting National Forests.\n\n* Admiralty Island National Monument – Alaska\n* Giant Sequoia National Monument – California\n* Misty Fjords National Monument – Alaska\n* Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument – Washington\n* Newberry National Volcanic Monument – Oregon\n* Santa Rosa and San Jacinto Mountains National Monument – California (jointly with the Bureau of Land Management)\n\nThe Forest Service also manages Grey Towers National Historic Site in Milford, Pennsylvania, the home and estate of its first Chief, Gifford Pinchot.\n\nFighting fires \n\nIn August 1944, to reduce the number of forest fires, the Forest Service and the Wartime Advertising Council began distributing fire education posters featuring a black bear. The poster campaign was a success; the black bear would later be named \"Smokey Bear\", and would, for decades, be the \"spokesbear\" for the Forest Service. Smokey Bear has appeared in innumerable TV commercials; his popular catch phrase, \"Only YOU can prevent forest fires\", is one of the most widely recognized slogans in the United States. A recent study found that 95% of the people surveyed could complete the phrase when given the first few words. \n\nIn September 2000, the Departments of Agriculture and the Interior developed a plan to respond to the fires of 2000, to reduce the impacts of these wildland fires on rural communities, and to ensure sufficient firefighting resources in the future. The report is entitled \"Managing the Impacts of Wildfire on Communities and the Environment: A Report to the President In Response to the Wildfires of 2000\"—The National Fire Plan for short. The National Fire Plan continues to be an integral part of the Forest Service today. The following are important operational features of the National Fire Plan:\n*Federal Wildland Fire Management Policy: The 1995 Federal Wildland Fire Management Policy and the subsequent 2001 Federal Wildland Fire Management Policy act as the foundation of the National Fire Plan.\n*Basic Premise of the National Fire Plan: Investing now in an optimal firefighting force, hazardous fuels reduction, and overall community protection will provide for immediate protection and future cost savings.\n*Funding: Initially (2001), the National Fire Plan provided for an additional $1,100,994,000 for the Forest Service for a total wildland fire management budget of $1,910,193,000. In 2008, the total amount for the Forest Service in wildland fire management (not including emergency fire suppression funding) is $1,974,276,000.\n\nIn August 2014, Tom Vilsack, the Secretary of Agriculture, announced that the agency will have to put $400 to $500 million in wildfire prevention projects on hold because funding for firefighting is running low as the fiscal year ends. The decision is meant to preserve resources for fighting active fires burning in California, Oregon, Washington and Idaho. Politicians of both parties have indicated that they believe the current funding structure is broken, but they have not agreed on steps to fix the funding allocation. \n\nBudget \n\nAlthough part of the Department of Agriculture, the Forest Service receives its budget through the Subcommittee on Appropriations—Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies.\n\nPopular culture \n\nThe U.S. Forest Service achieved widespread awareness during the 1960s, as it became the setting for the long running classic TV show Lassie, with storylines focusing on Lassie's adventures with various forest rangers.\n\nThe iconic collie's association with the Forest Service led to Lassie receiving numerous awards and citations from the U.S. Senate and the Department of Agriculture, and was partly responsible for a bill regarding soil and water pollution that was signed into law in early 1968 by President Lyndon Johnson, which was dubbed by some as \"The Lassie Program\". \n\nControversies \n\nThe history of the Forest Service has been fraught with controversy, as various interests and national values have grappled with the appropriate management of the many resources within the forests. These values and resources include grazing, timber, mining, recreation, wildlife habitat, and wilderness. Because of continuing development elsewhere, the large size of National Forests have made them de facto wildlife reserves for a number of rare and common species. In recent decades, the importance of mature forest for the spotted owl and a number of other species led to great changes in timber harvest levels.\n\nIn certain fire-adapted ecosystems, the ensuing decades of fire suppression unintentionally caused a buildup of fuels that replaced the historically natural fire regime of slow-burning, relatively cool fires with fast-burning, relatively hot wildfires in the fire-adapted forest lands across the nation.\n\nIn the 1990s, the agency was involved in scandal when it illegally provided surplus military aircraft to private contractors for use as airtankers. (See U.S. Forest Service airtanker scandal.)\n\nAnother controversial issue is the policy on road building within the National Forests. In 1999, President Clinton ordered a temporary moratorium on new road construction in the National Forests to \"assess their ecological, economic, and social values and to evaluate long-term options for their management.\" Five and half years later, the Bush administration replaced this with a system where each state could petition the Forest Service to open forests in their territory to road building.\n\nSome years the agency actually loses money on its timber sales.", "A national park is a park in use for conservation purposes. Often it is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state declares or owns. Although individual nations designate their own national parks differently, there is a common idea: the conservation of 'wild nature' for posterity and as a symbol of national pride. An international organization, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), and its World Commission on Protected Areas, has defined \"National Park\" as its Category II type of protected areas.\n\nWhile this type of national park had been proposed previously, the United States established the first \"public park or pleasuring-ground for the benefit and enjoyment of the people\", Yellowstone National Park, in 1872. Although Yellowstone was not officially termed a \"national park\" in its establishing law, it was always termed such in practice and is widely held to be the first and oldest national park in the world. The first area to use \"national park\" in its creation legislation was the US's Mackinac Island, in 1875. Australia's Royal National Park, established in 1879, was the world's third official national park. In 1895 ownership of Mackinac Island was transferred to the State of Michigan as a state park and national park status was consequently lost. As a result, Australia's Royal National Park is by some considerations the second oldest national park now in existence. \n\nThe largest national park in the world meeting the IUCN definition is the Northeast Greenland National Park, which was established in 1974. According to the IUCN, 6,555 national parks worldwide met its criteria in 2006. IUCN is still discussing the parameters of defining a national park. \n\nNational parks are almost always open to visitors. Most national parks provide outdoor recreation and camping opportunities as well as classes designed to educate the public on the importance of conservation and the natural wonders of the land in which the national park is located.\n\nDefinitions\n\nIn 1969, the IUCN declared a national park to be a relatively large area with the following defining characteristics: \n\n* One or several ecosystems not materially altered by human exploitation and occupation, where plant and animal species, geomorphological sites and habitats are of special scientific, educational, and recreational interest or which contain a natural landscape of great beauty;\n* Highest competent authority of the country has taken steps to prevent or eliminate exploitation or occupation as soon as possible in the whole area and to effectively enforce the respect of ecological, geomorphological, or aesthetic features which have led to its establishment; and\n* Visitors are allowed to enter, under special conditions, for inspirational, educative, cultural, and recreative purposes.\n\nIn 1971, these criteria were further expanded upon leading to more clear and defined benchmarks to evaluate a national park. These include:\n\n* Minimum size of 1,000 hectares within zones in which protection of nature takes precedence\n* Statutory legal protection\n* Budget and staff sufficient to provide sufficient effective protection\n* Prohibition of exploitation of natural resources (including the development of dams) qualified by such activities as sport, fishing, the need for management, facilities, etc.\n\nWhile the term national park is now defined by the IUCN, many protected areas in many countries are called national park even when they correspond to other categories of the IUCN Protected Area Management Definition, for example: \n* Swiss National Park, Switzerland: IUCN Ia - Strict Nature Reserve\n* Everglades National Park, United States: IUCN Ib - Wilderness Area\n* Białowieża National Park, Poland: IUCN II National Park\n* Victoria Falls National Park, Zimbabwe: IUCN III - National Monument\n* Vitosha National Park, Bulgaria: IUCN IV - Habitat Management Area\n* New Forest National Park, United Kingdom: IUCN V - Protected Landscape\n* Etniko Ygrotopiko Parko Delta Evrou, Greece: IUCN VI - Managed Resource Protected Area\n\nWhile national parks are generally understood to be administered by national governments (hence the name), in Australia national parks are run by state governments and predate the Federation of Australia; similarly, national parks in the Netherlands are administered by the provinces.\nIn many countries, including Indonesia, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom, national parks do not adhere to the IUCN definition, while some areas which adhere to the IUCN definition are not designated as national parks.\n\nHistory\n\nIn 1810, the English poet William Wordsworth described the Lake District as a The painter George Catlin, in his travels through the American West, wrote during the 1830s that the Native Americans in the United States might be preserved \n\nThe first effort by the Federal government to set aside such protected lands was on April 20, 1832, when President Andrew Jackson signed legislation that the 22nd United States Congress had enacted to set aside four sections of land around what is now Hot Springs, Arkansas, to protect the natural, thermal springs and adjoining mountainsides for the future disposal of the U.S. government. It was known as Hot Springs Reservation, but no legal authority was established. Federal control of the area was not clearly established until 1877.\n\nJohn Muir is today referred to as the \"Father of the National Parks\" due to his work in Yosemite. He published two influential articles in The Century Magazine, which formed the base for the subsequent legislation. \n\nPresident Abraham Lincoln signed an Act of Congress on July 1, 1864, ceding the Yosemite Valley and the Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias (later becoming Yosemite National Park) to the state of California. According to this bill, private ownership of the land in this area was no longer possible. The state of California was designated to manage the park for \"public use, resort, and recreation\". Leases were permitted for up to ten years and the proceeds were to be used for conservation and improvement. A public discussion followed this first legislation of its kind and there was a heated debate over whether the government had the right to create parks. The perceived mismanagement of Yosemite by the Californian state was the reason why Yellowstone at its establishment six years later was put under national control. \n\nIn 1872, Yellowstone National Park was established as the United States' first national park, being also the world's first national park. In some European countries, however, national protection and nature reserves already existed, such as Drachenfels (Germany, 1822) and a part of Forest of Fontainebleau (France, 1861). \n\nYellowstone was part of a federally governed territory. With no state government that could assume stewardship of the land so the federal government took on direct responsibility for the park, the official first national park of the United States. The combined effort and interest of conservationists, politicians and the Northern Pacific Railroad ensured the passage of enabling legislation by the United States Congress to create Yellowstone National Park. Theodore Roosevelt, already an active campaigner and so influential, as good stump speakers were highly necessary in the pre-telecommunications era, was highly influential in convincing fellow Republicans and big business to back the bill.\n\nAmerican Pulitzer Prize-winning author Wallace Stegner wrote: \nNational parks are the best idea we ever had. Absolutely American, absolutely democratic, they reflect us at our best rather than our worst.\n\nIn his book Dispossessing the Wilderness: Indian Removal and the Making of the National Parks, Mark David Spence made the point that in order to create these uninhabited spaces, the United States first had to disposess the Indians who were living in them. \n\nEven with the creation of Yellowstone, Yosemite, and nearly 37 other national parks and monuments, another 44 years passed before an agency was created in the United States to administer these units in a comprehensive way – the U.S. National Park Service (NPS). The 64th United States Congress passed the National Park Service Organic Act, which President Woodrow Wilson signed into law on August 25, 1916. Of the sites managed by the National Park Service of the United States, only 59 carry the designation of National Park. \n\nFollowing the idea established in Yellowstone, there soon followed parks in other nations. In Australia, the Royal National Park was established just south of Sydney on April 26, 1879, becoming the world's second official national park (actually the 3rd: Mackinac National Park in Michigan was created in 1875 as a national park but was later transferred to the state's authority in 1895, thus losing its official \"national park\" status). Rocky Mountain National Park became Canada's first national park in 1885. Argentina became the third country in the Americas to create a national park system, with the creation of the Nahuel Huapi National Park in 1934, through the initiative of Francisco Moreno. New Zealand established Tongariro National Park in 1887. In Europe, the first national parks were a set of nine parks in Sweden in 1909, followed by the Swiss National Park in 1914. Europe has some 359 national parks as of 2010. Africa's first national park was established in 1925 when Albert I of Belgium designated an area of what is now Democratic Republic of Congo centred on the Virunga Mountains as the Albert National Park (since renamed Virunga National Park). In 1973, Mount Kilimanjaro was classified as a National Park and was opened to public access in 1977. In 1926, the government of South Africa designated Kruger National Park as the nation's first national park, although it was an expansion of the earlier Sabie Game Reserve established in 1898 by President Paul Kruger of the old South African Republic, after whom the park was named. After World War II, national parks were founded all over the world. The Vanoise National Park in the Alps was the first French national park, created in 1963 after public mobilization against a touristic project.\n\nThe world's first national park service was established May 19, 1911, in Canada. The Dominion Forest Reserves and Parks Act placed the dominion parks under the administration of the Dominion Park Branch (now Parks Canada). The branch was established to \"protect sites of natural wonder\" to provide a recreational experience, centered on the idea of the natural world providing rest and spiritual renewal from the urban setting. Canada now has the largest protected area in the world with 377,000 km² of national park space. In 1989, the Qomolangma National Nature Preserve (QNNP) was created to protect 3.381 million hectares on the north slope of Mount Everest in the Tibet Autonomous Region of China. This national park is the first major global park to have no separate warden and protection staff—all of its management being done through existing local authorities, allowing a lower cost basis and a larger geographical coverage (in 1989 when created, it was the largest protected area in Asia). It includes four of the six highest mountains Everest, Lhotse, Makalu, and Cho Oyu. The QNNP is contiguous to four Nepali national parks, creating a transborder conservation area equal in size to Switzerland. \n\nFile:Consolation-Lake-Szmurlo.jpg|Lower Consolation Lake in Banff National Park, Alberta, Canada\nImage:Northumberland National Park.jpg|Hadrian's Wall crosses Northumberland National Park in England\nFile:Amanhecer no Hercules --.jpg|Serra dos Órgãos National Park in Rio de Janeiro state, Brazil. This national park is one of the few natural habitats of species of Schlumbergera \nFile:Altja jõgi Lahemaal.jpg|Lahemaa National Park in Estonia was the first area to be designated a national park in the former Soviet Union\nFile:Long Lake Jiuzhaigou.jpg|Jiuzhaigou in China is a national park known for its many multi-level waterfalls, colorful lakes, and snow-capped peaks.\n\nEconomic ramifications\n\nCountries with a large nature-based tourism industry, such as Costa Rica, often experience a huge economic effect on park management as well as the economy of the country as a whole. \n\nTourism\n\nTourism to national parks has increased considerably over time. In Costa Rica for example, a megadiverse country, tourism to parks has increased by 400% from 1985 to 1999. The term national park is perceived as a brand name that is associated with nature-based tourism and it symbolizes \"high quality natural environment and well-design tourism infrastructure\". \n\nStaff\n\nThe duties of a park ranger are to supervise, manage, and/or perform work in the conservation and use of Federal park resources. This involves functions such as park conservation; natural, historical, and cultural resource management; and the development and operation of interpretive and recreational programs for the benefit of the visiting public. Park rangers also have fire fighting responsibilities and execute search and rescue missions. Activities also include heritage interpretation to disseminate information to visitors of general, historical, or scientific information. Management of resources such as wildlife, lakeshores, seashores, forests, historic buildings, battlefields, archeological properties, and recreation areas are also part of the job of a park ranger. Since the establishment of the National Park Service in the US in 1916, the role of the park ranger has shifted from merely being a custodian of natural resources to include several activities that are associated with law enforcement. They control traffic and investigate violations, complaints, trespass/encroachment, and accidents.", "A National Monument in the United States is a protected area that is similar to a National Park, but can be created from any land owned or controlled by the federal government by proclamation of the President of the United States.\n\nNational monuments can be managed by one of several federal agencies: the National Park Service, United States Forest Service, United States Fish and Wildlife Service, or the Bureau of Land Management. Historically, some national monuments were managed by the War Department. \n\nNational monuments can be so designated through the power of the Antiquities Act of 1906. President Theodore Roosevelt used the act to declare Devils Tower in Wyoming as the first national monument.\n\nHistory\n\nThe Antiquities Act of 1906 resulted from concerns about protecting mostly prehistoric Native American ruins and artifacts (collectively termed \"antiquities\") on federal lands in the American West. The Act authorized permits for legitimate archaeological investigations and penalties for taking or destroying antiquities without permission. Additionally, it authorized the President to proclaim \"historic landmarks, historic and prehistoric structures, and other objects of historic or scientific interest\" on federal lands as national monuments, \"the limits of which in all cases shall be confined to the smallest area compatible with the proper care and management of the objects to be protected.\" \n\nThe reference in the act to \"objects of...scientific interest\" enabled President Theodore Roosevelt to make a natural geological feature, Devils Tower in Wyoming, the first national monument three months later. Among the next three monuments he proclaimed in 1906 was Petrified Forest in Arizona, another natural feature.\n\nIn 1908, Roosevelt used the act to proclaim more than 800000 acre of the Grand Canyon as a national monument. May 24 1911, Pres. T. Roosevelt created the Colorado National Monument in Grand Junction. \n\nIn 1918, President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed Katmai National Monument in Alaska, comprising more than 1000000 acre. Katmai was later enlarged to nearly 2800000 acre by subsequent Antiquities Act proclamations and for many years was the largest national park system unit. Petrified Forest, Grand Canyon, and Katmai were among the many national monuments later converted to national parks by Congress. \n\nIn response to Roosevelt's declaration of the Grand Canyon monument, a putative mining claimant sued in federal court, claiming that Roosevelt had overstepped the Antiquities Act authority by protecting an entire canyon. In 1920, the United States Supreme Court ruled unanimously that the Grand Canyon was indeed \"an object of historic or scientific interest\" and could be protected by proclamation, setting a precedent for the use of the Antiquities Act to preserve large areas.[http://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/252/450/case.html Cameron v. United States], 252 U.S. 450 (1920) Federal courts have since rejected every challenge to the President's use of Antiquities Act preservation authority, ruling that the law gives the president exclusive discretion over the determination of the size and nature of the objects protected.\n\nSubstantial opposition did not materialize until 1943, when President Franklin D. Roosevelt proclaimed Jackson Hole National Monument in Wyoming. He did this to accept a donation of lands acquired by John D. Rockefeller, Jr., for addition to Grand Teton National Park after Congress had declined to authorize this park expansion. Roosevelt's proclamation unleashed a storm of criticism about use of the Antiquities Act to circumvent Congress. A bill abolishing Jackson Hole National Monument passed Congress but was vetoed by Roosevelt, and Congressional and court challenges to the proclamation authority were mounted. In 1950, Congress finally incorporated most of the monument into Grand Teton National Park, but the act doing so barred further use of the proclamation authority in Wyoming except for areas of 5,000 acres or less.\n\nIn 1949, for example, President Harry S. Truman proclaimed Effigy Mounds National Monument to accept a donation of the land from the state of Iowa, at the request of Iowa's delegation. On those rare occasions when the proclamation authority was used in seeming defiance of local and congressional sentiment, Congress again retaliated. Just before he left office in 1961, President Dwight D. Eisenhower proclaimed the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Monument after Congress had declined to act on related national historical park legislation. The chairman of the House Interior Committee, Wayne Aspinall of Colorado, responded by blocking action on subsequent C & O Canal Park bills to the end of that decade.\n\nThe most substantial use of the proclamation authority came in 1978, when President Jimmy Carter proclaimed 15 new national monuments in Alaska after Congress had adjourned without passing a major Alaska lands bill strongly opposed in that state. Congress passed a revised version of the bill in 1980 incorporating most of these national monuments into national parks and preserves, but the act also curtailed further use of the proclamation authority in Alaska.\n\nThe proclamation authority was not used again anywhere until 1996, when President Bill Clinton proclaimed the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in Utah. This action was widely unpopular in Utah, and bills were introduced to further restrict the president's authority. To date, none of them have been enacted. Most of the 16 national monuments created by President Clinton are managed not by the National Park Service, but by the Bureau of Land Management as part of the National Landscape Conservation System.\n\nPresidents have used the Antiquities Act's proclamation authority not only to create new national monuments but to enlarge existing ones. For example, Franklin D. Roosevelt significantly enlarged Dinosaur National Monument in 1938. Lyndon B. Johnson added Ellis Island to Statue of Liberty National Monument in 1965, and Jimmy Carter made major additions to Glacier Bay and Katmai National Monuments in 1978.\n\nOn June 24, 2016, President Barack Obama designated the Stonewall Inn and surrounding areas in Greenwich Village, New York as the Stonewall National Monument, the first National Monument commemorating the struggle for LGBT rights in the United States. \n\nList of National Monuments", "The Presidency of Theodore Roosevelt was the executive branch of the United States government from September 14, 1901 to March 4, 1909. Before serving as 26th President of the United States of America, Roosevelt, a Republican, was 25th Vice President. He also previously served as Police Commissioner of New York City, Assistant Secretary of the Navy, and Governor of New York. Roosevelt was sworn-in as President upon the assassination of William McKinley. Owing to his charismatic personality, his extremely high energy levels and span of interests, and his reformist policies, which he called the \"Square Deal\", Roosevelt is considered one of the ablest presidents and an icon of the Progressive Era. \n\nRoosevelt was a Progressive reformer who sought to move the dominant Republican Party into a more liberal camp. He distrusted wealthy businessmen and dissolved 44 monopolistic corporations as a \"trust buster.\" He took care, however, to show that he did not disagree with trusts and capitalism in principle, but was only against their corrupt, illegal practices. His \"Square Deal\" included regulation of railroad rates and pure foods and drugs; he saw it as a fair deal for both the average citizen and the businessmen. He avoided labor strife and negotiated a settlement to the great Coal Strike of 1902. His great love was nature and he vigorously promoted the Conservation movement, emphasizing efficient use of natural resources. He dramatically expanded the system of national parks and national forests. In the 1904 election, Roosevelt became the first vice president who took over upon the death of a president to win a full presidential term in his own right. After 1906, he moved to the political left, attacking big business and suggesting the courts were biased against labor unions. He made sure his friend William Howard Taft replaced him as president.\n\nIn foreign affairs, Roosevelt, as president, showed none of the bellicosity that made his reputation when he called for war with Spain in 1898. Indeed, he became the first American to be awarded, in 1906, the Nobel Prize for peace, for negotiating the end of the Russo-Japanese War. Roosevelt was a naval strategist, often discussing history and theory with Captain Alfred Thayer Mahan, and taking a close interest in the Navy. The president emphasized the strategic necessity of the Panama Canal for reasons both military (to be able to use the Navy in both the Atlantic and Pacific) and commercial (to tie the East Coast to the West Coast and Asia). He negotiated US control of its construction in 1904; he felt that the Canal's completion was his most important and historically significant international achievement.\n\nHistorian Thomas Bailey, who generally disagreed with Roosevelt's policies, nevertheless concluded, \"Roosevelt was a great personality, a great activist, a great preacher of the moralities, a great controversialist, a great showman. He dominated his era as he dominated conversations ... the masses loved him; he proved to be a great popular idol and a great vote getter.\" His image stands alongside George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln on Mount Rushmore. Although Roosevelt has been criticized by some for his perceived imperialist stance, he is often ranked by historians among the top-five greatest U.S. Presidents of all time. \n\nLeadership style\n\nPresident William McKinley was shot by anarchist Leon Czolgosz in Buffalo, New York on September 6, 1901, and died on September 14, leaving Roosevelt to inherit the presidency. Being a few weeks short of his 43rd birthday, Theodore Roosevelt became the youngest person to hold the office. He retained McKinley's cabinet and promised to maintain his predecessor's policies. One of his first notable acts as President was to deliver a 20,000-word address to Congress on December 3, 1901,[http://www.theodore-roosevelt.com/sotu1.html Almanac of Theodore Roosevelt - Speeches of Theodore Roosevelt - Teddy Roosevelt] asking it to curb the power of large corporations (called \"trusts\") \"within reasonable limits.\" For his aggressive attacks on trusts over his two terms, he earned the label \"trust-buster.\"\nRoosevelt relished the Presidency and seemed to be everywhere at once. He took Cabinet members and friends on long, fast-paced hikes, engaged in boxing in the White House state rooms (during one bout of which he was permanently blinded in one eye), romped with his children, and read voraciously.\n\nIn 1904, Roosevelt ran for President in his own right and won in a landslide over a little known conservative Democrat. \n\nBuilding on McKinley's effective use of the press, Roosevelt made the White House the center of news every day, providing interviews and photo opportunities. Noticing the White House reporters huddled outside in the rain one day, he gave them their own room inside, effectively inventing the presidential press briefing. \nThe grateful press, with unprecedented access to the White House, rewarded Roosevelt with ample coverage, rendered the more possible by Roosevelt's practice of screening out reporters he didn't like.\n\nDomestic policy\n\nBefore entering the White House Roosevelt had learned a great deal as governor of the richest state, New York. He especially studied current economic issues and political techniques that proved relevant to his presidency. He came to understand the complexities of such issues as the trusts, monopoly, labor relations, and conservation. Chessman argues that Roosevelt's gubernatorial program \"rested firmly upon the concept of the square deal by a neutral state.\" The rules for the Square Deal were \"honesty in public affairs, an equitable sharing of privilege and responsibility, and subordination of party and local concerns to the interests of the state at large.\" Chessman says that as governor Roosevelt developed the principles that shaped his presidency, especially\ninsistence upon the public responsibility of large corporations; publicity as a first remedy for trusts; regulation of railroad rates; mediation of the conflict of capital and labor; conservation of natural resources; and protection of the less fortunate members of society. \n\nProgressivism\n\nDetermined to create what he called a \"Square Deal\" between business and labor, Roosevelt pushed several pieces of progressive legislation through Congress.\n\nProgressivism was among the most powerful political forces of the day, and Roosevelt was its most articulate spokesperson. Progressivism had dual aspects. First, progressivism promoted use of science, engineering, technology, and social sciences to address the nation's problems, and identify ways to eliminate waste and inefficiency and promote modernization. Roosevelt, trained as a biologist, identified himself and his programs with the mystique of science.\n\nThose promoting progressivism also campaigned against corruption among political machines, labor unions, and trusts of new, large corporations, which emerged at the turn of the century. Roosevelt, the former deputy sheriff on the Dakota frontier, and police commissioner of New York City, was keen on law and order. Indeed, he was the first president with significant law enforcement experience, and his moralistic determination set the tone of national politics. \n\nAnthracite Coal Strike of 1902\n\nA national emergency was averted in 1902 when Roosevelt found a compromise to the Anthracite coal strike that threatened the heating supplies of most homes. Roosevelt forced an end to the strike when he threatened to use the United States Army to mine the coal and seize the mines. By bringing representatives of both parties together, the president was able to facilitate the negotiations and convince both the miners and the owners to accept the findings of a commission. The labor union and the owners reached an agreement after this episode: the labor union agreed to cease being the official bargainer for the workers and the workers got better pay and fewer hours.\n \n\nTrust busting\n\nTrusts increasingly became a central issue, with fears that large corporations would impose monopolistic prices to defraud consumers and drive small, independent companies out. By 1904, 318 trusts including those in railroads, local transit, and banking industry controlled two-fifths of the nation's industrial output.\n\nThere are historians who credit McKinley with starting the trust-busting era, but it was Roosevelt who acted most powerfully as the \"trust buster.\" Once he became President, Roosevelt worked to increase the regulatory power of the federal government. Regulation of railroads was strengthened by the Elkins Act of 1903 and the Hepburn Act of 1906, which curbed the monopolitistic power of the railroads. Under the president's leadership, the Attorney General brought 44 suits against monopolists. Notably, J. P. Morgan's Northern Securities Company, a huge railroad combination, was broken up. To deal with the labor and management issues, Roosevelt established the Department of Commerce and Labor. \n\nFood and Drugs\n\nBeef Trust\n\nIn Swift and Company v. United States the Administration won a major Supreme Court victory and broke up the \"Beef trust\" that monopolized half or more of beef sales. The case originated in 1902 when Roosevelt directed his Attorney General Philander Knox to bring a lawsuit against the \"Beef Trust\" on antitrust grounds using the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890. The evidence at trial demonstrated that the \"Big Six\" leading meatpackers were engaged in a conspiracy to fix prices and divide the market for livestock and meat in their quest for higher prices and higher profits. They blacklisted competitors who failed to go along, used false bids, and accepted rebates from the railroads. The six companies involved were Swift, Armour, Morris, Cudahy, Wilson and Schwartzchild. Together they did $700 million a year in business and controlled half of the national market, and up to 75% in New York City. When they were hit with federal injunctions in 1902, the Big Six decided to merge into one National Packing Company in 1903, so they could continue to control the trade internally and not have to use conspiracies. The case was heard by the Supreme Court in 1905, shortly after it struck down a similar consolidation and the Northern Securities case of 1904. Speaking for the unanimous court, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. broadened the meaning of \"interstate\" commerce by including actions that were part of the chain where the chain was clearly interstate in character. In this case, the chain ran from farm to retail store and crossed many state lines. The government's victory in the case encouraged it to pursue other antitrust actions. Public opinion, which had been outraged by Upton Sinclair's novel The Jungle that depicted horribly unsanitary conditions in Chicago's meatpacking plants, supported the decision. \n\nPure Food and Drug Act\n\nIn response to public clamor, Roosevelt pushed Congress to pass the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906, as well as the Meat Inspection Act of 1906. These laws provided for labeling of foods and drugs, inspection of livestock and mandated sanitary conditions at meatpacking plants. Congress replaced Roosevelt's proposals with a version supported by the major meatpackers who worried about the overseas markets, and did not want small unsanitary plants undercutting their domestic market. \n\nRailroad regulation\n\nRoosevelt firmly believed that \"The Government must in increasing degree supervise and regulate the workings of the railways engaged in interstate commerce.\" Inaction was a danger, he argued. \"Such increased supervision is the only alternative to an increase of the present evils on the one hand or a still more radical policy on the other.\" (Annual Message, December 1904)\n\nThe Elkins Act was the administration's first effort to regulate railroad rates. It proved ineffective in enforcement, however. Roosevelt agreed with the shipping interests who wanted lower rates and stronger power of the Interstate Commerce Commission to enforce them. As Roosevelt told Congress, \"Above all else, we must strive to keep the highways of commerce open to all on equal terms; and to do this it is necessary to put a complete stop to all rebates.\"\n\nPolitically, the measure was action on behalf of shippers. It was assumed that the railroads would always be powerful, and no amount of regulation would seriously weaken them. \nRoosevelt encountered opposition in his party, led in the Senate by Nelson Aldrich of Rhode Island, the party leader; Joseph B. Foraker of Ohio; Chauncey Depew of New York (the president of the New York Central Railroad); Stephen Elkins of West Virginia; Philander Knox of Pennsylvania (formerly Roosevelt's Attorney General); and one of his closest friends Henry Cabot Lodge of Massachusetts. Roosevelt therefore relied on a group of midwestern Republicans, especially William Allison of Iowa.\n\nHe wanted to avoid collaborating with Ben Tillman of South Carolina, whom he considered \"one of the foulest and rottenest demagogues in the whole country.\" In the end Roosevelt convinced the conservatives that the courts would protect the railroads' interests, and he carried the bill without Tillman. \n\nThe Hepburn Act authorized the Interstate Commerce Commission to set maximum railroad rates and stop the practice of giving out free passes to friends of the railway interests. In addition, the Interstate Commerce Commission could examine the railroads' financial records, a task simplified by standardized booking systems. For any railroad that resisted, the Interstate Commerce Commission's conditions would be in effect until a legal decision of a court is issued. By the Hepburn Act, the Interstate Commerce Commission's authority was extended to bridges, terminals, ferries, sleeping cars, express companies and oil pipelines.\n\nThe main beneficiaries of the antitrust measures were merchants who received lower shipping rates. \n\nConservation\n\nRoosevelt was a prominent conservationist, putting the issue high on the national agenda. He worked with all the major figures of the movement, especially his chief advisor on the matter, Gifford Pinchot. Roosevelt was deeply committed to conserving natural resources, and is considered to be the nation's first conservation President. He encouraged the Newlands Reclamation Act of 1902 to promote federal construction of dams to irrigate small farms and placed 230 million acres (360,000 mi² or 930,000 km²) under federal protection. Roosevelt set aside more Federal land, national parks, and nature preserves than all of his predecessors combined. \n\nRoosevelt established the United States Forest Service, signed into law the creation of five National Parks, and signed the 1906 Antiquities Act, under which he proclaimed 18 new U.S. National Monuments. He also established the first 51 Bird Reserves, four Game Preserves, and 150 National Forests, including Shoshone National Forest, the nation's first. The area of the United States that he placed under public protection totals approximately 230000000 acre.\n\nGifford Pinchot had been appointed by McKinley as chief of Division of Forestry in the Department of Agriculture. In 1905, his department gained control of the national forest reserves. Pinchot promoted private use (for a fee) under federal supervision. In 1907, Roosevelt designated 16 million acres (65,000 km²) of new national forests just minutes before a deadline.\n\nIn May 1908, Roosevelt sponsored the Conference of Governors held in the White House, with a focus on natural resources and their most efficient use. Roosevelt delivered the opening address: \"Conservation as a National Duty.\"\n\nIn 1903 Roosevelt toured the Yosemite Valley with John Muir, who had a very different view of conservation, and tried to minimize commercial use of water resources and forests. Working through the Sierra Club he founded, Muir succeeded in 1905 in having Congress transfer the Mariposa Grove and Yosemite Valley to the Federal Government. While Muir wanted nature preserved for the sake of pure beauty, Roosevelt subscribed to Pinchot's formulation, \"to make the forest produce the largest amount of whatever crop or service will be most useful, and keep on producing it for generation after generation of men and trees.\" \n\nCivil Rights\n\nAlthough Roosevelt did some work improving race relations, he, like most leaders of the Progressive Era, lacked initiative on most racial issues. Booker T. Washington, the most important black leader of the day, was the first African American to be invited to dinner at the White House, on October 16, 1901, where he discussed politics and racism with Roosevelt. News of the dinner reached the press two days later. The white public outcry following the dinner was so strong, especially from the Southern states, that Roosevelt never repeated the experiment. Roosevelt was reluctant to use federal authority to enforce the Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution guaranteeing voting rights to African Americans. \n\nPublicly, Roosevelt spoke out against racism and discrimination. He appointed many blacks to lower-level Federal offices, and wrote fondly of the \"Buffalo Soldiers\", who had fought beside his Rough Riders at the Battle of San Juan Hill in Cuba in July 1898. However, soon after returning from San Juan Hill, Roosevelt changed his story concerning African-American soldiers and their conduct in battle, saying \"Under the strain the colored infantrymen (who had none of their white officers) began to get a little uneasy and drift to the rear… This I could not allow.\" Roosevelt opposed school segregation, having ended the practice in New York State during his governorship, and also rejected anti-Semitism — he was the first to appoint a Jew, Oscar S. Straus, to the Cabinet.\n\nLike most intellectuals of the era, Roosevelt believed in social evolution;[http://www.theodorerooseveltcenter.org/Essay.asp?ID=15 Theodore Roosevelt Center - Essay Details] as an authority on biology he paid special attention to the issue. He saw the different races as having reached different levels of civilization, with whites thus far having reached a higher level than blacks. Every race, and every individual, was capable of unlimited improvement, Roosevelt felt. Furthermore, a new \"race\" (in the cultural sense, not biological) had emerged on the American frontier, the \"American race,\" and it was quite distinct from other ethnic groups, such as the Anglo-Saxons. Roosevelt identified himself as Dutch, not Anglo-Saxon. After criticism of his invitation of Washington to the White House, Roosevelt seemed to wilt publicly on the cause of racial equality. In 1906, he approved the dishonorable discharges of three companies of black soldiers who all refused his direct order to testify regarding their actions during a violent episode in Brownsville, Texas, known as the Brownsville Raid.\n\nIn 1905, Roosevelt wanted the city of San Francisco to allow 93 Japanese students to attend public schools with whites; they were assigned to the public school for Chinese students, which Japan had protested. Roosevelt threatened a lawsuit. Finally a compromise was reached where the School Board would allow the Japanese students to attend public school with whites and Roosevelt would ask Japan to stop issuing passports to laborers. By the \"Gentlemen's Agreement of 1907,\" Japan did stop issuing passports to unskilled workers. \n\nRadical shift, 1907–08\n\nBy 1907–08, his last two years in office, Roosevelt was increasingly distrustful of big business, despite its close ties to the Republican party in every large state. Public opinion had been shifting to the left after a series of scandals, and big business was in bad odor. Abandoning his earlier cautious approach toward big business, Roosevelt freely lambasted his conservative critics and called on Congress to enact a series of radical new laws — the Square Deal — that would regulate the economy. \n\nHe called for a national incorporation law (all corporations had state charters, which varied greatly state by state), a federal income tax and inheritance tax (both targeted on the rich), limits on the use of court injunctions against labor unions during strikes (injunctions were a powerful weapon that mostly helped business), an employee liability law for industrial injuries (preempting state laws), an eight-hour law for federal employees, a postal savings system (to provide competition for local banks), and, finally, campaign reform laws. \n\nNone of his agenda was enacted, and Roosevelt carried over the ideas into the 1912 campaign. Roosevelt's increasingly radical stance proved popular in the Midwest and Pacific Coast, and among farmers, teachers, clergymen, clerical workers and some proprietors, but appeared as divisive and unnecessary to eastern Republicans, corporate executives, lawyers, party workers, and Congressmen. \n\nRoosevelt's move allowed Senator Nelson Aldrich to tighten his control of Congress. In 1908, Aldrich introduced the constitutional amendment to establish an income tax. The same year he wrote the Aldrich–Vreeland Act which created the National Monetary Commission, which he directed. It made an in-depth study of central banking in Europe—which was far more effective than America in that regard. Aldrich's dramatic proposals for comprehensive reform became the Federal Reserve in 1913.\nHe wanted the president to have little power because the president wasn't going to be in office for long.\n\nForeign policy\n\nHistorian William N. Tilchin identified three core principles that guided Roosevelt's foreign policy: broadly conceived U.S. interests, the strengthening of the United States Navy, and close cooperation between Britain and the United States on a wide range of issues. He had traveled widely and was well informed on international affairs, as well as military and naval affairs around the world. He was determined to make America a great world power while avoiding war. \n\nArmy\n\nThe United States Army, with 39,000 men in 1890, was the smallest and least powerful army of any major power in the late 19th century. By contrast, France had 542,000. The Spanish–American War of 1898 was fought mostly by temporary volunteers and state national guard units. It demonstrated that more effective control over the department and bureaus was necessary. \n\nRoosevelt gave strong support to the reforms proposed by his Secretary of War Elihu Root (1899–1904), who wanted a uniformed chief of staff as general manager and a European-type general staff for planning. Despite being stymied by General Nelson A. Miles, the Commanding General of the United States Army, the Secretary succeeded in enlarging West Point and establishing the U.S. Army War College as well as the General Staff. Root changed the procedures for promotions and organized schools for the special branches of the service. He also devised the principle of rotating officers from staff to line. Root was concerned about the new territories acquired after the Spanish–American War and worked out the procedures for turning Cuba over to the Cubans, wrote the charter of government for the Philippines, and eliminated tariffs on goods imported to the United States from Puerto Rico. \n\nNavy\n\nWith the publication of The Influence of Sea Power upon History, 1660–1783 in 1890, Navy Captain Alfred Thayer Mahan was immediately hailed as the outstanding naval theorist by the leaders of Europe. Roosevelt paid very close attention to Mahan's emphasis that only a nation with the world's most powerful fleet could dominate the world's oceans, exert its diplomacy to the fullest, and defend its own borders. Mahan in turn incorporated some of Roosevelt's ideas in his essays, as the two men engaged in a high level dialogue. Roosevelt incorporated Mahanian ideas into American naval strategy when he served as assistant secretary of the Navy in 1897-98. As president, 1901-1909, Roosevelt made building up a world-class fighting fleet a high priority. By 1904, the United States had the fifth largest Navy in the world. By 1907, it had the third largest. He sent what he dubbed the \"Great White Fleet\" around the globe in 1908-1909 to make sure all the naval powers understood the United States was now a major player. Roosevelt's fleet still did not challenge the superior British fleet, but it did become dominant in the Western Hemisphere. Building the Panama Canal was designed not just to open Pacific trade to East Coast cities, but also to enable the new Navy to move back and forth across the globe. As a tribute to him, several Navy warships have been named after Roosevelt over the years, including a Nimitz class supercarrier.\n\nRoosevelt Corollary\n\nIn late 1904, following the Venezuela Crisis of 1902–03, Roosevelt announced his Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine. It stated that the U.S. would intervene in the finances of unstable Caribbean and Central American countries if they defaulted on their debts to European creditors and, in effect, guarantee their debts, making it unnecessary for European powers to intervene to collect unpaid debts. In the case of Venezuela's default, Germany had threatened to seize the customs houses in her ports. Thus, Roosevelt's pronouncement was especially meant as a warning to Germany, and had the result of promoting peace in the region, as the Germans decided to not intervene directly in Venezuela and in other countries. \n\nEnding the Russo-Japanese War\n\nIn the summer of 1905, Roosevelt persuaded the parties in the Russo-Japanese War to meet in a peace conference in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, starting on August 5. His persistent and effective mediation led to the signing of the Treaty of Portsmouth on September 5, ending the war. For his efforts, Roosevelt was awarded the 1906 Nobel Peace Prize. \n\nJapan and Korea\n\nRoosevelt saw Japan as the rising power in Asia, in terms of military strength and economic modernization. He viewed Korea as a backward nation and did not object to Japanese moves to control the strategic Korean Peninsula. With the withdrawal of the American legation from Seoul and the refusal of the Secretary of State to receive a Korean protest mission, the Americans signaled they would not intervene militarily to stop Japan's planned takeover of Korea. There is a myth regarding a so-called Taft–Katsura Agreement of 1905. In 1924 historian Tyler Dennett uncovered notes of a secret meeting between Secretary of War William H. Taft and the Japanese prime minister in Tokyo in 1905. Dennett misinterpreted it as striking a bargain giving Japan a free hand in Korea in return for Japan promising to stay out of the Philippines. Historians now agree that there was no \"bargain.\" Rather there was a discussion that guaranteed each side understood the other's position; it did not make any new points. \n\nVituperative anti-Japanese sentiment among Americans, especially on the West Coast, soured relations in the 1907-24 era. \nWashington did not want to anger Japan by passing legislation to bar Japanese immigration to the U.S. as had been done for Chinese immigration. Instead there was an informal \"Gentlemen's Agreement\" (1907-8) between the U.S. and Japan whereby Japan made sure there was very little or no migration of unskilled Japanese workers to the U.S., and the public schools of San Francisco stopped the segregation of Japanese students. The agreements were made by Secretary of State Elihu Root and Japan's Foreign Minister Tadasu Hayashi. The Agreement banned emigration of Japanese laborers to the U.S. or Hawaii and ended the segregation order of the San Francisco School Board in California, which had humiliated and angered the Japanese. The agreements remained effect until 1924 when Congress forbade all immigration from Japan. \n\nCharles Neu concludes that Roosevelt's policies were a success:\nBy the close of his presidency it was a largely successful policy based upon political realities at home and in the Far East and upon a firm belief that friendship with Japan was essential to preserve American interests in the Pacific.... Roosevelt's diplomacy during the Japanese-American crisis of 1906-1909 was shrewd, skillful, and responsible. \n\nPanama Canal\n\nIn 1903, Roosevelt encouraged the local political class in Panama to form a nation independent from Colombia after that nation refused the American terms for the building of a canal across the isthmus. Roosevelt dispatched navy vessels to the area to apply political pressure on the Colombian government, allowing the Panamanian rebels to secede without much opposition. The new nation of Panama sold a canal zone to the United States for $10 million and a steadily increasing yearly sum. Roosevelt felt that a passage through the Isthmus of Panama was vital to protect American interests and to create a strong and cohesive United States Navy that could easily move warships between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. The resulting Panama Canal was completed in 1914 and brought greatly increased trade to Central America and to the American West Coast. \n\nWhen Roosevelt traveled to Panama in 1906 to inspect progress on the canal, he became the first U.S. president to travel outside the country while in office. The visit signaled a new era in how presidents would conduct diplomatic relations with other countries.\n\nAlgeciras Conference\n\nIn 1906, at the request of Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany, Roosevelt convinced France to attend an international conference to resolve the First Moroccan Crisis over the degree of influence of European powers in Morocco. France was positioning itself to dominate Morocco, which angered Germany. Germany was annoyed that it had no presence in North Africa, and hinted darkly that a failure to adjust the crisis might lead to war between Germany and France. The Sultan of Morocco was a weak figure who could not control his own cities. The conference was held in the city of Algeciras, Spain, and 13 nations attended. The American delegate was Henry White, who mediated between France and Germany. The main issue was control of the police forces in the Moroccan cities, and Germany, with a weak diplomatic delegation, found itself in a decided minority. Roosevelt secretly supported France and did not want Germany to gain a more powerful position in Morocco. Roosevelt cooperated closely with the French ambassador, while gaining from the Germans a promise that Roosevelt would have a decisive role. Agreement was reached on April 7, 1906, which slightly reduced French influence by reaffirming the independence of the Sultan and the economic independence and freedom of operations of all European powers. Germany gained nothing of importance but was mollified and stopped threatening war. \n\nPhilippines\n\nAfter the official end of Philippine–American War in 1902, the insurgents accepted American rule and peace prevailed, except in some remote islands under Muslim control. Roosevelt continued the McKinley policies of removing the Catholic friars (with compensation to the Pope), upgrading the infrastructure, introducing public health programs, and launching a program of economic and social modernization. The enthusiasm shown in 1898-99 for colonies cooled off, and Roosevelt saw the islands as \"our heel of Achilles.\" He told Taft in 1907, \"I should be glad to see the islands made\nindependent, with perhaps some kind of international guarantee for the preservation of order, or with some warning on our part that if they did not keep order we would have to interfere again.\" By then the President and his foreign policy advisers turned away from Asian issues to concentrate on Latin America, and Roosevelt redirected Philippine policy to prepare the islands to become the first Western colony in Asia to achieve self-government. \n\nAdministration and Cabinet\n\nJudicial appointments\n\nRoosevelt appointed three Justices to the Supreme Court of the United States:\n*Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. - 1902\n*William Rufus Day - 1903\n*William Henry Moody - 1906\n\nStates admitted to the Union\n\n* Oklahoma – November 16, 1907 46th state" ] }

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{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe" ], "filename": [ "Grandma_Got_Run_Over_by_a_Reindeer.txt" ], "title": [ "Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer" ], "wiki_context": [ "\"Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer\" is a novelty Christmas song.\nWritten by Randy Brooks, the song was originally performed by the husband-and-wife duo of Elmo and Patsy Trigg Shropshire in 1979. In the lyrics, a family matriarch gets drunk from drinking too much eggnog and, having forgotten to take her medication and despite warnings from her family, staggers outside into a snowstorm. On her walk, she is trampled and killed by Santa Claus and his reindeer. The second and third verses describe the next day's Christmas gathering: \"all the family's dressed in black\" while the widower acts as if nothing's happened, drinks beer, watches football and plays \"cards with cousin Mel\". The song closes with a warning that Santa, \"a man who drives a sleigh and plays with elves\", is unfit to carry a driver's license, and that the listener should beware.\n\nReleases\n\nAccording to Brooks, he played the song while sitting in with Elmo and Patsy at the Hyatt Lake Tahoe in December 1978, and after the show they had him make a cassette of the song for them to learn. A year later, they were selling 45s of the song from the stage, with Elmo himself appearing in drag on the album cover as Grandma.\n\nThe song was originally self-released in the San Francisco area by the Shropshires in 1979 on their own record label (on \"Elmo 'n' Patsy\" #2984), with the B-side titled \"Christmas\". Initial copies appeared on a cream-colored label, with a sketch of a pig clearly visible, at left. Once initial copies had sold out, later-pressed #2984 cream-colored 45 label copies retained the same pig sketch, but decided to both move the sketch, and add the word \"Oink\", to the top of the 45's label. Meanwhile, the duo's names were moved to the bottom of the label, below the song title. By the early 1980s, the song was becoming a seasonal hit, first on country stations and then on Top 40 stations. Oink Records, still based in Windsor, California, continued distribution of the 45 rpm record in the western U.S., with \"Nationwide Sound Distributors\" (NSD) of Nashville, Tennessee pressing and distributing the song on its Soundwaves Records in the eastern U.S., peaking at #92 on the country singles charts. In 1982, the duo both re-recorded and re-released the song as a single, again as Oink #2984. But this time, Oink chose to handle all nationwide product distribution themselves, ending the old NSD-Soundwaves agreement. Re-recorded Oink #2984 45 copies appeared on a white label, not a cream-colored label, however. That is the easiest way (aside from listening to the 45 itself) to differentiate between the original, 1979 Oink #2984 recording and its now-much-more familiar, 1982 re-recording. An entire LP, named after their hit song, was also recorded in 1982, and was initially released as Oink #8223. In 1984, with the song now a big hit nationally, CBS Records was interested in re-issuing both the 1982 Oink 45 re-recording, and the 1982 Oink LP. Soon after, Epic Records acquired the rights to both, from Elmo and Patsy. The Epic #04703 45 opted to replace the Oink 45's B-side, \"Christmas\", with a track from the LP, (\"Percy, the Puny Poinsettia\"). Epic's 1984 re-release of the 1982 Oink LP was a straight re-issue, on Epic #39931. By the end of 1984, it was reported that sales of \"Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer\" were, by record label: Oink: 50,000 45s sold; Soundwaves: 175,000 45s sold; Epic: 150,000 45s sold and 90,000 LPs sold. The Epic Records version charted at #64 on the country charts in 1998 and #48 in 1999.\n\nThe original version was released in the United Kingdom on Stiff Records (BUY 99) in 1980. It did not chart.\n\nOther releases by the original artist(s) would follow:\n\n*Following the Shropshires' divorce, Elmo re-recorded it solo in 1992 and again in 2000.\n*SonyBMG released Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer by Dr. Elmo in 2002.\n*Madacy Records released a Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer gift tin (CD/DVD/Xmas stocking) by Dr. Elmo in 2007.\n*Time Life Records released Dr. Elmo's Bluegrass Christmas in 2010, which featured a bluegrass instrumental of \"Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer.\"\n\nA sequel, \"Grandpa's Gonna Sue the Pants Off of Santa\", was released by Elmo Shropshire on his album, Dr. Elmo's Twisted Christmas (1992). Grandpa gets lawyers to fight Santa in court.\n\nCovers\n\nThe song has been recorded by other acts.\n\n*The first wide release of the song was in Canada in 1982 by The Irish Rovers. Their signature version, produced by Jack Richardson, rose to #20 on the RPM charts within a week of its release. The single became a seasonal hit, first on country stations, then on Top 40 stations, and today remains a 'seasonal holiday anthem'. The song was also released on the Rovers' 1999 album Songs of Christmas.\n*It has also been covered by Family Force 5 (in the song, the word \"beer\" was edited out and replaced with root beer), and in 1996 by Poe.\n*It was also covered by Less Than Jake on their album Goodbye Blue and White.\n*A rock cover version is on the album We Wish You a Metal Xmas and a Headbanging New Year.\n*Country a cappella band Home Free covered it on their 2014 Christmas album Full of Cheer.\n* Reel Big Fish covered the song on their 2014 EP Happy Skalidays.\n\nParodies\n\nZ100 Portland Morning Zoo made a New Kids on the Block-bashing parody of the song for Christmas 1989, entitled \"New Kids Got Run Over by a Reindeer\".\n\nA parody \"Grandpa Got Run Over by a Beer Truck\" was released by Da Yoopers in 1993. Radio personality Bob Rivers recorded his own parody titled \"Osama Got Run Over by a Reindeer\", \"Grandma Got Molested at the Airport\" and \"Grandma Got Dismembered by a Chainsaw\" by Danny Aldridge.\n\nCledus T. Judd in 1996 released a parody called \"Grandpa Got Run Over by a John Deere\" as a sequel to \"Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer\" and as well did a cover of the song in 2002.\n\nStan Boreson sings a Norwegian-American version, \"Lena Got Run Over by a Reindeer\" on his Christmas album, Stan Boreson Fractures Christmas.\n\nPopularity\n\nEdison Media Research and Pinnacle Media Worldwide independently survey radio listeners on which Christmas songs they like and dislike. In both surveys, results of which were reported in 2007, the only song that reached the top of both liked and disliked lists was \"Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer.\" Its \"loved\" ratings in the Edison and Pinnacle polls were relatively high—47 and 32 percent, respectively—but so were the \"hate\" or \"dislike\" ratings—17 and 22 percent.\n\nA major Washington, D.C. radio station, WASH (97.1 FM), dropped the song from its playlist. \"It was too polarizing,\" says Bill Hess, program director. \"It wasn't strong, except with a few people, and it had a lot of negatives.\"\n\nShropshire claims it is \"a beloved holiday favorite.\" The video of the song was \"a holiday staple on MTV for many seasons.\" It has been \"incorporated into talking toys and a musical greeting card.\" \"My royalties are four or five times what they were\" 20 years ago, claims Elmo, who performs the song with his bluegrass group year-round. \"A lot of younger people say it's not really Christmas until they hear it.\"\n\nTelevision\n\nThe 2000 animated television program Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer portrays the events depicted in the song, though made for children; the cartoon is toned down a bit, so that Grandma survives. Moreover, Santa is actually innocent of the crime, which was instead masterminded by scheming relative Cousin Mel, who is mentioned briefly in the song but made into a gold-digging villainness in the special. Elmo Shropshire narrates the special and voices Grandpa. The special is a staple of Cartoon Network's holiday programming and airs every holiday season on The CW (The special originally aired on the WB Network every holiday season until the 2006 merge with UPN to form The CW, where it continues to air today).\n\nMusic video\n\nThe promotional music video for Elmo & Patsy's \"Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer\" was released in the mid-1980s, and aired on MTV for at least 18 years. The video could also be seen on VH1, CMT, TNN, GAC, and VH1 Classic during the holiday season, as well as being on Spike's official website and YouTube. Elmo Shropshire played Grandpa and Grandma while Patsy played Cousin Mel.\n\nWhile the family matriarch was run over by Santa Claus's reindeer, she has survived the accident (unlike in the song) and thus reappears toward the end of the video, alive and very much well, but somewhat fazed by the trampling. While being escorted inside the house by two policemen, she finally speaks the cautionary last line of the last verse as though commenting on Santa's driving: \"They should NEVER give a license/To a man who drives a sleigh and plays with elves\"." ] }

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{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe", "Search" ], "filename": [ "Barq's.txt", "Root_beer.txt" ], "title": [ "Barq's", "Root beer" ], "wiki_context": [ "Barq's is an American soft drink. Its brand of root beer is notable for having caffeine. Barq's, created by Edward Barq and bottled since the turn of the 20th century, is currently owned and bottled by the Coca-Cola Company. It was known as Barq's Famous Olde Tyme Root Beer until 2012. \n\nBarq's products\n\n* Diet Barq's Root Beer - contains no caffeine. Available in Root Beer and Vanilla Cream.\n* Barq's Red Crème Soda (Barq's Yellow Creme Soda was also produced until the early 1990s).\n* Diet Barq's Red Crème Soda\n* Barq's French Vanilla Crème Soda\n* Discontinued: Diet Crème Soda Barq's French Vanilla\n* Discontinued: Barq's Floatz, which is designed to taste like a root beer float. J & J Snack Foods Corporation once licensed the brand name for Barq's Floatz ice cream squeeze tubes.\n\nHistory\n\nThe Barq's Brothers Bottling Company was founded in 1898 in the French Quarter of New Orleans, by Edward Charles Edmond Barq and his older brother, Gaston. The Barq Brothers bottled carbonated water and various soft drinks of their own creation. Early on their most popular creation was an orange-flavored soda called Orangine, which won a gold medal at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition World's Fair in Chicago, Illinois.\n\nEdward Barq moved to Biloxi, Mississippi, in 1897 with his new wife. The following year he opened the Biloxi Artesian Bottling Works. 1898 is often given as the debut year for what was later to be known as \"Barq's root beer,\" but some sources say this particular product was not produced until some two years later. \n\nIt was on the Mississippi coast that Barq met and employed a young boy, Jesse Robinson. Robinson was mentored by Barq and later moved to New Orleans to find his fortune. In 1934 Edward Barq, Sr. and Robinson sign a contractual agreement on Barq's product rights. The agreement was unique from other franchises in many aspects. One, that Robinson was allowed to make his own concentrate. The two men remained close their entire lives, working on flavors and production challenges. A distinctive difference between the Biloxi-based root beer and the Louisiana's was that the Louisiana bottle was printed in red (versus Biloxi's blue). This was to distinguish ownership of bottles as blue labeled ones were returned to Mississippi and vice-versa. There were also regional taste differences between the various Barq's bottlers. While there may have been minor formula differences, water generally defined these differences.\n\nFor many decades Barq's was not marketed as a \"root beer.\" This was in part a desire to avoid legal conflict with the Hires Root Beer company, which was attempting to claim a trademark on the term \"root beer.\" It was also due to differences from other root beers at the time. The formulation was sarsaparilla based, contained less sugar, had a higher carbonation, and less of a foamy head than other brands. \n\nThe traditional slogan was the simple affirmation \"Drink Barq's. It's good\" which first appeared on the classic diamond-necked bottle, patented in 1935 by Ed Barq. \n\nIn 1976, the Biloxi Barq's Company was purchased from the 3rd generation of Barq family members by John Oudt and John Koerner. An aggressive television campaign was developed based on the \"Barq's Got Sparks\" theme. Their plans to market the brand nationally were complicated by the existence of the Louisiana-based Barq's companies which were owned and operated by Robinson's heirs.\n\nThere were extended legal conflicts over the rights and ownership of the trademark Barq's, Barq's Sr. and Barq's Root Beer. The legal battle went all the way to the United States Court of Appeals, 5th Circuit which ruled in favor of the Robinson heirs. The last family-held Louisiana Barq's was sold by Robinson's heirs to Coca-Cola in 2000.\n\nIn 1990, Barq's partnered with the Pick N Save grocery store in Dekalb, Illinois to create the World's Largest Root Beer Float. It was mixed in an above ground swimming pool in the parking lot and consisted of 1,500 gallons of Barq's root beer and 1,000 gallons of vanilla ice cream.\n\nIn recent years Barq's has been marketed with the slogan \"Barq's has bite!\"\n\nRegular Barq's has 22.5 mg of caffeine per 12 ounce serving (similar to green tea), while Diet Barq's has no caffeine. Barq's also contains sodium benzoate as a flavor protectant, which under the right conditions, is a precursor to the known carcinogen benzene. \n\nThe Barq's that is dispensed from Coca-Cola Freestyle machines is caffeine-free. This is because the system uses the same concentrated, microdosed ingredient for both Barq's and Diet Barq's; the only difference between the two is the sweetener that is added.", "Root beer is a tan sweet beverage traditionally made using the root beer tree Sassafras albidum (sassafras) or the vine Smilax ornata (sarsaparilla) as the primary flavor. Root beer may be alcoholic or non-alcoholic, come naturally decaffeinated or have caffeine added, and may be carbonated or non-carbonated. Most root beer has a thick foamy head when poured. Modern, commercially produced root beer is generally sweet, foamy, carbonated, and non-alcoholic, and is flavoured using sassafras. It may or may not contain caffeine.\n\nHistory\n\nSassafras root beverages were made by Native Americans for culinary and medicinal reasons before the arrival of Europeans in North America, but European culinary techniques have been applied to making traditional sassafras-based beverages similar to root beer since the 16th and 17th centuries. Root beer was sold in confectionery stores since the 1840s, and written recipes for root beer have been documented since the 1860s. It is possible that it was combined with soda as early as the 1850s, and root beer sold in stores was most often sold as a syrup rather than a ready-made beverage. The tradition of brewing root beer is thought to have evolved out of other small beer traditions that produced fermented drinks with very low alcohol content that were thought to be healthier to drink than possibly tainted local sources of drinking water, and enhanced by the medicinal and nutritional qualities of the ingredients used. Beyond its aromatic qualities, the medicinal benefits of sassafras were well known to both Native Americans and Europeans, and druggists began marketing root beer for its medicinal qualities. \n\nPharmacist Charles Elmer Hires was the first to successfully market a commercial brand of root beer. Hires developed his root tea made from sassafras in 1875, debuted a commercial version of root beer at the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition in 1876, and began selling his extract. Hires was a teetotaler who wanted to call the beverage \"root tea\". However, his desire to market the product to Pennsylvania coal miners caused him to call his product \"root beer\" instead. In 1886, Hires began to bottle a beverage made from his famous extract. By 1893, root beer was distributed widely across the United States. Non-alcoholic versions of root beer became commercially successful, especially during Prohibition. \n\nNot all traditional or commercial root beers were sassafras-based. One of Hires's early competitors was Barq's, which began selling its sarsaparilla-based root beer in 1898 and was labeled simply as \"Barq's\". In 1919, Roy Allen opened his root beer stand in Lodi, California, which led to the development of A&W root beer. One of Allen's innovations was that he served his homemade root beer in cold, frosty mugs. IBC is another brand of commercially produced root beer that emerged during this period and is still well-known today.\n\nSafrole, the aromatic oil found in sassafras roots and bark that gave traditional root beer its distinctive flavour, was banned for commercially mass-produced foods and drugs by the FDA in 1960. Laboratory animals that were given oral doses of sassafras tea or sassafras oil that contained large doses of safrole developed permanent liver damage or various types of cancer. While sassafras is no longer used in commercially produced root beer and is sometimes substituted with artificial flavors, natural extracts with the safrole distilled and removed are available. \n\nTraditional method\n\nOne traditional recipe for making root beer involves cooking a syrup from molasses and water, letting the syrup cool for three hours, combining the root ingredients (including sassafras root, sassafras bark, and wintergreen). Yeast was added, and the beverage was left to ferment for 12 hours, after which it was strained and rebottled for secondary fermentation. This recipe would usually result in a beverage of 2% alcohol or less, although the recipe could be modified to produce a more alcoholic beverage.\n\nIngredients\n\nCommercial root beer is now produced in every U.S. state. It is a beverage almost exclusive to North America, yet there are a few brands produced in other countries, such as the Philippines and Thailand. The flavor of these beverages often varies from typical North American versions. While there is no standard recipe, the primary ingredients in modern rootbeer are filtered water, sugar and artificial sassafras flavoring, which complement other flavors. Common flavorings are vanilla, wintergreen, cherry tree bark, licorice root, sarsaparilla root, nutmeg, acacia, anise, molasses, cinnamon, sweet birch, and honey. Soybean protein is sometimes used to create a foamy quality, and caramel-coloring is used to make the beverage brown.\n\nIngredients in early and traditional root beers include allspice, birch bark, coriander, juniper, ginger, wintergreen, hops, burdock root, dandelion root, spikenard, pipsissewa, guaiacum chips, sarsaparilla, spicewood, wild cherry bark, yellow dock, prickly ash bark, sassafras root, vanilla beans, dog grass, molasses and licorice. Many of these ingredients are still used in traditional and commercially produced root beer today, which is often thickened, foamed, or carbonated.\nAlthough most mainstream brands are caffeine-free, Barq's does contain caffeine. \n\nRoot beer may be made at home with processed extract obtained from a factory, or it can also be made from herbs and roots that have not yet been processed. Alcoholic and non-alcoholic traditional root beers make a thick and foamy head when poured, often enhanced by the addition of yucca extract or other thickeners.\n\nList of main ingredients\n\nRoots and herbs\n\n* Sassafras albidum – Sassafras roots and bark containing the aromatic oil safrole (or an artificial substitute)\n* Smilax regelii – Sarsaparilla\n* Smilax glyciphylla – Sweet Sarsaparilla\n* Piper auritum – Root Beer Plant or Hoja Santa\n* Glycyrrhiza glabra – Liquorice (root)\n* Aralia nudicaulis – Wild Sarsaparilla or \"Rabbit Root\"\n* Gaultheria procumbens – Wintergreen (leaves and berries)\n* Betula lenta – Sweet Birch (sap/syrup/resin)\n* Betula nigra – Black Birch (sap/syrup/resin)\n* Prunus serotina – Black Cherry\n* Picea rubens – Red Spruce\n* Picea mariana – Black Spruce\n* Picea sitchensis – Sitka Spruce\n* Arctium lappa – Burdock (root)\n* Taraxacum officinale – Dandelion (root)\n\nFoam\n\n* Quillaja saponaria – Soapbark\n* Manihot esculenta – Cassava, Manioc or Yucca (root)\n\nSpices\n\n* Pimenta dioica – Allspice\n* Theobroma cacao – Chocolate.\n* Trigonella foenum-graecum – Fenugreek\n* Myroxylon balsamum – Tolu balsam\n* Abies balsamea – Balsam Fir\n* Myristica fragrans – Nutmeg\n* Cinnamomum verum – Cinnamon (bark)\n* Cinnamomum aromaticum – Cassia (bark)\n* Syzygium aromaticum – Clove\n* Foeniculum vulgare – Fennel (seed)\n* Zingiber officinale – Ginger (stem/rhizome)\n* Illicium verum – Star Anise\n* Pimpinella anisum – Anise\n* Humulus lupulus – Hops\n* Mentha species – Mint\n\nOther ingredients\n\n* Hordeum vulgare – Barley (malted)\n* Hypericum perforatum – St. John's Wort\n* Sugar\n* Molasses\n* Yeast" ] }

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{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe" ], "filename": [ "Ben_Bernanke.txt" ], "title": [ "Ben Bernanke" ], "wiki_context": [ "Ben Shalom Bernanke ( ; born December 13, 1953) is an American economist at the Brookings Institution who served two terms as chairman of the Federal Reserve, the central bank of the United States, from 2006 to 2014. During his tenure as chairman, Bernanke oversaw the Federal Reserve's response to the late-2000s financial crisis.\nBefore becoming Federal Reserve chairman, Bernanke was a tenured professor at Princeton University and chaired the department of economics there from 1996 to September 2002, when he went on public service leave.\n\nFrom August 5, 2002 until June 21, 2005, he was a member of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, proposed the Bernanke Doctrine, and first discussed \"the Great Moderation\" — the theory that traditional business cycles have declined in volatility in recent decades through structural changes that have occurred in the international economy, particularly increases in the economic stability of developing nations, diminishing the influence of macroeconomic (monetary and fiscal) policy.\n\nBernanke then served as chairman of President George W. Bush's Council of Economic Advisers before President Bush nominated him to succeed Alan Greenspan as chairman of the United States Federal Reserve. His first term began February 1, 2006. Bernanke was confirmed for a second term as chairman on January 28, 2010, after being renominated by President Barack Obama, who later referred to him as \"the epitome of calm.\" His second term ended February 1, 2014, when he was succeeded by Janet Yellen.\n\nBernanke wrote about his time as chairman of the Federal Reserve in his 2015 book, The Courage to Act, in which he revealed that the world's economy came close to collapse in 2007 and 2008. Bernanke asserts that it was only the novel efforts of the Fed (cooperating with other agencies and agencies of foreign governments) that prevented an economic catastrophe greater than the Great Depression. \n\nFamily and childhood\n\nBernanke was born in Augusta, Georgia, and was raised on East Jefferson Street in Dillon, South Carolina. His father Philip was a pharmacist and part-time theater manager. His mother Edna was an elementary school teacher. Bernanke has two younger siblings. His brother, Seth, is a lawyer in Charlotte, North Carolina. His sister, Sharon, is a longtime administrator at Berklee College of Music in Boston.\n\nThe Bernankes were one of the few Jewish families in Dillon and attended Ohav Shalom, a local synagogue; Bernanke learned Hebrew as a child from his maternal grandfather, Harold Friedman, a professional hazzan (service leader), shochet, and Hebrew teacher. Bernanke's father and uncle owned and managed a drugstore they purchased from Bernanke's paternal grandfather, Jonas Bernanke.\n\nJonas Bernanke was born in Boryslav, Austria-Hungary (today part of Ukraine), on January 23, 1891. He immigrated to the United States from Przemyśl, Austria-Hungary (today part of Poland) and arrived at Ellis Island, aged 30, on June 30, 1921, with his wife Pauline, aged 25. On the ship's manifest, Jonas's occupation is listed as \"clerk\" and Pauline's as \"doctor med\". \n\nThe family moved to Dillon from New York in the 1940s. Bernanke's mother gave up her job as a schoolteacher when her son was born and worked at the family drugstore. Ben Bernanke also worked there sometimes.\n\nYoung adult\n\nAs a teenager, Bernanke worked construction on a new hospital and waited tables at a restaurant at nearby South of the Border, a roadside attraction in his hometown of Dillon, before leaving for college. To support himself throughout college, he worked during the summers at South of the Border. \n\nReligion\n\nAs a teenager in the 1960s in the small town of Dillon, Bernanke used to help roll the Torah scrolls in his local synagogue. Although he keeps his beliefs private, his friend Mark Gertler, chairman of New York University's economics department, says they are \"embedded in who he (Bernanke) is\". On the other hand, the Bernanke family was concerned that Ben would \"lose his Jewish identity\" if he went to Harvard. Fellow Dillon native Kenneth Manning, who would eventually become a professor of the history of sciences at MIT, assured the family \"there are Jews in Boston\". Once Bernanke was at Harvard for his freshman year, Manning took him to Brookline for Rosh Hashanah services. \n\nEducation\n\nBernanke was educated at East Elementary, J.V. Martin Junior High, and Dillon High School, where he was class valedictorian and played saxophone in the marching band. Since Dillon High School did not offer calculus at the time, Bernanke taught it to himself. Bernanke scored 1590 out of 1600 on the SAT and was a National Merit Scholar. He also was a contestant in the 1965 National Spelling Bee. \n\nBernanke attended Harvard University, where he lived in Winthrop House, as did the future CEO of Goldman Sachs, Lloyd Blankfein, and graduated with an A.B. degree, and later with an A.M. in economics summa cum laude in 1975. He received a Ph.D. degree in Economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1979 after completing and defending his dissertation, Long-Term Commitments, Dynamic Optimization, and the Business Cycle. Bernanke's thesis adviser was the future governor of the Bank of Israel, Stanley Fischer, and his readers included Irwin S. Bernstein, Rüdiger Dornbusch, Robert Solow, and Peter Diamond of MIT and Dale Jorgenson of Harvard.\n\nAdult life\n\nBernanke met his wife, Anna, a schoolteacher, on a blind date. She was a student at Wellesley College, and he was in graduate school at MIT. The Bernankes have two children. He is an ardent fan of the Washington Nationals baseball team, and frequently attends games at Nationals Park. \n\nAfter Bernanke accepted a position at Princeton, the family moved to Montgomery Township, New Jersey in 1985, where Bernanke's children attended the local public schools. Bernanke served for six years as a member of the board of education of the Montgomery Township School District. \n\nIn 2009 The Wall Street Journal reported that Bernanke was a victim of identity theft, a spreading crime the Federal Reserve has for years issued warnings about. \n\nAcademic and government career (1979–2006)\n\nBernanke taught at the Stanford Graduate School of Business from 1979 until 1985, was a visiting professor at New York University and went on to become a tenured professor at Princeton University in the Department of Economics. He chaired that department from 1996 until September 2002, when he went on public service leave. He resigned his position at Princeton July 1, 2005.\n\nBernanke served as a member of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System from 2002 to 2005. In one of his first speeches as a Governor, entitled \"Deflation: Making Sure It Doesn't Happen Here\", he outlined what has been referred to as the Bernanke Doctrine. \n\nAs a member of the board of governors of the Federal Reserve System on February 20, 2004, Bernanke gave a speech in which he postulated that we are in a new era called the Great Moderation, where modern macroeconomic policy has decreased the volatility of the business cycle to the point that it should no longer be a central issue in economics. \n\nIn June 2005, Bernanke was named chairman of President George W. Bush's Council of Economic Advisers, and resigned as Fed Governor. The appointment was largely viewed as a test run to ascertain if Bernanke could be Bush's pick to succeed Greenspan as Fed chairman the next year.Andrews, Edmund L.; Leonhardt, David; Porter, Eduardo; Uchitelle, Louis (October 26, 2005), [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res\n950CE7DC113FF935A15753C1A9639C8B63 \"At the Fed, an Unknown Became a Safe Choice\"], The New York Times. Retrieved January 31, 2010 He held the post until January 2006.\n\nChairman of the United States Federal Reserve\n\nOn February 1, 2006, Bernanke began a fourteen-year term as a member of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors and a four-year term as chairman (after having been nominated by President Bush in late 2005). By virtue of the chairmanship, he sat on the Financial Stability Oversight Board that oversees the Troubled Asset Relief Program. He also served as chairman of the Federal Open Market Committee, the System's principal monetary policy making body.\n\nHis first months as chairman of the Federal Reserve System were marked by difficulties communicating with the media. An advocate of more transparent Fed policy and clearer statements than Greenspan had made, he had to back away from his initial idea of stating clearer inflation goals as such statements tended to affect the stock market. Maria Bartiromo disclosed on CNBC comments from their private conversation at the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner. She reported that Bernanke said investors had misinterpreted his comments as indicating that he was \"dovish\" on inflation. He was sharply criticized for making public statements about Fed direction, which he said was a \"lapse in judgment.\"\n\nOn August 25, 2009, President Obama announced he would nominate Bernanke to a second term as chairman of the Federal Reserve. In a short statement on Martha's Vineyard, with Bernanke standing at his side, Obama said Bernanke's background, temperament, courage and creativity helped to prevent another Great Depression in 2008. When Senate Banking Committee hearings on his nomination began on December 3, 2009, several senators from both parties indicated they would not support a second term. \n\nHowever, Bernanke was confirmed for a second term as chairman on January 28, 2010, by a 70–30 vote of the full Senate, the narrowest margin, at the time, for any occupant of the position. (For the roll-call vote, see Obama confirmations, 2010.) The Senate first voted 77–23 to end debate, Bernanke winning more than the 60 approval votes needed to overcome the possibility of a filibuster. On a second vote to confirm, the 30 dissents came from 11 Democrats, 18 Republicans and one independent.\n\nBernanke was succeeded as Chair of the Federal Reserve by Janet Yellen, the first woman to hold the position. Yellen was nominated on October 9, 2013, by President Obama and, confirmed by the United States Senate on January 6, 2014. \n\nControversies as Federal Reserve Chairman\n\nBernanke has been subjected to criticism concerning the late-2000s financial crisis. According to The New York Times, Bernanke \"has been attacked for failing to foresee the financial crisis, for bailing out Wall Street, and, most recently, for injecting an additional $600 billion into the banking system to give the slow recovery a boost.\"Chan, Sewell (December 11, 2010) [http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/12/weekinreview/12chan.html?src\ntwrhp \"The Fed? Ron Paul's Not a Fan\"], The New York Times\n\nMerrill Lynch merger with Bank of America\n\nIn a letter to Congress from then-New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo dated April 23, 2009, Bernanke was mentioned along with former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson in allegations of fraud concerning the acquisition of Merrill Lynch by Bank of America. The letter alleged that the extent of the losses at Merrill Lynch were not disclosed to Bank of America by Bernanke and Paulson. When Bank of America CEO Ken Lewis informed Paulson that Bank of America was exiting the merger by invoking the \"Materially Adverse Change\" (MAC) clause, Paulson immediately called Lewis to a meeting in Washington. At the meeting, which allegedly took place on December 21, 2008, Paulson told Lewis that he and the board would be replaced if they invoked the MAC clause and additionally not to reveal the extent of the losses to shareholders. Paulson stated to Cuomo's office that he was directed by Bernanke to threaten Lewis in this manner. \n\nCongressional hearings into these allegations were conducted on June 25, 2009, with Bernanke testifying that he did not bully Ken Lewis. Under intense questioning by members of Congress, Bernanke said, \"I never said anything about firing the board and the management [of Bank of America].\" In further testimony, Bernanke said the Fed did nothing illegal or unethical in its efforts to convince Bank of America not to end the merger. Lewis told the panel that authorities expressed \"strong views\" but said he would not characterize their stance as improper. \n\nAIG bailout\n\nAccording to a January 26, 2010, column in The Huffington Post, a whistleblower has disclosed documents providing troubling details' of Bernanke's role in the AIG bailout\". Republican Senator Jim Bunning of Kentucky said on CNBC that he had seen documents which show Bernanke overruled recommendations from his staff in bailing out AIG. The columnist says this raises questions as to whether or not the decision to bail out AIG was necessary. Senators from both parties who support Bernanke say his actions averted worse problems and outweigh whatever responsibility he may have for the financial crisis. \n\nEdward Quince\n\nThe crisis in 2008 also made then-Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke create a pseudonym, Edward Quince. According to the Wall Street Journal, the false name was evidence in a class-action lawsuit against the government by shareholders of AIG, which had been given a Fed-backed bailout when it was near collapse. One of Mr. Quince's emails reads, \"We think they are days from failure. They think it is a temporary problem. This disconnect is dangerous.\" \n\nUpon the revelation of the Quince pseudonym during the Starr v. United States trial, the New York Times created a cocktail inspired by Mr. Bernanke's chosen alias: the \"Rye & Quince.\" \n\nEconomic views\n\nBernanke has given several lectures at the London School of Economics on monetary theory and policy and has written three textbooks on macroeconomics, and one on microeconomics. He was the Director of the Monetary Economics Program of the National Bureau of Economic Research and the editor of the American Economic Review. He is among the [https://ideas.repec.org/top/top.person.all.html 50 most published economists] in the world according to IDEAS/RePEc.\n\nBernanke is particularly interested in the economic and political causes of the Great Depression, on which he has published numerous academic journal articles. Before Bernanke's work, the dominant monetarist theory of the Great Depression was Milton Friedman's view that it had been largely caused by the Federal Reserve's having reduced the money supply and has on several occasions argued that one of the biggest mistakes made during the period was to raise interest rates too early. In a speech on Milton Friedman's ninetieth birthday (November 8, 2002), Bernanke said, \"Let me end my talk by abusing slightly my status as an official representative of the Federal Reserve. I would like to say to Milton and Anna [Schwartz, Friedman's coauthor]: Regarding the Great Depression. You're right, we did it. We're very sorry. But thanks to you, we won't do it again.\" \n\nBernanke has cited Milton Friedman and Anna Schwartz in his decision to lower interest rates to zero. Anna Schwartz, however, was highly critical of Bernanke and wrote an opinion piece in the New York Times advising Obama against his reappointment as chair of the Federal Reserve. Bernanke focused less on the role of the Federal Reserve and more on the role of private banks and financial institutions. \n\nBernanke found that the financial disruptions of 1930–33 reduced the efficiency of the credit allocation process; and that the resulting higher cost and reduced availability of credit acted to depress aggregate demand, identifying an effect he called the financial accelerator. When faced with a mild downturn, banks are likely to significantly cut back lending and other risky ventures. This further hurts the economy, creating a vicious cycle and potentially turning a mild recession into a major depression. Economist Brad DeLong, who had previously advocated his own theory for the Great Depression, notes that the current financial crisis has raised the pertinence of Bernanke's theory. \n\nIn 2002, following coverage of concerns about deflation in the business news, Bernanke gave a speech about the topic. In that speech, he mentioned that the government in a fiat money system owns the physical means of creating money and to maintain market liquidity. Control of the money supply implies that the government can always avoid deflation by simply issuing more money. He said \"The U.S. government has a technology, called a printing press (or today, its electronic equivalent), that allows it to produce as many U.S. dollars as it wishes at no cost.\"\n\nHe referred to a statement made by Milton Friedman about using a \"helicopter drop\" of money into the economy to fight deflation. Bernanke's critics have since referred to him as \"Helicopter Ben\" or to his \"helicopter printing press.\" In a footnote to his speech, Bernanke noted that \"people know that inflation erodes the real value of the government's debt and, therefore, that it is in the interest of the government to create some inflation.\"\n\nFor example, while Greenspan publicly supported President Clinton's deficit reduction plan and the Bush tax cuts, Bernanke, when questioned about taxation policy, said that it was none of his business, his exclusive remit being monetary policy, and said that fiscal policy and wider society related issues were what politicians were for and got elected for. But Bernanke has been identified by The Wall Street Journal and a close colleague as a \"libertarian-Republican\" in the mold of Alan Greenspan.\n\nIn 2005 Bernanke coined the term saving glut, the idea that relatively high level of worldwide savings was holding down interest rates and financing the current account deficits of the United States. (Alternative reasons include relatively low worldwide investment coupled with low U.S. savings.)\n\nAs the recession began to deepen in 2007, many economists urged Bernanke (and the rest of the Federal Open Market Committee) to lower the federal funds rate below what it had done. For example, Larry Summers, later named Director of the White House's National Economic Council under President Obama, wrote in the Financial Times on November 26, 2007—in a column in which he argued that recession was likely—that \"... maintaining demand must be the macro-economic priority. That means the Federal Reserve System has to get ahead of the curve and recognize—as the market already has—that levels of the Federal Funds rate that were neutral when the financial system was working normally are quite contractionary today.\" \n\nDavid Leonhardt of The New York Times wrote, on January 30, 2008, that \"Dr. Bernanke's forecasts have been too sunny over the last six months. [On] the other hand, his forecast was a lot better than Wall Street's in mid-2006. Back then, he resisted calls for further interest rate increases because he thought the economy might be weakening.\" \n\nAfter the Federal Reserve\n\nIn a speech at the American Economics Association conference in January 2014, Bernanke reflected on his tenure as chairman of the Federal Reserve. He expressed his hope that economic growth was building momentum and stated that he was confident that the central bank would be able to withdraw its support smoothly. \n\nIn an October 2014 speech, Bernanke disclosed that he was unsuccessful in efforts to refinance his home. He suggested that lenders \"may have gone a little bit too far on mortgage credit conditions\". \n\nSince February 2014, Bernanke has been employed as a Distinguished Fellow in Residence with the Economic Studies Program at the Brookings Institution. \n\nOn April 16, 2015, it was announced publicly that Bernanke will work with Citadel, the $25 billion hedge fund founded by billionaire Kenneth C. Griffin, as a senior adviser. \n\nIn his 2015 book, The Courage to Act, Bernanke revealed that he was no longer a Republican, having \"lost patience with Republicans' susceptibility to the know-nothing-ism of the far right. ... I view myself now as a moderate independent, and I think that's where I'll stay.\" \n\nStatements on deficit reduction and reform of Social Security / Medicare\n\nBernanke favors reducing the U.S. budget deficit, particularly by reforming the Social Security and Medicare entitlement programs. During a speech delivered on April 7, 2010, he warned that the U.S. must soon develop a \"credible\" plan to address the pending funding crisis faced by \"entitlement programs such as Social Security and Medicare\" or \"in the longer run we will have neither financial stability nor healthy economic growth.\" Bernanke said that formulation of such a plan would help the economy now, even if actual implementation of the plan might have to wait until the economic outlook improves.\n\nHis remarks were most likely intended for the federal government's executive and legislative branches, since entitlement reform is a fiscal exercise that will be accomplished by the Congress and the President rather than a monetary task falling within the implementation powers of the Federal Reserve. Bernanke also pointed out that deficit reduction will necessarily consist of either raising taxes, cutting entitlement payments and other government spending, or some combination of both.\n\nAwards and honors\n\n*Fellow of the Econometric Society (1997)\n*Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2001)\n*Order of the Palmetto (2006)\n*Distinguished Leadership in Government Award, Columbia Business School (2008) \n*In 2009, the South Carolina Department of Transportation (SCDOT) Commission approved a resolution on February 21 to name Exit 190 along Interstate Highway 95 in Dillon County the Ben Bernanke Interchange. \n*In 2009, he was named the TIME magazine person of the year.\n\nIn media\n\nBernanke is portrayed by actor Paul Giamatti in the HBO film Too Big to Fail.\n\nBibliography\n\n*\n*\n*\n*\n*([http://press.princeton.edu/titles/6817.html Description], [http://press.princeton.edu/TOCs/c6817.html TOC], and [http://press.princeton.edu/chapters/s6817.html preview of ch. 1, \"The Macroeconomics of the Great Depression\"])\n*\n*\n*\n*" ] }

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{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe" ], "filename": [ "Roald_Amundsen.txt" ], "title": [ "Roald Amundsen" ], "wiki_context": [ "Roald Engelbregt Gravning Amundsen (; 16 July 1872 – c. 18 June 1928) was a Norwegian explorer of polar regions. He led the Antarctic expedition of 1910–12 which was the first to reach the South Pole, on 14 December 1911. In 1926, he was the first expedition leader for the air expedition to the North Pole.\n\nAmundsen is recognized as the first person, without dispute, as having reached both poles. He is also known as having the first expedition to traverse the Northwest Passage (1903–06) in the Arctic.\n\nIn June 1928, while taking part in a rescue mission for the Airship Italia, the plane he was in disappeared. Amundsen was a key expedition leader during the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration, in the class of Douglas Mawson, Robert Falcon Scott, and Ernest Shackleton.\n\nEarly life \n\nAmundsen was born to a family of Norwegian shipowners and captains in Borge, between the towns Fredrikstad and Sarpsborg. His parents were Jens Amundsen and Hanna Sahlqvist. Roald was the fourth son in the family. His mother wanted him to avoid the family maritime trade and encouraged him to become a doctor, a promise that Amundsen kept until his mother died when he was aged 21. He promptly quit university for a life at sea.\n\nAmundsen had hidden a lifelong desire inspired by Fridtjof Nansen's crossing of Greenland in 1888 and Franklin's lost expedition. He decided on a life of intense exploration of wilderness places. \n\nPolar treks \n\nBelgian Antarctic Expedition (1897–99) \n\nAmundsen joined the Belgian Antarctic Expedition (1897–99) as first mate. This expedition, led by Adrien de Gerlache using the ship the RV Belgica, became the first expedition to winter in Antarctica. The Belgica, whether by mistake or design, became locked in the sea ice at 70°30′S off Alexander Island, west of the Antarctic Peninsula. The crew endured a winter for which they were poorly prepared. By Amundsen's own estimation, the doctor for the expedition, the American Frederick Cook, probably saved the crew from scurvy by hunting for animals and feeding the crew fresh meat. In cases where citrus fruits are lacking, fresh meat from animals that make their own vitamin C (which most do) contains enough of the vitamin to prevent scurvy, and even partly treat it. This was an important lesson for Amundsen's future expeditions.\n\nNorthwest Passage (1903–1906) \n\nIn 1903, Amundsen led the first expedition to successfully traverse Canada's Northwest Passage between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. He planned a small expedition of six men in a 45-ton fishing vessel, Gjøa, in order to have flexibility. His ship had relatively shallow draft. His technique was to use a small ship and hug the coast. Amundsen had the ship outfitted with a small gasoline engine. They traveled via Baffin Bay, the Parry Channel and then south through Peel Sound, James Ross Strait, Simpson Strait and Rae Strait. They spent two winters (1903–04 and 1904–05) at King William Island in the harbor of what is today Gjoa Haven, Nunavut, Canada. During this time, Amundsen and the crew learned from the local Netsilik Inuit people about Arctic survival skills, which he found invaluable in his later expedition to the South Pole. For example, he learned to use sled dogs for transportation of goods and to wear animal skins in lieu of heavy, woolen parkas, which could not deter cold when wet.\n\nLeaving Gjoa Haven, he sailed west and passed Cambridge Bay, which had been reached from the west by Richard Collinson in 1852. Continuing to the south of Victoria Island, the ship cleared the Canadian Arctic Archipelago on 17 August 1905. It had to stop for the winter before going on to Nome on the Alaska District's Pacific coast. Five hundred miles (800 km) away, Eagle City, Alaska, had a telegraph station; Amundsen traveled there (and back) overland to wire a success message (collect) on 5 December 1905. His team reached Nome in 1906. Because the water along the route was sometimes as shallow as 3 ft, a larger ship could not have made the voyage.\n\nAt this time, Amundsen learned that Norway had formally become independent of Sweden and had a new king. The explorer sent the new King Haakon VII news that his traversing the Northwest Passage \"was a great achievement for Norway\". He said he hoped to do more and signed it \"Your loyal subject, Roald Amundsen.\" The crew returned to Oslo in November 1906, after almost 3.5 years abroad. It took until 1972 to have the Gjøa returned to Norway. After a 45-day trip from San Francisco on a bulk carrier, the Gjøa was placed in her current location on land, outside the Fram Museum in Oslo. \n\nSouth Pole Expedition (1910–12) \n\nAmundsen next planned to take an expedition to the North Pole and explore the Arctic Basin. Finding it difficult to raise funds, when he heard in 1909 that the Americans Frederick Cook and Robert Peary had claimed to reach the North Pole as a result of two different expeditions, he decided to reroute to Antarctica. He was not clear about his intentions, and the Englishman Robert F. Scott and the Norwegian supporters felt misled. Scott was planning his own expedition to the South Pole that year. Using the ship Fram (\"Forward\"), earlier used by Fridtjof Nansen, Amundsen left Oslo for the south on 3 June 1910. At Madeira, Amundsen alerted his men that they would be heading to Antarctica, and sent a telegram to Scott, notifying him simply: \"BEG TO INFORM YOU FRAM PROCEEDING ANTARCTIC--AMUNDSEN.\"\n\nNearly six months later, the expedition arrived at the eastern edge of the Ross Ice Shelf (then known as \"the Great Ice Barrier\"), at a large inlet called the Bay of Whales, on 14 January 1911. Amundsen established his base camp there, calling it Framheim. Amundsen eschewed the heavy wool clothing worn on earlier Antarctic attempts in favour of adopting Inuit-style furred skins.\n\nUsing skis and dog sleds for transportation, Amundsen and his men created supply depots at 80°, 81° and 82° South on the Barrier, along a line directly south to the Pole. Amundsen also planned to kill some of his dogs on the way and use them as a source for fresh meat. A small group, including Hjalmar Johansen, Kristian Prestrud and Jørgen Stubberud, set out on 8 September 1911, but had to abandon their trek due to extreme temperatures. The painful retreat caused a quarrel within the group, and Amundsen sent Johansen and the other two men to explore King Edward VII Land.\n\nA second attempt, with a team made up of Olav Bjaaland, Helmer Hanssen, Sverre Hassel, Oscar Wisting, and Amundsen, departed base camp on 19 October 1911. They took four sledges and 52 dogs. Using a route along the previously unknown Axel Heiberg Glacier, they arrived at the edge of the Polar Plateau on 21 November after a four-day climb. On 14 December 1911, the team of five, with 16 dogs, arrived at the Pole (90° 0′ S). They arrived 33–34 days before Scott’s group. Amundsen named their South Pole camp Polheim, meaning \"Home on the Pole.\" Amundsen renamed the Antarctic Plateau as King Haakon VII’s Plateau. They left a small tent and letter stating their accomplishment, in case they did not return safely to Framheim.\n\nThe team returned to Framheim on 25 January 1912, with 11 surviving dogs. They made their way off the continent and to Hobart, Australia, where Amundsen publicly announced his success on 7 March 1912. He telegraphed news to backers.\n\nAmundsen's expedition benefited from his careful preparation, good equipment, appropriate clothing, a simple primary task, an understanding of dogs and their handling, and the effective use of skis. In contrast to the misfortunes of Scott’s team, Amundsen’s trek proved relatively smooth and uneventful.\n\nIn Amundsen's own words:\n\nAmundsen wrote about the expedition in The South Pole: An Account of the Norwegian Antarctic Expedition in the 'Fram,' 1910–12 (1912).\n\nNortheast Passage (1918–20) \n\nIn 1918, an expedition Amundsen began with a new ship, Maud, lasted until 1925. Maud sailed west to east through the Northeast Passage, now called the Northern Route (1918–20).\n\nWith him on this expedition were Oscar Wisting and Helmer Hanssen, both of whom had been part of the team to reach the South Pole. In addition, Henrik Lindstrøm was included as a cook. He suffered a stroke and was so physically reduced that he could not participate.\n\nThe goal of the expedition was to explore the unknown areas of the Arctic Ocean, strongly inspired by Fridtjof Nansen's earlier expedition with Fram. The plan was to sail along the coast of Siberia and go into the ice farther to the north and east than Nansen had. In contrast to Amundsen's earlier expeditions, this was expected to yield more material for academic research, and he carried the geophysicist Harald Sverdrup on board.\n\nThe voyage was to the northeasterly direction over the Kara Sea. Amundsen planned to freeze the Maud into the polar ice cap and drift towards the North Pole (as Nansen had done with the Fram), and he did so off Cape Chelyuskin. But, the ice became so thick that the ship was unable to break free, although it was designed for such a journey in heavy ice. In September 1919, the crew got the ship loose from the ice, but it froze again after eleven days somewhere between the New Siberian Islands and Wrangel Island.\n\nDuring this time, Amundsen participated little in the work outdoors, such as sleigh rides and hunting, because he had suffered numerous injuries. He had a broken arm and had been attacked by polar bears. Hanssen and Wisting, along with two other men, embarked on an expedition by dog sled to Nome, Alaska, more than 1,000 kilometres away. But they found that the ice was not frozen solid in the Bering Strait, and it could not be crossed. They sent a telegram from Anadyr to signal their location.\n\nAfter two winters frozen in the ice, without having achieved the goal of drifting over the North Pole, Amundsen decided to go to Nome to repair the ship and buy provisions. Several of the crew ashore there, including Hanssen, did not return on time to the ship. Amundsen considered Hanssen to be in breach of contract, and dismissed him from the crew.\n\nDuring the third winter, Maud was frozen in the western Bering Strait. She finally became free and the expedition sailed south, reaching Seattle, Washington, in the US Pacific Northwest in 1921 for repairs. Amundsen returned to Norway, needing to put his finances in order. He took with him two young indigenous girls, the adopted four-year-old Kakonita and her companion Camilla. When Amundsen went bankrupt two years later, however, he sent the girls to be cared for by Camilla's father, who lived in eastern Russia.\n\nIn June 1922, Amundsen returned to Maud, which had been sailed to Nome. He decided to shift from the planned naval expedition to aerial ones, and arranged to charter a plane. He divided the expedition team in two: one part was to survive the winter and prepare for an attempt to fly over the pole. This part was led by Amundsen. The second team on Maud, under the command of Wisting, was to resume the original plan to drift over the North Pole in the ice. The ship drifted in the ice for three years east of the New Siberian Islands, never reaching the North Pole. It was finally seized by Amundsen's creditors as collateral for his mounting debt.\n\nThe attempt to fly over the Pole failed, too. Amundsen and Oskar Omdal, of the Royal Norwegian Navy, tried to fly from Wainwright, Alaska, to Spitsbergen across the North Pole. When their aircraft was damaged, they abandoned the journey. To raise additional funds, Amundsen traveled around the United States in 1924 on a lecture tour.\n\nAlthough he was unable to reach the North Pole, the scientific results of the expedition, mainly the work of Sverdrup, have proven to be of considerable value. Many of these carefully collected scientific data were lost during the ill-fated journey of Peter Tessem and Paul Knutsen, two crew members sent on a mission by Amundsen. The scientific materials were later retrieved by Russian scientist Nikolay Urvantsev from where they had been abandoned on the shores of the Kara Sea.\n\nReaching the North Pole \n\nIn 1925, accompanied by Lincoln Ellsworth, pilot Hjalmar Riiser-Larsen, and three other team members, Amundsen took two Dornier Do J flying boats, the N-24 and N-25, to 87° 44′ north. It was the northernmost latitude reached by plane up to that time. The aircraft landed a few miles apart without radio contact, yet the crews managed to reunite. The N-24 was damaged. Amundsen and his crew worked for more than three weeks to clean up an airstrip to take off from ice. They shovelled 600 tons of ice while consuming only one pound (400 g) of daily food rations. In the end, six crew members were packed into the N-25. In a remarkable feat, Riiser-Larsen took off, and they barely became airborne over the cracking ice. They returned triumphant when everyone thought they had been lost forever.\n\nIn 1926, Amundsen and 15 other men (including Ellsworth, Riiser-Larsen, Oscar Wisting, and the Italian air crew led by aeronautical engineer Umberto Nobile) made the first crossing of the Arctic in the airship Norge, designed by Nobile. They left Spitzbergen on 11 May 1926, and they landed in Alaska two days later. The three previous claims to have arrived at the North Pole: Frederick Cook in 1908; Robert Peary in 1909; and Richard E. Byrd in 1926 (just a few days before the Norge) are all disputed, as being either of dubious accuracy or outright fraud. If their claims are false, the crew of the Norge would be the first verified explorers to have reached the North Pole. If the Norge expedition was the first to the North Pole, Amundsen and Oscar Wisting were the first men to reach each geographical pole, by ground or by air.\n\nDisappearance and death \n\nAmundsen disappeared with five crew on 18 June 1928 while flying on a rescue mission in the Arctic. His team included Norwegian pilot Leif Dietrichson, French pilot René Guilbaud, and three more Frenchmen. They were seeking missing members of Nobile's crew, whose new airship Italia had crashed while returning from the North Pole. Afterward, a wing-float and bottom gasoline tank from Amundsen's French Latham 47 flying boat, adapted as a replacement wing-float, were found near the Tromsø coast. It is believed that the plane crashed in fog in the Barents Sea, and that Amundsen and his crew were killed in the crash, or died shortly afterward. The search for Amundsen and team was called off in September 1928 by the Norwegian Government and the bodies were never found.\n\nIn 2004 and in late August 2009, the Royal Norwegian Navy used the unmanned submarine Hugin 1000 to search for the wreckage of Amundsen's plane. The searches focused on a 40 sqmi area of the sea floor, and were documented by the German production company ContextTV. They found nothing from the Amundsen flight.\n\nLegacy \n\nA number of places have been named after Amundsen:\n* The Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station is named jointly with his rival\n* Amundsen Sea, off the coast of Antarctica\n* Amundsen Glacier, in Antarctica\n* Amundsen Bay, in Antarctica\n* Mount Amundsen, in Antarctica\n* Amundsen Gulf, in the Arctic Ocean, off the coast of the Northwest Territories in Canada (separating Banks Island and the western parts of Victoria Island from the mainland)\n* A large crater near the Moon's south pole is named Amundsen\n* Amundsen Basin, abyssal plain in the Arctic Ocean.\n* Amundsen Plain, abyssal plain in the Southern Ocean.\n\nSeveral ships are named after him:\n* The Canadian Coast Guard named an icebreaker CCGS Amundsen, whose mission is to perform scientific research in the waters of the Arctic\n* The Royal Norwegian Navy is building a class of Aegis frigates, the second of which is the HNoMS Roald Amundsen (completed 2006)\n* The German brig Roald Amundsen\n\nOther tributes include:\n* Writer Roald Dahl was named after Amundsen\n* Nobel Laureate, Chemist and Poet Roald Hoffmann was named after Amundsen\n* The Amundsen Trail and Amundsen Circle, Oakwood, Staten Island, New York\n* Amundsen High School, Chicago, Illinois\n* A Pullman Company railroad car was named after him\n\nPortraits\n\nAmundsenboy.jpg|As a boy, 1875\nPortrett av Roald Amundsen crop.jpg|1899\nNlc_amundsen.jpg|nnFile:Amundsen2.jpg|1908\nAmundsen-in-ice.jpg|1909\nRoald Amundsen2.jpg|North Pole expedition, 1920\n\nRoald_Engelbregt_Gravning_Amundsen_(4727306129).jpg|1920\nAmundsen2.jpg|Unknown date\nRoald Amundsen (colorized).jpg|Unknown date\n\nMaps\n\nFile:Amundsen Map 1 ru.png|1903 Northwest and 1918 Northeast passage\nFile:Aan de Zuidpool - p1913-108.gif|thumb|1911 South Pole expedition\n\nEuropean-Inuit descendant claims\n\nSome Inuit people in Gjøa Haven with European ancestry have claimed to be descendants of Amundsen (or one of his six crew, whose names have not remained as well known), from the period of their extended winter stay on King Williams Island from 1903 to 1905. Accounts by members of the expedition told of their relations with Inuit women, and historians have speculated that Amundsen might also have taken a partner, although he wrote a warning against this. Specifically, half brothers Bob Konona and Paul Ikuallaq say that their father Luke Ikuallaq (b. 1904) told them on his deathbed that he was the son of Amundsen. Konona said that their father Ikuallaq was left out on the ice to die after his birth, as his European ancestry made him illegitimate to the Inuit, threatening their community. His Inuit grandparents saved him. In 2012, Y-DNA analysis, with the families' permission, showed that Ikuallaq (and his sons) was not a match to the direct male line of Amundsen. Not all descendants claiming European ancestry have been tested for a match to Amundsen, nor has there been a comparison of Ikuallaq's DNA to that of other European members of Amundsen's crew.\n\nWorks by Amundsen \n\n* Nordvestpassagen, 2-vols, 1907. Translated as [http://www.wdl.org/en/item/7316/ The North-West Passage: Being the Record of a Voyage of Exploration of the ship \"Gjøa\" 1903–1907], 1908.\n* Sydpolen, 2-vols, 1912. Translated as The South Pole: An Account of the Norwegian Antarctic Expedition in the \"Fram,\" 1910–1912, translated by A. G. Chater, 1912.\n* Nordostpassagen. Maudfærden langs Asiens kyst 1918–1920. H. U. Sverdrups ophold blandt tsjuktsjerne. Godfred Hansens depotekspedition 1919–1920. Gyldendal, Kristiania 1921.\n* Gjennem luften til 88° Nord (by Roald Amundsen, Lincoln Ellsworth and other members of the expedition, 1925). Translated as Our Polar Flight: The Amundsen-Ellsworth Polar Flight, 1925; also as My Polar Flight, 1925.\n* Den første flukt over polhavet, with Lincoln Ellsworth and others, 1926. Translated as The First Flight Across the Polar Sea, 1927; also as The First Crossing of the Polar Sea, 1927.\n* Mitt liv som polarforsker, 1927. Translated as My Life as an Explorer, 1927." ] }

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{ "aliases": [ "Geographic south pole", "Ceremonial South Pole", "Terrestrial South Pole", "The South Pole", "90 degrees south", "90th parallel south", "South Terrestrial Pole", "South Pole", "Southpole", "Latitude 90 degrees S", "Geographic South Pole", "South pole" ], "normalized_aliases": [ "south pole", "ceremonial south pole", "geographic south pole", "south terrestrial pole", "terrestrial south pole", "90 degrees south", "90th parallel south", "southpole", "latitude 90 degrees s" ], "matched_wiki_entity_name": "", "normalized_matched_wiki_entity_name": "", "normalized_value": "south pole", "type": "WikipediaEntity", "value": "The South Pole" }

{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe" ], "filename": [ "Law_school.txt" ], "title": [ "Law school" ], "wiki_context": [ "A law school (also known as a law centre or college of law) is an institution specializing in legal education, usually involved as part of a process for becoming a lawyer within a given jurisdiction.\n\nLaw degrees \n\nBrazil \n\nIn Brazil the legal education begins between 1827/28 in Olinda/PE and São Paulo/SP where the first Schools of Law were established by the new Empire using as educational model the Coimbra Faculty of Law.\n\nNowadays the legal education consists in a 5-year-long course in which, afterwards, the scholar is granted a bachelor´s degree. \n\nTherefore, it is considered part of the higher education, hence the educational system is regulated as: i) basic education - primary, middle anda high school; and ii) higher education: licentiate, bachelor and vocational ed. \n\nThe practice of law is conditioned upon admission to the bar of a particular state or other territorial jurisdiction (Ordem dos Advogados do Brasil - OAB ).\n\nPublic attorneys, public prossecutors and magistrates (judges) admission is made, mainly, through an entrance examination and a constitutional mandatory three years of legal experience. Starting from the second degree courts it is mandatory a 1/5 of its composition to be fulfilled with members of the lawyers/attorneys/barristers association and also from federal/state/labour processcutors (ministério público) regarding the court jurisdiction (it is not applied for electoral and military courts).\n\nAfter achieving the bachelor´s degree of laws it is possible to follow an i) specialization or follow ii) academically (or both), in either case it is called postgraduation: i) lato sensu; or ii) stricto sensu; respectively.\n\nThe postgraduation, stricto sensu, consists in a: a) master´s degree, which is usually a two-year degree; and a b) doctorate´s degree, which can take up another four years. \n\nCanada \n\nThe oldest civil law faculty in Canada offering law degrees was established in 1848 at McGill University in Montreal, and the oldest common law faculty in Canada offering law degrees was established in 1883 at Dalhousie University in Halifax.\nThe typical law degree required to practice law in Canada is now the Juris Doctor, which requires previous university coursework and is similar to the first law degree in the United States. There is some scholarly content in the coursework (such as an academic research paper required in most schools). The programs consist of three years, and have similar content in their mandatory first year courses. Beyond first year and the minimum requirements for graduation, course selection is elective with various concentrations such as business law, international law, natural resources law, criminal law, Aboriginal law, etc. Some schools, however, have not switched from LL.B. to the J.D. – one notable university that still awards the LL.B is McGill University.\n\nGiven that the Canadian legal system includes both the French civil law and the Anglo-American common law, some law schools offer both an LL.B. or J.D. (common law) and a B.C.L., LL.L. or LL.B. (civil law) degree, such as McGill University, University of Ottawa and the Université de Montréal. In particular, McGill University Faculty of Law offers a combined civil law and common law program, which has been called \"transsystemic.\" At other faculties, if a person completes a common law degree, then a civil law degree can be obtained with only an extra year of study. This is also true for civil law graduates who wish to complete a common law degree.\n\nDespite changes in designation, schools opting for the J.D. have not altered their curricula. Neither the J.D. or LL.B. alone is sufficient to qualify for a Canadian license, as each Province's law society requires an apprenticeship and successful completion of provincial skills and responsibilities training course, such as the British Columbia Law Society's Professional Legal Training Course, the Law Society of Upper Canada's Skills and Responsibilities Training Program. and the École du Barreau du Québec.\n\nThe main reason for implementing the J.D. in Canada was to distinguish the degree from the European counterpart that requires no previous post-secondary education, However, in the eyes of the Canadian educational system, the J.D. awarded by Canadian universities has retained the characteristics of the LL.B. and is considered a second entry program, but not a graduate program. (This position is analogous to the position taken by Canadian universities that the M.D. and D.D.S. degrees are considered second entry programs and not graduate programs.) Nevertheless, disagreement persists regarding the status of the degrees, such as at the University of Toronto, where the J.D. degree designation has been marketed by the Faculty of Law as superior to the LL.B. degree designation. \n\nSome universities have developed joint Canadian LL.B or J.D. and American J.D programs, such as York University and New York University, the University of Windsor and the University of Detroit Mercy, and the University of Ottawa and Michigan State University program. \n\nEngland and English common law countries \n\nFrance\n\nIn France, the legal education is a three tier system. The student may study for a LLB (licence de droit), then a LLM (master de droit) and, for those interested in Law theory, a PhD in Law (doctorat de droit).\n\nMany French universities offers Law courses in department labelled as Research and Education Units (unité de formation et de recherche) and/or Faculties of Law or Law Schools.\n\nA LLM-level is a prerequisite for some legal professions, but is combined with vocational education, such as the école nationale de la magistrature for judges and the Certificat d'aptitude aux fonctions d'avocat for advocates.\n\nIndonesia\n\nLaw Degree in Indonesia consists of three tier systems. The first tier is the Degree of which carries the title of Sarjana Hukum/S.H. (Bachelor of Law). This can be obtained in 4–7 years after they enter Law School straight from Senior High School.\n\nThe second tier varies depending on the legal specialties taken after the first tier. The general title for this tier is Magister Hukum / M.H. (Master in Law). Although it is also common to see other title for secondary tier such as Magister Kenotariatan / M.Kn. (Master in Notary) for Notarial professionals line of work. The second tier can be obtained normally in 1-2 year.\n\nThe third tier in Indonesian Law Degree is Doctor / DR. (Doctor in Law).\n\nTo work in legal professions of choice in Indonesia, a Bachelor Law Degree (S.H.) is obligatory. Graduates can pursue their career as Legal in-house counsel, Judge profession (requires admission and further training at Supreme Court Educational Center), Public Prosecutor (requires admission and further training at Public Prosecutor Educational and Training Center), other legal-related work and Advocate.\n\nTo become an Advocate, Law Graduate should attend an Advocate Special Course (1–2 months) and pass the Bar exam. The title Advocate can be obtained after a graduate passes the Bar exam and fulfill several obligation and requirements created by the Indonesian Advocates Association (PERADI), and is a prerequisite for practicing trial law in Indonesia.\n\nList of some State School of Law in Indonesia\n* University of Indonesia Faculty of Law, Depok, West Java\n* Gadjah Mada University Faculty of Law, Jogjakarta, Jogjakarta\n* Diponegoro University Faculty of Law, Semarang, Central Java\n* Padjadjaran University Faculty of Law, Bandung, West Java\n* Airlangga University Faculty of Law, Surabaya, East Java\n* Brawijaya University Faculty of Law, Malang, East Java\n* Hasanuddin University Faculty of Law, Makassar, South Sulawesi\n* Andalas University School of Law, Padang, West Sumatera\n\nIndia\n\nIn India, legal education has been traditionally offered as a three-year graduate degree. However, the structure has been changed since 1987. Law degrees in India are granted and conferred in terms of the Advocates Act, 1961, which is a law passed by the Parliament both on the aspect of legal education and also regulation of conduct of legal profession. Under the act, the Bar Council of India is the supreme regulatory body to regulate the legal profession in India and also to ensure the compliance of the laws and maintenance of professional standards by the legal profession in the country.\n\nTo this regard, the Bar Council of India prescribes the minimum curriculum required to be taught in order for an institution to be eligible for the grant of a law degree. The Bar Council also carries on a periodic supervision of the institutions conferring the degree and evaluates their teaching methodology and curriculum and having determined that the institution meets the required standards, recognizes the institution and the degree conferred by it.\n\nTraditionally the degrees that were conferred carried the title of LL.B. (Bachelor of Laws) or B.L. (Bachelor of Law). The eligibility requirement for these degrees was that the applicant already have a Bachelor's degree in any subject from a recognized institution. Thereafter the LL.B. / B.L. course was for three years, upon the successful completion of which the applicant was granted either degree.\n\nHowever, upon the suggestion by the Law Commission of India and also given the prevailing cry for reform, the Bar Council of India instituted upon an experiment in terms of establishing specialized law universities solely devoted to legal education and thus to raise the academic standards of legal profession in India. This decision was taken somewhere in 1985 and thereafter the first law University in India was set up in Bangalore which was named as the National Law School of India University (popularly 'NLS'). These law universities were meant to offer a multi-disciplinary and integrated approach to legal education. It was therefore for the first time that a law degree other than LL.B. or B.L. was granted in India. NLS offered a five-year law course, upon the successful completion of which an integrated degree with the title of \"B.A.,LL.B. (Honours)\" would be granted.\n\nThereafter, other law universities were set up, all offering five-year integrated law degrees with different nomenclature. The next in line was National Law Institute University set up in Bhopal in 1997. It was followed by NALSAR university of law in 1998. The Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University in Delhi offered a five-year integrated law degree course of LL.B (Honours) from 1998 and subsequently from 2007 started to award the B.A.,LL.B / B.B.A.LL.B (Honours). The Mysore University School of Justice set up by the University of Mysore in Mysore offered a five-year integrated law degree course of B.A.,LL.B (Honours) from 2007. The course for three years LL.B. is also regularized in University of Delhi as an option for post graduation after the completion of graduation degree. The National Law University, Jodhpur offered for the first time in 2001 the integrated law degree of \"B.B.A, LL.B. (Honours)\" which was preceded by the West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences offering the \"B.Sc., LL.B. (Honours)\" degree. Gujarat National Law University established in Gandhinagar also offers LL.B.\n\nHowever, despite these specialized law universities, the traditional three-year degree continues to be offered in India by other institutions and are equally recognized as eligible qualifications for practicing law in India. Another essential difference that remains is that while the eligibility qualification for the three year law degree is that the applicant must already be a holder of a bachelor's degree, for being eligible for the five years integrated law degree, the applicant must have successfully completed Class XII from a recognized Boards of Education in India.\n\nBoth the holders of the three-year degree and of the five-year integrated degree are eligible for enrollment with the Bar Council of India upon the fulfillment of eligibility conditions and upon enrollment, may appear before any court in India. \n\nMalaysia\n\nHong Kong\n\nIn Hong Kong, which generally follows the English common law system, an undergraduate L.L.B. is common, followed by a one or two year Postgraduate Certificate in Laws before one can begin a training contract (solicitors) or a pupillage (barristers).\n\nIran \n\nIn Iran, the legal education has been influenced both by civil law and Islamic Shari'ah law. Like many countries, after high school, one can enter the law school. The first law degree is LL.B. It takes about four years to get LL.B. The first graduate program in law is LL.M. It takes about two to three years to earn an LL.M. The LL.M. is a mix of course work in a specific field of law and a dissertation. The Ph.D. in law is the highest law degree offered by some law schools. It takes about 5–7 years depending on the school as well as the students. The faculty of law in Shahid Beheshti University (formerly known as Iran's National University) and the faculty of law and political sciences at University of Tehran are the top two law schools in Iran.\n\nJapan \n\nSee Legal education#Japan.\n\nPhilippines \n\nLaw degree programs are considered graduate programs in the Philippines. As such, admission to law schools requires the completion of a bachelor's degree, with a sufficient number of credits or units in certain subject areas.\n\nGraduation from a Philippine law school constitutes the primary eligibility requirement for the Philippine Bar Examination, the national licensure examination for practicing lawyers in the country. The bar examination is administered by the Supreme Court of the Philippines during the month of September every year.\n\nAs of 2011 the bar examinations were held during November.\n\nThe University of Santo Tomas Faculty of Civil Law was the first secular faculty, and hence the oldest law school in the Philippines.\n\nSerbia\n\nIn Serbia, prospective students are required to pass an admission test for enrollment in a law school. The legal education is a three tier system – 4-year bachelor's degree studies, 1-year Master of Law and 5-year doctoral studies. The Belgrade Law School is the most distinguished and largest by capacity in Serbia. Courses are offered in Serbian and English.\n\nSouth Korea \n\nOn July 3, 2007, the Korean National Assembly passed legislation introducing 'Law School', closely modeled on the American post-graduate system. Moreover, naturally, since March 2, 2009, 25 (both public and private) 3-year professional Law Schools that officially approved by Korean Government, has been opened to teach future Korean lawyers. The first bar test to the lawschool graduates was scheduled in 2012.\n\nSri Lanka\n\nIn Sri Lanka to practice law, one must be admitted and enrolled as an Attorney-at-Law of the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka. This is achieved by passing law exams at the Sri Lanka Law College, which are administered by the Council of Legal Education and spending a period of six months under a practicing attorney of at least 8 years standing. To undertake law exams students must gain admission to the Sri Lanka Law College and study law or directly undertake exams after gaining a LL.B. from a local or foreign university. \n\nTaiwan\n\nIn Taiwan, law is primarily studied as an undergraduate program resulting in a Bachelor of Law (B.L.). Students receive academic rather than practical training. Practical training is arranged after the individual passes the lawyer, judge, or prosecutor exams.\n\nA degree in law (bachelor, master or doctor) is a pre-requisite for Taiwan's bar examination. According to Ministry of Examination figures, the pass rate for the 2011 exam was 10.6%. Since the bar exam is conducted in Chinese, a native level of language fluency is expected.\n\nA non-citizen may take the Attorney Qualification Examination. According to Articles 5 and 20 of the Regulations on Attorney Qualification Examination (Bar Exam), non-citizens are allowed to participate in the bar examination with a degree in law earned in Taiwan. Non-citizens are not allowed to sit in the prosecutor or judge examinations unless they are naturalized citizens of Taiwan. Once a non-citizen is approved to practice law in Taiwan, he or she must abide by all statutes related to the legal practice, Codes of Legal Ethics, and the Articles of Incorporation of the Bar Association to which they are members. \n\nUnited States\n\nIn the United States, law school is a postgraduate program usually lasting three years and resulting in the conferral upon graduates of the Juris Doctor (J.D.) law degree. Some schools in Louisiana concurrently award a Graduate Diploma in Civil Law (D.C.L.). To gain admission to a law school that is accredited by the American Bar Association (ABA), applicants must usually take the Law School Admission Test (LSAT), and have an undergraduate (bachelor's) degree in any major. Currently, there are 199 ABA-approved law schools. There currently are five online law schools that are unaccredited by the ABA but registered by the State Bar of California. Non-ABA approved law schools have much lower bar passage rates than ABA-approved law schools., and do not submit or disclose employment outcome data to the ABA.\n\nAccording to a study by labor economists Michael Simkovic and Frank McIntyre, a law degree increases the present value of lifetime earnings in the U.S. by $1,000,000 compared to a bachelor's degree. According to the United States Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, the national average salary for lawyers in 2012 was above $130,000. Salaries vary by geography, with higher average salaries in big cities—especially New York, Washington, D.C., Chicago, and Los Angeles—and lower salaries in rural areas. An unpublished table produced by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that unemployment rates among experienced lawyers are lower than those for most high-income occupations. BLS data also suggests that lawyer employment has grown slightly faster than other occupations, with lawyers comprising a growing share of the work force over the last decade.\n \nHowever, not all recent law graduates work as lawyers. According to Simkovic and McIntyre's study of U.S. Census Bureau data, around 40 percent of U.S. residents with law degrees do not practice law. Law graduates are disproportionately represented in leadership positions in business and government. The National Association for Legal Career Professionals produces an annual report summarizing the employment of recent graduates of U.S. law schools at a single point in time, 9 months of graduation. Employment at that point is typically around 90 percent, although from 2009 to 2011, the numbers have been lower, at around 86 to 88 percent. Approximately 2 percent of graduates were employed in non-professional jobs. Approximately 75 to 85 percent work in jobs classified by NALP as \"JD required\" or \"JD preferred\", and another 5 percent work in other professional jobs. However, a law degree increases earnings, even including those who do not practice law.\n\nPostgraduate and professional study\n\nSome schools offer a Master of Laws (LL.M.) program as a way of specializing in a particular area of law. A further possible degree is the academic doctoral degree in law of Doctor of Juridical Science (S.J.D.) (in the U.S)., or the Doctor of Laws (LL.D.) in Canada, or the Ph.D. in Law from European or Australasian universities.\n\nIn addition to attending law school, many jurisdictions require law school graduates to pass a state or provincial bar examination before they may practice law. The Multistate Bar Examination is part of the bar examination in almost all United States jurisdictions. Generally, the standardized, common law subject matter of the MBE is combined with state-specific essay questions to produce a comprehensive bar examination.\n\nIn other common law countries the bar exam is often replaced by a period of work with a law firm known as articles of clerkship.\n\nAlternative legal education systems \n\nUK and Europe\n\nWhile law schools in the U.S. and Canada are typically post-graduate institutions with considerable autonomy, legal education in other countries is provided within the mainstream educational system from university level and/or in non-degree conferring vocational training institutions.\n\nIn countries such as the United Kingdom and most of continental Europe, academic legal education is provided within the mainstream university system starting at the undergraduate level, and the legal departments of universities are simply departments like any other rather than separate \"law schools\". In these countries, the term \"law school\" may be used, but it does not have the same definition as it does in North America. The same is true for private Law Schools, e.g. in Germany two private law schools have been established, Bucerius Law School in Hamburg and EBS Law School in Wiesbaden which are termed law schools but follow the usual German path of legal education.\n\nThere are also sometimes legal colleges that provide vocational training as a post-academic stage of legal education. One example is the College of Law in the United Kingdom, which provides certain professional qualifications lawyers in England and Wales must obtain before they may practice as solicitors or barristers.\n\nAustralia\n\nIn Australia, law schools such as the Melbourne Law School, the Adelaide Law School, and the Sydney Law School have emphasised a combination of the British and American systems. However, other universities such as the University of New South Wales, the Australian National University and Monash University are known for their practical work. \n\nList of law schools" ] }

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{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe" ], "filename": [ "Harrison_Schmitt.txt" ], "title": [ "Harrison Schmitt" ], "wiki_context": [ "Harrison Hagan \"Jack\" Schmitt (born July 3, 1935) is an American geologist, retired NASA astronaut, university professor and former U.S. senator from New Mexico.\n\nIn December 1972, as one of the crew on board Apollo 17, Schmitt became the first member of NASA's first scientist-astronaut group to fly in space. As Apollo 17 was the last of the Apollo missions, he also became the twelfth person to set foot on the Moon, and , the second-to-last person to step off of the Moon (he boarded the Lunar Module shortly before commander Eugene Cernan). Schmitt also remains the first and only professional scientist to have flown beyond low Earth orbit and to have visited the Moon. He was influential within the community of geologists supporting the Apollo program and, before starting his own preparations for an Apollo mission, had been one of the scientists training those Apollo astronauts chosen to visit the lunar surface.\n\nSchmitt resigned from NASA in August 1975 in order to run for election to the United States Senate as a member from New Mexico. As the Republican candidate in the 1976 election, he defeated the two-term Democrat incumbent Joseph Montoya, but, running for re-election in 1982, was himself defeated, by Democrat Jeff Bingaman.\n\nBiography\n\nEarly life and education \n\nBorn in Santa Rita, New Mexico, Schmitt grew up in nearby Silver City, and he is a graduate of the Western High School (class of 1953). He received a B.S. degree in geology from the California Institute of Technology in 1957 and then spent a year studying geology at the University of Oslo in Norway. He received a Ph.D. in geology from Harvard University in 1964, based on his geological field studies in Norway.\n\nNASA career \n\nBefore joining NASA as a member of the first group of scientist-astronauts in June 1965, he worked at the U.S. Geological Survey's Astrogeology Center at Flagstaff, Arizona, developing geological field techniques that would be used by the Apollo crews. Following his selection, Schmitt spent his first year at Air Force UPT learning to become a jet pilot. Upon his return to the astronaut corps in Houston, he played a key role in training Apollo crews to be geologic observers when they were in lunar orbit and competent geologic field workers when they were on the lunar surface. After each of the landing missions, he participated in the examination and evaluation of the returned lunar samples and helped the crews with the scientific aspects of their mission reports.\n\nSchmitt spent considerable time becoming proficient in the CSM and LM systems. In March 1970 he became the first of the scientist-astronauts to be assigned to space flight, joining Richard F. Gordon, Jr. (Commander) and Vance Brand (Command Module Pilot) on the Apollo 15 backup crew. The flight rotation put these three in line to fly as prime crew on the third following mission, Apollo 18. When Apollo flights 18 and 19 were cancelled in September 1970, the community of lunar geologists supporting Apollo felt so strongly about the need to land a professional geologist on the Moon, that they pressured NASA to reassign Schmitt to a remaining flight. As a result, Schmitt was assigned in August 1971 to fly on the last mission, Apollo 17, replacing Joe Engle as Lunar Module Pilot. Schmitt landed on the Moon with commander Gene Cernan in December 1972.\n\nSchmitt claims to have taken the photograph of the Earth known as The Blue Marble, one of the most widely distributed photographic images in existence. (NASA officially credits the image to the entire Apollo 17 crew.)\n\nWhile on the Moon's surface, Schmitt — the only geologist in the astronaut corps — collected the rock sample designated Troctolite 76535, which has been called \"without doubt the most interesting sample returned from the Moon\". Among other distinctions, it is the central piece of evidence suggesting that the Moon once possessed an active magnetic field. \n\nAs he returned to the Lunar Module before Cernan, Schmitt is the next-to-last person to have walked on the Moon's surface.\n\nAfter the completion of Apollo 17, Schmitt played an active role in documenting the Apollo geologic results and also took on the task of organizing NASA's Energy Program Office.\n\nFile:Astronaut Harrison 'Jack' Schmitt, American Flag, and Earth (Apollo 17 EVA-1).jpg|Schmitt poses by the American flag, with Earth in the background, during Apollo 17's first EVA.\nFile:Schmitt Covered with Lunar Dirt - GPN-2000-001124.jpg|Schmitt collects lunar specimens during the Apollo 17 mission.\nFile:Ap17 schmitt falls.ogg|Schmitt falls while on a Moonwalk.\n\nPost-NASA career\n\nIn August 1975, Schmitt resigned from NASA to seek election as a Republican to the United States Senate representing New Mexico in the 1976 election. Schmitt faced two-term Democratic incumbent, Joseph Montoya, whom he defeated 57% to 42%. He served one term and, notably, was the ranking Republican member of the Science, Technology, and Space Subcommittee. He sought a second term in the 1982, but due to a deep recession and concerns that he was not paying attention to local matters, he was defeated in a re-election bid by the state Attorney General Jeff Bingaman by a 54% to 46% margin. Bingaman's campaign slogan asked, \"What on Earth has he done for you lately?\" Following his Senate term, Schmitt has been a consultant in business, geology, space, and public policy.\n\nDuring his term in the Senate, Schmitt sat at the chamber's candy desk.\n\nSchmitt is an adjunct professor of engineering physics at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, and has long been a proponent of lunar resource utilization. In 1997 he proposed the Interlune InterMars Initiative, listing among its goals the advancement of private sector acquisition and use of lunar resources, particularly lunar helium-3 as a fuel for notional nuclear fusion reactors. \n\nSchmitt was chair of the NASA Advisory Council, whose mandate is to provide technical advice to the NASA Administrator, from November 2005 until his abrupt resignation on October 16, 2008. In November 2008, he quit the Planetary Society over policy advocacy differences, citing the organization's statements on \"focusing on Mars as the driving goal of human spaceflight\" (Schmitt said that going back to the Moon would speed progress toward a manned Mars mission), on \"accelerating research into global climate change through more comprehensive Earth observations\" (Schmitt voiced objections to the notion of a present \"scientific consensus\" on climate change as any policy guide), and on international cooperation (which he felt would retard rather than accelerate progress), among other points of divergence. \n\nIn January, 2011, he was appointed as Secretary of the New Mexico Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department in the cabinet of Governor Susana Martinez, but was forced to give up the appointment the following month after refusing to submit to a required background investigation. El Paso Times called him the \"most celebrated\" candidate for New Mexico energy secretary. \n\nSchmitt wrote a book entitled Return to the Moon: Exploration, Enterprise, and Energy in the Human Settlement of Space in 2006. \n\nHe lives in Silver City, New Mexico, and spends some of his summer at his northern Minnesota lake cabin.\n\nSenator Schmitt is also involved in several civic projects, including the improvement of the Senator Harrison H. Schmitt Big Sky Hang Glider Park in Albuquerque, NM. \n\nViews on global warming\n\nSchmitt's view on climate change diverges from the frequently reported scientific consensus, as he emphasizes natural over human factors as driving climate. Schmitt has expressed the view that the risks posed by climate change are overrated, and suggests instead that climate change is a tool for people who are trying to increase the size of government. He resigned his membership in the Planetary Society because of its stance on the subject, writing in his resignation letter that the \"global warming scare is being used as a political tool to increase government control over American lives, incomes and decision-making.\" He spoke at the March 2009 International Conference on Climate Change sponsored by the Heartland Institute. He appeared in December that year on the Fox Business Network, saying \"[t]he CO2 scare is a red herring\". \n\nIn a 2009 interview with libertarian talk-radio host Alex Jones, Schmitt asserted a link between Soviet Communism and the American environmental movement: \"I think the whole trend really began with the fall of the Soviet Union. Because the great champion of the opponents of liberty, namely communism, had to find some other place to go and they basically went into the environmental movement.\" At the Heartland Institute's sixth International Conference on Climate Change Schmitt said that climate change was a stalking horse for National Socialism. \n\nSchmitt co-authored a May 8, 2013 Wall Street Journal opinion column with William Happer, contending that increasing levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere are not significantly correlated with global warming, attributing the \"single-minded demonization of this natural and essential atmospheric gas\" to advocates of government control of energy production. Noting a positive relationship between crop resistance to drought and increasing carbon dioxide levels, the authors argued, \"Contrary to what some would have us believe, increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere will benefit the increasing population on the planet by increasing agricultural productivity.\" \n\nIn popular culture \n\n* Schmitt was portrayed by Tom Amandes in the 1998 miniseries From the Earth to the Moon.\n* Schmitt appeared in the 2007 BBC Two documentary Moon for Sale.\n* Schmitt was interviewed on Infowars, the Alex Jones radio show, on July 31, 2009, regarding his opposition to the mainstream scientific assessment of global warming. He admitted being a fan of the show, saying he \"keeps up on things out here\".\n* He appeared in an episode of the television show Bill Nye the Science Guy.\n* He was interviewed in the 2009 BBC television show James May on the Moon.\n* He was interviewed by Maltese television talk show Xarabank, the episode airing December 11, 2009, 2045 CET.\n* He was referred to in an episode (\"Maid in Arlen\") of the cartoon TV show King of the Hill.\n* He was referred to in an episode (\"Episode 7 - Dear Hibito\") of the popular anime show Space Brothers.\n\nAwards and honors \n\n* NASA Distinguished Service Medal (1973)\n* He was made an honorary fellow of the Geological Society of America for his efforts in geoscience in 1984.[http://www.geosociety.org/aboutus/awards/past.htm Geological Society of America: Award & Medal Recipients]\n* 1989 Recipient of the G. K. Gilbert Award\n* One of the elementary schools in Schmitt's hometown of Silver City, New Mexico was named in his honor in the mid-1970s. An image of the astronaut riding a rocket through space is displayed on the front of Harrison Schmitt Elementary School. \n* AAPG's Special Award has been changed to the Harrison Schmitt Award in 2011. It recognizes individuals or organizations that, for a variety of reasons, do not qualify for other Association honors or awards. Schmitt received the award in 1973 for his contribution as the first geologist to land on the moon and study its geology. \n* 2015 Recipient of the Leif Erikson Exploration Award, awarded by The Exploration Museum, for his scientific work on the surface of the Moon in 1972, and for his part in the geology training of all the astronauts that walked on the Moon before him. \n\nMedia \n\nSchmitt is one of the astronauts featured in the documentary In the Shadow of the Moon. He also contributed to the book NASA's Scientist-Astronauts by David Shayler and Colin Burgess." ] }

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{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe", "TagMe", "TagMe", "Search" ], "filename": [ "Count_Dracula.txt", "Vampire.txt", "Vampire_hunter.txt", "Abraham_Van_Helsing.txt" ], "title": [ "Count Dracula", "Vampire", "Vampire hunter", "Abraham Van Helsing" ], "wiki_context": [ "Count Dracula is the title character and main antagonist of Bram Stoker's 1897 Gothic horror novel Dracula. He is considered to be both the prototypical and the archetypal vampire in subsequent works of fiction. He is also depicted in the novel to be the origin of werewolf legends. Some aspects of the character are believed to have been inspired by the 15th-century Wallachian Prince Vlad III the Impaler, who was also known as Dracula. Other character aspects have been added or altered in subsequent popular fictional works. The character has subsequently appeared frequently in popular culture, from films to animated media to breakfast cereals.\n\nStoker's creation\n\nBram Stoker's novel takes the form of an epistolary tale, in which Count Dracula's characteristics, powers, abilities and weaknesses are narrated by multiple narrators, from different perspectives. \n\nCount Dracula is an undead, centuries-old vampire, and a Transylvanian nobleman who claims to be a Székely descended from Attila the Hun. He inhabits a decaying castle in the Carpathian Mountains near the Borgo Pass. Unlike the vampires of Eastern European folklore, which are portrayed as repulsive, corpse-like creatures, Dracula exudes a veneer of aristocratic charm. In his conversations with Jonathan Harker, he reveals himself as deeply proud of his boyar heritage and nostalgic for the past, which he admits have become only a memory of heroism, honor and valor in modern times.\n\nEarly life\n\nDetails of his early life are obscure, but it is mentioned \"he was in life a most wonderful man. Soldier, statesman, and alchemist. Which latter was the highest de-velopment of the science knowledge of his time. He had a mighty brain, a learning beyond compare, and a heart that knew no fear and no remorse... there was no branch of knowledge of his time that he did not essay.\" In life, Dracula studied the black arts at the academy of Scholomance in the Carpathian Mountains, overlooking the town of Sibiu (also known as Hermannstadt) and has a deep knowledge of alchemy and magic. Taking up arms, as befitting his rank and status as a voivode, he led troops against the Turks across the Danube. According to his nemesis Abraham Van Helsing, \"He must indeed have been that Voivode Dracula who won his name against the Turk, over the great river on the very frontier of Turkey-land. If it be so, then was he no common man: for in that time, and for centuries after, he was spoken of as the cleverest and the most cunning, as well as the bravest of the sons of the land beyond the forest.\" Dead and buried in a great tomb in the chapel of his castle, Dracula returns from death as a vampire and lives for several centuries in his castle with three terrifyingly beautiful female vampires beside him. Whether they be his lovers, sisters, daughters, or vampires made by him is not made clear in the narrative.\n\nNarrative\n\nAs the novel begins in the late 19th century, Dracula acts on a long-contemplated plan for world domination, and infiltrates London to begin his reign of terror. He summons Jonathan Harker, a newly qualified English solicitor, to provide legal support for a real estate transaction overseen by Harker's employer. Dracula at first charms Harker with his cordiality and historical knowledge, and even rescues him from the clutches of the three female vampires in the castle. In truth, however, Dracula merely wishes to keep Harker alive long enough to complete the legal transaction and to learn as much as possible about England.\n\nDracula leaves his castle and boards a Russian ship, the Demeter, taking along with him 50 boxes of Transylvanian soil, which he needs in order to regain his strength and rest during daylight. During the voyage to Whitby, a coastal town in northern England, he sustains himself on the ship's crew members. Only one body is later found, that of the captain, who is found tied up to the ship's helm. The captain's log is recovered and tells of strange events that had taken place during the ship's journey. Dracula leaves the ship in the form of a dog.\n\nSoon the Count is menacing Harker's fiancée, Wilhelmina \"Mina\" Murray, and her friend, Lucy Westenra. There is also a notable link between Dracula and Renfield, a patient in an insane asylum overseen by John Seward who is compelled to consume insects, spiders, birds, and other creatures—in ascending order of size—in order to absorb their \"life force\". Renfield acts as a kind of sensor, reacting to Dracula's proximity and supplying clues accordingly. Dracula begins to visit Lucy's bed chamber on a nightly basis, draining her of blood while simultaneously infecting her with the curse of vampirism. Not knowing the cause for Lucy's deterioration, her three suitors - Seward, Arthur Holmwood and Quincey Morris - call upon Seward's mentor, the Dutch doctor Abraham Van Helsing. Van Helsing soon deduces her condition's supernatural origins, but does not speak out. Despite an attempt at keeping the vampire at bay with garlic, Dracula attacks Lucy's house one final time, killing her mother and transforming Lucy herself into one of the undead.\n\nHarker escapes Dracula's castle and returns to England, barely alive and deeply traumatized. On Seward's suggestion, Mina seeks Van Helsing's assistance in assessing Harker's health. She reads his journal and passes it along to Van Helsing. This unfolds the first clue to the identity of Lucy's assailant, which later prompts Mina to collect all of the events of Dracula's appearance in news articles, saved letters, newspaper clippings and the journals of each member of the group. This assists the group in investigating Dracula's movements and later discovering that Renfield's behavior is directly influenced by Dracula. They then discover that Dracula has purchased a residence just next door to Seward's. The group gathers intelligence to track the location of Dracula for the purpose of destroying him.\n\nAfter Lucy attacks several children, Van Helsing, Seward, Holmwood and Morris enter her crypt and kill her to save her soul. Later, Harker joins them and the party work to discover Dracula's intentions. Harker aids the party in tracking down the locations of the boxes to the various residences of Dracula and discovers that Dracula purchased multiple real estate properties 'over the counter' throughout the North, South, East and West sides of London under the alias 'Count De Ville'. Dracula's main plan was to move each of his 50 boxes of earth to his various properties in order to arrange multiple lairs throughout and around the perimeter of London. \n\nThe party pries open each of the graves, places wafers of Sacramental bread within each of them, and seals them shut. This deprives the Count of his ability to seek safety in those boxes. Dracula gains entry into Seward's residence by coercing an invitation out of Renfield. As he attempts to enter the room in which Harker and Mina are staying, Renfield tries to stop him; Dracula then mortally wounds him. With his dying breath, Renfield tells Seward and Van Helsing that Dracula is after Mina. Van Helsing and Seward discover Dracula biting Mina then forcing her to drink his blood. The group repel Dracula using crucifixes and sacramental bread, forcing Dracula to flee by turning into a dark vapor. The party continue to hunt Dracula to search for his remaining lairs. Although Dracula's 'baptism' of Mina grants him a telepathic link to her, it backfires when Van Helsing hypnotizes Mina and uses her supernatural link with Dracula to track him as he flees back to Transylvania.\n\nThe heroes follow Dracula back to Transylvania, and in a climactic battle with Dracula's gypsy bodyguards, finally destroy him. Despite the popular image of Dracula having a stake driven through his heart to kill him, Mina's narrative describes his throat being cut through by Harker's kukri and his heart pierced by Morris' Bowie knife (Mina Harker's Journal, 6 November, Dracula Chapter 27). His body then turns into dust, but not before Mina sees an expression of peace on his face.\n\nCharacteristics\n\nAlthough early in the novel Dracula dons a mask of cordiality, he often flies into fits of rage when his plans are frustrated. When the three vampire women who live in his castle attempt to seduce Jonathan Harker, Dracula physically assaults one and ferociously berates them for their insubordination. He then relents and talks to them more kindly, telling them that he does indeed love each of them.\n\nHe has an appreciation for ancient architecture, and when purchasing a home he prefers them to be aged, saying \"A new home would kill me\", and that to make a new home habitable to him would take a century. \n\nDracula is very proud of his warrior heritage, proclaiming his pride to Harker on how the Székely people are infused with the blood of heroes. He also expresses an interest in the history of the British Empire, speaking admiringly of its people. He has a somewhat primal and predatory worldview; he pities ordinary humans for their revulsion to their darker impulses. He is not without human emotions, however; he often says that he too can love. \n\nThough usually portrayed as having a strong Eastern European accent, the original novel only specifies that his spoken English is excellent, though strangely toned.\n\nHis appearance varies in age. He is described early in the novel as thin, with a long white mustache, pointed ears and sharp teeth. It is also noted later in the novel (Chapter 11 subsection \"The Escaped Wolf\") by a zookeeper who sees him that he has a hooked nose and a pointed beard with a streak of white in it. He is dressed all in black and has hair on his palms. Jonathan Harker described him as an old man, \"cruel looking\" and giving an effect of \"extraordinary pallor\". When angered, the Count showed his true bestial nature, his blue eyes flaming red.\n\nAs the novel progresses, Dracula is described as taking on a more and more youthful appearance. After Harker strikes him with a shovel, he is left with a scar on his forehead which he bears throughout the course of the novel.\n\nPowers and weaknesses\n\nCount Dracula is portrayed in the novel using many different supernatural abilities, and is believed to have gained his abilities through dealings with the Devil. Chapter 18 of the novel describes many of the abilities, limitations and weaknesses of Dracula and vampires in particular. Dracula has superhuman strength which, according to Van Helsing, is equivalent to that of 20 strong men. He does not cast a shadow or have a reflection from mirrors. He is immune to conventional means of attack; a sailor tries to stab him in the back with a knife, but the blade goes through his body as though it is air. Why Harker's Kukri knife and Morris' Bowie Knife are able to harm him later on is never explained. The Count can defy gravity to a certain extent and possesses superhuman agility, able to climb vertical surfaces upside down in a reptilian manner. He can travel onto \"unhallowed\" ground such as the graves of suicides and those of his victims. He has powerful hypnotic, telepathic and illusionary abilities. He also has the ability to \"within limitations\" vanish and reappear elsewhere at will. If he knows the path, he can come out from anything or into anything regardless of how close it is bound even if it is fused with fire. \n\nHe has amassed cunning and wisdom throughout centuries, and he is unable to die by the mere passing of time alone.\n\nHe can command animals such as rats, owls, bats, moths, foxes and wolves. However, his control over these animals is limited, as seen when the party first enters his house in London. Although Dracula is able to summon thousands of rats to swarm and attack the group, Seward summons a pack of hounds to devour the rats. The rats are so frightened of the dogs that they flee, and any control which Dracula had over them is gone. \n\nDracula can also manipulate the weather and, within his range, is able to direct the elements, such as storms, fog and mist.\n\nShapeshifting\n\nDracula can shapeshift at will, able to grow and become small, his featured forms in the novel being that of a bat, a wolf, a large dog and a fog or mist. When the moonlight is shining, he can travel as elemental dust within its rays. He is able to pass through tiny cracks or crevices while retaining his human form or in the form of a vapor; described by Van Helsing as the ability to slip through a hairbreadth space of a tomb door or coffin. This is also an ability used by his victim Lucy as a vampire. When the party breaks into her tomb, they find the coffin empty; her corpse is no longer located within. \n\nVampirism\n\nOne of Dracula's most mysterious powers is the ability to turn others into vampires by biting them. According to Van Helsing:\n\nThe vampire bite itself does not cause death. It is the method vampires use to drain blood of the victim and to increase their influence over them. This is described by Van Helsing:\n\nSome who are bitten by Dracula do not die, but instead become his undead servants:\n\nVan Helsing later describes the aftermath of a bitten victim when the vampire has been killed:\n\nAs Dracula slowly drains Lucy's blood, she dies from acute blood loss and later transforms into a vampire, despite the efforts of Seward and Van Helsing to provide her with blood transfusions. \n\nHe is aided by powers of necromancy and divination of the dead, that all who die by his hand may reanimate and do his bidding.\n\nBloodletting\n\nDracula requires no other sustenance but fresh human blood, which has the effect of rejuvenating him and allowing him to grow younger. His power is drawn from the blood of others, and he cannot survive without it. Although drinking blood can rejuvenate his youth and strength, it does not give him the ability to regenerate; months after being struck on the head by a shovel, he still bears a scar from the impact. \n\nDracula's preferred victims are women. Harker states that he believes Dracula has a state of fasting as well as a state of feeding. Dracula does state to Mina however that exerting his abilities caused a desire to feed. \n\nVampire's Baptism of Blood\n\nCount Dracula is depicted as the \"King Vampire\", and can control other vampires. To punish Mina and the party for their efforts against him, Dracula bites her on at least three occasions. He also forces her to drink his blood; this act curses her with the effects of vampirism and gives him a telepathic link to her thoughts. However, hypnotism was only able to be done before dawn. Van Helsing refers to the act of drinking blood by both the vampire and the victim \"the Vampire's Baptism of Blood\". \n\nThe effects changes Mina' physically and mentally over time. A few moments after Dracula attacks her, Van Helsing takes a wafer of sacramental bread and places it on her forehead to bless her; when the bread touches her skin, it burns her and leaves a scar on her forehead. Her teeth start growing longer but do not grow sharper. She begins to lose her appetite, feeling repulsed by normal food, begins to sleep more and more during the day; cannot wake unless at sunset and stops writing in her diary. When Van Helsing later crumbles the same bread in a circle around her, she is unable to cross or leave the circle, discovering a new form of protection. \n\nDracula's death can release the curse on any living victim of eventual transformation into vampire. However, Van Helsing reveals that were he to successfully escape, his continued existence would ensure that even if he did not victimize Mina further, she would transform into a vampire upon her eventual natural death.\n\nLimitations of his powers\n\nDracula is much less powerful in daylight and is only able to shift his form at dawn, noon, and dusk (he can shift his form freely at night or if he is at his grave). The sun is not fatal to him, though, as sunlight does not burn and destroy him upon contact, most of his abilities cease.\n\nHe is also limited in his ability to travel, as he can only cross running water at low or high tide. Due to this, he is unable to fly across a river in the form of a bat or mist or even by himself board a boat or step off a boat onto a dock unless he is physically carried over with assistance. He is also unable to enter a place unless invited to do so by someone of the household; once invited, he can enter and leave the premises at will.\n\nWeaknesses\n\nThirst\n\nDracula has a bloodlust which he is seemingly unable to control. At the sight of blood he becomes enveloped in a demoniac fury which is fueled by the need to feed. Other adaptations call this uncontrollable state 'the thirst'.\n\nReligious Symbolism\n\nThere are items which afflict him to the point he has no power and can even calm him from his insatiable appetite for blood. He is repulsed by garlic, as well as sacred items and symbols such as crucifixes, and sacramental bread.\n\nPlacing the branch of a wild rose upon the top of his coffin will render him unable to escape it; a sacred bullet fired into the coffin could kill him so that he remain True-Dead.\n\nMountain Ash is also described as a form of protection from a vampire although the effects are unknown. This was believed to be used as protection against evil spirits and witches during the Victorian era.\n\nDeath-Sleep\n\nThe state of rest to which vampires are prone to during times of day is described in the novel as a deathlike sleep where the vampire sleeps open-eyed, is unable to awaken or move, yet also may be unaware of any presence of individuals who may be trespassing. Dracula is portrayed as being active in daylight at least once in order to pursue a victim. Dracula also purchases many properties throughout London 'over the counter' which shows that he does have the ability to have some type of presence in daylight. \n\nHe requires Transylvanian soil to be nearby to him in a foreign land or to be entombed within his coffin within Transylvania in order to successfully rest; otherwise, he will be unable to recover his strength. This has forced him to transport many boxes of Transylvanian earth to each of his residences in London. It should be noted however that he is most powerful when he is within his Earth-Home, Coffin-Home, Hell-Home, or any place unhallowed. \n\nFurther, if Dracula or any vampire has had their fill in blood upon feeding, they will be caused to rest in this dead state even longer than usual. \n\nOther abilities\n\nWhile universally feared by the local people of Transylvania and even beyond, Dracula commands the loyalty of gypsies and a band of Slovaks who transport his boxes on their way to London and to serve as an armed convoy bringing his coffin back to his castle. The Slovaks and gypsies appear to know his true nature, for they laugh at Harker when he tries to communicate his plight, and betray Harker's attempt to send a letter through them by giving it to the Count.\n\nDracula seems to be able to hold influence over people with mental disorders, such as Renfield, who is never bitten but who worships Dracula, referring to him over the course of the novel as \"Master\" and \"Lord\". Dracula also afflicts Lucy with chronic sleepwalking, putting her into a trance-like state that allows them not only to submit to his will but also seek him and satisfy his need to feed.\n\nDracula's powers and weaknesses vary greatly in the many adaptations. Previous and subsequent vampires from different legends have had similar vampire characteristics.\n\nCharacter development subsequent to the novel\n\nDracula is one of the most famous characters in popular culture. He has been portrayed by more actors in more visual media adaptations of the novel than any other horror character.[http://www.guinnessattractions.com/worldrecords.aspx Guinness World Records Experience] Actors who have played him include Max Schreck, Béla Lugosi, John Carradine, Christopher Lee, Charles Macaulay, Francis Lederer, Denholm Elliott, Jack Palance, Louis Jourdan, Frank Langella, Klaus Kinski, Gary Oldman, Leslie Nielsen, George Hamilton, Keith-Lee Castle, Gerard Butler, Duncan Regehr, Richard Roxburgh, Marc Warren, Rutger Hauer, Stephen Billington, Thomas Kretschmann, Dominic Purcell, and Luke Evans. Lon Chaney Jr. played either Dracula or his progeny in the Universal film, \"Son of Dracula.\" Of all the foregoing, it is generally conceded that actor Bela Lugosi's stage and 1931 movie portrayal of Dracula has, in appearance, speech, public personality, mannerisms and dress, overshadowed Stoker's original conception of these character aspects.\n\nThe character is closely associated with the western cultural archetype of the vampire, and remains a popular Halloween costume.\n\nCount Dracula appears in Mad Monster Party? voiced by Allen Swift. This version is shown to be wearing a monocle. Count Dracula is among the monsters that Baron Boris von Frankenstein invites to the Isle of Evil in order to show off the secret of total destruction and announce his retirement from the Worldwide Organization of Monsters.\n\nIn Sesame Street, there is a character called Count von Count who was based on Bela Lugosi's interpretation of Count Dracula.\n\nCount Dracula appears in Mad Mad Mad Monsters (a \"prequel of sorts\" to Mad Monster Party?) voiced again by Allen Swift. He and his son are invited by Baron Henry von Frankenstein to attend the wedding of Frankenstein's Monster and its mate at the Transylvania Astoria Hotel.\n\nDracula is the primary antagonist of the Castlevania video game series and the main protagonist of the Lords of Shadow reboot series.\n\nIn 2003, Count Dracula, as portrayed by Lugosi in the 1931 film, was named as the 33rd greatest movie villain by the American Film Institute.\n\nDracula appears as the lead character of Dracula the Un-dead, a novel by Stoker's great-grand nephew Dacre presented as a sequel to the original. Set twenty-five years after the original novel, Dracula has gone to Paris as an actor with the name Vladimir Basarab. He appears to be an anti-hero as he tries to protect his and Mina's son Quincey Harker against another vampire Elizabeth Bathory. At the end of the novel he was able to kill Bathory but was wounded by her and falls down a cliff with Mina, presumably dying. Sometime later Quincey went on a ship to America, hoping for a better life. Unknown to him, boxes labeled as property of Vladimir Basarab are also loaded on board. The ocean liner is later revealed to be the RMS Titanic.\n\nModern and postmodern analyses of the character\n\nAlready in 1958, Cecil Kirtly proposed that Count Dracula shared his personal past with the historical Transylvanian-born Voivode Vlad III Dracula of Wallachia, also known as Vlad the Impaler or Vlad Țepeș. Following the publication of In Search of Dracula by Radu Florescu and Raymond McNally in 1972, this supposed connection attracted much popular attention.\n\nHistorically, the name \"Dracula\" is the given name of Vlad Ṭepeș' family, a name derived from a secret fraternal order of knights called the Order of the Dragon, founded by Sigismund of Luxembourg (king of Hungary and Bohemia, and Holy Roman Emperor) to uphold Christianity and defend the Empire against the Ottoman Turks. Vlad II Dracul, father of Vlad III, was admitted to the order around 1431 because of his bravery in fighting the Turks and was dubbed Dracul (Dragon) thus his son became Dracula (son of the dragon). From 1431 onward, Vlad II wore the emblem of the order and later, as ruler of Wallachia, his coinage bore the dragon symbol. \n\nStoker came across the name Dracula in his reading on Romanian history, and chose this to replace the name (Count Wampyr) that he had originally intended to use for his villain. However, some Dracula scholars, led by Elizabeth Miller, have questioned the depth of this connection as early as 1998. They argue that Stoker in fact knew little of the historic Vlad III except for the name \"Dracula\". While having a conversation with Jonathan Harker in Chapter 3, Dracula refers to his own background, and these speeches show elements which Stoker directly copied from Wilkinson's book. Stoker mentions the Voivode of the Dracula race who fought against the Turks after the defeat of Cossova, and was later betrayed by his brother, historical facts which unequivocally point to Vlad III, described as \"Voïvode Dracula\" by Wilkinson:\n\nThe Count's intended identity is later commented by Professor Van Helsing, referring to a letter from his friend Arminius:\n\nThis indeed encourages the reader to identify the Count with the Voivode Dracula first mentioned by him in Chapter 3, the one betrayed by his brother: Vlad III Dracula, betrayed by his brother Radu the Handsome, who had chosen the side of the Turks. But as noted by the Dutch author Hans Corneel de Roos, in Chapter 25, Van Helsing and Mina drop this rudimentary connection to Vlad III and instead describe the Count's personal past as that of \"that other of his race\" who lived \"in a later age\". By smoothly exchanging Vlad III for a nameless double, Stoker avoided that his main character could be unambiguously linked to a historical person traceable in any history book.\n\nSimilarly, the novelist did not want to disclose the precise site of the Count's residence, Castle Dracula. As confirmed by Stoker's own handwritten research notes, the novelist had a specific location for the Castle in mind while writing the narrative: an empty mountain top in the Transylvanian Kelemen Alps near the former border with Moldavia. Efforts to promote the Poenari Castle (ca. 200 km away from the novel's place of action near the Borgo Pass) as the \"real Castle Dracula\" have no basis in Stoker’s writing; Stoker did not know this building. Regarding the Bran Castle near Brașov, Stoker possibly saw an illustration of Castle Bran (Törzburg) in Charles Boner's book on Transylvania. Although Stoker may have been inspired by its romantic appearance, neither Boner, nor Mazuchelli nor Crosse (who also mention Terzburg or Törzburg) associate it with Vlad III; for the site of his fictitious Castle Dracula, Stoker preferred an empty mountain top.\n\nFurthermore, Stoker's detailed notes reveal that the novelist was very well aware of the ethnic and geo-political differences between the \"Roumanians\" or \"Wallachs\"/\"Wallachians\", descendants of the Dacians, and the Székelys or Szeklers, allies of the Magyars or Hungarians, whose interests were opposed to that of the Wallachians. In the novel's original typewritten manuscript, the Count speaks of throwing off the \"Austrian yoke\", which corresponds to the Szekler political point of view. This expression is crossed out, however, and replaced by \"Hungarian yoke\" (as appearing in the printed version), which matches the historical perspective of the Wallachians. This has been interpreted by some to mean that Stoker opted for the Wallachian, not the Szekler interpretation, thus lending more consistency to the Romanian identity of his Count: although not identical with Vlad III, the Vampire is portrayed as one of the \"Dracula race\". \n\nIt has been suggested by some that Stoker was influenced by the legend of Countess Elizabeth Báthory, who was born in the Kingdom of Hungary and accused of the murder and torture of 80 young women. \n\nScreen portrayals\n\nIn popular culture", "A vampire is a being from folklore who subsists by feeding on the life essence (generally in the form of blood) of the living. In European folklore, vampires were undead beings that often visited loved ones and caused mischief or deaths in the neighbourhoods they inhabited when they were alive. They wore shrouds and were often described as bloated and of ruddy or dark countenance, markedly different from today's gaunt, pale vampire which dates from the early 19th century.\n\nAlthough vampiric entities have been recorded in most cultures, the term vampire was not popularized in the west until the early 18th century, after an influx of vampire superstition into Western Europe from areas where vampire legends were frequent, such as the Balkans and Eastern Europe, although local variants were also known by different names, such as shtriga in Albania, vrykolakas in Greece and strigoi in Romania. This increased level of vampire superstition in Europe led to mass hysteria and in some cases resulted in corpses actually being staked and people being accused of vampirism.\n\nIn modern times, however, the vampire is generally held to be a fictitious entity, although belief in similar vampiric creatures such as the chupacabra still persists in some cultures. Early folk belief in vampires has sometimes been ascribed to the ignorance of the body's process of decomposition after death and how people in pre-industrial societies tried to rationalise this, creating the figure of the vampire to explain the mysteries of death. Porphyria was also linked with legends of vampirism in 1985 and received much media exposure, but has since been largely discredited.\n\nThe charismatic and sophisticated vampire of modern fiction was born in 1819 with the publication of The Vampyre by John Polidori; the story was highly successful and arguably the most influential vampire work of the early 19th century. However, it is Bram Stoker's 1897 novel Dracula which is remembered as the quintessential vampire novel and provided the basis of the modern vampire legend. The success of this book spawned a distinctive vampire genre, still popular in the 21st century, with books, films, and television shows. The vampire has since become a dominant figure in the horror genre.\n\nEtymology \n\nThe Oxford English Dictionary dates the first appearance of the English word vampire (as vampyre) in English from 1734, in a travelogue titled Travels of Three English Gentlemen published in The Harleian Miscellany in 1745. Vampires had already been discussed in French and German literature. After Austria gained control of northern Serbia and Oltenia with the Treaty of Passarowitz in 1718, officials noted the local practice of exhuming bodies and \"killing vampires\". These reports, prepared between 1725 and 1732, received widespread publicity.Barber, p. 5. The English term was derived (possibly via French vampyre) from the German Vampir, in turn derived in the early 18th century from the Serbian vampir (Cyrillic: вампир), when Arnold Paole, a purported vampire in Serbia was described during the time when Northern Serbia was part of the Austrian Empire.\n\nThe Serbian form has parallels in virtually all Slavic languages: Bulgarian and Macedonian вампир (vampir), Bosnian: lampir, Croatian vampir, Czech and Slovak upír, Polish wąpierz, and (perhaps East Slavic-influenced) upiór, Ukrainian упир (upyr), Russian упырь (upyr), Belarusian упыр (upyr), from Old East Slavic упирь (upir) (note that many of these languages have also borrowed forms such as \"vampir/wampir\" subsequently from the West; these are distinct from the original local words for the creature). The exact etymology is unclear. (\"Myths of the Peoples of the World\"). Upyr' Among the proposed proto-Slavic forms are *ǫpyrь and *ǫpirь.\n\nAnother, less widespread theory, is that the Slavic languages have borrowed the word from a Turkic term for \"witch\" (e.g., Tatar ubyr). Czech linguist Václav Machek proposes Slovak verb \"vrepiť sa\" (stick to, thrust into), or its hypothetical anagram \"vperiť sa\" (in Czech, archaic verb \"vpeřit\" means \"to thrust violently\") as an etymological background, and thus translates \"upír\" as \"someone who thrusts, bites\". An early use of the Old Russian word is in the anti-pagan treatise \"Word of Saint Grigoriy\" (Russian Слово святого Григория), dated variously to the 11th–13th centuries, where pagan worship of upyri is reported. \n\nFolk beliefs \n\nThe notion of vampirism has existed for millennia. Cultures such as the Mesopotamians, Hebrews, Ancient Greeks, and Romans had tales of demons and spirits which are considered precursors to modern vampires. However, despite the occurrence of vampire-like creatures in these ancient civilizations, the folklore for the entity we know today as the vampire originates almost exclusively from early-18th-century southeastern Europe, when verbal traditions of many ethnic groups of the region were recorded and published. In most cases, vampires are revenants of evil beings, suicide victims, or witches, but they can also be created by a malevolent spirit possessing a corpse or by being bitten by a vampire. Belief in such legends became so pervasive that in some areas it caused mass hysteria and even public executions of people believed to be vampires.\n\nDescription and common attributes \n\nIt is difficult to make a single, definitive description of the folkloric vampire, though there are several elements common to many European legends. Vampires were usually reported as bloated in appearance, and ruddy, purplish, or dark in colour; these characteristics were often attributed to the recent drinking of blood. Indeed, blood was often seen seeping from the mouth and nose when one was seen in its shroud or coffin and its left eye was often open. It would be clad in the linen shroud it was buried in, and its teeth, hair, and nails may have grown somewhat, though in general fangs were not a feature. Although vampires were generally described as undead, some folktales spoke of them as living beings. \n\nCreating vampires \n\nThe causes of vampiric generation were many and varied in original folklore. In Slavic and Chinese traditions, any corpse that was jumped over by an animal, particularly a dog or a cat, was feared to become one of the undead. A body with a wound that had not been treated with boiling water was also at risk. In Russian folklore, vampires were said to have once been witches or people who had rebelled against the Russian Orthodox Church while they were alive. \n\nCultural practices often arose that were intended to prevent a recently deceased loved one from turning into an undead revenant. Burying a corpse upside-down was widespread, as was placing earthly objects, such as scythes or sickles, near the grave to satisfy any demons entering the body or to appease the dead so that it would not wish to arise from its coffin. This method resembles the Ancient Greek practice of placing an obolus in the corpse's mouth to pay the toll to cross the River Styx in the underworld. It has been argued that instead, the coin was intended to ward off any evil spirits from entering the body, and this may have influenced later vampire folklore. This tradition persisted in modern Greek folklore about the vrykolakas, in which a wax cross and piece of pottery with the inscription \"Jesus Christ conquers\" were placed on the corpse to prevent the body from becoming a vampire. \n\nOther methods commonly practised in Europe included severing the tendons at the knees or placing poppy seeds, millet, or sand on the ground at the grave site of a presumed vampire; this was intended to keep the vampire occupied all night by counting the fallen grains, indicating an association of vampires with arithmomania. Similar Chinese narratives state that if a vampire-like being came across a sack of rice, it would have to count every grain; this is a theme encountered in myths from the Indian subcontinent, as well as in South American tales of witches and other sorts of evil or mischievous spirits or beings.\n\nIn Albanian folklore, the dhampir is the hybrid child of the karkanxholl (a werewolf-like creature with an iron mail shirt) or the lugat (a water-dwelling ghost or monster). The dhampir sprung of a karkanxholl has the unique ability to discern the karkanxholl; from this derives the expression the dhampir knows the lugat. The lugat cannot be seen, he can only be killed by the dhampir, who himself is usually the son of a lugat. In different regions, animals can be revenants as lugats; also, living people during their sleep. Dhampiraj is also an Albanian surname. \n\nIdentifying vampires \n\nMany elaborate rituals were used to identify a vampire. One method of finding a vampire's grave involved leading a virgin boy through a graveyard or church grounds on a virgin stallion—the horse would supposedly balk at the grave in question. Generally a black horse was required, though in Albania it should be white. Holes appearing in the earth over a grave were taken as a sign of vampirism. \n\nCorpses thought to be vampires were generally described as having a healthier appearance than expected, plump and showing little or no signs of decomposition. In some cases, when suspected graves were opened, villagers even described the corpse as having fresh blood from a victim all over its face. Evidence that a vampire was active in a given locality included death of cattle, sheep, relatives or neighbours. Folkloric vampires could also make their presence felt by engaging in minor poltergeist-like activity, such as hurling stones on roofs or moving household objects, and pressing on people in their sleep. \n\nProtection \n\nApotropaics \n\nApotropaics, items able to ward off revenants, are common in vampire folklore. Garlic is a common example, a branch of wild rose and hawthorn plant are said to harm vampires, and in Europe, sprinkling mustard seeds on the roof of a house was said to keep them away. Other apotropaics include sacred items, for example a crucifix, rosary, or holy water. Vampires are said to be unable to walk on consecrated ground, such as that of churches or temples, or cross running water. \n\nAlthough not traditionally regarded as an apotropaic, mirrors have been used to ward off vampires when placed, facing outwards, on a door (in some cultures, vampires do not have a reflection and sometimes do not cast a shadow, perhaps as a manifestation of the vampire's lack of a soul). This attribute, although not universal (the Greek vrykolakas/tympanios was capable of both reflection and shadow), was used by Bram Stoker in Dracula and has remained popular with subsequent authors and filmmakers. \n\nSome traditions also hold that a vampire cannot enter a house unless invited by the owner, although after the first invitation they can come and go as they please. Though folkloric vampires were believed to be more active at night, they were not generally considered vulnerable to sunlight.\n\nMethods of destruction \n\nMethods of destroying suspected vampires varied, with staking the most commonly cited method, particularly in southern Slavic cultures. Ash was the preferred wood in Russia and the Baltic states, or hawthorn in Serbia, with a record of oak in Silesia. Potential vampires were most often staked through the heart, though the mouth was targeted in Russia and northern Germany and the stomach in north-eastern Serbia. \n\nPiercing the skin of the chest was a way of \"deflating\" the bloated vampire. This is similar to the act of burying sharp objects, such as sickles, in with the corpse, so that they may penetrate the skin if the body bloats sufficiently while transforming into a revenant. In one striking example of the latter, the corpses of five people in a graveyard near the Polish village of Dravsko, dating from the 17th and 18th centuries, were buried with sickles placed around their necks or across their abdomens.\n\nDecapitation was the preferred method in German and western Slavic areas, with the head buried between the feet, behind the buttocks or away from the body. This act was seen as a way of hastening the departure of the soul, which in some cultures, was said to linger in the corpse. The vampire's head, body, or clothes could also be spiked and pinned to the earth to prevent rising. \n\nRomani people drove steel or iron needles into a corpse's heart and placed bits of steel in the mouth, over the eyes, ears and between the fingers at the time of burial. They also placed hawthorn in the corpse's sock or drove a hawthorn stake through the legs. In a 16th-century burial near Venice, a brick forced into the mouth of a female corpse has been interpreted as a vampire-slaying ritual by the archaeologists who discovered it in 2006. \n\nFurther measures included pouring boiling water over the grave or complete incineration of the body. In the Balkans, a vampire could also be killed by being shot or drowned, by repeating the funeral service, by sprinkling holy water on the body, or by exorcism. In Romania, garlic could be placed in the mouth, and as recently as the 19th century, the precaution of shooting a bullet through the coffin was taken. For resistant cases, the body was dismembered and the pieces burned, mixed with water, and administered to family members as a cure. In Saxon regions of Germany, a lemon was placed in the mouth of suspected vampires. \n\nIn Bulgaria, over 100 skeletons with metal objects, such as plough bits, embedded in the torso have been discovered. \n\nAncient beliefs \n\nTales of supernatural beings consuming the blood or flesh of the living have been found in nearly every culture around the world for many centuries. The term vampire did not exist in ancient times. Blood drinking and similar activities were attributed to demons or spirits who would eat flesh and drink blood; even the Devil was considered synonymous with the vampire. \n\nAlmost every nation has associated blood drinking with some kind of revenant or demon, or in some cases a deity. In India, for example, tales of vetālas, ghoul-like beings that inhabit corpses, have been compiled in the Baitāl Pacīsī; a prominent story in the Kathāsaritsāgara tells of King Vikramāditya and his nightly quests to capture an elusive one. Piśāca, the returned spirits of evil-doers or those who died insane, also bear vampiric attributes. \n\nThe Persians were one of the first civilizations to have tales of blood-drinking demons: creatures attempting to drink blood from men were depicted on excavated pottery shards. Ancient Babylonia and Assyria had tales of the mythical Lilitu, synonymous with and giving rise to Lilith (Hebrew לילית) and her daughters the Lilu from Hebrew demonology. Lilitu was considered a demon and was often depicted as subsisting on the blood of babies.Hurwitz, Lilith. And Estries, female shape changing, blood drinking demons, were said to roam the night among the population, seeking victims. According to Sefer Hasidim, Estries were creatures created in the twilight hours before God rested. An injured Estrie could be healed by eating bread and salt given her by her attacker.\n\nGreco-Roman mythology described the Empusae, the Lamia, and the striges. Over time the first two terms became general words to describe witches and demons respectively. Empusa was the daughter of the goddess Hecate and was described as a demonic, bronze-footed creature. She feasted on blood by transforming into a young woman and seduced men as they slept before drinking their blood. The Lamia preyed on young children in their beds at night, sucking their blood, as did the gelloudes or Gello. Like the Lamia, the striges feasted on children, but also preyed on adults. They were described as having the bodies of crows or birds in general, and were later incorporated into Roman mythology as strix, a kind of nocturnal bird that fed on human flesh and blood. \n\nIn Azerbaijanese mythology Xortdan is the troubled soul of the dead rising from the grave. Some Hortdan can be living people with certain magical properties. Some of the properties of the Hortdan include: the ability to transform into an animal, invisibility, and the propensity to drain the vitality of victims via blood loss.\n\nMedieval and later European folklore \n\nMany myths surrounding vampires originated during the medieval period. The 12th-century English historians and chroniclers Walter Map and William of Newburgh recorded accounts of revenants, though records in English legends of vampiric beings after this date are scant. The Old Norse draugr is another medieval example of an undead creature with similarities to vampires. \n\nVampires proper originate in folklore widely reported from Eastern Europe in the late 17th and 18th centuries. These tales formed the basis of the vampire legend that later entered Germany and England, where they were subsequently embellished and popularized. One of the earliest recordings of vampire activity came from the region of Istria in modern Croatia, in 1672. Local reports cited the local vampire Jure Grando of the village Khring near Tinjan as the cause of panic among the villagers. \n\nA former peasant, Jure died in 1656. However, local villagers claimed he returned from the dead and began drinking blood from the people and sexually harassing his widow. The village leader ordered a stake to be driven through his heart, but when the method failed to kill him, he was subsequently beheaded with better results. That was the first case in history that a real person had been described as a vampire.\n\nDuring the 18th century, there was a frenzy of vampire sightings in Eastern Europe, with frequent stakings and grave diggings to identify and kill the potential revenants. Even government officials engaged in the hunting and staking of vampires. Despite being called the Age of Enlightenment, during which most folkloric legends were quelled, the belief in vampires increased dramatically, resulting in a mass hysteria throughout most of Europe.\n\nThe panic began with an outbreak of alleged vampire attacks in East Prussia in 1721 and in the Habsburg Monarchy from 1725 to 1734, which spread to other localities. Two famous vampire cases, the first to be officially recorded, involved the corpses of Petar Blagojevich and Arnold Paole from Serbia. Blagojevich was reported to have died at the age of 62, but allegedly returned after his death asking his son for food. When the son refused, he was found dead the following day. Blagojevich supposedly returned and attacked some neighbours who died from loss of blood. \n\nIn the second case, Paole, an ex-soldier turned farmer who allegedly was attacked by a vampire years before, died while haying. After his death, people began to die in the surrounding area and it was widely believed that Paole had returned to prey on the neighbours. Another famous Serbian legend involving vampires concentrates around a certain Sava Savanović living in a watermill and killing and drinking blood from millers. The character was later used in a story written by Serbian writer Milovan Glišić and in the Yugoslav 1973 horror film Leptirica inspired by the story.\n\nThe two incidents were well-documented. Government officials examined the bodies, wrote case reports, and published books throughout Europe. The hysteria, commonly referred to as the \"18th-Century Vampire Controversy\", raged for a generation. The problem was exacerbated by rural epidemics of so-claimed vampire attacks, undoubtedly caused by the higher amount of superstition that was present in village communities, with locals digging up bodies and in some cases, staking them.\n\nDissertations on Vampirology\n\nFrom 1679, Philippe Rohr devotes an essay to the dead who chew their shrouds in their graves, subject resumed later by Otto in 1732, and then by Michael Ranft in 1734. The subject was based on the peculiar phenomenon that when digging up graves, it was discovered that some corpses had at some point either devoured the interior fabric of their coffin or their own limbs. This distinguishes the relationship between vampirism and nightmares which were believed that many cases of vampirism were simply illusions brought by the imagination. While in 1732 an anonymous writer calling itself \"the doctor Weimar\" discusses the non-putrefaction of these creatures, from a theological point of view. in 1733, Johann Christoph Harenberg wrote a general treatise on vampirism and the Marquis d'Argens Boyer cites local cases. Theologians and clergymen are also addressing the topic. \n\nDom Augustine Calmet, a French theologian and scholar, put together a comprehensive treatise in 1751 titled Treatise on the Apparitions of Spirits and on Vampires or Revenants which investigated the existence of vampires, demons, spectres and many other matters relating to the occult of his time. Calmet conducted extensive research and amassed reports of vampire incidents and extensively researched theological and mythological accounts as well. He had numerous readers, including both a critical Voltaire and supportive demonologists who interpreted the treatise as claiming that vampires existed. In his Philosophical Dictionary, Voltaire wrote: \n\nSome theological disputes arose. The non-decay of vampires' bodies could recall the incorruption of the bodies of the saints of the Catholic Church. A paragraph on vampires was included in the second edition (1749) of De servorum Dei beatificatione et sanctorum canonizatione, On the beatification of the servants of God and on canonization of the blessed, written by Prospero Lambertini (Pope Benedict XIV). In his opinion, while the incorruption of the bodies of saints was the effect of a divine intervention, all the phenomena attributed to vampires were purely natural or the fruit of \"imagination, terror and fear\". In other words, vampires did not exist \n\nThe controversy only ceased when Empress Maria Theresa of Austria sent her personal physician, Gerard van Swieten, to investigate the claims of vampiric entities. He concluded that vampires did not exist and the Empress passed laws prohibiting the opening of graves and desecration of bodies, sounding the end of the vampire epidemics. Despite this condemnation, the vampire lived on in artistic works and in local superstition. \n\nNon-European beliefs \n\nBeings having many of the attributes of European vampires appear in the folklore of Africa, Asia, North and South America, and India. Classified as vampires, all share the thirst for blood. \n\nAfrica \n\nVarious regions of Africa have folktales featuring beings with vampiric abilities: in West Africa the Ashanti people tell of the iron-toothed and tree-dwelling asanbosam, and the Ewe people of the adze, which can take the form of a firefly and hunts children. The eastern Cape region has the impundulu, which can take the form of a large taloned bird and can summon thunder and lightning, and the Betsileo people of Madagascar tell of the ramanga, an outlaw or living vampire who drinks the blood and eats the nail clippings of nobles. \n\nThe Americas \n\nThe Loogaroo is an example of how a vampire belief can result from a combination of beliefs, here a mixture of French and African Vodu or voodoo. The term Loogaroo possibly comes from the French loup-garou (meaning \"werewolf\") and is common in the culture of Mauritius. However, the stories of the Loogaroo are widespread through the Caribbean Islands and Louisiana in the United States. Similar female monsters are the Soucouyant of Trinidad, and the Tunda and Patasola of Colombian folklore, while the Mapuche of southern Chile have the bloodsucking snake known as the Peuchen. Aloe vera hung backwards behind or near a door was thought to ward off vampiric beings in South American superstition. Aztec mythology described tales of the Cihuateteo, skeletal-faced spirits of those who died in childbirth who stole children and entered into sexual liaisons with the living, driving them mad.\n\nDuring the late 18th and 19th centuries the belief in vampires was widespread in parts of New England, particularly in Rhode Island and Eastern Connecticut. There are many documented cases of families disinterring loved ones and removing their hearts in the belief that the deceased was a vampire who was responsible for sickness and death in the family, although the term \"vampire\" was never actually used to describe the deceased. The deadly disease tuberculosis, or \"consumption\" as it was known at the time, was believed to be caused by nightly visitations on the part of a dead family member who had died of consumption themselves. The most famous, and most recently recorded, case of suspected vampirism is that of nineteen-year-old Mercy Brown, who died in Exeter, Rhode Island in 1892. Her father, assisted by the family physician, removed her from her tomb two months after her death, cut out her heart and burned it to ashes. \n\nAsia \n\nRooted in older folklore, the modern belief in vampires spread throughout Asia with tales of ghoulish entities from the mainland, to vampiric beings from the islands of Southeast Asia.\n\nSouth Asia also developed other vampiric legends. The Bhūta or Prét is the soul of a man who died an untimely death. It wanders around animating dead bodies at night, attacking the living much like a ghoul. In northern India, there is the BrahmarākŞhasa, a vampire-like creature with a head encircled by intestines and a skull from which it drank blood. The figure of the Vetala who appears in South Asian legend and story may sometimes be rendered as \"Vampire\" (see the section on \"Ancient Beliefs\" above).\n\nAlthough vampires have appeared in Japanese cinema since the late 1950s, the folklore behind it is western in origin.Bunson, Vampire Encyclopedia, pp. 137–38. However, the Nukekubi is a being whose head and neck detach from its body to fly about seeking human prey at night. \n\nLegends of female vampire-like beings who can detach parts of their upper body also occur in the Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia. There are two main vampire-like creatures in the Philippines: the Tagalog Mandurugo (\"blood-sucker\") and the Visayan Manananggal (\"self-segmenter\"). The mandurugo is a variety of the aswang that takes the form of an attractive girl by day, and develops wings and a long, hollow, thread-like tongue by night. The tongue is used to suck up blood from a sleeping victim.\n\nThe manananggal is described as being an older, beautiful woman capable of severing its upper torso in order to fly into the night with huge bat-like wings and prey on unsuspecting, sleeping pregnant women in their homes. They use an elongated proboscis-like tongue to suck fetuses from these pregnant women. They also prefer to eat entrails (specifically the heart and the liver) and the phlegm of sick people. \n\nThe Malaysian Penanggalan may be either a beautiful old or young woman who obtained her beauty through the active use of black magic or other unnatural means, and is most commonly described in local folklore to be dark or demonic in nature. She is able to detach her fanged head which flies around in the night looking for blood, typically from pregnant women. Malaysians would hang jeruju (thistles) around the doors and windows of houses, hoping the Penanggalan would not enter for fear of catching its intestines on the thorns. \n\nThe Leyak is a similar being from Balinese folklore of Indonesia. A Kuntilanak or Matianak in Indonesia, or Pontianak or Langsuir in Malaysia, is a woman who died during childbirth and became undead, seeking revenge and terrorizing villages. She appeared as an attractive woman with long black hair that covered a hole in the back of her neck, with which she sucked the blood of children. Filling the hole with her hair would drive her off. Corpses had their mouths filled with glass beads, eggs under each armpit, and needles in their palms to prevent them from becoming langsuir. This description would also fit the Sundel Bolongs. \n\nJiangshi, sometimes called \"Chinese vampires\" by Westerners, are reanimated corpses that hop around, killing living creatures to absorb life essence (qì) from their victims. They are said to be created when a person's soul (魄 pò) fails to leave the deceased's body. However, some have disputed the comparison of jiang shi with vampires, as jiang shi are usually represented as mindless creatures with no independent thought. One unusual feature of this monster is its greenish-white furry skin, perhaps derived from fungus or mould growing on corpses. Jiangshi legends have inspired a genre of jiangshi films and literature in Hong Kong and East Asia. Films like Encounters of the Spooky Kind and Mr. Vampire were released during the jiangshi cinematic boom of the 1980s and 1990s. \n\nModern beliefs \n\nIn modern fiction, the vampire tends to be depicted as a suave, charismatic villain. Despite the general disbelief in vampiric entities, occasional sightings of vampires are reported. Indeed, vampire hunting societies still exist, although they are largely formed for social reasons. Allegations of vampire attacks swept through the African country of Malawi during late 2002 and early 2003, with mobs stoning one individual to death and attacking at least four others, including Governor Eric Chiwaya, based on the belief that the government was colluding with vampires. \n\nIn early 1970 local press spread rumours that a vampire haunted Highgate Cemetery in London. Amateur vampire hunters flocked in large numbers to the cemetery. Several books have been written about the case, notably by Sean Manchester, a local man who was among the first to suggest the existence of the \"Highgate Vampire\" and who later claimed to have exorcised and destroyed a whole nest of vampires in the area. In January 2005, rumours circulated that an attacker had bitten a number of people in Birmingham, England, fuelling concerns about a vampire roaming the streets. However, local police stated that no such crime had been reported and that the case appears to be an urban legend.\n\nIn 2006, a physics professor at the University of Central Florida wrote a paper arguing that it is mathematically impossible for vampires to exist, based on geometric progression. According to the paper, if the first vampire had appeared on 1 January 1600, and it fed once a month (which is less often than what is depicted in films and folklore), and every victim turned into a vampire, then within two and a half years the entire human population of the time would have become vampires. The paper made no attempt to address the credibility of the assumption that every vampire victim would turn into a vampire.\n\nIn one of the more notable cases of vampiric entities in the modern age, the chupacabra (\"goat-sucker\") of Puerto Rico and Mexico is said to be a creature that feeds upon the flesh or drinks the blood of domesticated animals, leading some to consider it a kind of vampire. The \"chupacabra hysteria\" was frequently associated with deep economic and political crises, particularly during the mid-1990s. \n\nIn Europe, where much of the vampire folklore originates, the vampire is usually considered a fictitious being, although many communities may have embraced the revenant for economic purposes. In some cases, especially in small localities, vampire superstition is still rampant and sightings or claims of vampire attacks occur frequently. In Romania during February 2004, several relatives of Toma Petre feared that he had become a vampire. They dug up his corpse, tore out his heart, burned it, and mixed the ashes with water in order to drink it. \n\nVampirism and the Vampire lifestyle also represent a relevant part of modern day's occultist movements. The mythos of the vampire, his magickal qualities, allure, and predatory archetype express a strong symbolism that can be used in ritual, energy work, and magick, and can even be adopted as a spiritual system. The vampire has been part of the occult society in Europe for centuries and has spread into the American sub-culture as well for more than a decade, being strongly influenced by and mixed with the neo gothic aesthetics. \n\nCollective noun \n\n'Coven' has been used as a collective noun for vampires, possibly based on the Wiccan usage. An alternative collective noun is a 'house' of vampires. David Malki, author of Wondermark, suggests in Wondermark No. 566 the use of the collective noun 'basement', as in \"A basement of vampires.\" \n\nOrigins of vampire beliefs \n\nCommentators have offered many theories for the origins of vampire beliefs, trying to explain the superstition – and sometimes mass hysteria – caused by vampires. Everything ranging from premature burial to the early ignorance of the body's decomposition cycle after death has been cited as the cause for the belief in vampires.\n\nPathology \n\nDecomposition \n\nPaul Barber in his book Vampires, Burial and Death has described that belief in vampires resulted from people of pre-industrial societies attempting to explain the natural, but to them inexplicable, process of death and decomposition. \n\nPeople sometimes suspected vampirism when a cadaver did not look as they thought a normal corpse should when disinterred. Rates of decomposition vary depending on temperature and soil composition, and many of the signs are little known. This has led vampire hunters to mistakenly conclude that a dead body had not decomposed at all, or, ironically, to interpret signs of decomposition as signs of continued life. \n\nCorpses swell as gases from decomposition accumulate in the torso and the increased pressure forces blood to ooze from the nose and mouth. This causes the body to look \"plump,\" \"well-fed,\" and \"ruddy\"—changes that are all the more striking if the person was pale or thin in life. In the Arnold Paole case, an old woman's exhumed corpse was judged by her neighbours to look more plump and healthy than she had ever looked in life. The exuding blood gave the impression that the corpse had recently been engaging in vampiric activity.\n\nDarkening of the skin is also caused by decomposition. The staking of a swollen, decomposing body could cause the body to bleed and force the accumulated gases to escape the body. This could produce a groan-like sound when the gases moved past the vocal cords, or a sound reminiscent of flatulence when they passed through the anus. The official reporting on the Petar Blagojevich case speaks of \"other wild signs which I pass by out of high respect\". \n\nAfter death, the skin and gums lose fluids and contract, exposing the roots of the hair, nails, and teeth, even teeth that were concealed in the jaw. This can produce the illusion that the hair, nails, and teeth have grown. At a certain stage, the nails fall off and the skin peels away, as reported in the Blagojevich case—the dermis and nail beds emerging underneath were interpreted as \"new skin\" and \"new nails\".\n\nPremature burial \n\nIt has also been hypothesized that vampire legends were influenced by individuals being buried alive because of shortcomings in the medical knowledge of the time. In some cases in which people reported sounds emanating from a specific coffin, it was later dug up and fingernail marks were discovered on the inside from the victim trying to escape. In other cases the person would hit their heads, noses or faces and it would appear that they had been \"feeding.\" A problem with this theory is the question of how people presumably buried alive managed to stay alive for any extended period without food, water or fresh air. An alternate explanation for noise is the bubbling of escaping gases from natural decomposition of bodies. Another likely cause of disordered tombs is grave robbing. \n\nContagion \n\nFolkloric vampirism has been associated with clusters of deaths from unidentifiable or mysterious illnesses, usually within the same family or the same small community. The epidemic allusion is obvious in the classical cases of Petar Blagojevich and Arnold Paole, and even more so in the case of Mercy Brown and in the vampire beliefs of New England generally, where a specific disease, tuberculosis, was associated with outbreaks of vampirism. As with the pneumonic form of bubonic plague, it was associated with breakdown of lung tissue which would cause blood to appear at the lips. \n\nPorphyria \n\nIn 1985 biochemist David Dolphin proposed a link between the rare blood disorder porphyria and vampire folklore. Noting that the condition is treated by intravenous haem, he suggested that the consumption of large amounts of blood may result in haem being transported somehow across the stomach wall and into the bloodstream. Thus vampires were merely sufferers of porphyria seeking to replace haem and alleviate their symptoms.Dolphin D (1985) \"Werewolves and Vampires,\" annual meeting of American Association for the Advancement of Science.\n\nThe theory has been rebuffed medically as suggestions that porphyria sufferers crave the haem in human blood, or that the consumption of blood might ease the symptoms of porphyria, are based on a misunderstanding of the disease. Furthermore, Dolphin was noted to have confused fictional (bloodsucking) vampires with those of folklore, many of whom were not noted to drink blood. Similarly, a parallel is made between sensitivity to sunlight by sufferers, yet this was associated with fictional and not folkloric vampires. In any case, Dolphin did not go on to publish his work more widely. Despite being dismissed by experts, the link gained media attention and entered popular modern folklore. \n\nRabies \n\nRabies has been linked with vampire folklore. Dr Juan Gómez-Alonso, a neurologist at Xeral Hospital in Vigo, Spain, examined this possibility in a report in Neurology. The susceptibility to garlic and light could be due to hypersensitivity, which is a symptom of rabies. The disease can also affect portions of the brain that could lead to disturbance of normal sleep patterns (thus becoming nocturnal) and hypersexuality. Legend once said a man was not rabid if he could look at his own reflection (an allusion to the legend that vampires have no reflection). Wolves and bats, which are often associated with vampires, can be carriers of rabies. The disease can also lead to a drive to bite others and to a bloody frothing at the mouth. \n\nPsychodynamic theories \n\nIn his 1931 treatise On the Nightmare, Welsh psychoanalyst Ernest Jones asserted that vampires are symbolic of several unconscious drives and defence mechanisms. Emotions such as love, guilt, and hate fuel the idea of the return of the dead to the grave. Desiring a reunion with loved ones, mourners may project the idea that the recently dead must in return yearn the same. From this arises the belief that folkloric vampires and revenants visit relatives, particularly their spouses, first. \n\nIn cases where there was unconscious guilt associated with the relationship, however, the wish for reunion may be subverted by anxiety. This may lead to repression, which Sigmund Freud had linked with the development of morbid dread. Jones surmised in this case the original wish of a (sexual) reunion may be drastically changed: desire is replaced by fear; love is replaced by sadism, and the object or loved one is replaced by an unknown entity. The sexual aspect may or may not be present. Some modern critics have proposed a simpler theory: People identify with immortal vampires because, by so doing, they overcome, or at least temporarily escape from, their fear of dying. \n\nThe innate sexuality of bloodsucking can be seen in its intrinsic connection with cannibalism and folkloric one with incubus-like behaviour. Many legends report various beings draining other fluids from victims, an unconscious association with semen being obvious. Finally Jones notes that when more normal aspects of sexuality are repressed, regressed forms may be expressed, in particular sadism; he felt that oral sadism is integral in vampiric behaviour. \n\nPolitical interpretations \n\nThe reinvention of the vampire myth in the modern era is not without political overtones. The aristocratic Count Dracula, alone in his castle apart from a few demented retainers, appearing only at night to feed on his peasantry, is symbolic of the parasitic Ancien regime. In his entry for \"Vampires\" in the Dictionnaire philosophique (1764), Voltaire notices how the end of the 18th century coincided with the decline of the folkloric belief in the existence of vampires but that now \"there were stock-jobbers, brokers, and men of business, who sucked the blood of the people in broad daylight; but they were not dead, though corrupted. These true suckers lived not in cemeteries, but in very agreeable palaces\". \n\nMarx defined capital as \"dead labour which, vampire-like, lives only by sucking living labour, and lives the more, the more labour it sucks\". Werner Herzog, in his Nosferatu the Vampyre, gives this political interpretation an extra ironic twist when protagonist Jonathon Harker, a middle-class solicitor, becomes the next vampire; in this way the capitalist bourgeois becomes the next parasitic class. \n\nPsychopathology \n\nA number of murderers have performed seemingly vampiric rituals upon their victims. Serial killers Peter Kürten and Richard Trenton Chase were both called \"vampires\" in the tabloids after they were discovered drinking the blood of the people they murdered. Similarly, in 1932, an unsolved murder case in Stockholm, Sweden was nicknamed the \"Vampire murder\", because of the circumstances of the victim's death. The late-16th-century Hungarian countess and mass murderer Elizabeth Báthory became particularly infamous in later centuries' works, which depicted her bathing in her victims' blood in order to retain beauty or youth. \n\nModern vampire subcultures \n\nVampire lifestyle is a term for a contemporary subculture of people, largely within the Goth subculture, who consume the blood of others as a pastime; drawing from the rich recent history of popular culture related to cult symbolism, horror films, the fiction of Anne Rice, and the styles of Victorian England. Active vampirism within the vampire subculture includes both blood-related vampirism, commonly referred to as sanguine vampirism, and psychic vampirism, or supposed feeding from pranic energy. \n\nVampire bats \n\nAlthough many cultures have stories about them, vampire bats have only recently become an integral part of the traditional vampire lore. Indeed, vampire bats were only integrated into vampire folklore when they were discovered on the South American mainland in the 16th century. Although there are no vampire bats in Europe, bats and owls have long been associated with the supernatural and omens, although mainly because of their nocturnal habits, and in modern English heraldic tradition, a bat means \"Awareness of the powers of darkness and chaos\". \n\nThe three species of actual vampire bats are all endemic to Latin America, and there is no evidence to suggest that they had any Old World relatives within human memory. It is therefore impossible that the folkloric vampire represents a distorted presentation or memory of the vampire bat. The bats were named after the folkloric vampire rather than vice versa; the Oxford English Dictionary records their folkloric use in English from 1734 and the zoological not until 1774. Although the vampire bat's bite is usually not harmful to a person, the bat has been known to actively feed on humans and large prey such as cattle and often leave the trademark, two-prong bite mark on its victim's skin.\n\nThe literary Dracula transforms into a bat several times in the novel, and vampire bats themselves are mentioned twice in it. The 1927 stage production of Dracula followed the novel in having Dracula turn into a bat, as did the film, where Béla Lugosi would transform into a bat. The bat transformation scene would again be used by Lon Chaney Jr. in 1943's Son of Dracula. \n\nIn modern fiction \n\nThe vampire is now a fixture in popular fiction. Such fiction began with 18th-century poetry and continued with 19th-century short stories, the first and most influential of which was John Polidori's The Vampyre (1819), featuring the vampire Lord Ruthven. Lord Ruthven's exploits were further explored in a series of vampire plays in which he was the anti-hero. The vampire theme continued in penny dreadful serial publications such as Varney the Vampire (1847) and culminated in the pre-eminent vampire novel of all time: Dracula by Bram Stoker, published in 1897. \n\nOver time, some attributes now regarded as integral became incorporated into the vampire's profile: fangs and vulnerability to sunlight appeared over the course of the 19th century, with Varney the Vampire and Count Dracula both bearing protruding teeth, and Murnau's Nosferatu (1922) fearing daylight. The cloak appeared in stage productions of the 1920s, with a high collar introduced by playwright Hamilton Deane to help Dracula 'vanish' on stage. Lord Ruthven and Varney were able to be healed by moonlight, although no account of this is known in traditional folklore. Implied though not often explicitly documented in folklore, immortality is one attribute which features heavily in vampire film and literature. Much is made of the price of eternal life, namely the incessant need for blood of former equals. \n\nLiterature \n\nThe vampire or revenant first appeared in poems such as The Vampire (1748) by Heinrich August Ossenfelder, Lenore (1773) by Gottfried August Bürger, Die Braut von Corinth (The Bride of Corinth) (1797) by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Robert Southey's Thalaba the Destroyer (1801), John Stagg's \"The Vampyre\" (1810), Percy Bysshe Shelley's \"The Spectral Horseman\" (1810) (\"Nor a yelling vampire reeking with gore\") and \"Ballad\" in St. Irvyne (1811) about a reanimated corpse, Sister Rosa, Samuel Taylor Coleridge's unfinished Christabel and Lord Byron's The Giaour. \n\nByron was also credited with the first prose fiction piece concerned with vampires: The Vampyre (1819). This was in reality authored by Byron's personal physician, John Polidori, who adapted an enigmatic fragmentary tale of his illustrious patient, \"Fragment of a Novel\" (1819), also known as \"The Burial: A Fragment\". Byron's own dominating personality, mediated by his lover Lady Caroline Lamb in her unflattering roman-a-clef, Glenarvon (a Gothic fantasia based on Byron's wild life), was used as a model for Polidori's undead protagonist Lord Ruthven. The Vampyre was highly successful and the most influential vampire work of the early 19th century. \n\nVarney the Vampire was a landmark popular mid-Victorian era gothic horror story by James Malcolm Rymer and Thomas Peckett Prest, which first appeared from 1845 to 1847 in a series of pamphlets generally referred to as penny dreadfuls because of their inexpensive price and typically gruesome contents. The story was published in book form in 1847 and runs to 868 double-columned pages. It has a distinctly suspenseful style, using vivid imagery to describe the horrifying exploits of Varney. Another important addition to the genre was Sheridan Le Fanu's lesbian vampire story Carmilla (1871). Like Varney before her, the vampire Carmilla is portrayed in a somewhat sympathetic light as the compulsion of her condition is highlighted. \n\nNo effort to depict vampires in popular fiction was as influential or as definitive as Bram Stoker's Dracula (1897). Its portrayal of vampirism as a disease of contagious demonic possession, with its undertones of sex, blood and death, struck a chord in Victorian Europe where tuberculosis and syphilis were common. The vampiric traits described in Stoker's work merged with and dominated folkloric tradition, eventually evolving into the modern fictional vampire.\n\nDrawing on past works such as The Vampyre and \"Carmilla\", Stoker began to research his new book in the late 19th century, reading works such as The Land Beyond the Forest (1888) by Emily Gerard and other books about Transylvania and vampires. In London, a colleague mentioned to him the story of Vlad Ţepeş, the \"real-life Dracula,\" and Stoker immediately incorporated this story into his book. The first chapter of the book was omitted when it was published in 1897, but it was released in 1914 as Dracula's Guest. \n\nThe latter part of the 20th century saw the rise of multi-volume vampire epics. The first of these was Gothic romance writer Marilyn Ross' Barnabas Collins series (1966–71), loosely based on the contemporary American TV series Dark Shadows. It also set the trend for seeing vampires as poetic tragic heroes rather than as the more traditional embodiment of evil. This formula was followed in novelist Anne Rice's highly popular and influential Vampire Chronicles (1976–2003). \n\nThe 21st century brought more examples of vampire fiction, such as J.R. Ward's Black Dagger Brotherhood series, and other highly popular vampire books which appeal to teenagers and young adults. Such vampiric paranormal romance novels and allied vampiric chick-lit and vampiric occult detective stories are a remarkably popular and ever-expanding contemporary publishing phenomenon. L.A. Banks' The Vampire Huntress Legend Series, Laurell K. Hamilton's erotic Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter series, and Kim Harrison's The Hollows series, portray the vampire in a variety of new perspectives, some of them unrelated to the original legends. Vampires in the Twilight series (2005–2008) by Stephenie Meyer ignore the effects of garlic and crosses, and are not harmed by sunlight (although it does reveal their supernatural nature). Richelle Mead further deviates from traditional vampires in her Vampire Academy series (2007–present), basing the novels on Romanian lore with two races of vampires, one good and one evil, as well as half-vampires. \n\nFilm and television \n\nConsidered one of the preeminent figures of the classic horror film, the vampire has proven to be a rich subject for the film and gaming industries. Dracula is a major character in more films than any other but Sherlock Holmes, and many early films were either based on the novel of Dracula or closely derived from it. These included the landmark 1922 German silent film Nosferatu, directed by F. W. Murnau and featuring the first film portrayal of Dracula—although names and characters were intended to mimic Draculas, Murnau could not obtain permission to do so from Stoker's widow, and had to alter many aspects of the film. In addition to this film was Universal's Dracula (1931), starring Béla Lugosi as the Count in what was the first talking film to portray Dracula. The decade saw several more vampire films, most notably Dracula's Daughter in 1936. \n\nThe legend of the vampire was cemented in the film industry when Dracula was reincarnated for a new generation with the celebrated Hammer Horror series of films, starring Christopher Lee as the Count. The successful 1958 Dracula starring Lee was followed by seven sequels. Lee returned as Dracula in all but two of these and became well known in the role. By the 1970s, vampires in films had diversified with works such as Count Yorga, Vampire (1970), an African Count in 1972's Blacula, the BBC's Count Dracula featuring French actor Louis Jourdan as Dracula and Frank Finlay as Abraham Van Helsing, and a Nosferatu-like vampire in 1979's Salem's Lot, and a remake of Nosferatu itself, titled Nosferatu the Vampyre with Klaus Kinski the same year. Several films featured female, often lesbian, vampire antagonists such as Hammer Horror's The Vampire Lovers (1970) based on Carmilla, though the plotlines still revolved around a central evil vampire character.\n\nThe pilot for the Dan Curtis 1972 television series Kolchak: The Night Stalker revolved around reporter Carl Kolchak hunting a vampire on the Las Vegas strip. Later films showed more diversity in plotline, with some focusing on the vampire-hunter, such as Blade in the Marvel Comics' Blade films and the film Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Buffy, released in 1992, foreshadowed a vampiric presence on television, with adaptation to a long-running hit TV series of the same name and its spin-off Angel. Still others showed the vampire as protagonist, such as 1983's The Hunger, 1994's Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles and its indirect sequel of sorts Queen of the Damned, and the 2007 series Moonlight. Bram Stoker's Dracula was a noteworthy 1992 film which became the then-highest grossing vampire film ever. \n\nThis increase of interest in vampiric plotlines led to the vampire being depicted in films such as Underworld and Van Helsing, and the Russian Night Watch and a TV miniseries remake of 'Salem's Lot, both from 2004. The series Blood Ties premiered on Lifetime Television in 2007, featuring a character portrayed as Henry Fitzroy, illegitimate son of Henry VIII of England turned vampire, in modern-day Toronto, with a female former Toronto detective in the starring role. A 2008 series from HBO, entitled True Blood, gives a Southern take to the vampire theme.\n\nIn 2008 the BBC Three series Being Human became popular in Britain. It featured an unconventional trio of a vampire, a werewolf and a ghost who are sharing a flat in Bristol. Another popular vampire-related show is CW's The Vampire Diaries. The continuing popularity of the vampire theme has been ascribed to a combination of two factors: the representation of sexuality and the perennial dread of mortality. \nAnother \"vampiric\" series that has come out between 2008 and 2012 is the Twilight Saga, a series of films based on the book series of the same name.\n\nIn quite another type of depiction, Count von Count, a harmless and friendly vampire parodying Bela Lugosi's depictions, is a major character on the children's television series Sesame Street. He teaches counting and simple arithmetic through his compulsion to count everything, a trait he shares with certain other vampires of folklore.\n\nThe 2005 CW series Supernatural has also depicted vampires. The main characters, Sam and Dean Winchester, along with other hunters, believe that the true way to kill a vampire is to decapitate the being.The show's vampires are shown in a rather negative light, though some are shown mercy after being found to not harm humans. \n\nGames \n\nThe role-playing game Vampire: the Masquerade has been influential upon modern vampire fiction and elements of its terminology, such as embrace and sire, appear in contemporary fiction. Popular video games about vampires include Castlevania, which is an extension of the original Bram Stoker Dracula novel, and Legacy of Kain. Vampires are also sporadically portrayed in other games, including The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, when a character can become afflicted with porphyric haemophilia. A different take on vampires is presented in Bethesda's other game Fallout 3 with \"The Family\". Members of the Family are afflicted with a manic desire to consume human flesh, but restrict themselves to drinking blood to avoid becoming complete monsters. \n\nNotes", "A vampire hunter or vampire slayer is a character in folklore and fiction who specializes in finding and destroying vampires, and sometimes other supernatural creatures. A vampire hunter is usually described as having extensive knowledge of vampires and other monstrous creatures, including their powers and weaknesses, and uses this knowledge to effectively combat them. In many works, vampire hunters are simply humans with more than average knowledge about the occult, while in others they are themselves supernatural beings, having superhuman abilities. A well known and influential vampire hunter is Professor Abraham Van Helsing, a character in Bram Stoker's 1897 horror novel, Dracula.\n\nVampire hunters in folklore\n\n\"Professional\" or semi-professional vampire hunters played some part in the vampire beliefs of the Balkans (especially in Bulgarian, Serbian, and Romani folk beliefs). In Bulgarian, the terms used to designate them included glog (lit. \"hawthorn\", the species of wood used for the stake), vampirdzhiya, vampirar, dzhadazhiya, svetocher.\n\nThey were usually either born on Saturday (then called Sabbatarians,. Cited in Bulgarian sâbotnichav,Димитрова, Иваничка. 1983. Българска народна митология. [http://umotvorenia.bgrod.org/index.php?optioncom_content&task\nview&id132&Itemid\n46 Online article (Bulgarian)] Greek sabbatianoí) or the offspring of a vampire and a woman (typically his widow), called a dhampir in Romani or a vampirović in Serbian. It was also believed that someone born on a Saturday could see a vampire when it was otherwise invisible (and sometimes other supernatural entities as well); similarly for the dhampir. In the case of the Sabbatarians, it was believed in some places that they needed to be fed meat from a sheep killed by a wolf (Bulgarian vâlkoedene); this would enable them not to fear the things that only they were able to see. In Croatian and Slovenian legends, the villages had their own vampire hunters that were called kresniks, whose spirits were able to turn into animals at night to fight off the vampire or kudlak.\n\n Петровић, Сретен. 2000. Основи демонологије. In: Систем српске митологије. Просвета, Ниш 2000. [http://svevlad.org.rs/knjige_files/petrovic_mitologija.html#vampir Online (Serbian)]\n\nVampire hunters in fiction\n\nThe vampire hunter has found new popularity in modern fiction and popular culture.\n\nThe most widely known example of a vampire hunter is Abraham Van Helsing of the novel Dracula and in other works of fiction adapting or modifying that work. Other more recent figures include Buffy \"the Vampire Slayer\" Summers from the television show and film of the same name. Buffy's spin-off series Angel is also focused on a vampire hunter, the titular star, Angel \"the World's Champion,\" a vampire himself, is often portrayed battling vampires. Vampire hunters have also appeared in video games, such as BloodRayne.\n\nAs well as being knowledgeable about vampire lore, vampire hunters in fiction are often armed with an eclectic mix of items and weapons which are designed to take maximum advantage of the monster's traditional weaknesses. These have included firearms with silver ammunition, appropriate religious symbols, crossbows that fire all wood bolts and even waterguns filled with blessed holy water in the movies The Lost Boys and From Dusk Till Dawn.\n\nThe organizational strength of depicted vampire hunters can vary wildly. Most hunter characters are in small groups working alone and in secret. By contrast, the Hellsing Organization in the anime television series, Hellsing is a British government paramilitary strike force with access to troops, heavy combat vehicles and weapons and even allied vampires.\n\nWhile predominantly depicted as human, examples of other types of vampire hunters also exist. Dhampiric figures, having a mix of human and vampire blood, are a popular form. Alucard from the Castlevania series, and the eponymous hero of the Blade series of comic books, movies, television series, and anime, are both examples of dhampir vampire-hunters. Even rarer are vampire hunters that are vampires themselves. Two examples of this type can be found in Morbius from Ultimate Spider-Man, and Zero Kiryuu in the manga and anime series Vampire Knight.\n\nThe image of the vampire hunter is often a mysterious and dramatic avenging hero, an eccentric extremist, a Mad scientist or sometimes a mix of both. A hunter may be a heroic figure, a villain (from the perspective of the vampire), a lonesome avenger, or sometimes, although not usually, a bounty hunter-style character, hunting Vampires for profit. Vampire hunters have also popularly been depicted as hunting various creatures such as werewolves, demons, and other forms of undead as well. Others have been depicted as mages and cyborgs. Vampire hunters are often associated with and/or members of the clergy, holy orders, or other religious organizations which may be dedicated to fighting vampires, demons, and other supernatural forces. Vampire hunting as a family tradition or birthright is a popular use of the archetype in fiction, such as the Belmont family from the Castlevania series. Some Hunters devote their entire lives to the eradication of vampires, for others it is just a strange hobby.\n\nOf course with the job for human hunter, comes the risk of getting bitten and turned into vampires themselves. More often than not fellow hunters usually do mercy killing to prevent them from becoming monsters, though in some fiction it may be possible for a hunter to purify and/or cure themselves (and/or others) of vampirism, especially if the person in question was recently turned into a vampire. Another common trope is hunters being forced to slay their loved ones and/or allies who have been turned into vampires. Alternatively, after becoming a vampire, sometimes hunters will continue to fight and hunt vampires using their newly acquired vampire powers/abilities (sometimes being hunted by their former allies and other human vampire hunters). In addition to human hunters, dhampirs, and vampires that hunt other vampires, it is not uncommon for vampire hunters to be other supernatural creatures such as werewolves or witches. Additionally, some human hunters may possess divine/holy powers, superhuman, and/or other supernatural abilities that they can use both to fight and protect themselves from vampires and other supernatural entities they hunt. Some hunters may even resort to using dark powers/weapons (usually dark magic and/or demonic in nature). Some human hunters may even be tempted to become vampires themselves in order to obtain their powers and immortality, either to continue hunting them, due to fear of their own mortality, and/or simply a lust for power.\n\nList of vampire hunters in fiction\n\n* Abraham Lincoln from the novel Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter by Seth Grahame-Smith and the film Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. \n* Abraham Van Helsing, Quincey Morris, Jonathan Harker, Mina Harker, Dr. John Seward, and Arthur Holmwood from the novel, Dracula, and some of its adaptations and spin-offs.\n* Vampire Hunter D, a half human, half vampire, vampire hunter from the novels, manga and anime Vampire Hunter, Vampire Hunter D, Vampire Hunter D+, and Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust. He is defined as a solo man who professionally hunts vampires during the year 12,090, a time in which all demonic and mythological terrors run rampant and control the wastelands.\n* Castlevania:\n** Alucard (Adrian Farenheits Țepeș) the son of Dracula, one of the protagonists of the Castlevania series. Due to his human mother, Lisa, Alucard is a dhampir, a half-human, half-vampire.\n** The Belmont Clan and the Morris family from the Castlevania series of video games. Almost all the main characters of Castlevania could be called vampire hunters.\n* Castlevania: Lords of Shadow\n** Gabriel Belmont/Dracula an 11th-century holy knight who fights as a member of the Brotherhood of Light. He is manipulated by Lord of the Necromancers, Zobek (the Lord of Shadows series incarnation of Death) to kill his beloved wife and sent on a quest to defeat the other two Lords of Shadow, the Lord of Werewolves, Cornell and Vampire Queen, Carmilla in order to collect the pieces of the God Mask which Zobek claims. It is eventually revealed that Zobek was in turn manipulated by the fallen angel Satan who Gabriel manages to defeat. However Gabriel discovers the God Mask cannot bring Marie back and that it only allows him to see through God's eyes. While trying to stop a powerful ancient demon known as The Forgotten One he is forced to become a vampire in order to enter its prison and eventually takes the demon's power for himself, becoming the immortal Lord of Vampires, Dracula. Surviving to modern times, he is forced to team up with Zobek in order to stop Satan and his acolytes from seek revenge on them both and seeks to end his immortality. However it is later revealed that Dracula and his son Alucard conspired to eliminate both Zobek and Satan, and in the process redeems himself. \n** Trevor Belmont/Alucard Gabriel and his wife Marie Belmont's son who's existence was kept from his father by the Brotherhood of Light as they were aware that Gabriel would eventually become the vampire, Dracula. As an adult, Trevor was told the truth of his heritage and Gabriel's role as his mother's murderer. Trevor becomes determined to slay the monster his father has become and faces Dracula in his castle. However he is fatally wounded during their encounter and discovering the truth of his father's past, pity's Dracula revealing his parentage to Gabriel. A horrified Gabriel use his blood in an attempt to revive Trevor and seeks vengeance upon the Brotherhood for its deception. Believing his son to be dead, he places his son in a coffin on the site of their battle. Years later Trevor awakes as the vampire, Alucard and aids his adult son, Simon Belmont in defeating Dracula. After Dracula's defeat, Alucard seeks to find a way to free his father from his cursed existence and as well as aiding his father in defeating his old enemies Zobek and Satan. Unlike in original Castlevania series, Alucard is a full vampire instead of a Dhampir.\n*Lucy Coe, a popular character on General Hospital since 1986, was revealed to be descended from a long line of vampire slayers on the spinoff Port Charles. This included her undead cousin 'Rafe Kovich'. All supernatural elements were never mentioned on the mother series until 2013. While originally explaining that the supernatural events on the spinoff were all in Lucy's mind, it has since been strongly implied that they did indeed occur but were erased from the town's collective memory.\n* John Constantine, a magician, con man, and occult detective who occasionally fights vampires in stories from the Hellblazer and I...Vampire.\n* Hellsing:\n** Alucard (Dracula backwards) is a vampire from the Hellsing Organization, who, along with his master Integra Hellsing; servant/daughter/offspring, Seras Victoria; (retired) old friend, Walter C. Dornez; and Wild Geese captain, Pip Bernadotte hunt other vampires.\n** Alexander Anderson works for the Vatican's secret Iscariot Organization (Section XIII), who act like the Hellsing Organization, but are more fundamental, and serve to fight for Catholicism, as opposed to Hellsing protecting the Protestantism. Iscariot is more radical and fundamental exterminating any humans who ally themselves with the undead. Other members include their leader, Bishop (later Archbishop) Enrico Maxwell,his adviser Renaldo and other assassins, Heinkel Wolfe and Yumie Takagi.\n* Django from the Boktai game series is a Vampire Hunter who seeks revenge over Count of Groundsoaking Blood (known as Count Hakushaku in Japan) for killing his father, Red Ringo. The sequel series of Boktai, Lunar Knights, known in Japan as Bokura no Taiyou DS: Django & Sabata (ボクらの太陽DS: Django & Sabata lit. \"Our Sun DS: Django & Sabata\"), also feature another vampire hunter named Lucian, known as Sabata in the Japanese release, who seeks revenge upon Duke Dumas for kidnapping and killing his beloved Ellen.\n* Nick, Sean, and Megan from the film The Forsaken race against time to hunt down one of the first Vampires in existence.\n* Dr. Hesselius, from J. Sheridan Le Fanu collection of supernatural tales In a Glass Darkly.\n* Buffy the Vampire Slayer:\n** Buffy Summers, Slayers and other characters from the Buffy the Vampire Slayer film, TV series and comics.\n** Angel from the Buffy the Vampire Slayer spinoff show Angel, the only vampire with a soul, until the vampire Spike gains a soul and joins the rest of the cast in vampire hunting.\n* Marley Davidson from the comic book series Marley Davidson, an exorcist and monster hunter.\n* Father Callahan from the Stephen King novels 'Salem's Lot and the Dark Tower series.\n* Solomon Kane, a character appearing in many works by Robert E. Howard.\n* Blade:\n** Blade, a vampire hunter featured by Marvel Comics and a trilogy of films of the same name, as well a television series and an anime. In his original comic appearances, Blade is a highly skilled human with immunity to vampirism. In later appearances as well as in the films, he is a dhampir, a half-vampire.\n** Abraham Whistler, Abigail Whistler and Hannibal King from the third film of the Blade series, Blade: Trinity. Hannibal takes the form of an ex-vampire who was subsequently cured of his affliction and took up hunting out of a desire for revenge.\n* Karl Vincent. Karl Vincent is the chief protagonist from the novel Last Rites: The Return of Sebastian Vasilis and is featured in the comic book Karl Vincent: Vampire Hunter. \n* The Sinclair Family from the anime version of Karin is sworn to hunt down the vampires of the Marker Clan.\n* The Sarafan knights from the Legacy of Kain series of video games. Also, the non-Sarafan vampire slayers, from the first game in the series (Blood Omen 1).\n* Donovan Baine, of the Darkstalkers series of video games and animated series, also a dhampir.\n* Rayne from the video game series and movies BloodRayne is a vampire hunter and also a dhampir. Also, most of the Spookhouse members, from Nocturne (BloodRayne is a spin-off of Nocturne).\n* Jack Crow, and his \"Team Crow\" from the book Vampire$ by John Steakly, later adapted by John Carpenter for his movie Vampires.\n* Derek Bliss, from the movie Vampires: Los Muertos, also presented by John Carpenter as a pseudo sequel to the first movie.\n* Anita Blake from Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter series of novels.\n* Gabriel Van Helsing from the movie Van Helsing. Van Helsing is a member of a large organization called the Knights of the Holy Order who protect mankind from an evil they 'have no idea even exists'.\n* Edgar Frog, Alan Frog, and Sam Emerson from The Lost Boys movie.\n* Harry Keogh and others with E-Branch in Brian Lumley's Necroscope series.\n* Victoria Gardella from the The Gardella Vampire Chronicles series of historical novels beginning with The Rest Falls Away.\n* Steve \"Leopard\" Leonard, from the Cirque Du Freak books by Darren Shan.\n* Captain Kronos, Vampire Hunter, from the 1974 film of the same name.\n* Peter Vincent and Charley Brewster from the film Fright Night and its sequel Fright Night Part II.\n* Hoss Delgado of The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy is a spectral exterminator who claims to have confronted vampires, among other paranormal entities.\n* Dr. Von Goosewing, an inept German goose that claims to be an expert, \"greatest wampire hunter in ze vorld\" in the Cosgrove Hall show Count Duckula.\n* Carlisle Cullen, in the novel Twilight by Stephenie Meyer, Carlisle hunted vampires with his father, a local priest, before becoming one himself.\n* Rashel Jordan, from the book The Chosen in the Night World series by L.J. Smith. Rashel killed her first vampire when she was 9, some years after the same vampire killed her mother and aunt. She later falls in love with a vampire.\n* Magiere and Leesil, the former a dhampir and the latter half-elven hunt vampires with fey-dog, Chap. From Dhampir by Barb and J.C. Hendee.\n* Adrian Kane, a vampire hunter trying to find the vampire who has his brother's soul from Teresa Medeiros's After Midnight.\n* Robert Neville in Richard Matheson's novel I Am Legend, kills vampires while they sleep during the day.\n* Gregory Salazar in Vampire Lesbians of Sodom, a play by Charles Busch. Salazar disguises himself in drag as a gossip columnist to get close to the two titular vampires who are 1930s movie stars.\n* Mercedes \"Mercy\" Thompson, a character created by Patricia Briggs, a Native American coyote shape-shifter who can see ghosts and is a Volkswagen mechanic of Tri-cities, WA. Slew two vampires in the book, Blood Bound the second book of the Mercy Thompson novels. Additionally she killed two rogue werewolves in the first book in the series Moon Called, a human rapist in Iron Kissed (third in the series), and another vampire in the fourth book Bone Crossed.\n* Kuroe Kurose from the manga Blood Alone. He is immune to vampire's hypnosis.\n* Michael Colefield and the covert paramilitary forces of Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith from the 1998 British television serial Ultraviolet.\n* Jesus Christ, as depicted in the Canadian cult film Jesus Christ Vampire Hunter.\n* Touga Yagari and Zero Kiryu from the manga and anime Vampire Knight.\n* Damali Richards and The Guardians Team from the Leslie Esdaile Banks books The Vampire Huntress Legend Series.\n* Christiano Pena from the Brazilian soap-opera Os Mutantes - Caminhos do Coração. He is a mutant with vast psychokinetic abilities such telekinesis, pyrokinesis, hydrokinesis and atmokinesis, and he is fanatical vampire slayer. He desires to destroy the series' one protagonist, the benevelont female vampire Natália.\n* Saya, a dhampir from the Blood: The Last Vampire films.\n* Special Deputy Jameson Arkeley, A Special Deputy U.S. Marshal tasked with hunting down the last remaining vampires in David Wellington's Thirteen Bullets.\n* In Tsukihime, Arcueid is a True Ancestor, a variation of a vampire, tasked with eliminating Dead Apostles, another variation of vampires. Ciel is a member of the Burial Agency, an organization within the Vatican, that specializes in hunting vampires and other supernatural beings.\n* Joss Mcmillian, became a vampire slayer after his sister was killed by one. From the Chronicles of Vladimir Tod by Heather Brewer.\n* The Soldiers of the Sun, a militia run by the Fellowship of the Sun, a Christian anti-vampire group from the television series True Blood. Members include Jason Stackhouse and Luke McDonald.\n* Sam and Dean Winchester, from the US drama and horror television series Supernatural. The two brothers were trained by their father to be destroyers of malicious supernatural creatures, some of which happen to be vampires. Episodes containing vampire and/or vampire-like creatures include Bloody Mary, Scarecrow, Dead Man's Blood, Blood Lust, Fresh Blood, A Very Supernatural Christmas, Monster Movie, and When the Levee Breaks.\n* Sonja Blue from Nancy A. Collins's novel Sunglasses After Dark and its sequels is an almost-vampire who hunts other vampires, along with other supernatural monsters.\n* \"Mister\" from the film Stake Land.\n* Harry Dresden from Jim Butcher's Dresden Files series, has on several occasions encountered and killed Vampires.\n*In the video game The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim – Dawnguard, the player is introduced to a group of vampire hunters called the Dawnguard.\n* The Vampire Diaries- Jeremy Gilbert comes from a line of Vampire Hunters and takes up his birthright after becoming a member of The Five, an elite group of Vampire Hunters. He stakes the original vampire, Kol, in an attempt to discover the cure for vampirism (revealed on his Hunter Mark after killing vampires.) Alaric Saltzman is another prominent vampire hunter who is eventually killed after becoming an Original himself. There are many more, these two being the main hunter characters.\n* Professor Timothy Eliot Stokes from the 1960s gothic television series Dark Shadows is an erudite scholar and professor of the occult. He battles a variety of supernatural beings over the course of the series, and is often instrumental in helping to resolve supernatural happenings at Collinwood. Stokes is the principal vampire hunter in the film House of Dark Shadows. \n* Carl Kolchak - as seen in the 1970s TV movie and television series Kolchak: The Night Stalker - Newspaper reporter Carl Kolchak has been described as \"the everyman's Van Helsing.\" In his first outing, he tracks down and hunts the vampire Janos Skorzeny. Throughout the series, Kolchak investigates sundry cases, often dealing with supernatural creatures in the process.\n* Night World - In the tome 5, Rachel is a vampire hunter, along with some of her friends, as they track down Quinn, a vampire that sells humans. In the tome 7, Jez, half-human half-vampire, becomes a vampire hunter, when she remembers her mother is a human.\n* Eric Van Helsing, his son Jonathan, and his wife Mina, from the British teenage horror television series Young Dracula. Eric Van Helsing is a certified, but incompetent Vampire Slayer who spends the majority of the series exposing and killing the Dracula family. His son initially does not believe in vampires, but later discovers the truth and joins his father. After Eric's death, his wife Mina becomes the main Vampire Slayer in the series.\n\nVampire hunters in games\n\nHunter: The Vigil is a tabletop roleplaying game in which players control characters who hunt monsters, including vampires.\n\nThere is a vampire-hunter board game from Milton Bradley called Vampire Hunter. \n\nThe Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim – Dawnguard's main quest features a faction of vampire hunters called the Dawnguard who attempt to stop a powerful vampire clan. The player may choose to join them, or alternatively to side with the vampires.\n\nOther\n\nOne person claiming to be a modern vampire hunter is Seán Manchester of Highgate Vampire fame.", "Professor Abraham Van Helsing is a character from the 1897 Gothic horror novel Dracula. Van Helsing is an aged Dutch doctor with a wide range of interests and accomplishments, partly attested by the string of letters that follows his name: \"MD, D.Ph., D.Litt., etc, etc,\" indicating a wealth of experience, education and expertise. The character is best known throughout his many adaptations as a vampire hunter, monster hunter, and the archenemy of Count Dracula.\n\nDracula\n\nIn the novel, Van Helsing is called in by his former student, Dr. John Seward, to assist with the mysterious illness of Lucy Westenra. Van Helsing's friendship with Seward is based in part upon an unknown prior event in which Van Helsing suffered a grievous wound, and Seward saved his life by sucking out the gangrene. It is Van Helsing who first realizes that Lucy is the victim of a vampire, and he guides Dr. Seward and his friends in their efforts to save Lucy.\n\nAccording to Leonard Wolf's annotations to the novel, Van Helsing had a son who died. Van Helsing says that his son, had he lived, would have had a similar appearance to another character, Arthur Holmwood. Consequently, Van Helsing developed a particular fondness for Holmwood. Van Helsing's wife went insane after their son's death, but as a Catholic, he refuses to divorce her (\"with my poor wife dead to me, but alive by Church's law, though no wits, all gone, even I, who am faithful husband to this now-no-wife\"). \n\nVan Helsing is one of the few characters in the novel who is fully physically described in one place. In chapter 14, Mina describes him as:\n\nVan Helsing's personality is described by John Seward, his former student, thus:\n\nIn the novel Van Helsing is described with what is apparently a thick foreign accent, in that his English is broken, and he uses German phrases like, \"Mein Gott\" (My God).\n\nAdaptations of the novel have tended to play up Van Helsing's role as the vampire professional-expert, sometimes to the extent that it is depicted as his major occupation. The novel, however, gives no support for such interpretations. Dr. Seward requests Van Helsing's assistance simply because Lucy's affliction has him baffled and Van Helsing \"knows as much about obscure diseases as any one in the world\". Indeed, Van Helsing takes too much time (weeks and months) to recognise Lucy's illness, and seems to have no practical knowledge about vampires. Until her funeral, he tells no one his theory of Lucy's death.\n\nNarrative\n\nCount Dracula, having acquired ownership of England's Carfax estate through solicitor Jonathan Harker, moved to the estate and began menacing England. His victims included Lucy Westenra, who is on holiday in Whitby. The aristocratic girl has suitors such as John Seward, Arthur Holmwood, and Quincey Morris, and has a best friend in Mina Murray, Jonathan Harker's fiancée. Seward, who worked as a doctor in an insane asylum – where one of the patients, the incurably mad Renfield, has a psychic connection to Dracula – contacts Van Helsing about Lucy Westenra's peculiar condition. Van Helsing, recognizing marks upon her neck, eventually deduces that she has been losing blood from a vampire bite. He administers blood transfusion multiple times to try to save her. Van Helsing, Seward and even Arthur all donate their blood to her but each night he realizes that she continues to lose blood. He prescribes her garlic and makes a necklace of garlic flowers for her then proceeds to hang garlic about the room. He also gave her a crucifix to wear around her neck as well. Lucy's demise were brought by her own mother who cleared the room of garlic and opened the window to give her fresh air; a home servant had stolen the gold crucifix from Lucy as well. Lucy dies and after the funeral returns as a vampire seeking out children. Eventually, Van Helsing and a heartbroken Arthur free the undead Lucy from her vampiric curse with Quincy Morris and Dr. Seward as these knew the ordeal. After Arthur uses a hammer to drive the stake through the heart, Van Helsing operates on Lucy by detaching her head then places garlic in her mouth.\n\nMina Harker becomes increasingly worried about her husband's brain fever asking Dr. Seward for assistance to which Van Helsing is referred. Unable to make sense of Johnathon Harker's journal, Mina gives it to Helsing to review. When Harker learns that his experiences in Transylvania were real, his health returns and both he and Mina assist join their friends at Seward's residence. Mina then discovers that each of the character's journals, diaries, letters and collection of news papers further provide intelligence on Dracula's movements. She types out copies and provides them to each of the other party members including Van Helsing. From the copies of text Mina prepared, they learn that that Dracula's residence in Carfax was right nearby Sewards; It is under Helsing's research of ancient folklore, superstitions and historical references to which the party learns of Dracula's weaknesses and strengths. Seward and Helsing also write to an acquaintance from their university to aid in further research into Dracula's past. Staying at Seward's residence to better plan strategies in their efforts to deal with Dracula, they have frequent meetings and each member is assigned duties. It is later that a bat was seen at the window outside of one of these meetings as well.\n\nAs Van Helsing and the party investigate the location of Dracula in efforts to destroy and stop him from spreading any further evil, they have their first enounter as a group with Dracula at the residence in Carfax. They eventually discover that Dracula has been purchasing multiple properties throughout and around the perimeter of London; planning to transport each of his 50 boxes of Transylvanian earth to them; learning the boxes are used as graves and each property would be used as his lairs. As they discover each of his lairs and track down the location of the boxes of earth, they place sacramental bread within them to \"sterilize\" them. This repels Dracula from being able to use or transport them further. Dracula learns that the group are plotting against him and entices Renfield to invite him in to Dr. Seward's residence. After hearing a loud noise coming from Renfield's room, Dr Seward and Helsing enter to find him critically injured on the floor with a broken back and severe damages to his head and limbs. Helsing operates on his head to keep him alive long enough for Renfield to tell them his testimony. Learning from this that Dracula went to see Mina, the group goes into Mina's room to see Harker in a hypnotic state, and Dracula giving Mina the 'Vampire's Baptism of Blood', cursing her and the group for plotting against him. When Van Helsing and the party hold out their sacred items to repel Dracula away, causing him to become a vapor and flee into a different room. Dracula then destroys all their copies of text which Mina had produced except one that was hidden and then breaks Renfield' neck before leaving the residence.\n\nHelsing places a wafer of sacramental bread upon the forehead of Mina to bless her but it burns her flesh as it touches her, leaving a scar. Mina, feeling that she is now connected with Dracula, asks Van Helsing to hypnotize her before Dawn as that would be the only time she feels could freely speak. Van Helsing learns that through conducting hypnotism on Mina that she has a telepathic link with Dracula; could tell everything he hears and feels and use this gift to track his movements in the future. Mina also agrees that none of the group should tell her any plans they have in the future for fear that Dracula could easily read her thoughts and counter their plans. As the group continues to search for each of the boxes and residences of Dracula throughout London they have encounters with Dracula and continue to sterilize his graves. They manage to find each of his residences and locate all of his boxes except for one; learning that the final grave is located on a boat, Van Helsing determines that Dracula is fleeing back to his Castle. \n\nWhen the party pursues Dracula back to Transylvania, they split up into separate groups of two. While Mina and Van Helsing team up to travel straight to Dracula's castle, the others attempt to track down and ambush the boat on which Dracula is a passenger. Van Helsing continues to hypnotize Mina but his ability to have influence over her diminishes each day. He notices Mina's behavior beginning to change as she starts sleeping more during the day, losing her appetite for food, and ceasing to write in her journal. One night he crumbles sacramental bread in a circle around her and asks her to come sit by him. As she was unable to, he learned that this could be a way to protect their camp from any vampires in the area. Later, he sees the Brides of Dracula approach his camp but they too are unable to cross into the circle of bread. Failing at their attempts to lure Helsing and Mina out of the circle, they flee just before sunrise back to Dracula's Castle. Helsing binds Mina at a small cave to keep her from danger as he goes into Dracula's Castle to kill any vampires he finds.\n\nAs Helsing runs throughout the castle searching its various rooms, he finds Dracula's empty tomb as well as the three female vampires he saw earlier. He begins to do his operation on the first vampire but finds himself entranced by her beauty and unable to bring himself to harm her. In his feelings of enchantment he even contemplates love for her. He is however broken out of this enchantment when he hears a 'soul wail' from Mina, awakening him. he proceeds to strike stakes into their hearts and sever their heads, one by one.\n\nUpon the arrival of Van Helsing back to Mina's location from the Castle, they see the rest of their group as they chase a group of gypsies down Borgo Pass and corner them. Armed with knives and firearms they overtake the gypsies and open the final casket box of Dracula; Jonathan Harker brings his Kukri down on Dracula's throat as the bowie knife of Quincey Morris simultaneously impales Dracula's heart in the final moments of daylight. At this very moment, Dracula's body then crumbles to dust. After the struggle, Quincy is seen fatally wounded from the struggle.\n\n6 years later, Van Helsing takes a grandfatherly role in regard to the young Quincey Harker, Jonathan and Mina's son.\n\nEquipment\n\nVan Helsing is seen utilizing many tools to aid him and his party in fending off Dracula, warding off vampires and in general defeating the undead: \n* Skeleton Keys used for lock picking to open the doors to many of Dracula's lairs located throughout London\n* Wreath of withered Garlic Blossoms\n* Silver Crucifix\n* Sacred Wafer brought from Amsterdam contained in an envelope or crushed and sprinkled around him in a circle as a protective barrier\n* Electric Lamps which could be attached or secured against the chest\n* Revolver and knife for use against enemies weaker than Dracula \n* The branch of a wild rose could be placed on top of a coffin containing a vampire; immobilizing it \n* Mountain Ash used to repel the undead\n* Wooden stake and hammer to pierce a vampire's heart \n* Golden crucifix necklace, given to Lucy.\n\nFilm adaptations\n\nNosferatu, a Symphony of Horror was the first film version of Dracula. Although it followed the same basic plot as the novel, names were changed: Van Helsing is Professor Bulwer and appears only in a few scenes. Unlike the book, he is a friend of Thomas Hutter (the film's version of Jonathan Harker) before he meets Count Orlok (a renamed Count Dracula) and never meets the vampire face to face.\n\nPeter Cushing's character in the Hammer movies does not have the first name \"Abraham\" as his case reads J. van Helsing, as seen in The Brides of Dracula. In the series of Hammer Dracula films set in the 1970s, Dracula battles Lorrimar van Helsing, a grandson of the original vampire hunter, who appears as Lawrence van Helsing in the prologue to Dracula AD 1972. In The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires Cushing plays the original Van Helsing from the Hammer series.\n\nAnthony Hopkins portrays Van Helsing in Bram Stoker's Dracula in 1992. Already implied to be an experienced vampire hunter. He often comes across as insane, casually discussing how to kill the un-dead despite the brutal methods involved, as well as his ruthless methods when dispatching Dracula's brides, but he nevertheless leads the group to victory over Dracula's forces.\n\nChristopher Plummer portrayed Professor Abraham Van Helsing in Dracula 2000 (he had previously appeared as a vampire hunter, Professor Paris Catalano, in Vampire in Venice). After defeating Count Dracula (Gerard Butler), van Helsing finds that the vampire lord cannot die in the conventional means of destroying a vampire and he only succeeded in paralysing him in a deathlike state. Knowing that Dracula would inevitably rise again, Van Helsing imprisoned the vampire beneath his Carfax Abbey estate, using leeches to dilute Dracula's blood and transfuse it into himself as a means of preserving his own life until he can find a means of destroying Dracula. This has the unintentional side-effect of creating a link between Dracula and van Helsing's daughter. When Dracula escapes after his coffin is stolen, van Helsing's daughter and his assistant are able to use this connection to deduce Dracula's true identity and defeat him after the elder van Helsing's death.\n\nHugh Jackman played Gabriel Van Helsing, the eponymous hero of Van Helsing (2004), loosely based on Bram Stoker's character. Having been found on the steps of a church seven years ago with total amnesia, Gabriel hunts monsters for a secret organization made up of the world's religions (known as the Knights of the Holy Order) to rid the world of evil \"that the rest of mankind has no idea exists\", although he is the most wanted man in Europe for his conspicuous actions. In the movie he is sent to Transylvania to kill Count Dracula. When he arrives, Dracula tells Gabriel that they have already met and have quite a history together, with Dracula revealing over the course of the film that Van Helsing was the one who originally murdered him, as well as claiming ownership of a distinctive ring that Van Helsing has worn as long as he can remember. It is implied that Gabriel is actually the angel Gabriel, with vague references to Dracula's murderer as the \"Left Hand of God\".\n\nNotable actors to have portrayed Van Helsing in film adaptations of Dracula include:\n* John Gottowt (as Professor Bulwer) in Nosferatu (1922)\n* Edward Van Sloan in Dracula (1931) and Dracula's Daughter (1936)\n* Eduardo Arozamena in Dracula (1931, Spanish version)\n* Peter Cushing in the Hammer Films Dracula series (1958–1974)\n* Herbert Lom in Count Dracula (1970)\n* Ota Sklencka in Hrabe Drakula (1971)\n* Nigel Davenport in Bram Stoker's Dracula (1973)\n* Frank Finlay in the BBC adaptation Count Dracula (1977)\n* Laurence Olivier in Dracula (1979)\n* Walter Ladengast in Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979)\n* Jack Gwillim in The Monster Squad (1987)\n* Anthony Hopkins in Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992)\n* Peter Fonda in Nadja (1994)\n* Mel Brooks in the parody Dracula: Dead and Loving It (1995)\n* Christopher Plummer in Dracula 2000 (2000)\n* Giancarlo Giannini (as Enrico Valenzi) in Dracula (2002)\n* David Moroni in Dracula: Pages from a Virgin's Diary (2002)\n* Hugh Jackman (as Gabriel Van Helsing) in Van Helsing (2004) and Van Helsing: The London Assignment (2004)\n* Casper Van Dien in Dracula 3000 (2004)\n* David Suchet in Dracula (2006)\n* David Carradine in The Last Sect (2006)\n* Wallace Shawn in Vamps (2012)\n* Rutger Hauer in Dracula 3D (2012)\n* Thomas Kretschmann in Dracula (2013)\n* David Warner in Penny Dreadful (2014)\n\nAppearances in other media\n\nNovels\n\n*In the 2009 Dacre Stoker novel Dracula the Un-dead, van Helsing is now a 75-year-old man with heart problems, having apparently been disgraced in the medical profession for deaths caused by improper blood transfusions (Although he defends his reputation by arguing that nobody knew about blood types until much later); he was also briefly a suspect in the Jack the Ripper murders due to his knowledge of anatomy and reputation for mutilating corpses for unspecified reasons. He later becomes a vampire himself after a battle with Dracula.\n*In Kim Newman's series Anno Dracula, van Helsing has failed to kill Dracula. As a result, the vampire lord has conquered the United Kingdom after marrying Queen Victoria and becoming her Prince Consort. Van Helsing, meanwhile, was killed at the hands of Dracula, and his head is displayed at Buckingham Palace.\n*P. N. Elrod's novel Quincey Morris, Vampire takes up the story almost immediately after the conclusion of Bram Stoker's Dracula, but in this story (which shows vampires in a more sympathetic light) van Helsing is unyielding and unwavering in his beliefs and hatred of vampires to the point where he eventually alienates his former friends and allies.\n*The comic novel Dracula's Diary by Michael Geare and Michael Corby (ISBN 978-0825301438) completely re-tells the Stoker novel, with the young Count Dracula (who has been learning to act like a true British gentleman) becoming a secret agent for Her Majesty's government and van Helsing an enemy agent for a foreign power who is continually thwarted by Dracula.\n*In The Dracula Tape (1975) by Fred Saberhagen, a psychotic, fanatical, bumbling van Helsing opposes the urbane, if ruthless, Dracula.\n*In Fangland by John Marks, the re-imagined van Helsing is split into two separate characters, namely Clementine Spence and Austen Trotta.\n*He also appears in the Department 19 series by Will Hill.\n\nComics\n\nAbraham van Helsing was also portrayed in the The Tomb of Dracula Marvel Comics series, which was based on the characters of Bram Stoker's novel.\n\nIn the Marvel Comics miniseries X-Men: Apocalypse vs. Dracula, van Helsing joins forces with the immortal mutant Apocalypse and his worshipers, Clan Akkaba, in order to destroy Dracula, their common enemy. It is noted that van Helsing had encountered Apocalypse before and previously believed him a vampire.\n\nIn the Italian comic book Martin Mystère and the spin-off series Storie di Altrove/Stories from Elsewhere Van Helsing's name is Richard. He was originally a knight in the service of the Holy Roman Emperors but he was captured in 1475 by the undead warriors of the Order of the Dragon and turned into a vampire by the Wallachian Prince Vlad Dracula. Four centuries later, Van Helsing killed Dracula, and later came to London to solve the case of Jack the Ripper, eventually discovering that the murderers were mentally controlled by demons from another world. In 1902 he worked together with the resurrected Dracula to prevent the assassination of King Edward VII. He also met Sherlock Holmes, Dr. Watson, and Mycroft Holmes.\n\nIn the comic series Victorian Undead: Sherlock Holmes vs Dracula the detective Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson are engaged by a maritime insurance company to investigate the deaths of the crew of the schooner the Demeter and cross paths with the characters who are searching for Dracula.\n\nMedia involving descendants of van Helsing\n\nThere have been numerous works of fiction depicting descendants of van Helsing carrying on the family tradition.\n\nFilms\n\n*Hammer Films' Dracula series features a whole dynasty of van Helsings: Peter Cushing played J. van Helsing (equivalent to Abraham) in Horror of Dracula (1958) and The Brides of Dracula (1960), set in the 1880s. Cushing also played Lawrence van Helsing in the opening segment of Dracula AD 1972 (1972) and Lawrence's grandson Lorrimar in Dracula AD 1972 and The Satanic Rites of Dracula (1974). Another Lawrence van Helsing, played by Cushing, appeared in The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires (1974), set in the early 1900s, alongside his son Leyland, played by Robin Stewart. Lorrimar's granddaughter Jessica appears in Dracula AD 1972 (played by Stephanie Beacham) and The Satanic Rites of Dracula (played by Joanna Lumley).\n*In the 1979 film Love at First Bite, is a comedic parody in which Dracula falls in love, and Jeffrey Rosenberg, grandson of Fritz Van Helsing, tries to kill him.\n*In the 1989 film Sundown: The Vampire in Retreat, Bruce Campbell plays Robert Van Helsing, grandson of an earlier Van Helsing.\n* In the 2000 film Dracula 2000, Christopher Plummer plays Matthew van Helsing (in fact, the original Abraham Van Helsing posing as his own descendant), and Justine Waddell plays his daughter, Mary.\n* In the 2000 Disney channel movie Mom's Got a Date with a Vampire, Malachi Van Helsing is hunting the vampire Dimitri, who is preying on the mother of the main characters.\n* The 2004 direct-to-video film Dracula 3000 features Captain Abraham van Helsing (played by Casper Van Dien), a descendent of the original van Helsing and the captain of a spacefaring salvage ship.\n* The 2004 direct-to-video film The Adventures of Young Van Helsing depicts Abraham van Helsing's great-grandson Michael (Keith Jordan) saving the world from Simon Magus.\n* The 2004 film starring Hugh Jackman Van Helsing\n* The 2006 film Bram Stoker's Dracula's Curse features a character named Jacob van Helsing (Rhett Giles), who is inferred to be a descendant of the original van Helsing, although this is never actually stated outright.\n* The 2009 film Stan Helsing is a comedic film revolving around satirizing the van Helsing descendant of the 2004 feature film.\n* In the 2012 TV film, Scooby-Doo! Music of the Vampire, a book writer named Vincent van Helsing is the great great grandson of Abraham van Helsing.\n\nTelevision\n\n*The 1990 series Dracula: The Series had Bernard Behrens as Gustav Helsing. He was looking after his two nephews, Christopher Townsend and Max Townsend. They fought Dracula, who in the contemporary world, had taken on the name of Alexander Lucard. In this version Gustav Helsing's son, Klaus Helsing (Geraint Wyn Davies), had been turned into a vampire by Alexander Lucard (Dracula).\n* The 2006 CBBC series, Young Dracula, featured Mr. Eric van Helsing – presumably the descendant of his more famous predecessor, though with none of his competence – trying to exterminate Count Dracula and his children, who had been chased out of Transylvania by an angry mob and were now living in rural Wales. Eric lives in a travel trailer with his son Jonathan. There are also references made to previous van Helsing vampire slayers.\n*The 2009 ITV series Demons follows Abraham's great grandson Luke Rutherford (Christian Cooke).\n*In the 2014 Showtime series Penny Dreadful, Van Helsing is a hematologist consulted by Victor Frankenstein. He eventually admits he has known about vampires for some time and offers to give Frankenstein some much-needed instruction in the area.\n*Syfy is developing a Van Helsing 13-episodic television series with Neil LaBute as creator. \n\nBooks and stories\n\n* The short story Abraham's Boys by Joe Hill is about the retired Abraham van Helsing and his two sons, and how he passes along his knowledge to them. The story is included in the anthology The many faces of van Helsing.\n* According to The Vampire Hunter's Handbook, Abraham was not the first van Helsing to encounter vampires. The book is supposedly written by Raphael van Helsing in the 18th century. It has also been prequeled by The Demon Hunter's Handbook by Abelard van Helsing (16th century) and The Dragon Hunter's Handbook by Adelia Vin Helsin (14th century). The supposed writers refer to each other (in the cases where it makes sense) and other van Helsings.\n* Similar to the above-mentioned handbooks is Vampyre: The Terrifying Lost Journal which is written by Mary-Jane Knight but credited to dr Cornelius van Helsing. The book implies that Cornelius is the brother of Abraham.\n* Young Dracula by Michael Lawrence mentions a farmer named Dweeb van Helsing.\n* In Den hemliga boken and sequels by Jesper Tillberg and Peter Bergting, the main character is Abraham's great grandson Lennart van Helsing (not to be confused with Lennart Hellsing).\n\nComics\n\n* The comic book series The Tomb of Dracula featured Rachel van Helsing, granddaughter of Abraham, as a major member of the principal hunters. Minor characters were Abraham's wife Elizabeth and his brother Boris.\n* In the manga and anime, Hellsing, modern day descendant Integra Hellsing leads a British government strike force against supernatural menaces. The story also includes her father, Arthur and uncle Richard. It later turns out that the protagonist Alucard is in fact Dracula, and became a servant to the Helsing family after being defeated by Integra's grandfather, Abraham van Helsing.\n* The DC comic Night Force features Abraham's granddaughter Vanessa van Helsing.\n* Sword of Dracula is a comic book with Veronica \"Ronnie\" van Helsing.\n* Helsing is a Caliber Comics title about a Samantha Helsing and a John van Helsing.\n* The Vampirella comic books feature father-son vampire hunters Conrad and Adam van Helsing.\n\nGames\n\n* The 2013 game, The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing, focuses on the trials of young van Helsing, son of the legendary vampire hunter Abraham van Helsing.\n* Van Helsing was adapted as a character in MechQuest, where he plays a professional mech vampire hunter. He is portrayed as having a brother, another hunter, who looks identical to him and eventually replaces him." ] }

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{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe", "TagMe", "Search" ], "filename": [ "Greek_mythology.txt", "Futurama.txt", "Hermes_(disambiguation).txt" ], "title": [ "Greek mythology", "Futurama", "Hermes (disambiguation)" ], "wiki_context": [ "Greek mythology is the body of myths and teachings that belong to the ancient Greeks, concerning their gods and heroes, the nature of the world, and the origins and significance of their own cult and ritual practices. It was a part of the religion in ancient Greece. Modern scholars refer to and study the myths in an attempt to shed light on the religious and political institutions of Ancient Greece and its civilization, and to gain understanding of the nature of myth-making itself. \n\nGreek mythology is explicitly embodied in a large collection of narratives, and implicitly in Greek representational arts, such as vase-paintings and votive gifts. Greek myth attempts to explain the origins of the world, and details the lives and adventures of a wide variety of gods, goddesses, heroes, heroines and mythological creatures. These accounts initially were disseminated in an oral-poetic tradition; today the Greek myths are known primarily from Greek literature.\nThe oldest known Greek literary sources, Homer's epic poems Iliad and Odyssey, focus on the Trojan War and its aftermath. Two poems by Homer's near contemporary Hesiod, the Theogony and the Works and Days, contain accounts of the genesis of the world, the succession of divine rulers, the succession of human ages, the origin of human woes, and the origin of sacrificial practices. Myths are also preserved in the Homeric Hymns, in fragments of epic poems of the Epic Cycle, in lyric poems, in the works of the tragedians and comedians of the fifth century BC, in writings of scholars and poets of the Hellenistic Age, and in texts from the time of the Roman Empire by writers such as Plutarch and Pausanias.\n\nArchaeological findings provide a principal source of detail about Greek mythology, with gods and heroes featured prominently in the decoration of many artifacts. Geometric designs on pottery of the eighth century BC depict scenes from the Trojan cycle as well as the adventures of Heracles. In the succeeding Archaic, Classical, and Hellenistic periods, Homeric and various other mythological scenes appear, supplementing the existing literary evidence. Greek mythology has had an extensive influence on the culture, arts, and literature of Western civilization and remains part of Western heritage and language. Poets and artists from ancient times to the present have derived inspiration from Greek mythology and have discovered contemporary significance and relevance in the themes. \n\nSources\n\nGreek mythology is known today primarily from Greek literature and representations on visual media dating from the Geometric period from c. 900–800 BC onward. In fact, literary and archaeological sources integrate, sometimes mutually supportive and sometimes in conflict; however, in many cases, the existence of this corpus of data is a strong indication that many elements of Greek mythology have strong factual and historical roots. \n\nLiterary sources\n\nMythical narration plays an important role in nearly every genre of Greek literature. Nevertheless, the only general mythographical handbook to survive from Greek antiquity was the Library of Pseudo-Apollodorus. This work attempts to reconcile the contradictory tales of the poets and provides a grand summary of traditional Greek mythology and heroic legends. Apollodorus of Athens lived from c. 180–125 BC and wrote on many of these topics. His writings may have formed the basis for the collection; however the \"Library\" discusses events that occurred long after his death, hence the name Pseudo-Apollodorus.\n\nAmong the earliest literary sources are Homer's two epic poems, the Iliad and the Odyssey. Other poets completed the \"epic cycle\", but these later and lesser poems now are lost almost entirely. Despite their traditional name, the \"Homeric Hymns\" have no direct connection with Homer. They are choral hymns from the earlier part of the so-called Lyric age. Hesiod, a possible contemporary with Homer, offers in his Theogony (Origin of the Gods) the fullest account of the earliest Greek myths, dealing with the creation of the world; the origin of the gods, Titans, and Giants; as well as elaborate genealogies, folktales, and etiological myths. Hesiod's Works and Days, a didactic poem about farming life, also includes the myths of Prometheus, Pandora, and the Five Ages. The poet gives advice on the best way to succeed in a dangerous world, rendered yet more dangerous by its gods.\n\nLyrical poets often took their subjects from myth, but their treatment became gradually less narrative and more allusive. Greek lyric poets, including Pindar, Bacchylides and Simonides, and bucolic poets such as Theocritus and Bion, relate individual mythological incidents. Additionally, myth was central to classical Athenian drama. The tragic playwrights Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides took most of their plots from myths of the age of heroes and the Trojan War. Many of the great tragic stories (e.g. Agamemnon and his children, Oedipus, Jason, Medea, etc.) took on their classic form in these tragedies. The comic playwright Aristophanes also used myths, in The Birds and The Frogs. \n\nHistorians Herodotus and Diodorus Siculus, and geographers Pausanias and Strabo, who traveled throughout the Greek world and noted the stories they heard, supplied numerous local myths and legends, often giving little-known alternative versions. Herodotus in particular, searched the various traditions presented him and found the historical or mythological roots in the confrontation between Greece and the East. Herodotus attempted to reconcile origins and the blending of differing cultural concepts.\n\nThe poetry of the Hellenistic and Roman ages was primarily composed as a literary rather than cultic exercise. Nevertheless, it contains many important details that would otherwise be lost. This category includes the works of:\n# The Roman poets Ovid, Statius, Valerius Flaccus, Seneca and Virgil with Servius's commentary.\n# The Greek poets of the Late Antique period: Nonnus, Antoninus Liberalis, and Quintus Smyrnaeus.\n# The Greek poets of the Hellenistic period: Apollonius of Rhodes, Callimachus, Pseudo-Eratosthenes, and Parthenius.\n\nProse writers from the same periods who make reference to myths include Apuleius, Petronius, Lollianus, and Heliodorus. Two other important non-poetical sources are the Fabulae and Astronomica of the Roman writer styled as Pseudo-Hyginus, the Imagines of Philostratus the Elder and Philostratus the Younger, and the Descriptions of Callistratus.\n\nFinally, a number of Byzantine Greek writers provide important details of myth, much derived from earlier now lost Greek works. These preservers of myth include Arnobius, Hesychius, the author of the Suda, John Tzetzes, and Eustathius. They often treat mythology from a Christian moralizing perspective. \n\nArchaeological sources\n\nThe discovery of the Mycenaean civilization by the German amateur archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann in the nineteenth century, and the discovery of the Minoan civilization in Crete by the British archaeologist Sir Arthur Evans in the twentieth century, helped to explain many existing questions about Homer's epics and provided archaeological evidence for many of the mythological details about gods and heroes. Unfortunately, the evidence about myths and rituals at Mycenaean and Minoan sites is entirely monumental, as the Linear B script (an ancient form of Greek found in both Crete and mainland Greece) was used mainly to record inventories, although certain names of gods and heroes have been tentatively identified.\n\nGeometric designs on pottery of the eighth century BC depict scenes from the Trojan cycle, as well as the adventures of Heracles. These visual representations of myths are important for two reasons. Firstly, many Greek myths are attested on vases earlier than in literary sources: of the twelve labors of Heracles, for example, only the Cerberus adventure occurs in a contemporary literary text. Secondly, visual sources sometimes represent myths or mythical scenes that are not attested in any extant literary source. In some cases, the first known representation of a myth in geometric art predates its first known representation in late archaic poetry, by several centuries. In the Archaic (c. 750–c. 500 BC), Classical (c. 480–323 BC), and Hellenistic (323–146 BC) periods, Homeric and various other mythological scenes appear, supplementing the existing literary evidence.\n\nSurvey of mythic history\n\nGreek mythology has changed over time to accommodate the evolution of their culture, of which mythology, both overtly and in its unspoken assumptions, is an index of the changes. In Greek mythology's surviving literary forms, as found mostly at the end of the progressive changes, it is inherently political, as Gilbert Cuthbertson has argued. \n\nThe earlier inhabitants of the Balkan Peninsula were an agricultural people who, using Animism, assigned a spirit to every aspect of nature. Eventually, these vague spirits assumed human forms and entered the local mythology as gods. When tribes from the north of the Balkan Peninsula invaded, they brought with them a new pantheon of gods, based on conquest, force, prowess in battle, and violent heroism. Other older gods of the agricultural world fused with those of the more powerful invaders or else faded into insignificance. \n\nAfter the middle of the Archaic period, myths about relationships between male gods and male heroes became more and more frequent, indicating the parallel development of pedagogic pederasty (eros paidikos, ), thought to have been introduced around 630 BC. By the end of the fifth century BC, poets had assigned at least one eromenos, an adolescent boy who was their sexual companion, to every important god except Ares and to many legendary figures. Previously existing myths, such as those of Achilles and Patroclus, also then were cast in a pederastic light. Alexandrian poets at first, then more generally literary mythographers in the early Roman Empire, often readapted stories of Greek mythological characters in this fashion.\n\nThe achievement of epic poetry was to create story-cycles and, as a result, to develop a new sense of mythological chronology. Thus Greek mythology unfolds as a phase in the development of the world and of humans. While self-contradictions in these stories make an absolute timeline impossible, an approximate chronology may be discerned. The resulting mythological \"history of the world\" may be divided into three or four broader periods:\n# The myths of origin or age of gods (Theogonies, \"births of gods\"): myths about the origins of the world, the gods, and the human race.\n# The age when gods and mortals mingled freely: stories of the early interactions between gods, demigods, and mortals.\n# The age of heroes (heroic age), where divine activity was more limited. The last and greatest of the heroic legends is the story of the Trojan War and after (which is regarded by some researchers as a separate fourth period). \n\nWhile the age of gods often has been of more interest to contemporary students of myth, the Greek authors of the archaic and classical eras had a clear preference for the age of heroes, establishing a chronology and record of human accomplishments after the questions of how the world came into being were explained. For example, the heroic Iliad and Odyssey dwarfed the divine-focused Theogony and Homeric Hymns in both size and popularity. Under the influence of Homer the \"hero cult\" leads to a restructuring in spiritual life, expressed in the separation of the realm of the gods from the realm of the dead (heroes), of the Chthonic from the Olympian. In the Works and Days, Hesiod makes use of a scheme of Four Ages of Man (or Races): Golden, Silver, Bronze, and Iron. These races or ages are separate creations of the gods, the Golden Age belonging to the reign of Cronos, the subsequent races the creation of Zeus. The presence of evil was explained by the myth of Pandora, when all of the best of human capabilities, save hope, had been spilled out of her overturned jar. In Metamorphoses, Ovid follows Hesiod's concept of the four ages. \n\nOrigins of the world and the gods\n\n\"Myths of origin\" or \"creation myths\" represent an attempt to explain the beginnings of the universe in human language. The most widely accepted version at the time, although a philosophical account of the beginning of things, is reported by Hesiod, in his Theogony. He begins with Chaos, a yawning nothingness. Out of the void emerged Gaia (the Earth) and some other primary divine beings: Eros (Love), the Abyss (the Tartarus), and the Erebus. Without male assistance, Gaia gave birth to Uranus (the Sky) who then fertilized her. From that union were born first the Titans—six males: Coeus, Crius, Cronus, Hyperion, Iapetus, and Oceanus; and six females: Mnemosyne, Phoebe, Rhea, Theia, Themis, and Tethys. After Cronus was born, Gaia and Uranus decreed no more Titans were to be born. They were followed by the one-eyed Cyclopes and the Hecatonchires or Hundred-Handed Ones, who were both thrown into Tartarus by Uranus. This made Gaia furious. Cronus (\"the wily, youngest and most terrible of Gaia's children\"), was convinced by Gaia to castrate his father. He did this, and became the ruler of the Titans with his sister-wife Rhea as his consort, and the other Titans became his court.\n\nA motif of father-against-son conflict was repeated when Cronus was confronted by his son, Zeus. Because Cronus had betrayed his father, he feared that his offspring would do the same, and so each time Rhea gave birth, he snatched up the child and ate it. Rhea hated this and tricked him by hiding Zeus and wrapping a stone in a baby's blanket, which Cronus ate. When Zeus was full grown, he fed Cronus a drugged drink which caused him to vomit, throwing up Rhea's other children and the stone, which had been sitting in Cronus's stomach all along. Zeus then challenged Cronus to war for the kingship of the gods. At last, with the help of the Cyclopes (whom Zeus freed from Tartarus), Zeus and his siblings were victorious, while Cronus and the Titans were hurled down to imprisonment in Tartarus. \n\nZeus was plagued by the same concern and, after a prophecy that the offspring of his first wife, Metis, would give birth to a god \"greater than he\"—Zeus swallowed her. She was already pregnant with Athena, however, and she burst forth from his head—fully-grown and dressed for war. \n\nThe earliest Greek thought about poetry considered the theogonies to be the prototypical poetic genre—the prototypical mythos—and imputed almost magical powers to it. Orpheus, the archetypal poet, also was the archetypal singer of theogonies, which he uses to calm seas and storms in Apollonius' Argonautica, and to move the stony hearts of the underworld gods in his descent to Hades. When Hermes invents the lyre in the Homeric Hymn to Hermes, the first thing he does is sing about the birth of the gods. Hesiod's Theogony is not only the fullest surviving account of the gods, but also the fullest surviving account of the archaic poet's function, with its long preliminary invocation to the Muses. Theogony also was the subject of many lost poems, including those attributed to Orpheus, Musaeus, Epimenides, Abaris, and other legendary seers, which were used in private ritual purifications and mystery-rites. There are indications that Plato was familiar with some version of the Orphic theogony. A silence would have been expected about religious rites and beliefs, however, and that nature of the culture would not have been reported by members of the society while the beliefs were held. After they ceased to become religious beliefs, few would have known the rites and rituals. Allusions often existed, however, to aspects that were quite public.\n\nImages existed on pottery and religious artwork that were interpreted and more likely, misinterpreted in many diverse myths and tales. A few fragments of these works survive in quotations by Neoplatonist philosophers and recently unearthed papyrus scraps. One of these scraps, the Derveni Papyrus now proves that at least in the fifth century BC a theogonic-cosmogonic poem of Orpheus was in existence.W. Burkert, Greek Religion, 236* G. Betegh, The Derveni Papyrus, 147\n\nThe first philosophical cosmologists reacted against, or sometimes built upon, popular mythical conceptions that had existed in the Greek world for some time. Some of these popular conceptions can be gleaned from the poetry of Homer and Hesiod. In Homer, the Earth was viewed as a flat disk afloat on the river of Oceanus and overlooked by a hemispherical sky with sun, moon, and stars. The Sun (Helios) traversed the heavens as a charioteer and sailed around the Earth in a golden bowl at night. Sun, earth, heaven, rivers, and winds could be addressed in prayers and called to witness oaths. Natural fissures were popularly regarded as entrances to the subterranean house of Hades and his predecessors, home of the dead.* K. Algra, The Beginnings of Cosmology, 45 Influences from other cultures always afforded new themes.\n\nGreek pantheon\n\nAccording to Classical-era mythology, after the overthrow of the Titans, the new pantheon of gods and goddesses was confirmed. Among the principal Greek gods were the Olympians, residing on Mount Olympus under the eye of Zeus. (The limitation of their number to twelve seems to have been a comparatively modern idea.) Besides the Olympians, the Greeks worshipped various gods of the countryside, the satyr-god Pan, Nymphs (spirits of rivers), Naiads (who dwelled in springs), Dryads (who were spirits of the trees), Nereids (who inhabited the sea), river gods, Satyrs, and others. In addition, there were the dark powers of the underworld, such as the Erinyes (or Furies), said to pursue those guilty of crimes against blood-relatives. In order to honor the Ancient Greek pantheon, poets composed the Homeric Hymns (a group of thirty-three songs). Gregory Nagy regards \"the larger Homeric Hymns as simple preludes (compared with Theogony), each of which invokes one god\". \n\nThe gods of Greek mythology are described as having essentially corporeal but ideal bodies. According to Walter Burkert, the defining characteristic of Greek anthropomorphism is that \"the Greek gods are persons, not abstractions, ideas or concepts\". Regardless of their underlying forms, the Ancient Greek gods have many fantastic abilities; most significantly, the gods are not affected by disease, and can be wounded only under highly unusual circumstances. The Greeks considered immortality as the distinctive characteristic of their gods; this immortality, as well as unfading youth, was insured by the constant use of nectar and ambrosia, by which the divine blood was renewed in their veins. \n\nEach god descends from his or her own genealogy, pursues differing interests, has a certain area of expertise, and is governed by a unique personality; however, these descriptions arise from a multiplicity of archaic local variants, which do not always agree with one another. When these gods are called upon in poetry, prayer or cult, they are referred to by a combination of their name and epithets, that identify them by these distinctions from other manifestations of themselves (e.g., Apollo Musagetes is \"Apollo, [as] leader of the Muses\"). Alternatively the epithet may identify a particular and localized aspect of the god, sometimes thought to be already ancient during the classical epoch of Greece.\n\nMost gods were associated with specific aspects of life. For example, Aphrodite was the goddess of love and beauty, Ares was the god of war, Hades the ruler of the underworld, and Athena the goddess of wisdom and courage. Some gods, such as Apollo and Dionysus, revealed complex personalities and mixtures of functions, while others, such as Hestia (literally \"hearth\") and Helios (literally \"sun\"), were little more than personifications. The most impressive temples tended to be dedicated to a limited number of gods, who were the focus of large pan-Hellenic cults. It was, however, common for individual regions and villages to devote their own cults to minor gods. Many cities also honored the more well-known gods with unusual local rites and associated strange myths with them that were unknown elsewhere. During the heroic age, the cult of heroes (or demi-gods) supplemented that of the gods.\n\nAge of gods and mortals\n\nBridging the age when gods lived alone and the age when divine interference in human affairs was limited was a transitional age in which gods and mortals moved together. These were the early days of the world when the groups mingled more freely than they did later. Most of these tales were later told by Ovid's Metamorphoses and they are often divided into two thematic groups: tales of love, and tales of punishment. \n\nTales of love often involve incest, or the seduction or rape of a mortal woman by a male god, resulting in heroic offspring. The stories generally suggest that relationships between gods and mortals are something to avoid; even consenting relationships rarely have happy endings. In a few cases, a female divinity mates with a mortal man, as in the Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite, where the goddess lies with Anchises to produce Aeneas. \n\nThe second type (tales of punishment) involves the appropriation or invention of some important cultural artifact, as when Prometheus steals fire from the gods, when Tantalus steals nectar and ambrosia from Zeus' table and gives it to his own subjects—revealing to them the secrets of the gods, when Prometheus or Lycaon invents sacrifice, when Demeter teaches agriculture and the Mysteries to Triptolemus, or when Marsyas invents the aulos and enters into a musical contest with Apollo. Ian Morris considers Prometheus' adventures as \"a place between the history of the gods and that of man\". An anonymous papyrus fragment, dated to the third century, vividly portrays Dionysus' punishment of the king of Thrace, Lycurgus, whose recognition of the new god came too late, resulting in horrific penalties that extended into the afterlife. The story of the arrival of Dionysus to establish his cult in Thrace was also the subject of an Aeschylean trilogy. In another tragedy, Euripides' The Bacchae, the king of Thebes, Pentheus, is punished by Dionysus, because he disrespected the god and spied on his Maenads, the female worshippers of the god. \n\nIn another story, based on an old folktale-motif, and echoing a similar theme, Demeter was searching for her daughter, Persephone, having taken the form of an old woman called Doso, and received a hospitable welcome from Celeus, the King of Eleusis in Attica. As a gift to Celeus, because of his hospitality, Demeter planned to make his son Demophon a god, but she was unable to complete the ritual because his mother Metanira walked in and saw her son in the fire and screamed in fright, which angered Demeter, who lamented that foolish mortals do not understand the concept and ritual. \n\nHeroic age\n\nThe age in which the heroes lived is known as the heroic age. The epic and genealogical poetry created cycles of stories clustered around particular heroes or events and established the family relationships between the heroes of different stories; they thus arranged the stories in sequence. According to Ken Dowden, \"There is even a saga effect: We can follow the fates of some families in successive generations\".\n\nAfter the rise of the hero cult, gods and heroes constitute the sacral sphere and are invoked together in oaths and prayers which are addressed to them. Burkert notes that \"the roster of heroes, again in contrast to the gods, is never given fixed and final form. Great gods are no longer born, but new heroes can always be raised up from the army of the dead.\" Another important difference between the hero cult and the cult of gods is that the hero becomes the centre of local group identity. \n\nThe monumental events of Heracles are regarded as the dawn of the age of heroes. To the Heroic Age are also ascribed three great events: the Argonautic expedition, the Theban Cycle and the Trojan War. \n\nHeracles and the Heracleidae\n\nSome scholars believe that behind Heracles' complicated mythology there was probably a real man, perhaps a chieftain-vassal of the kingdom of Argos. Some scholars suggest the story of Heracles is an allegory for the sun's yearly passage through the twelve constellations of the zodiac. Others point to earlier myths from other cultures, showing the story of Heracles as a local adaptation of hero myths already well established. Traditionally, Heracles was the son of Zeus and Alcmene, granddaughter of Perseus. His fantastic solitary exploits, with their many folk-tale themes, provided much material for popular legend. According to Burkert, \"He is portrayed as a sacrificer, mentioned as a founder of altars, and imagined as a voracious eater himself; it is in this role that he appears in comedy, while his tragic end provided much material for tragedy — Heracles is regarded by Thalia Papadopoulou as \"a play of great significance in examination of other Euripidean dramas\". In art and literature Heracles was represented as an enormously strong man of moderate height; his characteristic weapon was the bow but frequently also the club. Vase paintings demonstrate the unparalleled popularity of Heracles, his fight with the lion being depicted many hundreds of times. \n\nHeracles also entered Etruscan and Roman mythology and cult, and the exclamation \"mehercule\" became as familiar to the Romans as \"Herakleis\" was to the Greeks. In Italy he was worshipped as a god of merchants and traders, although others also prayed to him for his characteristic gifts of good luck or rescue from danger.\n\nHeracles attained the highest social prestige through his appointment as official ancestor of the Dorian kings. This probably served as a legitimation for the Dorian migrations into the Peloponnese. Hyllus, the eponymous hero of one Dorian phyle, became the son of Heracles and one of the Heracleidae or Heraclids (the numerous descendants of Heracles, especially the descendants of Hyllus — other Heracleidae included Macaria, Lamos, Manto, Bianor, Tlepolemus, and Telephus). These Heraclids conquered the Peloponnesian kingdoms of Mycenae, Sparta and Argos, claiming, according to legend, a right to rule them through their ancestor. Their rise to dominance is frequently called the \"Dorian invasion\". The Lydian and later the Macedonian kings, as rulers of the same rank, also became Heracleidae. \n\nOther members of this earliest generation of heroes such as Perseus, Deucalion, Theseus and Bellerophon, have many traits in common with Heracles. Like him, their exploits are solitary, fantastic and border on fairy tale, as they slay monsters such as the Chimera and Medusa. Bellerophon's adventures are commonplace types, similar to the adventures of Heracles and Theseus. Sending a hero to his presumed death is also a recurrent theme of this early heroic tradition, used in the cases of Perseus and Bellerophon. \n\nArgonauts\n\nThe only surviving Hellenistic epic, the Argonautica of Apollonius of Rhodes (epic poet, scholar, and director of the Library of Alexandria) tells the myth of the voyage of Jason and the Argonauts to retrieve the Golden Fleece from the mythical land of Colchis. In the Argonautica, Jason is impelled on his quest by king Pelias, who receives a prophecy that a man with one sandal would be his nemesis. Jason loses a sandal in a river, arrives at the court of Pelias, and the epic is set in motion. Nearly every member of the next generation of heroes, as well as Heracles, went with Jason in the ship Argo to fetch the Golden Fleece. This generation also included Theseus, who went to Crete to slay the Minotaur; Atalanta, the female heroine, and Meleager, who once had an epic cycle of his own to rival the Iliad and Odyssey. Pindar, Apollonius and the Bibliotheca endeavor to give full lists of the Argonauts. \n\nAlthough Apollonius wrote his poem in the 3rd century BC, the composition of the story of the Argonauts is earlier than Odyssey, which shows familiarity with the exploits of Jason (the wandering of Odysseus may have been partly founded on it). In ancient times the expedition was regarded as a historical fact, an incident in the opening up of the Black Sea to Greek commerce and colonization. It was also extremely popular, forming a cycle to which a number of local legends became attached. The story of Medea, in particular, caught the imagination of the tragic poets. \n\nHouse of Atreus and Theban Cycle\n\nIn between the Argo and the Trojan War, there was a generation known chiefly for its horrific crimes. This includes the doings of Atreus and Thyestes at Argos. Behind the myth of the house of Atreus (one of the two principal heroic dynasties with the house of Labdacus) lies the problem of the devolution of power and of the mode of accession to sovereignty. The twins Atreus and Thyestes with their descendants played the leading role in the tragedy of the devolution of power in Mycenae. \n\nThe Theban Cycle deals with events associated especially with Cadmus, the city's founder, and later with the doings of Laius and Oedipus at Thebes; a series of stories that lead to the eventual pillage of that city at the hands of the Seven Against Thebes and Epigoni. (It is not known whether the Seven Against Thebes figured in early epic.) As far as Oedipus is concerned, early epic accounts seem to have him continuing to rule at Thebes after the revelation that Iokaste was his mother, and subsequently marrying a second wife who becomes the mother of his children — markedly different from the tale known to us through tragedy (e.g. Sophocles' Oedipus the King) and later mythological accounts. \n\nTrojan War and aftermath\n\nGreek mythology culminates in the Trojan War, fought between Greece and Troy, and its aftermath. In Homer's works, such as the Iliad, the chief stories have already taken shape and substance, and individual themes were elaborated later, especially in Greek drama. The Trojan War also elicited great interest in the Roman culture because of the story of Aeneas, a Trojan hero whose journey from Troy led to the founding of the city that would one day become Rome, as recounted in Virgil's Aeneid (Book II of Virgil's Aeneid contains the best-known account of the sack of Troy). Finally there are two pseudo-chronicles written in Latin that passed under the names of Dictys Cretensis and Dares Phrygius. \n\nThe Trojan War cycle, a collection of epic poems, starts with the events leading up to the war: Eris and the golden apple of Kallisti, the Judgement of Paris, the abduction of Helen, the sacrifice of Iphigenia at Aulis. To recover Helen, the Greeks launched a great expedition under the overall command of Menelaus' brother, Agamemnon, king of Argos or Mycenae, but the Trojans refused to return Helen. The Iliad, which is set in the tenth year of the war, tells of the quarrel between Agamemnon and Achilles, who was the finest Greek warrior, and the consequent deaths in battle of Achilles' beloved comrade Patroclus and Priam's eldest son, Hector. After Hector's death the Trojans were joined by two exotic allies, Penthesilea, queen of the Amazons, and Memnon, king of the Ethiopians and son of the dawn-goddess Eos. Achilles killed both of these, but Paris then managed to kill Achilles with an arrow in the heel. Achilles' heel was the only part of his body which was not invulnerable to damage by human weaponry. Before they could take Troy, the Greeks had to steal from the citadel the wooden image of Pallas Athena (the Palladium). Finally, with Athena's help, they built the Trojan Horse. Despite the warnings of Priam's daughter Cassandra, the Trojans were persuaded by Sinon, a Greek who feigned desertion, to take the horse inside the walls of Troy as an offering to Athena; the priest Laocoon, who tried to have the horse destroyed, was killed by sea-serpents. At night the Greek fleet returned, and the Greeks from the horse opened the gates of Troy. In the total sack that followed, Priam and his remaining sons were slaughtered; the Trojan women passed into slavery in various cities of Greece. The adventurous homeward voyages of the Greek leaders (including the wanderings of Odysseus and Aeneas (the Aeneid), and the murder of Agamemnon) were told in two epics, the Returns (the lost Nostoi) and Homer's Odyssey. The Trojan cycle also includes the adventures of the children of the Trojan generation (e.g., Orestes and Telemachus).\n\nThe Trojan War provided a variety of themes and became a main source of inspiration for Ancient Greek artists (e.g. metopes on the Parthenon depicting the sack of Troy); this artistic preference for themes deriving from the Trojan Cycle indicates its importance to the Ancient Greek civilization. The same mythological cycle also inspired a series of posterior European literary writings. For instance, Trojan Medieval European writers, unacquainted with Homer at first hand, found in the Troy legend a rich source of heroic and romantic storytelling and a convenient framework into which to fit their own courtly and chivalric ideals. Twelfth-century authors, such as Benoît de Sainte-Maure (Roman de Troie [Romance of Troy, 1154–60]) and Joseph of Exeter (De Bello Troiano [On the Trojan War, 1183]) describe the war while rewriting the standard version they found in Dictys and Dares. They thus follow Horace's advice and Virgil's example: they rewrite a poem of Troy instead of telling something completely new. \n\nSome of the more famous heroes noted for their inclusion in the Trojan War were:\n\nOn the Trojan side:\n* Aeneas\n* Hector\n* Paris\nOn the Greek side:\n* Ajax (there were two Ajaxes)\n* Achilles\n* King Agamemnon\n* Menelaus\n* Odysseus\n\nGreek and Roman conceptions of myth\n\nMythology was at the heart of everyday life in Ancient Greece. Greeks regarded mythology as a part of their history. They used myth to explain natural phenomena, cultural variations, traditional enmities and friendships. It was a source of pride to be able to trace the descent of one's leaders from a mythological hero or a god. Few ever doubted that there was truth behind the account of the Trojan War in the Iliad and Odyssey. According to Victor Davis Hanson, a military historian, columnist, political essayist and former classics professor, and John Heath, a classics professor, the profound knowledge of the Homeric epos was deemed by the Greeks the basis of their acculturation. Homer was the \"education of Greece\" (Ἑλλάδος παίδευσις), and his poetry \"the Book\". \n\nPhilosophy and myth\n\nAfter the rise of philosophy, history, prose and rationalism in the late 5th century BC, the fate of myth became uncertain, and mythological genealogies gave place to a conception of history which tried to exclude the supernatural (such as the Thucydidean history). While poets and dramatists were reworking the myths, Greek historians and philosophers were beginning to criticize them.\n\nA few radical philosophers like Xenophanes of Colophon were already beginning to label the poets' tales as blasphemous lies in the 6th century BC; Xenophanes had complained that Homer and Hesiod attributed to the gods \"all that is shameful and disgraceful among men; they steal, commit adultery, and deceive one another\". This line of thought found its most sweeping expression in Plato's Republic and Laws. Plato created his own allegorical myths (such as the vision of Er in the Republic), attacked the traditional tales of the gods' tricks, thefts and adulteries as immoral, and objected to their central role in literature. Plato's criticism was the first serious challenge to the Homeric mythological tradition, referring to the myths as \"old wives' chatter\". For his part Aristotle criticized the Pre-socratic quasi-mythical philosophical approach and underscored that \"Hesiod and the theological writers were concerned only with what seemed plausible to themselves, and had no respect for us ... But it is not worth taking seriously writers who show off in the mythical style; as for those who do proceed by proving their assertions, we must cross-examine them\".\n\nNevertheless, even Plato did not manage to wean himself and his society from the influence of myth; his own characterization for Socrates is based on the traditional Homeric and tragic patterns, used by the philosopher to praise the righteous life of his teacher: \n\nHanson and Heath estimate that Plato's rejection of the Homeric tradition was not favorably received by the grassroots Greek civilization. The old myths were kept alive in local cults; they continued to influence poetry and to form the main subject of painting and sculpture.\n\nMore sportingly, the 5th century BC tragedian Euripides often played with the old traditions, mocking them, and through the voice of his characters injecting notes of doubt. Yet the subjects of his plays were taken, without exception, from myth. Many of these plays were written in answer to a predecessor's version of the same or similar myth. Euripides mainly impugns the myths about the gods and begins his critique with an objection similar to the one previously expressed by Xenocrates: the gods, as traditionally represented, are far too crassly anthropomorphic.\n\nHellenistic and Roman rationalism\n\nDuring the Hellenistic period, mythology took on the prestige of elite knowledge that marks its possessors as belonging to a certain class. At the same time, the skeptical turn of the Classical age became even more pronounced. Greek mythographer Euhemerus established the tradition of seeking an actual historical basis for mythical beings and events. Although his original work (Sacred Scriptures) is lost, much is known about it from what is recorded by Diodorus and Lactantius. \n\nRationalizing hermeneutics of myth became even more popular under the Roman Empire, thanks to the physicalist theories of Stoic and Epicurean philosophy. Stoics presented explanations of the gods and heroes as physical phenomena, while the Euhemerists rationalized them as historical figures. At the same time, the Stoics and the Neoplatonists promoted the moral significations of the mythological tradition, often based on Greek etymologies. Through his Epicurean message, Lucretius had sought to expel superstitious fears from the minds of his fellow-citizens. Livy, too, is skeptical about the mythological tradition and claims that he does not intend to pass judgement on such legends (fabulae). The challenge for Romans with a strong and apologetic sense of religious tradition was to defend that tradition while conceding that it was often a breeding-ground for superstition. The antiquarian Varro, who regarded religion as a human institution with great importance for the preservation of good in society, devoted rigorous study to the origins of religious cults. In his Antiquitates Rerum Divinarum (which has not survived, but Augustine's City of God indicates its general approach) Varro argues that whereas the superstitious man fears the gods, the truly religious person venerates them as parents. According to Varro, there have been three accounts of deities in the Roman society: the mythical account created by poets for theatre and entertainment, the civil account used by people for veneration as well as by the city, and the natural account created by the philosophers. The best state is, adds Varro, where the civil theology combines the poetic mythical account with the philosopher's. \n\nRoman Academic Cotta ridicules both literal and allegorical acceptance of myth, declaring roundly that myths have no place in philosophy. Cicero is also generally disdainful of myth, but, like Varro, he is emphatic in his support for the state religion and its institutions. It is difficult to know how far down the social scale this rationalism extended. Cicero asserts that no one (not even old women and boys) is so foolish as to believe in the terrors of Hades or the existence of Scyllas, centaurs or other composite creatures, but, on the other hand, the orator elsewhere complains of the superstitious and credulous character of the people. De Natura Deorum is the most comprehensive summary of Cicero's line of thought. \n\nSyncretizing trends\n\nIn Ancient Roman times, a new Roman mythology was born through syncretization of numerous Greek and other foreign gods. This occurred because the Romans had little mythology of their own and inheritance of the Greek mythological tradition caused the major Roman gods to adopt characteristics of their Greek equivalents. The gods Zeus and Jupiter are an example of this mythological overlap. In addition to the combination of the two mythological traditions, the association of the Romans with eastern religions led to further syncretizations. For instance, the cult of Sun was introduced in Rome after Aurelian's successful campaigns in Syria. The Asiatic divinities Mithras (that is to say, the Sun) and Ba'al were combined with Apollo and Helios into one Sol Invictus, with conglomerated rites and compound attributes. Apollo might be increasingly identified in religion with Helios or even Dionysus, but texts retelling his myths seldom reflected such developments. The traditional literary mythology was increasingly dissociated from actual religious practice. The worship of Sol as special protector of the emperors and of the empire remained the chief imperial religion until it was replaced by Christianity.\n\nThe surviving 2nd-century collection of Orphic Hymns (second century AD) and the Saturnalia of Macrobius Ambrosius Theodosius (fifth century) are influenced by the theories of rationalism and the syncretizing trends as well. The Orphic Hymns are a set of pre-classical poetic compositions, attributed to Orpheus, himself the subject of a renowned myth. In reality, these poems were probably composed by several different poets, and contain a rich set of clues about prehistoric European mythology. The stated purpose of the Saturnalia is to transmit the Hellenic culture Macrobius has derived from his reading, even though much of his treatment of gods is colored by Egyptian and North African mythology and theology (which also affect the interpretation of Virgil). In Saturnalia reappear mythographical comments influenced by the Euhemerists, the Stoics and the Neoplatonists.\n\nModern interpretations\n\nThe genesis of modern understanding of Greek mythology is regarded by some scholars as a double reaction at the end of the eighteenth century against \"the traditional attitude of Christian animosity\", in which the Christian reinterpretation of myth as a \"lie\" or fable had been retained. In Germany, by about 1795, there was a growing interest in Homer and Greek mythology. In Göttingen, Johann Matthias Gesner began to revive Greek studies, while his successor, Christian Gottlob Heyne, worked with Johann Joachim Winckelmann, and laid the foundations for mythological research both in Germany and elsewhere. \n\nComparative and psychoanalytic approaches\n\nThe development of comparative philology in the 19th century, together with ethnological discoveries in the 20th century, established the science of myth. Since the Romantics, all study of myth has been comparative. Wilhelm Mannhardt, James Frazer, and Stith Thompson employed the comparative approach to collect and classify the themes of folklore and mythology. In 1871 Edward Burnett Tylor published his Primitive Culture, in which he applied the comparative method and tried to explain the origin and evolution of religion.D. Allen, Structure and Creativity in Religion, 9* Robert A. Segal, Theorizing about Myth, 16 Tylor's procedure of drawing together material culture, ritual and myth of widely separated cultures influenced both Carl Jung and Joseph Campbell. Max Müller applied the new science of comparative mythology to the study of myth, in which he detected the distorted remains of Aryan nature worship. Bronisław Malinowski emphasized the ways myth fulfills common social functions. Claude Lévi-Strauss and other structuralists have compared the formal relations and patterns in myths throughout the world.\n\nSigmund Freud introduced a transhistorical and biological conception of man and a view of myth as an expression of repressed ideas. Dream interpretation is the basis of Freudian myth interpretation and Freud's concept of dreamwork recognizes the importance of contextual relationships for the interpretation of any individual element in a dream. This suggestion would find an important point of rapprochment between the structuralist and psychoanalytic approaches to myth in Freud's thought. Carl Jung extended the transhistorical, psychological approach with his theory of the \"collective unconscious\" and the archetypes (inherited \"archaic\" patterns), often encoded in myth, that arise out of it. According to Jung, \"myth-forming structural elements must be present in the unconscious psyche\". Comparing Jung's methodology with Joseph Campbell's theory, Robert A. Segal concludes that \"to interpret a myth Campbell simply identifies the archetypes in it. An interpretation of the Odyssey, for example, would show how Odysseus's life conforms to a heroic pattern. Jung, by contrast, considers the identification of archetypes merely the first step in the interpretation of a myth\". Karl Kerényi, one of the founders of modern studies in Greek mythology, gave up his early views of myth, in order to apply Jung's theories of archetypes to Greek myth. \n\nOrigin theories\n\nMax Müller attempted to understand an Indo-European religious form by tracing it back to its Indo-European (or, in Müller's time, \"Aryan\") \"original\" manifestation. In 1891, he claimed that \"the most important discovery which has been made during the nineteenth century with respect to the ancient history of mankind ... was this sample equation: Sanskrit Dyaus-pitar Greek Zeus \n Latin Jupiter = Old Norse Tyr\". The question of Greek mythology's place in Indo-European studies has generated much scholarship since Müller's time. For example, philologist Georges Dumézil draws a comparison between the Greek Uranus and the Sanskrit Varuna, although there is no hint that he believes them to be originally connected. In other cases, close parallels in character and function suggest a common heritage, yet lack of linguistic evidence makes it difficult to prove, as in the case of the Greek Moirai and the Norns of Norse mythology. \n\nArchaeology and mythography, on the other hand, have revealed that the Greeks were also inspired by some of the civilizations of Asia Minor and the Near East. Adonis seems to be the Greek counterpart — more clearly in cult than in myth — of a Near Eastern \"dying god\". Cybele is rooted in Anatolian culture while much of Aphrodite's iconography may spring from Semitic goddesses. There are also possible parallels between the earliest divine generations (Chaos and its children) and Tiamat in the Enuma Elish.L. Edmunds, Approaches to Greek Myth, 184* Robert A. Segal, A Greek Eternal Child, 64 According to Meyer Reinhold, \"near Eastern theogonic concepts, involving divine succession through violence and generational conflicts for power, found their way ... into Greek mythology\". In addition to Indo-European and Near Eastern origins, some scholars have speculated on the debts of Greek mythology to the pre-Hellenic societies: Crete, Mycenae, Pylos, Thebes and Orchomenus. Historians of religion were fascinated by a number of apparently ancient configurations of myth connected with Crete (the god as bull, Zeus and Europa, Pasiphaë who yields to the bull and gives birth to the Minotaur etc.) Martin P. Nilsson concluded that all great classical Greek myths were tied to Mycenaen centres and were anchored in prehistoric times. Nevertheless, according to Burkert, the iconography of the Cretan Palace Period has provided almost no confirmation for these theories. \n\nMotifs in Western art and literature\n\nThe widespread adoption of Christianity did not curb the popularity of the myths. With the rediscovery of classical antiquity in the Renaissance, the poetry of Ovid became a major influence on the imagination of poets, dramatists, musicians and artists.* L. Burn, Greek Myths, 75 From the early years of Renaissance, artists such as Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, and Raphael, portrayed the Pagan subjects of Greek mythology alongside more conventional Christian themes. Through the medium of Latin and the works of Ovid, Greek myth influenced medieval and Renaissance poets such as Petrarch, Boccaccio and Dante in Italy.\n\nIn Northern Europe, Greek mythology never took the same hold of the visual arts, but its effect was very obvious on literature. The English imagination was fired by Greek mythology starting with Chaucer and John Milton and continuing through Shakespeare to Robert Bridges in the 20th century. Racine in France and Goethe in Germany revived Greek drama, reworking the ancient myths. Although during the Enlightenment of the 18th century reaction against Greek myth spread throughout Europe, the myths continued to provide an important source of raw material for dramatists, including those who wrote the libretti for many of Handel's and Mozart's operas. By the end of the 18th century, Romanticism initiated a surge of enthusiasm for all things Greek, including Greek mythology. In Britain, new translations of Greek tragedies and Homer inspired contemporary poets (such as Alfred Lord Tennyson, Keats, Byron and Shelley) and painters (such as Lord Leighton and Lawrence Alma-Tadema). Christoph Gluck, Richard Strauss, Jacques Offenbach and many others set Greek mythological themes to music. American authors of the 19th century, such as Thomas Bulfinch and Nathaniel Hawthorne, held that the study of the classical myths was essential to the understanding of English and American literature. In more recent times, classical themes have been reinterpreted by dramatists Jean Anouilh, Jean Cocteau, and Jean Giraudoux in France, Eugene O'Neill in America, and T. S. Eliot in Britain and by novelists such as James Joyce and André Gide.", "Futurama is an American animated science fiction sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series follows the adventures of a late-20th-century New York City pizza delivery boy, Philip J. Fry, who, after being unwittingly cryogenically frozen for one thousand years, finds employment at Planet Express, an interplanetary delivery company in the retro-futuristic 31st century. The series was envisioned by Groening in the mid-1990s while working on The Simpsons, later bringing David X. Cohen aboard to develop storylines and characters to pitch the show to Fox.\n\nIn the United States, the series aired on Fox from March 28, 1999, to August 10, 2003, before ceasing production. Futurama also aired in reruns on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim from 2002 to 2007, until the network's contract expired. It was revived in 2007 as four direct-to-video films; the last of which was released in early 2009. Comedy Central entered into an agreement with 20th Century Fox Television to syndicate the existing episodes and air the films as 16 new, half-hour episodes, constituting a fifth season.\n\nIn June 2009, producing studio 20th Century Fox announced that Comedy Central had picked up the show for 26 new half-hour episodes, which began airing in 2010 and 2011. The show was renewed for a seventh season, with the first half airing in June 2012 and the second set for early summer 2013. It was later revealed that the seventh season would be the final season, as Comedy Central announced that they would not be commissioning any further episodes. The series finale aired on September 4, 2013. While Groening has said he will try to get it picked up by another network, David X. Cohen stated that the episode \"Meanwhile\" would be the last episode of season 7 and also the series finale. \n\nThroughout its run, Futurama has received critical acclaim. The show has been nominated for 17 Annie Awards and 12 Emmy Awards, winning seven of the former and six of the latter. It has also been nominated four times for a Writers Guild of America Award, winning two for the episodes \"Godfellas\" and \"The Prisoner of Benda\", been nominated for a Nebula Award and has received Environmental Media Awards for episodes \"The Problem with Popplers\" and \"The Futurama Holiday Spectacular\". Futurama-related merchandise has also been released, including a tie-in comic book series and video game, calendars, clothes and figurines. In 2013, TV Guide ranked Futurama as one of the top 60 Greatest TV Cartoons of All Time. \n\nProduction\n\nDevelopment\n\nFox expressed a strong desire in the mid-1990s for Matt Groening to create a new series, and he began conceiving Futurama during this period. In 1996, he enlisted David X. Cohen, then a writer and producer for The Simpsons, to assist in developing the show. The two spent time researching science fiction books, television shows, and films. When they pitched the series to Fox in April 1998, Groening and Cohen had composed many characters and story lines; Groening claimed they had gone \"overboard\" in their discussions. Groening described trying to get the show on the air as \"by far the worst experience of my grown-up life\". \n\nFox ordered thirteen episodes. Immediately after, however, Fox feared the themes of the show were not suitable for the network and Groening and Fox executives argued over whether the network would have any creative input into the show. With The Simpsons the network has no input. Fox was particularly disturbed by the concept of suicide booths, Doctor Zoidberg, and Bender's anti-social behavior. Groening explains, \"When they tried to give me notes on Futurama, I just said: 'No, we're going to do this just the way we did Simpsons.' And they said, 'Well, we don't do business that way anymore.' And I said, 'Oh, well, that's the only way I do business.'\" The episode \"I, Roommate\" was produced to address Fox's concerns, with the script written to their specifications. Fox strongly disliked the episode, but after negotiations, Groening received the same independence with Futurama.\n\nThe name Futurama comes from a pavilion at the 1939 New York World's Fair. Designed by Norman Bel Geddes, the Futurama pavilion depicted how he imagined the world would look in 1959. Many other titles were considered for the series, including \"Aloha, Mars!\" and \"Doomsville\", which Groening notes were \"resoundly rejected, by everyone concerned with it\". It takes approximately six to nine months to produce an episode of Futurama. The long production time results in several episodes being worked on simultaneously. \n\nExecutive producers\n\nGroening and Cohen served as executive producers and showrunners during the show's entire run, and also functioned as creative consultants. Ken Keeler became an executive producer for Season 4 and subsequent seasons.\n\nWriting\n\nThe planning for each episode began with a table meeting of writers, who discuss the plot ideas as a group. A single staff writer writes an outline and then produces a script. Once the first draft of a script is finished, the writers and executive producers called in the actors for a table read. After this script reading, the writers collaborated to rewrite the script as a group before sending it to the animation team. At this point the voice recording was also started and the script is out of the writers' hands.\n\nThe writing staff held three Ph.D.s, seven master's degrees, and cumulatively had more than 50 years at Harvard University. Series writer Patric M. Verrone stated, \"we were easily the most overeducated cartoon writers in history\". \n\nVoice actors\n\nFuturama had eight main cast members. Billy West performed the voices of Philip J. Fry, Professor Farnsworth, Doctor Zoidberg, Zapp Brannigan and many other incidental characters. West auditioned for \"just about every part\", landing the roles of the Professor and Doctor Zoidberg. Although West read for Fry, his friend Charlie Schlatter was initially given the role of Fry. Due to a casting change, West was called back to audition again and was given the role. West claims that the voice of Fry is deliberately modeled on his own, so as to make it difficult for another person to replicate the voice. Doctor Zoidberg's voice was based on Lou Jacobi and George Jessel. The character of Zapp Brannigan was originally created and intended to be performed by Phil Hartman. Hartman insisted on auditioning for the role, and \"just nailed it\" according to Groening. Due to Hartman's death, West was given the role. West states that his version of Zapp Brannigan was an imitation of Hartman and also \"modeled after a couple of big dumb announcers I knew\".\n\nKatey Sagal voiced Leela, and is the only member of the main cast to voice only one character. The role of Leela was originally assigned to Nicole Sullivan. In an interview in June 2010, Sagal remarked that she did not know that another person was to originally voice Leela until many years after the show first began. \n\nJohn DiMaggio performed the voice of the robot Bender Bending Rodríguez and other, more minor, characters. Bender was the most difficult character to cast, as the show's creators had not decided what a robot should sound like. DiMaggio originally auditioned for the role of Professor Farnsworth, using the voice he uses to perform Bender, and also auditioned for Bender using a different voice. DiMaggio described Bender's voice as a combination of a sloppy drunk, Slim Pickens and a character his college friend created named \"Charlie the sausage-lover\".\n\nPhil LaMarr voices Hermes Conrad, his son Dwight, Ethan Bubblegum Tate, and Reverend Preacherbot. Lauren Tom voiced Amy Wong, and Tress MacNeille voices Mom and various other characters. Maurice LaMarche voices Kif Kroker and several supporting characters. LaMarche won the Emmy Award for Outstanding Voice-Over Performance in 2011 for his performances as Lrrr and Orson Welles in the episode \"Lrrreconcilable Ndndifferences\". David Herman voiced Scruffy and various supporting characters. During seasons 1–4, LaMarche is billed as supporting cast and Tom, LaMarr and Herman billed as guest stars, despite appearing in most episodes. LaMarche was promoted to main cast and Tom, LaMarr and Herman to supporting cast in Season 5, and promoted again to main cast in Season 6.\n\nIn addition to the main cast, Frank Welker voiced Nibbler and Kath Soucie voiced Cubert and several supporting and minor characters. Like The Simpsons, many episodes of Futurama feature guest voices from a wide range of professions, including actors, entertainers, bands, musicians, and scientists. Many guests stars voiced supporting characters, although many voiced themselves, usually as their own head preserved in a jar. Recurring guest stars included Dawnn Lewis (as Hermes' wife LaBarbara), Tom Kenny, Dan Castellaneta (as the Robot Devil), Al Gore, and George Takei, among others.\n\nAnimation\n\nRough Draft Studios animated Futurama. The studio would receive the completed script of an episode and create a storyboard consisting over 100 drawings. It would then produce a pencil-drawn animatic with 1000 frames. Rough Draft's sister studio in South Korea would render the 30,000-frame finished episode.\n\nIn addition to traditional cartoon drawing, Rough Draft Studios often used CGI for fast or complex shots, such as the movement of spaceships, explosions, nebulae and snow scenes. The opening sequence was entirely rendered in CGI. The CGI was rendered at 24 frames per second (as opposed to hand-drawn often done at 12 frames per second) and the lack of artifacts made the animation appear very smooth and fluid. CGI characters looked slightly different due to spatially \"cheating\" hand-drawn characters by drawing slightly out of proportion or off-perspective features to emphasize traits of the face or body, improving legibility of an expression. PowerAnimator was used to draw the comic-like CGI. \n\nThe series began high-definition production in season 5, with Bender's Big Score. The opening sequence was re-rendered and scaled to adapt to the show's transition to 16:9 widescreen format.\n\nFor the final episode of season 6, Futurama was completely reanimated in three different styles: the first segment of the episode features black-and-white Fleischer- and Walter Lantz-style animation, the second was drawn in the style of a low-resolution video game, and the final segment was in the style of Japanese anime.\n\nOriginal cancellation\n\nGroening and Cohen wanted Futurama to be shown at 8:30 pm on Sunday, following The Simpsons. The Fox network disagreed, opting instead to show two episodes in the Sunday night lineup before moving the show to a regular time slot on Tuesday. Beginning with its second broadcast season Futurama was again placed in the 8:30 Sunday spot, but by mid-season the show was moved again, this time to 7:00 pm on Sunday, its third position in under a year. Even by the fourth season Futurama was still being aired erratically. Due to being regularly pre-empted by sporting events, it became difficult to predict when new episodes would air. This erratic schedule resulted in Fox not airing several episodes that had been produced for seasons three and four, instead holding them over for a fifth broadcast season. According to Groening, Fox executives were not supporters of the show. Although Futurama was never officially canceled, midway through the production of the fourth season, Fox decided to stop buying episodes of Futurama, letting it go out of production before the fall 2003 lineup. \n\nIn 2002, the Cartoon Network acquired syndication rights to Futurama as well as Family Guy for its Adult Swim block. The run on Adult Swim revived interest in both series, and when Family Guy found success in direct-to-DVD productions, Futuramas producers decided to try the same. In 2005, Comedy Central entered negotiations to take over the syndication rights, during which they discussed the possibility of producing new episodes. In 2006, it was announced that four straight-to-DVD films would be produced, and later split into 16 episodes comprising a fifth season of the show. Since no new Futurama projects were in production at the time of release, the final movie release Into the Wild Green Yonder was designed to stand as the Futurama series finale. However, Groening had expressed a desire to continue the franchise in some form, including as a theatrical film. In an interview with CNN, Groening said that \"we have a great relationship with Comedy Central and we would love to do more episodes for them, but I don't know... We're having discussions and there is some enthusiasm but I can't tell if it's just me.\" \n\nComedy Central\n\nIn June 2009, 20th Century Fox announced that Comedy Central had picked up the show for 26 new half-hour episodes that began airing on June 24, 2010. The returning writing crew was smaller than the original crew. It was originally announced that main voice actors West, DiMaggio, and Sagal would return as well, but on July 17, 2009, it was announced that a casting notice was posted to replace the entire cast when 20th Century Fox Television would not meet their salary demands. The situation was later resolved, and the entire original voice-cast returned for the new episodes.\n\nNear the end of a message from Maurice LaMarche sent to members of the \"Save the Voices of Futurama\" group on Facebook, LaMarche announced that the original cast would be returning for the new episodes. The Toronto Star confirmed, announcing on their website that the original cast of Futurama signed contracts with Fox to return for 26 more episodes. Similarly, an email sent to fans from Cohen and Groening reported that West, Sagal, DiMaggio, LaMarche, MacNeille, Tom, LaMarr, and Herman would all be returning for the revival. \n\nCohen told Newsday in August 2009 that the reported 26-episode order means \"[i]t will be up to 26. I can't guarantee it will be 26. But I think there's a pretty good chance it'll be exactly 26. Fox has been a little bit cagey about it, even internally. But nobody's too concerned. We're plunging ahead\".Lovece, Frank. [http://www.newsday.com/entertainment/tv/futurama-finds-a-new-future-on-comedy-central-1.1402526 \"'Futurama' finds a new future on Comedy Central\"], Newsday, August 28, 2009; posted online August 27, 2009 Two episodes were in the process of being voice-recorded at that time, with an additional \"six scripts ... in the works, ranging in scale from 'it's a crazy idea that someone's grandmother thought of' to 'it's all on paper'.\n\nWhen Futurama aired June 24, 2010, on Comedy Central, it helped the network to its highest-rated night in 2010 and its highest-rated Thursday primetime in the network's history. In March 2011, it was announced that Futurama had been renewed for a seventh season, consisting of at least 26 episodes, scheduled to air in 2012 and 2013. The first episode of season 7 premiered June 20, 2012, on Comedy Central.[http://www.comedycentral.com/shows/futurama Futurama – Series | Comedy Central Official Site | ComedyCentral.com], Comedy Central. Retrieved March 27, 2012\n\nIn July 2011, it was reported that the show had been picked up for syndication by both local affiliates and WGN America. Broadcast of old episodes began in September 2011. On September 19, 2011, WGN America began re-running Futurama, and now airs the series weeknights during the overnight hours, and once on Saturday nights. Futurama has since doubled its viewership in syndication. \n\nDue to the uncertain future of the series, there have been four designated series finales. \"The Devil's Hands Are Idle Playthings\", \"Into the Wild Green Yonder\", and \"Overclockwise\" have all been written to serve as a final episode for the show. The episode \"Meanwhile\" currently stands as the show's official series finale.\n\nSeries finale\n\nComedy Central announced in April 2013 that they would be airing the final episode on September 4, 2013. The producers said that they are exploring options for the future of the series as \"[they] have many more stories to tell\", but would gauge fan reaction to the news. Groening and Cohen have previously expressed a desire to produce a theatrical film or another direct-to-video film upon conclusion of the series. \n\nIn an August 2013 interview with Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Katey Sagal said regarding the series finale, \"So I don't believe it... I just hold out hope for it because it has such a huge fan base, it's such a smart show, and why wouldn't somebody want to keep making that show; so that's my thought, I'm just in denial that it's over\". Sagal also mentioned during the same interview that Groening told her at Comic-Con that \"we'll find a place\" and \"don't worry, it's not going to end\" (in Sagal's words). \n\nThe Simpsons episode \"Simpsorama\" is an official crossover with Futurama. It originally aired during the twenty-sixth season of the Simpsons on November 9, 2014, over a year after the series finale aired on Comedy Central. \n\nCharacters\n\nFuturama is essentially a workplace sitcom, the plot of which revolves around the Planet Express interplanetary delivery company and its employees, a small group that largely fails to conform to future society. Episodes usually feature the central trio of Fry, Leela, and Bender, though occasional storylines center on the other main characters.\n* Philip J. Fry (Billy West) – Fry is an immature, slovenly, yet good-hearted and sentimental pizza delivery boy who falls into a cryogenic pod, causing it to activate and freeze him just after midnight on January 1, 2000. He reawakens on New Year's Eve of 2999, and gets a job as a cargo delivery boy at Planet Express, a company owned by his only living relative, Professor Hubert J. Farnsworth. Fry's love for Leela is a recurring theme throughout the series.\n* Turanga Leela (Katey Sagal) – Leela is the competent, one-eyed captain of the Planet Express Ship. Abandoned as a baby, she grows up in the Cookieville Minimum Security Orphanarium believing herself to be an alien from another planet, but learns that she is actually a mutant from the sewers in the episode \"Leela's Homeworld\". Prior to becoming the ship's captain, Leela works as a career assignment officer at the cryogenics lab where she first meets Fry. She is Fry's primary love interest and wife. Her name is a reference to the Turangalîla-Symphonie by Olivier Messiaen. \n* Bender Bending Rodriguez (John DiMaggio) – Bender is a foul-mouthed, heavy-drinking, cigar-smoking, kleptomaniacal, misanthropic, egocentric, ill-tempered robot manufactured by Mom's Friendly Robot Company. He is originally programmed to bend girders for suicide booths, and is later designated as assistant sales manager and cook, despite lacking a sense of taste. He is Fry's best friend and roommate. He must drink heavily to power his fuel cells and becomes the human equivalent of drunk when low on alcohol. \n* Professor Hubert J. Farnsworth (Billy West) – Professor Farnsworth, also known simply as \"the Professor\", is Fry's distant nephew. Farnsworth founds Planet Express Inc. to fund his work as a mad scientist. Although he is depicted as a brilliant scientist and inventor, at more than one-hundred and sixty years old he is extremely prone to age-related forgetfulness and fits of temper. In the episode \"A Clone of My Own\", the Professor clones himself to produce a successor, Cubert Farnsworth, whom he treats like a son.\n* Dr. John A. Zoidberg (Billy West) – Zoidberg is a lobster-like alien from the planet Decapod 10, and the neurotic staff physician of Planet Express. Although he claims to be an expert on humans, his knowledge of human anatomy and physiology is woefully inaccurate. Zoidberg's expertise seems to be with extra-terrestrial creatures. Homeless and penniless, he lives in the dumpster behind Planet Express. Although Zoidberg is depicted as being Professor Farnsworth's long-time friend he is held in contempt by everyone on the crew.\n* Amy Wong (Lauren Tom) – Amy is an incredibly rich, blunt, spoiled, ditzy, and accident-prone long-term intern at Planet Express. She is an astrophysics student at Mars University and heiress to the western hemisphere of Mars. Born on Mars, she is ethnically Chinese and is prone to cursing in Cantonese and using 31st-century slang. Her parents are the wealthy ranchers Leo and Inez Wong. She is promiscuous in the beginning of the series, but eventually enters a monogamous relationship with Kif Kroker. In the show's sixth season, she acquires her doctorate.\n* Hermes Conrad (Phil LaMarr) – Hermes is the Jamaican accountant of Planet Express. A 36th-level bureaucrat (demoted to level 37 during the series) and proud of it, he is a stickler for regulation and enamored of the tedium of paperwork and bureaucracy. Hermes is also a former champion in Olympic Limbo, a sport derived from the popular party activity. He gave up limbo after the 2980 Olympics when a young fan, imitating him, broke his back and died. Hermes has a wife, LaBarbara, and a 12-year-old son, Dwight.\n* Zapp Brannigan (Billy West) – Zapp Brannigan is the incompetent, extraordinarily vain captain of the DOOP starship Nimbus. He is a satirical pastiche of Captain Kirk and William Shatner. Although Leela thoroughly detests him, Brannigan—a self-deluded ladies' man—pursues her relentlessly, often at great personal risk. He was originally going to be voiced by Phil Hartman, but Hartman died before production could begin.\n* Kif Kroker (Maurice LaMarche) – Zapp Brannigan's 4th Lieutenant and long-suffering personal assistant, Kif is a member of the amphibious species that inhabits the planet Amphibios 9. Although extremely timid, he eventually works up the courage to date Amy. Kif is often shown sighing in disgust at the nonsensical rantings of his commanding officer.\n* Mom (Tress MacNeille) – Mom is the malevolent, foul-mouthed, cruel, and narcissistic owner of MomCorp, the thirty-first century's largest shipping and manufacturing company, with a monopoly on robots. In public, she maintains the image of a sweet, kindly old woman by speaking in stereotypically antiquated statements and wearing a mechanical fat suit. She occasionally launches insidious plans for world domination and corporate takeover. She has a romantic history with the Professor which left her bitter and resentful. She has three bumbling sons, Walt, Larry, and Igner (modeled after The Three Stooges), who do her bidding despite frequent abuse, and often infuriate her with their incompetence. In Bender's Game, it is revealed that Igner's father is Professor Farnsworth.\n* Nibbler (Frank Welker) – Nibbler is Leela's pet Nibblonian, whom she rescues from an imploding planet and adopted in the episode \"Love's Labours Lost in Space\". Despite his deceptively cute exterior, Nibbler is actually a highly intelligent super-being whose race is responsible for maintaining order in the universe. He is revealed in \"The Why of Fry\" to have been directly responsible for Fry's cryogenic freezing. While the size of an average house cat, his race is capable of devouring much larger animals. He defecates dark matter, which until Bender's Game is used as fuel for space cruisers in the series.\n\nSetting\n\nFuturama is set in New New York at the turn of the 31st century, in a time filled with technological wonders. The city of New New York has been built over the ruins of present-day New York City, which occupies New New York's sewers, referred to as \"Old New York\". Various devices and architecture are similar to the Populuxe style. Global warming, inflexible bureaucracy, and substance abuse are a few of the subjects given a 31st-century exaggeration in a world where the problems have become both more extreme and more common. Just as New York has become a more extreme version of itself in the future, other Earth locations are given the same treatment; Los Angeles, for example, is depicted as a smog-filled apocalyptic wasteland.\n\nNumerous technological advances have been made between the present day and the 31st century. The ability to keep heads alive in jars was invented by Ron Popeil (who has a guest cameo in \"A Big Piece of Garbage\"), which has resulted in many historical figures and current celebrities being present, including Groening himself; this became the writers' device to feature and poke fun at contemporary celebrities in the show. Curiously, several of the preserved heads shown are those of people who were already dead well before the advent of this technology; one of the most prominent examples of this anomaly is Earth president Richard Nixon, who died in 1994 and appears in numerous episodes. The heads also appear to be in the age that the individual was most famous and not the older age in which they died. The Internet, while being fully immersive and encompassing all senses — even featuring its own digital world (similar to Tron or The Matrix) — is slow and largely consists of pornography, pop-up ads, and \"filthy\" (or Filthy Filthy) chat rooms. Some of it is edited to include educational material ostensibly for youth. Television is still a primary form of entertainment. Self-aware robots are a common sight, and are the main cause of global warming thanks to the exhaust from their alcohol-powered systems. The wheel is obsolete (no one but Fry even seems to recognize the design), having been forgotten and replaced by hover cars and a network of large, clear pneumatic transportation tubes.\n\nEnvironmentally, common animals still remain, alongside mutated, cross-bred (sometimes with humans) and extraterrestrial animals. Ironically, spotted owls are often shown to have replaced rats as common household pests. Although rats still exist, sometimes rats act like pigeons, though pigeons still exist, as well. Pine trees, anchovies and poodles have been extinct for 800 years. Earth still suffers the effects of greenhouse gases, although in one episode Leela states that its effects have been counteracted by nuclear winter. In another episode, the effects of global warming have been somewhat mitigated by the dropping of a giant ice cube into the ocean, and later by pushing Earth farther away from the sun, which also extended the year by one week.\n\nFuturamas setting is a backdrop, and the writers are not above committing continuity errors if they serve to further the gags. For example, while the pilot episode implies that the previous Planet Express crew was killed by a space wasp, the later episode \"The Sting\" is based on the crew having been killed by space bees instead. The \"world of tomorrow\" setting is used to highlight and lampoon issues of today and to parody the science fiction genre.\n\nThemes\n\nEarth is depicted as being multicultural to the extent that a wide range of human, robot, and extraterrestrial beings interact with the primary characters. In some ways the future is depicted as being more socially advanced than Fry's, and therefore the audience's, reality. However, it is often shown to have many of the same types of problems, challenges, mistakes, and prejudices as the present.\n\nRobots make up the largest \"minority\". Most robots are self-aware and have been granted freedom and self-determination, but while a few are depicted as wealthy members of the upper class, they are often treated as second-class citizens. Likewise, robot–human relationships (termed \"robosexual\") are stigmatized, and robot–human marriages are initially depicted as illegal. Sewer mutants are mutated humans who must live in the sewers by law. They are initially depicted as holding urban legend status and regarded as fictional by most members of the public. This was contradicted by later episodes that depict Earth society as having enforced laws regarding mutants. However, since the conclusion of Season Six, mutants have been granted full status as citizens and are therefore granted the same rights to surface use as normal humans.\n\nReligion is still a prominent part of society, although the dominant religions have evolved. A merging of the major religious groups of the 20th century has resulted in the First Amalgamated Church, while Voodoo is now mainstream. New religions include Oprahism, Robotology, and the banned religion of Star Trek fandom. Religious figures include Father Changstein-El-Gamal, the Robot Devil, Reverend Lionel Preacherbot, and passing references to the Space Pope, who appears to be a large crocodile-like creature. Several major holidays have robots associated with them, including the murderous Robot Santa and Kwanzaa-bot. While very few episodes focus exclusively on religion within the Futurama universe, they do cover a wide variety of subjects including predestination, prayer, the nature of salvation, and religious conversion.\n\nEarth has a unified government headed by the President of Earth. Richard Nixon's head is elected to the position in Season Two, and holds the office in subsequent episodes. Earth's capital is Washington, D.C., and the flag of Earth is similar in design to the flag of the United States, with the western hemisphere displayed in place of the fifty stars. The show is set mostly in the former United States, and other parts of the world are rarely shown. Citizens of Earth are referred to as \"Earthicans\", and English is shown to be the primary language of almost every sentient species.\n\nThe Democratic Order of Planets (D.O.O.P.) has been compared to both the United Nations and the United Federation of Planets of the Star Trek universe. Numerous other planets have been colonized or have made contact by the year 3000. Mars has been terraformed and is home to Mars University, Mars Vegas, and tribes similar to Native Americans, though they departed upon learning that the \"worthless bead\" they traded their land for (the Martian surface) was actually a giant diamond worth a fortune, deciding to buy another planet and act like it is sacred.\n\nA derivative of baseball, called blernsball, is played, and the New New York Mets, a laughingstock of the league, still play in Shea Stadium. A New New York Yankees team also exists.\n\nDue to the fact that the world of Fry's time was destroyed, much of the knowledge of history before then was lost. In the 31st century, facts gathered by archaeologists are portrayed as grossly inaccurate. For example, in \"The Lesser of Two Evils\", the theme park \"Past-O-Rama\" presents a history in which 20th-century car factories had \"primitive robot\" assembly lines in which cars were not assembled by giant robotic welding arms, but by robots dressed like stereotypical cavemen wielding clubs. Another example comes from \"The Series Has Landed\", in which knowledge of the Moon landing has been lost for centuries. As a result, archaeologists came to the conclusion that the idea to go to the moon came from the infamous quotation from The Honeymooners \"One of these days, Alice... Bang! Zoom! Straight to the moon!\".\n\nHallmarks\n\nOpening sequence\n\nMuch like the opening sequence in The Simpsons with its chalkboard, sax solo, and couch gags, Futurama has a distinctive opening sequence featuring minor gags. As the show begins, blue lights fill the screen and the Planet Express Ship flies across the screen with the title of the show being spelled out in its wake. Underneath the title is a joke caption such as \"Painstakingly drawn in front of a live studio audience\" or \"When you see the robot: DRINK!\" After flying through downtown New New York and past various recurring characters, the Planet Express ship crashes into a large screen showing a short clip from a classic cartoon. These have included clips from Quasi At The Quackadero, Looney Tunes shorts, cartoons produced by Max Fleischer, a short of The Simpsons from a Tracey Ullman episode, the show's own opening sequence in \"The Devil's Hands Are Idle Playthings\" or a scene from the episode. Most episodes in Season 6 use an abridged opening sequence, omitting the brief clip of a classic cartoon. \"That Darn Katz!\", \"Benderama\" and \"Yo Leela Leela\" have been the only episodes since \"Spanish Fry\" to feature a classic cartoon clip. Several episodes begin with a cold opening before the opening sequence, although these scenes do not always correspond with the episode's plot. The opening sequence has been lampooned several times within the show, in episodes including \"That's Lobstertainment!\", \"The Problem with Popplers\", as \"Future-roma\" in \"The Duh-Vinci Code\" and as \"Futurella\" in \"Lrrreconcilable Ndndifferences\".\n\nSeries director Scott Vanzo has remarked on the difficulty of animating the sequence. It took four to five weeks to fully animate the sequence, and it consists of over 80 levels of 3D animation composited together. It takes approximately one hour to render a single frame, and each second of the sequence consists of around 30 frames.\n\nBender's Big Score has an extended opening sequence, introducing each of the main characters. In The Beast with a Billion Backs and Bender's Game the ship passes through the screen's glass and temporarily becomes part of the environment depicted therein—a pastiche of Disney's Steamboat Willie and Yellow Submarine respectively—before crashing through the screen glass on the way out. In Into the Wild Green Yonder, a completely different opening sequence involves a trip through a futuristic version of Las Vegas located on Mars. The theme tune is sung by Seth MacFarlane and is different from the standard theme tune. The end of the film incorporates a unique variation of the opening sequence; as the Planet Express ship enters a wormhole, it converts into a pattern of lights similar to the lights that appear in the opening sequence.\n\nThe Futurama theme was created by Christopher Tyng. The theme is played on the tubular bells but is occasionally remixed for use in specific episodes, including a version by the Beastie Boys used for the episode \"Hell Is Other Robots\", in which they guest starred. The theme also samples a drum break originating from \"Amen, Brother\" by American soul group The Winstons; however, the drum break is replaced in Season 6. A remixed rendition of the theme is used in Season 5, which features altered instruments and a lower pitch. Season 6 also uses this remix, but it has been reduced again in pitch and tempo. The theme has been noted for its similarities to Pierre Henry's 1967 Psyché Rock. \n\nIt was originally intended for the Futurama theme to be remixed in every episode. This was first trialled in the opening sequence for \"Mars University\", however it was realized upon broadcast that the sound did not transmit well through most television sets and the idea was subsequently abandoned. Despite this, beatbox renditions of the theme performed by Billy West and John DiMaggio are used for the episodes \"Bender Should Not Be Allowed on TV\" and \"Spanish Fry\".\n\nLanguage\n\nThere are three alternative alphabets that appear often in the background of episodes, usually in the forms of graffiti, advertisements, or warning labels. Nearly all messages using alternative scripts transliterate directly into English. The first alphabet consists of abstract characters and is referred to as Alienese, a simple substitution cipher from the Latin alphabet. The second alphabet uses a more complex modular addition code, where the \"next letter is given by the summation of all previous letters plus the current letter\". The codes often provide additional jokes for fans dedicated enough to decode the messages. The third language sometimes used is Hebrew. Aside from these alphabets, most of the displayed wording on the show uses the Latin alphabet.\n\nSeveral English expressions have evolved since the present day. For example, the word Christmas has been replaced with Xmas (pronounced \"ex-mas\"), and the word ask with aks (pronounced axe). According to David X. Cohen it is a running joke that the French language is extinct in the Futurama universe (though the culture remains alive), much like Latin is in the present. In the French dubbing of the show, German is used as the extinct language instead.\n\nHumor\n\nAlthough the series uses a wide range of styles of humor, including self-deprecation, black comedy, off-color humor, slapstick, and surreal humor, its primary source of comedy is its satirical depiction of everyday life in the future and its parodical comparisons to the present. Groening notes that, from the show's conception, his goal was to make what was, on the surface, a goofy comedy that would have underlying \"legitimate literary science fiction concepts\". The series contrasted \"low culture\" and \"high culture\" comedy; for example, Bender's catchphrase is the insult \"Bite my shiny metal ass\" while his most terrifying nightmare is a vision of the number 2, a joke referring to the binary numeral system (Fry assures him, \"there's no such thing as two\").\n\nThe series developed a cult following partially due to the large number of in-jokes it contains, most of which are aimed at \"nerds\". In commentary on the DVD releases, David X. Cohen points out and sometimes explains his \"nerdiest joke[s]\". These included mathematical jokes — such as \"Loew's \\aleph_0-plex\" (aleph-null-plex) movie theater, — as well as various forms of science humor — for example, Professor Farnsworth, at a racetrack, complains about the use of a quantum finish to decide the winner, exclaiming \"No fair! You changed the outcome by measuring it\", a reference to the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle. In the season six episode \"Law and Oracle\", Fry and the robot peace officer URL track down a traffic violator who turns out to be Erwin Schrödinger, the 20th-century quantum physicist. On the front seat of the car is a box, and when questioned about the contents, Schrödinger replies \"A cat, some poison, and a cesium atom\". Fry asks if the cat is alive or dead, and Schrödinger answers \"It's a superposition of both states until you open the box and collapse the wave function.\" When Fry opens the box, the cat jumps out and attacks him. The run is a reference to the Schrödinger's cat thought experiment of quantum mechanics. The series makes passing references to quantum chromodynamics (the appearance of Strong Force-brand glue), computer science (two separate books in a closet labeled P and NP respectively, referring to the possibility that P and NP-complete problem classes are distinct), electronics (an X-ray — or more accurately, an \"F-ray\" — of Bender's head reveals a 6502 microprocessor), and genetics (a mention of Bender's \"robo- or R-NA\"). The show often features subtle references to classic science fiction. These are most often to Star Trek — many soundbites are used in homage — but also include the reference to the origin of the word robot made in the name of the robot-dominated planet Chapek 9, and the black rectangular monolith labeled \"Out of Order\" in orbit around Jupiter (a reference to Arthur C. Clarke's Space Odyssey series). Bender and Fry sometimes watch a television show called The Scary Door, a humorous parody of The Twilight Zone. \n\nJournalist/critic Frank Lovece in Newsday contrasted the humor tradition of Groening's two series, finding that, \"The Simpsons echoes the strains of American-Irish vaudeville humor — the beer-soaked, sneaking-in-late-while-the-wife's-asleep comedy of Harrigan and Hart, McNulty and Murray, the Four Cohans (which, yes, included George M.) and countless others: knockabout yet sentimental, and ultimately about the bonds of blood family. Futurama, conversely, stems from Jewish-American humor, and not just in the obvious archetype of Dr. Zoidberg. From vaudeville to the Catskills to Woody Allen, it's that distinctly rueful humor built to ward away everything from despair to petty annoyance — the 'You gotta do what you gotta do' philosophy that helps the 'Futurama' characters cope in a mega-corporate world where the little guy is essentially powerless.\" Animation maven Jerry Beck concurred: \"I'm Jewish, and I know what you're saying. Fry has that [type of humor], Dr. Zoidberg, all the [vocal artist] Billy West characters. I see it. The bottom line is, the producers are trying to make sure the shows are completely different entities.\"\n\nReception, legacy, and achievements\n\nSuccess\n\nFuturamas 7:00 pm Sunday timeslot caused the show to often be pre-empted by sports and usually have a later than average season premiere. It also allowed the writers and animators to get ahead of the broadcast schedule so that episodes intended for one season were not aired until the following season. By the beginning of the fourth broadcast season, all the episodes to be aired that season had already been completed and writers were working at least a year in advance. \n\nWhen Futurama debuted in the Fox Sunday night line-up at 8:30 pm between The Simpsons and The X-Files on March 28, 1999, it managed 19 million viewers, tying for 11th overall in that week's Nielsen ratings. The following week, airing at the same time, Futurama drew 14.2 million viewers. The third episode, the first airing on Tuesday, drew 8.85 million viewers. Though its ratings were well below The Simpsons, the first season of Futurama rated higher than competing animated series: King of the Hill, Family Guy, Dilbert, South Park, and The PJs. \n\nWhen Futurama was effectively canceled in 2003, it had averaged 6.4 million viewers for the first half of its fourth broadcast season. \n\nIn late 2002, Cartoon Network acquired exclusive cable syndication rights to Futurama for a reported ten million dollars. In January 2003, the network began airing Futurama episodes as the centerpiece to the expansion of their Adult Swim cartoon block. In October 2005, Comedy Central picked up the cable syndication rights to air Futuramas 72-episode run at the start of 2008, following the expiration of Cartoon Network's contract. It was cited as the largest and most expensive acquisition in the network's history. It airs every night on Comedy Central and WGN. A Comedy Central teaser trailer announced the return of Futurama March 23, 2008, which was Bender's Big Score divided into four episodes followed by the other three movies. The series also airs in syndication in many countries around the world.\n\nOn June 24, 2010, the season six premiere, \"Rebirth\", drew 2.92 million viewers in the 10 pm timeslot on Comedy Central. The second episode of the sixth season, \"In-A-Gadda-Da-Leela\", aired at 10:30 pm, immediately following the season premiere. \"In-A-Gadda-Da-Leela\" drew 2.78 million viewers. This was the series' premiere on the network, with original episodes—the fifth season had previously aired on the network, but it had originally been released in the form of the four direct-to-video films.\n\nAwards and nominations\n\nAchievements\n\n;The Futurama Theorem\n\nOn August 19, 2010, Comedy Central aired \"The Prisoner of Benda\", an episode written by Ken Keeler. To support the plot of this episode, Keeler, a PhD mathematician, penned \"The Futurama Theorem\", also known as \"Keeler's theorem\", which establishes (with mathematical proof) an algorithm for reversing the results of a particular body swap scenario.\n\n;Other honors\n\nIn January 2009, IGN named Futurama as the eighth best in the \"Top 100 Animated TV Series\". \n\nAt the 2010 San Diego Comic-Con International, Guinness World Records presented Futurama with the record for \"Current Most Critically Acclaimed Animated Series\". \n\nIn 2014, WatchMojo.com ranked Futurama as the second best cartoon to have been cancelled. \n\nIn 2016, Rolling Stone ranked it as the thirtieth best science fiction television show ever. \n\nOther media\n\nComic books\n\nFirst started in November 2000, Futurama Comics is a comic book series published by Bongo Comics based in the Futurama universe. While originally published only in the US, a UK, German and Australian version of the series is also available. In addition, three issues were published in Norway. Other than a different running order and presentation, the stories are the same in all versions. While the comics focus on the same characters in the Futurama fictional universe, the comics may not be canonical as the events portrayed within them do not necessarily have any effect upon the continuity of the show.\n\nLike the TV series, each comic (except US comic #20) has a caption at the top of the cover. For example: \"Made In The USA! (Printed in Canada).\" Some of the UK and Australian comics have different captions on the top of their comics (for example, the Australian version of #20 says \"A 21st Century Comic Book\" across the cover, while the US version does not have a caption on that issue). All series contain a letters page, artwork from readers, and previews of other upcoming Bongo comics.\n\nFilms\n\nWhen Comedy Central began negotiating for the rights to air Futurama reruns, Fox suggested that there was a possibility of also creating new episodes. Negotiations were already underway with the possibility of creating two or three straight-to-DVD films. When Comedy Central committed to sixteen new episodes, it was decided that four films would be produced. On April 26, 2006, Groening noted in an interview that co-creator David X. Cohen and numerous writers from the original series would be returning to work on the movies. All the original voice actors participated. In February 2007, Groening explained the format of the new stories: \"[The crew is] writing them as movies and then we're going to chop them up, reconfigure them, write new material and try to make them work as separate episodes.\" \n\nThe first movie, Bender's Big Score, was written by Ken Keeler and Cohen, and includes return appearances by the Nibblonians, Seymour, Barbados Slim, Robot Santa, the \"God\" space entity, Al Gore, and Zapp Brannigan. It was animated in widescreen and was released on standard DVD on November 27, 2007, with a possible Blu-ray Disc release to follow. A release on HD DVD was rumored but later officially denied. Futurama: Bender's Big Score was the first DVD release for which 20th Century Fox implemented measures intended to reduce the total carbon footprint of the production, manufacturing, and distribution processes. Where it was not possible to completely eliminate carbon, output carbon offsets were used, thus making the complete process carbon neutral. \n\nThe second movie, The Beast with a Billion Backs, was released on June 24, 2008. The third movie, Bender's Game, was released on DVD and Blu-ray Disc on November 3, 2008, in the UK, November 4, 2008, in the USA, and December 10, 2008, in Australia. The fourth movie, Into the Wild Green Yonder, was released on DVD and Blu-ray Disc on February 23, 2009. \n\nVideo game\n\nOn September 15, 2000, Unique Development Studios acquired the license to develop a Futurama video game for consoles and handheld systems. Fox Interactive signed on to publish the game. Sierra Entertainment later became the game's publisher, and it was released on August 14, 2003. Versions are available for PlayStation 2 and Xbox, both of which use cel-shading technology. However, the game was subsequently canceled on the Nintendo GameCube and Game Boy Advance in North America and Europe. \n\nBroadcast\n\nFuturama premiered and originally aired in the United States on the Fox network, March 28, 1999 – August 10, 2003. Adult Swim carried the series in the US January 1, 2003 – December 31, 2007, followed by Comedy Central March 23, 2008 – September 4, 2013. Syndicated broadcast of the series in the US began in Fall 2011. \n\nCanadian networks YTV, Teletoon at Night and Global Television broadcast Futurama March 28, 1999 – August 10, 2003.\n\nThe series was broadcast in Australia on the following stations: Seven Network aired the series from December 2, 1999 – 2003, Fox8 from 2000–present, Network Ten between 2005–2010, and on Eleven January 11, 2011 – present.\n\nAudiences in New Zealand received the series on the following stations: TV2 March 28, 1999 – 2005, the BOX from 2000–2010, C4 from 2005–2011, Comedy Central between 2010–, and on Four from 2011–2013.\n\nFuturama currently airs in Ireland on networks 3e, Comedy Central, Pick and Sky1.\n\nThe series was carried by the following networks in the United Kingdom: Sky1 from September 21, 1999 – present, Channel 4 from 2000–2004, and the series is currently repeated on Pick.\n\nMerchandise\n\nWhile relatively uncommon, several action and tin figurines of various characters and items from the show have been made and are being sold by various hobby/online stores. When the show was initially licensed, plans were made with Rocket USA to produce wind-up, walking tin figurines of both Bender and Nibbler with packaging artwork done by the original artists for the series. The Bender toy included a cigar and bottle of \"Olde Fortran Malt Liquor\" and featured moving eyes, antenna, and a functioning compartment door; it received an \"A\" rating from Sci Fi Weekly. A can of Slurm actually contains a deck of cards featuring the Planet Express crew as the face cards. A two-deck pack of cards was also released.\n\nI-Men released five two-packs of high figures: Fry and Calculon; Zoidberg and Morbo; Professor Farnsworth and URL; Robot Devil and Bender; Leela and Roberto. Each figure comes with a corresponding collectable coin that can also double as a figure stand.\n\nThe collectible releases include a set of bendable action figures, including Lieutenant Kif Kroker, Turanga Leela, and Bender. There have also been a few figures released by Moore Action Collectibles, including Fry, Turanga Leela, Bender, and the Planet Express ship. In late 2006, Rocket USA brought out a limited edition \"super\" heavyweight die-cast Bender. Another special edition Bender figure was released at the San Diego Comic Con (SDCC) in 2006; the figure was called \"Glorious Golden Bender\".\n\nToynami produced new Futurama figures. The first series of the Toynami figures is separated into 3 waves: wave one, released in September 2007, featured Fry and Zoidberg; wave two, released in January 2008, consisted of Leela and Zapp (who comes with Richard Nixon's head-in-a-jar); the third wave, released in June 2008, includes Bender and Kif. Each figure comes with a build-a-figure piece to assemble the Robot Devil. The second series of Toynami figures includes Captain Yesterday (A Fry variant from \"Less Than Hero\") and Nudar in the first wave. The second wave includes Super-King (Bender from \"Less Than Hero\") and Calculon, and the third wave includes Clobberella (Leela from \"Less Than Hero\") and Amy Wong. The figures in series 2 include pieces to build Robot Santa. The third, and current, series of the Toynami line includes Professor Farnsworth (who comes with Nibbler), and Hermes. Wave 2 was released in February 2010 and includes Chef Bender and Mom, who comes with a removable fat-suit. Series 3 figures come with pieces to build Roberto. Series 9 will include URL and Wooden Bender (from \"Obsoletely Fabulous\") and Series 10 will include Clamps and Joey Mousepad. Series 11 consists of The Donbot and Flexo. That wave will not have a specific Build A Bot character, planned Morbo. All figures feature multiple points of articulation and character-specific accessories.\n\nIn August 2009 Kidrobot released 3-inch vinyl mini figurines of some of the cast. These are sold in \"blind\" box form and each comes with an accessory. Probability of receiving each of the characters is printed on the side, with two special mystery characters having unknown probabilities. 6-inch versions of some of the figures are also available as limited editions, but these are not sold as \"blind\" boxes.", "Hermes is the divine messenger of the Olympian gods in Greek mythology.\n\nHermes can also refer to:\n\nBusiness \n\n*Hermès, a Paris-based, high-fashion luxury-goods manufacturer\n*Hermes (parcels), a German parcel delivery company\n*Hermes Abrasives, a German-based abrasive manufacturer\n*Hermes Airlines, a Greek charter airline founded in 2011\n*Hermes Aviation, a start-up Maltese airline founded in 2014\n*EFG-Hermes Holding Company, an Egyptian financial group\n*Hermes Investment Management, an organisation based within London\n*Hermes Press, an American publisher of art books and comic books, founded in 2001\n*Hermes Records, an Iranian record label\n\nScience and technology \n\nAerospace \n\n*Hermes (spaceplane), a design of space shuttle proposed by the European Space Agency\n*Elbit Hermes 450, a line of unmanned aerial vehicles manufactured by Elbit\n*Hermes (satellite), a failed American satellite\n\nAstronomy \n\n*Hermes, the Greek name for the planet Mercury, as it appeared in the evening sky\n*69230 Hermes, a binary near-Earth asteroid rediscovered in 2003\n*HERMES, a spectrograph to be installed on the Anglo-Australian Telescope in 2013\n*HerMES, Herschel Multi-tiered Extragalactic Survey, a project using the Herschel Space Observatory\n\nComputing \n\n*HERMES-A/MINOTAUR, also known as Project HERMES, the first internet-to-orbit gateway\n*Hermes (BBS), a Macintosh-based bulletin board system that was similar to MS-DOS-based WWIV\n*Hermes (programming language), a distributed programming language developed at IBM's Thomas J. Watson Research Center from 1986 through 1992\n*Hermes Project, a C++/Python library comprising algorithms for rapid prototyping of adaptive higher-order modular finite element system solvers\n* Hopkins Electronic Resources ManagEment System, an electronic resource management system at Johns Hopkins University\n*a mass spectrometry data formats converter software\n*Hermes, codename of the ORiNOCO family of wireless networking technology by Proxim Wireless\n\nOther \n\n*HERMES experiment, a particle physics experiment\n*HERMES Project, or the Hotspot Ecosystems Research on the Margins of European Seas\n*HTC Hermes, the production code-name for the HTC TyTN smartphone\n\nMilitary \n\n*HMS Hermes, various ships of the British Royal Navy\n*Hermes-class post ship, a class of Royal Navy sailing ships built in the early 19th century\n*Hermes-class sloop, a Royal Navy class of four paddlewheel steam sloops built in the 1830s\n*Hermes (missile program), a United States Army Ordnance Corps missile program (1944–1954)\n*Hermes (missile), a family of Russian guided missiles\n*Operation Hermes, a coalition military operation of the Iraq War\n\nTransportation \n\n*Handley Page Hermes, a 1950s British four-engined transport aircraft\n*, a cargo ship launched in 1945, completed in 1949 as Empire Dove\n\nPeople\n\n*Hermes (given name)\n*Hermes (surname)\n\nFictional characters\n\n*Hermes (Harry Potter), Percy Weasley's owl in the Harry Potter series\n*Hermes (Marvel Comics), a Marvel Comics character\n*Hermes Conrad, a character in the animated television series Futurama\n*Hermes, a talking motorcycle in the anime Kino's Journey\n\nOther uses \n\n*Hermes Trismegistus (\"Hermes the thrice-greatest\"), the Greek name for the Egyptian god Thoth\n*Hermes, Oise, a commune in the Oise département of northern France\n*Hermes (publication), an annual literary journal at the University of Sydney\n*Hermes (sculpture), a sculpture by an unknown artist in the Villa Terrace Decorative Arts Museum, Milwaukee, Wisconsin\n*Hermes F.C., a Scottish football club based in Aberdeen\n*Hermes Hockey Team, a Finnish ice hockey team from Kokkola" ] }

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{ "aliases": [ "Hermoea", "Kyllenios", "Enagonios", "Atlantiades", "Hermes (Greek religion and mythology)", "Hermes (mythology)", "Hermes Cylleneius", "Hermes", "Hermese", "Hermes Criophorus", "Hermês", "Hermes Logios", "Hermes and Apollo", "Cyllenius", "Hermes Psychopompus", "Cult of Hermes", "Argeiphontes", "Psychopompus", "Cylleneius" ], "normalized_aliases": [ "psychopompus", "hermes criophorus", "hermês", "cyllenius", "hermes", "hermese", "cylleneius", "enagonios", "hermoea", "hermes cylleneius", "hermes logios", "cult of hermes", "hermes mythology", "hermes greek religion and mythology", "atlantiades", "kyllenios", "hermes psychopompus", "hermes and apollo", "argeiphontes" ], "matched_wiki_entity_name": "", "normalized_matched_wiki_entity_name": "", "normalized_value": "hermes", "type": "WikipediaEntity", "value": "Hermes" }

{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe" ], "filename": [ "VHS.txt" ], "title": [ "VHS" ], "wiki_context": [ "The Video Home System (VHS) is a standard for consumer-level analog video recording on tape cassettes. Developed by Victor Company of Japan (JVC) in the early 1970s, it was released in Japan in late 1976 and in the USA in early 1977.\n\nFrom the 1950s, magnetic tape video recording became a major contributor to the television industry, via the first commercialized video tape recorders (VTRs). At that time, the devices were used only in expensive professional environments such as television studios and medical imaging (fluoroscopy). In the 1970s, videotape entered home use, creating the home video industry and changing the economics of the television and movie businesses. The television industry viewed videocassette recorders (VCRs) as having the power to disrupt their business, while television users viewed the VCR as the means to take control of their hobby. \n\nIn the 1980s and 1990s, at the peak of VHS's popularity, there were videotape format wars in the home video industry. Two of the formats, VHS and Betamax, received the most media exposure. VHS eventually won the war, succeeding as the dominant home video format throughout the tape media period. \n\nOptical disc formats later began to offer better quality than analog consumer video tape such as standard and super-VHS. The earliest of these formats, LaserDisc, was not widely adopted. However, after the introduction of the DVD format in 1997, VHS's market share began to decline. By 2008, DVD had achieved mass acceptance and replaced VHS as the preferred low end method of distribution. \n\nHistory \n\nPrior to VHS \n\nAfter several attempts by other companies, the first commercially successful VTR, the Ampex VRX-1000, was introduced in 1956 by Ampex Corporation. At a price of US$50,000 in 1956 (over $400,000 in 2016's inflation), and US$300 (over $2,000 in 2016's inflation) for a 90-minute reel of tape, it was intended only for the professional market.\n\nKenjiro Takayanagi, a television broadcasting pioneer then working for JVC as its vice president, saw the need for his company to produce VTRs for the Japan market, and at a more affordable price. In 1959, JVC developed a two-head video tape recorder, and by 1960 a color version for professional broadcasting. In 1964, JVC released the DV220, which would be the company's standard VTR until the mid-1970s.\n\nIn 1969 JVC collaborated with Sony Corporation and Matsushita Electric (Matsushita was then parent company of Panasonic and is now known by that name, also majority stockholder of JVC until 2008) in building a video recording standard for the Japanese consumer. The effort produced the U-matic format in 1971, which was the first format to become a unified standard. \nU-matic was successful in business and some broadcast applications (such as electronic news-gathering), but due to cost and limited recording time very few of the machines were sold for home use.\n\nSoon after, Sony and Matsushita broke away from the collaboration effort, in order to work on video recording formats of their own. Sony started working on Betamax, while Matsushita started working on VX. JVC released the CR-6060 in 1975, based on the U-matic format. Sony and Matsushita also produced U-matic systems of their own.\n\nVHS development \n\nIn 1971, JVC engineers Yuma Shiraishi and Shizuo Takano put together a team to develop a consumer-based VTR. \nBy the end of 1971 they created an internal diagram titled \"VHS Development Matrix\", which established twelve objectives for JVC's new VTR. These included:\n\n* The system must be compatible with any ordinary television set.\n* Picture quality must be similar to a normal air broadcast.\n* The tape must have at least a two-hour recording capacity.\n* Tapes must be interchangeable between machines.\n* The overall system should be versatile, meaning it can be scaled and expanded, such as connecting a video camera, or dub between two recorders.\n* Recorders should be affordable, easy to operate and have low maintenance costs.\n* Recorders must be capable of being produced in high volume, their parts must be interchangeable, and they must be easy to service.\n\nIn early 1972 the commercial video recording industry in Japan took a financial hit. JVC cut its budgets and restructured its video division, shelving the VHS project. However, despite the lack of funding, Takano and Shiraishi continued to work on the project in secret. By 1973 the two engineers had produced a functional prototype.\n\nCompetition with Betamax \n\nIn 1974, the Japanese Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI), desiring to avoid consumer confusion, attempted to force the Japanese video industry to standardize on just one home video recording format. Later, Sony had a functional prototype of the Betamax format, and was very close to releasing a finished product. With this prototype, Sony persuaded the MITI to adopt Betamax as the standard, and allow it to license the technology to other companies.\n\nJVC believed that an open standard, with the format shared among competitors without licensing the technology, was better for the consumer. To prevent the MITI from adopting Betamax, JVC worked to convince other companies, in particular Matsushita (Japan's largest electronics manufacturer at the time, marketing its products under the National brand in most territories and the Panasonic brand in North America, and JVC's majority stockholder), to accept VHS, and thereby work against Sony and the MITI. Matsushita agreed, primarily out of concern that Sony might become the leader in the field if its proprietary Betamax format was the only one allowed to be manufactured. Matsushita also regarded Betamax's one-hour recording time limit as a disadvantage.\n\nMatsushita's backing of JVC persuaded Hitachi, Mitsubishi, and Sharp to back the VHS standard as well. Sony's release of its Betamax unit to the Japanese market in 1975 placed further pressure on the MITI to side with the company. However, the collaboration of JVC and its partners was much stronger, and eventually led the MITI to drop its push for an industry standard. JVC released the first VHS machines in Japan in late 1976, and in the United States in early 1977.\n\nSony's Betamax competed with VHS throughout the late 1970s and into the 1980s (see Videotape format war). Betamax's major advantages were its smaller cassette size, higher video quality, and earlier availability.\n\nOriginally, Beta I machines using the NTSC television standard were able to record one hour of programming at their standard tape speed of 1.5 inches per second (ips). The first VHS machines could record for two hours, due to both a slightly slower tape speed (1.31 ips.) and significantly longer tape. Betamax's smaller-sized cassette limited the size of the reel of tape, and could not compete with VHS's two-hour capability by extending the tape length. Instead, Sony had to slow the tape down to 0.787 ips (Beta II) in order to achieve two hours of recording in the same cassette size. This reduced Betamax's once-superior video quality to worse than VHS when comparing two-hour recording. Sony eventually released an extended Beta cassette (Beta III) which allowed NTSC Betamax to break the two-hour limit, but by then VHS had already won the format battle.\n\nAdditionally, VHS had a \"far less complex tape transport mechanism\" than Betamax, and VHS machines were faster at rewinding and fast-forwarding than their Sony counterparts. \n\nIn machines using the PAL and SECAM television formats, Beta's running time was similar to VHS, the quality at least as good, and the format battle was not fought on running time.\n\nInitial releases of VHS-based devices \n\nThe first VCR to use VHS was the Victor HR-3300, and was introduced by the president of JVC in Japan on September 9, 1976. JVC started selling the HR-3300 in Akihabara, Tokyo, Japan on October 31, 1976. Region-specific versions of the JVC HR-3300 were also distributed later on, such as the HR-3300U in the United States, and HR-3300EK in the United Kingdom. The United States received its first VHS-based VCR – the RCA VBT200 on August 23, 1977. The RCA unit was designed by Matsushita, and was the first VHS-based VCR manufactured by a company other than JVC. It was also capable of recording four hours in LP (long play) mode. The United Kingdom later received its first VHS-based VCR – the Victor HR-3300EK in 1978. \n\nQuasar and General Electric would follow-up with VHS-based VCRs – all designed by Matsushita. By 1999, Matsushita alone produced just over half of all Japanese VCRs. \n\nTechnical details \n\nCassette and tape design \n\nThe VHS cassette is a 187 mm wide, 103 mm deep, 25 mm thick (7 × 4 × 1 inch) plastic shell held together with five Phillips head screws. The flip-up cover that protects the tape has a built-in latch with a push-in toggle on the right side (bottom view image). The VHS cassette also includes an anti-despooling mechanism consisting of several plastic parts between the plastic spools, near the front of the tape (white and black in the top view). The spool latches are released by a push-in lever within a 6.35 mm (¼ inch) hole accessed from the bottom of the cassette, 19 mm (¾ inch) inwards from the edge label.\n\nThere is a clear tape leader at both ends of the tape to provide an optical auto-stop for the VCR transport mechanism. A light source is inserted into the cassette through the circular hole in the center of the underside when loaded in the VCR, and two photodiodes are located to the left and right sides of where the tape exits the cassette. When the clear tape reaches one of these, enough light will pass through the tape to the photodiode to trigger the stop function; in more sophisticated machines it will start rewinding the cassette when the trailing end is detected. Early VCRs used an incandescent bulb as the light source, which regularly failed and caused the VCR to erroneously think that a cassette is loaded when empty, or would detect the blown bulb and stop functioning completely. Later designs use an infrared LED which had a much longer lifetime.\n\nThe recording media is a 12.7 mm (½ inch) wide, approximately 800 foot long Oxide-coated Mylar magnetic tape that is wound between two spools, allowing it to be slowly passed over the various playback and recording heads of the video cassette recorder. The tape speed for \"Standard Play\" mode (see below) is 3.335 cm/s (1.313 ips) for NTSC, 2.339 cm/s (0.921 ips) for PAL—or just over 2.0 and 1.4 metres (6 ft 6.7 in and 4 ft 7.2 in) per minute respectively.\n\nTape loading technique \n\nAs with almost all cassette-based videotape systems, VHS machines pull the tape out from the cassette shell and wrap it around the inclined head drum which rotates at 1798.2 rpm in NTSC machines and at 1500 rpm for PAL, one complete rotation of the head corresponding to one video frame. VHS uses an \"M-loading\" system, also known as M-lacing, where the tape is drawn out by two threading posts and wrapped around more than 180 degrees of the head drum (and also other tape transport components) in a shape roughly approximating the letter M.\n\nRecording capacity \n\nA VHS cassette holds a maximum of about 430 m (1,410 ft.) of tape at the lowest acceptable tape thickness, giving a maximum playing time of about four hours in a T-240/DF480 for NTSC and five hours in an E-300 for PAL at \"standard play\" (SP) quality. More frequently however, VHS tapes are thicker than the required minimum to avoid complications such as jams or tears in the tape. Other speeds include \"long play\" (LP), and \"extended play\" (EP) or \"super long play\" (SLP) (standard on NTSC; rarely found on PAL machines). For NTSC, LP and EP/SLP doubles and triples the recording time accordingly, but these speed reductions cause a reduction in video quality – from the normal 250 lines in SP, to 230 analog lines horizontal in LP and even less in EP/SLP. The slower speeds cause a very noticeable reduction in linear (non-hifi) audio track quality as well, as the linear tape speed becomes much lower than what is commonly considered a satisfactory minimum for audio recording.\n\nTape lengths \n\nBoth NTSC and PAL/SECAM VHS cassettes are physically identical (although the signals recorded on the tape are incompatible). However, as tape speeds differ between NTSC and PAL/SECAM, the playing time for any given cassette will vary accordingly between the systems. In order to avoid confusion, manufacturers indicate the playing time in minutes that can be expected for the market the tape is sold in. It is perfectly possible to record and play back a blank T-XXX tape in a PAL machine or a blank E-XXX tape in an NTSC machine, but the resulting playing time will be different from that indicated.\n\nTo calculate the playing time for a T-XXX tape in a PAL machine, use this formula:\nPAL/SECAM Recording Time = T-XXX in minutes * (1.426)\n\nTo calculate the playing time for an E-XXX tape in an NTSC machine, use this formula:\nNTSC Recording Time = E-XXX in minutes * (0.701)\n\nSome new Panasonic NTSC/ATSC recorders also include a XP mode which is not part of the official specification. It enables recordings at double the SP speed, such that a T-180 holds 1.5 hours. \n\n* E-XXX indicates playing time in minutes for PAL or SECAM in SP and LP speeds.\n* T-XXX indicates playing time in minutes for NTSC or PAL-M in SP, LP, and EP/SLP speeds.\n* SP is Standard Play, LP is Long Play (½ speed, equal to recording time in DVHS \"HS\" mode), EP/SLP is extended/super long play (⅓ speed) which was primarily released into the NTSC market.\n\nAs manufacturers tend to err on the side of generosity when cutting tapes to length (for example, a 412 ft \"T-60\" is in fact nearly 63 minutes long) in order to account for manufacturing errors and slight differences in deck spindle speed and spool-out, it is quite likely that some of these cassettes—for example, DF420 and E300, or E30 and T20—are actually manufactured to the same true length internally and are merely stamped with the same nominal length for sales purposes.\n\nSeveral other defined lengths of cassette entered mass production for both markets, but were either used only for professional duplication purposes (often pushing the limit of how much tape of a particular grade/thickness could fit into a standard cassette, in order to hold films that could not quite fit onto a shorter standard size without risking poorer quality or reliability by switching to a thinner grade), or failed to find popularity amongst home consumers because of a glut of tape length choices or poor value for money—e.g. T130/135/140, T168, E150, E270, and more besides.\n\nCopy Protection \n\nAs VHS was designed to facilitate recording from various sources, including television broadcasts or other VCR units, content producers quickly found that home users were able to use the devices to copy videos from one tape to another. Despite the generation loss, this was regarded as a widespread problem, which the members of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) claimed caused them great financial losses. In response, several companies developed technologies to protect copyrighted VHS tapes from casual duplication by home users. \n\nThe most popular method was Macrovision, produced by a company of the same name. According to Macrovision, \"The technology is applied to over 550 million videocassettes annually and is used by every MPAA movie studio on some or all of their videocassette releases. Over 220 commercial duplication facilities around the world are equipped to supply Macrovision videocassette copy protection to rights owners.\" Also, \"The study found that over 30% of VCR households admit to having unauthorized copies, and that the total annual revenue loss due to copying is estimated at $370,000,000 annually.\" The system was first used in copyrighted movies beginning with the 1984 film The Cotton Club. \n\nMacrovision copy protection saw refinement throughout its years, but has always worked by essentially introducing deliberate errors into a protected VHS tape's output video stream. These errors in the output video stream are ignored by most televisions, but will interfere with re-recording of programming by a second VCR. The first version of Macrovision introduces voltage spikes during the vertical blanking interval, which occurs between the video fields. These high levels confuse the automatic gain control circuit in most VHS VCRs, leading to varying brightness levels in an output video, but are ignored by the TV as they are out of the frame-display period. \"Level II\" Macrovision uses a process called \"colorstriping,\" which inverts the analog signal's colorburst period and causes off-color bands to appear in the picture. Level III protection added additional colorstriping techniques to further degrade the image. \n\nThese protection methods worked well to defeat analog-to-analog copying by VCRs of the time. Products capable of digital video recording are mandated by law to include features which detect Macrovision encoding of input analog streams, and reject copying of the video. Both intentional and false-positive detection of Macrovision protection has frustrated archivists who wish to copy now-fragile VHS tapes to a digital format for preservation.\n\nRecording process \n\nThe recording process in VHS consists of the following steps, in this order:\n* The tape is pulled from the supply reel by a capstan and pinch roller, similar to those used in audio tape recorders. \n* The tape passes across the erase head, which wipes any existing recording from the tape.\n* The tape is wrapped around the head drum, using a little more than 180 degrees of the drum.\n* One of the heads on the spinning drum records one field of video onto the tape, in one diagonally oriented track. \n* The tape passes across the audio and control head, which records the control track and the linear audio track or tracks. \n* The tape is wound onto the take-up reel due to torque applied to the reel by the machine.\n\nErase head \n\nThe erase head is fed by a high level, high frequency AC signal that overwrites any previous recording on the tape. Without this step, the new recording cannot be guaranteed to completely replace any old recording that might have been on the tape.\n\nVideo recording \n\n \nThe tape path then carries the tape around the spinning head drum, wrapping it around a little more than 180 degrees (called the omega transport system) in a helical fashion, assisted by the slanted tape guides. The head rotates constantly at approximately 1800 rpm in NTSC machines, exactly 1500 in PAL, each complete rotation corresponding to one frame of video.\n\nTwo tape heads are mounted on the cylindrical surface of the drum, 180 degrees apart from each other, so that the two heads \"take turns\" in recording. The rotation of the head drum, combined with the relatively slow movement of the tape, results in each head recording a track oriented at a diagonal with respect to the length of the tape. This is referred to as helical scan recording.\n\nTo maximize the use of the tape, the video tracks are recorded very close together to each other. To reduce crosstalk between adjacent tracks on playback, an azimuth recording method is used: The gaps of the two heads are not aligned exactly with the track path. Instead, one head is angled at plus seven degrees from the track, and the other at minus seven degrees. This results, during playback, in destructive interference of the signal from the tracks on either side of the one being played.\n\nEach of the diagonal-angled tracks is a complete TV picture field, lasting 1/60th of a second (1/50th on PAL) on the display. One tape head records an entire picture field. The adjacent track, recorded by the second tape head, is another 1/60th or 1/50th of a second TV picture field, and so on. Thus one complete head rotation records an entire NTSC or PAL frame of two fields.\n\nThe original VHS specification had only two video heads. Later models implemented at least one more pair of heads, which were used at (and optimized for) the EP tape speed. In machines supporting VHS HiFi (described later), yet another pair of heads was added to handle the VHS HiFi signal.\n\nThe high tape-to-head speed created by the rotating head results in a far higher bandwidth than could be practically achieved with a stationary head. \nVHS tapes have approximately 3 MHz of video bandwidth and 400 kHz of chroma bandwidth. The luminance (black and white) portion of the video is recorded as a frequency modulated, with a down-converted \n\"color under\" chroma (color) signal recorded directly at the baseband. Each helical track contains a single field ('even' or 'odd' field, equivalent to half a frame) encoded as an analog raster scan, similar to analog TV broadcasts. The horizontal resolution is 240 lines per picture height, or about 320 lines across a scan line, and the vertical resolution (the number of scan lines) is the same as the respective analog TV standard (576 for PAL or 486 for NTSC; usually, somewhat fewer scan lines are actually visible due to overscan). In modern-day digital terminology, NTSC VHS is roughly equivalent to 333×480 pixels luma and 40×480 chroma resolutions (333×480 pixels=159,840 pixels or 0.16MP (1/6 of a MegaPixel))., while PAL VHS offers the equivalent of about 335×576 pixels luma and 40×240 chroma (the vertical chroma resolution of PAL is limited by the PAL color delay line mechanism).\n\nJVC would counter 1985's SuperBeta with VHS HQ, or High Quality. The frequency modulation of the VHS luminance signal is limited to 3 megahertz, which makes higher resolutions technically impossible even with the highest-quality recording heads and tape materials, but an HQ branded deck includes luminance noise reduction, chroma noise reduction, white clip extension, and improved sharpness circuitry. The effect was to increase the apparent horizontal resolution of a VHS recording from 240 to 250 analog (equivalent to 333 pixels from left-to-right, in digital terminology). The major VHS OEMs resisted HQ due to cost concerns, eventually resulting in JVC reducing the requirements for the HQ brand to \"white clip extension plus one other improvement.\"\n\nIn 1987, JVC introduced a new format called Super VHS (often known as S-VHS) which extended the bandwidth to over 5 megahertz, yielding 420 analog horizontal (560 pixels left-to-right). Most Super VHS recorders can play back standard VHS tapes, but not vice versa. S-VHS was designed for higher resolution, but failed to gain popularity outside Japan because of the high costs of the machines and tapes. Because of the limited user base, Super VHS was never picked up to any significant degree by manufacturers of pre-recorded tapes, although it was used extensively in the low-end professional market for filming and editing.\n\nAudio recording \n\nAfter leaving the head drum, the tape passes over the stationary audio and control head. This records a control track at the bottom edge of the tape, and one or two linear audio tracks along the top edge.\n\nOriginal linear audio system \n\nIn the original VHS specification, audio was recorded as baseband in a single linear track, at the upper edge of the tape, similar to how an audio compact cassette operates. The recorded frequency range was dependent on the linear tape speed. For the VHS SP mode, which already uses a lower tape speed than the compact cassette, this resulted in a mediocre frequency response of roughly 100 Hz to 10 kHz for NTSC; frequency response for PAL VHS with its lower standard tape speed was somewhat worse. The signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) was an acceptable 42 dB. Both parameters degraded significantly with VHS's longer play modes, with EP/NTSC frequency response peaking at 4 kHz.\n\nAudio cannot be recorded on a VHS tape without recording a video signal, even in the audio dubbing mode. If there is no video signal to the VCR input, most VCRs will record black video as well as generate a control track while the audio is being recorded. Some early VCRs would record audio without a control track signal, but this was of little practical use since the absence of a control track signal meant that the linear tape speed was irregular during playback.\n\nMore expensive decks offered stereo audio recording and playback. Linear stereo, as it was called, fit two independent channels in the same space as the original mono audiotrack. While this approach preserved acceptable backward compatibility with monoaural audio heads, the splitting of the audio track degraded the signal's SNR to the point that audible tape hiss was objectionable at normal listening volume. To counteract tape hiss, decks applied Dolby B noise reduction for recording and playback. Dolby B dynamically boosts the mid-frequency band of the audio program on the recorded medium, improving its signal strength relative to the tape's background noise floor, then attenuates the mid-band during playback. Dolby B is not a transparent process, and Dolby-encoded program material will exhibit an unnatural mid-range emphasis when played on non-Dolby capable VCRs.\n\nHigh-end consumer recorders took advantage of the linear nature of the audio track, as the audio track could be erased and recorded without disturbing the video portion of the recorded signal. Hence, \"audio dubbing\" and \"video dubbing\", where either the audio or video are re-recorded on tape (without disturbing the other), were supported features on prosumer linear video editing-decks. Without dubbing capability, an audio or video edit could not be done in-place on master cassette, and requires the editing output be captured to another tape, incurring generational loss.\n\nStudio film releases began to emerge with linear stereo audiotracks in 1982. From that point onward nearly every home video release by Hollywood featured a Dolby-encoded linear stereo audiotrack. However, linear stereo was never popular with equipment makers or consumers.\n\nTracking adjustment and index marking \n\nAnother linear control track, at the tape's lower edge, holds pulses that mark the beginning of every frame of video; these are used to fine-tune the tape speed during playback, so that the high speed rotating heads remained exactly on their helical tracks rather than somewhere between two adjacent tracks (known as \"tracking\"). Since good tracking depends on precise distances between the rotating drum and the fixed control/audio head reading the linear tracks, which usually varies by a couple of micrometers between machines due to manufacturing tolerances, most VCRs offer tracking adjustment, either manual or automatic, to correct such mismatches.\n\nThe control track is also used to hold index marks, which were normally written at the beginning of each recording session, and can be found using the VCR's index search function: this will fast-wind forward or backward to the nth specified index mark, and resume playback from there. At times, higher-end VCRs provided functions for the user to manually add and remove these marks — so that, for example, they coincide with the actual start of the television program — but this feature later became hard to find.\n\nBy the late 1990s, some high-end VCRs offered more sophisticated indexing. For example, Panasonic's Tape Library system assigned an ID number to each cassette, and logged recording information (channel, date, time and optional program title entered by the user) both on the cassette and in the VCR's memory for up to 900 recordings (600 with titles). \n\nHi-Fi audio system \n\nAround 1984, JVC added Hi-Fi audio to VHS (model HR-D725U, in response to Betamax's introduction of Beta Hi-Fi.) Both VHS Hi-Fi and Betamax Hi-Fi delivered flat full-range frequency response (20 Hz to 20 kHz), excellent 70 dB signal-to-noise ratio (in consumer space, second only to the compact disc), dynamic range of 90 dB, and professional audio-grade channel separation (more than 70 dB). VHS Hi-Fi audio is achieved by using audio frequency modulation (AFM), modulating the two stereo channels (L, R) on two different frequency-modulated carriers and embedding the combined modulated audio signal pair into the video signal. To avoid crosstalk and interference from the primary video carrier, VHS's implementation of AFM relied on a form of magnetic recording called depth multiplexing. The modulated audio carrier pair was placed in the hitherto-unused frequency range between the luminance and the color carrier (below 1.6 MHz), and recorded first. Subsequently, the video head erases and re-records the video signal (combined luminance and color signal) over the same tape surface, but the video signal's higher center frequency results in a shallower magnetization of the tape, allowing both the video and residual AFM audio signal to coexist on tape. (PAL versions of Beta Hi-Fi use this same technique). During playback, VHS Hi-Fi recovers the depth-recorded AFM signal by subtracting the audio head's signal (which contains the AFM signal contaminated by a weak image of the video signal) from the video head's signal (which contains only the video signal), then demodulates the left and right audio channels from their respective frequency carriers. The end result of the complex process was audio of outstanding fidelity, which was uniformly solid across all tape-speeds (EP, LP or SP.) Since JVC had gone through the complexity of ensuring Hi-Fi's backward compatibility with non-Hi-Fi VCRs, virtually all studio home video releases produced after this time contained Hi-Fi audio tracks, in addition to the linear audio track. Under normal circumstances, all Hi-Fi VHS VCRs will record Hi-Fi and linear audio simultaneously to ensure compatibility with VCRs without Hi-Fi playback, though only early high-end Hi-Fi machines provided linear stereo compatibility.\n\nDue to the path followed by the video and Hi-Fi audio heads being striped and discontinuous—unlike that of the linear audio track—head-switching is required to provide a continuous audio signal. While the video signal can easily hide the head-switching point in the invisible vertical retrace section of the signal, so that the exact switching point is not very important, the same is obviously not possible with a continuous audio signal that has no inaudible sections. Hi-Fi audio is thus dependent on a much more exact alignment of the head switching point than is required for non-HiFi VHS machines. Misalignments may lead to imperfect joining of the signal, resulting in low-pitched buzzing. The problem is known as \"head chatter\", and tends to increase as the audio heads wear down.\n\nThe sound quality of Hi-Fi VHS stereo is comparable to the quality of CD audio, particularly when recordings were made on high-end or professional VHS machines that have a manual audio recording level control. This high quality compared to other consumer audio recording formats such as compact cassette attracted the attention of amateur and hobbyist recording artists. Home recording enthusiasts occasionally recorded high quality stereo mixdowns and master recordings from multitrack audio tape onto consumer-level Hi-Fi VCRs. However, because the VHS Hi-Fi recording process is intertwined with the VCR's video-recording function, advanced editing functions such as audio-only or video-only dubbing are impossible. A short-lived alternative to the hifi feature for recording mixdowns of hobbyist audio-only projects was a PCM adaptor so that high-bandwidth digital video could use a grid of black-and-white dots on an analog video carrier to give pro-grade digital sounds though DAT tapes made this obsolete.\n\nSome VHS decks also had a \"simulcast\" switch, allowing users to record an external audio input along with off-air pictures. Some televised concerts offered a stereo simulcast soundtrack on FM radio and as such, events like Live Aid were recorded by thousands of people with a full stereo soundtrack despite the fact that stereo TV broadcasts were some years off (especially in regions that adopted NICAM). Other examples of this included network television shows such as Friday Night Videos and MTV for its first few years in existence. Likewise, some countries, most notably South Africa, provided alternate language audio tracks for TV programming through an FM radio simulcast.\n\nThe considerable complexity and additional hardware limited VHS Hi-Fi to high-end decks for many years. While linear stereo all but disappeared from home VHS decks, it was not until the 1990s that Hi-Fi became a more common feature on VHS decks. Even then, most customers were unaware of its significance and merely enjoyed the better audio performance of the newer decks.\n\nVariations \n\nSuper-VHS / ADAT / SVHS-ET \n\nSeveral improved versions of VHS exist, most notably Super-VHS (S-VHS), an analog video standard with improved video bandwidth. S-VHS improved the horizontal luminance resolution to 400 lines (versus 250 for VHS/Beta and 500 for DVD). The audio-system (both linear and AFM) is the same. S-VHS made little impact on the home market, but gained dominance in the camcorder market due to its superior picture quality.\n\nThe ADAT format provides the ability to record multitrack digital audio using S-VHS media. JVC also developed SVHS-ET technology for its Super-VHS camcorders and VCRs, which simply allows them to record Super VHS signals onto lower-priced VHS tapes, albeit with a slight blurring of the image. Nearly all later Super-VHS camcorders and VCRs have SVHS-ET ability.\n\nVHS-C / Super VHS-C \n\nAnother variant is VHS-Compact (VHS-C), originally developed for portable VCRs in 1982, but ultimately finding success in palm-sized camcorders. The longest tape available for NTSC holds 60 minutes in SP mode and 180 minutes in EP mode. Since VHS-C tapes are based on the same magnetic tape as full-size tapes, they can be played back in standard VHS players using a mechanical adapter, without the need of any kind of signal conversion. The magnetic tape on VHS-C cassettes is wound on one main spool and uses a gear wheel to advance the tape.\n\nThe adapter is mechanical, although early examples were motorized, with a battery. It has an internal hub to engage with the VCR mechanism in the location of a normal full-size tape hub, driving the gearing on the VHS-C cassette. Also, when a VHS-C cassette is inserted into the adapter, a small swing-arm pulls the tape out of the miniature cassette to span the standard tape path distance between the guide rollers of a full-size tape. This allows the tape from the miniature cassette to use the same loading mechanism as that from the standard cassette.\n\nSuper VHS-C or S-VHS Compact was developed by JVC in 1987. S-VHS provided an improved luminance and chrominance quality, yet S-VHS recorders were compatible with VHS tapes. \n\nSony was unable to shrink its Betamax form any further, so instead developed Video8/Hi8 which was in direct competition with the VHS-C/S-VHS-C format throughout the 80s, 90s, and 2000s. Ultimately neither format \"won\" and both have been superseded by digital high definition equipment.\n\nVHS single \n\nVHS single, also known as videotape single or Video 45s (a play on the term \"45\" when used to describe vinyl records) is a music single, using a standard-sized VHS cartridge. The format has existed since the early 1980s. In 1983, British synthpop band The Human League released the UK's first commercial video single on both VHS and Betamax as \"The Human League Video Single\". It was not a huge commercial success due to the high retail price of £10.99, compared to £1.99 for a vinyl single.\n\nThe VHS single format gained higher levels of mainstream popularity when Madonna released \"Justify My Love\" as a video single in 1990 following the blacklisting of the video by MTV. U2 also released \"Numb\", the lead single from their 1993 album Zooropa as a video single. \n\nDespite the success of these releases, the video single struggled as its releases were relatively rare, the technology slowly being superseded first by CD Video (which proved unsuccessful due to the cost of capable LaserDisc players to play the video portion), music CDs with computer-accessible video files, then, by the early 2000s, by both DVD singles and CD+DVD releases. VHS tapes were however marketed to distribute music video compilations.\n\nW-VHS / Digital-VHS (high-definition) \n\nW-VHS allowed recording of MUSE Hi-Vision analog high definition television, which was broadcast in Japan from 1989 until 2007. The other improved standard, called Digital-VHS (D-VHS), records digital high definition video onto a VHS form factor tape. D-VHS can record up to 4 hours of ATSC digital television in 720p or 1080i formats using the fastest record mode (equivalent to VHS-SP), and up to 49 hours of lower-definition video at slower speeds. \n\nD9 \n\nThere is also a JVC-designed component digital professional production format known as Digital-S, or officially under the name D9, that uses a VHS form factor tape and essentially the same mechanical tape handling techniques as an S-VHS recorder. This format is the least expensive format to support a Sel-Sync pre-read for video editing. This format competed with Sony's Digital Betacam in the professional and broadcast market, although in that area Sony's Betacam family ruled supreme, in contrast to the outcome of the VHS/Betamax domestic format war. It has now been superseded by high definition formats.\n\nAccessories \n\nShortly after the introduction of the VHS format, VHS tape rewinders were developed. These devices served the sole purpose of rewinding VHS tapes. Proponents of the rewinders argued that the use of the rewind function on the standard VHS player would lead to wear and tear of the transport mechanism. The rewinder would rewind the tapes smoothly and also normally do so at a faster rate than the standard rewind function on VHS players. However some rewinder brands did have some frequent abrupt stops, which occasionally led to tape damage.\n\nSome devices were marketed which allowed a personal computer to use a VHS recorder as a data backup device. The most notable of these was ArVid, widely used in Russia and CIS states. Similar systems were manufactured in the United States by Corvus and Alpha Microsystems, and in the UK by Backer from Danmere Ltd.\n\nSignal standards \n\nVHS can record and play back all varieties of analog television signals in existence at the time VHS was devised. However, a machine must be designed to record a given standard. Typically, a VHS machine can only handle signals using the same standard as the country it was sold in. This is because some parameters of analog broadcast TV are not applicable to VHS recordings, the number of VHS tape recording format variations is smaller than the number of broadcast TV signal variations—for example, analog TVs and VHS machines (except multistandard devices) are not interchangeable between the UK and Germany, but VHS tapes are. The following tape recording formats exist in conventional VHS (listed in the form of standard/lines/frames):\n\n* SECAM/625/25 (SECAM, French variety)\n* MESECAM/625/25 (most other SECAM countries, notably the former Soviet Union and Middle East)\n* NTSC/525/30 (Most parts of Americas, Japan, South Korea)\n* PAL/525/30 (i.e., PAL-M, Brazil)\n* PAL/625/25 (most of Western Europe, Australia, New Zealand, many parts of Asia such as China and India, some parts of South America such as Argentina, Uruguay and the Falklands, and Africa)\n\nNote that PAL/625/25 VCRs allow playback of SECAM (and MESECAM) tapes with a monochrome picture, and vice versa, as the line standard is the same.\nSince the 1990s dual and multi-standard VHS machines, able to handle a variety of VHS-supported video standards, became more common. For example, VHS machines sold in Australia and Europe could typically handle PAL, MESECAM for record and playback, and NTSC for playback only on suitable TVs. Dedicated multi-standard machines can usually handle all standards listed, and some high-end models could convert the content of a tape from one standard to another on the fly during playback by using a built-in standards converter.\n\nS-VHS is only implemented as such in PAL/625/25 and NTSC/525/30; S-VHS machines sold in SECAM markets record internally in PAL, and convert between PAL and SECAM during recording and playback. S-VHS machines for the Brazilian market record in NTSC and convert between it and PAL-M.\n\nA small number of VHS decks are able to decode closed captions on prerecorded video cassettes. A smaller number still are able, additionally, to record subtitles transmitted with world standard teletext signals (on pre-digital services), simultaneously with the associated program. S-VHS has a sufficient resolution to record teletext signals with relatively few errors. \n\nLogo\n\nThe VHS logo was commissioned by JVC and introduced with the JVC HR-3300 in 1976. It uses the Lee font, designed by Leo Weisz. \n\nUses in marketing \n\nVHS was popular for long-play content, such as feature films or documentaries, as well as short-play content, such as music videos, in-store videos, teaching videos, distribution of lectures and talks, and demonstrations. VHS instruction tapes were sometimes included with various products and services, including exercise equipment, kitchen appliances, and computer software.\n\nVHS vs. Betamax \n\nVHS was the winner of a protracted and somewhat bitter format war during the late 1970s and early 1980s against Sony's Betamax format as well as other formats of the time.\n\nBetamax was widely perceived at the time as the better format, as the cassette was smaller in size, and Betamax offered slightly better video quality than VHS – it had lower video noise, less luma-chroma crosstalk, and was marketed as providing pictures superior to those of VHS. However, the sticking point for both consumers and potential licensing partners of Betamax was the total recording time. To overcome the recording limitation, Beta II speed (two-hour mode, NTSC regions only) was released in order to compete with VHS's two-hour SP mode, thereby reducing Betamax's horizontal resolution to 240 lines (vs 250 lines). In turn, the extension of VHS to VHS HQ produced 250 lines (vs 240 lines), so that overall a typical Betamax/VHS user could expect virtually identical resolution. (Very high-end Betamax machines still supported recording in the Beta I mode and some in an even higher resolution Beta Is (Beta I Super HiBand) mode, but at a maximum single-cassette run time of 1:40 [with an L-830 cassette].)\n\nBecause Betamax was released more than a year before VHS, it held an early lead in the format war. However, by 1981, United States' Betamax sales had dipped to only 25-percent of all sales. There was debate between experts over the cause of Betamax's loss. Some, including Sony's founder Akio Morita, say that it was due to Sony's licensing strategy with other manufacturers, which consistently kept the overall cost for a unit higher than a VHS unit, and that JVC allowed other manufacturers to produce VHS units license-free, thereby keeping costs lower. Others say that VHS had better marketing, since the much larger electronics companies at the time (Matsushita, for example) supported VHS.\n\nDecline \n\nThe VHS VCR was a mainstay in television-equipped American and European living rooms for more than 20 years from its introduction in 1977. The home television recording market, as well as the camcorder market, has since transitioned to digital recording on solid-state memory cards. The introduction of the DVD format to American consumers in March 1997 triggered the market share decline of VHS.\n\nThough 94.5 million Americans still owned VHS format VCRs in 2005, market share continued to drop. Several retail chains in the United States and Europe announced they would stop selling VHS equipment throughout the mid-2000s. The last film to be released on the VHS format in the United States was Eragon in 2007. In 2008, Distribution Video Audio Inc., the last major American supplier of pre-recorded VHS tapes, shipped its final truckload of tapes to stores in America.\n\nIn the U.S., no major retailers stock VHS home-video releases any longer, focusing only on DVD and Blu-ray Disc technology. Additionally, all of the major Hollywood studios no longer issue releases on VHS. However, there have been a few exceptions. The House of the Devil was released on VHS in 2010 as an Amazon-exclusive deal, in keeping with the film's intent to mimic 1980s horror films. Also, the horror film V/H/S/2 was released as a combo in North America that included a VHS tape in addition to a Blu-ray and a DVD copy on September 24, 2013. \n\nModern usage\n\nDespite the discontinuation of VHS in the United States, VHS recorders and blank tapes were still sold at stores in other developed countries prior to digital television transitions. As an acknowledgement of the continued usage of VHS, Panasonic announced the world's first dual deck VHS-Blu-ray player in 2009. The last standalone JVC VHS-only unit was produced on October 28, 2008. JVC, and other manufacturers, continued to make combination DVD+VHS units even after the decline of VHS.\n\nDespite the decline in both VHS players and programming on VHS machines, they are still owned in some U.S. and Europe households. Those who still use or hold on to VHS do so for a number of reasons, including its alleged nostalgic value, its ease of use in recording, the fact that certain media still only exist in VHS format, their videos of personal events in their life are on VHS, or they are collectors of VHS releases. Expatriate communities in the United States also obtain video content from their native countries in VHS format. \n\nSuccessors \n\nVCD \n\nThe Video CD (VCD) was created in 1993, becoming an alternative medium for video, in a CD-sized disc. Though occasionally showing compression artifacts and color banding that are common discrepancies in digital media, the durability and longevity of a VCD depends on the production quality of the disc, and its handling. The data stored digitally on a VCD theoretically does not degrade (in the analog sense like tape). In the disc player, there is no physical contact made with either the data or label sides. And, when handled properly, a VCD will last a long time.\n\nSince a VCD can only hold 74 minutes of video, a movie exceeding that mark has to be divided into two or more discs.\n\nDVD \n\nThe DVD-Video format was introduced first, in 1996, in Japan, to the United States in March 1997 (test marketed) and mid-late 1998 in Europe and Australia.\n\nDespite DVD's better quality (typical horizontal resolution of 480 versus 250 lines per picture height), and the availability of standalone DVD recorders, \nVHS is still used in home recording of video content. The commercial success of DVD recording and re-writing has been hindered by a number of factors including:\n*A reputation for being temperamental and unreliable, as well as the risk of scratches and hairline cracks. \n*Incompatibilities in playing discs recorded on a different manufacturer's machines to that of the original recording machine. \n*Shorter recording time: VHS tape can record approximately twelve hours on a T-240/DF480 tape in EP, versus DVD which can record up to six hours on a single-layer disc.\n*Compression artifacts: MPEG-2 video compression can result in visible artifacts such as macroblocking, mosquito noise and ringing which become accentuated in extended recording modes (more than three hours on a DVD-5 disc). Standard VHS will not suffer from any of these problems, all of which are characteristic of certain digital video compression systems (see Discrete cosine transform) but VHS will result in reduced luminance and chroma resolution, which makes the picture look horizontally blurred (resolution decreases further with LP and EP recording modes). VHS also adds considerable noise to both the luminance and chroma channels.\n\nHigh-capacity digital recording technologies \n\nHigh-capacity digital recording systems are also gaining in popularity with home users. These types of systems come in several form factors:\n\n* Hard disk–based set-top boxes\n* Hard disk/optical disc combination set-top boxes\n* Personal computer–based media center\n* Portable media players with TV-out capability\n\nHard disk-based systems include TiVo as well as other digital video recorder (DVR) offerings. These types of systems provide users with a no-maintenance solution for capturing video content. Customers of subscriber-based TV generally receive electronic program guides, enabling one-touch setup of a recording schedule. Hard disk–based systems allow for many hours of recording without user-maintenance. For example, a 120 GB system recording at an extended recording rate (XP) of 10 Mbit/s MPEG-2 can record over 25 hours of video content.\n\nLegacy \n\nOften considered an important medium of film history, the influence of VHS on art and cinema was highlighted in a retrospective staged at the Museum of Arts and Design in 2013. In 2015 the Yale University Library collected nearly 3,000 horror and exploitation movies on VHS tapes, distributed from 1978 to 1985, calling them \"the cultural id of an era.\"" ] }

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{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe" ], "filename": [ "Brandy.txt" ], "title": [ "Brandy" ], "wiki_context": [ "Brandy (from brandywine, derived from Dutch brandewijn, \"gebrande wijn\" \"burned wine\") is a spirit produced by distilling wine. Brandy generally contains 35–60% alcohol by volume (70–120 US proof) and is typically taken as an after-dinner drink. Some brandies are aged in wooden casks, some are coloured with caramel colouring to imitate the effect of aging, and some brandies are produced using a combination of both aging and colouring.\n\nIn broader sense, the term \"brandy\" also denotes liquors obtained from distillation of pomace (pomace brandy) or mash or wine of any other fruit (fruit brandy). These products are also named eaux-de-vie.\n\nVarieties of wine brandy can be found across the winemaking world. Among the most renowned are Cognac and Armagnac from Southwestern France.\n\nHistory\n\nThe origins of brandy were clearly tied to the development of distillation. While the process was known in classical times, it wasn't used for significant beverage production until the 15th century. \n\nInitially wine was distilled as a preservation method and as a way to make it easier for merchants to transport. It is also thought that wine was originally distilled to lessen the tax which was assessed by volume. The intent was to add the water removed by distillation back to the brandy shortly before consumption. It was discovered that after having been stored in wooden casks, the resulting product had improved over the original distilled spirit. In addition to removing water, the distillation process led to the formation and decomposition of numerous aromatic compounds, fundamentally altering the composition of the distillate from its source. Non-volatile substances such as pigments, sugars, and salts remained behind in the still. As a result, the taste of the distillate was often quite unlike that of the original source.\n\nAs described in the 1728 edition of Cyclopaedia, the following method was used to distill brandy: \nA cucurbit was filled half full of the liquor from which brandy was to be drawn and then raised with a little fire until about one sixth part was distilled, or until that which falls into the receiver was entirely flammable. This liquor, distilled only once, was called spirit of wine or brandy. Purified by another distillation (or several more), this was then called spirit of wine rectified. The second distillation was made in balneo mariae and in a glass cucurbit, and the liquor was distilled to about one half the quantity. This was further rectified—as long as the operator thought necessary—to produce brandy.\n\nTo shorten these several distillations, which were long and troublesome, a chemical instrument was invented that reduced them to a single distillation. To test the purity of the rectified spirit of wine, a portion was ignited. If the entire contents were consumed by a fire without leaving any impurities behind, then the liquor was good. Another, better test involved putting a little gunpowder in the bottom of the spirit. If the gunpowder could ignite after the spirit was consumed by fire, then the liquor was good.\n\nAs most brandies have been distilled from grapes, the regions of the world producing excellent brandies have roughly paralleled those areas producing grapes for viniculture. At the end of the 19th century, the western European markets, including by extension their overseas empires, were dominated by French and Spanish brandies and eastern Europe was dominated by brandies from the Black Sea region, including Bulgaria, the Crimea, and Georgia. In 1884, David Sarajishvili founded his brandy factory in Tbilisi, Georgia, a crossroads for Turkish, Central Asian, and Persian trade routes and a part of the Russian Empire at the time. Armenian and Georgian brandies, called cognacs in the era, were considered some of the best in the world and often beat their French competitors at the International Expositions in Paris and Brussels in the early 1900s. The storehouses of the Romanov Court in St. Petersburg were regarded as the largest collections of cognacs and wines in the world with much of it from the Transcaucasus region of Georgia. During the October Revolution of 1917, upon the storming of the Winter Palace, the Bolshevik Revolution actually paused for a week or so as the participants gorged on the substantial stores of cognac and wines. The Russian market was always a huge brandy-consuming region in which home-grown varieties were common but much of it was imported. The patterns of bottles followed that of the western European norm. Throughout the Soviet era, the production of brandy was a source of pride for the communist regime as they continued to produce some excellent varieties, especially the most famous Jubilee Brandies of 1967, 1977, and 1987. Remaining bottles of these productions are highly sought after, not simply for their quality, but for their historical significance.\n\nTechnology\n\nExcept for few major producers, brandy production and consumption tend to have a regional character and thus production methods significantly vary. Wine brandy is produced from a variety of grape cultivars. A special selection of cultivars, providing distinct aroma and character, is used for high-quality brandies, while cheaper ones are made from whichever wine is available.\n\nBrandy is made from so-called base wine, which significantly differs from regular table wines. It is made from early grapes in order to achieve higher acid concentration and lower sugar levels. Base wine generally contains smaller amount (up to 20 mg/l) of sulphur than regular wines, as it creates undesired copper(II) sulfate in reaction with copper in the pot stills. The yeast sediment produced during the fermentation may or may not be kept in the wine, depending on the brandy style.\n\nBrandy is distilled from the base wine in two phases. In the first, large part of water and solids is removed from the base, obtaining so-called \"low wine\", basically a concentrated wine with 28–30% ABV. In the second stage, low wine is distilled into brandy. The liquid exits the pot still in three phases, referred to as the \"heads\", \"heart\" and \"tails\" respectively. The first part, the \"head,\" has an alcohol concentration of about 83% (166 US proof) and an unpleasant odour. The weak portion on the end, \"tail\", is discarded along with the head, and they are generally mixed with another batch of low wine, thereby entering the distillation cycle again. The middle heart fraction, richest in aromas and flavours, is preserved for later maturation.\n\nDistillation does not simply enhance the alcohol content of wine. The heat under which the product is distilled and the material of the still (usually copper) cause chemical reactions to take place during distillation. This leads to the formation of numerous new volatile aroma components, changes in relative amounts of aroma components in the wine, and the hydrolysis of components such as esters.\n\nBrandy is usually produced in pot stills (batch distillation), but the column still can also be used for continuous distillation. Distillate obtained in this manner has a higher alcohol concentration (approximately 90% ABV) and is less aromatic. Choice of the apparatus depends on the style of brandy produced. Cognac and South African brandy are examples of brandy produced in batches while many American brandies use fractional distillation in column stills.\n\nAging\n\nAfter distillation, the unaged brandy is placed into oak barrels to mature. Usually, brandies with a natural golden or brown colour are aged in oak casks (single-barrel aging). Some brandies, particularly those from Spain, are aged using the solera system, where the producer changes the barrel each year. After a period of aging, which depends on the style, class and legal requirements, the mature brandy is mixed with distilled water to reduce alcohol concentration and bottled. Some brandies have caramel colour and sugar added to simulate the appearance of barrel aging.\n\nConsumption\n\nServing\n\nBrandy is traditionally served at room temperature (neat) from a snifter, a wine glass or a tulip glass. When drunk at room temperature, it is often slightly warmed by holding the glass cupped in the palm or by gentle heating. Excessive heating of brandy may cause the alcohol vapour to become too strong, causing its aroma to become overpowering. Brandy drinkers who like their brandy warmed may ask for the glass to be heated before the brandy is poured. \n\nBrandy may be added to other beverages to make several popular cocktails; these include the Brandy Sour, the Brandy Alexander, the Sidecar, the Brandy Daisy, and the Brandy Old Fashioned.\n\nCulinary uses\n\nBrandy is a common deglazing liquid used in making pan sauces for steak and other meat. It is used to create a more intense flavour in some soups, notably onion soup.\n\nIn English Christmas cooking, brandy is a common flavouring in traditional foods such as Christmas cake, brandy butter, and Christmas pudding. It is also commonly used in drinks such as mulled wine, drunk during the festive season.\n\nBrandy is used to flambé dishes such as crêpe Suzette and cherries jubilee while serving. Brandy is traditionally poured over Christmas pudding and set alight. The flames consume most of the alcohol but the pudding is left with a distinctive flavour.\n\nTerminology and legal definitions\n\nIn the general colloquial usage of the term, brandy may also be made from pomace and from fermented fruit other than grapes.\n\nIf a beverage comes from a particular fruit (or multiple fruits) other than exclusively grapes, or from the must of such fruit, it may be referred to as a \"fruit brandy\" or \"fruit spirit\" or named using the specific fruit, such as \"peach brandy\", rather than just generically as \"brandy\". If pomace is the raw material, the beverage may be called \"pomace brandy\", \"marc brandy\", \"grape marc\", \"fruit marc spirit\", or \"grape marc spirit\"; \"marc\" being the pulp residue after the juice has been pressed from the fruit.\n\nGrape pomace brandy may be designated as \"grappa\" or \"grappa brandy\". Apple brandy may be referred to as \"applejack\". There is also a product called \"grain brandy\" that is made from grain spirits. \n\nWithin particular jurisdictions, there are specific regulatory requirements regarding the labelling of products identified as brandy. For example:\n\n* In the European Union, there are regulations that require products labelled as brandy, except \"grain brandy\", to be produced exclusively from the distillation or redistillation of grape-based wine or grape-based \"wine fortified for distillation\" and aged a minimum of six months in oak. Alcoholic beverages imported to the EU from the United States or other non-EU states can be sold within the European Union using labels that refer to them as \"fruit brandy\" or \"pomace brandy\", but such a label cannot be used in the EU for products produced in an EU-member state.\n* In the US, brandy that has been produced from other than grape wine must be labelled with a clarifying description of the type of brandy production such as \"peach brandy\", \"fruit brandy\", \"dried fruit brandy\", or \"pomace brandy\", and brandy that has not been aged in oak for at least two years must be labelled as \"immature\".\n* In Canada, the regulations regarding naming conventions for brandy are similar to those of the US (provisions B.02.050–061). The minimum specified aging period is six months in wood, although not necessarily oak (provision B.02.061.2). Caramel, fruit, other botanical substances, flavourings, and flavouring preparations may also be included in a product called brandy (provisions B.02.050–059). \n\nWithin the European Union, the German term Weinbrand is legally equivalent to the English term \"brandy\", but outside the German-speaking countries it is particularly used to designate brandy from Austria and Germany.\n\nVarieties and brands\n\n* Most of American grape brandy production is situated in California. Popular brands include Christian Brothers, E&J Gallo and Korbel.\n* Armenian brandy has been produced since the 1880s and comes from the Ararat plain in the southern part of Armenia. Bottles on the market are aged anywhere from 3 to 20 years.\n* Armagnac is made from grapes of the Armagnac region in the southwest of France, Gers, Landes and Lot-et-Garonne. It is single-continuous distilled in a copper still and aged in oak casks from Gascony or Limousin or from the renowned Tronçais Forest in Auvergne. Armagnac was the first distilled spirit in France. Its usage was first mentioned in 1310 by Vital Du Four in a book of medicine recipes. Armagnacs have a specificity: they offer vintage qualities. Popular brands are Darroze, Baron de Sigognac, Larressingle, Delord, Laubade, Gélas and Janneau.\n* Cognac comes from the Cognac region of France, and is double distilled using pot stills. Popular brands include Hine, Martell, Camus, Otard, Rémy Martin, Hennessy, Frapin, Delamain and Courvoisier.\n* Cyprus brandy differs from other varieties in that its alcohol concentration is only 32% ABV (64 US proof). \n* Greek brandy is distilled from Muscat wine. Mature distillates are made from sun-dried Savatiano, Sultana and Black Corinth grape varieties blended with an aged Muscat wine.\n* Brandy de Jerez originates from vineyards around Jerez de la Frontera in Andalusia, Spain. It is used in some sherries and is also available as a separate product. It has a protected designation of origin (PDO). \n* Kanyak (or konyak) is a variety from Turkey whose name is a variation of \"cognac\" and also means \"burn blood\" in Turkish, a reference to its use in cold weather.\n* Pisco is a strong, colourless to amber-coloured brandy produced in specific regions of Chile and Peru. The name Pisco derives from the Peruvian port of the same name. Pisco is still made in Peru and Chile but the right to produce and market it is subject to disputes between both countries. \n* South African brandies are, by law, made almost exactly as Cognac, using a double distillation process in copper pot stills followed by aging in oak barrels for a minimum of three years. Because of this, South African brandies are a very high quality. \n* Italian Stravecchio has been produced since the 1700s in the North of Italy, especially in Emilia-Romagna and Veneto, using grapes popular in winemaking such as Sangiovese and Grignolino. Colour, texture and finish are most resembling those of their French and Spanish counterparts. Most popular brands are Vecchia Romagna, Stravecchio Branca and Stock 84. Northern Italy is also noted since the Middle Ages for another type of wine spirit, Grappa, which is generally colourless but has some top-shelf varieties called barrique which are aged in oak casks and achieve the same caramel colour as regular brandies. There is a vast production of Stravecchios and Grappas in Italy, with more than 600 large, medium or small distilleries in operation. Ticino is also allowed to produce pomace brandy under the name of Grappa.\n\nThe European Union and some other countries legally enforce the use of \"Cognac\" as the exclusive name for brandy produced and distilled in the Cognac area of France, and the name \"Armagnac\" for brandy from the Gascony area of France. Both must also be made using traditional techniques. Since these are considered \"protected designation of origin\", a brandy made elsewhere may not be called Cognac in these jurisdictions, even if it were made in an identical manner.\n\nLabelling of grades\n\nBrandy has a traditional age grading system, although its use is unregulated outside of Cognac and Armagnac. These indicators can usually be found on the label near the brand name:\n\n* V.S. (\"very special\") or ✯✯✯ (three stars) designates a blend in which the youngest brandy has been stored for at least two years in a cask. \n* V.S.O.P. (\"very superior old pale\"), Reserve or ✯✯✯✯✯ (five stars) designates a blend in which the youngest brandy is stored for at least four years in a cask.\n* XO (\"extra old\") or Napoléon designates a blend in which the youngest brandy is stored for at least six years.\n* Hors d'âge (\"beyond age\") is a designation which is formally equal to XO for Cognac, but for Armagnac designates brandy that is at least ten years old. In practice the term is used by producers to market a high-quality product beyond the official age scale.\n\nIn the case of Brandy de Jerez, the Consejo Regulador de la Denominacion Brandy de Jerez classifies it according to:\n\n* Brandy de Jerez Solera: one year old.\n* Brandy de Jerez Solera Reserva: three years old.\n* Brandy de Jerez Solera Gran Reserva: ten years old." ] }

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{ "aliases": [ "Motorcycle sidecar", "Side-car", "Side car", "Sidecars", "Motorcycle combination", "A Sidecar", "Sidecar" ], "normalized_aliases": [ "motorcycle combination", "sidecars", "sidecar", "motorcycle sidecar", "side car" ], "matched_wiki_entity_name": "", "normalized_matched_wiki_entity_name": "", "normalized_value": "sidecar", "type": "WikipediaEntity", "value": "A Sidecar" }

{ "doc_source": [ "Search" ], "filename": [ "Tom,_Tom,_the_Piper's_Son.txt" ], "title": [ "Tom, Tom, the Piper's Son" ], "wiki_context": [ "\"Tom, Tom, the Piper's Son\" is a popular English language nursery rhyme. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 19621.\n\nLyrics\n\nModern versions of the rhyme include:\n\nTom, Tom, the piper's son,\nStole a pig, and away did run;\nThe pig was eat\nAnd Tom was beat,\nAnd Tom went crying [or \"roaring\", or \"howling\", in some versions]\nDown the street.I. Opie and P. Opie, The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes (Oxford University Press, 1951, 2nd edn., 1997), pp. 408-11.\n\nThe 'pig' mentioned in the song is almost certainly not a live animal but rather a kind of pastry, often made with an apple filling, smaller than a pie.\n\nAnother version of the rhyme is:\nTom, Tom, the piper's son,\nStole a pig, and away he run.\nTom run here,\nTom run there,\nTom run through the village square.\n\nThis rhyme is often conflated with a separate and longer rhyme:\n\nTom, he was a piper's son,\nHe learnt to play when he was young,\nAnd all the tune that he could play\nWas 'over the hills and far away';\nOver the hills and a great way off,\nThe wind shall blow my top-knot off.\n\nTom with his pipe made such a noise,\nThat he pleased both the girls and boys,\nThey all stopped to hear him play,\n'Over the hills and far away'.\n\nTom with his pipe did play with such skill\nThat those who heard him could never keep still;\nAs soon as he played they began for to dance,\nEven the pigs on their hind legs would after him prance.\n\nAs Dolly was milking her cow one day,\nTom took his pipe and began to play;\nSo Dolly and the cow danced 'The Cheshire Round',\nTill the pail was broken and the milk ran on the ground.\n\nHe met old Dame Trot with a basket of eggs,\nHe used his pipe and she used her legs;\nShe danced about till the eggs were all broke,\nShe began for to fret, but he laughed at the joke.\n\nTom saw a cross fellow was beating an ass,\nHeavy laden with pots, pans, dishes, and glass;\nHe took out his pipe and he played them a tune,\nAnd the poor donkey's load was lightened full soon.\n\nOrigins and meaning\n\nBoth rhymes were first printed separately in a Tom the Piper's Son, a chapbook produced around 1795 in London. The origins of the shorter and better known rhyme are unknown. The second longer rhyme was an adaptation of an existing verse which was current in England around the end of the seventeenth and beginning of the eighteenth centuries. The following verse, known as \"The distracted Jockey's Lamentations\" may have been written (but not included) in Thomas D'Urfey's play The Campaigners (1698):\n\nJockey was a Piper's Son,\nAnd fell in love when he was young;\nBut all the Tunes that he could play,\nWas, o'er the Hills, and far away,\nAnd 'Tis o'er the Hills, and far away,\n'Tis o'er the Hills, and far away,\n'Tis o'er the Hills, and far away,\nThe Wind has blown my Plad away.\n\nThis verse seems to have been adapted for a recruiting song designed to gain volunteers for the Duke of Marlborough's campaigns about 1705, with the title \"The Recruiting Officer; or The Merry Volunteers\", better today known as \"Over the Hills and Far Away\", in which the hero is called Tom.\n\nNotes" ] }

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{ "aliases": [ "Tom, Tom, The Piper's Son", "Tom, Tom, the Piper's Son" ], "normalized_aliases": [ "tom tom piper s son" ], "matched_wiki_entity_name": "", "normalized_matched_wiki_entity_name": "", "normalized_value": "tom tom piper s son", "type": "WikipediaEntity", "value": "Tom, Tom, the Piper's Son" }

{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe", "Search", "Search" ], "filename": [ "The_Tracey_Ullman_Show.txt", "The_Simpsons.txt", "Tracey_Ullman.txt" ], "title": [ "The Tracey Ullman Show", "The Simpsons", "Tracey Ullman" ], "wiki_context": [ "The Tracey Ullman Show is an American television variety show starring Tracey Ullman. It debuted on April 5, 1987, as the Fox network's second prime-time series after Married... with Children, and ran until May 26, 1990. The show is produced by Gracie Films and 20th Century Fox Television. The show blended sketch comedy shorts with many musical numbers, featuring choreography by Paula Abdul.\n\nThe Tracey Ullman Show is known for producing a series of shorts featuring the Simpson family, which was adapted into the TV series The Simpsons, which is also produced by Gracie Films and 20th Century Fox Television (now 20th Television).\n\nBackground\n\nBy the 1980s, acclaimed television producer James L. Brooks (producer of The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Taxi, and Rhoda), had left the television industry for the big screen. At the time that he won the Oscar for his film, Terms of Endearment, Brooks began receiving videotapes from Ullman's Los Angeles agent, hoping to get his attention. Ullman, who was already famous in her homeland, England, was already landing a variety of television deals and proposals in America, but none had panned out. These projects did not suit Ullman's interests. \"[They were] shows with morals, where everyone learns something at the end of the show\", related Ullman to a television critic for TV Guide in 1989, describing the television show ideas that were offered to her. Brooks was so taken by what he saw in Ullman that he decided to take the young actress under his wing and return to television. Brooks was determined to develop the right vehicle to showcase Ullman's talents — acting, dancing, and singing — and decided to create a sketch comedy show. Ullman had already had a successful music career in the early 1980s in the UK, and had a top 10 hit on the American charts with a cover of Kirsty MacColl's \"They Don't Know\" and her You Broke My Heart in 17 Places.\n\nFormat\n\nA typical episode would begin with Ullman giving a brief introduction, ostensibly from her dressing room, leading into the opening titles (the show's theme, \"You're Thinking Right\", was written by George Clinton). Then two or three comedy sketches would be presented in each episode, most designed to showcase Ullman's ability to skillfully mimic various accents. One popular recurring character was timid, slow-talking Kay (\"Iiit's... Kaaaaaaaayyy...\")\n\nTypically, the final sketch of the night would include a musical and/or dance number featuring Ullman solo or other members of the cast. The final segment saw Ullman, clad in a robe, deliver a closing monologue to the studio audience before ending the show with her catchphrase \"Go Home! Go Home!\" and dancing as the credits rolled. Ullman often talked about her husband, Allan McKeown, and her daughter, Mabel. Ullman chose the phrase, \"Go home\", during the show's pilot episode because she could not think of anything clever to end with. \"Oh, you got sore bums... go home!\"\n\nCharacters\n\nUllman performed an array of characters. Most only appeared once, as the sketches concentrated on plot, with characters created to best tell that particular storyline. A handful of characters did however return for subsequent sketches. These include:\n\nGinny Tillman, the ex-wife of a Beverly Hills proctologist; Francesca McDowell, a 14-year-old New York City girl being raised by her father Dave (portrayed by Castellaneta) and his partner William (McMurray); Tina, a Brooklyn postal employee who is best friends with her co-worker Meg (Kavner); Sarah Downey, a quintessential yuppie married to attorney Greg (Castellaneta); Kay Clark, an English office worker and caregiver to her sick mother (Kay also appeared frequently in Tracey Takes On...); Sandra Decker, an aged Hollywood movie actress; Kiki Howard-Smith, an Australian professional golfer; Summer Storm, a Los Angeles disc jockey; and Angel Tish, a singer who appeared with her husband Marty (Castellaneta).\n\nAmong the recurring characters portrayed by other cast members, besides those previously mentioned, were Gulliver Dark (McMurray), singer and rival to Marty Tish, and Dr. Alexander Gibson (Castellaneta), a psychiatrist..\n\nIn the course of its four season run, Ullman performed a total of 108 characters. \n\nEpisodes\n\nAnimated segments\n\nThe Simpsons\n\nThe Simpson family debuted in short animated cartoons on The Tracey Ullman Show for three seasons before being spun off into their own half-hour series. These shorts, also called \"bumpers\", aired before and after commercial breaks during the first and second seasons of the show. They eventually had their own full segments in between the live action segments during season three. They did not appear in the fourth and final season, as they had their own half-hour TV series by then.\n\nAll of them were written by Matt Groening and animated at Klasky-Csupo by a team of animators consisting of David Silverman, Wes Archer, and Bill Kopp. Tracey Ullman Show cast members Dan Castellaneta and Julie Kavner provide the voices of Homer Simpson and Marge Simpson respectively. In the beginning, the drawings appeared very crude because the animators were more or less just tracing over Groening's storyboards, but as the series developed, so did the designs and layouts of the characters and the \"Simpsons drawing style\" was ultimately conceived. This style evolved even more throughout the first few seasons of The Simpsons and was used more than a decade later on Futurama, another animated series created by Matt Groening.\n\nDr. N!Godatu\n\nDr. N!Godatu was another series of animated shorts created by M.K. Brown (and animated by the same Klasky-Csupo team). It originally alternated every other week with the Simpsons shorts, but was dropped after the first season of the show. By this point, Groening's shorts had gained much more popularity and the producers saw no reason to continue Brown's shorts. The character was voiced by Julie Payne.\n\nAwards\n\nThe show won three Emmy Awards: for Outstanding Variety, Music or Comedy Program in 1989 and 1990, for Outstanding Individual Performance in a Variety or Music Program in 1990. Also in 1989, choreographer Paula Abdul won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Choreography for her work. Abdul was noted for putting Ullman through strenuous choreographed routines. Ullman had been a trained dancer.\n\nCredits\n\nCast\n\n*Tracey Ullman (Seasons 1–4)\n*Dan Castellaneta (Seasons 1–4)\n*Julie Kavner (Seasons 1–4)\n*Sam McMurray (Seasons 2–4)\n*Joseph Malone (Seasons 2–4)\n*Anna Levine (Season 3)\n\nGuest stars\n\n*Judith Barsi – Karen (2 episodes, 1987–1988)\n*Mel Brooks – Buzz Schlanger, a movie director (1 episode, 1990)\n*Clarence Clemons – member of Shopaholics Anonymous (1 episode, 1989)\n*Glenn Close – Virginia Winslow (1 episode, 1990)\n*Robert Costanzo – Big Tony Manetti (2 episodes, 1989–1990)\n*Tim Curry – Ian Miles, rock star (1 episode, 1989)\n*Anne De Salvo – psychiatric patient (2 episodes, 1989)\n*Fran Drescher – sales clerk (1 episode, 1990)\n*Kelsey Grammer – (1 episode, 1990)\n*Doris Grau – Carla, office worker (3 episodes, 1988–1989)\n*Marilu Henner – one of three expectant mothers (1 episode, 1989)\n*Carole King – member of Shopaholics Anonymous (1 episode, 1989)\n*Cheech Marin – a convenience store owner (1 episode, 1987)\n*Andrea Martin – a psychiatrist (1 episode, 1989)\n*Steve Martin – choreographer who has developed some ridiculous moves (1 episode, 1987)\n*Maureen McGovern – a woman who can only sing in the car (1 episode, 1987)\n*Harvey Miller – Fuzzy Bear (2 episodes, 1987–1988)\n*Matthew Perry – (1 episode, 1987)\n*Billy Preston – member of Shopaholics Anonymous (1 episode, 1989)\n*Bill Pullman – a magazine writer (1 episode, 1990)\n*Keanu Reeves – a suitor (1 episode, 1989)\n*Cesar Romero – Roland Diego (1 episode, 1988)\n*Isabella Rossellini – Mae (3 episodes, 1989–1990)\n*Martin Short – Doc the Elvis Presley freak (2 episodes, 1989–1990)\n*Steven Spielberg – himself (1 episode, 1989)\n*Harold Sylvester – David Black (2 episodes, 1988–1989)\n*Betty Thomas – gym teacher (1 episode, 1989)\n*Michael Tucker – a Baltimore resident (1 episode, 1989)\n*Stuart Margolin – husband (3 episodes, 1987)\n\nAnimation by\n\n*Klasky Csupo (1986-1987)\n*Film Roman (1987-1989)\n\nSeries directors\n\n*Ted Bessell (unknown episodes)\n*Paul Flaherty (one episode, 1987)\n*Art Wolff (unknown episodes)\n\nSeries writers\n\n*Kim Fuller (unknown episodes)\n*Jeff Baron (unknown episodes)\n*Dan Castellaneta (unknown episodes)\n*Paul Flaherty (13 episodes, 1987)\n*Marc Flanagan (unknown episodes)\n*Susan Gauthier (unknown episodes)\n*Paul Haggis (unknown episodes)\n*Sue Herring (unknown episodes)\n*Holly Holmberg Brooks (unknown episodes)\n*David Isaacs (unknown episodes)\n*Ken Levine (unknown episodes)\n*Heide Perlman (unknown episodes)\n*Michael Sardo (2 episodes, 1989)\n*Guy Shulman (unknown episodes)\n*Sam Simon (unknown episodes)\n\nSyndication\n\nRe-runs appeared on Comedy Central and the Lifetime TV cable network throughout the mid and late 1990s in the United States.", "The Simpsons is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical depiction of a working class lifestyle epitomized by the Simpson family, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa, and Maggie. The show is set in the fictional town of Springfield and parodies American culture, society, television, and many aspects of the human condition. It's the 20th Century Fox debut in animation.\n\nThe family was conceived by Groening shortly before a solicitation for a series of animated shorts with the producer James L. Brooks. Groening created a dysfunctional family and named the characters after members of his own family, substituting Bart for his own name. The shorts became a part of The Tracey Ullman Show on April 19, 1987. After a three-season run, the sketch was developed into a half-hour prime time show and was an early hit for Fox, becoming the network's first series to land in the Top 30 ratings in a season (1989–90).\n\nSince its debut on December 17, 1989, the series has broadcast episodes. It will begin airing its 28th season in September 2016. The Simpsons is the longest-running American sitcom, the longest-running American animated program, and in 2009 it surpassed Gunsmoke as the longest-running American scripted primetime television series. The Simpsons Movie, a feature-length film, was released in theaters worldwide on July 27, 2007, and grossed over $527 million. On May 4, 2015, the series was officially renewed for seasons twenty-seven (2015–16) and twenty-eight (2016–17), consisting of 22 episodes each. \n\nThe Simpsons has received widespread critical acclaim, especially for the \"Golden Age\" of approximately its first ten seasons. Time magazine named it the 20th century's best television series, and The A.V. Club named it \"television's crowning achievement regardless of format\". On January 14, 2000, the Simpson family was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. It has won dozens of awards since it debuted as a series, including 31 Primetime Emmy Awards, 30 Annie Awards, and a Peabody Award. Homer's exclamatory catchphrase \"D'oh!\" has been adopted into the English language, while The Simpsons has influenced many adult-oriented animated sitcoms. Despite this, the show has also been criticized for what many perceive as a decline in quality over the years.\n\nPremise\n\nCharacters\n\nThe Simpsons are a family who live in a fictional \"Middle American\" town of Springfield. Homer, the father, works as a safety inspector at the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant, a position at odds with his careless, buffoonish personality. He is married to Marge Simpson, a stereotypical American housewife and mother. They have three children: Bart, a ten-year-old troublemaker; Lisa, a precocious eight-year-old activist; and Maggie, the baby of the family who rarely speaks, but communicates by sucking on a pacifier. Although the family is dysfunctional, many episodes examine their relationships and bonds with each other and they are often shown to care about one another. The family owns a dog, Santa's Little Helper, and a cat, Snowball V, renamed Snowball II in \"I, (Annoyed Grunt)-Bot\". Both pets have had starring roles in several episodes.\n\nThe show includes an array of quirky supporting characters: co-workers, teachers, family friends, extended relatives, townspeople and local celebrities. The creators originally intended many of these characters as one-time jokes or for fulfilling needed functions in the town. A number of them have gained expanded roles and subsequently starred in their own episodes. According to Matt Groening, the show adopted the concept of a large supporting cast from the comedy show SCTV. \n\nDespite the depiction of yearly milestones such as holidays or birthdays passing, the characters do not age between episodes (either physically or in stated age), and generally appear just as they did when the series began. The series uses a floating timeline in which episodes generally take place in the year the episode is produced even though the characters do not age. Flashbacks/forwards do occasionally depict the characters at other points in their lives, with the timeline of these depictions also generally floating relative to the year the episode is produced. In a nod to the non-aging aspect of the show, when asked during the Family Guy crossover episode \"The Simpsons Guy\" how long Nelson Muntz has been bullying him, Bart replies \"24 years.\"\n\nSetting\n\nThe Simpsons takes place in the fictional American town of Springfield in an unknown and impossible-to-determine U.S. state. The show is intentionally evasive in regard to Springfield's location. Springfield's geography, and that of its surroundings, contains coastlines, deserts, vast farmland, tall mountains, or whatever the story or joke requires. Groening has said that Springfield has much in common with Portland, Oregon, the city where he grew up. The name \"Springfield\" is a common one in America and appears in 22 states. Groening has said that he named it after Springfield, Oregon, and the fictitious Springfield which was the setting of the series Father Knows Best. He \"figured out that Springfield was one of the most common names for a city in the U.S. In anticipation of the success of the show, I thought, 'This will be cool; everyone will think it's their Springfield.' And they do.\" An astronomer and fan of the show, Phil Plait, noticed that The Simpsons could be set in Australia, because the moon in Springfield faces the wrong way to be an American location. It is drawn facing the right, as it would in the Southern Hemisphere. \n\nProduction\n\nDevelopment\n\nWhen producer James L. Brooks was working on the television variety show The Tracey Ullman Show, he decided to include small animated sketches before and after the commercial breaks. Having seen one of cartoonist Matt Groening's Life in Hell comic strips, Brooks asked Groening to pitch an idea for a series of animated shorts. Groening initially intended to present an animated version of his Life in Hell series. However, Groening later realized that animating Life in Hell would require the rescinding of publication rights for his life's work. He therefore chose another approach while waiting in the lobby of Brooks's office for the pitch meeting, hurriedly formulating his version of a dysfunctional family that became the Simpsons. He named the characters after his own family members, substituting \"Bart\" for his own name, adopting an anagram of the word \"brat\".\n\nThe Simpson family first appeared as shorts in The Tracey Ullman Show on April 19, 1987. Groening submitted only basic sketches to the animators and assumed that the figures would be cleaned up in production. However, the animators merely re-traced his drawings, which led to the crude appearance of the characters in the initial shorts. The animation was produced domestically at Klasky Csupo, with Wes Archer, David Silverman, and Bill Kopp being animators for the first season. Colorist Gyorgyi Peluce was the person who decided to make the characters yellow.\n\nIn 1989, a team of production companies adapted The Simpsons into a half-hour series for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The team included the Klasky Csupo animation house. Brooks negotiated a provision in the contract with the Fox network that prevented Fox from interfering with the show's content. Groening said his goal in creating the show was to offer the audience an alternative to what he called \"the mainstream trash\" that they were watching. The half-hour series premiered on December 17, 1989, with \"Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire\". \"Some Enchanted Evening\" was the first full-length episode produced, but it did not broadcast until May 1990, as the last episode of the first season, because of animation problems. In 1992, Tracey Ullman filed a lawsuit against Fox, claiming that her show was the source of the series' success. The suit said she should receive a share of the profits of The Simpsons —a claim rejected by the courts. \n\nExecutive producers and showrunners\n\nList of showrunners throughout the series' run:\n* Season 1–2: Matt Groening, James L. Brooks, & Sam Simon\n* Season 3–4: Al Jean & Mike Reiss\n* Season 5–6: David Mirkin\n* Season 7–8: Bill Oakley & Josh Weinstein\n* Season 9–12: Mike Scully\n* Season 13–present: Al Jean\n\nMatt Groening and James L. Brooks have served as executive producers during the show's entire history, and also function as creative consultants. Sam Simon, described by former Simpsons director Brad Bird as \"the unsung hero\" of the show, served as creative supervisor for the first four seasons. He was constantly at odds with Groening, Brooks and the show's production company Gracie Films and left in 1993. Before leaving, he negotiated a deal that sees him receive a share of the profits every year, and an executive producer credit despite not having worked on the show since 1993, at least until his passing in 2015. A more involved position on the show is the showrunner, who acts as head writer and manages the show's production for an entire season. \n\nWriting\n\nThe first team of writers, assembled by Sam Simon, consisted of John Swartzwelder, Jon Vitti, George Meyer, Jeff Martin, Al Jean, Mike Reiss, Jay Kogen and Wallace Wolodarsky. Newer Simpsons writing teams typically consist of sixteen writers who propose episode ideas at the beginning of each December. The main writer of each episode writes the first draft. Group rewriting sessions develop final scripts by adding or removing jokes, inserting scenes, and calling for re-readings of lines by the show's vocal performers. Until 2004, George Meyer, who had developed the show since the first season, was active in these sessions. According to long-time writer Jon Vitti, Meyer usually invented the best lines in a given episode, even though other writers may receive script credits. Each episode takes six months to produce so the show rarely comments on current events. \n\nCredited with sixty episodes, John Swartzwelder is the most prolific writer on The Simpsons. One of the best-known former writers is Conan O'Brien, who contributed to several episodes in the early 1990s before replacing David Letterman as host of the talk show Late Night. English comedian Ricky Gervais wrote the episode \"Homer Simpson, This Is Your Wife\", becoming the first celebrity to both write and guest star in an episode. Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, writers of the film Superbad, wrote the episode \"Homer the Whopper\", with Rogen voicing a character in it. \n\nAt the end of 2007, the writers of The Simpsons went on strike together with the other members of the Writers Guild of America, East. The show's writers had joined the guild in 1998. \n\nVoice actors\n\nThe Simpsons has six main cast members: Dan Castellaneta, Julie Kavner, Nancy Cartwright, Yeardley Smith, Hank Azaria and Harry Shearer. Castellaneta voices Homer Simpson, Grampa Simpson, Krusty the Clown, Groundskeeper Willie, Mayor Quimby, Barney Gumble and other adult, male characters. Julie Kavner voices Marge Simpson and Patty and Selma, as well as several minor characters. Castellaneta and Kavner had been a part of The Tracey Ullman Show cast and were given the parts so that new actors would not be needed. Cartwright voices Bart Simpson, Nelson Muntz, Ralph Wiggum and other children. Smith, the voice of Lisa Simpson, is the only cast member who regularly voices only one character, although she occasionally plays other episodic characters. The producers decided to hold casting for the roles of Bart and Lisa. Smith had initially been asked to audition for the role of Bart, but casting director Bonita Pietila believed her voice was too high, so she was given the role of Lisa instead. Cartwright was originally brought in to voice Lisa, but upon arriving at the audition, she found that Lisa was simply described as the \"middle child\" and at the time did not have much personality. Cartwright became more interested in the role of Bart, who was described as \"devious, underachieving, school-hating, irreverent, [and] clever\". Groening let her try out for the part instead, and upon hearing her read, gave her the job on the spot. Cartwright is the only one of the six main Simpsons cast members who had been professionally trained in voice acting prior to working on the show. Azaria and Shearer do not voice members of the title family, but play a majority of the male townspeople. Azaria, who has been a part of the Simpsons regular voice cast since the second season, voices recurring characters such as Moe Szyslak, Chief Wiggum, Apu Nahasapeemapetilon and Professor Frink. Shearer also provides voices for Mr. Burns, Mr. Smithers, Principal Skinner, Ned Flanders, Reverend Lovejoy and Dr. Hibbert. Every main cast member has won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Voice-Over Performance. \n\nWith one exception, episode credits list only the voice actors, and not the characters they voice. Both Fox and the production crew wanted to keep their identities secret during the early seasons and, therefore, closed most of the recording sessions while refusing to publish photos of the recording artists. However, the network eventually revealed which roles each actor performed in the episode \"Old Money\", because the producers said the voice actors should receive credit for their work. In 2003, the cast appeared in an episode of Inside the Actors Studio, doing live performances of their characters' voices.\n\nThe six main actors were paid $30,000 per episode until 1998, when they were involved in a pay dispute with Fox. The company threatened to replace them with new actors, even going as far as preparing for casting of new voices, but series creator Groening supported the actors in their action. The issue was soon resolved and, from 1998 to 2004, they were paid $125,000 per episode. The show's revenue continued to rise through syndication and DVD sales, and in April 2004 the main cast stopped appearing for script readings, demanding they be paid $360,000 per episode. The strike was resolved a month later and their salaries were increased to something between $250,000 and $360,000 per episode. In 2008, production for the twentieth season was put on hold due to new contract negotiations with the voice actors, who wanted a \"healthy bump\" in salary to an amount close to $500,000 per episode. The negotiations were soon completed, and the actors' salary was raised to $400,000 per episode. Three years later, with Fox threatening to cancel the series unless production costs were cut, the cast members accepted a 30 percent pay cut, down to just over $300,000 per episode. \n\nIn addition to the main cast, Pamela Hayden, Tress MacNeille, Marcia Wallace, Maggie Roswell, and Russi Taylor voice supporting characters. From 1999 to 2002, Roswell's characters were voiced by Marcia Mitzman Gaven. Karl Wiedergott has also appeared in minor roles, but does not voice any recurring characters. Wiedergott left the show in 2010, and since then Chris Edgerly has appeared regularly to voice minor characters. Repeat \"special guest\" cast members include Albert Brooks, Phil Hartman, Jon Lovitz, Joe Mantegna, Maurice LaMarche, and Kelsey Grammer. Following Hartman's death in 1998, the characters he voiced (Troy McClure and Lionel Hutz) were retired; Wallace's character of Edna Krabappel was retired as well after her death in 2013.\n\nEpisodes will quite often feature guest voices from a wide range of professions, including actors, athletes, authors, bands, musicians and scientists. In the earlier seasons, most of the guest stars voiced characters, but eventually more started appearing as themselves. Tony Bennett was the first guest star to appear as himself, appearing briefly in the season two episode \"Dancin' Homer\". The Simpsons holds the world record for \"Most Guest Stars Featured in a Television Series\". \n\nThe Simpsons has been dubbed into several other languages, including Japanese, German, Spanish, and Portuguese. It is also one of the few programs dubbed in both standard French and Quebec French. The show has been broadcast in Arabic, but due to Islamic customs, numerous aspects of the show have been changed. For example, Homer drinks soda instead of beer and eats Egyptian beef sausages instead of hot dogs. Because of such changes, the Arabized version of the series met with a negative reaction from the lifelong Simpsons fans in the area. \n\nAnimation\n\nSeveral different U.S. and international studios animate The Simpsons. Throughout the run of the animated shorts on The Tracey Ullman Show, the animation was produced domestically at Klasky Csupo. With the debut of the series, because of an increased workload, Fox subcontracted production to several international studios, located in South Korea. These are AKOM, Anivision, Rough Draft Studios, USAnimation, and Toonzone Entertainment. A subcontractor connection to the North Korean SEK Studio has been suspected but not confirmed. The production staff at the U.S. animation studio, Film Roman, draws storyboards, designs new characters, backgrounds, props and draws character and background layouts, which in turn become animatics to be screened for the writers at Gracie Films for any changes to be made before the work is shipped overseas. The overseas studios then draw the inbetweens, ink and paint, and render the animation to tape before it is shipped back to the United States to be delivered to Fox three to four months later. \n\nFor the first three seasons, Klasky Csupo animated The Simpsons in the United States. In 1992, the show's production company, Gracie Films, switched domestic production to Film Roman, who continue to animate the show as of 2012. In Season 14, production switched from traditional cel animation to digital ink and paint. The first episode to experiment with digital coloring was \"Radioactive Man\" in 1995. Animators used digital ink and paint during production of the season 12 episode \"Tennis the Menace\", but Gracie Films delayed the regular use of digital ink and paint until two seasons later. The already completed \"Tennis the Menace\" was broadcast as made. \n\nThe series began high-definition production in Season 20; the first episode, \"Take My Life, Please\", aired February 15, 2009. The move to HDTV included a new opening sequence. Matt Groening called it a complicated change because it affected the timing and composition of animation. \n\nThemes\n\nThe Simpsons uses the standard setup of a situational comedy, or sitcom, as its premise. The series centers on a family and their life in a typical American town, serving as a satirical parody of a middle class American lifestyle. However, because of its animated nature, The Simpsons scope is larger than that of a regular sitcom. The town of Springfield acts as a complete universe in which characters can explore the issues faced by modern society. By having Homer work in a nuclear power plant, the show can comment on the state of the environment. Through Bart and Lisa's days at Springfield Elementary School, the show's writers illustrate pressing or controversial issues in the field of education. The town features a vast array of media channels—from kids' television programming to local news, which enables the producers to make jokes about themselves and the entertainment industry.\n\nSome commentators say the show is political in nature and susceptible to a left-wing bias. Al Jean admitted in an interview that \"We [the show] are of liberal bent.\" The writers often evince an appreciation for liberal ideals, but the show makes jokes across the political spectrum. The show portrays government and large corporations as callous entities that take advantage of the common worker. Thus, the writers often portray authority figures in an unflattering or negative light. In The Simpsons, politicians are corrupt, ministers such as Reverend Lovejoy are indifferent to churchgoers, and the local police force is incompetent. Religion also figures as a recurring theme. In times of crisis, the family often turns to God, and the show has dealt with most of the major religions. \n\nHallmarks\n\nOpening sequence\n\nThe Simpsons' opening sequence is one of the show's most memorable hallmarks. The standard opening has gone through three iterations (a replacement of some shots at the start of the second season, and a brand new sequence when the show switched to high-definition in 2009). Each has the same basic sequence of events: The camera zooms through cumulus clouds, through the show's title towards the town of Springfield. The camera then follows the members of the family on their way home. Upon entering their house, the Simpsons settle down on their couch to watch television. The original opening was created by David Silverman, and was the first task he did when production began on the show. The series' distinctive theme song was composed by musician Danny Elfman in 1989, after Groening approached him requesting a retro style piece. This piece has been noted by Elfman as the most popular of his career. \n\nOne of the most distinctive aspects of the opening is that three of its elements change from episode to episode: Bart writes different things on the school chalkboard, Lisa plays different solos on her saxophone and different gags accompany the family as they enter their living room to sit on the couch.\n\nHalloween episodes\n\nThe special Halloween episode has become an annual tradition. \"Treehouse of Horror\" first broadcast in 1990 as part of season two and established the pattern of three separate, self-contained stories in each Halloween episode. These pieces usually involve the family in some horror, science fiction, or supernatural setting and often parody or pay homage to a famous piece of work in those genres. They always take place outside the normal continuity of the show. Although the Treehouse series is meant to be seen on Halloween, this changed by the 2000s, when new installments have premiered after Halloween due to Fox's current contract with Major League Baseball's World Series, however, as of 2011 every Treehouse of Horror episode has aired during the month of October.\n\nHumor\n\nThe show's humor turns on cultural references that cover a wide spectrum of society so that viewers from all generations can enjoy the show. Such references, for example, come from movies, television, music, literature, science, and history. The animators also regularly add jokes or sight gags into the show's background via humorous or incongruous bits of text in signs, newspapers, billboards, and elsewhere. The audience may often not notice the visual jokes in a single viewing. Some are so fleeting that they become apparent only by pausing a video recording of the show. Kristin Thompson argues that The Simpsons uses a \"flurry of cultural references, intentionally inconsistent characterization, and considerable self-reflexivity about television conventions and the status of the programme as a television show.\"\n\nOne of Bart's early hallmarks was his prank calls to Moe's Tavern owner Moe Szyslak in which Bart calls Moe and asks for a gag name. Moe tries to find that person in the bar, but soon realizes it is a prank call and angrily threatens Bart. These calls were apparently based on a series of prank calls known as the Tube Bar recordings, though Groening has denied any causal connection. \nMoe was based partly on Tube Bar owner Louis \"Red\" Deutsch, whose often profane responses inspired Moe's violent side. As the series progressed, it became more difficult for the writers to come up with a fake name and to write Moe's angry response, and the pranks were dropped as a regular joke during the fourth season. The Simpsons also often includes self-referential humor. The most common form is jokes about Fox Broadcasting. For example, the episode \"She Used to Be My Girl\" included a scene in which a Fox News Channel van drove down the street while displaying a large \"Bush Cheney 2004\" banner and playing Queen's \"We Are the Champions\", in reference to the 2004 U.S. presidential election and claims of conservative bias in Fox News. \n\nThe show uses catchphrases, and most of the primary and secondary characters have at least one each. Notable expressions include Homer's annoyed grunt \"D'oh!\", Mr. Burns' \"Excellent\" and Nelson Muntz's \"Ha-ha!\". Some of Bart's catchphrases, such as \"¡Ay, caramba!\", \"Don't have a cow, man!\" and \"Eat my shorts!\" appeared on T-shirts in the show's early days. However, Bart rarely used the latter two phrases until after they became popular through the merchandising. The use of many of these catchphrases has declined in recent seasons. The episode \"Bart Gets Famous\" mocks catchphrase-based humor, as Bart achieves fame on the Krusty the Clown Show solely for saying \"I didn't do it.\"\n\nInfluence and legacy\n\nIdioms\n\nA number of neologisms that originated on The Simpsons have entered popular vernacular. Mark Liberman, director of the Linguistic Data Consortium, remarked, \"The Simpsons has apparently taken over from Shakespeare and the Bible as our culture's greatest source of idioms, catchphrases and sundry other textual allusions.\" The most famous catchphrase is Homer's annoyed grunt: \"D'oh!\" So ubiquitous is the expression that it is now listed in the Oxford English Dictionary, but without the apostrophe. Dan Castellaneta says he borrowed the phrase from James Finlayson, an actor in many Laurel and Hardy comedies, who pronounced it in a more elongated and whining tone. The staff of The Simpsons told Castellaneta to shorten the noise, and it went on to become the well-known exclamation in the television series. \n\nGroundskeeper Willie's description of the French as \"cheese-eating surrender monkeys\" was used by National Review columnist Jonah Goldberg in 2003, after France's opposition to the proposed invasion of Iraq. The phrase quickly spread to other journalists. \"Cromulent\" and \"Embiggen\", words used in \"Lisa the Iconoclast\", have since appeared in the Dictionary.com's 21st Century Lexicon, and scientific journals respectively. \"Kwyjibo\", a fake Scrabble word invented by Bart in \"Bart the Genius\", was used as one of the aliases of the creator of the Melissa worm. \"I, for one, welcome our new insect overlords\", was used by Kent Brockman in \"Deep Space Homer\" and has become a common phrase. Variants of Brockman's utterance are used to express obsequious submission. It has been used in media, such as New Scientist magazine. The dismissive term \"Meh\", believed to have been popularized by the show, entered the Collins English Dictionary in 2008. Other words credited as stemming from the show include \"yoink\" and \"craptacular\".\n\nThe Oxford Dictionary of Modern Quotations includes several quotations from the show. As well as \"cheese-eating surrender monkeys\", Homer's lines, \"Kids, you tried your best and you failed miserably. The lesson is never try\", from \"Burns' Heir\" (season five, 1994) as well as \"Kids are the best, Apu. You can teach them to hate the things you hate. And they practically raise themselves, what with the Internet and all\", from \"Eight Misbehavin'\" (season 11, 1999), entered the dictionary in August 2007. \n\nTelevision\n\nThe Simpsons was the first successful animated program in American prime time since Wait Till Your Father Gets Home in the 1970s. During most of the 1980s, US pundits considered animated shows as appropriate only for children, and animating a show was too expensive to achieve a quality suitable for prime-time television. The Simpsons changed this perception. The use of Korean animation studios for tweening, coloring, and filming made the episodes cheaper. The success of The Simpsons and the lower production cost prompted US television networks to take chances on other animated series. This development led US producers to a 1990s boom in new, animated prime-time shows, such as South Park, Family Guy, King of the Hill, Futurama and The Critic. For Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane, \"The Simpsons created an audience for prime-time animation that had not been there for many, many years ... As far as I'm concerned, they basically re-invented the wheel. They created what is in many ways—you could classify it as—a wholly new medium.\" \n\nThe Simpsons has had crossovers with four other shows. In the episode \"A Star Is Burns\", Marge invites Jay Sherman, the main character of The Critic, to be a judge for a film festival in Springfield. Matt Groening had his name removed from the episode since he had no involvement with The Critic. South Park later paid homage to The Simpsons with the episode \"Simpsons Already Did It\". In \"Simpsorama\", the Planet Express crew from Futurama come to Springfield in the present to prevent the Simpsons from destroying the future. In the Family Guy episode \"The Simpsons Guy\", the Griffins visit Springfield and meet the Simpsons. \n\nThe Simpsons has also influenced live-action shows like Malcolm in the Middle, which featured the use of sight gags and did not use a laugh track unlike most sitcoms. Malcolm in the Middle debuted January 9, 2000, in the time slot after The Simpsons. Ricky Gervais called The Simpsons an influence on The Office, and fellow British sitcom Spaced was, according to its director Edgar Wright, \"an attempt to do a live-action The Simpsons.\" In Georgia, the animated television sitcom The Samsonadzes, launched in November 2009, has been noted for its very strong resemblance with The Simpsons, which its creator Shalva Ramishvili has acknowledged. \n\nReception and achievements\n\nEarly success\n\nThe Simpsons was the Fox network's first television series to rank among a season's top 30 highest-rated shows. While later seasons would focus on Homer, Bart was the lead character in most of the first three seasons. In 1990, Bart quickly became one of the most popular characters on television in what was termed \"Bartmania\". He became the most prevalent Simpsons character on memorabilia, such as T-shirts. In the early 1990s, millions of T-shirts featuring Bart were sold; as many as one million were sold on some days. Believing Bart to be a bad role model, several American public schools banned T-shirts featuring Bart next to captions such as \"I'm Bart Simpson. Who the hell are you?\" and \"Underachiever ('And proud of it, man!')\". The Simpsons merchandise sold well and generated $2 billion in revenue during the first 14 months of sales. Because of his popularity, Bart was often the most promoted member of the Simpson family in advertisements for the show, even for episodes in which he was not involved in the main plot. \n\nDue to the show's success, over the summer of 1990 the Fox Network decided to switch The Simpsons time slot so that it would move from 8:00 p.m. ET on Sunday night to the same time on Thursday, where it would compete with The Cosby Show on NBC, the number one show at the time. Through the summer, several news outlets published stories about the supposed \"Bill vs. Bart\" rivalry. \"Bart Gets an F\" (season two, 1990) was the first episode to air against The Cosby Show, and it received a lower Nielsen ratings, tying for eighth behind The Cosby Show, which had an 18.5 rating. The rating is based on the number of household televisions that were tuned into the show, but Nielsen Media Research estimated that 33.6 million viewers watched the episode, making it the number one show in terms of actual viewers that week. At the time, it was the most watched episode in the history of the Fox Network, and it is still the highest rated episode in the history of The Simpsons. The show moved back to its Sunday slot in 1994 and has remained there ever since.\n\nThe Simpsons has been praised by many critics, being described as \"the most irreverent and unapologetic show on the air.\" In a 1990 review of the show, Ken Tucker of Entertainment Weekly described it as \"the American family at its most complicated, drawn as simple cartoons. It's this neat paradox that makes millions of people turn away from the three big networks on Sunday nights to concentrate on The Simpsons.\" Tucker would also describe the show as a \"pop-cultural phenomenon, a prime-time cartoon show that appeals to the entire family.\" \n\nRun length achievements\n\nOn February 9, 1997, The Simpsons surpassed The Flintstones with the episode \"The Itchy & Scratchy & Poochie Show\" as the longest-running prime-time animated series in the United States. In 2004, The Simpsons replaced The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet (1952 to 1966) as the longest-running sitcom (animated or live action) in the United States. In 2009, The Simpsons surpassed The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriets record of 435 episodes and is now recognized by Guinness World Records as the world's longest running sitcom (in terms of episode count). In October 2004, Scooby-Doo briefly overtook The Simpsons as the American animated show with the highest number of episodes. However, network executives in April 2005 again cancelled Scooby-Doo, which finished with 371 episodes, and The Simpsons reclaimed the title with 378 episodes at the end of their seventeenth season. In May 2007, The Simpsons reached their 400th episode at the end of the eighteenth season. While The Simpsons has the record for the number of episodes by an American animated show, other animated series have surpassed The Simpsons. For example, the Japanese anime series Sazae-san has over 7,000 episodes to its credit.\n\nIn 2009, Fox began a year-long celebration of the show titled \"Best. 20 Years. Ever.\" to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the premiere of The Simpsons. One of the first parts of the celebration is the \"Unleash Your Yellow\" contest in which entrants must design a poster for the show. The celebration ended on January 10, 2010 (almost 20 years after \"Bart the Genius\" aired on January 14, 1990), with The Simpsons 20th Anniversary Special – In 3-D! On Ice!, a documentary special by documentary filmmaker Morgan Spurlock that examines the \"cultural phenomenon of The Simpsons\". \n\nAs of the twenty-first season (2009–2010), The Simpsons became the longest-running American scripted primetime television series, having surpassed Gunsmoke. However, Gunsmokes episode count of 635 episodes surpasses The Simpsons, which will not reach that mark until its approximate 29th season under normal programming schedules. However, since Gunsmoke was a full-hour series for its latter fourteen seasons, The Simpsons is the longest-running half-hour series in primetime television. In May 2015, Fox renewed the show up to the end of a 28th season.\n\nAwards and accolades\n\nThe Simpsons has won dozens of awards since it debuted as a series, including 31 Primetime Emmy Awards, 30 Annie Awards and a Peabody Award. In a 1999 issue celebrating the 20th century's greatest achievements in arts and entertainment, Time magazine named The Simpsons the century's best television series. In that same issue, Time included Bart Simpson in the Time 100, the publication's list of the century's 100 most influential people. Bart was the only fictional character on the list. On January 14, 2000, the Simpsons were awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Also in 2000, Entertainment Weekly magazine TV critic Ken Tucker named The Simpsons the greatest television show of the 1990s. Furthermore, viewers of the UK television channel Channel 4 have voted The Simpsons at the top of two polls: 2001's 100 Greatest Kids' TV shows, and 2005's The 100 Greatest Cartoons, with Homer Simpson voted into first place in 2001's 100 Greatest TV Characters. Homer would also place ninth on Entertainment Weekly list of the \"50 Greatest TV icons\". In 2002, The Simpsons ranked #8 on TV Guides 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time, and in 2007 it was included in Time list of the \"100 Best TV Shows of All Time\". In 2008 the show was placed in first on Entertainment Weekly \"Top 100 Shows of the Past 25 Years\". Empire named it the greatest TV show of all time. In 2010, Entertainment Weekly named Homer \"the greatest character of the last 20 years\", while in 2013 the Writers Guild of America listed The Simpsons as the 11th \"best written\" series in television history. In 2013, TV Guide ranked The Simpsons as the greatest TV cartoon of all time and the tenth greatest show of all time. \n\nCriticism and controversy\n\nBart's rebellious, bad boy nature, which frequently resulted in no punishment for his misbehavior, led some parents and conservatives to characterize him as a poor role model for children. In schools, educators claimed that Bart was a \"threat to learning\" because of his \"underachiever and proud of it\" attitude and negative attitude regarding his education. Others described him as \"egotistical, aggressive and mean-spirited\". In a 1991 interview, Bill Cosby described Bart as a bad role model for children, calling him \"angry, confused, frustrated\". In response, Matt Groening said, \"That sums up Bart, all right. Most people are in a struggle to be normal [and] he thinks normal is very boring, and does things that others just wished they dare do.\" On January 27, 1992, then-President George H. W. Bush said, \"We are going to keep on trying to strengthen the American family, to make American families a lot more like the Waltons and a lot less like the Simpsons.\" The writers rushed out a tongue-in-cheek reply in the form of a short segment which aired three days later before a rerun of \"Stark Raving Dad\" in which Bart replied, \"Hey, we're just like the Waltons. We're praying for an end to the Depression, too.\" \n\nVarious episodes of the show have generated controversy. The Simpsons visit Australia in \"Bart vs. Australia\" (season six, 1995) and Brazil in \"Blame It on Lisa\" (season 13, 2002) and both episodes generated controversy and negative reaction in the visited countries. In the latter case, Rio de Janeiro's tourist board – who claimed that the city was portrayed as having rampant street crime, kidnappings, slums, and monkey and rat infestations – went so far as to threaten Fox with legal action. Groening was a fierce and vocal critic of the episode \"A Star Is Burns\" (season six, 1995) which featured a crossover with The Critic. He felt that it was just an advertisement for The Critic, and that people would incorrectly associate the show with him. When he was unsuccessful in getting the episode pulled, he had his name removed from the credits and went public with his concerns, openly criticizing James L. Brooks and saying the episode \"violates the Simpsons' universe.\" In response, Brooks said, \"I am furious with Matt, ... he's allowed his opinion, but airing this publicly in the press is going too far. ... his behavior right now is rotten.\" \"The Principal and the Pauper\" (season nine, 1997) is one of the most controversial episodes of The Simpsons. Many fans and critics reacted negatively to the revelation that Seymour Skinner, a recurring character since the first season, was an impostor. The episode has been criticized by Groening and by Harry Shearer, who provides the voice of Skinner. In a 2001 interview, Shearer recalled that after reading the script, he told the writers, \"That's so wrong. You're taking something that an audience has built eight years or nine years of investment in and just tossed it in the trash can for no good reason, for a story we've done before with other characters. It's so arbitrary and gratuitous, and it's disrespectful to the audience.\" \n\nThe show has reportedly been taken off the air in several countries. China banned it from prime-time television in August 2006, \"in an effort to protect China's struggling animation studios.\" In 2008, Venezuela barred the show from airing on morning television as it was deemed \"unsuitable for children\". The same year, several Russian Pentecostal churches demanded that The Simpsons, South Park and some other Western cartoons be removed from broadcast schedules \"for propaganda of various vices\" and the broadcaster's license to be revoked. However, the court decision later dismissed this request. \n\nCriticism of declining quality\n\nCritics' reviews of early Simpsons episodes praised the show for its sassy humor, wit, realism, and intelligence. However, in the late 1990s, around the airing of seasons nine and ten, the tone and emphasis of the show began to change. Some critics started calling the show \"tired\". By 2000, some long-term fans had become disillusioned with the show, and pointed to its shift from character-driven plots to what they perceived as an overemphasis on zany antics. Jim Schembri of The Sydney Morning Herald attributed the decline in quality to an abandonment of character-driven storylines in favor of and overuse of celebrity cameo appearances and references to popular culture. Schembri wrote: \"The central tragedy of The Simpsons is that it has gone from commanding attention to merely being attention seeking. It began by proving that cartoon characters don't have to be caricatures; they can be invested with real emotions. Now the show has in essence fermented into a limp parody of itself. Memorable story arcs have been sacrificed for the sake of celebrity walk-ons and punchline-hungry dialogue.\" \n\nThe BBC noted \"the common consensus is that The Simpsons' golden era ended after season nine\", while Todd Leopold of CNN, in an article looking at its perceived decline, stated \"for many fans ... the glory days are long past.\" Similarly, Tyler Wilson of Coeur d'Alene Press has referred to seasons one to nine as the show's \"golden age\", and Ian Nathan of Empire described the show's classic era as being \"say, the first ten seasons.\" Jon Heacock of LucidWorks stated that \"for the first ten years [seasons], the show was consistently at the top of its game\", with \"so many moments, quotations, and references – both epic and obscure – that helped turn the Simpson family into the cultural icons that they remain to this day.\" \n\nMike Scully, who was showrunner during seasons nine through twelve, has been the subject of criticism. Chris Suellentrop of Slate wrote that \"under Scully's tenure, The Simpsons became, well, a cartoon. ... Episodes that once would have ended with Homer and Marge bicycling into the sunset now end with Homer blowing a tranquilizer dart into Marge's neck. The show's still funny, but it hasn't been touching in years.\" When asked in 2007 how the series' longevity is sustained, Scully joked: \"Lower your quality standards. Once you've done that you can go on forever.\" \n\nAl Jean, showrunner since season thirteen, has also been the subject of criticism, with some arguing that the show has continued to decline in quality under his tenure. Former writers have complained that under Jean, the show is \"on auto-pilot\", \"too sentimental\", and the episodes are \"just being cranked out.\" Some critics believe that the show has \"entered a steady decline under Jean and is no longer really funny.\" John Ortved, author of The Simpsons: An Uncensored, Unauthorized History, characterized the Jean era as \"toothless\", and criticized what he perceived as the show's increase in social and political commentary. Jean has responded to this criticism by saying: \"Well, it's possible that we've declined. But honestly, I've been here the whole time and I do remember in season two people saying, 'It's gone downhill.' If we'd listened to that then we would have stopped after episode 13. I'm glad we didn't.\" \n\nIn 2003, to celebrate the show's 300th episode \"Barting Over\", USA Today published a pair of Simpsons related articles: a top-ten episodes list chosen by the webmaster of The Simpsons Archive fansite, and a top-15 list by The Simpsons own writers. The most recent episode listed on the fan list was 1997's \"Homer's Phobia\"; the Simpsons' writers most recent choice was 2000's \"Behind the Laughter\". The series' ratings have also declined; while the first season enjoyed an average of 13.4 million viewing households per episode in the U.S., the twenty-first season had an average of 7.2 million viewers. \n\nIn 2004, Harry Shearer criticized what he perceived as the show's declining quality: \"I rate the last three seasons as among the worst, so Season Four looks very good to me now.\" In response, Dan Castellaneta stated \"I don't agree, ... I think Harry's issue is that the show isn't as grounded as it was in the first three or four seasons, that it's gotten crazy or a little more madcap. I think it organically changes to stay fresh.\" \n\nAuthor Douglas Coupland described claims of declining quality in the series as \"hogwash\", saying \"The Simpsons hasn't fumbled the ball in fourteen years, it's hardly likely to fumble it now.\" In an April 2006 interview, Matt Groening said, \"I honestly don't see any end in sight. I think it's possible that the show will become too financially cumbersome ... but right now, the show is creatively, I think, as good or better than it's ever been. The animation is incredibly detailed and imaginative, and the stories do things that we haven't done before. So creatively there's no reason to quit.\" \n\nIn 2016, popular culture writer Anna Leszkiewicz suggested that despite the fact that the Simpsons still holds cultural relevance, contemporary appeal is only for the first ten seasons, with recent Simpsons episodes only garnering mainstream attention when a favourite character from the golden era is killed off, or when new information and shock twists are given for old characters. \n\nOther media\n\nComic books\n\nNumerous Simpson-related comic books have been released over the years. So far, nine comic book series have been published by Bongo Comics since 1993. The first comic strips based on The Simpsons appeared in 1991 in the magazine Simpsons Illustrated, which was a companion magazine to the show. The comic strips were popular and a one-shot comic book titled Simpsons Comics and Stories, containing four different stories, was released in 1993 for the fans. The book was a success and due to this, the creator of The Simpsons, Matt Groening, and his companions Bill Morrison, Mike Rote, Steve Vance and Cindy Vance created the publishing company Bongo Comics. Issues of Simpsons Comics, Bart Simpson's Treehouse of Horror and Bart Simpson have been collected and reprinted in trade paperbacks in the United States by HarperCollins. \n\nFilm\n\n20th Century Fox, Gracie Films, and Film Roman produced The Simpsons Movie, an animated film that was released on July 27, 2007. The film was directed by long-time Simpsons producer David Silverman and written by a team of Simpsons writers comprising Matt Groening, James L. Brooks, Al Jean, George Meyer, Mike Reiss, John Swartzwelder, Jon Vitti, David Mirkin, Mike Scully, Matt Selman, and Ian Maxtone-Graham. Production of the film occurred alongside continued writing of the series despite long-time claims by those involved in the show that a film would enter production only after the series had concluded. There had been talk of a possible feature-length Simpsons film ever since the early seasons of the series. James L. Brooks originally thought that the story of the episode \"Kamp Krusty\" was suitable for a film, but he encountered difficulties in trying to expand the script to feature-length. For a long time, difficulties such as lack of a suitable story and an already fully engaged crew of writers delayed the project.\n\nMusic\n\nCollections of original music featured in the series have been released on the albums Songs in the Key of Springfield, Go Simpsonic with The Simpsons and The Simpsons: Testify. Several songs have been recorded with the purpose of a single or album release and have not been featured on the show. The album The Simpsons Sing the Blues was released in September 1990 and was a success, peaking at #3 on the Billboard 200 and becoming certified 2× platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America. The first single from the album was the pop rap song \"Do the Bartman\", performed by Nancy Cartwright and released on November 20, 1990. The song was written by Michael Jackson, although he did not receive any credit. The Yellow Album was released in 1998, but received poor reception and did not chart in any country. \n\nThe Simpsons Ride\n\nIn 2007, it was officially announced that The Simpsons Ride, a simulator ride, would be implemented into the Universal Studios Orlando and Universal Studios Hollywood. It officially opened May 15, 2008 in Florida and May 19, 2008, in Hollywood. In the ride, patrons are introduced to a cartoon theme park called Krustyland built by Krusty the Clown. However, Sideshow Bob is loose from prison to get revenge on Krusty and the Simpson family. It features more than 24 regular characters from The Simpsons and features the voices of the regular cast members, as well as Pamela Hayden, Russi Taylor and Kelsey Grammer. Harry Shearer did not participate in the ride, so none of his characters have vocal parts. \n\nVideo games\n\nNumerous video games based on the show have been produced. Some of the early games include Konami's arcade game The Simpsons (1991) and Acclaim Entertainment's The Simpsons: Bart vs. the Space Mutants (1991). More modern games include The Simpsons: Road Rage (2001), The Simpsons: Hit & Run (2003) and The Simpsons Game (2007). Electronic Arts, which produced The Simpsons Game, has owned the exclusive rights to create video games based on the show since 2005. In 2010, they released a game called The Simpsons Arcade for iOS. Another EA-produced mobile game, Tapped Out, was released in 2012 for iOS users, then in 2013 for Android and Kindle users. Two Simpsons pinball machines have been produced: one that was available briefly after the first season, and another in 2007, both out of production. \n\nSyndication and streaming availability\n\nIn 2013 the cable television network FXX acquired exclusive cable and digital syndication rights for The Simpsons for a reported $750 million, a deal which broke the record for being the biggest off-network deal in television history. Original contracts had previously stated that syndication rights for The Simpsons would not be sold to cable until the series conclusion, at a time when cable syndication deals were highly rare. The series has been syndicated to local broadcast stations in nearly all markets throughout the United States since September 1993.[http://www.deadline.com/2013/11/fxx-lands-the-simpsons-in-the-biggest-off-network-deal-in-tv-history/#more-635800 FXX Lands 'The Simpsons' In Biggest Off-Network Deal In TV History] Deadline Hollywood, November 15, 2013\n\nFXX premiered The Simpsons on their network on August 21, 2014 by starting a twelve-day marathon which featured the first 552 episodes (every single episode that had already been released at the time) aired chronologically, including The Simpsons Movie, which FX Networks had already owned the rights to air. It was the longest continuous marathon in the history of television (until VH1 Classic aired a 433-hour, nineteen-day, marathon of Saturday Night Live in 2015; celebrating that program's 40th anniversary). The first day of the marathon was the highest rated broadcast day in the history of the network so far, the ratings more than tripled that those of regular prime time programming for FXX. Ratings during the first six nights of the marathon grew night after night, with the network ranking within the top 5 networks in basic cable each night. \n\nOn October 21, 2014, a digital service courtesy of the FXNOW app, called Simpsons World, launched. Simpsons World has every episode of the series accessible to authenticated FX subscribers, and is available on game consoles such as Xbox One, streaming devices such as Roku and Apple TV, and online via web browser. There was early criticism of both wrong aspect ratios for earlier episodes and the length of commercial breaks on the streaming service, but there are now fewer commercial breaks during individual episodes. Later it was announced that Simpsons World would now let users watch all of the SD episodes in their original format. \n\nMerchandise\n\nThe popularity of The Simpsons has made it a billion-dollar merchandising industry. The title family and supporting characters appear on everything from T-shirts to posters. The Simpsons has been used as a theme for special editions of well-known board games, including Clue, Scrabble, Monopoly, Operation, and The Game of Life, as well as the trivia games What Would Homer Do? and Simpsons Jeopardy!. Several card games such as trump cards and The Simpsons Trading Card Game have also been released. Many official or unofficial Simpsons books such as episode guides have been published. Many episodes of the show have been released on DVD and VHS over the years. When the first season DVD was released in 2001, it quickly became the best-selling television DVD in history, although it was later overtaken by the first season of Chappelle's Show. In particular, seasons one through seventeen have been released on DVD in the U.S. (Region 1), Europe (Region 2) and Australia/New Zealand/Latin America (Region 4). However, on April 19, 2015, Al Jean announced that the Season 17 DVD would be the last one ever produced, leaving the collection from Season 1 to 17, Season 20 (released out of schedule in 2009), with Seasons 18, 19, and 21 onwards unreleased. Jean also stated that the deleted scenes and commentary would try to be released to the Simpsons World app, and that they were pushing for Simpsons World to be expanded outside of the U.S.\n\nIn 2003, about 500 companies around the world were licensed to use Simpsons characters in their advertising. As a promotion for The Simpsons Movie, twelve 7-Eleven stores were transformed into Kwik-E-Marts and sold The Simpsons related products. These included \"Buzz Cola\", \"Krusty-O\" cereal, pink doughnuts with sprinkles, and \"Squishees\".\n\nIn 2008 consumers around the world spent $750 million on merchandise related to The Simpsons, with half of the amount originating from the United States. By 2009, 20th Century Fox had greatly increased merchandising efforts. On April 9, 2009, the United States Postal Service unveiled a series of five 44-cent stamps featuring Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie, to commemorate the show's twentieth anniversary. The Simpsons is the first television series still in production to receive this recognition. The stamps, designed by Matt Groening, were made available for purchase on May 7, 2009. Approximately one billion were printed, but only 318 million were sold, costing the Postal Service $1.2 million. \n\nSimpsonwave\n\nFrinkiac", "Tracey Ullman (born Trace Ullman; 30 December 1959) is a multiple award-winning television, stage, and film actress who performs as a comedian, singer and dancer, and also works as a director, producer, screenwriter, author, and businesswoman. Ullman holds dual British and American citizenship. \n\nUllman's early appearances were on British television sketch comedy shows A Kick Up the Eighties (with Rik Mayall and Miriam Margolyes) and Three of a Kind (with Lenny Henry and David Copperfield). After a brief singing career, she appeared as Candice Valentine in Girls on Top with Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders.\n\nShe emigrated from the United Kingdom to the United States where she starred in her own network television comedy series, The Tracey Ullman Show, from 1987 until 1990. She later produced programmes for HBO, including Tracey Takes On... (1996–99), for which she garnered numerous awards. Ullman's sketch comedy series, Tracey Ullman's State of the Union, ran from 2008 to 2010 on Showtime. She has also appeared in several feature films. Ullman was the first British woman to be offered her own television sketch show in both the United Kingdom and the United States and in 2016 stars in her own BBC sketch comedy show Tracey Ullman's Show, her first project for the broadcaster in over thirty years.\n\nUllman is currently the richest female British comedian; the third richest British comedian overall. She is also the second richest British actress (surpassed by Isla Fisher's marriage to comedian Sacha Baron Cohen as of 2015).\n\nEarly life\n\nTracey Ullman was born Trace Ullman in Slough, Buckinghamshire, the younger of two daughters, to Dorin () and Antony John Ullman. Her mother was British, with Roma ancestry, and her father was Polish (and Roman Catholic). On the subject of the spelling of her name: \"My real name is Trace Ullman, but I added the 'y.' My mother said it was spelled the American way, but I don't think she can spell! I always wanted a middle name. My mum used to tell me it was Mary but I never believed her. I looked on my birth certificate and I didn't have one, just Trace Ullman.\" \n\nAntony Ullman served in the Polish Army and was evacuated from Dunkirk in 1940. He subsequently worked as a solicitor, a furniture salesman, and a travel agent. He also brokered marriages and translated among the émigré Polish community. Dorin recognized their younger daughter's talents early on and encouraged her to perform.\n\nIn an interview with Fresh Air host Terry Gross, Ullman revealed that when she was six, her father, who had been recovering from a heart operation, died of a heart attack in front of her while the two were alone and as he was reading to her. He was fifty years old. \"When that happens to you as a child, you can face anything. You're always waiting for the other shoe to drop. If something great happens, you're like, 'Wow, that's great that happened, because it could have been crap. The most disappointing thing happened when you were younger [...] You're just braver and if good things happen you're really grateful.\"\n\nUllman, who had been living an upper-middle class life, was uprooted to Hackbridge, southwest London, along with her older sister Patti and her mother, who could now barely make ends meet without their father's income. \"After [Dad] died, our fortunes came and went because Mum couldn’t speak Polish and had to give up the business.\" Mother Dorin would go on to take a host of odd jobs. \"My mother was always doing strange things like driving parts around for a garage, all covered in oil and paid 10 pounds a week. But she was very funny, and our defence against hardship was having a great sense of humour.\" On a separate occasion, on the subject of her mother's jobs, Ullman recalled: \"[Mum] worked in a laboratory, testing food, and would bring home samples for our dinner. Sometimes she'd have to report that formula X had been found unfit for human consumption.\" Despite reality, their mother maintained that they were middle-class. \"My mother always insisted on middle-class because we had money at one time. We're really lower-middle.\"\n\nUllman credits her sense of humour to a feeling of both classlessness as well as her mother's working class roots. \"It comes from being classless, I think. My father was Polish and he died when I was six. And from being a little girl who went to gymkhana and had ponies, and went to a private school, and lived in a big house we suddenly didn’t have any money any more and had to go to a state school. And my mother’s family is all from South London, and we have a lot of uncles and friends over there. And when my father died they were very supportive, and they used to come down for the weekend - all these hordes of South London oiks. They used to invade our big Posh Bucks home and use the swimming pool, ride the ponies, and they were so funny these blokes; they really affected my sense of humour ... But I think the man who really affected my sense of humour was my uncle Butch, he was called Butch Castle. He was a decorator from South London - lazy old sod. An he’s got the sharpest mind I’ve ever known; he’s so hysterically funny. And I wanted to be like him.\" \n\nIn the aftermath of their father's death, their mother would slip into a deep depression and spend a lot of time in bed. In an effort to cheer her up, Ullman, along with her sister, created and performed a nightly variety show on the windowsill in their mother's bedroom. “It was originally the Patti Ullman Show. So I’m a spin-off of my sister’s show, as she likes to point out.” In the show, Ullman would mimic neighbours, teachers, family members, and celebrities such as Julie Andrews and Édith Piaf. \"Some kids can play the piano or kick a football; I could just impersonate everyone.\" She would also perform alone for herself after everyone had gone to bed. \"I'd stand in front of the mirror and talk to myself until I fell asleep. I'd interview myself as women with problems. Women in documentaries who had three kids and chain-smoked and husbands in prison that hit them.\" Her mother would eventuality remarry to a man who Ullman has described as a maniac who drove a London taxi and had a son who stole. \"We weren't the Brady Bunch, let me tell you!\" The marriage brought an end to the children's late night antics. \"There was a new person in her bed now and I couldn't do my nightly performance anymore. I was nine years old and my show had been cancelled.\" Alcoholism and domestic violence became a common occurrence in the household. The marriage also resulted in the family moving around the country, with Ullman attending numerous state schools. Her flair for mimicry helped with the transitions as her new classmates didn't take to her upper crust accent. \"I had to talk like them to avoid being beaten up.\"\n\nUllman wrote and performed in school plays and it was there that she caught the eye of a headmaster who recommended that she attend a \"special school.\" \"I thought he meant a school for juvenile delinquents.\" Eventually her mother agreed and at age twelve she won a full scholarship to the Italia Conti Academy. Despite the encouragement she received from family, friends, and teachers, her big boost of confidence came from a very unlikely source: a clairvoyant who predicted that she would become famous, especially in America. Some of her earliest work included an appearance on The Tommy Steel Show when she was thirteen, and as a model for My Guy magazine. \n\nShe would end up loathing Italia Conti saying, \"I hated the pressure that many of the children were under. Many of the kids were forced to grow up too fast, their careers were being decided for them before they were 13. If I went to an audition then they’d always choose the sweetest, prettiest kid. I wasn’t obviously beautiful so I used to miss out.\" Ullman has also alleged that the owners taught their own children and that a certain level of favourtism seemed to exist. She also felt that the education she was receiving was of very little value. \"These stupid teachers would come in and go, 'Good morning, darlings, lets all be dustbins!' I'd go, 'Oh, shut up! I wanna be a banana!'\" \n\nThe treatment she received at school led to her spending more time in pubs than in class. Despite her tardiness, she passed her O levels. Her interest in theatre began to wane and her family could no longer afford tuition; she then set her sights on becoming a travel agent like her late father. \n\nAt sixteen, she was goaded into attending a dance audition by some school friends under the impression that she was applying for Summer season in Scarborough. The audition resulted in a contract with a German ballet company for a revival of Gigi in Berlin. Upon returning to England, she joined the \"Second Generation\" dance troupe, performing in London, Blackpool and Liverpool. Her dancing career would come to an abrupt end when she forgot to wear underwear during a performance. She subsequently branched out into musical theatre and was cast in numerous West End musicals including Grease, Elvis The Musical, and The Rocky Horror Show. \n\nDisillusioned with the entertainment industry, she sought full-time employment working in a paper products distribution company. Her boredom with the job led to her competing in a contest at London's Royal Court Theatre; Four in a Million, an improvised play about club acts. She created the character Beverly, a born-again Christian chanteuse. The performance was a big success and won her the London Theatre Critics Award as Most Promising New Actress. At this point the BBC became interested, which led to a successful career in television. She would soon go on to become a household name in Britain, with the British media referring to her as 'Our Trace.'\n\nWith fame came intense scrutiny of her personal life. The press became increasingly aggressive, printing untrue or exaggerated stories, soliciting information from people who supposedly knew her. An ex-boyfriend sold his story about his life with her to the News of the World. \"He appeared on television with my dog saying, 'I'm going to tell you about the real Tracey Ullman. Aren’t we Lilly?'\" \n\nWhen she hastily married Allan McKeown in 1983, it made front-page news all over the country with the press placing bets on how long the marriage would last; it would last nearly thirty years until his death in 2013. \n\nMusic career\n\nUllman, who had already made a name for herself as a comedian with her BBC comedy series Three of a Kind, had a chance encounter with the wife of the head of the punk music label Stiff Records, Dave Robinson. The meeting led to her recording her first album. “One day, I was at my hairdresser, and Dave Robinson’s wife Rosemary leant over and said, ‘Do you want to make a record?’ I was having some of those Boy George kind of dreadlock things put in and I went, ‘Yeah I want to make a record.’ I would have tried anything.” \n\nHer future husband Allan McKeown had reservations about her launching a music career and tried talking her out of it. “When I first met Miss Ullman, I was a TV producer, and I called her into my office in London and I told her that she had a big career in comedy, and she said to me, ‘Well actually, I’m doing a record next week,’ and I said, ‘Now listen here Miss Ullman, if I know anything about show business, is that you shouldn’t get involved with singing. Imagine how stupid I felt about four months later, I’m in London driving around and I hear, ‘And now, the Top of the Pops, Tracey Ullman with ‘They Don’t Know About Us.’” \n\nHer 1983 debut album, You Broke My Heart in 17 Places, featured her first hit single, \"Breakaway\" (famous for her performance with a hairbrush as a microphone ), and the international hit cover version of label-mate Kirsty MacColl's \"They Don't Know,\" which reached number two in the UK, and number eight in the United States. MacColl sang backing vocals on Ullman's version. In less than two years, Ullman had six songs in the UK Top 100.\n\nFollow-up singles, a cover of Doris Day's \"Move Over Darling,\" reached number eight in the UK, and the cover of Madness' \"My Girl,\" which she changed to \"My Guy\" were released. (The \"My Guy\" video featured the British Labour Party politician Neil Kinnock, at the time the Leader of the Opposition) \n\nUllman's songs were over-the-top evocations of 1960s and 1970s pop music with a 1980s edge, \"somewhere between Minnie Mouse and the Supremes\" as the Melody Maker put it, or \"retro before retro was cool,\" as a reviewer wrote in 2002. Her career received another boost when the video for \"They Don't Know\" featured a cameo from Paul McCartney; at the time Ullman was filming a minor role in McCartney's film Give My Regards to Broad Street.[https://web.archive.org/web/20040413013625/http://www.traceytakeson.com/tracey/ Tracey]. traceytakeson.com She released her second (and final) album, You Caught Me Out, in 1984.\n\nHer final hit, \"Sunglasses\" (1984), featured comedian Adrian Edmondson in its music video. During this time, she also appeared as a guest VJ on MTV in the United States. \n\nShe gave up her music career after an incident that occurred on a German television show. \"The host said to me, 'Tracey Ullman. Hello!' I said, 'Hello' and he went, 'Guffaw, guffaw. Crazy as ever!' Then I was standing in the background and he slung a rat over my shoulder. I thought, 'That's it, I don't want to do this anymore.'\"\n\nWhile she has chosen to end her recording career, she has continued singing in film, television, and theatre.\n\nIn 2013, she re-teamed with McCartney, appearing in his music video for the single, \"Queenie Eye\" from his album, New. \n\nTelevision career\n\nEarly years\n\nUllman got her first television acting job when she was seventeen, in a Heinz soup commercial where she had to wear a cow's head.\n\nShe tried her hand at serious drama with the 1980 BBC TV series Mackenzie, but said that she found that she wasn't cut out to be a straight actress. \"I really thought I was great when I did a quite serious soap opera for the BBC. I played a nice girl from St. John's Wood. 'Mummy, I think I'm pregnant. I don't know who's done it.' Then I would fall down a hill or something. 'EEEEE! Oh, no, lost another baby.' It seemed all I ever did was have miscarriages—or make yogurt.\" \n\nIn 1981, the success of her performance in the Royal Court Theatre's production of Four in a Million led to many offers; one being the chance to move into television comedy. The BBC was quick to cast her in Three of a Kind, co-starring comedians Lenny Henry and David Copperfield, debuted in 1981. and also BBC Scotland sketch comedy programme A Kick Up the Eighties.\n\nThe network was so impressed with her that it offered her her own series. She initially turned down the offer. \"My first reaction was you must be joking, as women are treated so shoddily in comedy. Big busty barmaids and all those sort of cliches just bore me rigid.\" She also had reservations due to a lack of female contemporaries. \"At that time English women were't really allowed to be funny on television. I didn't have any examples. I mean, I didn't have a Gilda Radner, Carol Burnett, Lily Tomlin. I mean, my only point of reference, quite honestly, was the Benny Hill girls.\"\n\nIn an interview with Amanda Root for The Musical Express magazine, Ullman was asked about critics labeling the show 'non-sexist humour.' Did it exist? \"Not unless it’s cleverly done. When we did Three of a Kind we kept getting sketches sent in about me as a traffic warden, or me being a busty barmaid. Writers that have no idea about women - their typical way of starting a sketch is to say, Tracey is sitting there, filing her nails and chewing gum, as if all girls are stupid. Sketches beginning like that used to really get on my nerves. But as soon as we found the right team of writers, they weren’t into that sort of thing, so it worked out OK.\" She went on to win her first BAFTA Award in the category of Best Light Entertainment Performance for Three of a Kind in 1984. \n\nIn 1982, she met her future husband, Allan McKeown, a television producer with his own production company, Witzend Productions. McKeown discovered her when he happened to catch her in an episode of Three of a Kind. The two eventually worked together on a television pilot for Central Television, A Cut Above, about a 1960s hairdresser (McKeown’s former profession) who meets a posh girl (Ullman). “Pilot didn't work, but I got a husband out of it,\" said Ullman in 1990.\n\nIn 1983, she signed on to star in a comedy about four women sharing a flat together, Girls on Top (provisionally titled Four-Play, Bitches on Heat, and Four Fs to Share). She was cast as the promiscuous golddigger Candice Valentine. The show didn't go into production until early 1985 due to an electricians' strike at the studio where the series was set to film. The show, co-starring comedians Dawn French, Ruby Wax and Jennifer Saunders (who also wrote the scripts), continued after Ullman bowed out after the first series. In her book, Bonkers: My Life in Laughs, Saunders writes, “If Ruby taught us how to write funny, then Tracey was a lesson in how to act funny. She was by far the most famous of us, having starred with Lenny Henry in ‘Three of a Kind.’” \n\nIn April 1984, it was announced that Five Faces of Tracey, described as an 'all film series of five half hours' starring Ullman as one character per episode in one 'self-contained story,' was to be filmed in July of that year written by Ruby Wax and herself. The series never came to fruition.\n\nThe Tracey Ullman Show\n\nIn 1985, Ullman was persuaded by her husband to join him in Los Angeles, where he was already partially stationed. She was no stranger to the United States, as she had promoted her music career there, appearing and performing on an array of American talk shows. She had also just completed a press junket for her film, the period drama, Plenty there. The US knew her as a singer and a now budding serious film actress; not the television comedian of her homeland. When she agreed to make the move to the America, she had set her sights on a film and stage career, believing that there was little in the way of television for her. \"I didn't believe there was anything above Webster standard. I was wrong.\"\n\nHer British agent put together a videotape containing a compilation of her work and began circulating it around Hollywood. The tape landed in the lap of Craig Kellem, vice president for comedy at Universal Television. \"I could not believe my eyes. It was just about the most extraordinary piece of material I'd seen in a long time.\" He wanted production on a series to begin immediately for her.\n\nA deal was struck right away with CBS television, who went from ordering a pilot to ordering a full series two weeks later. A script for I Love New York, a show about a \"slightly wacky\" British woman working in New York, was written by Saturday Night Live scribe Anne Beatts. Ullman hated it and the deal deteriorated.\n\nRecalling the project, Ullman said, \"We'd just hit on an idea, then some white-haired executive - very, very important - would come in from the race track and say, 'I don't like that idea. I think Tracey should be a caring person. I think there should be a kid in this. Now, I'm just pitching here. I don't know if this is funny. But I think Tracey should love this kid and maybe there's a moment where she tells the kid something about life.' And I'd say, \"Look - I don't want to work with little kids being cute who I eventually adopt'.\"\n\nShe was also turned off by the industry's materialistic attitude. \"Literally, you start your first meeting and already they're thinking about three years' syndication. 'You're going to be worth $13 million. You're going to be a very rich young lady.' I'd say, 'I don't want to talk about the millions of dollars now. Can we put that on hold? I just want to talk about something good'.\"\n\nUllman’s agent then decided to send producer James L. Brooks some tapes of her work. Brooks, who had had a very successful career producing television sitcoms, had stepped away from the medium, opting instead for a career in film. Ullman's material was so good that it lured him back to television. \"I started showing [her work] to people like you'd show home movies,\" revealed Brooks. \"I was just startled by the size of the talent. I got chills.\"\n\nBrooks felt that a sketch show would best suit her assets (acting, singing, and dancing). \"Why would you do something with Tracey playing a single character on TV when her talent requires variety? You can’t categorize Tracey, so it's silly to come up with a show that attempted to.\"\n\nTo ensure that she was well-versed in American comedy, Brooks sent her tapes of American sitcoms and variety shows to watch while at home, now pregnant. Ullman refers to it as \"homework.\" She also visited the Museum of Television and Radio, which she would later be inducted into. She had in fact grown up watching American television in the 1970s in England. Two things stood out to her: the vast number of female comedians, as well as their not having to be conventionally attractive to be funny. \"It was very true of my childhood that women needed to be sexy in order to be funny.\" \n\nBrooks assembled a team of writers, and a deal with Fox Television was made. The network was looking to create its own original programming. Ullman's show, along with Married... with Children, would be the first two scripted shows produced and launched. \n\nScouting for a supporting cast to play opposite her began. Dan Castellaneta, a relative unknown, was asked to read for the show after he was spotted by Ullman at Chicago's Second City. Castellaneta's portrayal of a blind man who wants to be a comedian brought her to tears instead of making her laugh. Actress Julie Kavner had co-starred in Brook's spin-off series to The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Rhoda, starring Valerie Harper. Kavner played Harper's younger, socially awkward sister Brenda, a role for which she won an Emmy Award. Kavner was at the top of the list of people Brooks wanted to be part of the show. Brooks on Kavner: \"When somebody's intrinsically funny -- you know, in-their-bones funny -- they never have to work at (being funny), so they're free to work on other things. We were all nuts about her work. She was the person we most wanted to work with Tracey.\" Actor Sam McMurray read for a guest spot on the show playing William, lover of thirteen-year-old valley girl Francesca's (Ullman) father. McMurray recalling his casting: \"The first Francesca sketch, they said, 'Play the guy not so gay.' And I said 'I disagree.' I had a big mouth then -— still do. I said, 'I think he’s more the woman. I think he's more out there.' So I read and I read it big, and they cast me. It was just a one-off, and then we were on hiatus. I did the one week, and I had a friend coincidentally who used to write, a guy named Marc Flanagan, and he was on the show as a staff guy. He called me up and said, 'Did they call your agent?' I said, 'No, why?' He said, 'They wanna make you a regular.'\" Another actor who was originally cast for a guest shot which led to becoming a series regular was choreographer Joseph Malone. The show now had its cast.\n\nSinger-songwriter George Clinton provided the theme song for the show, \"You're Thinking Right.\" Dancer Paula Abdul, who had not yet found fame as a singer, was hired to choreograph the show's dance numbers. \n\nBecause the Fox network was new to the world of television production, a bureaucracy had not yet been established. This enabled the show to take risks and the freedom to try things that the major networks would never permit. The series landed an initial twenty-six episode commitment deal, unheard of for a television comedy. The Tracey Ullman Show debuted on 5 April 1987. Describing the show proved difficult. Creator Ken Estin dubbed it a \"skitcom\". A variety of diverse original characters were created for her to perform. Extensive makeup, wigs, teeth, and body padding were utilised, sometimes rendering her unrecognisable. One original character created by Ullman back in Britain was uprooted for the series: long-suffering British spinster Kay Clark.\n\nA typical episode of The Tracey Ullman Show consisted of three sketches, one including a song and/or a heavily choreographed dance routine. Brooks was keen on showing off all of Ullman's abilities. \"It’s 'Can you juggle this and keep throwing on more plates?' I’m constantly amazed.\" Ullman opened and closed the show as herself, adding her trademark, \"Go home!,\" which she would shout to the studio audience for the closing. The show was shot on film, a departure from previous variety shows which were routinely shot on tape.\n\nLooking to add \"bumpers\" (before and after commercial breaks) to the show, two cartoon shorts were created: \"Dr. N!Godatu\" and \"The Simpsons.\" The Simpsons would go on to be spun off into its own television series. \n\nBy the time the The Tracey Ullman Show ended in 1990, the show was awarded ten Emmy Awards; Ullman winning three, one in the category of Outstanding Individual Performance in a Variety or Music Program in 1990. The show not only scored the Fox network its first Emmy nomination, but also earned it its first-ever Emmy win. \n\nAfter four seasons, Ullman decided to end the show in May 1990. In 1991, she filed a lawsuit against Twentieth Century Fox in Los Angeles Superior Court over profits from the later half-hour incarnation of The Simpsons. She wanted a share of The Simpsons merchandising and gross profits and believed she was entitled to $2.5 million of the estimated $50 million Fox made in 1992. The Fox network had paid her $58,000 in royalties for The Simpsons as well as $3 million for the 3½ seasons her show was on the air. According to an article, as Ullman had continued her professional relationship with former producer Brooks, only the studio and not Brooks was named in the suit. Brooks was allowed to videotape his testimony as he was in the middle of filming I'll Do Anything, in which Ullman appeared. The suit was ultimately dismissed. Ullman wasn't the only one to file a lawsuit; Tracey Ullman Show executive producer Ken Estin filed a similar suit against Fox claiming that his contract called for him to receive 7.5% of revenues from The Simpsons, including a portion of merchandise. \n\nUllman provided the voices of Emily Winthrop, a British dog trainer, and Mrs. Winfield on The Simpsons episode \"Bart's Dog Gets an F\" (1991). \n\nHBO\n\nAfter the The Tracey Ullman Show, Ullman went on to make her big screen starring debut with I Love You To Death in 1990. That same year she hit the stage with actor Morgan Freeman for Shakespeare in the Park's production of The Taming of the Shrew; she then made her Broadway debut with her one-woman show, The Big Love. She had no aspirations to return to the television. In 1991, she had given birth to her second child, Johnny, and her husband was bidding on a television franchise in the South of England. Along with the bid he included a potential television programming lineup. Listed was a Tracey Ullman special. Ullman thought nothing would come of it, but to her horror, she learnt that the bid was successful.\n\nThe frantic pace of The Tracey Ullman Show was one of the key factors in her decision to give up television. That show was shot in front of a live studio audience and featured her playing on average three characters a week. She frequently wore layers of costuming to disguise herself. The prosthetic makeup was at times excessive. In her book Tracey Takes On, she recalls an incident where she fainted on the makeup room floor, having to be revived before rushing out to give a performance.\n\nUnlike the Fox show though, this special would be shot entirely on location, allowing ample time to apply makeup, wigs, and other accoutrements for the characters; so Ullman felt less panicked. She decided to do a send up of the British class system. All new characters were created and she was joined by Monty Python's Michael Palin for each of the show's sketches. Tracey Ullman: A Class Act premiered on 9 January 1993 on ITV. \n\nThe American cable network HBO became interested in Ullman doing a special for their network with the caveat that she take on a more American subject. She chose New York. \n\nThe special, Tracey Ullman Takes On New York debuted on 9 October 1993 and both it and Ullman went on to win two Emmy Awards, a CableAce Award, an American Comedy Award, and a Writers Guild of America Award. The success of the special led the network to broach the subject of a \"Takes On\" series. Ullman and her husband liked the idea and set up production on Tracey Takes On... in Los Angeles in 1995. \n\nAs with the special Takes On New York, each episode of Tracey Takes On... centered on a single subject. Characters created for A Class Act and Takes On New York were adapted for the HBO series, along with several new characters, as well as the character Kay Clark. Unlike The Tracey Ullman Show, Tracey Takes On... had a rotating roster of upwards of twenty characters repeated throughout the run of the show. Also, unlike The Tracey Ullman Show, Tracey Takes On... was a single-camera comedy, shot heavily on location, without a studio audience.\n\nUllman and the show went on to receive a slew of awards including six Emmy Awards, two CableAce Awards, three American Comedy Awards, two GLAAD Media Awards, as well as a Screen Actors Guild Award in 1999 for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Comedy Series. \n\nPurple Skirt and Oxygen stint\n\nIn 2001, Ullman took a break from her character-based work and created a fashion-based talk show for Oxygen Network, Tracey Ullman's Visible Panty Lines. The series was spun off from her e-commerce clothing store Purple Skirt, which had been launched a few years prior. Interviewees included Arianna Huffington and Charlize Theron. The show lasted for two seasons and ended in 2002. \n\nReturn to HBO\n\nA pilot for a Tracey Takes On... spin-off, Tracey Ullman in the Trailer Tales, was produced in 2003 for HBO. The show spotlighted just one character, Ruby Romaine. Ullman made her directorial debut with the show. No series was commissioned and the episode aired as a one-off comedy special.\n\nShe returned to the network again in 2005 with a filmed version of her live autobiographical one-woman stage show, Tracey Ullman: Live and Exposed. \n\nShowtime\n\nUpon her naturalisation in the United States, it was announced in April 2007 that she would be making the switch from her 14-year working relationship with cable network HBO to Showtime. Ullman created a brand new series for the network which focused on America: \"The good, the bad, and the absolutely ridiculous.\" \n\nUllman credits both senior programmer Robert Greenblatt and the network's list of hit shows as having influenced her decision to switch networks. Greenblatt was a young development director during her Tracey Ullman Show days and was enthusiastic to get her over to Showtime. Five episodes were ordered for the first season.\n\nTracey Ullman's State of the Union debuted on 30 March 2008. The show not only featured original characters, but also celebrity impersonations, something she hadn't done since Three of a Kind. \n\nThe critical response to State of the Union was overwhelmingly positive. One critic pointed out a change in Ullman's humour:\n\nUllman commented that the United States is \"now able to laugh at itself more,\" embracing more satiric humour rather than deeming it \"unpatriotic.\" Now that she is a citizen, she joked that she \"won't end up in Guantánamo Bay\" for speaking her mind.\n\nThe show ran for three seasons, concluding in 2010.\n\nReturn to network television\n\nIn March 2014, Ullman was introduced as Genevieve Scherbatsky, the mother of character Robin Scherbatsky in How I Met Your Mother. \n\nOn 20 March 2014, it was announced that she was tapped to co-star in the upcoming CBS sitcom pilot, Good Session. The single-camera comedy was written and executive produced by Matt Miller (Chuck), along with actor James Roday (Psych). Ullman's character, Ellen, was described as an 'astute, straightforward therapist who uses her own brand of insight and humor to inspire the couples she helps to tell the truth.' \n\nReturn to British television: Tracey Ullman's Show\n\nOn 4 March 2015, it was announced that Ullman would return to the BBC with a new six-part comedy series for BBC One. It will be her first project for the broadcaster in thirty years, and her first original project for British television in twenty-two. The press release states that she will play 'a multitude of diverse and distinct characters living in, or visiting, the busy global hub that is the UK.' On 7 October 2015, it was confirmed that HBO had picked up the American rights to the show, and like the BBC, would broadcast it in 2016. \n\nTracey Ullman's Show premiered 11 January 2016. Ullman became internationally famous for parodying German chancellor Angela Merkel in this show. According to German media, her comedy is the best spoof of Merkel in the world. \n\nThe show has been commissioned for a second series. \n\nOther notable work\n\nIn 1987, Ullman filmed a sketch for Saturday Night Live, \"Hollywood Mom.\" In it, she plays an English actress who focuses more on her career than on her newborn daughter. \n\nIn 1995, she became the modern-day cartoon voice of Little Lulu. In 1999, she had a recurring role as an unconventional psychotherapist on Ally McBeal. Her performance garnered her an Emmy Award and an American Comedy Award. \n\nIn 2005, she co-starred with Carol Burnett in the television adaptation of Once Upon a Mattress. She played Princess Winnifred, a role originally made famous by Burnett on Broadway. This time Burnett took on the role of the overbearing queen. \n\nOn 15 April 2016, Ullman became the 100th guest host of Have I Got News for You. \n\nFilm career\n\nAlong with her television work, Ullman has featured in many films throughout her career. Her first theatrical film was a small role in Paul McCartney's 1984 film Give My Regards to Broad Street. This was followed by a supporting role in the 1985 Meryl Streep drama Plenty. She re-teamed with Streep for 1992's Death Becomes Her, playing Toni, a bartender who runs away with Ernest (Bruce Willis) and lives happily ever after. Director Robert Zemeckis decided to re-shoot the ending, opting for a darker, \"more risky ending.\" This meant that Ullman's scenes would have to be cut. \"We were all heartbroken over losing the character. (She) was so great.\" Despite the cut, some of her scenes were released in an early trailer for the film. Death Becomes Her is one of two instances in which her scenes in a film have ended up on the cutting room floor. Due to time constraints, her song in 1996's Everyone Says I Love You was deleted. \n\nAfter the cancellation of The Tracey Ullman Show in 1990, she made her starring debut alongside Kevin Kline, River Phoenix and Joan Plowright in I Love You to Death. She also has appeared in lead and supporting roles in Robin Hood: Men in Tights, Nancy Savoca's Household Saints, Bullets over Broadway, Small Time Crooks and A Dirty Shame. She was nominated for a Golden Globe Award in the category of Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy for her work in Small Time Crooks in 2001. \n\nHer voice work in film includes Tim Burton's Corpse Bride and the computer-animated The Tale of Despereaux. She acted as creative consultant on the 2006 DreamWorks feature, Flushed Away. \n\nIn 2014, she played Jack's Mother in the film adaptation of the Broadway musical Into the Woods. \n\nUllman was under serious consideration for a number of roles: Betty Rubble in 1994's The Flintstones; \nEffie Trinket in The Hunger Games. Director Adrian Lyne asked her to screen test for his film Fatal Attraction. She passed on the idea and the role went to Glenn Close. She was also sought for reuniting with her Plenty co-star Meryl Streep in She-Devil. The part ultimately went to comedian Roseanne Barr. \n\nTheatre\n\nUllman has an extensive stage career spanning back to the 1970s.\n\nIn 1980, she appeared in Victoria Wood's Talent at the Everyman Theatre in Liverpool. \n\nHer award-winning performance in Les Blair's avant-garde Four in a Million in 1981 led to a career in television.\n\nIn 1982, she played Kate Hardcastle in She Stoops to Conquer. \n\nIn 1983, she took part in the workshops for Andrew Lloyd Webber's upcoming musical, Starlight Express, playing the part of Pearl. \n\nIn 1990, she starred opposite actor Morgan Freeman as Kate in Shakespeare in the Park's production of Taming of the Shrew set in the Wild West for Joe Papp. In 1991, she made her Broadway debut with Jay Presson Allen's one-woman show The Big Love, based on the book of the same name. The Big Love recounts an alleged love affair between actor Errol Flynn and a then fifteen-year-old actress Beverly Aadland, as told by her mother, Florence Aadland (Ullman). Both Taming of the Shrew and The Big Love garnered her Theatre World Awards. \n\nIn February 2005, she performed her autobiographical one-woman show Tracey Ullman: Live and Exposed at The Fonda Theatre in Los Angeles, where it ran for ten performances. \n\nIn 2011, she returned to the British stage in the Stephen Poliakoff drama My City. Her performance earned her a Evening Standard Theatre Awards nomination for Best Actress. \n\nIn 2012, she joined the cast of Eric Idle's What About Dick?, described as a 1940s-style stand-up improv musical comedy radio play, taking on three roles. The show played for four nights in April in Los Angeles at the Orpheum Theater. She had performed the piece previously in a test run for Idle back in 2007. Cast members included Idle, Eddie Izzard, Billy Connolly, Russell Brand, Tim Curry, Jane Leeves, Jim Piddock, and Sophie Winkleman. \n\nOn 6 October 2014, it was formally announced that she would star in a limited engagement of The Band Wagon, from 6 November to 16 November 2014 at City Center. The production was directed and choreographed by Kathleen Marshall. \n\nPersonal life\n\nUllman married producer Allan McKeown on 27 December 1983. They have two children; Mabel, born in 1986, and Johnny, born in 1991. Mabel is currently a charity director and has worked for the Labour Party; Johnny is an actor and currently writes for The Late Late Show with James Corden. On 24 December 2013, Allan McKeown died at his home from prostate cancer, just three days shy of the couple's 30th wedding anniversary. Ullman's mother died in a fire that took place at her retirement flat on 23 March 2015. An inquest ruled the death to be accidental. She was 85 years old. \n\nUllman became an American citizen in December 2006 and now holds dual citizenship in the United States and the United Kingdom. The results of the 2004 United States presidential election, and a comment made by actor Tom Hanks, prompted her desire to naturalise. “Tom Hanks was standing in a corridor at a party and I said something, and he was just very nice and he went, ‘Oh, yeah. I know that but you’re British. You know, you don’t have to put up with that stuff ... I went, ‘No. Actually I’ve been here a long time.‘ I thought, that’s it. I’m going to join in. So I took the [citizenship] test.” In 2006, she topped the list for the \"Wealthiest British Comedians,\" with an estimated wealth of £75 million. In 2015, Ullman's wealth was estimated to be £77 million, making her the wealthiest female British comedian, and the second richest British actress.\n\nIn the past, she has described herself a British republican. \"Even as a kid, I never got why we pay people millions of pounds to be better than us.\" On a particular incident: \"An MP once suggested I be put in the Tower of London for saying derogatory things about the royals.\" \n\nAn avid knitter, she co-authored a book on the subject, Knit 2 Together: Patterns and Stories for Serious Knitting Fun in 2006. \n\nFilmography\n\nTelevision\n\nFilm\n\nMusic videos\n\nStage credits\n\nDiscography\n\nSolo\n\n*1983: You Broke My Heart in 17 Places – No. 12 UK; No. 34 US\n*1984: You Caught Me Out – No. 92 UK\n\nSoundtrack\n\n*2005: The Corpse Bride\n*2014: Into the Woods\n\nComedy\n\n*1983: Three of a Kind (with Lenny Henry and David Copperfield)\n\nAudiobook\n\n*1993: Puss in Boots\n\nCompilation\n\n*1984: Forever – The Best of Tracey Ullman\n*1992: The Best of Tracey Ullman: You Broke My Heart in 17 Places\n*1996: The Very Best of Tracey Ullman\n*2002: The Best of... Tracey Ullman\n*2002: Tracey Ullman Takes on the Hits\n*2010: Tracey Ullman - Move Over Darling: The Complete Stiff Recordings\n\nCharting singles\n\n*1983: \"Breakaway\" – No. 4 UK; No. 70 US\n*1983: \"They Don't Know\" – No. 2 UK; No. 8 US\n*1983: \"Move Over Darling\" – No. 8 UK\n*1984: \"My Guy\" – No. 23 UK\n*1984: \"Sunglasses\" – No. 18 UK\n*1984: \"Helpless\" – No. 61 UK\n*1985: \"Terry\" – No. 81 UK\n\nAwards and honours\n\nUllman is a seven-time Emmy Award-winning actress. To date, she has been nominated twenty-four times. \n\nOn 5 December 2006, she was honoured at the Museum of Television and Radio along with likes of Carol Burnett, Lesley Visser, Lesley Stahl, Jane Pauley and Betty White, in the She Made It category. \n\nIn April 2009, it was announced that Ullman would be awarded a Lifetime Achievement BAFTA Award the following May. She became the first recipient of the Charlie Chaplin Lifetime Achievement Award for Comedy on 9 May 2009. \n\nAwarded\n\n; American Comedy Awards\n* 1988–Funniest Female Performer of the Year\n* 1988–Funniest Female Performer in a TV Series (Leading Role) Network, Cable or Syndication, The Tracey Ullman Show\n* 1989–Funniest Female Performer in a TV Special (Leading or Supporting) Network, Cable or Syndication, Tracey Ullman: Backstage\n* 1990–Funniest Female Performer in a TV Series (Leading Role) Network, Cable or Syndication, The Tracey Ullman Show\n* 1991–Funniest Female Performer in a TV Series (Leading Role) Network, Cable or Syndication, The Tracey Ullman Show\n* 1992–American Comedy Award Funniest Female Performer in a Television Special, Funny Women of Television \n* 1994–Funniest Female Performer in a TV Special (Leading or Supporting) Network, Cable or Syndication, Tracey Takes on New York\n* 1996–American Comedy Award Funniest Female Performer in a Television Special, Women of the Night IV \n* 1998–American Comedy Award Funniest Female Leading Performer in a Television Series, Tracey Takes On... \n* 1999–American Comedy Award Funniest Female Guest Appearance in a Television Series, Ally McBeal \n* 1999–American Comedy Award Funniest Female Leading Performer in a Television Series, Tracey Takes On... \n* 2000–American Comedy Award Funniest Female Leading Performer in a Television Series Tracey Takes On...\n\n; BAFTA Awards\n* 1984–Best Light Entertainment Performance, Three of a Kind\n* 2009–Lifetime Achievement Award\n\n; CableACE Awards\n* 1995–Best Performance in a Comedy Series, Tracey Ullman: Takes on New York \n* 1996–Best Actress in a Comedy Series, Tracey Takes On... \n* 1996–Best Variety Special or Series, Tracey Takes On...\n\n; Primetime Emmy Awards\n* 1989–Outstanding Variety, Music or Comedy Program, The Tracey Ullman Show \n* 1990–Outstanding Writing in a Variety or Music Program, The Tracey Ullman Show \n* 1990–Outstanding Individual Performance in a Variety or Music Program, The Best of the Tracey Ullman Show\n* 1993–Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series, Love & War\n* 1994–Outstanding Individual Performance in a Variety or Music Programme, Tracey Ullman: Takes On New York\n* 1997–Outstanding Variety, Music or Comedy Series, Tracey Takes On...\n* 1999–Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series, Ally McBeal\n\n; Golden Globe Awards\n* 1988–Best Actress in a Television Series - Comedy or Musical\n\n; London Critics' Circle Award\n* 1981–Most Promising New Actress, Four in a Million\n\n; Museum of Television and Radio\n* 2006–She Made It\n\n; Satellite Awards\n* 1998–Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series - Comedy or Musical, Tracey Takes On... \n* 2008–Best Actress in a Series, Comedy or Musical, State of the Union\n\n; Screen Actors Guild Awards\n* 1999–Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Comedy Series, Tracey Takes On...\n\n; Theatre World Award\n* 1991–Taming of the Shrew\n* 1991–The Big Love\n\n; Women in Film\n* 1995–Lucy Award in recognition of her excellence and innovation in her creative works that have enhanced the perception of women through the medium of television \n\nBibliography\n\n*\n*\n*" ] }

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{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe", "TagMe" ], "filename": [ "Oregon.txt", "Cascade_Range.txt" ], "title": [ "Oregon", "Cascade Range" ], "wiki_context": [ "Oregon ( ) is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. Oregon is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean, on the north by Washington, on the south by California, on the east by Idaho, and on the southeast by Nevada. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary, and the Snake River delineates much of the eastern boundary. The parallel 42° north delineates the southern boundary with California and Nevada. It is one of only three states of the contiguous United States to have a coastline on the Pacific Ocean, and the proximity to the ocean heavily influences the state's mild winter climate, despite the latitude.\n\nOregon was inhabited by many indigenous tribes before Western traders, explorers, and settlers arrived. An autonomous government was formed in the Oregon Country in 1843, the Oregon Territory was created in 1848, and Oregon became the 33rd state on February 14, 1859. Today, at 98,000 square miles (255,000 km²), Oregon is the ninth largest and, with a population of 4 million, 26th most populous U.S. state. The capital of Oregon is Salem, the second most populous of its cities, with 160,614 residents (2013 estimate). With 609,456 residents (2013 estimate), Portland is the largest city in Oregon and ranks 29th in the U.S. Its metro population of 2,314,554 (2013 estimate) is 24th. The Willamette Valley in western Oregon is the state's most densely populated area, home to eight of the ten most populous cities.\n\nOregon's landscape is diverse, with a windswept Pacific coastline; a volcano-studded Cascade Range; abundant bodies of water in and west of the Cascades; dense evergreen, mixed, and deciduous forests at lower elevations; and a high desert sprawling across much of its east all the way to the Great Basin. The tall conifers, mainly Douglas fir, along Oregon's rainy west coast contrast with the lighter-timbered and fire-prone pine and juniper forests covering portions to the east. Abundant alders in the west fix nitrogen for the conifers. Stretching east from central Oregon are semi-arid shrublands, prairies, deserts, steppes, and meadows. At 11249 ft, Mount Hood is the state's highest point, and Crater Lake National Park is Oregon's only national park.\n\nEtymology\n\nThe earliest evidence of the name Oregon has Spanish origins. The term \"orejón\" comes from the historical chronicle Relación de la Alta y Baja California (1598) written by the new Spaniard Rodrigo Motezuma and made reference to the Columbia river when the Spanish explorers penetrated into the actual north american territory that became part of the Viceroyalty of New Spain. This chronicle is the first topographical and linguistic source with respect to the place name Oregon. There are also two other sources with Spanish origins such as the name Oregano which grows in the southern part of the region. It is most probable that the American territory was named by the Spaniards as there are some populations in Spain such as \"Arroyo del Oregón\" which is situated in the province of Ciudad Real, also considering that the individualization in Spanish language \"El Orejón\" with the mutation of the letter \"g\" instead of \"j\". \n\nAnother early use of the name, spelled Ouragon, was in a 1765 petition by Major Robert Rogers to the Kingdom of Great Britain. The term referred to the then-mythical River of the West (the Columbia River). By 1778 the spelling had shifted to Oregon. In his 1765 petition, Rogers wrote:\nThe rout...is from the Great Lakes towards the Head of the Mississippi, and from thence to the River called by the Indians Ouragon... \n\nOne theory is the name comes from the French word ouragan (\"windstorm\" or \"hurricane\"), which was applied to the River of the West based on Native American tales of powerful Chinook winds of the lower Columbia River, or perhaps from firsthand French experience with the Chinook winds of the Great Plains. At the time, the River of the West was thought to rise in western Minnesota and flow west through the Great Plains. \n\nJoaquin Miller explained in Sunset magazine, in 1904, how Oregon's name was derived:\nThe name, Oregon, is rounded down phonetically, from Aure il agua—Oragua, Or-a-gon, Oregon—given probably by the same Portuguese navigator that named the Farallones after his first officer, and it literally, in a large way, means cascades: 'Hear the waters.' You should steam up the Columbia and hear and feel the waters falling out of the clouds of Mount Hood to understand entirely the full meaning of the name Aure il agua, Oregon. \n\nAnother account, endorsed as the \"most plausible explanation\" in the book Oregon Geographic Names, was advanced by George R. Stewart in a 1944 article in American Speech. According to Stewart, the name came from an engraver's error in a French map published in the early 18th century, on which the Ouisiconsink (Wisconsin) River was spelled \"Ouaricon-sint,\" broken on two lines with the -sint below, so there appeared to be a river flowing to the west named \"Ouaricon.\"\n\nAccording to the Oregon Tourism Commission (doing business as Travel Oregon), present-day Oregonians pronounce the state's name as \"or-uh-gun, never or-ee-gone.\"\n\nAfter being drafted by the Detroit Lions in 2002, former Oregon Ducks quarterback Joey Harrington distributed \"Orygun\" stickers to members of the media as a reminder of how to pronounce the name of his home state. The stickers are sold by the University of Oregon Bookstore. \n\nHistory\n\n Humans have inhabited the area that is now Oregon for at least 15,000 years. In recorded history, mentions of the land date to as early as the 16th century. During the 18th and 19th centuries, European powers – and later the United States – quarreled over possession of the region until 1846, when the U.S. and Great Britain finalized division of the region. Oregon became a state in 1859 and is now home to over 3.97 million residents.\n\nEarliest inhabitants\n\nHuman habitation of the Pacific Northwest began at least 15,000 years ago, with the oldest evidence of habitation in Oregon found at Fort Rock Cave and the Paisley Caves in Lake County. Archaeologist Luther Cressman dated material from Fort Rock to 13,200 years ago. By 8000 BC there were settlements throughout the state, with populations concentrated along the lower Columbia River, in the western valleys, and around coastal estuaries.\n\nBy the 16th century, Oregon was home to many Native American groups, including the Coquille (Ko-Kwell), Bannock, Chasta, Chinook, Kalapuya, Klamath, Molalla, Nez Perce, Takelma, Tillamook and Umpqua. \n\nEuropean exploration\n\nThe first Europeans to visit Oregon were Spanish explorers led by Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo who sighted southern Oregon off the Pacific Coast in 1543. Francis Drake made his way to Nehalem Bay in 1579 and spent 5 weeks in the middle of summer repairing his ship and claimed the land between 38-48 degrees N latitude as a Symbolic Sovereign Act for England. Exploration was retaken routinely in 1774, starting with the expedition of the frigate Santiago by Juan José Pérez Hernández (see Spanish expeditions to the Pacific Northwest), and the coast of Oregon became a valuable trading route to Asia. In 1778, British captain James Cook also explored the coast. \n\nFrench Canadian and métis trappers and missionaries arrived in the eastern part of the state in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, many having travelled as members of Lewis and Clark and the 1811 Astor expeditions. Some stayed permanently, including Étienne Lussier, believed to be the first European farmer in the state of Oregon. The evidence of this French Canadian presence can be found in the numerous names of French origin in that part of the state, including Malheur Lake and the Malheur River, the Grande Ronde and Deschutes rivers, and the city of La Grande.\n\nDuring U.S. westward expansion\n\nThe Lewis and Clark Expedition traveled through northern Oregon also in search of the Northwest Passage. They built their winter fort in 1805–06 at Fort Clatsop, near the mouth of the Columbia River.\n\nBritish explorer David Thompson also conducted overland exploration. In 1811, while working for the North West Company, Thompson became the first European to navigate the entire Columbia River. Stopping on the way, at the junction of the Snake River, he posted a claim to the region for Great Britain and the North West Company. Upon returning to Montreal, he publicized the abundance of fur-bearing animals in the area.\n\nAlso in 1811, New Yorker John Jacob Astor financed the establishment of Fort Astoria at the mouth of the Columbia River as a western outpost to his Pacific Fur Company; this was the first permanent European settlement in Oregon.\n\nIn the War of 1812, the British gained control of all Pacific Fur Company posts. The Treaty of 1818 established joint British and American occupancy of the region west of the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific Ocean. By the 1820s and 1830s, the Hudson's Bay Company dominated the Pacific Northwest from its Columbia District headquarters at Fort Vancouver (built in 1825 by the district's chief factor, John McLoughlin, across the Columbia from present-day Portland).\n\nIn 1841, the expert trapper and entrepreneur Ewing Young died leaving considerable wealth and no apparent heir, and no system to probate his estate. A meeting followed Young's funeral at which a probate government was proposed. Doctor Ira Babcock of Jason Lee's Methodist Mission was elected supreme judge. Babcock chaired two meetings in 1842 at Champoeg, (half way between Lee's mission and Oregon City), to discuss wolves and other animals of contemporary concern. These meetings were precursors to an all-citizen meeting in 1843, which instituted a provisional government headed by an executive committee made up of David Hill, Alanson Beers, and Joseph Gale. This government was the first acting public government of the Oregon Country before annexation by the government of the United States.\n\nAlso in 1841, Sir George Simpson, governor of the Hudson's Bay Company, reversed the Hudson's Bay Company's long-standing policy of discouraging settlement because it interfered with the lucrative fur trade. He directed that some 200 Red River Colony settlers be relocated to HBC farms near Fort Vancouver, (the James Sinclair expedition), in an attempt to hold Columbia District.\n\nStarting in 1842–1843, the Oregon Trail brought many new American settlers to Oregon Country. For some time, it seemed that Britain and the United States would go to war for a third time in 75 years (see Oregon boundary dispute), but the border was defined peacefully in 1846 by the Oregon Treaty. The border between the United States and British North America was set at the 49th parallel. The Oregon Territory was officially organized in 1848.\n\nSettlement increased with the Donation Land Claim Act of 1850 and the forced relocation of the native population to Indian reservations in Oregon.\n\nAfter statehood\n\nOregon was admitted to the Union on February 14, 1859. Founded as a refuge from disputes over slavery, Oregon had a \"whites only\" clause in its original state Constitution. \n\nAt the outbreak of the American Civil War, regular U.S. troops were withdrawn and sent east. Volunteer cavalry recruited in California were sent north to Oregon to keep peace and protect the populace. The First Oregon Cavalry served until June 1865.\n\nBeginning in the 1880s, the growth of railroads expanded the state's lumber, wheat, and other agricultural markets, and the rapid growth of its cities.\n\n20th and 21st centuries\n\nIn 1902, Oregon introduced direct legislation by the state's citizens through initiatives and referenda, known as the Oregon System.\n\nOn May 5, 1945, six people were killed by a Japanese bomb that exploded on Gearhart Mountain near Bly. http://www.fs.usda.gov/recarea/fremont-winema/recarea/?recid\n59797 This is the only fatal attack on the United States mainland committed by a foreign nation since the Mexican–American War, making Oregon the only U.S. state that has experienced fatal casualties by a foreign army since 1848, as Hawaii was not yet a state when Pearl Harbor was attacked in 1941. The bombing site is now called the Mitchell Recreation Area.\n\nIndustrial expansion began in earnest following the 1933–1937 construction of the Bonneville Dam on the Columbia River. Hydroelectric power, food, and lumber provided by Oregon helped fuel the development of the West, although the periodic fluctuations in the U.S. building industry have hurt the state's economy on multiple occasions.\n\nIn 1994, Oregon became the first U.S. state to legalize physician-assisted suicide through the Oregon Death with Dignity Act.\n\nA measure to legalize recreational use of marijuana in Oregon was approved on November 4, 2014, making Oregon only the second state to have legalized gay marriage, physician-assisted suicide, and recreational marijuana.\n\nAfrican American history\n\nAs the nation expanded west, those making their way to the newly expanded territories often took their slaves with them, despite slavery being prohibited in the new territories. While slaves were present they were not recorded as slaves on documents, due to slavery's illegal status. Some territories took harsh and firm stances against blacks, and Oregon was among them.\n\nIn December 1844, Oregon passed its Black Exclusion Law, which prohibited African Americans from entering the territory while simultaneously prohibiting slavery. Slave owners who brought their slaves with them were given three years before they were forced to free them. Any African Americans in the region after the law was passed were forced to leave, those who did not comply were arrested and beaten. They received no less than twenty and no more than thirty-nine stripes across their bare back. If they still did not leave, this process could be repeated every six months. \n\nAlthough slavery was prohibited in Oregon, it persisted even into its statehood. In fact, in 1852 Robin Holmes was forced to file a lawsuit against his former owner, Nathaniel Ford. Ford held Holmes and his family as slaves in the Oregon territory and eventually freed Holmes, his wife, and infant child; but refused to release Holmes' three older children. The case made its way to the Oregon Supreme Court where Holmes won and Ford was required to release the children. \n\nSlavery played a major part in Oregon's history and even influenced its path to statehood. The territory's request for statehood was delayed several times, as Congress argued among themselves whether it should be admitted as a \"free\" or \"slave\" state. Eventually politicians from the south agreed to allow Oregon to enter as a \"free\" state, in exchange for opening slavery to the southwest United States. \n\nGeography\n\nOregon's geography may be split roughly into eight areas:\n* Oregon Coast—west of the Coast Range\n* Willamette Valley\n* Rogue Valley\n* Cascade Range\n* Klamath Mountains\n* Columbia Plateau\n* High Desert\n* Blue Mountains\n\nThe mountainous regions of western Oregon, home to three of the most prominent mountain peaks of the United States including Mount Hood, were formed by the volcanic activity of the Juan de Fuca Plate, a tectonic plate that poses a continued threat of volcanic activity and earthquakes in the region. The most recent major activity was the 1700 Cascadia earthquake. Washington's Mount St. Helens erupted in 1980, an event that was visible from northern Oregon and affected some areas there.\n\nThe Columbia River, which forms much of the northern border of Oregon, also played a major role in the region's geological evolution, as well as its economic and cultural development. The Columbia is one of North America's largest rivers, and one of two rivers to cut through the Cascades (the Klamath River in Southern Oregon is the other). About 15,000 years ago, the Columbia repeatedly flooded much of Oregon during the Missoula Floods; the modern fertility of the Willamette Valley is largely a result of those floods. Plentiful salmon made parts of the river, such as Celilo Falls, hubs of economic activity for thousands of years. In the 20th century, numerous hydroelectric dams were constructed along the Columbia, with major impacts on salmon, transportation and commerce, electric power, and flood control.\n\nToday, Oregon's landscape varies from rain forest in the Coast Range to barren desert in the southeast, which still meets the technical definition of a frontier.\n\nOregon is 295 mi north to south at longest distance, and 395 mi east to west at longest distance. In land and water area, Oregon is the ninth largest state, covering 98381 sqmi. The highest point in Oregon is the summit of Mount Hood, at 11249 ft, and its lowest point is the sea level of the Pacific Ocean along the Oregon Coast. Oregon's mean elevation is 3300 ft. Crater Lake National Park is the state's only national park and the site of Crater Lake, the deepest lake in the U.S. at 1943 ft. Oregon claims the D River as the shortest river in the world, though the state of Montana makes the same claim of its Roe River. Oregon is also home to Mill Ends Park (in Portland), the smallest park in the world at 452 sqin.\n\nOregon's geographical center is farther west than that of any of the other 48 contiguous states (although the westernmost point of the lower 48 states is in Washington). Its antipodes, diametrically opposite its geographical center on the Earth's surface, is at in the Indian Ocean northwest of Port-aux-Français in the French Southern and Antarctic Lands. Oregon lies in two time zones. Most of Malheur County is in the Mountain Time Zone while the rest of the state lies in the Pacific Time Zone.\n\nOregon is home to what is considered the largest single organism in the world, an Armillaria solidipes fungus beneath the Malheur National Forest of eastern Oregon. \n\nFile:Trilliumlake.jpg|Mount Hood, with Trillium Lake in the foreground\nFile:Crater lake oregon.jpg|An aerial view of Crater Lake\nFile:Oregon High Desert.jpg|The High Desert region of Oregon\nFile:Kalmiopsis.jpg|Kalmiopsis Wilderness\nFile:Portland panorama3.jpg|Portland\nFile:Eugene skyline crop.jpg|Downtown Eugene as seen from Skinner Butte in North Eugene\nFile:Roxy Ann Peak 2.jpg|Roxy Ann Peak, seen from Medford\nFile:Oregon population map 2000.png|Map of Oregon's population density\nFile:Public-Lands-Western-US.png|Nearly half of Oregon's land is held by the U.S. Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management \nFile:Wpdms_shdrlfi020l_willamette_valley.jpg|Willamette Valley basin map\n\nMajor cities\n\nOregon's population is largely concentrated in the Willamette Valley, which stretches from Eugene in the south (home of the University of Oregon) through Corvallis (home of Oregon State University) and Salem (the capital) to Portland (Oregon's largest city). \n\nAstoria, at the mouth of the Columbia River, was the first permanent English-speaking settlement west of the Rockies in what is now the United States. Oregon City, at the end of the Oregon Trail, was the Oregon Territory's first incorporated city, and was its first capital from 1848 until 1852, when the capital was moved to Salem. Bend, near the geographic center of the state, is one of the ten fastest-growing metropolitan areas in the United States. In the southern part of the state, Medford is a rapidly growing metro area, which is home to The Rogue Valley International-Medford Airport, the third-busiest airport in the state. To the south, near the California-Oregon border, is the community of Ashland, home of the Tony Award-winning Oregon Shakespeare Festival.\n\nClimate\n\nOregon's climate is generally mild. The state has an oceanic climate west of the Cascade mountain range. The climate varies with dense evergreen mixed forests spreading across much of the west, and a high desert sprawling to the east. The southwestern portion of the state, particularly the Rogue Valley, has a Mediterranean climate with drier and sunnier winters and hotter summers, similar to Northern California.\n\nThe northeastern portion of Oregon has a steppe climate, and the high terrain regions have a subarctic climate. Like Western Europe, Oregon, and the Pacific Northwest in general, is considered warm for its latitude, and the state has far milder winters for the given elevation than the comparable latitude parts of North America, such as the Upper Midwest, Ontario, Quebec and New England.\n\nWestern Oregon's climate is heavily influenced by the Pacific Ocean. The western third of Oregon is very wet in the winter, moderately to very wet during the spring and fall, and dry during the summer. The relative humidity of Western Oregon is high except during summer days, which are semi-dry to semi-humid; Eastern Oregon typically sees low humidity year-round.\n\nThe eastern two thirds of Oregon have cold, snowy winters and very dry summers; much of it is semiarid to arid like the rest of the Great Basin, though the Blue Mountains are wet enough to support extensive forests.\n\nMost of the state does get significant snowfall, but 70 percent of Oregon's population lives in the Willamette Valley, which has exceptionally mild winters for its latitude and typically only sees a few light snows each year. This gives Oregon a reputation of being relatively \"snowless\".\n\nOregon's highest recorded temperature is 119 F at Pendleton on August 10, 1898, and the lowest recorded temperature is at Seneca on February 10, 1933. \n\nThe table below lists the averages for selected areas of Oregon, including the largest cities and largest coastal city Astoria.\n\nFlora and fauna\n\nTypical of a western state, Oregon is home to a unique and diverse array of wildlife. About 46% of the state is covered in forest, mostly west of the Cascades where up to 80% of the land is forest. Sixty percent of the forests in Oregon are within federal land. Oregon remains the top timber producer of the lower 48 states. \n* Typical tree species include the Douglas fir, the state tree, as well as redwood, ponderosa pine (generally east of the Cascades), western red cedar, hemlock, and ferns. Ponderosa pine are more common in the Blue Mountains in the eastern part of the state and firs are more common in the west.\n* There are many species of mammals that live in the state, which include, but are not limited to, opossums, shrews, moles, little pocket mice, great basin pocket mice, dark kangaroo mouse, California kangaroo rat, chisel-toothed kangaroo rat, ord's kangaroo rat, bats, rabbits, pikas, mountain beavers, chipmunks, western gray squirrels, yellow-bellied marmots, beavers, porcupines, coyotes, wolves, red foxes, common grey fox, kit fox, black bears, raccoons, badgers, skunks, cougars, bobcats, lynxes, deer, elk, and moose.\n* Marine mammals include seals, sea lions, humpback, killer whales, gray whales, blue whales, sperm whale, pacific whitesided dolphin, and bottlenose dolphin. \n* Notable birds include American widgeons, mallard ducks, great blue herons, bald eagles, golden eagles, western meadowlarks (the state bird), barn owls, great horned owls, rufous hummingbirds, pileated woodpeckers, wrens, towhees, sparrows, and buntings. \n\nMoose have not always inhabited the state but came to Oregon in the 1960s; the Wallowa Valley herd now numbers about 60. Gray wolves were extirpated from Oregon around 1930 but have since found their way back; there are now two packs living in the south-central part of the state. Although their existence in Oregon is unconfirmed, reports of grizzly bears still turn up the state and it is probable that some still move into eastern Oregon from Idaho. \nThere are some areas in Oregon where humans find themselves living in the same area as wildlife. This is bound to happen more as the human population grows. When wildlife resources dwindle (food, water and shelter) they will often look for food and shelter in homes and garages. \n\nOregon has three national park sites: Crater Lake National Park in the southern part of the Cascades, John Day Fossil Beds National Monument, and Lewis and Clark National and State Historical Parks. \n\nGovernance\n\nA writer in the Oregon Country book A Pacific Republic, written in 1839, predicted the territory was to become an independent republic. Four years later, in 1843, settlers of the Willamette Valley voted in majority for a republic government. The Oregon Country functioned in this way until August 13, 1848, when Oregon was annexed by the United States and a territorial government was established. Oregon maintained a territorial government until February 14, 1859, when it was granted statehood. \n\nState\n\n Oregon state government has a separation of powers similar to the federal government. It has three branches:\n* a legislative branch (the bicameral Oregon Legislative Assembly),\n* an executive branch which includes an \"administrative department\" and Oregon's governor serving as chief executive, and\n* a judicial branch, headed by the Chief Justice of the Oregon Supreme Court.\n\nGovernors in Oregon serve four-year terms and are limited to two consecutive terms, but an unlimited number of total terms. Oregon has no lieutenant governor; in the event that the office of governor is vacated, Article V, Section 8a of the Oregon Constitution specifies that the Secretary of State is first in line for succession. The other statewide officers are Treasurer, Attorney General, Superintendent, and Labor Commissioner. The biennial Oregon Legislative Assembly consists of a thirty-member Senate and a sixty-member House. The state supreme court has seven elected justices, currently including the only two openly gay state supreme court justices in the nation. They choose one of their own to serve a six-year term as Chief Justice. The only court that may reverse or modify a decision of the Oregon Supreme Court is the Supreme Court of the United States.\n\nThe debate over whether to move to annual sessions is a long-standing battle in Oregon politics, but the voters have resisted the move from citizen legislators to professional lawmakers. Because Oregon's state budget is written in two-year increments and, having no sales tax, its revenue is based largely on income taxes, it is often significantly over- or under-budget. Recent legislatures have had to be called into special session repeatedly to address revenue shortfalls resulting from economic downturns, bringing to a head the need for more frequent legislative sessions. Oregon Initiative 71, passed in 2010, mandates the Legislature to begin meeting every year, for 160 days in odd-numbered years, and 35 days in even-numbered years.\n\nThe state maintains formal relationships with the nine federally recognized tribes in Oregon:\n* Burns Paiute Tribe\n* Confederated Tribes of Coos, Lower Umpqua and Siuslaw Indians\n* Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde\n* Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians\n* Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs\n* Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation\n* Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Tribe of Indians\n* Klamath Tribes\n* Coquille Indian Tribe\n\nOregonians have voted for the Democratic Presidential candidate in every election since 1988. In 2004 and 2006, Democrats won control of the state Senate and then the House. Since the late 1990s, Oregon has been represented by four Democrats and one Republican in the U.S. House of Representatives. Since 2009, the state has had two Democratic Senators, Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley. Oregon voters have elected Democratic governors in every election since 1986, most recently electing John Kitzhaber over Republican Dennis Richardson in 2014.\n\nThe base of Democratic support is largely concentrated in the urban centers of the Willamette Valley. The eastern two-thirds of the state beyond the Cascade Mountains typically votes Republican; in 2000 and 2004, George W. Bush carried every county east of the Cascades. However, the region's sparse population means that the more populous counties in the Willamette Valley usually outweigh the eastern counties in statewide elections.\n\nOregon's politics are largely similar to those of neighboring Washington – for instance, in the contrast between urban and rural issues.\n\nIn the 2002 general election, Oregon voters approved a ballot measure to increase the state minimum wage automatically each year according to inflationary changes, which are measured by the consumer price index (CPI). In the 2004 general election, Oregon voters passed ballot measures banning same-sex marriage, and restricting land use regulation. In the 2006 general election, voters restricted the use of eminent domain and extended the state's discount prescription drug coverage. \n\nThe distribution, sales, and consumption of alcoholic beverages are regulated in the state by the Oregon Liquor Control Commission. Thus, Oregon is an Alcoholic beverage control state. While wine and beer are available in most grocery stores, few stores sell hard liquor.\n\nFederal\n\nLike all US states, Oregon is represented by two U.S. Senators. Since the 1980 census, Oregon has had five Congressional districts.\n\nAfter Oregon was admitted to the Union, it began with a single member in the House of Representatives (La Fayette Grover, who served in the 35th United States Congress for less than a month). Congressional apportionment increased the size of the delegation following the censuses of 1890, 1910, 1940, and 1980. A detailed list of the past and present Congressional delegations from Oregon is available.\n\nThe United States District Court for the District of Oregon hears federal cases in the state. The court has courthouses in Portland, Eugene, Medford, and Pendleton. Also in Portland is the federal bankruptcy court, with a second branch in Eugene. Oregon (among other western states and territories) is in the 9th Court of Appeals. One of the court's meeting places is at the Pioneer Courthouse in downtown Portland, a National Historic Landmark built in 1869.\n\nPolitics\n\n \n\nThe state has been thought of as politically split by the Cascade Range, with western Oregon being liberal and Eastern Oregon being conservative. In a 2008 analysis of the 2004 presidential election, a political analyst found that according to the application of a Likert scale, Oregon boasted both the most liberal Kerry voters and the most conservative Bush voters, making it the most politically polarized state in the country. \n\nWhile Republicans typically win more counties by running up huge margins in the east, the Democratic tilt of the more populated west is usually enough to swing the entire state Democratic. In 2008, for instance, Republican Senate incumbent Gordon H. Smith lost his bid for a third term even though he carried all but six counties. His Democratic challenger, Jeff Merkley, won Multnomah County by 142,000 votes, more than double the overall margin of victory.\n\nDuring Oregon's history it has adopted many electoral reforms proposed during the Progressive Era, through the efforts of William S. U'Ren and his Direct Legislation League. Under his leadership, the state overwhelmingly approved a ballot measure in 1902 that created the initiative and referendum for citizens to introduce or approve proposed laws or amendments to the state constitution directly, making Oregon the first state to adopt such a system. Today, roughly half of U.S. states do so. \n\nIn following years, the primary election to select party candidates was adopted in 1904, and in 1908 the Oregon Constitution was amended to include recall of public officials. More recent amendments include the nation's first doctor-assisted suicide law, called the Death with Dignity Act (which was challenged, unsuccessfully, in 2005 by the Bush administration in a case heard by the U.S. Supreme Court), legalization of medical cannabis, and among the nation's strongest anti-urban sprawl and pro-environment laws. More recently, 2004's Measure 37 reflects a backlash against such land-use laws. However, a further ballot measure in 2007, Measure 49, curtailed many of the provisions of 37.\n\nOf the measures placed on the ballot since 1902, the people have passed 99 of the 288 initiatives and 25 of the 61 referendums on the ballot, though not all of them survived challenges in courts (see Pierce v. Society of Sisters, for an example). During the same period, the legislature has referred 363 measures to the people, of which 206 have passed.\n\nOregon pioneered the American use of postal voting, beginning with experimentation approved by the Oregon Legislative Assembly in 1981 and culminating with a 1998 ballot measure mandating that all counties conduct elections by mail. It remains the only state, with the exception of Washington, where voting by mail is the only method of voting. \n\nIn 1994, Oregon adopted the Oregon Health Plan, which made health care available to most of its citizens without private health insurance.\n\nIn the U.S. Electoral College, Oregon casts seven votes. Oregon has supported Democratic candidates in the last seven elections. Democratic incumbent Barack Obama won the state by a margin of twelve percentage points, with over 54% of the popular vote in 2012.\n\nEconomy\n\nThe gross domestic product (GDP) of Oregon in 2013 was $219.6 billion, a 2.7% increase from 2012; Oregon is the 25th wealthiest state by GDP. In 2003, Oregon was 28th in the U.S. by GDP. The state's per capita personal income (PCPI) in 2013 was $39,848, a 1.5% increase from 2012. Oregon ranks 33rd in the U.S. by PCPI, compared to 31st in 2003. The national PCPI in 2013 was $44,765. \n\nOregon's unemployment rate was 6.7% in December 2014, while the U.S. unemployment rate was 5.6% that month. Oregon has the third largest amount of food stamp users in the nation (21% of the population). \n\nAgriculture\n\nLand in the Willamette Valley owes its fertility to the Missoula Floods, which deposited lake sediment from Glacial Lake Missoula in western Montana onto the valley floor.McNab, W. Henry; Avers, Peter E (July 1994). [http://www.fs.fed.us/land/pubs/ecoregions/ Ecological Subregions of the United States. Chapter 24.] U.S. Forest Service and Dept. of Agriculture.\n\nOregon is also one of four major world hazelnut growing regions, and produces 95% of the domestic hazelnuts in the United States. While the history of the wine production in Oregon can be traced to before Prohibition, it became a significant industry beginning in the 1970s. In 2005, Oregon ranked third among U.S. states with 303 wineries. Due to regional similarities in climate and soil, the grapes planted in Oregon are often the same varieties found in the French regions of Alsace and Burgundy.\nIn 2014, 71 wineries opened in the state. The total is currently 676, which represents growth of 12% over 2013. \n\nIn the Southern Oregon coast commercially cultivated cranberries account for about 7 percent of US production, and the cranberry ranks 23rd among Oregon's top 50 agricultural commodities. From 2006 to 2008, Oregon growers harvested between 40 and of berries every year. Cranberry cultivation in Oregon uses about 27000 acre in southern Coos and northern Curry counties, centered around the coastal city of Bandon.\n\nIn the northeastern region of the state, particularly around Pendleton, both irrigated and dry land wheat is grown. Oregon farmers and ranchers also produce cattle, sheep, dairy products, eggs and poultry.\n\nForestry and fisheries\n\nVast forests have historically made Oregon one of the nation's major timber production and logging states, but forest fires (such as the Tillamook Burn), over-harvesting, and lawsuits over the proper management of the extensive federal forest holdings have reduced the timber produced. Between 1989 and 2011, the amount of timber harvested from federal lands in Oregon dropped about 90%, although harvest levels on private land have remained relatively constant. \n\nEven the shift in recent years towards finished goods such as paper and building materials has not slowed the decline of the timber industry in the state. The effects of this decline have included Weyerhaeuser's acquisition of Portland-based Willamette Industries in January 2002, the relocation of Louisiana-Pacific's corporate headquarters from Portland to Nashville, and the decline of former lumber company towns such as Gilchrist. Despite these changes, Oregon still leads the United States in softwood lumber production; in 2011, 4134 e6board feet was produced in Oregon, compared with 3685 e6board feet in Washington, 1914 e6board feet in Georgia, and 1708 e6board feet in Mississippi. The slowing of the timber and lumber industry has caused high unemployment rates in rural areas. \n\nOregon has one of the largest salmon-fishing industries in the world, although ocean fisheries have reduced the river fisheries in recent years. See also the List of freshwater fishes of Oregon.\n\nTourism\n\n \n\nTourism is also a strong industry in the state. Oregon's mountains, forests, waterfalls, beaches and lakes, including Crater Lake National Park draw visitors year round. The Oregon Shakespeare Festival, held in Ashland, is a tourist draw for Southern Oregon.\n\nOregon is home to many breweries and Portland has the largest number of breweries of any city in the world. \n\nOregon occasionally hosts film shoots. Movies filmed in Oregon include: Animal House, Free Willy, The General, The Goonies, Kindergarten Cop, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, and Stand By Me. Oregon native Matt Groening, creator of The Simpsons, has incorporated many references from his hometown of Portland into the TV series. \n\nTechnology\n\nHigh technology industries located in Silicon Forest have been a major employer since the 1970s. Tektronix was the largest private employer in Oregon until the late 1980s. Intel's creation and expansion of several facilities in eastern Washington County continued the growth that Tektronix had started. Intel, the state's largest for-profit private employer, operates four large facilities, with Ronler Acres, Jones Farm and Hawthorn Farm all located in Hillsboro. \n\nThe spinoffs and startups that were produced by these two companies led to the establishment in that area of the so-called Silicon Forest. The recession and dot-com bust of 2001 hit the region hard; many high technology employers reduced the number of their employees or went out of business. Open Source Development Labs made news in 2004 when they hired Linus Torvalds, developer of the Linux kernel. In 2010, biotechnology giant Genentech opened a $400-million facility in Hillsboro to expand its production capabilities. Oregon is home to several large datacenters that take advantage of cheap power and a climate in Central Oregon conducive to reducing cooling costs. Google has a large datacenter in The Dalles and Facebook has built a large datacenter in Prineville. In 2011, Amazon began operating a datacenter in northeastern Oregon near Boardman. \n\nCorporate headquarters\n\nOregon is also the home of large corporations in other industries. The world headquarters of Nike are located near Beaverton. Medford is home to Harry and David, which sells gift items under several brands. Medford is also home to the national headquarters of the Fortune 1000 company, Lithia Motors. Portland is home to one of the West's largest trade book publishing houses, Graphic Arts Center Publishing. Oregon is also home to Mentor Graphics Corporation, a world leader in electronic design automation located in Wilsonville and employs roughly 4,500 people worldwide.\n\nAdidas Corporations American Headquarters is located in Portland and employs roughly 900 full-time workers at its Portland campus. Adidas competes with Beaverton based Nike as \"the other sports giant in town\". The main Adidas campus has been ranked as one of the best places to work in Portland. \n\nNike, located just outside Portland in nearby Beaverton employs roughly 5,000 full-time employees at its 200 acre campus. Nike's Beaverton campus is continuously ranked as a top employer in the Portland area-along with competitor Adidas. \n\nIntel Corporation employs 18,600 in Oregon with the majority of these employees located at the company's Hillsboro campus located about 30 minutes west of Portland. Intel has been a top employer in Oregon since 1974. \n\nThe U.S. Federal Government and Providence Health systems are respective contenders for top employers in Oregon with roughly 12,000 federal workers and 14,000 Providence Health workers.\n\nEmployment\n\nAs of December 2014, the state's official unemployment rate was 6.7%. Oregon's largest for-profit employer is Intel, located in the Silicon Forest area on Portland's west side. Intel was the largest employer in Oregon until 2008. As of January 2009, the largest employer in Oregon is Providence Health & Services, a non-profit. \n\nNike and Adidas also have their North American headquarters in the Portland area.\n\nTaxes and budgets\n\nOregon's biennial state budget, $42.4 billion as of 2007, comprises General Funds, Federal Funds, Lottery Funds, and Other Funds. Personal income taxes account for 88% of the General Fund's projected funds. The Lottery Fund, which has grown steadily since the lottery was approved in 1984, exceeded expectations in the 2007 fiscal years, at $604 million. \n\nOregon is one of only five states that have no sales tax. Oregon voters have been resolute in their opposition to a sales tax, voting proposals down each of the nine times they have been presented. The last vote, for 1993's Measure 1, was defeated by a 75–25% margin. \n\nThe state also has a minimum corporate tax of only $10 a year, amounting to 5.6% of the General Fund in the 2005–7 biennium; data about which businesses pay the minimum is not available to the public. As a result, the state relies on property and income taxes for its revenue. Oregon has the fifth highest personal income tax in the nation. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Oregon ranked 41st out of the 50 states in taxes per capita in 2005 with an average amount paid of 1,791.45.\n\nA few local governments levy sales taxes on services: the city of Ashland, for example, collects a 5% sales tax on prepared food. \n\nOregon is one of six states with a revenue limit. The \"kicker law\" stipulates that when income tax collections exceed state economists' estimates by 2% or more, any excess must be returned to taxpayers. Since the enactment of the law in 1979, refunds have been issued for seven of the eleven biennia. In 2000, Ballot Measure 86 converted the \"kicker\" law from statute to the Oregon Constitution, and changed some of its provisions.\n\nFederal payments to county governments, which were granted to replace timber revenue when logging in National Forests was restricted in the 1990s, have been under threat of suspension for several years. This issue dominates the future revenue of rural counties, which have come to rely on the payments in providing essential services. \n\nFifty-five percent of state revenues are spent on public education, 23% on human services (child protective services, Medicaid, and senior services), 17% on public safety, and 5% on other services. \n\nDemographics\n\nPopulation\n\nThe United States Census Bureau estimates that the population of Oregon was 4,028,977 on July 1, 2015, a 5.17% increase over the 2010 United States Census.\n\nOregon was the U.S.'s \"Top Moving Destination\" in 2014 with two families moving into the state for every one moving out of state (66.4% to 33.6%). Oregon was also the top moving destination in 2013, and second most popular destination in 2010 through 2012. \n\nAs of the census of 2010, Oregon had a population of 3,831,074, which is an increase of 409,675, or 12%, since the year 2000. The population density was . There were 1,675,562 housing units, a 15.3% increase over 2000. Among them, 90.7% were occupied.\n\nIn 2010, 78.5% of the population was white alone (meaning of no other race and non-Hispanic), 1.7% was black or African American alone, 1.1% was Native American or Alaska native alone, 3.6% was Asian alone, 0.3% was Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islander alone, 0.1% was another race alone, and 2.9% was multiracial. Hispanics or Latinos made up 11.7% of the total population.\n\nThe state's most populous ethnic group, non-Hispanic white, has declined from 95.8% in 1970 to 77.8% in 2012. \n\nAs of 2011, 38.7% of Oregon's children under one year of age belonged to minority groups, meaning they had at least one parent who was not a non-Hispanic white. Of the state's total population, 22.6% was under the age 18, and 77.4% were 18 or older.\n\nThe center of population of Oregon is located in Linn County, in the city of Lyons. More than 46% of the state's population lives in the Oregon portion of the Portland metropolitan area. \n\nAs of 2004, Oregon's population included 309,700 foreign-born residents (accounting for 8.7% of the state population).\n\nThe largest ancestry groups in the state are: \n* 22.5% German\n* 14.0% English\n* 13.2% Irish\n* 8.4% Scandinavian: (4.1% Norwegian American, 3.1% Swedish, & 1.2% Danish)\n* 5.0% American\n* 3.9% French\n* 3.7% Italian\n* 3.6% Scottish\n* 2.7% Scots-Irish\n* 2.6% Dutch\n* 1.9% Polish\n* 1.4% Russian\n* 1.1% Welsh\n\nThe largest reported ancestry groups in Oregon are: German (22.5%), English (14.0%), Irish (13.2%), Scandinavian (8.4%) and American (5.0%). Approximately 62% of Oregon residents are wholly or partly of English, Welsh, Irish or Scottish ancestry. Most Oregon counties are inhabited principally by residents of Northwestern-European ancestry. Concentrations of Mexican-Americans are highest in Malheur and Jefferson counties. But despite the fact that Russians account for only 1.4% of the population, Russian is the third most spoken language in Oregon after English and Spanish. \n\nThe majority of the diversity in Oregon is in the Portland metropolitan area.\n\nFuture projections\n\nProjections from the U.S. Census Bureau show Oregon's population increasing to 4,833,918 by 2030, an increase of 41.3% compared to the state's population of 3,421,399 in 2000. The state's own projections forecast a total population of 5,425,408 in 2040. \n\nReligious and secular communities\n\nThe largest denominations by number of adherents in 2010 were the Roman Catholic Church with 398,738; The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints with 147,965; and the Assemblies of God with 45,492. \n\nIn a 2009 Gallup poll, 69% of Oregonians identified themselves as being Christian. Most of the remainder of the population had no religious affiliation; the 2008 American Religious Identification Survey (ARIS) placed Oregon as tied with Nevada in fifth place of U.S. states having the highest percentage of residents identifying themselves as \"non-religious\", at 24 percent. Secular organizations include the Center for Inquiry (CFI), the Humanists of Greater Portland (HGP), and the United States Atheists (USA).\n\nDuring much of the 1990s, a group of conservative Christians formed the Oregon Citizens Alliance, and unsuccessfully tried to pass legislation to prevent \"gay sensitivity training\" in public schools and legal benefits for homosexual couples. \n\nOregon also contains the largest community of Russian Old Believers to be found in the United States. The Northwest Tibetan Cultural Association is headquartered in Portland. There are an estimated 6,000 to 10,000 Muslims in Oregon, most of whom live in and around Portland. The New Age film What the Bleep Do We Know!? was filmed and had its premiere in Portland.\n\nEducation\n\nPrimary and secondary\n\nAs of 2010, the state had 561,698 students in public primary and secondary schools.[http://bluebook.state.or.us/facts/almanac/almanac05.htm \"Oregon Blue Book: Oregon Almanac: Native Americans to shoes, oldest.\"] Oregon Secretary of State. Retrieved on January 5, 2012. There were 197 public school districts at that time, served by 20 education service districts. The five largest school districts as of 2007 were: Portland Public Schools (46,262 students); Salem-Keizer School District (40,106); Beaverton School District (37,821); Hillsboro School District (20,401); and Eugene School District (18,025). \n\nColleges and universities\n\nPublic\n\nOregon supports seven public universities and one affiliate in the state. It is home to three public research universities: The University of Oregon (UO) in Eugene and Oregon State University (OSU) in Corvallis, both classified as research universities with very high research activity, and Portland State University which is classified as a research university with high research activity. UO is the state's most selective university by percentage of students admitted and highest nationally ranked university by U.S. News & World Report and Forbes.[http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/usnews/edu/college/rankings/brief/t1natudoc_brief.php USNews.com: America's Best Colleges 2008: National Universities: Best Schools] OSU is the state's only land-grant university, has the state's largest enrollment for fall 2014, and is the state's highest ranking university according to Academic Ranking of World Universities, Washington Monthly, and QS World University Rankings. OSU receives more annual funding for research than all other public higher education institutions in Oregon combined. The state's urban Portland State University has Oregon's second largest enrollment.\n\nThe state has three regional universities: Western Oregon University in Monmouth, Southern Oregon University in Ashland, and Eastern Oregon University in La Grande. The Oregon Institute of Technology has its campus in Klamath Falls. The quasi-public Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) includes medical, dental, and nursing schools, and graduate programs in biomedical sciences in Portland and a science and engineering school in Hillsboro. It rated 2nd among US best medical schools for primary care based on research by The Med School 100. \n\nEspecially since the 1990 passage of Measure 5, which set limits on property tax levels, Oregon has struggled to fund higher education. Since then, Oregon has cut its higher education budget and now ranks 46th in the country in state spending per student. However, 2007 legislation forced tuition increases to cap at 3% per year, and funded the university system far beyond the governor's requested budget. \n\nThe state also supports 17 community colleges.\n\nPrivate\n\nOregon is home to a wide variety of private colleges. The University of Portland and Marylhurst University are Catholic institutions in the Portland area. Reed College; Concordia University; Lewis & Clark College; Multnomah Bible College; Portland Bible College; Warner Pacific College; Cascade College; the National University of Natural Medicine; and Western Seminary, a theological graduate school; are also in Portland. Pacific University is in the Portland suburb of Forest Grove.\n\nThere are also private colleges farther south in the Willamette Valley. McMinnville has Linfield College, while nearby Newberg is home to George Fox University. Salem is home to two private schools: Willamette University (the state's oldest, established during the provisional period) and Corban University. Also located near Salem is Mount Angel Seminary, one of America's largest Roman Catholic seminaries. The state's second medical school, the College of Osteopathic Medicine of the Pacific, Northwest, is located in Lebanon. Eugene is home to three private colleges: Northwest Christian University, New Hope Christian College, and Gutenberg College.\n\nSports\n\nOregon is home to three major professional sports teams: the Portland Trail Blazers of the NBA, the Portland Thorns of the NWSL and the Portland Timbers of MLS.[http://portlandtimbers.com/newsroom/headlines/index.html?article_id\n1108 \"MLS awards team to Portland for 2011.\"] Portland Timbers, March 20, 2009.\n\nUntil 2011, the only major professional sports team in Oregon was the Portland Trail Blazers of the National Basketball Association. From the 1970s to the 1990s, the Blazers were one of the most successful teams in the NBA in terms of both win-loss record and attendance. In the early 21st century, the team's popularity declined due to personnel and financial issues, but revived after the departure of controversial players and the acquisition of new players such as Brandon Roy, LaMarcus Aldridge, and Damian Lillard.\nThe Blazers play in the Moda Center in Portland's Lloyd District, which also is home to the Portland Winterhawks of the junior Western Hockey League and the Arena Football League's Portland Steel.\n\nThe Portland Timbers play at Providence Park, just west of downtown Portland. The Timbers have a strong following, with the team regularly selling out its games. The Timbers repurposed the formerly multi-use stadium into a soccer-specific stadium in fall 2010, increasing the seating in the process. The Timbers operate Portland Thorns FC, a women's soccer team that has played in the National Women's Soccer League since the league's first season in 2013. The Thorns, who also play at Providence Park, won the league's first championship, and have been by far the NWSL's attendance leader in all three of its seasons to date.\n\nEugene, Salem and Hillsboro have minor-league baseball teams. The Eugene Emeralds the Salem-Keizer Volcanoes and the Hillsboro Hops all play in the Single-A Northwest League.[http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/index.jsp?sid\nl126 \"Northwest League.\"] Minor League Baseball. Retrieved January 15, 2008. Portland has had minor-league baseball teams in the past, including the Portland Beavers and Portland Rockies, who played most recently at Providence Park when it was known as PGE Park.\n\nOregon also has four teams in the fledgling International Basketball League: the Portland Chinooks, Central Oregon Hotshots, Salem Stampede, and the Eugene Chargers.[http://www.iblhoopsonline.com/ \"International Basketball League.\"] International Basketball League. Retrieved January 15, 2008.\n\nThe Oregon State Beavers and the University of Oregon Ducks football teams of the Pac-12 Conference meet annually in the Civil War. Both schools have had recent success in other sports as well: Oregon State won back-to-back college baseball championships in 2006 and 2007, and the University of Oregon won back-to-back NCAA men's cross country championships in 2007 and 2008. \n\nSister states\n\n* , Fujian Province – 1984\n* (Taiwan), Taiwan Province – 1985\n* , Toyama Prefecture – 1991\n* (South Korea), Jeollanam-do Province – 1996\n* , Iraqi Kurdistan – 2005", "The Cascade Range or Cascades is a major mountain range of western North America, extending from southern British Columbia through Washington and Oregon to Northern California. It includes both non-volcanic mountains, such as the North Cascades, and the notable volcanoes known as the High Cascades. The small part of the range in British Columbia is referred to as the Canadian Cascades or, locally, as the Cascade Mountains. The latter term is also sometimes used by Washington residents to refer to the Washington section of the Cascades in addition to North Cascades, the more usual U.S. term, as in North Cascades National Park. The highest peak in the range is Mount Rainier in Washington at 14411 ft.\n\n part of the Pacific Ocean's Ring of Fire, the ring of volcanoes and associated mountains around the Pacific Ocean. All of the eruptions in the contiguous United States over the last 200 years have been from Cascade volcanoes. The two most recent were Lassen Peak from 1914 to 1921 and a major eruption of Mount St. Helens in 1980. Minor eruptions of Mount St. Helens have also occurred since, most recently from 2004–2008. The Cascade Range is a part of the American Cordillera, a nearly continuous chain of mountain ranges (cordillera) that form the western \"backbone\" of North America, Central America, and South America.\n\nGeography \n\nThe Cascades extend northward from Lassen Peak (also known as Mount Lassen) in northern California to the confluence of the Nicola and Thompson rivers in British Columbia. The Fraser River separates the Cascades from the Coast Mountains. The highest volcanoes of the Cascades, known as the High Cascades, dominate their surroundings, often standing twice the height of the nearby mountains. They often have a visual height (height above nearby crestlines) of one mile or more. The highest peaks, such as the 14411 ft Mount Rainier, dominate their surroundings for 50 to.\n\nThe northern part of the range, north of Mount Rainier, is known as the North Cascades in the United States but is formally named the Cascade Mountains north of the Canada–United States border, reaching to the northern extremity of the Cascades at Lytton Mountain. Overall, the North Cascades and Canadian Cascades are extremely rugged; even the lesser peaks are steep and glaciated, and valleys are quite low relative to peaks and ridges, so there is great local relief. The southern part of the Canadian Cascades, particularly the Skagit Range, is geologically and topographically similar to the North Cascades, while the northern and northeastern parts are less glaciated and more plateau-like, resembling nearby areas of the Thompson Plateau.\n\nBecause of the range's proximity to the Pacific Ocean and the region's prevailing westerly winds, precipitation is substantial, especially on the western slopes due to orographic lift, with annual snow accumulations of up to 1000 in in some areas. Mount Baker in Washington recorded a world-record single-season snowfall in the winter of 1998–99 with 1140 in. Prior to that year, Mount Rainier held the world record for snow accumulation at Paradise in 1978. It is not uncommon for some places in the Cascades to have over 500 in of annual snow accumulation, such as at Lake Helen, near Lassen Peak. Most of the High Cascades are therefore white with snow and ice year-round. The western slopes are densely covered with Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii), western hemlock (Tsuga heterophylla) and red alder (Alnus rubra), while the drier eastern slopes feature mostly ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa), with some western larch (Larix occidentalis), mountain hemlock (Tsuga mertensiana) and subalpine fir (Abies lasiocarpa) and subalpine larch (Larix lyallii) at higher elevations. Annual rainfall is as low as 9 in on the eastern foothills due to a rain shadow effect.\n\n Beyond the eastern foothills is an arid plateau that was largely created 17 to 14 million years ago by the many flows of the Columbia River Basalt Group. Together, these sequences of fluid volcanic rock form the 200000 sqmi Columbia Plateau in eastern Washington, Oregon, and parts of western Idaho. \n\nThe Columbia River Gorge is the only major break of the range in the United States. When the Cascades began to rise 7 million years ago in the Pliocene, the Columbia River drained the relatively low Columbia Plateau. As the range grew, erosion from the Columbia River was able to keep pace, creating the gorge and major pass seen today. The gorge also exposes uplifted and warped layers of basalt from the plateau. \n\nHistory \n\nIn early 1792 British navigator George Vancouver explored Puget Sound and gave English names to the high mountains he saw. Mount Baker was named for Vancouver's third lieutenant, Joseph Baker, although the first European to see it was Manuel Quimper, who named it \"La gran Montaña del Carmelo\" in 1790. Mount Rainier was named after Admiral Peter Rainier. Later in 1792 Vancouver had his lieutenant William Robert Broughton explore the lower Columbia River. He named Mount Hood after Lord Samuel Hood, an admiral of the Royal Navy. Mount St. Helens was sighted by Vancouver in May 1792, from near the mouth of the Columbia River. It was named for Alleyne FitzHerbert, 1st Baron St Helens, a British diplomat. Vancouver's expedition did not, however, name the mountain range which contained these peaks. He referred to it simply as the \"eastern snowy range\". Earlier Spanish explorers called it sierra nevadas, meaning \"snowy mountains\".\n\nIn 1805 the Lewis and Clark Expedition passed through the Cascades on the Columbia River, which for many years was the only practical way to pass that part of the range. They were the first non-indigenous people to see Mount Adams, but they thought it was Mount St. Helens. When they later saw Mount St. Helens they thought it was Mount Rainier. On their return trip Lewis and Clark spotted a high but distant snowy pinnacle that they named for the sponsor of the expedition, U.S. President Thomas Jefferson. Lewis and Clark called the Cascade Range the \"Western Mountains\".\n\nThe Lewis and Clark expedition, and the many settlers and traders that followed, met their last obstacle to their journey at the Cascades Rapids in the Columbia River Gorge, a feature on the river now submerged beneath the Bonneville Reservoir. Before long, the great white-capped mountains that loomed above the rapids were called the \"mountains by the cascades\" and later simply as the \"Cascades\". The earliest attested use of the name \"Cascade Range\" is in the writings of botanist David Douglas.\n\nIn 1814 Alexander Ross, a fur trader with the North West Company, seeking a viable route across the mountains, explored and crossed the northern Cascades between Fort Okanogan and Puget Sound. His report of the journey is vague about the route taken. He followed the lower Methow River into the mountains. He might have used Cascade Pass to reach the Skagit River. Ross was the first European-American to explore the Methow River area and likely the first to explore the Stehekin River and Bridge Creek region. Due to the difficulty of crossing the northern Cascades and the paucity of beaver, fur-trading companies made only a few explorations into the mountains north of the Columbia River after Ross.\n\nExploration and settlement of the Cascades region by Europeans and Americans was accelerated by the establishment of a major trading post of the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) at Fort Vancouver near today's Portland, Oregon. From this base HBC trapping parties traveled throughout the Cascades in search of beaver and other fur-bearing animals. For example, using what became known as the Siskiyou Trail, Hudson's Bay Company trappers were the first non-natives to explore the southern Cascades in the 1820s and 1830s, establishing trails which passed near Crater Lake, Mount McLoughlin, Medicine Lake Volcano, Mount Shasta, and Lassen Peak. \n\nThe course of political history in the Pacific Northwest saw the spine of the Cascade Range being proposed as a boundary settlement during the Oregon Dispute of 1846. The United States rejected the proposal and insisted on the 49th parallel north, which cuts across the range just north of Mount Baker. Throughout the period of dispute and up to the creation of the Crown Colony of British Columbia in 1858, the Hudson's Bay Company's York Factory Express route, as well the route of fur brigades, followed the Okanogan River along the east edge of the Cascades and the Columbia River through the range. Passes across the range were not well known and little used. Naches Pass was used for driving cattle and horses to Fort Nisqually. Yakima Pass was also used by the Hudson's Bay Company.\n\nAmerican settlement of the flanks of the Coast Range did not occur until the early 1840s, at first only marginally. Following the Oregon Treaty the inward flux of migration from the Oregon Trail intensified and the passes and back-valleys of what is now the state of Washington were explored and populated, and it was not long after that railways followed. Despite its being traversed by several major freeways and rail lines, and its lower flanks subjected to major logging in recent decades, large parts of the range remain intense and forbidding alpine wilderness. Much of the northern half of the Cascades, from Rainier north, have been preserved by U.S. national or British Columbia provincial parks (such as E.C. Manning Provincial Park), or other forms of protected area. \n\nThe Canadian side of the range has a history that includes the Fraser Canyon Gold Rush of 1858–60 and its famous Cariboo Road, as well as the older Hudson's Bay Company Brigade Trail from the Canyon to the Interior, the Dewdney Trail, and older routes which connected east to the Similkameen and Okanagan valleys.\n\nThe southern mainline of the Canadian Pacific Railway penetrated the range via the passes of the Coquihalla River, along one of the steepest and snowiest routes in the entire Pacific Cordillera. Near Hope, B.C., the railway roadbed and the Othello Tunnels, now decommissioned, are popular tourist recreation destinations for hiking and bicycling. The pass is used by the Coquihalla Highway, a government megaproject built as part of the Expo 86 spending boom of the 1980s, which is now the main route from the Coast to the British Columbia interior. Traffic formerly went via the Fraser Canyon, to the west, or via Allison Pass and Manning Park along Highway 3 to the south, near the border.\n\nThe Barlow Road was the first established land path for U.S. settlers through the Cascade Range in 1845, and formed the final overland link for the Oregon Trail (previously, settlers had to raft down the treacherous rapids of the Columbia River). The Road left the Columbia at what is now Hood River and passed along the south side of Mount Hood at what is now Government Camp, terminating in Oregon City. There is an interpretive site there now at \"The End of The Oregon Trail.\" The road was constructed as a toll road — $5 per wagon — and was very successful.\n\nIn addition, the Applegate Trail was created to allow settlers to avoid rafting down the Columbia River. The Trail used the path of the California Trail to north-central Nevada. From there, the Trail headed northwest into northern California, and continued northwest towards today's Ashland, Oregon. From there, settlers would head north along the established Siskiyou Trail into the Willamette Valley.\n\nWith the exception of the 1915 eruption of remote Lassen Peak in Northern California, the range was quiet for more than a century. Then, on May 18, 1980, the dramatic eruption of little-known Mount St. Helens shattered the quiet and brought the world's attention to the range. Geologists were also concerned that the St. Helens eruption was a sign that long-dormant Cascade volcanoes might become active once more, as in the period from 1800 to 1857 when a total of eight erupted. None have erupted since St. Helens, but precautions are being taken nevertheless, such as the Mount Rainier Volcano Lahar Warning System in Pierce County, Washington. \n\nGeology\n\nThe Cascade range is made up of a band of thousands of very small, short-lived volcanoes that have built a platform of lava and volcanic debris. Rising above this volcanic platform are a few strikingly large volcanoes, like Mount St. Helens, that dominate the landscape. \n\nThe Cascade volcanoes define the Pacific Northwest section of the Ring of Fire, an array of volcanoes that rim the Pacific Ocean. The Ring of Fire is also known for its frequent earthquakes. The volcanoes and earthquakes arise from a common source: subduction, where\nthe dense Juan de Fuca oceanic plate plunges beneath the North American Plate.\n As the oceanic slab sinks deep into the Earth's interior beneath the continental plate, high temperatures and pressures allow water molecules locked in the minerals of solid rock to escape. The water vapor rises into the pliable mantle above the subducting plate, causing some of the mantle to melt. This newly formed magma rises toward the Earth's surface to erupt, forming a chain of volcanoes (the Cascade Volcanic Arc) above the subduction zone.\n\nHuman uses and legends\n\nSoil conditions for farming are generally good, especially downwind of volcanoes. This is largely because volcanic rocks are often rich in potassium bearing minerals such as orthoclase and decay easily. Volcanic debris, especially lahars, also have a leveling effect and the storage of water in the form of snow and ice is also important. These snow-capped mountains such as Mt. Hood and Mt. Bachelor are used as ski resorts in the late winter. Much of that water eventually flows into reservoirs, where it is used for recreation before its potential energy is captured to generate hydroelectric power before being used to irrigate crops.\n\nBecause of the abundance of powerful streams, many of the major westward rivers off the Cascades have been dammed to provide hydroelectric power. One of these, Ross Dam on the Skagit River, created a reservoir which spans the border southeast of Hope, British Columbia, extending 2 mi into Canada. At the foot of the southeast flank of Mount Baker, at Concrete, Washington, the Baker River is dammed to form Lake Shannon and Baker Lake.\n\nIn addition, there is a largely untapped amount of geothermal power that can be generated from the Cascades. The U.S. Geological Survey Geothermal Research Program has been investigating this potential. Some of this energy is already being used in places like Klamath Falls, Oregon, where volcanic steam is used to heat public buildings. The highest recorded temperature found in the range is 510 F at 3075 ft below Newberry Volcano's caldera floor.\n\nIndigenous peoples have inhabited the area for thousands of years and developed their own myths and legends about the Cascades. In these legends, St. Helens with its pre-1980 graceful appearance, was regarded as a beautiful maiden for whom Hood and Adams feuded.\nNative tribes also developed their own names for the High Cascades and many of the smaller peaks, including \"Tahoma\", the Lushootseed name for Mount Rainier; and \"Louwala-Clough\", meaning \"smoking mountain\" for Mount St. Helens.\n\nEcology\n\nForests of large, coniferous trees (Western red cedars, Douglas-firs, Western hemlocks, firs, pines, spruces, and others) dominate most of the Cascade Range. Cool, wet winters and warm, dry summers (largely a result of oceanic influence) favor evergreen species, whereas mild temperatures and rich soils promote fast and prolonged growth. \n\nAs a traveller passes through the Cascade Range, the climate first gets colder, then warmer and drier east of the crest. Most of the Cascades' lower and middle elevations are covered in coniferous forest; the higher altitudes have extensive meadows as well as alpine tundra and glaciers. The southern part of the Cascades are within the California Floristic Province, an area of high biodiversity.\n\nBlack bears, coyotes, bobcats, cougars, beavers, deer, elk, moose, mountain goats and a few wolf packs returning from Canada live in the Cascades. Fewer than 50 grizzly bears reside in the Cascades of Canada and Washington." ] }

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{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe" ], "filename": [ "Saddam_Hussein.txt" ], "title": [ "Saddam Hussein" ], "wiki_context": [ "Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti (Arabic: '; 28 April 1937 – 30 December 2006) was the fifth President of Iraq, serving in this capacity from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003. A leading member of the revolutionary Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party, and later, the Baghdad-based Ba'ath Party and its regional organization the Iraqi Ba'ath Party—which espoused Ba'athism, a mix of Arab nationalism and socialism—Saddam played a key role in the 1968 coup (later referred to as the 17 July Revolution) that brought the party to power in Iraq.\n\nAs vice president under the ailing General Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr, and at a time when many groups were considered capable of overthrowing the government, Saddam created security forces through which he tightly controlled conflict between the government and the armed forces. In the early 1970s, Saddam nationalized oil and other industries. The state-owned banks were put under his control, leaving the system eventually insolvent mostly due to the Iran–Iraq War, the Gulf War, and UN sanctions. Through the 1970s, Saddam cemented his authority over the apparatuses of government as oil money helped Iraq's economy to grow at a rapid pace. Positions of power in the country were mostly filled with Sunni Arabs, a minority that made up only a fifth of the population.\n\nSaddam formally rose to power in 1979, although he had been the de facto head of Iraq for several years prior. He suppressed several movements, particularly Shi'a and Kurdish movements, seeking to overthrow the government or gain independence, and maintained power during the Iran–Iraq War and the Gulf War. Whereas some in the Arab world lauded Saddam for his opposition to the United States and for attacking Israel —he was widely condemned for the brutality of his dictatorship. The total number of Iraqis killed by the security services of Saddam's government in various purges and genocides is unknown, but the lowest estimate is 250,000.\n\nIn 2003, a coalition led by the U.S. invaded Iraq to depose Saddam, in which U.S. President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair accused him of possessing weapons of mass destruction and having ties to al-Qaeda. Saddam's Ba'ath party was disbanded and elections were held. Following his capture on 13 December 2003, the trial of Saddam took place under the Iraqi Interim Government. On 5 November 2006, Saddam was convicted of charges of crimes against humanity related to the 1982 killing of 148 Iraqi Shi'ites, and was sentenced to death by hanging. His execution was carried out on 30 December 2006. \n\nYouth\n\nSaddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti was born in the town of Al-Awja, 13 km (8 mi) from the Iraqi town of Tikrit, to a family of shepherds from the al-Begat clan group, a sub-group of the Al-Bu Nasir (البو ناصر) tribe. His mother, Subha Tulfah al-Mussallat, named her newborn son Saddam, which in Arabic means \"One who confronts\". He is always referred to by this personal name, which may be followed by the patronymic and other elements. He never knew his father, Hussein 'Abid al-Majid, who disappeared six months before Saddam was born. Shortly afterward, Saddam's 13-year-old brother died of cancer. The infant Saddam was sent to the family of his maternal uncle Khairallah Talfah until he was three. \n\nHis mother remarried, and Saddam gained three half-brothers through this marriage. His stepfather, Ibrahim al-Hassan, treated Saddam harshly after his return. At about age 10, Saddam fled the family and returned to live in Baghdad with his uncle Kharaillah Talfah. Talfah, the father of Saddam's future wife, was a devout Sunni Muslim and a veteran of the 1941 Anglo-Iraqi War between Iraqi nationalists and the United Kingdom, which remained a major colonial power in the region. \n\nLater in his life relatives from his native Tikrit became some of his closest advisors and supporters. Under the guidance of his uncle he attended a nationalistic high school in Baghdad. After secondary school Saddam studied at an Iraqi law school for three years, dropping out in 1957 at the age of 20 to join the revolutionary pan-Arab Ba'ath Party, of which his uncle was a supporter. During this time, Saddam apparently supported himself as a secondary school teacher. \n\nRevolutionary sentiment was characteristic of the era in Iraq and throughout the Middle East. In Iraq progressives and socialists assailed traditional political elites (colonial era bureaucrats and landowners, wealthy merchants and tribal chiefs, and monarchists). Moreover, the pan-Arab nationalism of Gamal Abdel Nasser in Egypt profoundly influenced young Ba'athists like Saddam. The rise of Nasser foreshadowed a wave of revolutions throughout the Middle East in the 1950s and 1960s, with the collapse of the monarchies of Iraq, Egypt, and Libya. Nasser inspired nationalists throughout the Middle East by fighting the British and the French during the Suez Crisis of 1956, modernizing Egypt, and uniting the Arab world politically. \n\nIn 1958, a year after Saddam had joined the Ba'ath party, army officers led by General Abd al-Karim Qasim overthrew Faisal II of Iraq in the 14 July Revolution.\n\nRise to power\n\nOf the 16 members of Qasim's cabinet, 12 were Ba'ath Party members; however, the party turned against Qasim due to his refusal to join Gamal Abdel Nasser's United Arab Republic. To strengthen his own position within the government, Qasim created an alliance with the Iraqi Communist Party, which was opposed to any notion of pan-Arabism. Later that year, the Ba'ath Party leadership was planning to assassinate Qasim. Saddam was a leading member of the operation. At the time, the Ba'ath Party was more of an ideological experiment than a strong anti-government fighting machine. The majority of its members were either educated professionals or students, and Saddam fit the bill. The choice of Saddam was, according to historian Con Coughlin, \"hardly surprising\". The idea of assassinating Qasim may have been Nasser's, and there is speculation that some of those who participated in the operation received training in Damascus, which was then part of the UAR. \n\nThe assassins planned to ambush Qasim at Al-Rashid Street on 7 October 1959: one man was to kill those sitting at the back of the car, the rest killing those in front. During the ambush it is claimed that Saddam began shooting prematurely, which disorganised the whole operation. Qasim's chauffeur was killed, and Qasim was hit in the arm and shoulder. The assassins believed they had killed him and quickly retreated to their headquarters, but Qasim survived. At the time of the attack the Ba'ath Party had less than 1,000 members. \n\nSome of the plotters quickly managed to leave the country for Syria, the spiritual home of Ba'athist ideology. There Saddam was given full-membership in the party by Michel Aflaq. Some members of the operation were arrested and taken into custody by the Iraqi government. At the show trial, six of the defendants were given the death sentence; for unknown reasons the sentences were not carried out. Aflaq, the leader of the Ba'athist movement, organised the expulsion of leading Iraqi Ba'athist members, such as Fuad al-Rikabi, on the grounds that the party should not have initiated the attempt on Qasim's life. At the same time, Aflaq managed to secure seats in the Iraqi Ba'ath leadership for his supporters, one them being Saddam. Saddam fled to Egypt in 1959, and he continued to live there until 1963.\n\nArmy officers with ties to the Ba'ath Party overthrew Qasim in the Ramadan Revolution coup of 1963. Ba'athist leaders were appointed to the cabinet and Abdul Salam Arif became president. Arif dismissed and arrested the Ba'athist leaders later that year in the November 1963 Iraqi coup d'état.\n\nArif died in a plane crash in 1966, in what may have been an act of sabotage by Ba'athist elements in the Iraqi military. Abd ar-Rahman al-Bazzaz became acting president for three days, and a power struggle for the presidency occurred. In the first meeting of the Defense Council and cabinet to elect a president, Al-Bazzaz needed a two-thirds majority to win the presidency. Al-Bazzaz was unsuccessful, and Abdul Rahman Arif was elected president. He was viewed by army officers as weaker and easier to manipulate than his brother. \n\nSaddam returned to Iraq, but was imprisoned in 1964. In 1966, Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr appointed him Deputy Secretary of the Regional Command. Saddam escaped from prison in 1967. Saddam, who would prove to be a skilled organiser, revitalised the party. He was elected to the Regional Command, as the story goes, with help from Michel Aflaq—the founder of Ba'athist thought. \n\nIn 1968, Saddam participated in a bloodless coup led by Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr that overthrew Abdul Rahman Arif. Saddam and Salah Omar al-Ali contacted Ba'athists in the military and helped lead them on the ground. Arif was given refuge in London and then Istanbul. Al-Bakr was named president and Saddam was named his deputy, and deputy chairman of the Ba'athist Revolutionary Command Council. According to biographers, Saddam never forgot the tensions within the first Ba'athist government, which formed the basis for his measures to promote Ba'ath party unity as well as his resolve to maintain power and programs to ensure social stability. Although Saddam was al-Bakr's deputy, he was a strong behind-the-scenes party politician. Al-Bakr was the older and more prestigious of the two, but by 1969 Saddam clearly had become the moving force behind the party.\n\nPolitical program\n\nIn the late 1960s and early 1970s, as vice chairman of the Revolutionary Command Council, formally al-Bakr's second-in-command, Saddam built a reputation as a progressive, effective politician. At this time, Saddam moved up the ranks in the new government by aiding attempts to strengthen and unify the Ba'ath party and taking a leading role in addressing the country's major domestic problems and expanding the party's following.\n\nAfter the Ba'athists took power in 1968, Saddam focused on attaining stability in a nation riddled with profound tensions. Long before Saddam, Iraq had been split along social, ethnic, religious, and economic fault lines: Sunni versus Shi'ite, Arab versus Kurd, tribal chief versus urban merchant, nomad versus peasant. The desire for stable rule in a country rife with factionalism led Saddam to pursue both massive repression and the improvement of living standards.\n\nSaddam actively fostered the modernization of the Iraqi economy along with the creation of a strong security apparatus to prevent coups within the power structure and insurrections apart from it. Ever concerned with broadening his base of support among the diverse elements of Iraqi society and mobilizing mass support, he closely followed the administration of state welfare and development programs.\n\nAt the center of this strategy was Iraq's oil. On 1 June 1972, Saddam oversaw the seizure of international oil interests, which, at the time, dominated the country's oil sector. A year later, world oil prices rose dramatically as a result of the 1973 energy crisis, and skyrocketing revenues enabled Saddam to expand his agenda.\n\nWithin just a few years, Iraq was providing social services that were unprecedented among Middle Eastern countries. Saddam established and controlled the \"National Campaign for the Eradication of Illiteracy\" and the campaign for \"Compulsory Free Education in Iraq,\" and largely under his auspices, the government established universal free schooling up to the highest education levels; hundreds of thousands learned to read in the years following the initiation of the program. The government also supported families of soldiers, granted free hospitalization to everyone, and gave subsidies to farmers. Iraq created one of the most modernized public-health systems in the Middle East, earning Saddam an award from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). \n\nWith the help of increasing oil revenues, Saddam diversified the largely oil-based Iraqi economy. Saddam implemented a national infrastructure campaign that made great progress in building roads, promoting mining, and developing other industries. The campaign helped Iraq's energy industries. Electricity was brought to nearly every city in Iraq, and many outlying areas. Before the 1970s, most of Iraq's people lived in the countryside and roughly two-thirds were peasants. This number would decrease quickly during the 1970s as global oil prices helped revenues to rise from less than a half billion dollars to tens of billions of dollars and the country invested into industrial expansion.\n\nThe oil revenue benefitted Saddam politically. According to The Economist, \"Much as Adolf Hitler won early praise for galvanising German industry, ending mass unemployment and building autobahns, Saddam earned admiration abroad for his deeds. He had a good instinct for what the \"Arab street\" demanded, following the decline in Egyptian leadership brought about by the trauma of Israel's six-day victory in the 1967 war, the death of the pan-Arabist hero, Gamal Abdul Nasser, in 1970, and the \"traitorous\" drive by his successor, Anwar Sadat, to sue for peace with the Jewish state. Saddam's self-aggrandising propaganda, with himself posing as the defender of Arabism against Jewish or Persian intruders, was heavy-handed, but consistent as a drumbeat. It helped, of course, that his mukhabarat (secret police) put dozens of Arab news editors, writers and artists on the payroll.\"\n\nIn 1972, Saddam signed a 15-year Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation with the Soviet Union. According to historian Charles R. H. Tripp, the Ba'athist coup of 1968 upset \"the US-sponsored security system established as part of the Cold War in the Middle East. It appeared that any enemy of the Baghdad regime was a potential ally of the United States.\" From 1973-5, the CIA colluded with Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi of Iran to finance and arm Kurdish rebels in the Second Kurdish–Iraqi War in an attempt to weaken al-Bakr. When Iran and Iraq signed the Algiers Agreement in 1975, the support ceased.\n\nSaddam focused on fostering loyalty to the Ba'athists in the rural areas. After nationalizing foreign oil interests, Saddam supervised the modernization of the countryside, mechanizing agriculture on a large scale, and distributing land to peasant farmers. The Ba'athists established farm cooperatives and the government also doubled expenditures for agricultural development in 1974–1975. Saddam's welfare programs were part of a combination of \"carrot and stick\" tactics to enhance support for Saddam. The state-owned banks were put under his thumb. Lending was based on cronyism. Development went forward at such a fevered pitch that two million people from other Arab countries and even Yugoslavia worked in Iraq to meet the growing demand for labor.\n\nSuccession\n\nIn 1976, Saddam rose to the position of general in the Iraqi armed forces, and rapidly became the strongman of the government. As the ailing, elderly al-Bakr became unable to execute his duties, Saddam took on an increasingly prominent role as the face of the government both internally and externally. He soon became the architect of Iraq's foreign policy and represented the nation in all diplomatic situations. He was the de facto leader of Iraq some years before he formally came to power in 1979. He slowly began to consolidate his power over Iraq's government and the Ba'ath party. Relationships with fellow party members were carefully cultivated, and Saddam soon accumulated a powerful circle of support within the party.\n\nIn 1979 al-Bakr started to make treaties with Syria, also under Ba'athist leadership, that would lead to unification between the two countries. Syrian President Hafez al-Assad would become deputy leader in a union, and this would drive Saddam to obscurity. Saddam acted to secure his grip on power. He forced the ailing al-Bakr to resign on 16 July 1979, and formally assumed the presidency.\n\nShortly afterwards, he convened an assembly of Ba'ath party leaders on 22 July 1979. During the assembly, which he ordered videotaped, Saddam claimed to have found a fifth column within the Ba'ath Party and directed Muhyi Abdel-Hussein to read out a confession and the names of 68 alleged co-conspirators. These members were labelled \"disloyal\" and were removed from the room one by one and taken into custody. After the list was read, Saddam congratulated those still seated in the room for their past and future loyalty. The 68 people arrested at the meeting were subsequently tried together and found guilty of treason. 22 were sentenced to execution. Other high-ranking members of the party formed the firing squad. By 1 August 1979, hundreds of high-ranking Ba'ath party members had been executed. \n\nParamilitary and police organizations\n\nIraqi society fissures along lines of language, religion and ethnicity. The Ba'ath Party, secular by nature, adopted Pan-Arab ideologies which in turn were problematic for significant parts of the population. Following the Iranian Revolution of 1979, Iraq faced the prospect of régime change from two Shi'ite factions (Dawa and SCIRI) which aspired to model Iraq on its neighbour Iran as a Shia theocracy. A separate threat to Iraq came from parts of the ethnic Kurdish population of northern Iraq which opposed being part of an Iraqi state and favoured independence (an ongoing ideology which had preceded Ba'ath Party rule). To alleviate the threat of revolution, Saddam afforded certain benefits to the potentially hostile population. Membership in the Ba'ath Party remained open to all Iraqi citizens regardless of background. However, repressive measures were taken against its opponents. \n\nThe major instruments for accomplishing this control were the paramilitary and police organizations. Beginning in 1974, Taha Yassin Ramadan (himself a Kurdish Ba'athist), a close associate of Saddam, commanded the People's Army, which had responsibility for internal security. As the Ba'ath Party's paramilitary, the People's Army acted as a counterweight against any coup attempts by the regular armed forces. In addition to the People's Army, the Department of General Intelligence was the most notorious arm of the state-security system, feared for its use of torture and assassination. Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti, Saddam's younger half-brother, commanded Mukhabarat. Foreign observers believed that from 1982 this department operated both at home and abroad in its mission to seek out and eliminate Saddam's perceived opponents.\n\nSaddam was notable for using terror against his own people. The Economist described Saddam as \"one of the last of the 20th century's great dictators, but not the least in terms of egotism, or cruelty, or morbid will to power\". Saddam's regime brought about the deaths of at least 250,000 Iraqis \nand committed war crimes in Iran, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia. Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International issued regular reports of widespread imprisonment and torture.\n\nPolitical and cultural image\n\nAs a sign of his consolidation of power, Saddam's personality cult pervaded Iraqi society. He had thousands of portraits, posters, statues and murals erected in his honor all over Iraq. His face could be seen on the sides of office buildings, schools, airports, and shops, as well as on Iraqi currency. Saddam's personality cult reflected his efforts to appeal to the various elements in Iraqi society. This was seen in his variety of apparel: he appeared in the costumes of the Bedouin, the traditional clothes of the Iraqi peasant (which he essentially wore during his childhood), and even Kurdish clothing, but also appeared in Western suits fitted by his favorite tailor, projecting the image of an urbane and modern leader. Sometimes he would also be portrayed as a devout Muslim, wearing full headdress and robe, praying toward Mecca.\n\nHe also conducted two show elections, in 1995 and 2002. In the 1995 referendum, conducted on 15 October, he reportedly received 99.96% of the votes in a 99.47% turnout, getting only 3052 negative votes among an electorate of 8.4 million. In the October 15, 2002 referendum he officially achieved 100% of approval votes and 100% turnout, as the electoral commission reported the next day that every one of the 11,445,638 eligible voters cast a \"Yes\" vote for the president. \n\nHe erected statues around the country, which Iraqis toppled after his fall. \n\nForeign affairs\n\nIraq's relations with the Arab world have been extremely varied. Relations between Iraq and Egypt violently ruptured in 1977, when the two nations broke relations with each other following Iraq's criticism of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat's peace initiatives with Israel. In 1978, Baghdad hosted an Arab League summit that condemned and ostracized Egypt for accepting the Camp David Accords. However, Egypt's strong material and diplomatic support for Iraq in the war with Iran led to warmer relations and numerous contacts between senior officials, despite the continued absence of ambassadorial-level representation. Since 1983, Iraq has repeatedly called for restoration of Egypt's \"natural role\" among Arab countries.\n\nSaddam developed a reputation for liking expensive goods, such as his diamond-coated Rolex wristwatch, and sent copies of them to his friends around the world. To his ally Kenneth Kaunda Saddam once sent a Boeing 747 full of presents – rugs, televisions, ornaments. Kaunda sent back his own personal magician. \n\nSaddam enjoyed a close relationship with Russian intelligence agent Yevgeny Primakov that dated back to the 1960s; Primakov may have helped Saddam to stay in power in 1991. \n\nSaddam's only visit to a Western country took place in September 1975 when he met with his friend, Prime Minister Jacques Chirac in Paris, France.\n\nSeveral Iraqi leaders, Lebanese arms merchant Sarkis Soghanalian and others have told that Saddam financed Chirac's party. In 1991 Saddam threatened to expose those who had taken largesse from him: \"From Mr. Chirac to Mr. Chevènement, politicians and economic leaders were in open competition to spend time with us and flatter us. We have now grasped the reality of the situation. If the trickery continues, we will be forced to unmask them, all of them, before the French public.\" France armed Saddam and it was Iraq's largest trade partner throughout Saddam's rule. Seized documents show how French officials and businessmen close to Chirac, including Charles Pasqua, his former interior minister, personally benefitted from the deals with Saddam.\n\nBecause Saddam Hussein rarely left Iraq, Tariq Aziz, one of Saddam's aides, traveled abroad extensively and represented Iraq at many diplomatic meetings. In foreign affairs, Saddam sought to have Iraq play a leading role in the Middle East. Iraq signed an aid pact with the Soviet Union in 1972, and arms were sent along with several thousand advisers. However, the 1978 crackdown on Iraqi Communists and a shift of trade toward the West strained Iraqi relations with the Soviet Union; Iraq then took on a more Western orientation until the Gulf War in 1991. \n\nAfter the oil crisis of 1973, France had changed to a more pro-Arab policy and was accordingly rewarded by Saddam with closer ties. He made a state visit to France in 1975, cementing close ties with some French business and ruling political circles. In 1975 Saddam negotiated an accord with Iran that contained Iraqi concessions on border disputes. In return, Iran agreed to stop supporting opposition Kurds in Iraq. Saddam led Arab opposition to the Camp David Accords between Egypt and Israel (1979).\n\nSaddam initiated Iraq's nuclear enrichment project in the 1980s, with French assistance. The first Iraqi nuclear reactor was named by the French \"Osirak\". Osirak was destroyed on 7 June 1981 by an Israeli air strike (Operation Opera).\n\nNearly from its founding as a modern state in 1920, Iraq has had to deal with Kurdish separatists in the northern part of the country. Saddam did negotiate an agreement in 1970 with separatist Kurdish leaders, giving them autonomy, but the agreement broke down. The result was brutal fighting between the government and Kurdish groups and even Iraqi bombing of Kurdish villages in Iran, which caused Iraqi relations with Iran to deteriorate. However, after Saddam had negotiated the 1975 treaty with Iran, the Shah withdrew support for the Kurds, who suffered a total defeat.\n\nIran–Iraq War\n\nIn early 1979, Iran's Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi was overthrown by the Islamic Revolution, thus giving way to an Islamic republic led by the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. The influence of revolutionary Shi'ite Islam grew apace in the region, particularly in countries with large Shi'ite populations, especially Iraq. Saddam feared that radical Islamic ideas—hostile to his secular rule—were rapidly spreading inside his country among the majority Shi'ite population.\n\nThere had also been bitter enmity between Saddam and Khomeini since the 1970s. Khomeini, having been exiled from Iran in 1964, took up residence in Iraq, at the Shi'ite holy city of An Najaf. There he involved himself with Iraqi Shi'ites and developed a strong, worldwide religious and political following against the Iranian Government, whom Saddam tolerated. However, when Khomeini began to urge the Shi'ites there to overthrow Saddam and under pressure from the Shah, who had agreed to a rapprochement between Iraq and Iran in 1975, Saddam agreed to expel Khomeini in 1978 to France. However this turned out to be an imminent failure and a political catalyst, for Khomeini had access to more media connections and also collaborated with a much larger Iranian community under his support whom he used to his advantage.\n\nAfter Khomeini gained power, skirmishes between Iraq and revolutionary Iran occurred for ten months over the sovereignty of the disputed Shatt al-Arab waterway, which divides the two countries. During this period, Saddam Hussein publicly maintained that it was in Iraq's interest not to engage with Iran, and that it was in the interests of both nations to maintain peaceful relations. However, in a private meeting with Salah Omar al-Ali, Iraq's permanent ambassador to the United Nations, he revealed that he intended to invade and occupy a large part of Iran within months. Later (probably to appeal for support from the United States and most Western nations), he would make toppling the Islamic government one of his intentions as well. \n\nIraq invaded Iran, first attacking Mehrabad Airport of Tehran and then entering the oil-rich Iranian land of Khuzestan, which also has a sizable Arab minority, on 22 September 1980 and declared it a new province of Iraq. With the support of the Arab states, the United States, and Europe, and heavily financed by the Arab states of the Persian Gulf, Saddam Hussein had become \"the defender of the Arab world\" against a revolutionary Iran. The only exception was the Soviet Union, who initially refused to supply Iraq on the basis of neutrality in the conflict, although in his memoirs, Mikhail Gorbachev claimed that Leonid Brezhnev refused to aid Saddam over infuriation of Saddam's treatment of Iraqi communists. Consequently, many viewed Iraq as \"an agent of the civilized world\". The blatant disregard of international law and violations of international borders were ignored. Instead Iraq received economic and military support from its allies, who conveniently overlooked Saddam's use of chemical warfare against the Kurds and the Iranians and Iraq's efforts to develop nuclear weapons.\n\nIn the first days of the war, there was heavy ground fighting around strategic ports as Iraq launched an attack on Khuzestan. After making some initial gains, Iraq's troops began to suffer losses from human wave attacks by Iran. By 1982, Iraq was on the defensive and looking for ways to end the war.\n\nAt this point, Saddam asked his ministers for candid advice. Health Minister Dr. Riyadh Ibrahim suggested that Saddam temporarily step down to promote peace negotiations. Initially, Saddam Hussein appeared to take in this opinion as part of his cabinet democracy. A few weeks later, Dr. Ibrahim was sacked when held responsible for a fatal incident in an Iraqi hospital where a patient died from intravenous administration of the wrong concentration of potassium supplement.\n\nDr. Ibrahim was arrested a few days after he started his new life as a sacked Minister. He was known to have publicly declared before that arrest that he was \"glad that he got away alive.\" Pieces of Ibrahim's dismembered body were delivered to his wife the next day. \n\nIraq quickly found itself bogged down in one of the longest and most destructive wars of attrition of the 20th century. During the war, Iraq used chemical weapons against Iranian forces fighting on the southern front and Kurdish separatists who were attempting to open up a northern front in Iraq with the help of Iran. These chemical weapons were developed by Iraq from materials and technology supplied primarily by West German companies as well as as using dual-use technology imported following the Reagan administration's lifting of export restrictions. The United States also supplied Iraq with \"satellite photos showing Iranian deployments\". In a US bid to open full diplomatic relations with Iraq, the country was removed from the US list of State Sponsors of Terrorism. Ostensibly, this was because of improvement in the regime's record, although former United States Assistant Secretary of Defense Noel Koch later stated, \"No one had any doubts about [the Iraqis'] continued involvement in terrorism... The real reason was to help them succeed in the war against Iran.\" The Soviet Union, France, and China together accounted for over 90% of the value of Iraq's arms imports between 1980 and 1988. \n\nSaddam reached out to other Arab governments for cash and political support during the war, particularly after Iraq's oil industry severely suffered at the hands of the Iranian navy in the Persian Gulf. Iraq successfully gained some military and financial aid, as well as diplomatic and moral support, from the Soviet Union, China, France, and the United States, which together feared the prospects of the expansion of revolutionary Iran's influence in the region. The Iranians, demanding that the international community should force Iraq to pay war reparations to Iran, refused any suggestions for a cease-fire. Despite several calls for a ceasefire by the United Nations Security Council, hostilities continued until 20 August 1988.\n\nOn 16 March 1988, the Kurdish town of Halabja was attacked with a mix of mustard gas and nerve agents, killing 5,000 civilians, and maiming, disfiguring, or seriously debilitating 10,000 more. (see Halabja poison gas attack) The attack occurred in conjunction with the 1988 al-Anfal Campaign designed to reassert central control of the mostly Kurdish population of areas of northern Iraq and defeat the Kurdish peshmerga rebel forces. The United States now maintains that Saddam ordered the attack to terrorize the Kurdish population in northern Iraq, but Saddam's regime claimed at the time that Iran was responsible for the attack which some including the U.S. supported until several years later.\n\nThe bloody eight-year war ended in a stalemate. There were hundreds of thousands of casualties with estimates of up to one million dead. Neither side had achieved what they had originally desired and at the borders were left nearly unchanged. The southern, oil rich and prosperous Khuzestan and Basra area (the main focus of the war, and the primary source of their economies) were almost completely destroyed and were left at the pre 1979 border, while Iran managed to make some small gains on its borders in the Northern Kurdish area. Both economies, previously healthy and expanding, were left in ruins.\n\nSaddam borrowed tens of billions of dollars from other Arab states and a few billions from elsewhere during the 1980s to fight Iran, mainly to prevent the expansion of Shiite radicalism. However, this had proven to completely backfire both on Iraq and on the part of the Arab states, for Khomeini was widely perceived as a hero for managing to defend Iran and maintain the war with little foreign support against the heavily backed Iraq and only managed to boost Islamic radicalism not only within the Arab states, but within Iraq itself, creating new tensions between the Sunni Ba'ath Party and the majority Shiite population. Faced with rebuilding Iraq's infrastructure and internal resistance, Saddam desperately re-sought cash, this time for postwar reconstruction.\n\nAl-Anfal Campaign\n\nThe Al-Anfal Campaign was a genocidal campaign against the Kurdish people (and many others) in Kurdish regions of Iraq led by the government of Saddam Hussein and headed by Ali Hassan al-Majid. The campaign takes its name from Surat al-Anfal in the Qur'an, which was used as a code name by the former Iraqi Ba'athist administration for a series of attacks against the peshmerga rebels and the mostly Kurdish civilian population of rural Northern Iraq, conducted between 1986 and 1989 culminating in 1988. This campaign also targeted Shabaks and Yazidis, Assyrians, Turkoman people and Mandeans and many villages belonging to these ethnic groups were also destroyed. Human Rights Watch estimates that between 50,000 and 100,000 people were killed. Some Kurdish sources put the number higher, estimating that 182,000 Kurds were killed. \n\nTensions with Kuwait\n\nThe end of the war with Iran served to deepen latent tensions between Iraq and its wealthy neighbor Kuwait. Saddam urged the Kuwaitis to forgive the Iraqi debt accumulated in the war, some $30 billion, but they refused. \n\nSaddam pushed oil-exporting countries to raise oil prices by cutting back production; Kuwait refused, however. In addition to refusing the request, Kuwait spearheaded the opposition in OPEC to the cuts that Saddam had requested. Kuwait was pumping large amounts of oil, and thus keeping prices low, when Iraq needed to sell high-priced oil from its wells to pay off a huge debt.\n\nSaddam had always argued that Kuwait was historically an integral part of Iraq, and that Kuwait had only come into being through the maneuverings of British imperialism; this echoed a belief that Iraqi nationalists had voiced for the past 50 years. This belief was one of the few articles of faith uniting the political scene in a nation rife with sharp social, ethnic, religious, and ideological divides.\n\nThe extent of Kuwaiti oil reserves also intensified tensions in the region. The oil reserves of Kuwait (with a population of 2 million next to Iraq's 25) were roughly equal to those of Iraq. Taken together, Iraq and Kuwait sat on top of some 20 percent of the world's known oil reserves; as an article of comparison, Saudi Arabia holds 25 percent.\n\nSaddam complained to the U.S. State Department that Kuwait had slant drilled oil out of wells that Iraq considered to be within its disputed border with Kuwait. Saddam still had an experienced and well-equipped army, which he used to influence regional affairs. He later ordered troops to the Iraq–Kuwait border.\n\nAs Iraq-Kuwait relations rapidly deteriorated, Saddam was receiving conflicting information about how the U.S. would respond to the prospects of an invasion. For one, Washington had been taking measures to cultivate a constructive relationship with Iraq for roughly a decade. The Reagan administration gave Iraq roughly $4 billion in agricultural credits to bolster it against Iran. Saddam's Iraq became \"the third-largest recipient of U.S. assistance\". \n\nReacting to western criticism in April 1990 Saddam threatened to destroy half of Israel with chemical weapons if it moved against Iraq. In May 1990 he criticized U.S. support for Israel warning that \"the United States cannot maintain such a policy while professing friendship towards the Arabs.\" In July 1990 he threatened force against Kuwait and the UAE saying \"The policies of some Arab rulers are American... They are inspired by America to undermine Arab interests and security.\" The U.S. sent aerial planes and combat ships to the Persian Gulf in response to these threats. \n\nU.S. ambassador to Iraq April Glaspie met with Saddam in an emergency meeting on 25 July 1990, where the Iraqi leader attacked American policy with regards to Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates:\n\n\"So what can it mean when America says it will now protect its friends? It can only mean prejudice against Iraq. This stance plus maneuvers and statements which have been made has encouraged the UAE and Kuwait to disregard Iraqi rights. ... If you use pressure, we will deploy pressure and force. We know that you can harm us although we do not threaten you. But we too can harm you. Everyone can cause harm according to their ability and their size. We cannot come all the way to you in the United States, but individual Arabs may reach you. ... We do not place America among the enemies. We place it where we want our friends to be and we try to be friends. But repeated American statements last year made it apparent that America did not regard us as friends.\" \n\nGlaspie replied:\n\n\"I know you need funds. We understand that and our opinion is that you should have the opportunity to rebuild your country. But we have no opinion on the Arab-Arab conflicts, like your border disagreement with Kuwait. ... Frankly, we can only see that you have deployed massive troops in the south. Normally that would not be any of our business. But when this happens in the context of what you said on your national day, then when we read the details in the two letters of the Foreign Minister, then when we see the Iraqi point of view that the measures taken by the U.A.E. and Kuwait is, in the final analysis, parallel to military aggression against Iraq, then it would be reasonable for me to be concerned.\"\n\nSaddam stated that he would attempt last-ditch negotiations with the Kuwaitis but Iraq \"would not accept death\".\n\nU.S. officials attempted to maintain a conciliatory line with Iraq, indicating that while George H. W. Bush and James Baker did not want force used, they would not take any position on the Iraq–Kuwait boundary dispute and did not want to become involved. \n\nLater, Iraq and Kuwait met for a final negotiation session, which failed. Saddam then sent his troops into Kuwait. As tensions between Washington and Saddam began to escalate, the Soviet Union, under Mikhail Gorbachev, strengthened its military relationship with the Iraqi leader, providing him military advisers, arms and aid. \n\nGulf War\n\nOn 2 August 1990, Saddam invaded Kuwait, initially claiming assistance to \"Kuwaiti revolutionaries,\" thus sparking an international crisis. On 4 August an Iraqi-backed \"Provisional Government of Free Kuwait\" was proclaimed, but a total lack of legitimacy and support for it led to an 8 August announcement of a \"merger\" of the two countries. On 28 August Kuwait formally became the 19th Governorate of Iraq. Just two years after the 1988 Iraq and Iran truce, \"Saddam Hussein did what his Gulf patrons had earlier paid him to prevent.\" Having removed the threat of Iranian fundamentalism he \"overran Kuwait and confronted his Gulf neighbors in the name of Arab nationalism and Islam.\"\n\nWhen later asked why he invaded Kuwait, Saddam first claimed that it was because Kuwait was rightfully Iraq's 19th province and then said \"When I get something into my head I act. That's just the way I am.\" After Saddam's seizure of Kuwait in August 1990, a UN coalition led by the United States drove Iraq's troops from Kuwait in February 1991. The ability for Saddam Hussein to pursue such military aggression was from a \"military machine paid for in large part by the tens of billions of dollars Kuwait and the Gulf states had poured into Iraq and the weapons and technology provided by the Soviet Union, Germany, and France.\"\n\nShortly before he invaded Kuwait, he shipped 100 new Mercedes 200 Series cars to top editors in Egypt and Jordan. Two days before the first attacks, Saddam reportedly offered Egypt's Hosni Mubarak 50 million dollars in cash, \"ostensibly for grain\". \n\nU.S. President George H. W. Bush responded cautiously for the first several days. On one hand, Kuwait, prior to this point, had been a virulent enemy of Israel and was the Persian Gulf monarchy that had the most friendly relations with the Soviets. On the other hand, Washington foreign policymakers, along with Middle East experts, military critics, and firms heavily invested in the region, were extremely concerned with stability in this region. The invasion immediately triggered fears that the world's price of oil, and therefore control of the world economy, was at stake. Britain profited heavily from billions of dollars of Kuwaiti investments and bank deposits. Bush was perhaps swayed while meeting with British prime minister Margaret Thatcher, who happened to be in the U.S. at the time. \n\nCooperation between the United States and the Soviet Union made possible the passage of resolutions in the United Nations Security Council giving Iraq a deadline to leave Kuwait and approving the use of force if Saddam did not comply with the timetable. U.S. officials feared Iraqi retaliation against oil-rich Saudi Arabia, since the 1940s a close ally of Washington, for the Saudis' opposition to the invasion of Kuwait. Accordingly, the U.S. and a group of allies, including countries as diverse as Egypt, Syria and Czechoslovakia, deployed a massive amount of troops along the Saudi border with Kuwait and Iraq in order to encircle the Iraqi army, the largest in the Middle East.\n\nSaddam's officers looted Kuwait, stripping even the marble from its palaces to move it to Saddam's own palace.\n\nDuring the period of negotiations and threats following the invasion, Saddam focused renewed attention on the Palestinian problem by promising to withdraw his forces from Kuwait if Israel would relinquish the occupied territories in the West Bank, the Golan Heights, and the Gaza Strip. Saddam's proposal further split the Arab world, pitting U.S.- and Western-supported Arab states against the Palestinians. The allies ultimately rejected any linkage between the Kuwait crisis and Palestinian issues.\n\nSaddam ignored the Security Council deadline. Backed by the Security Council, a U.S.-led coalition launched round-the-clock missile and aerial attacks on Iraq, beginning 16 January 1991. Israel, though subjected to attack by Iraqi missiles, refrained from retaliating in order not to provoke Arab states into leaving the coalition. A ground force consisting largely of U.S. and British armoured and infantry divisions ejected Saddam's army from Kuwait in February 1991 and occupied the southern portion of Iraq as far as the Euphrates.\n\nOn 6 March 1991, Bush announced \"What is at stake is more than one small country, it is a big idea—a new world order, where diverse nations are drawn together in common cause to achieve the universal aspirations of mankind: peace and security, freedom, and the rule of law.\"\n\nIn the end, the out-numbered and under-equipped Iraqi army proved unable to compete on the battlefield with the highly mobile coalition land forces and their overpowering air support. Some 175,000 Iraqis were taken prisoner and casualties were estimated at over 85,000. As part of the cease-fire agreement, Iraq agreed to scrap all poison gas and germ weapons and allow UN observers to inspect the sites. UN trade sanctions would remain in effect until Iraq complied with all terms. Saddam publicly claimed victory at the end of the war.\n\nPostwar period\n\nIraq's ethnic and religious divisions, together with the brutality of the conflict that this had engendered, laid the groundwork for postwar rebellions. In the aftermath of the fighting, social and ethnic unrest among Shi'ite Muslims, Kurds, and dissident military units threatened the stability of Saddam's government. Uprisings erupted in the Kurdish north and Shi'a southern and central parts of Iraq, but were ruthlessly repressed.\n\nThe United States, which had urged Iraqis to rise up against Saddam, did nothing to assist the rebellions. The Iranians, despite the widespread Shi'ite rebellions, had no interest in provoking another war, while Turkey opposed any prospect of Kurdish independence, and the Saudis and other conservative Arab states feared an Iran-style Shi'ite revolution. Saddam, having survived the immediate crisis in the wake of defeat, was left firmly in control of Iraq, although the country never recovered either economically or militarily from the Gulf War.\n\nSaddam routinely cited his survival as \"proof\" that Iraq had in fact won the war against the U.S. This message earned Saddam a great deal of popularity in many sectors of the Arab world. John Esposito, however, claims that \"Arabs and Muslims were pulled in two directions. That they rallied not so much to Saddam Hussein as to the bipolar nature of the confrontation (the West versus the Arab Muslim world) and the issues that Saddam proclaimed: Arab unity, self-sufficiency, and social justice.\" As a result, Saddam Hussein appealed to many people for the same reasons that attracted more and more followers to Islamic revivalism and also for the same reasons that fueled anti-Western feelings.\n\nAs one U.S. Muslim observer noted: \"People forgot about Saddam's record and concentrated on America ... Saddam Hussein might be wrong, but it is not America who should correct him.\" A shift was, therefore, clearly visible among many Islamic movements in the post war period \"from an initial Islamic ideological rejection of Saddam Hussein, the secular persecutor of Islamic movements, and his invasion of Kuwait to a more populist Arab nationalist, anti-imperialist support for Saddam (or more precisely those issues he represented or championed) and the condemnation of foreign intervention and occupation.\"\n\nSaddam, therefore, increasingly portrayed himself as a devout Muslim, in an effort to co-opt the conservative religious segments of society. Some elements of Sharia law were re-introduced, and the ritual phrase \"Allahu Akbar\" (\"God is great\"), in Saddam's handwriting, was added to the national flag. Saddam also commissioned the production of a \"Blood Qur'an\", written using 27 litres of his own blood, to thank God for saving him from various dangers and conspiracies. \n\nRelations between the United States and Iraq remained tense following the Gulf War. The U.S. launched a missile attack aimed at Iraq's intelligence headquarters in Baghdad 26 June 1993, citing evidence of repeated Iraqi violations of the \"no fly zones\" imposed after the Gulf War and for incursions into Kuwait.\n\nFormer CIA case officer Robert Baer reports that he \"tried to assassinate\" Saddam in 1995 amid \"a decade-long effort to encourage a military coup in Iraq.\" \n\nThe United Nations sanctions placed upon Iraq when it invaded Kuwait were not lifted, blocking Iraqi oil exports. During the late 1990s, the UN considered relaxing the sanctions imposed because of the hardships suffered by ordinary Iraqis. Studies dispute the number of people who died in south and central Iraq during the years of the sanctions. On 9 December 1996, Saddam's government accepted the Oil-for-Food Programme that the UN had first offered in 1992.\n\nU.S. officials continued to accuse Saddam of violating the terms of the Gulf War's cease fire, by developing weapons of mass destruction and other banned weaponry, and violating the UN-imposed sanctions. Also during the 1990s, President Bill Clinton maintained sanctions and ordered air strikes in the \"Iraqi no-fly zones\" (Operation Desert Fox), in the hope that Saddam would be overthrown by political enemies inside Iraq. Western charges of Iraqi resistance to UN access to suspected weapons were the pretext for crises between 1997 and 1998, culminating in intensive U.S. and British missile strikes on Iraq, 16–19 December 1998. After two years of intermittent activity, U.S. and British warplanes struck harder at sites near Baghdad in February 2001.\n\nSaddam's support base of Tikriti tribesmen, family members, and other supporters was divided after the war. Domestic repression inside Iraq increased, and Saddam's sons, Uday and Qusay Hussein, became increasingly powerful.\n\nIraqi co-operation with UN weapons inspection teams was intermittent throughout the 1990s.\n\nSaddam continued involvement in politics abroad. Video tapes retrieved after show his intelligence chiefs meeting with Arab journalists, including a meeting with the former managing director of Al-Jazeera, Mohammed Jassem al-Ali, in 2000. In the video Saddam's son Uday advised al-Ali about hires in Al-Jazeera: \"During your last visit here along with your colleagues we talked about a number of issues, and it does appear that you indeed were listening to what I was saying since changes took place and new faces came on board such as that lad, Mansour.\" He was later sacked by Al-Jazeera. \n\nIn 2002, Austrian prosecutors investigated Saddam government's transactions with Fritz Edlinger that possibly violated Austrian money laundering and embargo regulations. Fritz Edlinger, president of the General Secretary of the Society for Austro-Arab relations (GÖAB) and a former member of Socialist International's Middle East Committee, was an outspoken supporter of Saddam Hussein. In 2005, an Austrian journalist revealed that Fritz Edlinger's GÖAB had received $100,000 from an Iraqi front company as well as donations from Austrian companies soliciting business in Iraq. \n\nIn 2002, a resolution sponsored by the European Union was adopted by the Commission for Human Rights, which stated that there had been no improvement in the human rights crisis in Iraq. The statement condemned President Saddam Hussein's government for its \"systematic, widespread and extremely grave violations of human rights and international humanitarian law\". The resolution demanded that Iraq immediately put an end to its \"summary and arbitrary executions ... the use of rape as a political tool and all enforced and involuntary disappearances\". \n\nOil vouchers\n\nIn the United Nations Oil-for-Food Programme, Saddam was supposed to trade oil for food. In practice, the program benefitted political parties, politicians, journalists, companies, and individuals around the world.\n\nThe Russian state was the largest beneficiary. \n\nInvasion of Iraq in 2003\n\nThe international community, especially the U.S., continued to view Saddam as a bellicose tyrant who was a threat to the stability of the region. After the September 11 attacks, Vladimir Putin began to tell the United States that Iraq was preparing terrorist attacks against the United States. In his January 2002 state of the union address to Congress, President George W. Bush spoke of an \"axis of evil\" consisting of Iran, North Korea, and Iraq. Moreover, Bush announced that he would possibly take action to topple the Iraqi government, because of the threat of its weapons of mass destruction. Bush stated that \"The Iraqi regime has plotted to develop anthrax, and nerve gas, and nuclear weapons for over a decade ... Iraq continues to flaunt its hostility toward America and to support terror.\" \n\nAfter the passing of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1441, which demanded that Iraq give \"immediate, unconditional and active cooperation\" with UN and IAEA inspections, Saddam allowed U.N. weapons inspectors led by Hans Blix to return to Iraq. During the renewed inspections beginning in November 2002, Blix found no stockpiles of WMD and noted the \"proactive\" but not always \"immediate\" Iraqi cooperation as called for by UN Security Council Resolution 1441. \n\nWith war still looming on 24 February 2003, Saddam Hussein took part in an interview with CBS News reporter Dan Rather. Talking for more than three hours, he denied possessing any weapons of mass destruction, or any other weapons prohibited by UN guidelines. He also expressed a wish to have a live televised debate with George W. Bush, which was declined. It was his first interview with a U.S. reporter in over a decade. CBS aired the taped interview later that week. Saddam Hussein later told an FBI interviewer that he once left open the possibility that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction in order to appear strong against Iran. \n\nThe Iraqi government and military collapsed within three weeks of the beginning of the U.S.-led 2003 invasion of Iraq on 20 March. By the beginning of April, U.S.-led forces occupied much of Iraq. The resistance of the much-weakened Iraqi Army either crumbled or shifted to guerrilla tactics, and it appeared that Saddam had lost control of Iraq. He was last seen in a video which purported to show him in the Baghdad suburbs surrounded by supporters. When Baghdad fell to U.S.-led forces on 9 April, marked symbolically by the toppling of his statue by iconoclasts, Saddam was nowhere to be found.\n\nIncarceration and trial\n\nCapture and incarceration\n\nIn April 2003, Saddam's whereabouts remained in question during the weeks following the fall of Baghdad and the conclusion of the major fighting of the war. Various sightings of Saddam were reported in the weeks following the war, but none was authenticated. At various times Saddam released audio tapes promoting popular resistance to his ousting.\n\nSaddam was placed at the top of the \"U.S. list of most-wanted Iraqis\". In July 2003, his sons Uday and Qusay and 14-year-old grandson Mustapha were killed in a three-hour gunfight with U.S. forces.\n\nOn 13 December 2003, Saddam Hussein was captured by American forces at a farmhouse in ad-Dawr near Tikrit in a hole in Operation Red Dawn. Following his capture, Saddam was transported to a U.S. base near Tikrit, and later taken to the American base near Baghdad. On 14 December, U.S. administrator in Iraq L. Paul Bremer confirmed that Saddam Hussein had indeed been captured at a farmhouse in ad-Dawr near Tikrit. Bremer presented video footage of Saddam in custody.\n\nSaddam was shown with a full beard and hair longer than his familiar appearance. He was described by U.S. officials as being in good health. Bremer reported plans to put Saddam on trial, but claimed that the details of such a trial had not yet been determined. Iraqis and Americans who spoke with Saddam after his capture generally reported that he remained self-assured, describing himself as a \"firm, but just leader.\" \n\nBritish tabloid newspaper The Sun posted a picture of Saddam wearing white briefs on the front cover of a newspaper. Other photographs inside the paper show Saddam washing his trousers, shuffling, and sleeping. The United States government stated that it considered the release of the pictures a violation of the Geneva Convention, and that it would investigate the photographs. During this period Saddam was interrogated by FBI agent George Piro. \n\nThe guards at the Baghdad detention facility called their prisoner \"Vic,\" and let him plant a small garden near his cell. The nickname and the garden are among the details about the former Iraqi leader that emerged during a 27 March 2008 tour of prison of the Baghdad cell where Saddam slept, bathed, and kept a journal in the final days before his execution. \n\nTrial\n\nOn 30 June 2004, Saddam Hussein, held in custody by U.S. forces at the U.S. base \"Camp Cropper\", along with 11 other senior Ba'athist leaders, were handed over legally (though not physically) to the interim Iraqi government to stand trial for crimes against humanity and other offences.\n\nA few weeks later, he was charged by the Iraqi Special Tribunal with crimes committed against residents of Dujail in 1982, following a failed assassination attempt against him. Specific charges included the murder of 148 people, torture of women and children and the illegal arrest of 399 others.393 members of the pro Iranian Dawa Party (a banned organisation) were arrested as suspects of which 148, including ten children, confessed to taking part in the plot. It is believed more than 40 suspects died during interrogation or while in detention. Those arrested who were found not guilty were either exiled if relatives of the convicted or released and returned to Dujail. Only 96 of the 148 condemned were actually executed, two of the condemned were accidentally released while a third was mistakenly transferred to another prison and survived. The 96 executed included four men mistakenly executed after having been found not guilty and ordered released. The ten children were originally believed to have been among the 96 executed, but they had in fact been imprisoned near the city of Samawah. \nAmong the many challenges of the trial were:\n* Saddam and his lawyers' contesting the court's authority and maintaining that he was still the President of Iraq. \n* The assassinations and attempts on the lives of several of Saddam's lawyers.\n* The replacement of the chief presiding judge, midway through the trial.\n\nOn 5 November 2006, Saddam Hussein was found guilty of crimes against humanity and sentenced to death by hanging. Saddam's half brother, Barzan Ibrahim, and Awad Hamed al-Bandar, head of Iraq's Revolutionary Court in 1982, were convicted of similar charges. The verdict and sentencing were both appealed, but subsequently affirmed by Iraq's Supreme Court of Appeals. On 30 December 2006, Saddam was hanged.\n\nExecution\n\nSaddam was hanged on the first day of Eid ul-Adha, 30 December 2006, despite his wish to be shot (which he felt would be more dignified). The execution was carried out at Camp Justice, an Iraqi army base in Kadhimiya, a neighborhood of northeast Baghdad.\n\nVideo of the execution was recorded on a mobile phone and his captors could be heard insulting Saddam. The video was leaked to electronic media and posted on the Internet within hours, becoming the subject of global controversy. It was later claimed by the head guard at the tomb where his remains lay that Saddam's body had been stabbed six times after the execution. \n\nNot long before the execution, Saddam's lawyers released his last letter. The following includes several excerpts:\n\nTo the great nation, to the people of our country, and humanity,\n\nMany of you have known the writer of this letter to be faithful, honest, caring for others, wise, of sound judgment, just, decisive, careful with the wealth of the people and the state ... and that his heart is big enough to embrace all without discrimination.\n\nYou have known your brother and leader very well and he never bowed to the despots and, in accordance with the wishes of those who loved him, remained a sword and a banner.\n\nThis is how you want your brother, son or leader to be ... and those who will lead you (in the future) should have the same qualifications.\n\nHere, I offer my soul to God as a sacrifice, and if He wants, He will send it to heaven with the martyrs, or, He will postpone that ... so let us be patient and depend on Him against the unjust nations.\n\nRemember that God has enabled you to become an example of love, forgiveness and brotherly coexistence ... I call on you not to hate, because hate does not leave a space for a person to be fair and it makes you blind and closes all doors of thinking and keeps away one from balanced thinking and making the right choice.\n\nI also call on you not to hate the peoples of the other countries that attacked us and differentiate between the decision-makers and peoples. Anyone who repents – whether in Iraq or abroad – you must forgive him.\n\nYou should know that among the aggressors, there are people who support your struggle against the invaders, and some of them volunteered for the legal defence of prisoners, including Saddam\nHussein ... some of these people wept profusely when they said goodbye to me.\n\nDear faithful people, I say goodbye to you, but I will be with the merciful God who helps those who take refuge in him and who will never disappoint any faithful, honest believer ... God is Great ... God is great ... Long live our nation ... Long live our great struggling people ... Long live Iraq, long live Iraq ... Long live Palestine ... Long live jihad and the mujahedeen.\n\nSaddam Hussein\nPresident and Commander in Chief of the Iraqi Mujahed Armed Forces\n\nAdditional clarification note:\n\nI have written this letter, because the lawyers told me that the so-called criminal court — established and named by the invaders — will allow the so-called defendants the chance for a last word. But that court and its chief judge did not give us the chance to say a word, and issued its verdict without explanation and read out the sentence — dictated by the invaders — without presenting the evidence. I wanted the people to know this. \n\nA second unofficial video, apparently showing Saddam's body on a trolley, emerged several days later. It sparked speculation that the execution was carried out incorrectly as Saddam Hussein had a gaping hole in his neck. \n\nSaddam was buried at his birthplace of Al-Awja in Tikrit, Iraq, 3 km (2 mi) from his sons Uday and Qusay Hussein, on 31 December 2006. His tomb was reported to have been destroyed in March 2015. Before it was destroyed, a Sunni tribal group reportedly removed his body to a secret location, fearful to what may happen. \n\nMarriage and family relationships\n\n* Saddam married his first wife and cousin Sajida Talfah (or Tulfah/Tilfah) in 1958 in an arranged marriage. Sajida is the daughter of Khairallah Talfah, Saddam's uncle and mentor. Their marriage was arranged for Saddam at age five when Sajida was seven. They were married in Egypt during his exile. The couple had five children.\n** Uday Hussein (18 June 1964 – 22 July 2003), was Saddam's oldest son, who ran the Iraqi Football Association, Fedayeen Saddam, and several media corporations in Iraq including Iraqi TV and the newspaper Babel. Uday, while originally Saddam's favorite son and raised to succeed him he eventually fell out of favour with his father due to his erratic behavior; he was responsible for many car crashes and rapes around Baghdad, constant feuds with other members of his family, and killing his father's favorite valet and food taster Kamel Hana Gegeo at a party in Egypt honoring Egyptian first lady Suzanne Mubarak. He became well known in the west for his involvement in looting Kuwait during the Gulf War, allegedly taking millions of dollars worth of gold, cars, and medical supplies (which were in short supply at the time) for himself and close supporters. He was widely known for his paranoia and his obsession with torturing people who disappointed him in any way, which included tardy girlfriends, friends who disagreed with him and, most notoriously, Iraqi athletes who performed poorly. He was briefly married to Izzat Ibrahim ad-Douri's daughter, but later divorced her. The couple had no children.\n** Qusay Hussein (17 May 1966 – 22 July 2003), was Saddam's second – and, after the mid-1990s, his favorite – son. Qusay was believed to have been Saddam's later intended successor, as he was less erratic than his older brother and kept a low profile. He was second in command of the military (behind his father) and ran the elite Iraqi Republican Guard and the SSO. He was believed to have ordered the army to kill thousands of rebelling Marsh Arabs and was instrumental in suppressing Shi'ite rebellions in the mid-1990s. He was married once and had three children.\n** Raghad Hussein (born 2 September 1968) is Saddam's oldest daughter. After the war, Raghad fled to Amman, Jordan where she received sanctuary from the royal family. She is currently wanted by the Iraqi Government for allegedly financing and supporting the insurgency and the now banned Iraqi Ba'ath Party. The Jordanian royal family refused to hand her over.\n** Rana Hussein (born c. 1969), is Saddam's second daughter. She, like her sister, fled to Jordan and has stood up for her father's rights. She was married to Saddam Kamel and has had four children from this marriage.\n** Hala Hussein (born c. 1972), is Saddam's third and youngest daughter. Very little information is known about her. Her father arranged for her to marry General Kamal Mustafa Abdallah Sultan al-Tikriti in 1998. She fled with her children and sisters to Jordan.\n* Saddam married his second wife, Samira Shahbandar, in 1986. She was originally the wife of an Iraqi Airways executive, but later became the mistress of Saddam. Eventually, Saddam forced Samira's husband to divorce her so he could marry her. After the war, Samira fled to Beirut, Lebanon. She is believed to have mothered Saddam's sixth child. Members of Saddam's family have denied this.\n* Saddam had allegedly married a third wife, Nidal al-Hamdani, the general manager of the Solar Energy Research Center in the Council of Scientific Research. \n* Wafa el-Mullah al-Howeish is rumoured to have married Saddam as his fourth wife in 2002. There is no firm evidence for this marriage. Wafa is the daughter of Abdul Tawab el-Mullah Howeish, a former minister of military industry in Iraq and Saddam's last deputy Prime Minister.\n\nIn August 1995, Raghad and her husband Hussein Kamel al-Majid and Rana and her husband, Saddam Kamel al-Majid, defected to Jordan, taking their children with them. They returned to Iraq when they received assurances that Saddam would pardon them. Within three days of their return in February 1996, both of the Kamel brothers were attacked and killed in a gunfight with other clan members who considered them traitors.\n\nIn August 2003, Saddam's daughters Raghad and Rana received sanctuary in Amman, Jordan, where they are currently staying with their nine children. That month, they spoke with CNN and the Arab satellite station Al-Arabiya in Amman. When asked about her father, Raghad told CNN, \"He was a very good father, loving, has a big heart.\" Asked if she wanted to give a message to her father, she said: \"I love you and I miss you.\" Her sister Rana also remarked, \"He had so many feelings and he was very tender with all of us.\" \n\nPhilanthropic connection to the city of Detroit, Michigan\n\nIn 1979, Rev. Jacob Yasso of Chaldean Sacred Heart Church congratulated Saddam Hussein on his presidency. In return, Rev. Yasso said that Saddam Hussein donated US$250,000 to his church, which is made up of at least 1,200 families of Middle Eastern descent. In 1980, Detroit Mayor Coleman Young allowed Rev. Yasso to present the key to the city of Detroit to Saddam Hussein. At the time, Saddam then asked Rev. Yasso, \"I heard there was a debt on your church. How much is it?\" After the inquiry, Saddam then donated another $200,000 to Chaldean Sacred Heart Church. Rev. Yasso said that Saddam made donations to Chaldean churches all over the world, and even went on record as saying \"He's very kind to Christians.\" \n\nList of government and party positions held\n\n* Head of Iraqi Intelligence Service (1963)\n* Vice President of the Republic of Iraq (1968–1979)\n* President of the Republic of Iraq (1979–2003)\n* Prime Minister of the Republic of Iraq (1979–1991 and 1994–2003)\n* Head of the Iraqi Revolutionary Command Council (1979–2003)\n* Secretary of the Regional Command (1979–2006)\n* Secretary General of the National Command (1989–2006)\n* Assistant Secretary of the Regional Command (1966–1979)\n* Assistant Secretary General of the National Command (1979–1989)" ] }

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{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe", "TagMe", "TagMe", "TagMe", "TagMe" ], "filename": [ "The_Lion,_the_Witch_and_the_Wardrobe.txt", "Prince_Caspian.txt", "The_Chronicles_of_Narnia_(film_series).txt", "The_Horse_and_His_Boy.txt", "The_Magician's_Nephew.txt" ], "title": [ "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe", "Prince Caspian", "The Chronicles of Narnia (film series)", "The Horse and His Boy", "The Magician's Nephew" ], "wiki_context": [ "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is a fantasy novel for children by C. S. Lewis, published by Geoffrey Bles in 1950. It's the first published and best known of seven novels in The Chronicles of Narnia (1950–1956). Among all the author's books it is also the most widely held in libraries. Although it was written as well as published first in the series, it is volume two in recent editions, which are sequenced by the stories' chronology (the first being The Magician's Nephew). Like the others, it was illustrated by Pauline Baynes, and her work has been retained in many later editions.\n[http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?1629 \"Bibliography: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe\"]. ISFDB. Retrieved 2012-12-09.\n\nMost of the novel is set in Narnia, a land of talking animals and mythical creatures that one White Witch has ruled for 100 years of deep winter. In the frame story, four English children are relocated to a large, old country house following a wartime evacuation. The youngest visits Narnia three times via the magic of a wardrobe in a spare room. All four children are together on her third visit, which verifies her fantastic claims and comprises the subsequent 12 of 17 chapters except for a brief conclusion. In Narnia, the siblings seem fit to fulfill an old prophecy and so are soon adventuring both to save Narnia and their lives. Lewis wrote the book for, and dedicated it to, his goddaughter Lucy Barfield. She was the daughter of Owen Barfield, Lewis's friend, teacher, adviser, and trustee. \n\nPlot summary\n\nIn 1940, four siblings – Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy Pevensie – are among many children evacuated from London during World War II to escape the Blitz. They are sent to the countryside to live with professor Digory Kirke. Exploring the professor's house, Lucy finds a wardrobe which doubles as a magic portal to a forest in a land called Narnia. At a lamppost oddly located in the forest, she meets Tumnus, a faun, who invites her to tea in his home. There the faun confesses that he invited her not out of hospitality, but with the intention of betraying her to the White Witch. The witch has ruled Narnia for years, using magic to keep it frozen in a perpetual winter. She has ordered all Narnians to turn in any humans (\"Sons of Adam\" or \"Daughters of Eve\") they come across. But now that he has come to know and like a human, Tumnus repents his original intention and escorts Lucy back to the lamppost.\n\nLucy returns through the wardrobe and finds that only a few seconds have passed in normal time during her absence. Her siblings do not believe her story about another world inside the wardrobe, which is now found to have a solid back panel.\n\nDuring a game of hide-and-seek on some days later, Lucy again passes into Narnia. This time her brother Edmund chances to follow her. He meets Jadis, who calls herself Queen of Narnia. When she learns that he is human and has two sisters and a brother, she places an enchantment on him. She urges him to bring his siblings to her castle, promising in return to make him her heir. When Lucy and Edmund return together through the wardrobe, Edmund realizes that the queen he met and the witch Lucy describes are one and the same. He denies to the others that he has been in Narnia at all. Peter and Susan are puzzled by Lucy's insistence, and consult the Professor, who surprises them by taking Lucy's side in the debate of Narnia's existence.\n\nSoon afterward, all four children enter Narnia together after hiding in the wardrobe to avoid the professor's dour housekeeper, Mrs. Macready. Remembering the winter cold ahead, they take coats from the wardrobe before exploring. Lucy guides them to Tumnus's cave, but they find it ransacked, with a notice from Jadis (the White Witch) proclaiming his arrest for harbouring humans.\n\nA talking beaver intercepts them, proves himself a friend, and hides the children in his den. There, he and Mrs. Beaver tell them of a prophecy that Jadis's power will fail when two Sons of Adam and two Daughters of Eve fill the four thrones at Cair Paravel. Aslan, the great lion and the rightful King, has been absent for many years but is now \"on the move again\" in Narnia.\n\nEdmund steals away to Jadis's castle, which is filled with statues of Narnian victims she has turned to stone. Jadis is furious when Edmund appears alone and angrier still to learn that Aslan may have returned. She takes him on her sledge to catch the others or to reach Aslan's court before them.\n\nMeanwhile, Mr Beaver realises that Edmund has betrayed them, and they set off at once to seek Aslan at the Stone Table. As they travel, the Witch's spell over Narnia begins to break: Father Christmas (who has not been seen in Narnia for a hundred years) arrives with magical presents: a sword for Peter, a horn and a bow with arrows for Susan, a knife and a bottle of healing cordial for Lucy. The snow melts, and winter ends. Aslan welcomes the children and the Beavers to his camp near the Stone Table. Upon hearing Edmund's situation, he orders a rescue party of loyal Narnians.\n\nAfter much hardship at the hands of the Witch and her sledge driver, Edmund is rescued from their camp and reunited with his siblings. Jadis approaches in truce to parley with Aslan. She insists that, according to \"deep magic from the dawn of time\", she holds the right to kill Edmund following his treason. Aslan bargains with her privately and she renounces her claim.\n\nThat evening, Aslan secretly returns to the Stone Table, shadowed by Susan and Lucy. Upon noticing them, Aslan welcomes their company but warns them not to interfere with what is about to happen. He has traded his own life to the witch for Edmund's, and the girls watch as Jadis oversees his shaming before her underlings. She orders Aslan tied to the Stone Table, shaved and muzzled; and she administers the killing blow herself.\n\nConfident now of victory, the Witch leads her army away to battle. Susan and Lucy remain weeping over Aslan's abandoned body. They un-muzzle him and see mice gnaw away his bonds. The Stone Table breaks and Aslan is restored to life. He tells Lucy and Susan that Jadis was unaware of the \"deeper magic from before the dawn of time\" that will resurrect an innocent killed in place of a traitor.\n\nAslan carries Lucy and Susan on his back as he hurries to Jadis's castle. He breathes upon the stone statues in the courtyard, restoring them to life.\n\nMeanwhile, Peter and Edmund lead the Narnians against Jadis, and Edmund is seriously wounded. Aslan arrives with the former statues as reinforcements. The Narnians rout Jadis's supporters, and Aslan kills Jadis. Aslan breathes life into those Jadis has turned to stone on the battlefield, and Lucy uses her magic cordial to revive the wounded, starting with Edmund. The Pevensie children are crowned kings and queens of Narnia at Cair Paravel. Soon afterward, Aslan slips away and disappears.\n\nFifteen years later, the four rulers chase a wish-granting white stag through the forest whereupon they rediscover the lamppost. They soon find their way not through branches but coats. They come back through the wardrobe in the Professor's house and are suddenly children again, dressed in their old clothes. Almost no time has passed in the real world, despite their many years in Narnia.\n\nThe four children consult the Professor. He forgives them the absence of the four coats they stole, and hints that theirs would prove not to be the first adventure in Narnia, nor by any means the last.\n\nCharacter list\n\nThe Pevensie Siblings\n\nRaised in London, evacuated to the Dorset countryside, and reaching adulthood in Narnia, they are the four main characters. In one chapter, Father Christmas arrives to endow those present (three Pevensies and two beavers) with a feast, weapons, and magical items. After the restoration of Narnia, a Tetrarchy is established with the four siblings as the rulers.\n\n*Lucy Pevensie is the youngest Pevensie child and, in some respects, the primary protagonist of the story. She is the first to discover the land of Narnia when she finds her way through the magical wardrobe in the Professor's house. When Lucy tells her three siblings, they don't believe her: Peter and Susan think she is just playing a game while Edmund persistently ridicules her about it. She is later crowned Queen Lucy the Valiant.\nENDOWMENTS: a cordial with curative powers and a dagger\n\n*Edmund Pevensie is the second-youngest of the Pevensie children. He has a bad relationship with his siblings, is known to be a liar and a bully, and singles out Lucy as his favourite target. In Narnia he meets the White Witch, who plies him with enchanted Turkish delight, drink, and smooth talk. Lured by the White Witch's promise of power and an unlimited supply of the magical treats, Edmund betrays his siblings. He eventually regrets his actions and repents. After he helps Aslan and the good denizens of Narnia defeat the White Witch, he is crowned and named King Edmund the Just.\n*Susan Pevensie is the second-oldest of Pevensie children. She does not believe in Narnia until she actually goes there. Along with Lucy, she accompanies Aslan on the journey to his apparent self-sacrifice and secretly witnesses the horrific event. Tending to his carcass, she removes a muzzle from him to restore his dignity and oversees a horde of mice who gnaw away his bonds. She then shares the joy of his resurrection and the endeavor to bring reinforcements to a critical battle. She is crowned Queen of Narnia alongside Lucy and pronounced Queen Susan the Gentle.\nENDOWMENTS: a horn with the power to summon help in times of danger and a bow & arrows\n\n*Peter Pevensie is the eldest of the Pevensie siblings. He judiciously settles disputes between his younger brother and sisters, often rebuking Edmund for his attitude. At first, Peter disbelieves Lucy's stories about Narnia, but changes his mind when he sees it for himself. He is hailed as a hero for the slaying of Maugrim and for his command in the battle to overthrow the White Witch. He is eventually crowned High King of Narnia and dubbed King Peter the Magnificent.\nENDOWMENTS: A kingly sword and a red/gold shield with a crest showing a lion\n\nAt the Country Home\n\nThe house that shelters the Pevensie children is run by a Professor, staffed by servants, and frequently toured by historians.\n\n*The Professor is a kindly old gentleman who takes the Pevensie children in when they are evacuated from London. He is the first to believe that Lucy did indeed visit a land called Narnia. He tries to convince the others logically that she didn't make it up. the book hints that he knows more of Narnia than he lets on. He is identified in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader as Professor Kirke, and appears as a young boy, Digory Kirke, a main character in the prequel, in which he witnesses Aslan's creation of Narnia. Although never explicitly stated, there are minor parallels between himself and Aslan on the smaller scale of the house in Dorset; in that he is rarely seen, can be sought for impartial wisdom, provides a sense of stability, and sometimes cannot be found.\n*Mrs. Macready is the housekeeper for the Professor and takes it upon herself to guide the tour groups. Although never explicitly stated, there are minor parallels between herself and the White Witch, albeit on the smaller scale; for example, she effectively rules the country house in the absence of the Professor (terrifyingly so in the imagination of a young girl torn from her home and mother). The Pevensies certainly see her as an antagonist and dub her \"The Macready\". She is stated to be not very fond of children, imposes strict rules on their behavior, and disturbs their peace with the tours.\n\nNarnians\n\nThe magical land of Narnia is populated by talking animals, mythological species, and sentient flora.\n\n*Aslan, a lion, is the rightful King of Narnia and other magic countries. He sacrifices himself to save Edmund, but is resurrected in time to aid the denizens of Narnia and the Pevensie children against the White Witch and her minions. As the \"son of the Emperor beyond the sea\"( an allusion to the first person of the Holy Trinity in Christianity (the Father) Aslan is the all powerful creator of Narnia. He is the deity that links all created worlds together and is thus all knowing, all present, and all powerful.\n*The White Witch is the land's self-proclaimed queen and the primary antagonist of the story. She tyrannizes Narnia through her magically imposed rule. Her spell on Narnia has made winter persist for a hundred years with no end in sight. When provoked, she turns creatures to stone with her wand. She fears the fulfillment of a prophecy that \"two sons of Adam and two daughters of Eve\" (meaning humans; two male, two female) will claim the right to rule and supplant her. She is usually referred to simply as \"the White Witch\" but her actual name, \"Jadis,\" appears in one proclamation in this book. Lewis later wrote a prequel to include her back-story and account for her presence in the Narnian world.\n*Tumnus, a faun, is the first individual Lucy meets in Narnia. Tumnus befriends Lucy, despite the White Witch's standing order to turn in any human found in Narnia. He initially plans to obey the order but, after getting to like Lucy, he cannot bear to alert the Witch's forces. He instead escorts her back towards the safety of her own country. His good deed is later given away by Edmund who innocently tells the White Witch that Lucy mentioned meeting a faun. The witch orders Tumnus arrested and turns him to stone, but he is later restored to life by Aslan.\n*Mr and Mrs Beaver (named, of course, for their species) are friends of Tumnus. They play host to Peter, Susan, and Lucy and lead them to Aslan.\nENDOWMENTS: contract repairs to the dam they call home and a new sewing machine\n\n*A Dwarf serves the White Witch. He's never named in the book but called Ginabrik in the film, where he has a more significant role.\n*Maugrim (Fenris Ulf in most American editions) the wolf is the chief of the White Witch's secret police. She sends him to hunt down the Pevensie children. He tries to kill Susan who flees and sees to the safety of others. She sounds her horn. Peter answers the call and slays Maugrim.\n*Giant Rumblebuffin is a character who is turned to stone by the White Witch. Aslan restores him to life by breathing on him. Although slightly dim-witted, he is very kind. His significant contribution is to break down the gate of the Witch's castle to let the rescued Narnians out, and also to crush some of her army.\n\nWriting\n\nLewis described the origin of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe in an essay entitled \"It All Began with a Picture\": \n\nThe Lion all began with a picture of a Faun carrying an umbrella and parcels in a snowy wood. This picture had been in my mind since I was about sixteen. Then one day, when I was about forty, I said to myself: 'Let's try to make a story about it.'\n\nShortly before the Second World War many children were evacuated from London to the English countryside to escape bomber attacks on London by Nazi Germany. On 2 September 1939 three school girls, Margaret, Mary and Katherine, came to live at The Kilns in Risinghurst, Lewis's home three miles east of Oxford city centre. Lewis later suggested that the experience gave him a new appreciation of children and in late September he began a children's story on an odd sheet that has survived as part of another manuscript:\n\nThis book is about four children whose names were Ann, Martin, Rose and Peter. But it is most about Peter who was the youngest. They all had to go away from London suddenly because of Air Raids, and because Father, who was in the Army, had gone off to the War and Mother was doing some kind of war work. They were sent to stay with a kind of relation of Mother's who was a very old professor who lived all by himself in the country. \n\nThe plot element of entering a new world through the back of a wardrobe had certainly entered Lewis's mind by 1946, when he used it to describe his first encounter with really good poetry:\n\nI did not in the least feel that I was getting in more quantity or better quality a pleasure I had already known. It was more as if a cupboard which one had hitherto valued as a place for hanging coats proved one day, when you opened the door, to lead to the garden of the Hesperides ...Lewis (1966), \"Different Tastes in Literature\". In Hooper (1982), p. 121.\n\nHow much more of the story Lewis then wrote is uncertain. Roger Lancelyn Green thinks that he might even have completed it. In September 1947 Lewis wrote in a letter about stories for children: \"I have tried one myself but it was, by the unanimous verdict of my friends, so bad that I destroyed it.\" \n\nIn August 1948, during a visit by an American writer, Chad Walsh, Lewis talked vaguely about completing a children's book he had begun \"in the tradition of E. Nesbit\". After this conversation not much happened until the beginning of the next year. Then everything changed. In his essay \"It All Began With a Picture\" Lewis continues: \"At first I had very little idea how the story would go. But then suddenly Aslan came bounding into it. I think I had been having a good many dreams of lions about that time. Apart from that, I don't know where the Lion came from or why he came. But once he was there, he pulled the whole story together, and soon he pulled the six other Narnian stories in after him.\" \n\nThe major ideas of the book echo lines Lewis had written fourteen years earlier in his alliterative poem The Planets:\n\n... Of wrath ended\nAnd woes mended, of winter passed\nAnd guilt forgiven, and good fortune\nJove is master; and of jocund revel,\nLaughter of ladies. The lion-hearted\n... are Jove's children.Lewis (1935), \"The Alliterative Metre\". In Hooper, ed. (1969), Selected Literary Essays, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 9780521074414, p. 25. The connection argued in Michael Ward (2008), Planet Narnia: the seven heavens in the imagination of C.S. Lewis, Oxford University Press, ISBN 9780195313871.\n\nOn 10 March 1949 Roger Lancelyn Green dined with Lewis at Magdalen College. After the meal Lewis read two chapters from his new children's story to Green. Lewis asked Green's opinion of the tale and Green said that he thought it was good. The manuscript of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe was complete by the end of March 1949. Lucy Barfield received it by the end of May. When on 16 October 1950 Geoffrey Bles in London published the first edition, three new \"chronicles\", Prince Caspian, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader and The Horse and His Boy, had also been completed.\n\nIllustrations\n\nLewis's publisher, Geoffrey Bles, allowed him to choose the illustrator for the novel and the Narnia series. Lewis chose Pauline Baynes, possibly based on J. R. R. Tolkien’s recommendation. Baynes had greatly impressed Tolkien with her illustrations for his Farmer Giles of Ham (1949). However, Baynes claimed that Lewis learned about her work after going into a bookshop and asking for a recommendation for an illustrator who was skilled at portraying both humans and animals. In December 1949, Bles showed Lewis the first drawings for the novel, and Lewis sent Baynes a note congratulating her, particularly on the level of detail. Lewis’s appreciation of the illustrations is evident in a letter he wrote to Baynes after The Last Battle won the Carnegie Medal for best children’s book of 1956: \"is it not rather 'our' medal? I’m sure the illustrations were taken into account as well as the text\". \n\nThe British edition of the novel had 43 illustrations; American editions generally had fewer. The popular United States paperback edition published by Collier between 1970 and 1994, which sold many millions, had only 17 illustrations, many of them severely cropped from the originals, giving many readers in that country a very different experience when reading the novel. All the illustrations were restored for the 1994 worldwide HarperCollins edition, although these lacked the clarity of early printings. \n\nReception\n\nLewis very much enjoyed writing The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and embarked on the sequel Prince Caspian soon after finishing the first novel. He completed the sequel by end of 1949, less than a year after finishing the initial book. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe had few readers during 1949 and was not published until late in 1950, so his initial enthusiasm did not stem from favourable reception by the public. \n\nWhile Lewis is known today on the strength of the Narnia stories as a highly successful children’s writer, the initial critical response was muted. At the time it was fashionable for children's stories to be realistic; fantasy and fairy tales were seen as indulgent, appropriate only for very young readers and potentially harmful to older children, even hindering their ability to relate to everyday life. Some reviewers considered the tale overtly moralistic or the Christian elements over-stated — attempts to indoctrinate children. Others were concerned that the many violent incidents might frighten children. \n\nLewis's publisher, Geoffrey Bles, feared that the Narnia tales would not sell, and might damage Lewis’ reputation and affect sales of his other books. Nevertheless, the novel and its successors were highly popular with young readers, and Lewis's publisher was soon eager to release further Narnia stories. \n\nIn the United States a 2004 study found that The Lion was a common read-aloud book for seventh-graders in schools in San Diego County, California. In 2005 it was included on TIMEs unranked list of the 100 best English-language novels published since 1923. Based on a 2007 online poll, the U.S. National Education Association named it one of \"Teachers' Top 100 Books for Children\". In 2012 it was ranked number five among all-time children's novels in a survey published by School Library Journal, a monthly with primarily U.S. audience.\n\nA 2012 survey by the University of Worcester determined that it was the second most common book that UK adults had read as children, after Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. (Adults, perhaps limited to parents, ranked Alice and The Lion fifth and sixth as books the next generation should read, or their children should read during their lifetimes.) \n\nTIME magazine included the novel in its \"All-TIME 100 Novels\" (best English-language novels from 1923 to 2005). In 2003, the novel was listed at number 9 on the BBC's survey The Big Read. It has also been published in 47 foreign languages. \n\nAllusions\n\nLewis wrote that \"The Narnian books are not as much allegory as supposal. Suppose there were a Narnian world and it, like ours, needed redemption. What kind of incarnation and Passion might Christ be supposed to undergo there?\" \n\nThe main story is an allegory of Christ's crucifixion: Aslan sacrifices himself for Edmund, a traitor who may deserve death, in the same way that Christians believe Jesus sacrificed himself for sinners. Aslan is killed on the Stone Table, symbolizing Mosaic Law, which breaks when he is resurrected, symbolizing the replacement of the strict justice of Old Testament law with redeeming grace and forgiveness granted on the basis of substitutional atonement, according to Christian theology. As with the Christian Passion, it is women (Susan and Lucy) who tend Aslan's body after he dies and are the first to see him after his resurrection. The significance of the death contains elements of both the ransom theory of atonement and the satisfaction theory: Aslan suffers Edmund's penalty (satisfaction), and buys him back from the White Witch, who was entitled to him by reason of his treachery (ransom). In Christian belief, Christ is associated with the Biblical \"Lion of Judah\" of Revelation 5:5.\n\nProfessor Kirke is based on W.T. Kirkpatrick, who tutored a 16-year-old Lewis. \"Kirk,\" as he was sometimes called, taught the young Lewis much about thinking and communicating clearly, skills that would be invaluable to him later.[http://www.cslewisinstitute.org/pages/resources/cslewis/ CS Lewis Institute Resources].\n\nNarnia is caught in endless winter that has lasted a century when the children first enter. Norse tradition mythologises a \"great winter,\" known as the Fimbulwinter, said to precede Ragnarök. The trapping of Edmund by the White Witch is reminiscent of the seduction and imprisonment of Kay by The Snow Queen in Hans Christian Andersen's novella of that name. \n\nThe dwarves and giants are found in Norse mythology; fauns, centaurs, minotaurs and dryads derive from Greek mythology. Father Christmas, of course, was part of popular English folklore.\n\nThere are several parallels between the White Witch and the immortal white queen, Ayesha, of H. Rider Haggard's She, a novel greatly admired by C.S. Lewis. \n\nThe Story of the Amulet written by Edith Nesbit also contains scenes that can be considered precursors to sequences presenting Jadis, particularly in The Magician's Nephew. Nesbit's short story The Aunt and Amabel includes the motif of a girl entering a wardrobe to gain access to a magical place. \n\nThe freeing of Aslan's body from the stone table by field mice is reminiscent of Aesop's fable of \"The Lion and the Mouse.\" In the fable, a lion catches a mouse, but the mouse persuades the lion to release him, promising that the favor would be rewarded. Later in the story, he gnaws through the lion's bonds after he has been captured by hunters. It is also reminiscent of a scene from Edgar Allan Poe's story \"The Pit and the Pendulum,\" in which a prisoner is freed when rats gnaw through his bonds.[http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/21 Project Gutenberg]. In a later book, \"Prince Caspian,\" we learn that as reward for their actions, mice gained the same intelligence and speech as other Narnian animals. \n\nDifferences between editions\n\nDue to labor union rules, the text of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe was reset for the publication of the first American edition of by Macmillan US in 1950. Lewis took that opportunity to make the following changes to the original British edition published by Geoffrey Bles earlier that same year:\n\n*In chapter one of the American edition, the animals that Edmund and Susan express interest in are snakes and foxes rather than the foxes and rabbits of the British edition. \n*In chapter six of the American edition, the name of the White Witch's chief of police is changed to \"Fenris Ulf\" from \"Maugrim\" in the British. \n*In chapter thirteen of the American edition, \"the trunk of the World Ash Tree\" takes the place of \"the fire-stones of the Secret Hill\". \n\nWhen HarperCollins took over publication of the series in 1994, they began using the original British edition for all subsequent English editions worldwide. The current US edition published by Scholastic has 36,135 words. \n\nAdaptations\n\nThe story has been adapted three times for television. The first adaptation was a ten-part serial produced by ABC Weekend Television for ITV and broadcast in 1967. In 1979, an animated TV-movie, directed by Peanuts director Bill Meléndez, was broadcast and won the first Emmy Award for Outstanding Animated Program. A third television adaptation was produced in 1988 by the BBC using a combination of live actors, animatronic puppets and animation. Only this last one was the first of a series of 3 Narnia adaptations. The programme was nominated for an Emmy and won a BAFTA. It was followed by three further Narnia adaptations.\n\nStage adaptations include a 1984 version staged at London's Westminster Theatre, produced by Vanessa Ford Productions. The play, adapted by Glyn Robbins, was directed by Richard Williams and designed by Marty Flood. \nJules Tasca, Ted Drachman, and Thomas Tierney collaborated on a musical adaptation published in 1986.WorldCat libraries have catalogued the related works in different ways including \"The lion, the witch, and the wardrobe: a musical based on C.S. Lewis' classic story\" (book, 1986, ); \"The lion, the witch, and the wardrobe: a musical based on C.S. Lewis' classic story\" (musical score, 1986, ); \"Narnia: a dramatic adaptation of C.S. Lewis's The lion, the witch, and the wardrobe\" (video, 1986, ); \"Narnia: based on C.S. Lewis' [classic story] The lion, the witch, and the wardrobe\" (1987, ).  Google Books uses the title \"Narnia – Full Musical\" and hosts selections, perhaps from the play by Tasca alone, without lyrics or music. [http://books.google.com/books/about/Narnia_Full_Musical.html?id=LjtX-TuO3AoC \"Narnia – Full Musical\" at Google Books] (books.google.com). Retrieved 2014-06-16.\nThe Royal Shakespeare Company did an adaptation in 1998, for which the acting edition has been published. \n\nIn 1997, Trumpets Inc., a Filipino Christian theatre and musical production company, produced a musical rendition that Douglas Gresham, Lewis's stepson (and co-producer of the Walden Media film adaptations), has openly declared that he feels is the closest to Lewis's intention. David, B.J. [2002]. \"Narnia Revisited\". From a Filipino school newspaper, probably in translation, posted 12 September 2002 to a discussion forum at Pinoy Exchange (pinoyexchange.com/forums). Retrieved 2015-10-29.   \"Stephen Gresham, stepson of C.S. Lewis\" saw the second staging by invitation and returned with his wife to see it again. \"[T]his approval from the family and estate of the well-loved author is enough evidence that the Trumpets adaptations is at par with other version.\" It starred among others popular young Filipino singer Sam Concepcion as Edmund Pevensie. The book and lyrics were written by Jaime del Mundo and Luna Inocian, while music was composed by Lito Villareal.\n\nIn 2003, there was an Australian commercial stage production which toured the country by Malcolm C. Cooke Productions, using both life-size puppets and human actors. It was directed by notable film director Nadia Tass, and starred Amanda Muggleton, Dennis Olsen, Meaghan Davies and Yolande Brown. \n\nIn 2011, a two-actor stage adaptation by Le Clanché du Rand opened Off-Broadway in New York City at St. Luke's Theatre. The production was directed by Julia Beardsley O'Brien and starred Erin Layton and Andrew Fortman. As of 2014, the production is currently running with a replacement cast of Abigail Taylor-Sansom and Rockford Sansom. \n\nIn 2005, the story was adapted for a theatrical film, co-produced by Walt Disney and Walden Media. It has so far been followed by two more films: (The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian and The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader). The latter was co-produced by Twentieth-Century Fox and Walden Media.\n\nMultiple audio editions have been released. The best-known consists of all the books read aloud by Michael York, Anthony Quayle, Patrick Stewart, Kenneth Branagh, Derek Jacobi, Alex Jennings, Lynn Redgrave, Ian Richardson, Claire Bloom and Jeremy Northam. However, two audio CDs in the form of \"radio plays\" with various actors, sound effects, and music have also been released, one by the BBC (1996), one produced by Focus on the Family's Radio Theatre (1998). Both the original BBC version and the Focus on the Family version have been broadcast on BBC radio. The latter is longer, with a full orchestra score, narration, and a larger cast of actors. Both are the first in a series of adaptations of all seven of the Narnia books.", "Prince Caspian (originally published as Prince Caspian: The Return to Narnia) is a high fantasy novel for children by C. S. Lewis, published by Geoffrey Bles in 1951. It was the second published of seven novels in The Chronicles of Narnia (1950–1956) and Lewis had finished writing it in 1949, before the first book was out. It is volume four in recent editions of the series, which are sequenced according to Narnia history. Like the others it was illustrated by Pauline Baynes and her work has been retained in many later editions.\n\nPrince Caspian features \"return to Narnia\" by the four Pevensie children of the first novel, about one year later in England but 1300 years later in Narnia. It is the only one of The Chronicles where men dominate Narnia; the talking animals and mythical beings are oppressed and some may be endangered. The English siblings are legendary whom the refugee Prince Caspian magically recalls for assistance, as children once again.\n\nMacmillan US published an American edition within the calendar year. \n\nPrince Caspian has been adapted and filmed as two episodes of BBC television series in 1989 and as a feature film in 2008.\n\nPlot summary\n\n \nWhile standing on a British railway station, Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy Pevensie are magically whisked away to a beach near an old and ruined castle. They determine the ruin is Cair Paravel, where they ruled as the Kings and Queens of Narnia, and discover the treasure vault where Peter's sword and shield, Susan's bow and arrows, and Lucy's bottle of magical cordial and dagger are stored. Susan's horn for summoning help is missing, as she left it in the woods the day they returned to England after their prior visit to Narnia. Although only a year has passed in England, centuries have passed in Narnia.\n\nThe children intervene to rescue Trumpkin the dwarf from soldiers who have brought him to the ruins to drown him. Trumpkin tells the children that since their disappearance, a race of men called Telmarines have invaded Narnia, driving the Talking Beasts into the wilderness and pushing even their memory underground. Narnia is ruled by King Miraz and his wife Queen Prunaprismia, but the rightful king is Miraz's nephew, Prince Caspian, who has gained the support of the Old Narnians.\n\nMiraz usurped the throne by killing his brother, Caspian's father King Caspian IX. Miraz tolerated Caspian as heir until his own son was born. Prince Caspian, until that point ignorant of his uncle's deeds, escaped from Miraz's Castle with the aid of his tutor Doctor Cornelius, who schooled him in the lore of Old Narnia, and gave him Queen Susan's horn. Caspian fled into the forest but was knocked unconscious when his horse bolted. He awoke in the den of a talking badger, Trufflehunter, and two dwarfs, Nikabrik and Trumpkin, who accepted Caspian as their king.\n\nThe badger and dwarves took Caspian to meet many creatures of Old Narnia. During a midnight council on Dancing Lawn, Doctor Cornelius arrived to warn them of the approach of King Miraz and his army; he urged them to flee to Aslan's How in the great woods near Cair Paravel. The Telmarines followed the Narnians to the How, and after several skirmishes the Narnians appeared close to defeat. At a second war council, they discussed whether to use Queen Susan's horn, and whether it would bring Aslan or the Kings and Queens of the golden age. Not knowing where help would arrive, they dispatched Pattertwig the Squirrel to Lantern Waste and Trumpkin to Cair Paravel; it is then that Trumpkin was captured by the Telmarines and rescued by the Pevensies.\n\nTrumpkin and the Pevensies make their way to Caspian. They try to save time by travelling up Glasswater Creek, but lose their way. Lucy sees Aslan and wants to follow where he leads, but the others do not believe her and follow their original course, which becomes increasingly difficult. In the night, Aslan calls Lucy and tells her she must awaken the others and insist they follow her on Aslan's path. When the others obey, they begin to see Aslan's shadow, then Aslan himself. Aslan sends Peter, Edmund, and Trumpkin ahead to Aslan's How to deal with treachery brewing there, and follows with Susan and Lucy.\n\nPeter, Edmund, and Trumpkin enter Aslan's How; they overhear Nikabrik and his confederates, a Hag and a Wer-Wolf, trying to convince Caspian, Cornelius, and Trufflehunter to help them resurrect the White Witch in hopes of using her power to defeat Miraz. A fight ensues, and Nikabrik and his comrades are slain.\n\nPeter challenges Miraz to single combat; the army of the victor in this duel will be considered the victor in the war. Miraz accepts the challenge, goaded by Lords Glozelle and Sopespian. Miraz loses the combat, but Glozelle and Sopespian declare that the Narnians have cheated and stabbed the King in the back while he was down. They command the Telmarine army to attack, and in the commotion that follows, Glozelle stabs Miraz in the back. Aslan, accompanied by Lucy and Susan, summons the gods Bacchus and Silenus, and with their help brings the woods to life. The gods and awakened trees turn the tide of battle and send the Telmarines fleeing. Discovering themselves trapped at the Great River, where their bridge has been destroyed by Bacchus, the Telmarines surrender.\n\nAslan gives the Telmarines a choice of staying in Narnia under Caspian or returning to Earth, their original home. After one volunteer disappears through the magic door created by Aslan, the Pevensies go through to reassure the other Telmarines, though Peter and Susan reveal to Edmund and Lucy that they are too old to return to Narnia. The Pevensies find themselves back at the railway station.\n\nCharacters\n\n*Lucy Pevensie, the youngest Pevensie child, is the first to see Aslan again.\n*Edmund Pevensie is the third Pevensie child. Unlike his older siblings, he trusts Lucy's sighting of Aslan, pointing out that in their first adventure she turned out to be right and he ended up looking silly.\n*Peter Pevensie, the oldest of the Pevensie siblings, is High-King of Narnia.\n*Susan Pevensie is the second oldest of the Pevensie children. She uses a bow and arrow\n*Prince Caspian, the rightful Telmarine King, who becomes King of Narnia. He reappears in the next two books in the series: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader and The Silver Chair, and makes a brief appearance in the end of The Last Battle.\n*Aslan, the Great Lion, who created Narnia.\n*Miraz, Caspian's uncle, usurped the throne of the Telmarines. So long as Miraz has no son, he tolerates Caspian as heir, but when a son is born he moves to eliminate Caspian. He fights the Old Narnians, who support Caspian, and accepts a challenge to single combat with Peter to settle the matter; but he is killed treacherously by Lord Glozelle after the duel.\n*Trumpkin, a Red Dwarf who helps Caspian defeat Miraz. When he is captured by Miraz's soldiers and taken to Cair Paravel to be drowned, he is freed by the Pevensie children and leads them to Caspian. At the beginning of the novel he is entirely skeptical about the existence of Aslan and the ancient Kings and Queens, but learns better in the course of the story.\n*Doctor Cornelius, half-dwarf and half-human, is tutor to Caspian and aids in the Narnians' defeat of the Telmarines.\n*Reepicheep, a talking mouse (descended from the non-talking mice who freed Aslan from his bonds in the previous book, and were thus given the gift of speech), is a fearless swordsman and a staunch supporter of Aslan and Caspian.\n*Nikabrik, a Black Dwarf in Caspian's army, resists fighting alongside Caspian. Together with a Hag and a Wer-Wolf, he plots to raise the White Witch against the Telmarines through black magic, but all three are killed by Caspian and his allies.\n*Trufflehunter, a talking badger, holds faith with Aslan and Old Narnia, and aids Prince Caspian in his struggle against Miraz.\n*Bacchus and Silenus, Narnian forest gods (borrowed from Ancient Greece).\n*Queen Prunaprismia, Miraz's wife.\n* Lord Sopespian and Lord Glozelle, lords of Telmar. After being insulted by Miraz they manipulate him into accepting Peter's challenge. They cry treachery when Miraz falls, and Glozelle secretly stabs him in the back. Sopespian is beheaded by Peter as the all-out battle begins, but Lewis does not mention the fate of Glozelle.\n\nThemes\n\nThe two major themes of the story are courage and chivalry and, as Lewis himself said in a letter to an American girl, \"the restoration of the true religion after a corruption\". \n\nThe Telmarine conquest of Narnia, as depicted in the book, is in many ways similar to the historical Norman Conquest of England. Though there is no precise parallel in actual English history to the specific events of this book, the end result - \"Old Narnians\" and Telmarines becoming a single people and living together in harmony - is similar to the historical process of Saxons and Normans eventually fusing into a single English people.\n\nAdaptations\n\nThe BBC adapted Prince Caspian in two episodes of the 1989 series of The Chronicles of Narnia.\n\nThe second in the series of films from Walt Disney Pictures and Walden Media, titled The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, was released in the US on 16 May 2008. The UK release date was 26 June 2008.\n\nThe book was the inspiration for a song of the same name on the Phish album Billy Breathes.\n\nThe script for a stage adaptation was written by Erina Caradus and first performed in 2007.", "The Chronicles of Narnia is a series of fantasy films from Walden Media based on The Chronicles of Narnia, a series of novels written by Irish novelist C. S. Lewis. From the seven novels, there have been three film adaptations so far—The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005), Prince Caspian (2008) and The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (2010) which have grossed over $1.5 billion worldwide among them.\n\nThe series revolves around the adventures of children in the world of Narnia, guided by Aslan, a wise and powerful lion that can speak and is the true king of Narnia. The children heavily featured in the films are the Pevensie siblings, and a prominent antagonist is the White Witch (also known as Jadis).\n\nThe first two films were directed by Andrew Adamson and the third film was directed by Michael Apted. The third film is the first of the Chronicles to be released in RealD 3D. The fourth film is now being developed by Mark Gordon Company.\n\nDevelopment\n\nC. S. Lewis never sold the film rights to the Narnia series during his lifetime, as he was sceptical that any cinematic adaptation could render the more fantastical elements and characters of the story realistically. Only after seeing a demo reel of CGI animals did Douglas Gresham (Lewis's stepson and literary executor, and film co-producer) give approval for a film adaptation.\n\nAlthough the plan was originally to produce the films in the same order as the book series' original publication, it was reported that The Magician's Nephew, which recounts the creation of Narnia, would be the fourth feature film in the series, instead of The Silver Chair. It was rumored that The Magician's Nephew was chosen as an attempt to reboot the series, after the release of The Voyage of the Dawn Treader grossed less when compared to the two previous films. In March 2011, Walden Media confirmed that they intended The Magician's Nephew to be next in the series, but stressed that it was not yet in development. \n\nIn October 2011, Douglas Gresham stated that Walden Media's contract with the C. S. Lewis estate had expired, hinting that Walden Media's lapse in renegotiating their contract with the C. S. Lewis estate was due to internal conflicts between both companies about the direction of future films.\n\nAlthough there is currently a moratorium on the film rights, on October 1, 2013, The C.S. Lewis Company announced that The Chronicles of Narnia: The Silver Chair was officially in pre-production. \n\nFilms\n\nThe Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005)\n\nThe Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, based on the novel of the same title, is the first film in the series. Directed by Andrew Adamson, it was shot mainly in New Zealand, though locations were used in Poland, the Czech Republic and the United Kingdom.\n\nThe story follows four British children who are evacuated during the Blitz to the countryside and find a wardrobe that leads to the fantasy world of Narnia. There, they must ally with the lion Aslan against the forces of the White Witch, who has Narnia under an eternal winter.\n\nThe film was released theatrically on December 9, 2005 and on DVD on April 4, 2006 and grossed over $745 million worldwide.\n\nPrince Caspian (2008)\n\nPrince Caspian, based on the novel of the same title, is the second film in the series and the last distributed by Walt Disney Pictures.\n\nThe story follows four British children who were transported to Narnia in the previous film returning to Narnia, where 1,300 years have passed and the land has been invaded by Telmarines. The four Pevensie children aid Prince Caspian in his struggle for the throne against his corrupt uncle, King Miraz. \n\nThe film was released on May 16, 2008. It grossed $419 million worldwide.\n\nThe Voyage of the Dawn Treader (2010)\n\nThe Voyage of the Dawn Treader, based on the novel of the same title, is the third film in the series. This is the first film not co-produced by Disney, who dropped out over a budget dispute with Walden Media. In January 2009, it was announced that 20th Century Fox would replace Disney for future installments. Directed by Michael Apted, the movie was filmed almost entirely in Australia.\n\nThe story follows the two younger Pevensie children as they return to Narnia with their cousin, Eustace. They join the new king of Narnia, Caspian, in his quest to rescue seven lost lords and save Narnia from a corrupting evil that resides on a dark island. \n\nThe film was released on December 10, 2010 (in RealD 3D in select theaters) and grossed over $415 million worldwide.\n\nFuture\n\nAfter Walden Media's contract of the series' film rights expired in 2011, it was originally assumed that 2014 would be the earliest that production on another Narnia film could begin according to the moratorium placed on the C. S. Lewis estate's right to sell the books' film option.\nOn October 1, 2013, The C.S. Lewis Company announced that it had entered into an agreement with the Mark Gordon Company to produce The Chronicles of Narnia: The Silver Chair, based on The Silver Chair. Mark Gordon and Douglas Gresham along with Vincent Sieber, the Los Angeles based director of The C.S. Lewis Company, would serve as producers and work with The Mark Gordon Company on developing the script. On December 5, 2013, it was announced that David Magee would write the screenplay. \n\nIn July 2014, the official Narnia website allowed the opportunity for fans to suggest names for the Lady of the Green Kirtle, the main antagonist. The winning name is to be selected by Mark Gordon and David Magee for use in the final script of The Chronicles of Narnia: The Silver Chair. \n\nWhile the film's producers have been calling the film a \"reboot\" to the series, in actuality this is referring to the fact that the film has a new creative team not associated with those who worked on the previous three films. The film itself is still considered to be sequel to the film adaptation of The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. \n\nMain cast\n\nChildren\n\n*Georgie Henley as Lucy Pevensie, title: Queen Lucy the Valiant, the youngest Pevensie child and a Queen of Narnia during the Golden Age.\n*Skandar Keynes as Edmund Pevensie, title: King Edmund the Just; the younger Pevensie boy and a King of Narnia during the Golden Age.\n*William Moseley as Peter Pevensie, title: High King Peter the Magnificent, the eldest Pevensie child and the High King of Narnia during the Golden Age.\n*Anna Popplewell as Susan Pevensie, title: High Queen Susan the Gentle, the elder Pevensie girl and a Queen of Narnia in the Golden Age.\n*Will Poulter as Eustace Scrubb, the Pevensie children's arrogant cousin. He will return to Narnia with his friend Jill Pole in The Silver Chair.\n\nOther recurring characters\n\n*Liam Neeson as the voice of Aslan, the magnificent and majestically powerful lion who helps govern and maintain order in Narnia; a mystical world of his own creation. He is the only main character to appear in all seven books.\n* Tilda Swinton as Jadis, the White Witch; the former queen of Charn and a witch who ruled Narnia after being released in The Magician's Nephew and during the events of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.\n*Ben Barnes as Caspian X, the Telmarine prince who becomes King of Narnia after overthrowing his evil uncle Miraz.\n*Eddie Izzard and later Simon Pegg as the voice of Reepicheep, the noble and courageous mouse who fights for Aslan and the freedom of Narnia. Izzard played the character in Prince Caspian, and Pegg took over the role in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.\n\nReception\n\nBox office performance\n\nCritical and public response", "The Horse and His Boy is a novel for children by C. S. Lewis, published by Geoffrey Bles in 1954. It was the fifth published of seven novels in The Chronicles of Narnia (1950–1956) and one of four that Lewis finished writing before the first book was out. It is volume three in recent editions, which are sequenced according to Narnia history. Like the others it was illustrated by Pauline Baynes and her work has been retained in many later editions.\n\nThe Horse and His Boy is the only book of the Narnia series that features native rather than English children as the main characters, and the only one set entirely in the Narnian world. It is set in the period covered by the last chapter of the inaugural book, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, during the reign of the four Pevensie children as . Though the Pevensies appear as minor characters, the main characters are two children and two talking horses who escape from Calormen north into Narnia. En route they pass through Calormen's capital city, where they learn of Calormen's plan to invade Archenland, Narnia's southern neighbor. When they reach Archenland, they warn the king of the impending invasion.\n\nMacmillan US published an American edition within the calendar year. \n\nPlot summary\n\nA boy by the name of Shasta is found as a baby and raised by Arsheesh, a Calormene fisherman. As the story begins, Shasta overhears Arsheesh agreeing to sell him to a powerful Calormene feudal nobleman, Anradin. He is relieved to discover that Arsheesh is not his real father, since there was little love between them. While Shasta awaits his new master in the stable, Bree, the nobleman's stallion, astounds Shasta by speaking to him. He is a talking horse from Narnia who was captured by the Calormenes as a foal. He tells Shasta that Anradin will treat him cruelly, and Shasta resolves to escape. The horse suggests that they escape a life of servitude by riding north together to Narnia. They meet another pair of escaping travellers, Aravis, a young Calormene aristocrat, and her talking horse, Hwin. Aravis is fleeing to avoid a forced marriage with Ahoshta, the Tisroc's grand vizier.\n\nThe four must travel through Tashbaan, the bustling capital of Calormen. There they encounter a procession of visiting Narnian royalty, who mistake Shasta for Corin, a prince of Archenland, who was separated from their group earlier that day. Unsure what to do, Shasta goes with the Narnians and overhears their plans to escape from Calormen to prevent a forced marriage of Queen Susan with the Tisroc's son, Rabadash. Shasta escapes when the real Prince Corin returns.\n\nMeanwhile, Aravis has been spotted by her friend Lasaraleen. She asks Lasaraleen not to betray her, and to help her escape from Tashbaan. Lasaraleen cannot understand why Aravis would want to abandon the life of a Calormene noblewoman or refuse marriage with Ahoshta, but she helps Aravis escape through the palace. On the way, they hide when the Tisroc, Rabadash, and Ahoshta approach. Aravis overhears the Tisroc and Rabadash discussing the Narnians' escape. Rabadash is still determined to have Queen Susan and wants to invade Narnia to seize her. The Tisroc gives Rabadash permission to invade Archenland and Narnia while High King Peter is preoccupied battling giants to the north.\n\nAravis rejoins Shasta and the horses outside Tashbaan, and tells them of the plot. The four set out across the desert, and a lion (whom they later discover to be Aslan) frightens them into fleeing swiftly enough to outrun Rabadash's army. Shasta arrives in Archenland in time to warn Archenland and Narnia of the approaching Calormenes. When Rabadash and his army arrive at the castle of King Lune in Archenland, they find their prey waiting for them, and a battle ensues. There is no clear outcome until an army from Narnia, led by Edmund and Lucy, reinforces the defenders. The Calormenes are defeated, and Rabadash is captured. Anradin is among those who fall in the battle.\n\nRabadash rebuffs King Lune's offer of conditional release, and is transformed by Aslan into a donkey. His true form will be restored if he stands before the altar of Tash at the Autumn Feast. However, he will become a donkey permanently if he ever strays thereafter more than ten miles from the Temple of Tash. For this reason, Rabadash pursues peaceful policies when he becomes Tisroc, as he dare not risk the ten mile limit by going to war.\n\nThe victorious King Lune recognizes Shasta as Cor, the long-lost identical twin of Prince Corin and, as barely the elder of the two, the heir to the throne. He was kidnapped as a baby to counter a prophecy that he would one day save Archenland from its greatest peril, but Shasta's timely warning has fulfilled the prophecy. Aravis and Shasta live in Archenland thereafter and eventually marry. Their son, Ram, becomes the most famous king of Archenland.\n\nSeries continuity\n\nThe adventures are mentioned twice in The Silver Chair, which was released before Horse but which takes place chronologically after that story. At this point, Lucy and Edmund still retain their memories of their time on Earth, as evidenced by Lucy's retelling of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, although by the end of their time in Narnia, none of the Pevensies remember Earth until crossing back through the wardrobe (as seen in Lion). In the later book The Last Battle, Corin, Cor (or Shasta), Aravis, Bree and Hwin all appear in the great reunion. \n\nThemes and motifs\n\n\"Narnia and the North!\"\n\nBree and Shasta use the phrase \"Narnia and the North\" as their \"rallying cry\" as they make their escape from their life in Calormen. They are both motivated by a deep longing to find their way to the place that is ultimately their true homeland. In the setting of The Horse and His Boy, the reader finds a departure from the landscapes, culture, and people of the Narnian realms which have become familiar in the other books. The placement of the action in the more alien realm of Calormen helps to convey a sense of \"unbelonging\" on the part of the characters and the reader, which reinforces the motif of longing for a true home. \n\nIn other works, Lewis uses the German word Sehnsucht to encapsulate the idea of an \"inconsolable longing\" in the human heart for \"we know not what.\" C. S. Lewis identifies the objects of Sehnsucht-longing as God and Heaven. \n\nDivine providence revealed\n\nAfter meeting up with King Lune of Archenland and his hunting party, and warning them of the impending Calormene invasion, Shasta becomes lost in the fog and separated from the King's procession. After continuing blindly for some way, he senses that he has been joined in the darkness by a mysterious presence. Engaging in conversation with the unknown being, Shasta confides what he sees as his many misfortunes, including being chased by lions on two separate occasions, and concluding with \"If nothing else, it was bad luck to meet so many lions.\" His companion then proclaims himself as the single lion that Shasta has encountered in his travels:\n\n\"I was the lion who forced you to join with Aravis. I was the cat who comforted you among the houses of the dead. I was the lion who drove the jackals from you while you slept. I was the lion who gave the horses the new strength of fear for the last mile so that you should reach King Lune in time. And I was the lion you do not remember who pushed the boat in which you lay, a child near death, so that it came to shore where a man sat, wakeful at midnight, to receive you.\"\n\nThus it is revealed to Shasta, that, in the incidents which he perceived as misfortunes, Aslan, in his Divine Providence, has been orchestrating events for his greater purposes. \n\nCreated proverbs\n\nIn two conversations, both between adults and not involving children, Lewis has speakers use a number of proverbs that he created; one way to convey the flavor of Calormene culture (Unseth 2011). The proverbs are found at the very beginning (as Shasta's foster-father and a Calormene nobleman haggle on a price for Shasta) and later in a scene where the Tisroc, the Vizier, and Prince Rabadash have a secret council. Proverbs in Calormene culture (as in so many real cultures) are the domain of adults, especially older, wiser adults. As a result, Prince Rabadash is the recipient of many proverbs, but is only able to use one, the only proverb in this exchange which is originally drawn from English, \"Women are as changeable as weathercocks.\"\n\nThe Vizier delights in the use of proverbs, boasting that Calormene culture is \"full of choice apophthegms and useful maxims.\" Rabadash, on the other hand, has no such appreciation and complains, \"I have had maxims and verses flung at me all day and I can endure them no more.\" When the Vizier begins yet another proverb, \"Gifted was the poet who said...\", Rabadash stifles him with a threatened kick.\n\nLewis also uses the proverbs to subtly make fun of the Calormenes. For example, the fisherman cites a proverb, \"Natural affection is stronger than soup and offspring more precious than carbuncles\" (p. 4). Myers wryly notes “Soup, of course, varies greatly in its strength; 'carbuncle' means 'a red jewel' in medieval romances, but its modern meaning is 'a red sore'\" (1998:162). Later, as the Vizier addresses the Tisroc, he refers to part of the same proverb, saying “sons are in the eyes of their fathers more precious than carbuncles\" (p. 112), (but he rephrases it into a longer, wordier form; verbosity being one of the hallmarks of Calormene speech (Myers 1998:162)). The relationship between the Tisroc and Prince Rabadash is nicely paralleled by the \"carbuncle\" meaning of \"red sore\".\n\nAdaptations\n\nNo studio has yet produced a filmed adaptation of this book. However, Focus on the Family produced an audio dramatization in 2000 (along with adaptations of the other Narnia books around the same time). [http://www.christianbook.com/radio-theatre-chronicles-narnia-horse-boy/c-s-lewis/pd/DA15143-CP]\n\nWalden Media, having already made movie adaptions of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Prince Caspian and The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, also retains the option to make The Chronicles of Narnia: The Horse and His Boy in the future. \n\nAllusions and references\n\nThe association of Cor with horses, and his twin brother Corin with boxing, recalls the traditional associations of the Spartan twins Castor and Pollux of Greek mythology. \n\nResearcher Ruth North noted that the plot element of a sinful human being transformed into a donkey as a punishment and then restored to humanity as an act of Divine mercy is similar to that of The Golden Ass by Apuleius — a classic of Latin literature with which Lewis was certainly familiar.", "The Magician's Nephew is a high fantasy novel for children by C. S. Lewis, published by Bodley Head in 1955. It was the sixth published of seven novels in The Chronicles of Narnia (1950–1956); it is volume one in recent editions, which are sequenced according to Narnia history. Like the others it was illustrated by Pauline Baynes and her work has been retained in many later editions. The Bodley Head was a new publisher for The Chronicles, a change from Geoffrey Bles.\n\nThe Magician's Nephew is a prequel to the books of the same series. The middle third of the novel features creation of the Narnia world by Aslan the lion, centered at a section of a lamp-post brought by accidental observers from London during year 1900. The visitors then participate in the beginning of Narnia history, 1000 years before The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (which inaugurated the series in 1950). The frame story set in England features two children ensnared in experimental travel via \"the wood between the worlds\". Thus, the novel shows Narnia and our middle-age world to be only two of many in a multiverse that changes as some worlds begin and others end. It also explains the origin of foreign elements in Narnia, not only the lamp-post but the White Witch and a human king and queen.\n\nLewis began The Magician's Nephew soon after completing The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, spurred by a friend's question about the lamp-post in the middle of nowhere, but he needed more than five years to complete it. The story includes several autobiographical elements and it explores a number of themes with general moral and Christian implications including atonement, original sin, temptation, and the order of nature.\n\nMacmillan US published an American edition within the calendar year. \n\nPlot summary\n\nThe story begins in London during the summer of 1900. Two children, Digory Kirke and Polly Plummer, meet while playing in the adjacent gardens of a row of terraced houses. They decide to explore the attic connecting the houses, but take the wrong door and surprise Digory's Uncle Andrew in his study. Uncle Andrew tricks Polly into touching a yellow magic ring, causing her to vanish. Then he explains to Digory that he has been dabbling in magic, and that the rings allow travel between one world and another. He blackmails Digory into taking another yellow ring to follow wherever Polly has gone, and two green rings so that they both can return.\n\nDigory finds himself transported to a sleepy woodland with an almost narcotic effect; he finds Polly nearby. The woodland is filled with pools. Digory and Polly surmise that the wood is not really a proper world at all but a \"Wood between the Worlds\", similar to the attic that links their rowhouses back in England, and that each pool leads to a separate universe. They decide to explore a different world before returning to England, and jump into one of the nearby pools. They then find themselves in a desolate abandoned city of the ancient world of Charn. Inside the ruined palace, they discover statues of Charn's former kings and queens, which degenerate from the fair and wise to the unhappy and cruel. They find a bell with a hammer, an inscription inviting the finder to strike the bell.\n\nDespite protests from Polly, Digory rings the bell. This awakens the last of the statues, a witch queen named Jadis, who, to avoid defeat in battle, had deliberately killed every living thing in Charn by speaking the \"Deplorable Word\". As the only survivor left in her world, she placed herself in an enchanted sleep that would only be broken by someone ringing the bell.\n\nThe children realize Jadis's evil nature and attempt to flee, but she follows them back to England by clinging to them as they clutch their rings. In England, she discovers that her magical powers do not work, although she retains her superhuman strength. Dismissing Uncle Andrew as a poor magician, she enslaves him and orders him to fetch her a \"chariot\"—a hansom cab—so she can set about conquering Earth. They leave, and she attracts attention by robbing a jewellery store. The police chase after her cab, until she crashes at the foot of the Kirke house. Jadis breaks off and brandishes an iron rod from a nearby lamp-post to fight off police and onlookers.\n\nPolly and Digory grab her and put on their rings to take her out of their world, dragging with them Uncle Andrew, Frank the cab-driver, and Frank's horse, since all were touching one another when the children grabbed their rings. In the Wood between the Worlds they jump into a pool, hoping it leads back to Charn. Instead they stumble into a dark void that Jadis recognizes as a world not yet created. They then all witness the creation of a new world by the lion Aslan, who brings stars, plants, and animals into existence as he sings. Jadis tries to kill Aslan with the iron rod, but it deflects harmlessly off him and sprouts into a lamp-post \"tree\". Jadis flees.\n\nAslan gives some animals the power of speech, commanding them to use it for justice and merriment. Digory's uncle is frozen with fear and unable to communicate with the talking animals, who mistake him for a kind of tree. Aslan confronts Digory with his responsibility for bringing Jadis into his young world, and tells Digory he must atone by helping to protect Narnia from her evil. Aslan transforms the cabbie's horse into a winged horse named Fledge, and Digory and Polly fly on him to a garden high in the mountains. Digory's task is to take an apple from a tree in this garden, and plant it in Narnia. In the garden Digory finds a sign warning not to steal from the garden.\n\nDigory picks one of the apples for his mission, but their overpowering smell tempts him. Jadis appears, having herself eaten an apple to become immortal; she tempts Digory either to eat an apple himself and join her in immortality, or steal one to take back to Earth to heal his dying mother. Digory resists, knowing his mother would never condone theft. He sees through the Witch's ploy when she suggests he leave Polly behind—not knowing Polly can get away by her own ring. Foiled, the Witch departs for the North. Digory returns to Narnia and plants the apple, which grows into a tree instantly. Aslan tells Digory how the tree works: anyone who steals the apples gets their heart's desire, but in a form that makes it unlikeable. In the Witch's case, she has achieved immortality, but it only means eternal misery because of her evil heart. Moreover, the magic apples are now a horror to her, such that the apple tree will repel her for centuries to come. With Aslan's permission, Digory then takes an apple from the new tree to heal his mother. Aslan returns Digory, Polly, and Uncle Andrew to England; Frank and his wife, Helen (transported from England by Aslan) stay to rule Narnia as its first King and Queen.\n\nDigory's apple restores his mother's health, and he and Polly remain lifelong friends. Uncle Andrew reforms and gives up magic but still enjoys bragging about his adventures with the Witch. Digory plants the apple's core with Uncle Andrew's rings in the back yard of his aunt's home in London. Years later, Digory's family inherit a mansion in the country, and the apple tree blows down in a storm. Digory has its wood made into a wardrobe, setting up the events in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.\n\nPrincipal characters\n\n*Digory Kirke: The boy who becomes the Professor Kirke who appears in other books of the series.\n*Polly Plummer: Digory's friend, who lives next door.\n*Mrs Kirke: Digory's mother.\n*Andrew Ketterley: Digory's uncle, a minor magician.\n*Letitia Ketterley: Uncle Andrew's sister.\n*Jadis: Empress of Charn, who becomes the White Witch appearing in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.\n*Aslan: The Lion who was the king of Narnia, who kills Jadis in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.\n*King Frank: A cabby who is the husband of Helen, and the first king of Narnia, and forefather of the kings of Archenland.\n*Queen Helen: The wife of Frank, the first queen of Narnia, and the ancestress of the Archenlanders.\n*Fledge: Frank's horse, who brings Polly and Digory to see Aslan.\n\nWriting\n\nLewis had originally intended only to write the one Narnia novel, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. However, when Roger Lancelyn Green asked him how a lamp post came to be standing in the midst of Narnian woodland, Lewis was intrigued enough by the question to attempt to find an answer by writing The Magician's Nephew, which features a younger version of Professor Kirke from the first novel. \n\nThe Magician's Nephew seems to have been the most challenging Narnia novel for Lewis to write. The other six Chronicles of Narnia were written between 1948 and 1953, The Magician's Nephew was written over a six-year period between 1949 and 1954. He started in the summer of 1949 after finishing The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, but came to a halt after producing 26 pages of manuscript and did not resume work until two years later. This may be as a result of the autobiographical aspects of the novel, as it reflects a number of incidents and parallels very close to his own experiences. \n\nHe returned to The Magician's Nephew late in 1950, after completing The Silver Chair. He managed to finish close to three quarters of the novel, and then halted work once again after Roger Green, to whom Lewis showed all his writing at the time, suggested there was a structural problem in the story. Finally he returned to the novel in 1953, after finishing The Last Battle in the spring of that year and completed early in 1954. \n\nLewis originally titled the novel \"Polly and Digory\"; his publisher changed it to The Magician's Nephew. This book is dedicated to \"the Kilmer family\".\n\nThe Lefay Fragment\n\nThe original opening of the novel differs greatly from the published version, and was abandoned by Lewis. It is now known as 'The Lefay Fragment', and is named after Mrs Lefay, Digory's fairy godmother, who is mentioned in the final version as Uncle Andrew's godmother, a less benevolent user of magic, who bequeathed him the box of dust used to create two magic rings. \n\nIn the Lefay Fragment, Digory is born with the ability to speak to trees and animals, and lives with an Aunt Gertrude, a former school mistress with an officious, bullying nature, who has ended up as a Government minister after a lifetime of belligerent brow-beating of others. Whenever his aunt is absent, Digory finds solace with the animals and trees, including a talking squirrel named Pattertwig. Polly enters the story as a girl next door who is unable to understand the speech of non-human creatures. She wants to build a raft to explore a stream which leads to an underground world. Digory helps construct the raft, but ends up sawing a branch from a talking tree necessary to complete it, in order not to lose face with Polly. This causes him to lose his supernatural powers of speech. The following day he is visited by his godmother Mrs Lefay who knows that Digory has lost his abilities and gives him a card with the address of a furniture shop which she instructs him to visit. At this point the fragment ends. \n\nPattertwig and Aunt Gertrude do not appear in the final version of the novel. Pattertwig does, however, appear as a Narnian creature in Prince Caspian, and Aunt Gertrude is the principal of the experimental school in The Silver Chair. \n\nAuthenticity\n\nSome doubt has been cast on the authenticity of the Lefay Fragment, as the handwriting in the manuscript differs in some ways from Lewis' usual style, and the writing is not of a similar calibre to his other work. Also in August 1963 Lewis had given instructions to Douglas Gresham to destroy all his unfinished or incomplete fragments of manuscript when his rooms at Magdalene College, Cambridge were being cleaned out, following his resignation from the college early in the month. \n\nAutobiographical elements\n\nThere are a number of aspects of The Magician's Nephew which closely follow Lewis' own life. Both Digory and Lewis were children in the early 1900s, both wanted a pony, and both were faced with the death of their mothers in childhood. Digory is separated from his father, who is in India, and misses him. Lewis was schooled in England after his mother’s death, while his father remained in Ireland. He also had a brother in India. Lewis was a voracious reader when a child, Digory is also, and both are better with books than with numbers. Digory (and Polly) struggle with sums when trying to work out how far they must travel along the attic space to explore an abandoned house, Lewis failed the maths entrance exam for Oxford University. Lewis remembered rainy summer days from his youth and Digory is faced with the same woe in the novel. Additionally Digory becomes a professor when he grows up, who takes in evacuated children during World War II. \n\nThe character of Andrew Ketterley also closely resembles Robert Capron, a schoolmaster at Wynyard School which Lewis attended with his brother, whom Lewis suggested during his teens would make a good model for a villain in a future story. Ketterley resembles Capron in his age, appearance and behaviour. \n\nStyle\n\nThe Magician's Nephew is written in a lighter tone than other Chronicles of Narnia books, in particular The Last Battle, which was published after. It frequently makes use of humour; this perhaps reflects the sense of looking back at an earlier part of the century with affection, and Lewis as a middle-aged man recalling his childhood during those years. There are a number of humorous references to life in the old days, in particular school life. Humorous exchanges also take place between Narnian animals. Jadis' attempt to conquer London is portrayed as more comical than threatening, and further humour derives from the contrast between the evil empress and Edwardian London and its social mores, and her mistaking bumbling Andrew Ketterley for a powerful sorcerer. This recalls the style of Edith Nesbit's children's books. Lewis was fond of these books, which he read in childhood, a number were set in the same period and The Magician's Nephew has some apparent references or homages to them.\n\nReading order\n\nThe Magician's Nephew was originally published as the sixth book in the Narnia Chronicles. Most reprintings of the novels until the 1980s also reflected the order of original publication. In 1980 HarperCollins published the series in order of chronological of the events in the novels, which meant The Magician's Nephew was numbered as first in the series. HarperCollins, which had previously published editions of the novels outside the United States, also acquired the rights to publish the novels in that country in 1994 and used this sequence in the uniform worldwide edition published in that year. \n\nLewis appeared to have given his blessing to this sequence of reading the novels. In a letter dated 23 April 1957, a young fan, Laurence Krieg wrote to Lewis following the publication of The Magician's Nephew. He asked for Lewis to adjudicate between his views of the correct sequence of reading the novels — according to the sequence of events, with The Magician's Nephew being placed first, and that of his mother, who thought the order of publication was more appropriate. Lewis wrote back, appearing to support the younger Krieg's views, although he did point out that the views of the author may not be the best guidance, and that perhaps it would not matter what order they were read in. \n\nHowever this approach may have some effect upon Lewis' strategies for drawing readers into the world of Narnia. An example is Lucy Pevensie's discovery of the wardrobe, Narnia and a mysterious lamp post in the woods in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, which creates a sense of suspense about an unknown land she is discovering for the first time. This would be affected if the reader has already been introduced to Narnia in The Magician's Nephew and discovered the origins of Narnia, the wardrobe and the lamp post. Indeed, the narrative of The Magician's Nephew appears to assume a reader has already read The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and is now being shown its beginnings. \n\nPaul Ford cites several scholars who have weighed in against the decision of HarperCollins to present the books in the order of their internal chronology, and continues, \"most scholars disagree with this decision and find it the least faithful to Lewis's deepest intentions\". \n\nThemes and interpretations\n\nParallels with Biblical Genesis\n\nLewis suggested that he did not directly intend to write his Narnia stories as Christian tales, but that these aspects appeared subconsciously as he wrote, although the books did become Christian as they progressed. He thought that the tales were not direct representations or allegory, but that they might evoke or remind readers of Biblical stories. In The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Aslan is a Christ-like figure who suffers a death of atonement and returns to life in a similar way to Christ's crucifixion and resurrection. The Magician's Nephew has similar biblical allusions, reflecting aspects of The Book of Genesis such as the creation, original sin and temptation. \n\nParallels with events in Genesis include the forbidden fruit represented by an Apple of Life. Jadis tempts Digory to eat one of the forbidden apples in the garden, as the serpent tempts Eve into eating a forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden. Unlike Eve however, Digory rejects Jadis's offer. (It is noteworthy that also Lewis's Perelandra features a re-enactment of the same Biblical story, which also in that book ends with the tempter foiled and the fall avoided.)\n\nWhile the creation of Narnia closely echoes the creation of the Earth in the Book of Genesis, there are a number of important differences. Human beings are not created in Narnia by Aslan, they are brought into Narnia from our own world. Unlike Genesis, where souls are given only to human beings, animals and half-human half-animal creatures such as Fauns and Satyrs and even trees and watercourses are given souls and the power of rational thought and speech. This appears to suggest Lewis combined his Christian worldview with his fondness for nature, myth and fairy tales. \n\nParallels may also be found in Lewis's other writings. Jadis's references to \"reasons of State\", and her claim to own the people of Charn and to be beyond morality, represent the eclipse of the medieval Christian belief in natural law by the political concept of sovereignty, as embodied first in royal absolutism and then in modern dictatorships. Uncle Andrew represents the Faustian element in the origins of modern science. \n\nThe Holy Spirit and the Breath of Life\n\nOn a number of occasions in the Chronicles of Narnia, Aslan uses his breath to give strength to characters, demonstrating his benevolent power or bringing life. He specifically does so in The Magician's Nephew when a 'long warm breath' gives life to Narnia. Lewis used the symbol of the breath to represent the Holy Spirit also known as the Holy Ghost. Both 'spirit' and 'ghost' are translations of the word for breath in Hebrew and Greek. The flash from the stars when the Narnian animals are given the ability to talk also most probably represents the Holy Spirit or \"breath of life\" of Genesis chapter 2, as well as (possibly) the scholastic concept of the divine active intellect which inspires human beings with rationality.\n\nNature and a natural order\n\nThe Magician's Nephew suggests two opposing approaches to nature, a good approach associated with Aslan as creator and an evil approach associated with human deviation from divine intentions and the harmony of a natural order. On the one hand there is the beauty of Aslan's creation of Narnia, which is suggested as having a natural order by the use of musical harmony to bring landscapes and living things into being. There is also a distinct order to the process of creation, from earth to plants to animal, which evokes the concept of The Great Chain of Being. Lewis himself was a strong believer in the intrinsic value of nature for itself, rather than as a resource to be exploited. This is perhaps reflected in how Aslan also gives speech to spiritual aspects of nature, such naiads in the water and dryads in the trees. Andrew Ketterley and Jadis represent an opposite, evil approach of bending the forces of nature to human will for the purpose of self gain. They see nature solely as a resource to use for their plans and thus disturb and destroy the natural order. \n\nInfluences on The Magician's Nephew\n\nMilton's Paradise Lost\n\nThe sacred Garden in the west of the Narnian world is surrounded by a \"high wall of green turf\" with branches of trees overhanging it, and \"high gates of gold, fast shut, facing due east\", which must be the only entrance because the travellers \"walked nearly all the way round it\" before they found them. In all these points Lewis echoes Milton's description of Eden in Paradise Lost:\n\nThe verdurous wall of Paradise up sprung...\n\nAnd higher than that Wall a circling row\n\nOf goodliest trees loaden with fairest fruit,\n\nBlossoms and fruits at once of golden hue,\n\nAppeerd, with gay enameld colours mixt... \n\nOne gate there only was, and that look'd east\n\nOn th' other side... \n\nThe Garden of the Hesperides\n\nFour years before the publication of the first Narnia book, Lewis had written as follows on the experience of reading really good poetry for the first time:\n...I did not in the least feel that I was getting in more quantity or better quality a pleasure I had already known. It was more as if a cupboard which one had hitherto valued as a place for hanging coats proved one day, when you opened the door, to lead to the garden of the Hesperides... \n\nThe element of the cupboard leading to a new world Lewis proceeded to use in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, but the snowy Narnia of that book is quite unlike the balmy Garden of the Hesperides, most of whose major mythological features appear as attributes of the sacred Garden in The Magician's Nephew where it differs from the Biblical or Miltonian Eden. It is set in the far West of the world; it has a watchful guardian; a hero (Digory) is sent, like Hercules, to fetch an apple from it; a female villain (Jadis) steals another of the apples, like Eris. Since the eponymous Hesperides were daughters of Hesperus, the god of the planet Venus in the evening, advocates of the planetary theory adduce this as evidence for a special association between The Magician's Nephew and Venus. \n\nEdith Nesbit\n\nLewis read Edith Nesbit's children's books as a child and was greatly fond of them. The Magician's Nephew refers to these books in the opening of the novel as though their events were true, mentioning the setting of the piece as being when \"Mr. Sherlock Holmes was still living in Baker Street and the Bastables were looking for treasure in the Lewisham Road\". The Bastables were children who appeared in a number of Edith Nesbit's stories. In addition to being set in the same period and location as several of Nesbit's stories, The Magician's Nephew also has some similarities with Nesbit's The Story of the Amulet (1906). This novel focuses on four children living in London who discover a magic amulet. Their father is away and their mother is ill, as is the case with Digory. They also manage to transport the queen of ancient Babylon to London and she is the cause of a riot; a very similar event takes place in The Magician's Nephew when Polly and Digory transport Queen Jadis to London and she also causes a similar disturbance.\n\nCreation of Narnia\n\nThe creation of Narnia strongly reflects the Book of Genesis, but may also have been influenced by J.R.R. Tolkien's The Silmarillion, which also contains a creation scene driven by the effect of music. Some of the details of the creation of Narnia, such as the emergence of animals from the ground, and the way they shake earth from their bodies are also similar to John Milton's Paradise Lost, and may also have been inspired by descriptions of the processes of nature in The seventh book of Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queene. \n\nMorgan Le Fay and Pandora's Box\n\nLewis greatly enjoyed stories of Arthurian legend and wrote poetry about this world. Mrs Lefay visits Digory in The Lefay Fragment, and becomes Andrew Ketterley's nefarious godmother in the finished novel. She gives Ketterley a box from Atlantis containing the dust from which he constructs the rings Digory and Polly use to travel between worlds. Both Lefays are allusions to Morgan Le Fay, a powerful sorceress in a number of versions of King Arthur's tales, who is often portrayed as evil. The box itself is also evocative of Pandora's box from Greek myth, which also contained dangerous secrets. \n\nThe Atlantis legend\n\nThe box of dust enabling travel between worlds originated in Atlantis. Both Lewis and his close friend J.R.R. Tolkien were fascinated by the Atlantis legend. The degeneration of Charn's rulers, Jadis' ancestors, from the early kind and wise to the later cruel and arrogant is reminiscent of the similar degeneration in Tolkien's Númenor, the fabled island kingdom which finally sank under the waves due to the sinfulness of its latter inhabitants. The world of Charn was destroyed when Jadis spoke The Deplorable Word, a form of knowledge ancient Charnian scholars feared for its destructive potential. A number of commentators believed Lewis was referring to the use of the atomic bomb, used less than a decade earlier. It is perhaps more likely that Lewis was echoing the mythical destruction of Atlantis by the forces of evil and arrogance. The comparison with nuclear arms is made explicit in Aslan's last warning: \"You [Earth] are growing more like it [Charn]. It is not certain that some wicked one of your race will not find out a secret as evil as The Deplorable Word and use it to destroy all living things\".\n\nAdaptations\n\nTheatrical\n\nAurand Harris was a well-known American playwright for children, whose works are among the most performed in that medium. He wrote 36 plays for children including an adaption of The Magician's Nephew. The play was first performed on May 26, 1984 by the Department of Drama, University of Texas, Austin and staged at the B. Iden Payne Theatre. A musical score by William Penn was written for use with productions of the play. \n\nErina Caradus wrote a playscript for The Magician's Nephew that was performed in Dunedin, New Zealand in 2005. \n\nFilm\n\n20th Century Fox, Walden, and the C. S. Lewis Estate finally decided that The Magician's Nephew would be the basis for the next movie following the release of the 2010 film The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. However, in October 2011, Douglas Gresham confirmed that Walden Media's contract with the C. S. Lewis estate had expired, and any production of a future film was on hold indefinitely. \n\nOn October 1, 2013, The C.S. Lewis Company announced that has entered into an agreement with The Mark Gordon Company to jointly develop and produce The Chronicles of Narnia: The Silver Chair, ultimately deciding to continue releasing the films to mirror the novel series' publication order. The decision thus places the work on The Magician's Nephew film on an indefinite hiatus. \n\nTV\n\nIn 2008, the BBC produced a 10-part TV adaptation airing on BBC 2. \n\nCritical reception\n\nT.M. Wagner of SF Reviews said \"The Magician's Nephew may not be the best of the Narnia novels, but it's a brisk and funny tale certain to delight its intended young audience\", saying that it may not satisfy readers in their teenage years and older. \n\nJandy's Reading Room reviewed the book, saying that although they feel it is the weakest of the series, they would still recommend it. They say it \"gives a wonderful picture of the beginning of a new world, in the manner of the Creation.\"" ] }

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{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe" ], "filename": [ "Gaffer_(filmmaking).txt" ], "title": [ "Gaffer (filmmaking)" ], "wiki_context": [ "A gaffer in the motion picture industry and on a television crew is the head electrician, responsible for the execution (and sometimes the design) of the lighting plan for a production. The term gaffer originally related to the moving of overhead equipment to control lighting levels using a gaff. The term has been used for the chief electrician in films since 1936 according to the Oxford English Dictionary.Oxford English Dictionary accessed 15 May 2009 However, a book on motion picture production from 1929 refers to the chief electrician as the Gaffer. The gaffer's assistant is the best boy. \n\nSometimes the Gaffer is credited as Chief Lighting Technician (CLT). \n\nThe Gaffer is responsible for managing lighting, including associated resources such as labour, lighting instruments and electrical equipment under the direction of the Director of Photography (the DP or DOP) or, in television, the Lighting Director (LD).\n\nThe DP/LD is responsible for the overall lighting design, but delegates the implementation of the design to the Gaffer and the Key Grip. The Key Grip is the head grip, in charge of the labour and non-electrical equipment used to support and modify the lighting. Grip equipment includes stands, flags and gobos. The Gaffer will usually have an assistant called a best boy and, depending on the size of the job, crew members who are called \"electricians\", although not all of them are trained as electricians in the usual sense of the term. \n\nGaffers use gaffer tape, and several other types of tape. \nOther types of tape gaffers use include paper tape, pressure-sensitive tape (A.K.A. snot tape), electrical tape, J-LAR, and cloth tape." ] }

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{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe", "TagMe", "Search" ], "filename": [ "The_Wind_in_the_Willows.txt", "Pink_Floyd.txt", "Pan_(god).txt" ], "title": [ "The Wind in the Willows", "Pink Floyd", "Pan (god)" ], "wiki_context": [ "The Wind in the Willows is a children's novel by Kenneth Grahame, first published in 1908. Alternately slow moving and fast paced, it focuses on four anthropomorphised animals in a pastoral version of England. The novel is notable for its mixture of mysticism, adventure, morality, and camaraderie and celebrated for its evocation of the nature of the Thames valley.\n\nIn 1908, Grahame retired from his position as secretary of the Bank of England. He moved back to Berkshire, where he had lived as a child and spent his time by the River Thames doing much as the animal characters in his book do—namely, as one of the phrases from the book says, \"simply messing about in boats\"— and expanding the bedtime stories he had earlier told his son Alistair into a manuscript for the book.\n\nThe novel was in its thirty-first printing when playwright A. A. Milne adapted a part of it for the stage as Toad of Toad Hall in 1929. In 2003, The Wind in the Willows was listed at number 16 on the BBC's survey The Big Read. \n\nBackground\n\nKenneth Grahame was born on 8 March (1859) in Edinburgh, but when he was 5, his mother died from complications of childbirth, and his father, who had a drinking problem, gave over care of his four children to the children's grandmother, who lived in Cookham Dean in Berkshire. There they lived in a spacious, if dilapidated, home, \"The Mount\", on spacious grounds by the River Thames, and were introduced to the riverside and boating by their uncle, David Ingles, curate at Cookham Dean church. Two years later, at Christmas in 1865, the chimney of the house collapsed and the children moved to Fern Hill Cottage in Cranbourne, Berkshire. In 1866, their father made an attempt to overcome his drinking problem and took the children back to live with him in Argyll but after a year they returned to their grandmother's house in Cranbourne, where Kenneth lived until he started school at St Edward's School, Oxford in 1868. During his early years at St. Edwards the boys had freedom to explore the old city with its quaint shops, historic buildings, and cobblestone streets, St Giles' Fair, the idyllic upper reaches of the River Thames, and the nearby countryside.\n\nGrahame married Elspeth Thomson in 1899; they had only one child, a boy named Alastair (whose nickname was \"Mouse\") born blind in one eye and plagued by health problems throughout his life. When Alastair was about four years old, Grahame would tell him bedtime stories, some of which were about a toad, and when Grahame holidayed alone he would write further tales of Toad, Mole, Ratty and Badger in letters to Alastair.\n\nIn 1908 Grahame took early retirement from his job at the Bank of England and moved with his wife and son to an old farmhouse in Blewbury, where he used the bedtime stories he had told Alastair as a basis for the manuscript of The Wind in the Willows.\n\nPlot summary\n\nWith the arrival of spring and fine weather outside, the good-natured Mole loses patience with spring cleaning. He flees his underground home, emerging to take in the air and ends up at the river, which he has never seen before. Here he meets Rat (a water vole), who at this time of year spends all his days in, on and close by the river. Rat takes Mole for a ride in his rowing boat. They get along well and spend many more days boating, with Rat teaching Mole the ways of the river.\n\nOne summer day, Rat and Mole disembark near the grand Toad Hall and pay a visit to Toad. Toad is rich, jovial, friendly and kind-hearted, but aimless and conceited; he regularly becomes obsessed with current fads, only to abandon them as quickly as he took them up. Having recently given up boating, Toad's current craze is his horse-drawn caravan. He persuades the reluctant Rat and willing Mole to join him on a trip. Toad soon tires of the realities of camp life and sleeps-in the following day to avoid chores. Later that day, a passing motorcar scares the horse, causing the caravan to overturn into a ditch. Rat threatens to have the law on the motorcar drivers while Mole calms the horse, but Toad's craze for caravan travel is immediately replaced by a motorcar obsession.\n\nMole wants to meet the respected but elusive Badger, who lives deep in the Wild Wood, but Rat—knowing that Badger does not appreciate visits—tells Mole to be patient and wait and Badger will pay them a visit himself. Nevertheless, on a snowy winter's day, while the seasonally somnolent Rat dozes, Mole impulsively goes to the Wild Wood to explore, hoping to meet Badger. He gets lost in the woods, sees many \"evil faces\" among the wood's less-welcoming denizens, succumbs to fright and panic and hides, trying to stay warm, among the sheltering roots of a tree. Rat, finding Mole gone, guesses his mission from the direction of Mole's tracks and, equipping himself with two pistols and a stout cudgel, goes in search, finding him as snow begins to fall in earnest. Attempting to find their way home, Rat and Mole quite literally stumble across Badger's home—Mole barks his shin upon the boot scraper on Badger's doorstep. Badger—en route to bed in his dressing-gown and slippers—nonetheless warmly welcomes Rat and Mole to his large and cozy underground home, providing them hot food and dry clothes. Badger learns from his visitors that Toad has crashed seven cars, has been hospitalised three times, and has spent a fortune on fines. Though nothing can be done at the moment (it being winter), they resolve that when the time is right they will make a plan to protect Toad from himself; they are, after all, his friends and are worried for his well-being.\n\nWith the arrival of summer, Badger visits Mole and Rat to take action over Toad's self-destructive obsession. The three of them go to Toad Hall, and Badger tries talking Toad out of his behaviour, to no avail. They put Toad under house arrest, with themselves as the guards, until Toad changes his mind. Feigning illness, Toad bamboozles the Water Rat (who is on guard duty at the time) and escapes.\nBadger and Mole are cross with Rat for his gullibility, but draw comfort from the fact that they need no longer waste their summer guarding Toad. However, Badger and Mole continue to live in Toad Hall in the hope that Toad may return. Meanwhile, Toad orders lunch at The Red Lion Inn, and then sees a motorcar pull into the courtyard. He steals the car, drives it recklessly and is caught by the police. He is sent to prison on a twenty-year sentence.\n\nIn prison, Toad gains the sympathy of the gaoler's daughter who helps him to escape disguised as a washerwoman. Though free again, Toad is without money or possessions other than the clothes upon his back. He manages to board a railway engine manned by a sympathetic driver, which is then pursued by a special train loaded with policemen, detectives and prison warders. Toad jumps the train, and still disguised as a washerwoman, comes across a horse-drawn barge. The barge's owner offers him a lift in exchange for Toad's services as a washerwoman. After botching the wash, Toad gets into a fight with the barge-woman, who tosses him into the canal. In revenge, Toad makes off with the barge horse, which he then sells to a gypsy. Toad subsequently flags down a passing car, which happens to be the very one he stole earlier. The car owners, not recognizing Toad in his disguise, permit him to drive their car. Once behind the wheel, he is repossessed by his former passion and drives furiously, declaring his true identity to the passengers who try to seize him. This leads to the motorcar landing in a horse-pond, after which Toad flees once more. Pursued by police, he runs accidentally into a river, which carries him by sheer chance to the house of Rat.\n\nToad now hears from Rat that Toad Hall has been taken over by weasels and stoats from the Wild Wood, who have driven out Mole and Badger. Although upset at the loss of his house, Toad realises what good friends he has and how badly he has behaved. Badger then arrives and announces that he knows of a secret tunnel into Toad Hall through which the enemies may be attacked. Armed to the teeth, Badger, Rat, Mole and Toad enter via the tunnel and pounce upon the unsuspecting Wild Wooders who are holding a celebratory party. Having driven away the intruders, Toad holds a banquet to mark his return, during which (for a change) he behaves both quietly and humbly. He makes up for his earlier excesses by seeking out and compensating those he has wronged, and the four friends live out their lives happily ever after.\n\nIn addition to the main narrative, the book contains several independent short-stories featuring Rat and Mole. These appear for the most part between the chapters chronicling Toad's adventures, and are often omitted from abridgements and dramatizations. The chapter \"Dulce Domum describes Mole's return to his home, accompanied by Rat, in which, despite finding it in a terrible mess after his abortive spring clean, he rediscovers, with Rat's help, a familiar comfort. \"The Piper at the Gates of Dawn\" tells how Mole and Rat search for Otter's missing son Portly, whom they find in the care of the god Pan. (Pan removes their memories of this meeting \"lest the awful remembrance should remain and grow, and overshadow mirth and pleasure\".) Finally in \"Wayfarers All\", Ratty shows a restless side to his character when he is sorely tempted to join a Sea Rat on his travelling adventures.\n\nMain characters\n\n*Mole: A mild-mannered, home-loving animal, and the first character introduced in the story. Fed up with spring cleaning in his secluded home, he ventures into the outside world. Initially overawed by the hustle and bustle of the riverbank, he eventually adapts.\n*Rat: Known as \"Ratty\" to his friends (though actually a water vole), he is cultured, relaxed and friendly, with literary pretensions and a life of leisure. Ratty loves the river and takes Mole under his wing. He is implied to be occasionally mischievous and can be stubborn when it comes to doing things outside his riverside lifestyle.\n*Mr. Toad: The wealthy scion of Toad Hall who inherited his wealth from his late father. Although good-natured, kind-hearted and not without intelligence, he is also spoiled, conceited, and impulsive. He is prone to obsessions and crazes (such as punting, houseboats, and horse-drawn caravans), each of which in turn he becomes bored with and drops. His motoring craze eventually sees him imprisoned for theft, dangerous driving and gross impertinence to the rural police. Several chapters of the book chronicle his daring escape from prison.\n*Mr. Badger: Gruff and solitary, who \"simply hates society\", Badger embodies the \"wise hermit\" figure. A friend of Toad's late father, he is uncompromising with the disappointing Toad yet remains optimistic his good qualities will prevail. He lives in a vast underground sett, part of which incorporates the remains of a buried Roman settlement. A brave and a skilled fighter, Badger helped clear the Wild Wooders from Toad Hall with his large cudgel.\n*Otter and Portly: A friend of Ratty with a stereotypical \"Cockney costermonger\" character, the extrovert Otter is tough and self-sufficient. Portly is his young son.\n*The Weasels: The story's main antagonists. They plot to take over Toad Hall.\n*Pan: A god who makes a single, anomalous appearance in Chapter 7, \"The Piper at the Gates of Dawn\".\n*The Wayfarer: A vagabond seafaring rat, who also makes a single appearance. Ratty briefly considers following his example, before Mole manages to persuade him otherwise.\n*Squirrels and rabbits, who are generally good (although rabbits are described as \"a mixed lot\").\n\nEditions\n\nThe book was originally published as plain text, but many illustrated, comic and annotated versions have been published over the years. Notable illustrators include Paul Bransom (1913), Ernest H. Shepard (1933), Arthur Rackham (1940), Tasha Tudor (1966), Michael Hague (1980), Scott McKowen (2005), and Robert Ingpen (2007).\n\nThe most popular illustrations are probably by E. H. Shepard, originally published in 1931, and believed to be authorised as Grahame was pleased with the initial sketches, though he did not live to see the completed work. \n\nThe Wind in the Willows was the last work illustrated by Arthur Rackham. The book with his illustrations was issued posthumously in a limited edition by the Folio Society with 16 color plates in 1940 in the US. It was not issued with the Rackham illustrations in the UK until 1950.\n\nThe Folio Society 2006 edition featured 85 illustrations, 35 in colour, by Charles van Sandwyk. A fancier centenary edition was produced two years later.\n\nMichel Plessix created a Wind in the Willows watercolour comic album series, which helped to introduce the stories to France. They have been translated into English by Cinebook Ltd.\n\nPatrick Benson re-illustrated the story in 1994 and HarperCollins published it in 1994 together with the William Horwood sequels , and . It was published in the US in 1995 by St Martin's Press.\n\nInga Moore's abridged edition features text and illustrations paced so that a line of text, such as \"oh my oh my\", also serves as a caption.\n\nBarnes & Noble Classics published it with an introduction by Gardner McFall in 2007. New York, ISBN 978-1-59308-265-9\n\nBelknap Press, of Harvard University Press, published Seth Lerer's annotated edition in 2009.\n\nW. W. Norton published Annie Gauger and Brian Jacques’s annotated edition in 2009.\n\nJamie Hendry Productions published a special edition of the novel in 2015 and donated it to schools in Plymouth and Salford to celebrate the World Premiere of the musical version of The Wind in the Willows by Julian Fellowes, George Stiles and Anthony Drewe. \n\nReception\n\nA number of publishers rejected the manuscript, and it was not until October 1908, after some campaigning by President Theodore Roosevelt that the book was finally published by Methuen and Co. The critics, who were hoping for a third volume in the style of Graham's earlier works; The Golden Age and Dream Days, generally gave negative reviews. The public loved it, however, and within a few years it sold in such numbers that many reprints were required. In 1909, Roosevelt, wrote to Grahame to tell him that he had \"read it and reread it, and have come to accept the characters as old friends\". \n\nIn The Enchanted Places, Christopher Robin Milne says of The Wind in the Willows:\n\nAdaptations\n\nStage\n\n*Toad of Toad Hall by A. A. Milne, produced in 1929\n*Wind in the Willows, a 1985 Tony-nominated Broadway musical with book by Jane Iredale, lyrics by Roger McGough and music by William P. Perry, starring Nathan Lane\n*The Wind in the Willows by Alan Bennett (who also appeared as Mole) in 1991\n*Mr. Toad's Mad Adventures by Vera Morris\n*Wind in the Willows (UK National Tour) by Ian Billings\n* The Wind in the Willows, two stage adaptations—a full musical adaptation and a small-scale, shorter, stage play version—by David Gooderson.\n*The Wind in the Willows by George Stiles, Anthony Drewe and Julian Fellowes which will open at Theatre Royal Plymouth in October 2016 before playing at The Lowry, Salford and then the West End.\n\nFilm and television\n\n* Toad of Toad Hall the first live action film of the novel. Adapted by Michael Barry for BBC Television and transmitted live in 1946. The film featured (in alphabetical order) Julia Braddock as Marigold, Kenneth More as Mr. Badger, Jack Newmark as Mole, Andrew Osborn as Water Rat, Jon Pertwee as the Judge, Alan Reid as Mr. Toad, John Thomas and Victor Woolf as Alfred the Horse, Madoline Thomas as Mother, and an uncredited Pat Pleasanse as various Rats, Weasels and Mice.\n* The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad, a 1949 animated adaptation produced by Walt Disney, narrated by Basil Rathbone. One half of the animated feature was based on the unrelated short story, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.\n*The Wind in the Willows, a 1969 adaptation of the story produced by Anglia Television, told by still illustrations by artist John Worsley. The story was adapted, produced and narrated by Paul Honeyman and directed by John Salway.\n* The Reluctant Dragon and Mr. Toad Show, a 1970 TV animated series produced by Rankin/Bass Productions, based on both The Reluctant Dragon and The Wind in the Willows.\n* The Wind in the Willows, a 1983 animated film version with stop-motion puppets by Cosgrove Hall.\n* The Wind in the Willows, a TV series (1984–1990) following the 1983 film, using the same sets and characters in mostly original stories but also including some chapters from the book that were omitted in the film, notably \"The Piper at the Gates of Dawn\". The cast included David Jason, Sir Michael Hordern, Peter Sallis and Ian Carmichael.\n* The Wind in the Willows, a 1985 animated musical film version for television, produced by Rankin/Bass Productions. This version was very faithful to the book and featured a number of original songs, including the title, \"Wind in the Willows\", performed by folk singer Judy Collins. Voice actors included Eddie Bracken as Mole, Jose Ferrer as Badger, Roddy McDowell as Ratty, and Charles Nelson Reilly as Toad. \n* Wind in the Willows, a 1988 animated made for TV film by Burbank Films Australia and adapted by Leonard Lee.\n* The Adventures of Mole, a 1995 animated made for TV film with a cast including Hugh Laurie as Toad, Richard Briers and Peter Davison as Ratty and Mole respectively and Paul Eddington as Badger. Was followed by The Adventures of Toad.\n* The Wind in the Willows, a 1995 animated film adaptation with a cast led by Michael Palin and Alan Bennett as Ratty and Mole, Rik Mayall as Toad and Michael Gambon as Badger; followed by an adaptation of The Willows in Winter produced by the now defunct TVC (Television Cartoons) in London. \n* The Wind in the Willows, a 1996 live-action film written and directed by Terry Jones starring Steve Coogan as Mole, Eric Idle as Rat, and Terry Jones as Mr. Toad.\n* The Wind in the Willows, another live-action film in 2006 with Lee Ingleby as Mole, Mark Gatiss as Ratty, Matt Lucas as Toad, Bob Hoskins as Badger, and also featuring Imelda Staunton, Anna Maxwell Martin, Mary Walsh and Michael Murphy\n* In 2003, Guillermo del Toro was working on an adaptation for Disney. It was to mix live action with CG animation, and the director explained why he had to leave the helm. \"It was a beautiful book, and then I went to meet with the executives and they said, 'Could you give Toad a skateboard and make him say, 'radical dude' things,' and that's when I said, 'It's been a pleasure...'\" \n* In 2014, Classic Alice took the titular character on a 6 episode reimagining of The Wind in the Willows. Reid Cox played Toad, Kate Hackett and Tony Noto served as loose Badger/Ratty/Mole characters.\n\nRadio\n\nThe BBC has broadcast a number of radio productions of the story.\n\nDramatisations include:\n\n* Eight episodes from 4 to 14 April 1955, BBC Home Service. With Richard Goolden, Frank Duncan, Olaf Pooley and Mary O'Farrell.\n* episodes from 27 September to 15 November 1965, BBC Home Service. With Leonard Maguire, David Steuart and Douglas Murchie.\n* Single 90-minute play, dramatised by A.A. Milne under the name Toad of Toad Hall, on 21 April 1973, BBC Radio 4. With Derek Smith, Bernard Cribbins, Richard Goolden and Cyril Luckham.\n* Six episodes from 28 April to 9 June 1983, BBC Schools Radio, Living Language series. With Paul Darrow as Badger.\n* Six episodes, dramatised by John Scotney, from 13 February to 20 March 1994, BBC Radio 5. With Martin Jarvis, Timothy Bateson, Willie Rushton, George Baker and Dinsdale Landen.\n* Single two-hour play, dramatised by Alan Bennett, on 27 August 1994, BBC Radio 4.\n\nAbridged readings include:\n\n* Ten-part reading by Alan Bennett from 31 July to 11 August 1989, BBC Radio 4.\n* Twelve-part reading by Bernard Cribbins from 22 December 1983 to 6 January 1984, BBC channel unknown.\n* Three-hour reading by June Whitfield, Nigel Anthony, James Saxon, and Nigel Lambert; Puffin audiobook, 1996.\n\nKenneth Williams also did a version of the book for radio.\n\nIn 2002 Paul Oakenfold produced a Trance Soundtrack for the story, aired on the Galaxy FM show Urban Soundtracks. These mixes blended classic stories with a mixture of dance and contemporary music.\n\nSequels and alternative versions\n\nIn 1983 Dixon Scott published A Fresh Wind in the Willows, which not only predates Horwood's sequels (see below) by several years but also includes some of the same incidents, including a climax in which Toad steals a Bleriot monoplane.\n\nWilliam Horwood created several sequels to The Wind in the Willows: The Willows in Winter, Toad Triumphant, The Willows and Beyond, and The Willows at Christmas.\n \nJacqueline Kelly published \"Return to the Willows\" in 2012.\n\nJan Needle's Wild Wood was published in 1981 with illustrations by William Rushton (ISBN 0-233-97346-X). It is a re-telling of the story of The Wind in the Willows from the point of view of the working-class inhabitants of the Wild Wood. For them, money is short and employment hard to find. They have a very different perspective on the wealthy, easy, careless lifestyle of Toad and his friends.\n\nAwards\n\n* Mr. Toad was voted Number 38 among the 100 Best Characters in Fiction Since 1900 by Book magazine in their March/April 2002 issue. \n\nInspiration\n\nMapledurham House in Oxfordshire was an inspiration for Toad Hall., although, Hardwick House also makes this claim. \n\nThe village of Lerryn, Cornwall claims to be the setting for the book. \n\nSimon Winchester suggested that the character of Ratty was based on Frederick Furnivall, a keen oarsman and acquaintance of Kenneth Grahame. \n\nThe Scotsman and Oban Times suggested was inspired by the Crinan Canal because Grahame spent some of his childhood in Ardrishaig.\n\nThere is a theory that the idea for the story arose when its author saw a water vole beside the River Pang in Berkshire, southern England. A 29 hectare extension to the nature reserve at Moor Copse, near Tidmarsh Berkshire, was acquired in January 2007 by the Berks, Bucks and Oxon Wildlife Trust. \n\nIn popular culture\n\n* Mr. Toad's Wild Ride is the name of a ride at Disneyland in Anaheim, California and a former attraction at Disney's Magic Kingdom in Orlando, Florida, inspired by Toad's motorcar adventure. It is the only ride with an alternate Latin title, given as the inscription on Toad's Hall: Toadi Acceleratio Semper Absurda (\"Toad's Ever-Absurd Acceleration\").\n* The first album by psychedelic rock group Pink Floyd, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn (1967), was named by former member Syd Barrett after chapter 7 of The Wind in the Willows. However, the songs on the album are not directly related to the contents of the book. The same chapter was the basis for the name and lyrics of \"Piper at the Gates of Dawn\", a song by Irish singer-song writer Van Morrison from his 1997 album The Healing Game. The song \"The Wicker Man\" by British heavy metal band Iron Maiden also includes the phrase. British extreme metal band Cradle of Filth released a special edition of their album Thornography, called Harder, Darker, Faster: Thornography Deluxe; on the song \"Snake-Eyed and the Venomous\", a pun is made in the lyrics \"... all vipers at the gates of dawn\" referring to Chapter 7 of the book.\n* Wind in the Willows is a fantasy for flute, oboe, clarinet and bassoon, narrated by John Frith (2007).\n* Dutch composer Johan de Meij wrote a music piece for concert band in four movements, named after and based on The Wind in the Willows.\n* A messabout, often organized online, is a social event inspired by the book's quote: \"There is nothing — absolute nothing — half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats.\"\n* The Edinburgh-based record label Song, by Toad Records takes its name from a passage in The Wind in the Willows.", "Pink Floyd were an English rock band formed in London. They achieved international acclaim with their progressive and psychedelic music. Distinguished by their use of philosophical lyrics, sonic experimentation, extended compositions and elaborate live shows, they are one of the most commercially successful and influential groups in the history of popular music.\n\nPink Floyd were founded in 1965 by students Syd Barrett on guitar, Nick Mason on drums, Roger Waters on bass, and Richard Wright on keyboards. They gained popularity performing in London's underground music scene during the late 1960s, and under Barrett's leadership released two charting singles and a successful debut album, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn (1967). Guitarist David Gilmour joined in December 1967; Barrett left in April 1968 due to deteriorating mental health. Waters became the band's primary lyricist and eventually their dominant songwriter, devising the concepts behind their albums The Dark Side of the Moon (1973), Wish You Were Here (1975), Animals (1977), The Wall (1979) and The Final Cut (1983). The Dark Side of the Moon and The Wall became two of the best-selling albums of all time.\n\nFollowing creative tensions, Wright left Pink Floyd in 1979, followed by Waters in 1985. Gilmour and Mason continued as Pink Floyd; Wright rejoined them as a session musician and, later, a band member. The three produced two more albums, A Momentary Lapse of Reason (1987) and The Division Bell (1994), and toured until 1994. After nearly two decades of acrimony, Pink Floyd reunited with Waters in 2005 for a performance at the global awareness event Live 8, but Gilmour and Waters have since stated they have no plans to reunite as a band again. Barrett died in 2006 and Wright in 2008. The final Pink Floyd studio album, The Endless River (2014), was recorded without Waters and largely based on unreleased material from 1993–94.\n\nPink Floyd were inducted into the US Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996, and the UK Music Hall of Fame in 2005. By 2013, the band had sold more than 250 million records worldwide, including 75 million certified units in the United States.\n\n1963–67: Early years \n\nFormation \n\nRoger Waters met Nick Mason while they were both studying architecture at the London Polytechnic at Regent Street. They first played music together in a group formed by Keith Noble and Clive Metcalfe with Noble's sister Sheilagh. Richard Wright, a fellow architecture student, joined later that year, and the group became a sextet named Sigma 6. Waters played lead guitar, Mason drums, and Wright rhythm guitar (since there was rarely an available keyboard). The band performed at private functions and rehearsed in a tearoom in the basement of the Regent Street Polytechnic. They performed songs by the Searchers and material written by their manager and songwriter, fellow student Ken Chapman.\n\nIn September 1963, Waters and Mason moved into a flat at 39 Stanhope Gardens near Crouch End in London, owned by Mike Leonard, a part-time tutor at the nearby Hornsey College of Art and the Regent Street Polytechnic. Mason moved out after the 1964 academic year, and guitarist Bob Klose moved in during September 1964, prompting Waters' switch to bass. Sigma 6 went through several names, including the Meggadeaths, the Abdabs and the Screaming Abdabs, Leonard's Lodgers, and the Spectrum Five, before settling on the Tea Set. In 1964, as Metcalfe and Noble left to form their own band, guitarist Syd Barrett joined Klose and Waters at Stanhope Gardens. Barrett, two years younger, had moved to London in 1962 to study at the Camberwell College of Arts. Waters and Barrett were childhood friends; Waters had often visited Barrett and watched him play guitar at Barrett's mother's house. Mason said about Barrett: \"In a period when everyone was being cool in a very adolescent, self-conscious way, Syd was unfashionably outgoing; my enduring memory of our first encounter is the fact that he bothered to come up and introduce himself to me.\"\n\nNoble and Metcalfe left the Tea Set in late 1963, and Klose introduced the band to singer Chris Dennis, a technician with the Royal Air Force (RAF). In December 1964, they secured their first recording time, at a studio in West Hampstead, through one of Wright's friends, who let them use some down time free. Wright, who was taking a break from his studies, did not participate in the session. When the RAF assigned Dennis a post in Bahrain in early 1965, Barrett became the band's frontman. Later that year, they became the resident band at the Countdown Club near Kensington High Street in London, where from late night until early morning they played three sets of 90 minutes each. During this period, spurred by the group's need to extend their sets to minimise song repetition, the band realised that \"songs could be extended with lengthy solos\", wrote Mason. After pressure from his parents and advice from his college tutors, Klose quit the band in mid-1965 and Barrett took over lead guitar. The group first referred to themselves as the Pink Floyd Sound in late 1965. Barrett created the name on the spur of the moment when he discovered that another band, also called the Tea Set, were to perform at one of their gigs. The name is derived from the given names of two blues musicians whose Piedmont blues records Barrett had in his collection, Pink Anderson and Floyd Council. \n\nBy 1966, the group's repertoire consisted mainly of rhythm and blues songs and they had begun to receive paid bookings, including a performance at the Marquee Club in March 1966, where Peter Jenner, a lecturer at the London School of Economics, noticed them. Jenner was impressed by the sonic effects Barrett and Wright created, and with his business partner and friend Andrew King became their manager. The pair had little experience in the music industry and used King's inheritance to set up Blackhill Enterprises, purchasing about £1,000 worth of new instruments and equipment for the band. It was around this time that Jenner suggested they drop the \"Sound\" part of their band name, thus becoming the Pink Floyd. Under Jenner and King's guidance, the group became part of London's underground music scene, playing at venues including All Saints Hall and the Marquee. While performing at the Countdown Club, the band had experimented with long instrumental excursions, and they began to expand them with rudimentary but effective light shows, projected by coloured slides and domestic lights. Jenner and King's social connections helped gain the band prominent coverage in the Financial Times and an article in the Sunday Times which stated: \"At the launching of the new magazine IT the other night a pop group called the Pink Floyd played throbbing music while a series of bizarre coloured shapes flashed on a huge screen behind them ... apparently very psychedelic.\" \n\nIn 1966, the band strengthened their business relationship with Blackhill Enterprises, becoming equal partners with Jenner and King and the band members each holding a one-sixth share. By late 1966, their set included fewer R&B standards and more Barrett originals, many of which would be included on their first album. While they had significantly increased the frequency of their performances, the band were still not widely accepted. Following a performance at a Catholic youth club, the owner refused to pay them, claiming that their performance was not music. When their management filed suit in a small claims court against the owner of the youth organisation, a local magistrate upheld the owner's decision. The band was much better received at the UFO Club in London, where they began to build a fan base. Barrett's performances were enthusiastic, \"leaping around ... madness ... improvisation ... [inspired] to get past his limitations and into areas that were ... very interesting. Which none of the others could do\", wrote biographer Nicholas Schaffner.\n\nSigning with EMI \n\nIn 1967, Pink Floyd began to attract the attention of the mainstream music industry. While in negotiations with record companies, IT co-founder and UFO club manager Joe Boyd and Pink Floyd's booking agent Bryan Morrison arranged and funded a recording session at Sound Techniques in West Hampstead. Three days later, Pink Floyd signed with EMI, receiving a £5,000 advance. EMI released the band's first single, \"Arnold Layne\", with the B-side \"Candy and a Currant Bun\", on 10 March 1967 on its Columbia label. Both tracks were recorded on 29 January 1967. \"Arnold Layne\"'s references to cross-dressing led to a ban by several radio stations; however, creative manipulation by the retailers who supplied sales figures to the music business meant that the single peaked in the UK at number 20.\n\nEMI-Columbia released Pink Floyd's second single, \"See Emily Play\", on 16 June 1967. It fared slightly better than \"Arnold Layne\", peaking at number 6 in the UK. The band performed on the BBC's Look of the Week, where Waters and Barrett, erudite and engaging, faced tough questioning from Hans Keller. They appeared on the BBC's Top of the Pops, a popular programme that controversially required artists to mime their singing and playing. Though Pink Floyd returned for two more performances, by the third, Barrett had begun to unravel, and it was around this time that the band first noticed significant changes in his behaviour. By early 1967, he was regularly using LSD, and Mason described him as \"completely distanced from everything going on\". \n\nThe Piper at the Gates of Dawn \n\nMorrison and EMI producer Norman Smith negotiated Pink Floyd's first recording contract, and as part of the deal, the band agreed to record their first album at EMI Studios in London. Mason recalled that the sessions were trouble-free. Smith disagreed, stating that Barrett was unresponsive to his suggestions and constructive criticism. EMI-Columbia released The Piper at the Gates of Dawn in August 1967. The album peaked at number 6, spending 14 weeks on the UK charts. One month later, it was released under the Tower Records label. Pink Floyd continued to draw large crowds at the UFO Club; however, Barrett's mental breakdown was by then causing serious concern. The group initially hoped that his erratic behaviour would be a passing phase, but some were less optimistic, including Jenner and his assistant, June Child, who commented: \"I found [Barrett] in the dressing room and he was so ... gone. Roger Waters and I got him on his feet, [and] we got him out to the stage ... The band started to play and Syd just stood there. He had his guitar around his neck and his arms just hanging down\". \n\nForced to cancel Pink Floyd's appearance at the prestigious National Jazz and Blues Festival, as well as several other shows, King informed the music press that Barrett was suffering from nervous exhaustion. Waters arranged a meeting with psychiatrist R. D. Laing, and though Waters personally drove Barrett to the appointment, Barrett refused to come out of the car. A stay in Formentera with Sam Hutt, a doctor well established in the underground music scene, led to no visible improvement. The band followed a few concert dates in Europe during September with their first tour of the US in October. As the US tour went on, Barrett's condition grew steadily worse. During appearances on the Dick Clark and Pat Boone shows in November, Barrett confounded his hosts by not responding to questions and staring off into space. He refused to move his lips when it came time to mime \"See Emily Play\" on Boone's show. After these embarrassing episodes, King ended their US visit and immediately sent them home to London. Soon after their return, they supported Jimi Hendrix during a tour of England; however, Barrett's depression worsened as the tour continued, reaching a crisis point in December, when the band responded by adding a new member to their line-up. \n\n1967–78: Transition and international success \n\nGilmour replaces Barrett \n\nIn December 1967, the group added guitarist David Gilmour as the fifth member of Pink Floyd. Gilmour already knew Barrett, having studied with him at Cambridge Tech in the early 1960s. The two had performed at lunchtimes together with guitars and harmonicas, and later hitch-hiked and busked their way around the south of France. In 1965, while a member of Joker's Wild, Gilmour had watched the Tea Set. Morrison's assistant, Steve O'Rourke, set Gilmour up in a room at O'Rourke's house with a salary of £30 per week, and in January 1968, Blackhill Enterprises announced Gilmour as the band's newest member; the second guitarist and its fifth member, the band intending to continue with Barrett as a nonperforming songwriter. Jenner commented: \"The idea was that Dave would ... cover for [Barrett's] eccentricities and when that got to be not workable, Syd was just going to write. Just to try to keep him involved\". In an expression of his frustration, Barrett, who was expected to write additional hit singles to follow up \"Arnold Layne\" and \"See Emily Play\", instead introduced \"Have You Got It Yet?\" to the band, intentionally changing the structure on each performance so as to make the song impossible to follow and learn. In a January 1968 photo-shoot of the five-man Pink Floyd, the photographs show Barrett looking detached from the others, staring into the distance. \n\nWorking with Barrett eventually proved too difficult, and matters came to a head in January while en route to a performance in Southampton when a band member asked if they should collect Barrett. According to Gilmour, the answer was \"Nah, let's not bother\", signalling the end of Barrett's tenure with Pink Floyd. Waters later admitted, \"He was our friend, but most of the time we now wanted to strangle him\". In early March 1968, Pink Floyd met with business partners Jenner and King to discuss the band's future; Barrett agreed to leave. \n\nJenner and King believed Barrett to be the creative genius of the band, and decided to represent him and end their relationship with Pink Floyd. Morrison then sold his business to NEMS Enterprises, and O'Rourke became the band's personal manager. Blackhill announced Barrett's departure on 6 April 1968. After Barrett's departure, the burden of lyrical composition and creative direction fell mostly on Waters. Initially, Gilmour mimed to Barrett's voice on the group's European TV appearances; however, while playing on the university circuit, they avoided Barrett songs in favour of Waters and Wright material such as \"It Would Be So Nice\" and \"Careful with That Axe, Eugene\".\n\nA Saucerful of Secrets \n\nIn 1968, Pink Floyd returned to Abbey Road Studios to record their second album, A Saucerful of Secrets. The album included Barrett's final contribution to their discography, \"Jugband Blues\". Waters began to develop his own songwriting, contributing \"Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun\", \"Let There Be More Light\" and \"Corporal Clegg\". Wright composed \"See-Saw\" and \"Remember a Day\". Smith encouraged them to self-produce their music, and they recorded demos of new material at their houses. With Smith's instruction at Abbey Road, they learned how to use the recording studio to realise their artistic vision. However, Smith remained unconvinced by their music, and when Mason struggled to perform his drum part on \"Remember a Day\", Smith stepped in as his replacement. Wright recalled Smith's attitude about the sessions, \"Norman gave up on the second album ... he was forever saying things like, 'You can't do twenty minutes of this ridiculous noise'\". As neither Waters nor Mason could read music, to illustrate the structure of the album's title track, they invented their own system of notation. Gilmour later described their method as looking \"like an architectural diagram\".\n\nReleased in June 1968, the album featured a psychedelic cover designed by Storm Thorgerson and Aubrey Powell of Hipgnosis. The first of several Pink Floyd album covers designed by Hipgnosis, it was the second time that EMI permitted one of their groups to contract designers for an album jacket. The release peaked at number 9, spending 11 weeks on the UK chart. Record Mirror gave the album an overall favourable review, but urged listeners to \"forget it as background music to a party\". John Peel described a live performance of the title track as \"like a religious experience\", while NME described the song as \"long and boring ... [with] little to warrant its monotonous direction\". On the day after the album's UK release, Pink Floyd performed at the first ever free concert in Hyde Park. In July 1968, they returned to the US for a second visit. Accompanied by the Soft Machine and the Who, it marked Pink Floyd's first significant tour. In December of that year, they released \"Point Me at the Sky\"; no more successful than the two singles they had released since \"See Emily Play\", it would be the band's last until their 1973 release, \"Money\". \n\nUmmagumma, Atom Heart Mother, and Meddle \n\nUmmagumma represented a departure from their previous work. Released as a double-LP on EMI's Harvest label, the first two sides contained live performances recorded at Manchester College of Commerce and Mothers, a club in Birmingham. The second LP contained a single experimental contribution from each band member. Ummagumma received positive reviews upon its release, in November 1969. The album peaked at number 5, spending 21 weeks on the UK chart.\n\nIn October 1970, Pink Floyd released Atom Heart Mother. An early version premièred in France in January, but disagreements over the mix prompted the hiring of Ron Geesin to work out the sound issues. Geesin worked to improve the score, but with little creative input from the band, production was troublesome. Geesin eventually completed the project with the aid of John Alldis, who was the director of the choir hired to perform on the record. Smith earned an executive producer credit, and the album marked his final official contribution to the band's discography. Gilmour said it was \"A neat way of saying that he didn't ... do anything\". Waters was critical of Atom Heart Mother, claiming that he would prefer if it were \"thrown into the dustbin and never listened to by anyone ever again\". Gilmour was equally dismissive of the album and once described it as \"a load of rubbish\", stating: \"I think we were scraping the barrel a bit at that period\". Pink Floyd's first number 1 album, Atom Heart Mother was hugely successful in Britain, spending 18 weeks on the UK chart. It premièred at the Bath Festival on 27 June 1970.\n\nPink Floyd toured extensively across America and Europe in 1970. In 1971, Pink Floyd took second place in a reader's poll, in Melody Maker, and for the first time were making a profit. Mason and Wright became fathers and bought homes in London while Gilmour, still single, moved to a 19th-century farm in Essex. Waters installed a home recording studio at his house in Islington in a converted toolshed at the back of his garden.\n\nIn January 1971, upon their return from touring Atom Heart Mother, Pink Floyd began working on new material. Lacking a central theme, they attempted several unproductive experiments; engineer John Leckie described the sessions as often beginning in the afternoon and ending early the next morning, \"during which time nothing would get [accomplished]. There was no record company contact whatsoever, except when their label manager would show up now and again with a couple of bottles of wine and a couple of joints\". The band spent long periods working on basic sounds, or a guitar riff. They also spent several days at Air Studios, attempting to create music using a variety of household objects, a project which would be revisited between The Dark Side of the Moon and Wish You Were Here.\n\nReleased in October 1971, \"Meddle not only confirms lead guitarist David Gilmour's emergence as a real shaping force with the group, it states forcefully and accurately that the group is well into the growth track again\", wrote Jean-Charles Costa of Rolling Stone. NME called Meddle \"an exceptionally good album\", singling out \"Echoes\" as the \"Zenith which the Floyd have been striving for\". However, Melody Maker's Michael Watts found it underwhelming, calling the album \"a soundtrack to a non-existent movie\", and shrugging off Pink Floyd as \"so much sound and fury, signifying nothing\". Meddle is a transitional album between the Barrett-influenced group of the late 1960s and the emerging Pink Floyd. The LP peaked at number 3, spending 82 weeks on the UK chart.\n\nThe Dark Side of the Moon \n\nPink Floyd recorded The Dark Side of the Moon between May 1972 and January 1973, with EMI staff engineer Alan Parsons at Abbey Road. The title is an allusion to lunacy rather than astronomy. The band had composed and refined the material on Dark Side while touring the UK, Japan, North America and Europe. Producer Chris Thomas assisted Parsons. Hipgnosis designed the album's packaging, which included George Hardie's iconic refracting prism design on the cover. Thorgerson's Dark Side album cover features a beam of white light, representing unity, passing through a prism, which represents society. The resulting refracted beam of coloured light symbolises unity diffracted, leaving an absence of unity. Waters is the sole author of the album's lyrics.\n\nReleased in March 1973, the LP became an instant chart success in the UK and throughout Western Europe, earning an enthusiastic response from critics. Each member of Pink Floyd except Wright boycotted the press release of The Dark Side of the Moon because a quadraphonic mix had not yet been completed, and they felt presenting the album through a poor-quality stereo PA system was insufficient. Melody Makers Roy Hollingworth described side one as \"utterly confused ... [and] difficult to follow\", but praised side two, writing: \"The songs, the sounds ... [and] the rhythms were solid ... [the] saxophone hit the air, the band rocked and rolled\". Rolling Stones Loyd Grossman described it as \"a fine album with a textural and conceptual richness that not only invites, but demands involvement.\"\n\nThroughout March 1973, The Dark Side of the Moon featured as part of Pink Floyd's US tour. The album is one of the most commercially successful rock albums of all time; a US number 1, it remained on the Billboard chart for more than fourteen years, selling more than 45 million copies worldwide. In Britain, the album peaked at number 2, spending 364 weeks on the UK chart. Dark Side is the world's second best-selling album, and the twenty-first best-selling album of all time in the US. The success of the album brought enormous wealth to the members of Pink Floyd. Waters and Wright bought large country houses while Mason became a collector of expensive cars. Disenchanted with their US record company, Capitol Records, Pink Floyd and O'Rourke negotiated a new contract with Columbia Records, who gave them a reported advance of $1,000,000, which is worth approximately $ today. In Europe, they continued to be represented by Harvest Records.\n\nWish You Were Here \n\nAfter a tour of the UK performing Dark Side, Pink Floyd returned to the studio in January 1975 and began work on their ninth studio album, Wish You Were Here. Parsons declined an offer to continue working with them, becoming successful in his own right with the Alan Parsons Project, and so the band turned to Brian Humphries. Initially, they found it difficult to compose new material; the success of The Dark Side of the Moon had left Pink Floyd physically and emotionally drained. Wright later described these early sessions as \"falling within a difficult period\" and Waters found them \"tortuous\". Gilmour was more interested in improving the band's existing material. Mason's failing marriage left him in a general malaise and with a sense of apathy, both of which interfered with his drumming.\n\nDespite the lack of creative direction, Waters began to visualise a new concept after several weeks. During 1974, Pink Floyd had sketched out three original compositions and had performed them at a series of concerts in Europe. These compositions became the starting point for a new album whose opening four-note guitar phrase, composed purely by chance by Gilmour, reminded Waters of Barrett. The songs provided a fitting summary of the rise and fall of their former bandmate. Waters commented: \"Because I wanted to get as close as possible to what I felt ... [that] indefinable, inevitable melancholy about the disappearance of Syd.\"\n\nWhile Pink Floyd were working on the album, Barrett made an impromptu visit to the studio, during which Thorgerson recalled that he \"sat round and talked for a bit, but he wasn't really there.\" He had changed significantly in appearance, so much so that the band did not initially recognise him. Waters was reportedly deeply upset by the experience. Most of Wish You Were Here premiered on 5 July 1975, at an open-air music festival at Knebworth. Released in September, it reached number one in both the UK and the US.\n\nAnimals \n\nIn 1975, Pink Floyd bought a three-storey group of church halls at 35 Britannia Row in Islington and began converting the building into a recording studio and storage space. In 1976, they recorded their tenth album, Animals, in their newly finished 24-track studio. The concept of Animals originated with Waters, loosely based on George Orwell's political fable, Animal Farm. The album's lyrics described different classes of society as dogs, pigs, and sheep. Hipgnosis received credit for the packaging of Animals; however, Waters designed the final concept, choosing an image of the ageing Battersea Power Station, over which they superimposed an image of a pig. \n\nThe division of royalties was a source of conflict between band members, who earned royalties on a per-song basis. Although Gilmour was largely responsible for \"Dogs\", which took up almost the entire first side of the album, he received less than Waters, who contributed the much shorter two-part \"Pigs on the Wing\". Wright commented: \"It was partly my fault because I didn't push my material ... but Dave did have something to offer, and only managed to get a couple of things on there.\" Mason recalled: \"Roger was in full flow with the ideas, but he was really keeping Dave down, and frustrating him deliberately.\" Gilmour, distracted by the birth of his first child, contributed little else toward the album. Similarly, neither Mason nor Wright contributed much toward Animals; Wright had marital problems, and his relationship with Waters was also suffering. Animals is the first Pink Floyd album that does not include a writing credit for Wright, who commented: \"Animals... wasn't a fun record to make ... this was when Roger really started to believe that he was the sole writer for the band ... that it was only because of him that [we] were still going ... when he started to develop his ego trips, the person he would have his conflicts with would be me.\"\n\nReleased in January 1977, the album peaked on the UK chart at number two, and the US chart at number three. NME described the album as \"one of the most extreme, relentless, harrowing and downright iconoclastic hunks of music\", and Melody Makers Karl Dallas called it \"[an] uncomfortable taste of reality in a medium that has become in recent years, increasingly soporific\".\n\nPink Floyd performed much of the album's material during their \"In the Flesh\" tour. It was the band's first experience playing large stadiums, whose size caused unease in the band. Waters began arriving at each venue alone, departing immediately after the performance. On one occasion, Wright flew back to England, threatening to leave the band. At the Montreal Olympic Stadium, a group of noisy and enthusiastic fans in the front row of the audience irritated Waters so much that he spat at one of them. The end of the tour marked a low point for Gilmour, who felt that the band achieved the success they had sought, with nothing left for them to accomplish.\n\n1978–85: Waters-led era \n\nThe Wall \n\nIn July 1978, amid a financial crisis caused by negligent investments, Waters presented the group with two original ideas for their next album. The first was a 90-minute demo with the working title Bricks in the Wall, and the other would later become Waters' first solo album, The Pros and Cons of Hitch Hiking. Although both Mason and Gilmour were initially cautious, they chose the former to be their next album. Bob Ezrin co-produced, and he wrote a forty-page script for the new album. Ezrin based the story on the central figure of Pink—a gestalt character inspired by Waters' childhood experiences, the most notable of which was the death of his father in World War II. This first metaphorical brick led to more problems; Pink would become drug-addled and depressed by the music industry, eventually transforming into a megalomaniac, a development inspired partly by the decline of Syd Barrett. At the end of the album, the increasingly fascist audience would watch as Pink tore down the wall, once again becoming a regular and caring person.\n\nDuring the recording of The Wall, Waters, Gilmour and Mason became increasingly dissatisfied with Wright's lack of contribution to the album. Gilmour said that Wright \"hadn't contributed anything of any value whatsoever to the album—he did very, very little\" and this was why he \"got the boot\". According to Mason, \"Rick's contribution was to turn up and sit in on the sessions without doing anything, just 'being a producer'.\" Waters commented: \"[Wright] was not prepared to cooperate in making the record ... [and] it was agreed by everybody ... either [he] can have a long battle or [he] can agree to ... finish making the album, keep [his] full share ... but at the end of it [he would] leave quietly. Rick agreed.\"\n\nThe album was supported by \"Another Brick in the Wall (Part II)\", Pink Floyd's first single since \"Money\", and topped the charts in the US and the UK. Released on 30 November 1979, The Wall topped the Billboard chart in the US for fifteen weeks, reaching number three in the UK. The Wall ranks number three on the RIAA's list of the all-time Top 100 albums, with 23 million certified units sold in the US. The cover is one of their most minimalist designs, with a stark white brick wall, and no trademark or band name. It was also their first album cover since The Piper at the Gates of Dawn not designed by Hipgnosis.\n\nGerald Scarfe produced a series of animations for the subsequent live shows, The Wall Tour. He also commissioned the construction of large inflatable puppets representing characters from the storyline including the \"Mother\", the \"Ex-wife\" and the \"Schoolmaster\". Pink Floyd used the puppets during their performances of the album. Relationships within the band were at an all-time low; their four Winnebagos parked in a circle, the doors facing away from the centre. Waters used his own vehicle to arrive at the venue and stayed in different hotels from the rest of the band. Wright returned as a paid musician and was the only one of the four to profit from the venture, which lost about $600,000.\n\nThe Wall concept also spawned a film, the original idea for which was to be a combination of live concert footage and animated scenes. However, the concert footage proved impractical to film. Alan Parker agreed to direct and took a different approach. The animated sequences would remain, but scenes would be acted by professional actors with no dialogue. Waters was screen-tested, but quickly discarded and they asked Bob Geldof to accept the role of Pink. Geldof was initially dismissive, condemning The Walls storyline as \"bollocks\". Eventually won over by the prospect of participation in a significant film and receiving a large payment for his work, Geldof agreed. Screened at the Cannes Film Festival in May 1982, Pink Floyd – The Wall premièred in the UK in July 1982.\n\nThe Final Cut \n\nIn 1982, Waters suggested a new musical project with the working title Spare Bricks, originally conceived as the soundtrack album for Pink Floyd – The Wall. With the onset of the Falklands War, Waters changed direction and began writing new material. He saw Margaret Thatcher's response to the invasion of the Falklands as jingoistic and unnecessary, and dedicated the album to his late father. Immediately arguments arose between Waters and Gilmour, who felt that the album should include all new material, rather than recycle songs passed over for The Wall. Waters felt that Gilmour had contributed little to the band's lyrical repertoire. Michael Kamen, a contributor to the orchestral arrangements of The Wall, mediated between the two, also performing the role traditionally occupied by the then-absent Wright. The tension within the band grew. Waters and Gilmour worked independently; however, Gilmour began to feel the strain, sometimes barely maintaining his composure. After a final confrontation, Gilmour's name disappeared from the credit list, reflecting what Waters felt was his lack of songwriting contributions. \n\nThough Mason's musical contributions were minimal, he stayed busy recording sound effects for an experimental Holophonic system to be used on the album. With marital problems of his own, he remained a distant figure. Pink Floyd did not use Thorgerson for the cover design, Waters choosing to design the cover himself. Released in March 1983, The Final Cut went straight to number one in the UK and number six in the US. Waters wrote all the lyrics, as well as all the music on the album. Gilmour did not have any material ready for the album and asked Waters to delay the recording until he could write some songs, but Waters refused. Gilmour later commented: \"I'm certainly guilty at times of being lazy ... but he wasn't right about wanting to put some duff tracks on The Final Cut.\" Rolling Stone magazine gave the album five stars, with Kurt Loder calling it \"a superlative achievement ... art rock's crowning masterpiece\". Loder viewed The Final Cut as \"essentially a Roger Waters solo album\". \n\n\"A spent force\", Waters' departure and legal battles \n\nGilmour had recorded his second solo album, About Face, in 1984, and he used it to express his feelings about a variety of topics, from the murder of John Lennon to his relationship with Waters. He later stated that he used the album to distance himself from Pink Floyd. Soon afterwards, Waters began touring his first solo album, The Pros and Cons of Hitch Hiking. Wright formed Zee with Dave Harris and recorded Identity, which went almost unnoticed upon its release. Mason released his second solo album, Profiles, in August 1985.\n\nFollowing the release of The Pros and Cons of Hitch Hiking, Waters publicly insisted that Pink Floyd would not reunite. He contacted O'Rourke to discuss settling future royalty payments. O'Rourke felt obliged to inform Mason and Gilmour, which angered Waters, who wanted to dismiss him as the band's manager. He terminated his management contract with O'Rourke and employed Peter Rudge to manage his affairs. Waters wrote to EMI and Columbia announcing he had left the band, and asked them to release him from his contractual obligations. Gilmour believed that Waters left to hasten the demise of Pink Floyd. Waters later stated that, by not making new albums, Pink Floyd would be in breach of contract—which would suggest that royalty payments would be suspended—and that the other band members had forced him from the group by threatening to sue him. He then went to the High Court in an effort to dissolve the band and prevent the use of the Pink Floyd name, declaring Pink Floyd \"a spent force creatively.\" When his lawyers discovered that the partnership had never been formally confirmed, Waters returned to the High Court in an attempt to obtain a veto over further use of the band's name. Gilmour responded by issuing a carefully worded press release affirming that Pink Floyd would continue to exist. He later told The Sunday Times: \"Roger is a dog in the manger and I'm going to fight him\". In 2013, Waters stated that he regretted the lawsuit, saying: \"I was wrong. Of course I was.\" \n\n1985–94: Gilmour-led era \n\nA Momentary Lapse of Reason \n\nIn 1986, Gilmour began recruiting musicians for what would become Pink Floyd's first album without Waters, A Momentary Lapse of Reason. There were legal obstacles to Wright's re-admittance to the band; however, after a meeting in Hampstead Pink Floyd invited Wright to participate in the coming sessions. Gilmour later stated that Wright's presence \"would make us stronger legally and musically\"; Pink Floyd employed him as a musician with weekly earnings of $11,000. Recording sessions for the album began on Gilmour's houseboat, the Astoria, moored along the River Thames. Gilmour worked with several songwriters, including Eric Stewart and Roger McGough, eventually choosing Anthony Moore to write the album's lyrics. Gilmour would later admit that the project was difficult without Waters' creative direction. Mason, concerned that he was too out-of-practice to perform on the album, made use of session musicians to complete many of the drum parts. He instead busied himself with the album's sound effects.\n\nA Momentary Lapse of Reason was released in September 1987. Storm Thorgerson, whose creative input was absent from The Wall and The Final Cut, designed the album cover. To drive home the point that Waters had left the band, they included a group photograph on the inside cover, the first since Meddle. The album went straight to number three in the UK and the US. Waters commented: \"I think it's facile, but a quite clever forgery ... The songs are poor in general ... [and] Gilmour's lyrics are third-rate.\" Although Gilmour initially viewed the album as a return to the band's top form, Wright disagreed, stating: \"Roger's criticisms are fair. It's not a band album at all.\" Q Magazine described the album as essentially a Gilmour solo effort.\n\nWaters attempted to subvert the Momentary Lack of Reason tour by contacting promoters in the US and threatening to sue them if they used the Pink Floyd name. Gilmour and Mason funded the start-up costs with Mason using his Ferrari 250 GTO as collateral. Early rehearsals for the upcoming tour were chaotic, with Mason and Wright entirely out of practice. Realising he had taken on too much work, Gilmour asked Bob Ezrin to assist them. As Pink Floyd toured throughout North America, Waters' Radio K.A.O.S. tour was on occasion, close by, though in much smaller venues than those hosting his former band's performances. Waters issued a writ for copyright fees for the band's use of the flying pig. Pink Floyd responded by attaching a large set of male genitalia to its underside to distinguish it from Waters' design. The parties reached a legal agreement on 23 December; Mason and Gilmour retained the right to use the Pink Floyd name in perpetuity and Waters received exclusive rights to, among other things, The Wall.\n\nThe Division Bell \n\nFor several years Pink Floyd had busied themselves with personal pursuits, such as filming and competing in the La Carrera Panamericana and recording a soundtrack for a film based on the event. In January 1993, they began working on a new album, returning to Britannia Row Studios, where for several days, Gilmour, Mason and Wright worked collaboratively, improvising material. After about two weeks, the band had enough ideas to begin creating songs. Ezrin returned to co-produce the album and production moved to the Astoria, where from February to May 1993, they worked on about 25 ideas.\n\nContractually, Wright was not a member of the band, and said \"It came close to a point where I wasn't going to do the album.\" However, he earned five co-writing credits on the album, his first on a Pink Floyd album since 1975's Wish You Were Here. Another songwriter credited on the album was Gilmour's future wife, Polly Samson. She helped him write several tracks, including, \"High Hopes\", a collaborative arrangement which, though initially tense, \"pulled the whole album together,\" according to Ezrin. They hired Michael Kamen to arrange the album's orchestral parts; Dick Parry and Chris Thomas also returned. Writer Douglas Adams provided the album title and Thorgerson the cover artwork. Thorgerson drew inspiration for the album cover from the Moai monoliths of Easter Island; two opposing faces forming an implied third face about which he commented: \"the absent face—the ghost of Pink Floyd's past, Syd and Roger\". Eager 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 resume touring. The album reached number 1 in both the UK and the US. It spent 51 weeks on the UK chart.\n\nPink Floyd spent more than two weeks rehearsing in a hangar at Norton Air Force Base in San Bernardino, California, before opening on 29 March 1994, in Miami, with an almost identical road crew to that used for their Momentary Lapse of Reason tour. They played a variety of Pink Floyd favourites, and later changed their setlist to include The Dark Side of the Moon in its entirety. The tour, Pink Floyd's last, ended on 29 October 1994.\n\n2005–14: Reunion, deaths, and final album \n\nLive 8 reunion \n\nOn 2 July 2005, Waters, Gilmour, Mason and Wright performed together as Pink Floyd for the first time in more than 24 years, at the Live 8 concert in London's Hyde Park. Organiser Bob Geldof arranged the reunion, having called Mason earlier in the year to explore the possibility of their reuniting for the event. Geldof asked Gilmour, who turned down the offer, and then asked Mason to intercede on his behalf. Mason declined, but contacted Waters who was immediately enthusiastic. Waters then called Geldof to discuss the event, scheduled to take place in one month. About two weeks later Waters called Gilmour, their first conversation in two years, and the next day the latter agreed. Gilmour then contacted Wright who immediately agreed. In their statement to the press, they stressed the unimportance of the band's problems in the context of the Live 8 event.\n\nThey planned their setlist at the Connaught Hotel in London, followed by three days of rehearsals at Black Island Studios. The sessions were problematic, with minor disagreements over the style and pace of the songs they were practising; the running order decided on the eve of the event. At the beginning of their performance, Waters told the audience: \"[It is] quite emotional, standing up here with these three guys after all these years, standing to be counted with the rest of you ... we're doing this for everyone who's not here, and particularly of course for Syd.\" At the end, Gilmour thanked the audience and started to walk off the stage. Waters then called him back, and the band shared a group hug. Images of that hug were a favourite among Sunday newspapers after Live 8. Waters commented on their almost twenty years of animosity: \"I don't think any of us came out of the years from 1985 with any credit ... It was a bad, negative time, and I regret my part in that negativity.\"\n\nThough Pink Floyd turned down a contract worth £136 million for a final tour, Waters did not rule out more performances, suggesting it ought to be for a charity event only. However, Gilmour told the Associated Press that a reunion would not happen, stating: \"The [Live 8] rehearsals convinced me [that] it wasn't something I wanted to be doing a lot of ... There have been all sorts of farewell moments in people's lives and careers which they have then rescinded, but I think I can fairly categorically say that there won't be a tour or an album again that I take part in. It isn't to do with animosity or anything like that. It's just ... I've been there, I've done it.\" In February 2006, Gilmour was interviewed by Gino Castaldo from the Italian newspaper La Repubblica; the resulting article declared: \"Patience for fans in mourning. The news is official. Pink Floyd the brand is dissolved, finished, definitely deceased.\" Asked about the future of Pink Floyd, Gilmour responded: \"It's over ... I've had enough. I'm 60 years old ...it is much more comfortable to work on my own.\" Gilmour and Waters repeatedly said that they had no plans to reunite with the surviving former members. \n\nDeaths of Barrett and Wright \n\nBarrett died on 7 July 2006, at his home in Cambridge, aged 60. His family interred him at Cambridge Crematorium on 18 July 2006; no Pink Floyd members attended. After Barrett's death, Wright commented: \"The band are very naturally upset and sad to hear of Syd Barrett's death. Syd was the guiding light of the early band line-up and leaves a legacy which continues to inspire.\" Although Barrett had faded into obscurity over the previous 35 years, the national press praised him for his contributions to music. On 10 May 2007, Waters, Gilmour, Wright and Mason performed during a Barrett tribute concert at the Barbican Centre in London. Gilmour, Wright and Mason performed the Barrett compositions, \"Bike\" and \"Arnold Layne\", and Waters performed a solo version of his song \"Flickering Flame\". \n\nWright died of an undisclosed form of cancer on 15 September 2008, aged 65. His surviving former bandmates praised him for his influence on the sound of Pink Floyd. \n\nFurther performances and re-releases \n\nOn 10 July 2010, Waters and Gilmour performed together at a charity event for the Hoping Foundation. The event, which raised money for Palestinian children, took place at Kiddington Hall in Oxfordshire, England, where they played to an audience of approximately 200. In return for Waters' appearance at the event, Gilmour agreed to perform \"Comfortably Numb\" at one of Waters' upcoming performances of The Wall. On 12 May 2011, at The O2 Arena in London, Gilmour honoured his commitment to Waters. Gilmour sang the first and second chorus and played the two guitar solos. Near the end of the show, after the wall had fallen down, Waters said to the crowd: \"So now we know tonight was the night when David did me the enormous honour of coming to play 'Comfortably Numb'. So, please welcome David Gilmour! ... By a strange and extraordinary, happy coincidence, there is another remnant of our old band here tonight. Please welcome Mr. Nick Mason to the stage!\" Gilmour and Mason, with respectively a mandolin and a tambourine, joined Waters and the rest of his band for \"Outside the Wall\".\n\nOn 26 September 2011, Pink Floyd and EMI launched an exhaustive re-release campaign under the title Why Pink Floyd...?, reissuing the band's back catalogue in newly remastered versions, including \"Experience\" and \"Immersion\" multi-disc multi-format editions. The albums were remastered by James Guthrie, co-producer of The Wall. In November 2015, Pink Floyd released a limited edition EP, 1965: Their First Recordings, comprising six songs recorded prior to The Piper at the Gates of Dawn. \n\nThe Endless River \n\nIn 2012, Gilmour and Mason decided to revisit recordings made with Wright, mainly during the Division Bell sessions, to create a new Pink Floyd album. They recruited session musicians to help record new parts and \"generally harness studio technology\". Mason described the album as a tribute to Wright: \"I think this record is a good way of recognising a lot of what he does and how his playing was at the heart of the Pink Floyd sound. Listening back to the sessions, it really brought home to me what a special player he was.\" Waters was not involved. \n\nSamson announced The Endless River in July 2014 on Twitter. Details were announced on Pink Floyd's website on 7 July, describing it as \"mainly ambient\" and instrumental music. It was released 7 November 2014; it is the second Pink Floyd album distributed by Parlophone following the release of the 20th anniversary editions of The Division Bell earlier in 2014. It became the most pre-ordered album of all time on Amazon UK, and debuted at number one in several countries. The vinyl edition was the fastest-selling UK vinyl release of 2014 and the fastest-selling since 1997. The album received mixed reviews. \n\nGilmour stated that The Endless River is Pink Floyd's last album, saying: \"I think we have successfully commandeered the best of what there is ... It's a shame, but this is the end.\" There was no tour to support the album, as Gilmour said it was \"kind of impossible\" without Wright. In August 2015, Gilmour reiterated that Pink Floyd were \"done\" and that to reunite without Wright \"would just be wrong\". \n\nThe Early Years 1965—1972 \n\nIn July 2016, the band announced a forthcoming box set, The Early Years 1965—1972, containing 27 CDs and DVDs of outtakes and live recordings. \n\nMusicianship \n\nGenres \n\nConsidered one of the UK's first psychedelic music groups, Pink Floyd began their career at the vanguard of London's underground music scene. Some categorise their work from that era as a space rock. According to Rolling Stone: \"By 1967, they had developed an unmistakably psychedelic sound, performing long, loud suitelike compositions that touched on hard rock, blues, country, folk, and electronic music.\" Released in 1968, the song \"Careful with That Axe, Eugene\" helped galvanise their reputation as an art rock group. Critics also describe them as an acid rock band. By the late 1960s, the press had begun to label their music progressive rock. O'Neill Surber comments on the music of Pink Floyd:\n\nRarely will you find Floyd dishing up catchy hooks, tunes short enough for air-play, or predictable three-chord blues progressions; and never will you find them spending much time on the usual pop pablum of romance, partying, or self-hype. Their sonic universe is expansive, intense, and challenging ... Where most other bands neatly fit the songs to the music, the two forming a sort of autonomous and seamless whole complete with memorable hooks, Pink Floyd tends to set lyrics within a broader soundscape that often seems to have a life of its own ... Pink Floyd employs extended, stand-alone instrumentals which are never mere vehicles for showing off virtuoso but are planned and integral parts of the performance.\n\nIn 1968, Wright commented on Pink Floyd's sonic reputation: \"It's hard to see why we were cast as the first British psychedelic group. We never saw ourselves that way ... we realised that we were, after all, only playing for fun ... tied to no particular form of music, we could do whatever we wanted ... the emphasis ... [is] firmly on spontaneity and improvisation.\" Waters gave a less enthusiastic assessment of the band's early sound: \"There wasn't anything 'grand' about it. We were laughable. We were useless. We couldn't play at all so we had to do something stupid and 'experimental'... Syd was a genius, but I wouldn't want to go back to playing \"Interstellar Overdrive\" for hours and hours.\" Unconstrained by conventional pop formats, Pink Floyd were innovators of progressive rock during the 1970s and ambient music during the 1980s.\n\nGilmour's guitar work \n\nCritic Alan di Perna praised Gilmour's guitar work as an integral element of Pink Floyd's sound. Rolling Stone ranked Gilmour number 14 in their \"100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time\" list and di Perna described him as the most important guitarist of the 1970s, calling him \"the missing link between Hendrix and Van Halen.\" In 2006, Gilmour commented on his playing technique: \"[My] fingers make a distinctive sound ... [they] aren't very fast, but I think I am instantly recognisable ... The way I play melodies is connected to things like Hank Marvin and the Shadows\". Gilmour's ability to use fewer notes than most to express himself without sacrificing strength or beauty drew a favourable comparison to jazz trumpeter Miles Davis.\n\nIn 2006, Guitar World writer Jimmy Brown described Gilmour's guitar style as \"characterised by simple, huge-sounding riffs; gutsy, well-paced solos; and rich, ambient chordal textures.\" According to Brown, Gilmour's solos on \"Money\", \"Time\" and \"Comfortably Numb\" \"cut through the mix like a laser beam through fog.\" Brown described the \"Time\" solo as \"a masterpiece of phrasing and motivic development ... Gilmour paces himself throughout and builds upon his initial idea by leaping into the upper register with gut-wrenching one-and-one-half-step 'over bends', soulful triplet arpeggios and a typically impeccable bar vibrato.\" Brown described Gilmour's sense of phrasing as intuitive, singling it out as perhaps his best asset as a lead guitarist. Gilmour explained how he achieved his signature tone: \"I usually use a fuzz box, a delay and a bright EQ setting ... [to get] singing sustain ... you need to play loud — at or near the feedback threshold. It's just so much more fun to play ... when bent notes slice right through you like a razor blade.\"\n\nSonic experimentation \n\nThroughout their career, Pink Floyd experimented with their sound. Their second single, \"See Emily Play\" premiered at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London, on 12 May 1967. During the performance, the group first used an early quadraphonic device called an Azimuth Co-ordinator. The device enabled the controller, usually Wright, to manipulate the band's amplified sound, combined with recorded tapes, projecting the sounds 270 degrees around a venue, achieving a sonic swirling effect. In 1972, they purchased a custom-built PA which featured an upgraded four-channel, 360-degree system.\n\nWaters experimented with the EMS Synthi A and VCS 3 synthesisers on Pink Floyd pieces such as \"On the Run\", \"Welcome to the Machine\", and \"In the Flesh?\". He used a Binson Echorec 2 echo effect on his bass-guitar track for \"One of These Days\".\n\nPink Floyd used innovative sound effects and state of the art audio recording technology during the recording of The Final Cut. Mason's contributions to the album were almost entirely limited to work with the experimental Holophonic system, an audio processing technique used to simulate a three-dimensional effect. The system used a conventional stereo tape to produce an effect that seemed to move the sound around the listener's head when they were wearing headphones. The process enabled an engineer to simulate moving the sound to behind, above or beside the listener's ears.\n\nFilm scores \n\nPink Floyd also composed several film scores, starting in 1968, with The Committee. In 1969, they recorded the score for Barbet Schroeder's film More. The soundtrack proved beneficial; not only did it pay well but, along with A Saucerful of Secrets, the material they created became part of their live shows for some time thereafter. While composing the soundtrack for director Michelangelo Antonioni's film Zabriskie Point, the band stayed at a luxury hotel in Rome for almost a month. Waters claimed that, without Antonioni's constant changes to the music, they would have completed the work in less than a week. Eventually he used only three of their recordings. One of the pieces turned down by Antonioni, called \"The Violent Sequence\", later became \"Us and Them\", included on 1973's The Dark Side of the Moon. In 1971, the band again worked with Schroeder on the film La Vallée, for which they released a soundtrack album called Obscured by Clouds. They composed the material in about a week at the Château d'Hérouville near Paris, and upon its release, it became Pink Floyd's first album to break into the top 50 on the US Billboard chart.\n\nLive performances \n\nRegarded as pioneers of live music performance and renowned for their lavish stage shows, Pink Floyd also set high standards in sound quality, making use of innovative sound effects and quadraphonic speaker systems. From their earliest days, they employed visual effects to accompany their psychedelic rock music while performing at venues such as the UFO Club in London. Their slide-and-light show was one of the first in British rock, and it helped them became popular among London's underground.\n\nTo celebrate the launch of the London Free School's magazine International Times in 1966, they performed in front of 2,000 people at the opening of the Roundhouse, attended by celebrities including Paul McCartney and Marianne Faithfull. In mid-1966, road manager Peter Wynne-Willson joined their road crew, and updated the band's lighting rig with some innovative ideas including the use of polarisers, mirrors and stretched condoms. After their record deal with EMI, Pink Floyd purchased a Ford Transit van, then considered extravagant band transportation. On 29 April 1967, they headlined an all-night event called The 14 Hour Technicolour Dream at the Alexandra Palace, London. Pink Floyd arrived at the festival at around three o'clock in the morning after a long journey by van and ferry from the Netherlands, taking the stage just as the sun was beginning to rise. In July 1969, precipitated by their space-related music and lyrics, they took part in the live BBC television coverage of the Apollo 11 moon landing, performing an instrumental piece which they called \"Moonhead\".\n\nIn November 1974, they employed for the first time the large circular screen that would become a staple of their live shows. In 1977, they employed the use of a large inflatable floating pig named \"Algie\". Filled with helium and propane, Algie, while floating above the audience, would explode with a loud noise during the In the Flesh Tour. The behaviour of the audience during the tour, as well as the large size of the venues, proved a strong influence on their concept album The Wall. The subsequent The Wall Tour featured a 40 ft high wall, built from cardboard bricks, constructed between the band and the audience. They projected animations onto the wall, while gaps allowed the audience to view various scenes from the story. They commissioned the creation of several giant inflatables to represent characters from the story. One striking feature of the tour was the performance of \"Comfortably Numb\". While Waters sang his opening verse, in darkness, Gilmour waited for his cue on top of the wall. When it came, bright blue and white lights would suddenly reveal him. Gilmour stood on a flightcase on castors, an insecure setup supported from behind by a technician. A large hydraulic platform supported both Gilmour and the tech.\n\nDuring the Division Bell Tour, an unknown person using the name Publius posted a message on an internet newsgroup inviting fans to solve a riddle supposedly concealed in the new album. White lights in front of the stage at the Pink Floyd concert in East Rutherford spelled out the words Enigma Publius. During a televised concert at Earls Court on 20 October 1994, someone projected the word \"enigma\" in large letters on to the backdrop of the stage. Mason later acknowledged that their record company had instigated the Publius Enigma mystery, rather than the band.\n\nLyrical themes \n\nMarked by Waters' philosophical lyrics, Rolling Stone described Pink Floyd as \"purveyors of a distinctively dark vision\". Author Jere O'Neill Surber wrote: \"their interests are truth and illusion, life and death, time and space, causality and chance, compassion and indifference.\" Waters identified empathy as a central theme in the lyrics of Pink Floyd. Author George Reisch described Meddle psychedelic opus, \"Echoes\", as \"built around the core idea of genuine communication, sympathy, and collaboration with others.\" Despite having been labelled \"the gloomiest man in rock\", author Deena Weinstein described Waters as an existentialist, dismissing the unfavourable moniker as the result of misinterpretation by music critics.\n\nDisillusionment, absence, and non-being \n\nWaters' lyrics to Wish You Were Here \"Have a Cigar\" deal with a perceived lack of sincerity on the part of music industry representatives. The song illustrates a dysfunctional dynamic between the band and a record label executive who congratulates the group on their current sales success, implying that they are on the same team while revealing that he erroneously believes \"Pink\" is the name of one of the band members. According to author David Detmer, the album's lyrics deal with the \"dehumanizing aspects of the world of commerce\", a situation the artist must endure to reach their audience.\n\nAbsence as a lyrical theme is common in the music of Pink Floyd. Examples include the absence of Barrett after 1968, and that of Waters' father, who died during the Second World War. Waters' lyrics also explored unrealised political goals and unsuccessful endeavours. Their film score, Obscured by Clouds, dealt with the loss of youthful exuberance that sometimes comes with agieng. Longtime Pink Floyd album cover designer, Storm Thorgerson, described the lyrics of Wish You Were Here: \"The idea of presence withheld, of the ways that people pretend to be present while their minds are really elsewhere, and the devices and motivations employed psychologically by people to suppress the full force of their presence, eventually boiled down to a single theme, absence: The absence of a person, the absence of a feeling.\" Waters commented: \"it's about none of us really being there ... [it] should have been called Wish We Were Here\".\n\nO'Neill Surber explored the lyrics of Pink Floyd and declared the issue of non-being a common theme in their music. Waters invoked non-being or non-existence in The Wall, with the lyrics to \"Comfortably Numb\": \"I caught a fleeting glimpse, out of the corner of my eye. I turned to look, but it was gone, I cannot put my finger on it now, the child is grown, the dream is gone.\" Barrett referred to non-being in his final contribution to the band's catalogue, \"Jugband Blues\": \"I'm most obliged to you for making it clear that I'm not here.\"\n\nExploitation and oppression \n\nAuthor Patrick Croskery described Animals as a unique blend of the \"powerful sounds and suggestive themes\" of Dark Side with The Wall portrayal of artistic alienation. He drew a parallel between the album's political themes and that of Orwell's Animal Farm. Animals begins with a thought experiment, which asks: \"If you didn't care what happened to me. And I didn't care for you\", then develops a beast fable based on anthropomorphised characters using music to reflect the individual states of mind of each. The lyrics ultimately paint a picture of dystopia, the inevitable result of a world devoid of empathy and compassion, answering the question posed in the opening lines.\n\nThe album's characters include the \"Dogs\", representing fervent capitalists, the \"Pigs\", symbolising political corruption, and the \"Sheep\", who represent the exploited. Croskery described the \"Sheep\" as being in a \"state of delusion created by a misleading cultural identity\", a false consciousness. The \"Dog\", in his tireless pursuit of self-interest and success, ends up depressed and alone with no one to trust, utterly lacking emotional satisfaction after a life of exploitation. Waters used Mary Whitehouse as an example of a \"Pig\"; being someone who in his estimation, used the power of the government to impose her values on society. At the album's conclusion, Waters returns to empathy with the lyrical statement: \"You know that I care what happens to you. And I know that you care for me too.\" However, he also acknowledges that the \"Pigs\" are a continuing threat and reveals that he is a \"Dog\" who requires shelter, suggesting the need for a balance between state, commerce and community, versus an ongoing battle between them.\n\nAlienation, war, and insanity \n\nO'Neill Surber compared the lyrics of Dark Side \"Brain Damage\" with Karl Marx theory of self-alienation; \"there's someone in my head, but it's not me.\" The lyrics to Wish You Were Here \"Welcome to the Machine\" suggest what Marx called the alienation of the thing; the song's protagonist preoccupied with material possessions to the point that he becomes estranged from himself and others. Allusions to the alienation of man's species being can be found in Animals; the \"Dog\" reduced to living instinctively as a non-human. The \"Dogs\" become alienated from themselves to the extent that they justify their lack of integrity as a \"necessary and defensible\" position in \"a cutthroat world with no room for empathy or moral principle\" wrote Detmer. Alienation from others is a consistent theme in the lyrics of Pink Floyd, and it is a core element of The Wall.\n\nWar, viewed as the most severe consequence of the manifestation of alienation from others, is also a core element of The Wall, and a recurring theme in the band's music. Waters' father died in combat during the Second World War, and his lyrics often alluded to the cost of war, including those from \"Corporal Clegg\" (1968), \"Free Four\" (1972), \"Us and Them\" (1973), \"When the Tigers Broke Free\" and \"The Fletcher Memorial Home\" from The Final Cut (1983), an album dedicated to his late father and subtitled A Requiem for the Postwar Dream. The themes and composition of The Wall express Waters' upbringing in an English society depleted of men after the Second World War, a condition that negatively affected his personal relationships with women.\n\nWaters' lyrics to The Dark Side of the Moon dealt with the pressures of modern life and how those pressures can sometimes cause insanity. He viewed the album's explication of mental illness as illuminating a universal condition. However, Waters also wanted the album to communicate positivity, calling it \"an exhortation ... to embrace the positive and reject the negative.\" Reisch described The Wall as \"less about the experience of madness than the habits, institutions, and social structures that create or cause madness.\" The Wall protagonist, Pink, is unable to deal with the circumstances of his life, and overcome by feelings of guilt, slowly closes himself off from the outside world inside a barrier of his own making. After he completes his estrangement from the world, Pink realises that he is \"crazy, over the rainbow\". He then considers the possibility that his condition may be his own fault: \"have I been guilty all this time?\" Realizing his greatest fear, Pink believes that he has let everyone down, his overbearing mother wisely choosing to smother him, the teachers rightly criticising his poetic aspirations, and his wife justified in leaving him. He then stands trial for \"showing feelings of an almost human nature\", further exacerbating his alienation of species being. As with the writings of philosopher Michel Foucault, Waters' lyrics suggest Pink's insanity is a product of modern life, the elements of which, \"custom, codependancies, and psychopathologies\", contribute to his angst, according to Reisch.\n\nRecognition and influence \n\nPink Floyd are one of the most commercially successful and influential rock bands of all time. They have sold more than 250 million records worldwide, including 75 million certified units in the United States, and 37.9 million albums sold in the US since 1993. The Sunday Times Rich List, Music Millionaires 2013 (UK), ranked Waters at number 12 with an estimated fortune of £150 million, Gilmour at number 27 with £85 million and Mason at number 37 with £50 million. \n\nIn 2004, MSNBC ranked Pink Floyd number 8 on their list of \"The 10 Best Rock Bands Ever\". Rolling Stone ranked them number 51 on their list of \"The 100 Greatest Artists of All Time\". Q named Pink Floyd as the biggest band of all time. VH1 ranked them number 18 in the list of the \"100 Greatest Artists of All Time\". Colin Larkin ranked Pink Floyd number 3 in his list of the 'Top 50 Artists of All Time', a ranking based on the cumulative votes for each artist's albums included in his All Time Top 1000 Albums. \n\nPink Floyd have won several awards, including a \"Best Engineered Non-Classical Album\" Grammy in 1980 for The Wall, and a BAFTA award for \"Best Original Song\" in 1982 for \"Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2)\" from The Wall film. In 1995, they won a Grammy for best \"Rock Instrumental Performance\" for \"Marooned\". In 2008, King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden presented Pink Floyd with the Polar Music Prize for their contribution to modern music; Waters and Mason attended the ceremony and accepted the award. They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996, the UK Music Hall of Fame in 2005, and the Hit Parade Hall of Fame in 2010. \n\nThe music of Pink Floyd influenced numerous artists; David Bowie called Barrett a significant inspiration, and The Edge of U2 bought his first delay pedal after hearing the opening guitar chords to \"Dogs\" from Animals. Other bands who cite Pink Floyd as an influence include Queen, Tool, Radiohead, Kraftwerk, Marillion, Queensrÿche, Nine Inch Nails, the Orb and the Smashing Pumpkins. Pink Floyd were an influence on the neo-progressive rock subgenre which emerged in the 1980s. The English rock band Mostly Autumn \"fuse the music of Genesis and Pink Floyd\" in their sound. \n\nPink Floyd were also admirers of the Monty Python comedy group, and helped finance their 1975 film Monty Python and the Holy Grail. \n\nMembers \n\n*Roger Waters – co-lead vocals, bass guitar, rhythm guitar, synthesizers (1965–1985, 2005)\n*David Gilmour – co-lead vocals, lead and rhythm guitars, bass guitar, synthesizers, keyboards (1967–1995, 2005, 2014)\n*Richard Wright – co-lead vocals, keyboards, synthesizers, piano, rhythm guitar (1965–1979, 1987–1995, 2005, died 2008)\n*Nick Mason – drums, percussion, keyboards, piano (1965–1994, 2005, 2014)\n*Syd Barrett – lead vocals, lead and rhythm guitar (1965–1968, died 2006)\n\nDiscography \n\n;Studio albums\n* The Piper at the Gates of Dawn (1967)\n* A Saucerful of Secrets (1968)\n* More (1969)\n* Ummagumma (1969)\n* Atom Heart Mother (1970)\n* Meddle (1971)\n* Obscured by Clouds (1972)\n* The Dark Side of the Moon (1973)\n* Wish You Were Here (1975)\n* Animals (1977)\n* The Wall (1979)\n* The Final Cut (1983)\n* A Momentary Lapse of Reason (1987)\n* The Division Bell (1994)\n* The Endless River (2014)\n\nTours \n\n* Pink Floyd World Tour (1968)\n* The Man and The Journey Tour (1969)\n* Atom Heart Mother World Tour (1970)\n* Meddle Tour (1971)\n* Dark Side of the Moon Tour (1972–73)\n* French Summer Tour (1974)\n* British Winter Tour (1974)\n* Wish You Were Here Tour (1975)\n* In the Flesh Tour (1977)\n* The Wall Tour (1980–81)\n* A Momentary Lapse of Reason Tour (1987–90)\n* The Division Bell Tour (1994)\n\nNotes", "In Greek religion and mythology, Pan (; , Pan) is the god of the wild, shepherds and flocks, nature of mountain wilds and rustic music, and companion of the nymphs. His name originates within the Ancient Greek language, from the word paein (πάειν), meaning \"to pasture\"; the modern word \"panic\" is derived from the name. He has the hindquarters, legs, and horns of a goat, in the same manner as a faun or satyr. With his homeland in rustic Arcadia, he is also recognized as the god of fields, groves, and wooded glens; because of this, Pan is connected to fertility and the season of spring. The ancient Greeks also considered Pan to be the god of theatrical criticism. \n \nIn Roman religion and myth, Pan's counterpart was Faunus, a nature god who was the father of Bona Dea, sometimes identified as Fauna; he was also closely associated with Sylvanus, due to their similar relationships with woodlands. In the 18th and 19th centuries, Pan became a significant figure in the Romantic movement of western Europe and also in the 20th-century Neopagan movement. \n\nAn area in the Golan Heights known as the Panion or Panium is associated with Pan. The city of Caesarea Philippi, the site of the Battle of Panium and the Banias natural spring, grotto or cave, and related shrines dedicated to Pan, may be found there.\n\nOrigins\n\nIn his earliest appearance in literature, Pindar's Pythian Ode iii. 78, Pan is associated with a mother goddess, perhaps Rhea or Cybele; Pindar refers to virgins worshipping Cybele and Pan near the poet's house in Boeotia. \n \nThe parentage of Pan is unclear; generally he is the son of Hermes, although occasionally in some myths he is the son of Zeus, or Dionysus, with whom his mother is said to be a wood nymph, sometimes Dryope or, even in the 5th-century AD source Dionysiaca by Nonnus (14.92), Penelope of Mantineia in Arcadia. In some early sources such as Pindar, his father is Apollo via Penelope, the wife of Odysseus. Herodotus (2.145), Cicero (ND 3.22.56), Apollodorus (7.38) and Hyginus (Fabulae 224) all make Hermes and Penelope his parents. Pausanias 8.12.5 records the story that Penelope had in fact been unfaithful to her husband, who banished her to Mantineia upon his return. Other sources (Duris of Samos; the Vergilian commentator Servius) report that Penelope slept with all 108 suitors in Odysseus' absence, and gave birth to Pan as a result. This myth reflects the folk etymology that equates Pan's name (Πάν) with the Greek word for \"all\" (πᾶν). It is more likely to be cognate with πάειν paein, \"to pasture\", and to share an origin with the modern English word \"pasture\". In 1924, Hermann Collitz suggested that Greek Pan and Indic Pushan might have a common Indo-European origin. In the mystery cults of the highly syncretic Hellenistic era Pan is made cognate with Phanes/Protogonos, Zeus, Dionysus and Eros. \n\nAccounts of Pan's genealogy are so varied that it must lie buried deep in mythic time. Like other nature spirits, Pan appears to be older than the Olympians, if it is true that he gave Artemis her hunting dogs and taught the secret of prophecy to Apollo. Pan might be multiplied as the Pans (Burkert 1985, III.3.2; Ruck and Staples, 1994, p. 132 ) or the Paniskoi. Kerenyi (p. 174) notes from scholia that Aeschylus in Rhesus distinguished between two Pans, one the son of Zeus and twin of Arcas, and one a son of Cronus. \"In the retinue of Dionysos, or in depictions of wild landscapes, there appeared not only a great Pan, but also little Pans, Paniskoi, who played the same part as the Satyrs\".\n\nThe Roman Faunus, a god of Indo-European origin, was equated with Pan.\n\nWorship\n\nThe worship of Pan began in Arcadia which was always the principal seat of his worship. Arcadia was a district of mountain people, culturally separated from other Greeks. Greek hunters used to scourge the statue of the god if they had been disappointed in the chase (Theocritus. vii. 107).\n\nBeing a rustic god, Pan was not worshipped in temples or other built edifices, but in natural settings, usually caves or grottoes such as the one on the north slope of the Acropolis of Athens. These are often referred to as the Cave of Pan. The only exceptions are the Temple of Pan on the Neda River gorge in the southwestern Peloponnese – the ruins of which survive to this day – and the Temple of Pan at Apollonopolis Magna in ancient Egypt. In the 4th century BC Pan was depicted on the coinage of Pantikapaion. \n\nMythology\n\nThe goat-god Aegipan was nurtured by Amalthea with the infant Zeus in Athens. In Zeus' battle with Gaia, Aegipan and Hermes stole back Zeus' \"sinews\" that Typhon had hidden away in the Corycian Cave. Pan aided his foster-brother in the battle with the Titans by letting out a horrible screech and scattering them in terror. According to some traditions, Aegipan was the son of Pan, rather than his father.\n\nOne of the famous myths of Pan involves the origin of his pan flute, fashioned from lengths of hollow reed. Syrinx was a lovely wood-nymph of Arcadia, daughter of Landon, the river-god. As she was returning from the hunt one day, Pan met her. To escape from his importunities, the fair nymph ran away and didn't stop to hear his compliments. He pursued from Mount Lycaeum until she came to her sisters who immediately changed her into a reed. When the air blew through the reeds, it produced a plaintive melody. The god, still infatuated, took some of the reeds, because he could not identify which reed she became, and cut seven pieces (or according to some versions, nine), joined them side by side in gradually decreasing lengths, and formed the musical instrument bearing the name of his beloved Syrinx. Henceforth Pan was seldom seen without it.\n\nEcho was a nymph who was a great singer and dancer and scorned the love of any man. This angered Pan, a lecherous god, and he instructed his followers to kill her. Echo was torn to pieces and spread all over earth. The goddess of the earth, Gaia, received the pieces of Echo, whose voice remains repeating the last words of others. In some versions, Echo and Pan had two children: Iambe and Iynx. In other versions, Pan had fallen in love with Echo, but she scorned the love of any man but was enraptured by Narcissus. As Echo was cursed by Hera to only be able to repeat words that had been said by someone else, she could not speak for herself. She followed Narcissus to a pool, where he fell in love with his own reflection and changed into a narcissus flower. Echo wasted away, but her voice could still be heard in caves and other such similar places.\n\nPan also loved a nymph named Pitys, who was turned into a pine tree to escape him.\n\nDisturbed in his secluded afternoon naps, Pan's angry shout inspired panic (panikon deima) in lonely places. Following the Titans' assault on Olympus, Pan claimed credit for the victory of the gods because he had frightened the attackers. In the Battle of Marathon (490 BC), it is said that Pan favored the Athenians and so inspired panic in the hearts of their enemies, the Persians. \n\nErotic aspects\n\nPan is famous for his sexual powers, and is often depicted with a phallus. Diogenes of Sinope, speaking in jest, related a myth of Pan learning masturbation from his father, Hermes, and teaching the habit to shepherds. \n\nPan's greatest conquest was that of the moon goddess Selene. He accomplished this by wrapping himself in a sheepskin to hide his hairy black goat form, and drew her down from the sky into the forest where he seduced her.\n\nPan and music\n\nIn two late Roman sources, Hyginus and Ovid, Pan is substituted for the satyr Marsyas in the theme of a musical competition (agon), and the punishment by flaying is omitted.\n\nPan once had the audacity to compare his music with that of Apollo, and to challenge Apollo, the god of the lyre, to a trial of skill. Tmolus, the mountain-god, was chosen to umpire. Pan blew on his pipes and gave great satisfaction with his rustic melody to himself and to his faithful follower, Midas, who happened to be present. Then Apollo struck the strings of his lyre. Tmolus at once awarded the victory to Apollo, and all but Midas agreed with the judgment. Midas dissented and questioned the justice of the award. Apollo would not suffer such a depraved pair of ears any longer and turned Midas' ears into those of a donkey.\n\nIn another version of the myth, the first round of the contest was a tie, so the competitors were forced to hold a second round. In this round, Apollo demanded that they play their instruments upside-down. Apollo, playing the lyre, was unaffected. However, Pan's pipe could not be played while upside down, so Apollo won the contest.\n\nCapricornus\n\nThe constellation Capricornus is traditionally depicted as a sea-goat, a goat with a fish's tail (see \"Goatlike\" Aigaion called Briareos, one of the Hecatonchires). A myth reported as \"Egyptian\" in Hyginus' Poetic Astronomy that would seem to be invented to justify a connection of Pan with Capricorn says that when Aegipan — that is Pan in his goat-god aspect — was attacked by the monster Typhon, he dove into the Nile; the parts above the water remained a goat, but those under the water transformed into a fish.\n\nEpithets\n\nAegocerus \"goat-horned\" was an epithet of Pan descriptive of his figure with the horns of a goat. \n\nAll of the Pans\n\nPan could be multiplied into a swarm of Pans, and even be given individual names, as in Nonnus' Dionysiaca, where the god Pan had twelve sons that helped Dionysus in his war against the Indians. Their names were Kelaineus, Argennon, Aigikoros, Eugeneios, Omester, Daphoenus, Phobos, Philamnos, Xanthos, Glaukos, Argos, and Phorbas.\n\nTwo other Pans were Agreus and Nomios. Both were the sons of Hermes, Agreus' mother being the nymph Sose, a prophetess: he inherited his mother's gift of prophecy, and was also a skilled hunter. Nomios' mother was Penelope (not the same as the wife of Odysseus). He was an excellent shepherd, seducer of nymphs, and musician upon the shepherd's pipes. Most of the mythological stories about Pan are actually about Nomios, not the god Pan. Although, Agreus and Nomios could have been two different aspects of the prime Pan, reflecting his dual nature as both a wise prophet and a lustful beast.\n\nAegipan, literally \"goat-Pan,\" was a Pan who was fully goatlike, rather than half-goat and half-man. When the Olympians fled from the monstrous giant Typhoeus and hid themselves in animal form, Aegipan assumed the form of a fish-tailed goat. Later he came to the aid of Zeus in his battle with Typhoeus, by stealing back Zeus' stolen sinews. As a reward the king of the gods placed him amongst the stars as the Constellation Capricorn. The mother of Aegipan, Aix (the goat), was perhaps associated with the constellation Capra.\n\nSybarios was an Italian Pan who was worshipped in the Greek colony of Sybaris in Italy. The Sybarite Pan was conceived when a Sybarite shepherd boy named Krathis copulated with a pretty she-goat amongst his herds.\n\nThe \"death\" of Pan\n\nAccording to the Greek historian Plutarch (in De defectu oraculorum, \"The Obsolescence of Oracles\"), Pan is the only Greek god (other than Asclepius) who actually dies. During the reign of Tiberius (A.D. 14–37), the news of Pan's death came to one Thamus, a sailor on his way to Italy by way of the island of Paxi. A divine voice hailed him across the salt water, \"Thamus, are you there? When you reach Palodes, take care to proclaim that the great god Pan is dead.\" Which Thamus did, and the news was greeted from shore with groans and laments.\n\nChristian apologists such as G. K. Chesterton repeated and amplified the significance of the \"death\" of Pan, suggesting that with the \"death\" of Pan came the advent of theology. To this effect, Chesterton once said, \"It is said truly in a sense that Pan died because Christ was born. It is almost as true in another sense that men knew that Christ was born because Pan was already dead. A void was made by the vanishing world of the whole mythology of mankind, which would have asphyxiated like a vacuum if it had not been filled with theology.\" It was interpreted with concurrent meanings in all four modes of medieval exegesis: literally as historical fact, and allegorically as the death of the ancient order at the coming of the new. Eusebius of Caesarea in his Praeparatio Evangelica (book V) seems to have been the first Christian apologist to give Plutarch's anecdote, which he identifies as his source , pseudo-historical standing, which Eusebius buttressed with many invented passing details that lent verisimilitude. \n\nIn more modern times, some have suggested a possible a naturalistic explanation for the myth. For example, Robert Graves (The Greek Myths) reported a suggestion that had been made by Salomon Reinach and expanded by James S. Van Teslaar that the hearers aboard the ship, including a supposed Egyptian, Thamus, apparently misheard Thamus Panmegas tethneke 'the all-great Tammuz is dead' for 'Thamus, Great Pan is dead!', Thamous, Pan ho megas tethneke. \"In its true form the phrase would have probably carried no meaning to those on board who must have been unfamiliar with the worship of Tammuz which was a transplanted, and for those parts, therefore, an exotic custom.\" Certainly, when Pausanias toured Greece about a century after Plutarch, he found Pan's shrines, sacred caves and sacred mountains still very much frequented. However, a naturalistic explanation might not be needed. For example, William Hansen has shown that the story is quite similar to a class of widely known tales known as Fairies Send a Message.\n\nThe cry \"Great Pan is dead\" has appealed to poets, such as John Milton, in his ecstatic celebration of Christian peace, On the Morning of Christ's Nativity line 89,Kathleen M. Swaim, \"'Mighty Pan': Tradition and an Image in Milton's Nativity 'Hymn'\", Studies in Philology 68.4 (October 1971:484–495).. and Elizabeth Barrett Browning. \n\nOne remarkable commentary of Herodotus on Pan is that he lived 800 years before himself (c. 1200 BCE), this being already after the Trojan War.\n\nInfluence\n\nRevivalist imagery\n\nIn the late 18th century, interest in Pan revived among liberal scholars. Richard Payne Knight discussed Pan in his Discourse on the Worship of Priapus (1786) as a symbol of creation expressed through sexuality. \"Pan is represented pouring water upon the organ of generation; that is, invigorating the active creative power by the prolific element.\" \n\nIn the English town of Painswick in Gloucestershire, a group of 18th-century gentry, led by Benjamin Hyett, organised an annual procession dedicated to Pan, during which a statue of the deity was held aloft, and people shouted 'Highgates! Highgates!\" Hyett also erected temples and follies to Pan in the gardens of his house and a \"Pan's lodge\", located over Painswick Valley. The tradition died out in the 1830s, but was revived in 1885 by the new vicar, W. H. Seddon, who mistakenly believed that the festival had been ancient in origin. One of Seddon's successors, however, was less appreciative of the pagan festival and put an end to it in 1950, when he had Pan's statue buried. \n\nJohn Keats's \"Endymion\" opens with a festival dedicated to Pan where a stanzaic hymn is sung in praise of him. \"Keats's account of Pan's activities is largely drawn from the Elizabethan poets. Douglas Bush notes, 'The goat-god, the tutelary divinity of shepherds, had long been allegorized on various levels, from Christ to \"Universall Nature\" (Sandys); here he becomes the symbol of the romantic imagination, of supra-mortal knowledge. \n\nIn the late 19th century Pan became an increasingly common figure in literature and art. Patricia Merivale states that between 1890 and 1926 there was an \"astonishing resurgence of interest in the Pan motif\". He appears in poetry, in novels and children's books, and is referenced in the name of the character Peter Pan. He is the eponymous \"Piper at the Gates of Dawn\" in the seventh chapter of Kenneth Grahame's The Wind in the Willows (1908). Grahame's Pan, unnamed but clearly recognisable, is a powerful but secretive nature-god, protector of animals, who casts a spell of forgetfulness on all those he helps. He makes a brief appearance to help the Rat and Mole recover the Otter's lost son Portly.\n\nArthur Machen's 1894 novella The Great God Pan uses the god's name in a simile about the whole world being revealed as it really is: \"seeing the Great God Pan\". The novella is considered by many (including Stephen King) as being one of the greatest horror stories ever written.\n\nPan entices villagers to listen to his pipes as if in a trance in Lord Dunsany's novel The Blessing of Pan published in 1927. Although the god does not appear within the story, his energy certainly invokes the younger folk of the village to revel in the summer twilight, and the vicar of the village is the only person worried about the revival of worship for the old pagan god.\n\nPan is also featured as a prominent character in Tom Robbins' Jitterbug Perfume (1984). Aeronautical engineer and occultist Jack Parsons invoked Pan before test launches at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.\n\nThe British writer and editor Mark Beech of Egaeus Press published in 2015 the limited-edition anthology Soliloquy for Pan which includes essays and poems such as \"The Rebirthing of Pan\" by Adrian Eckersley, \"Pan's Pipes\" by Robert Louis Stevenson, \"Pan With Us\" by Robert Frost, and \"The Death of Pan\" by Lord Dunsany. Some of the beautifully detailed illustrated depictions of Pan included in the volume are by the artists Giorgio Ghisi, Sir James Thornhill, Bernard Picart, Agostino Veneziano, Vincenzo Cartari, and Giovanni Battista Tiepolo.\n\nIdentification with Satan\n\nPan's goatish image recalls conventional faun-like depictions of Satan. Although Christian use of Plutarch's story is of long standing, Ronald Hutton has argued that this specific association is modern and derives from Pan's popularity in Victorian and Edwardian neopaganism. Medieval and early modern images of Satan tend, by contrast, to show generic semi-human monsters with horns, wings and clawed feet.\n\nNeopaganism\n\nIn 1933, the Egyptologist Margaret Murray published the book, The God of the Witches, in which she theorised that Pan was merely one form of a horned god who was worshipped across Europe by a witch-cult. This theory influenced the Neopagan notion of the Horned God, as an archetype of male virility and sexuality. In Wicca, the archetype of the Horned God is highly important, as represented by such deities as the Celtic Cernunnos, Indian Pashupati, and Greek Pan.\n\nA modern account of several purported meetings with Pan is given by Robert Ogilvie Crombie in The Findhorn Garden (Harper & Row, 1975) and The Magic of Findhorn (Harper & Row, 1975). Crombie claimed to have met Pan many times at various locations in Scotland, including Edinburgh, on the island of Iona and at the Findhorn Foundation." ] }

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{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe", "TagMe", "TagMe", "TagMe", "TagMe" ], "filename": [ "Alfred_Hitchcock.txt", "Tippi_Hedren.txt", "California.txt", "Bodega_Bay,_California.txt", "Bodega_Bay.txt" ], "title": [ "Alfred Hitchcock", "Tippi Hedren", "California", "Bodega Bay, California", "Bodega Bay" ], "wiki_context": [ "Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock, KBE, (13 August 1899 – 29 April 1980) was an English film director and producer, at times referred to as \"The Master of Suspense\". He pioneered many elements of the suspense and psychological thriller genres. He had a successful career in British cinema with both silent films and early talkies and became renowned as England's best director. Hitchcock moved to Hollywood in 1939 and became a US citizen in 1955. \n\nOver a career spanning more than half a century, Hitchcock fashioned for himself a recognisable directorial style. His stylistic trademarks include the use of camera movement that mimics a person's gaze, forcing viewers to engage in a form of voyeurism. In addition, he framed shots to maximise anxiety, fear, or empathy, and used innovative forms of film editing. His work often features fugitives on the run alongside \"icy blonde\" female characters. Many of Hitchcock's films have twist endings and thrilling plots featuring depictions of murder and other violence. Many of the mysteries, however, are used as decoys or \"MacGuffins\" that serve the films' themes and the psychological examinations of their characters. Hitchcock's films also borrow many themes from psychoanalysis and sometimes feature strong sexual overtones.\n\nHitchcock became a highly visible public figure through interviews, movie trailers, cameo appearances in his own films, and the ten years in which he hosted the television program Alfred Hitchcock Presents. In 1978, film critic John Russell Taylor described Hitchcock as \"the most universally recognizable person in the world\", and \"a straightforward middle-class Englishman who just happened to be an artistic genius.\"\n\nHitchcock directed more than fifty feature films in a career spanning six decades and is often regarded as the greatest British filmmaker. He came first in a 2007 poll of film critics in Britain's Daily Telegraph, which said: \"Unquestionably the greatest filmmaker to emerge from these islands, Hitchcock did more than any director to shape modern cinema, which would be utterly different without him. His flair was for narrative, cruelly withholding crucial information (from his characters and from viewers) and engaging the emotions of the audience like no one else.\" Prior to 1980 there had long been talk of Hitchcock being knighted for his contribution to film. Critic Roger Ebert wrote: \"Other British directors like Sir Carol Reed and Sir Charlie Chaplin were knighted years ago, while Hitchcock, universally considered by film students to be one of the greatest filmmakers of all time, was passed over\". Hitchcock was later to receive his knighthood from Queen Elizabeth II in the 1980 New Year Honours. In 2002, the magazine MovieMaker named Hitchcock the most influential filmmaker of all time. \n\nEarly life\n\nAlfred Hitchcock was born on 13 August 1899 in Leytonstone, which at the time was part of Essex. He was the second son and the youngest of three children of William Hitchcock (1862–1914), a greengrocer and poulterer, and Emma Jane Hitchcock (born Whelan; 1863–1942). He was named after his father's brother. Hitchcock was brought up as a Roman Catholic and was sent to Salesian College and the Jesuit Classic school St Ignatius' College in Stamford Hill, London. His parents were both of half-English and half-Irish ancestry. He often described a lonely and sheltered childhood worsened by his obesity. Around age five, Hitchcock said that he was sent by his father to the local police station with a note asking the officer to lock him away for five minutes as punishment for behaving badly. This incident implanted a lifetime fear of policemen in Hitchcock, and such harsh treatment and wrongful accusations are frequent themes in his films. \n\nWhen Hitchcock was 15, his father died. In the same year, he left St. Ignatius to study at the London County Council School of Engineering and Navigation in Poplar, London. After leaving, he became a draftsman and advertising designer with a cable company called Henley's. During the First World War, Hitchcock was called up to serve in the British Army. He was excused from military service with a 'C3' classification due to his size, height or an unnamed medical condition, but he was \"able to stand service conditions in garrisons at home\". Hitchcock signed up to a cadet regiment of the Royal Engineers in 1917. His military stint was limited; he received theoretical briefings, weekend drills and exercises. Hitchcock would march around London's Hyde Park and was required to wear puttees, though he never mastered the proper wrapping of them. \n\nWhile working at Henley's, Hitchcock began to dabble creatively. The company's in-house publication The Henley Telegraph was founded in 1919, and he often submitted short articles and eventually became one of its most prolific contributors. His first piece was \"Gas\" (1919), published in the first issue, in which a young woman imagines that she is being assaulted one night in London – only for the twist to reveal that it was all just a hallucination in the dentist's chair induced by the anesthetic. \n\nHitchcock's second piece was \"The Woman's Part\" (1919), which involves the conflicted emotions that a husband feels as he watches his actress wife perform onstage. \"Sordid\" (1920) surrounds an attempt to buy a sword from an antiques dealer, with another twist ending. The short story \"And There Was No Rainbow\" (1920) is Hitchcock's first brush with possibly censurable material. A young man goes out looking for a brothel, only to stumble into the house of his best friend's girl. \"What's Who?\" (1920) at first glance seems to be a precursor to Abbott and Costello's \"Who's on First?\" routine. It is a very short dialogue piece that resembles a bit of antic dialogue from a music hall skit. It captures the zany confusion that happens when a group of actors decide to put together a sketch in which they will impersonate themselves. In the story’s 40 sentences, confusion regarding the questions “Who’s me?” and \"Who’s you?” rise to comic emotional heights. \"The History of Pea Eating\" (1920) is a satirical disquisition on the various attempts that people have made over the centuries to eat peas successfully. His final piece, \"Fedora\" (1921), is his shortest and most enigmatic contribution. It also gives a strikingly accurate description of his future wife Alma Reville, whom he had not yet met. \n\nInter-war British career\n\nSilent films\n\nHitchcock became intrigued by photography and started working in film production, working as a title card designer for the London branch of what became Paramount Pictures. In 1920, he received a full-time position designing the titles for silent movies at Islington Studios with its American owner Famous Players-Lasky and their British successor Gainsborough Pictures. His rise from title designer to film director took five years. During this period, he became an unusual combination of screenwriter, art director, and assistant director on a series of five films for producer Michael Balcon and director Graham Cutts: Woman to Woman (1923), The White Shadow (1924), The Passionate Adventure (1924), The Blackguard (1925), and The Prude's Fall (1925). \n\nHitchcock's penultimate collaboration with Cutts, The Blackguard (German: Die Prinzessin und der Geiger, 1925), was produced at the Babelsberg Studios in Potsdam, where Hitchcock observed part of the making of F. W. Murnau's film The Last Laugh (1924). He was very impressed with Murnau's work and later used many techniques for the set design in his own productions. In a book-length interview with François Truffaut, Hitchcock also said that he was influenced by Fritz Lang's film Destiny (1921). He was likewise influenced by other foreign filmmakers whose work he absorbed as one of the earliest members of the \"seminal\" London Film Society, formed in 1925.\n\nHitchcock's first few films faced a string of bad luck. His first directing project came in 1922 with the aptly titled Number 13, filmed in London. The production was cancelled because of financial problems; the few scenes that had been finished at that point have been lost. Michael Balcon gave Hitchcock another opportunity for a directing credit with The Pleasure Garden (1925), a co-production of Gainsborough and the German firm Emelka, which he made at the Geiselgasteig studio near Munich in the summer of 1925. The film was a commercial flop. Next, Hitchcock directed a drama called The Mountain Eagle (1926), possibly released under the title Fear o' God, in the United States. This film is lost. \n\nHitchcock's luck changed with his first thriller, The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog (1927), a suspense film about the hunt for a Jack the Ripper type of serial killer in London. Released in January 1927, it was a major commercial and critical success in the United Kingdom. As with many of his earlier works, this film was influenced by Expressionist techniques Hitchcock had witnessed first-hand in Germany. Some commentators regard this piece as the first truly \"Hitchcockian\" film, incorporating such themes as the \"wrong man\". \n\nFollowing the success of The Lodger, Hitchcock hired a publicist to help strengthen his growing reputation. On 2 December 1926, Hitchcock married his assistant director, Alma Reville, at the Brompton Oratory in South Kensington, London. Their only child, daughter Patricia, was born on 7 July 1928. Alma was to become Hitchcock's closest collaborator, but her contributions to his films (some of which were credited on screen) Hitchcock would discuss only in private, as she was keen to avoid public attention. \n\nEarly sound films\n\nHitchcock began work on his tenth film Blackmail (1929) when its production company British International Pictures (BIP) decided to convert its Elstree facility to sound, and to utilise that new technology in Blackmail. It was an early 'talkie', often cited by film historians as a landmark film, and is often considered to be the first British sound feature film. Blackmail began the Hitchcock tradition of using famous landmarks as a backdrop for suspense sequences, with the climax of the film taking place on the dome of the British Museum. It also features one of his longest cameo appearances, which shows him being bothered by a small boy as he reads a book on the London Underground. In the PBS series The Men Who Made The Movies, Hitchcock explained how he used early sound recording as a special element of the film, stressing the word \"knife\" in a conversation with the woman suspected of murder. During this period, Hitchcock directed segments for a BIP musical film revue Elstree Calling (1930) and directed a short film featuring two Film Weekly scholarship winners entitled An Elastic Affair (1930). Another BIP musical revue, Harmony Heaven (1929), reportedly had minor input from Hitchcock, but his name does not appear in the credits.\n\nIn 1933, Hitchcock was once again working for Michael Balcon at Gaumont British. His first film for the company The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934) was a success and his second The 39 Steps (1935) is often considered one of the best films from his early period, with the British Film Institute ranking it the fourth best British film of the 20th century. The film was acclaimed in Britain, and it made Hitchcock a star in the United States, and established the quintessential English \"Hitchcock blonde\" Madeleine Carroll as the template for his succession of ice cold and elegant leading ladies. This film was also one of the first to introduce the \"MacGuffin\". In The 39 Steps, the MacGuffin is a stolen set of design plans. Hitchcock told French director François Truffaut:\n\nThere are two men sitting in a train going to Scotland and one man says to the other, \"Excuse me, sir, but what is that strange parcel you have on the luggage rack above you?\", \"Oh\", says the other, \"that's a Macguffin.\", \"Well\", says the first man, \"what's a Macguffin?\", The other answers, \"It's an apparatus for trapping lions in the Scottish Highlands.\", \"But\", says the first man, \"there are no lions in the Scottish Highlands.\", \"Well\", says the other, \"then that's no Macguffin.\" \n\nHitchcock's next major success was The Lady Vanishes (1938), a fast-paced film about the search for kindly old Englishwoman Miss Froy (Dame May Whitty) who disappears while on board a train in the fictional country of Bandrika. The Guardian called the film \"one of the greatest train movies from the genre's golden era\", and a contender for the \"title of best comedy thriller ever made\". In 1939, Hitchcock received the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Director, the only time he received an award for his direction. \n\nHitchcock was lauded in Britain, where he was dubbed \"Alfred the Great\" by Picturegoer magazine, and his reputation was beginning to soar overseas by the end of the 1930s, with a New York Times feature writer stating: \"Three unique and valuable institutions the British have that we in America have not. Magna Carta, the Tower Bridge and Alfred Hitchcock, the greatest director of screen melodramas in the world.\" Variety magazine referred to him as, \"probably the best native director in England.\" \n\nHollywood\n\nSelznick contract\n\nDavid O. Selznick signed Hitchcock to a seven-year contract beginning in March 1939, and the Hitchcocks moved to Hollywood. The suspense and the gallows humour that had become Hitchcock's trademark in his films continued to appear in his American productions. The working arrangements with Selznick were less than ideal. Selznick suffered from constant financial problems, and Hitchcock was often displeased with Selznick's creative control over his films. In a later interview, Hitchcock commented:\n\n[Selznick] was the Big Producer. ... Producer was king, The most flattering thing Mr. Selznick ever said about me—and it shows you the amount of control—he said I was the \"only director\" he'd \"trust with a film\". \n\nSelznick lent Hitchcock to the larger studios more often than producing Hitchcock's films himself. Selznick made only a few films each year, as did fellow independent producer Samuel Goldwyn, so he did not always have projects for Hitchcock to direct. Goldwyn had also negotiated with Hitchcock on a possible contract, only to be outbid by Selznick. Hitchcock was quickly impressed with the superior resources of the American studios compared with the financial limits that he had often faced in Britain. \n\nThe Selznick picture Rebecca (1940) was Hitchcock's first American film, set in a Hollywood version of England's Cornwall and based on a novel by English novelist Daphne du Maurier. The film stars Laurence Olivier and Joan Fontaine. The story concerns a naïve (and unnamed) young woman who marries a widowed aristocrat. She goes to live in his huge English country house, and struggles with the lingering reputation of the elegant and worldly first wife, whose name was Rebecca and who died under mysterious circumstances. The film won the Academy Award for Best Picture of 1940. The statuette was given to Selznick, as the film's producer. Hitchcock was nominated for the Best Director award, his first of five such nominations, but did not win.\n\nThere were additional problems between Selznick and Hitchcock, with Selznick known to impose restrictive rules on Hitchcock. At the same time, Selznick complained about Hitchcock's \"goddamn jigsaw cutting\", which meant that the producer did not have nearly the leeway to create his own film as he liked, but had to follow Hitchcock's vision of the finished product. \n\nHitchcock's second American film was the European-set thriller Foreign Correspondent (1940), based on Vincent Sheean's Personal History and produced by Walter Wanger. It was nominated for Best Picture that year. Hitchcock and other British subjects felt uneasy living and working in Hollywood while their country was at war; his concern resulted in a film that overtly supported the British war effort. The movie was filmed in the first year of the Second World War and was inspired by the rapidly changing events in Europe, as fictionally covered by an American newspaper reporter portrayed by Joel McCrea. The film mixed footage of European scenes with scenes filmed on a Hollywood back lot. It avoided direct references to Nazism, Germany and Germans to comply with Hollywood's Production Code censorship. \n\nEarly war years\n\nHitchcock's films were diverse during the 1940s, ranging from the romantic comedy Mr. & Mrs. Smith (1941), to the courtroom drama The Paradine Case (1947), to the dark and disturbing film noir Shadow of a Doubt (1943).\n\nIn September 1940 the Hitchcocks bought the 200 acre Cornwall Ranch near Scotts Valley in the Santa Cruz Mountains. The ranch became the holiday home of the Hitchcocks. Their primary residence was an English-style home in Bel Air which was purchased in 1942. Suspicion (1941) marks Hitchcock's first film as a producer as well as director. It is set in England, and Hitchcock used the north coast of Santa Cruz, California for the English coastline sequence. This film is the first of four projects on which Cary Grant worked with Hitchcock, and it is one of the rare occasions that Grant was cast in a sinister role. Joan Fontaine won Best Actress Oscar for her performance. Grant plays an irresponsible English con man whose actions raise suspicion and anxiety in his shy young English wife (Fontaine). In one scene Hitchcock uses a lightbulb to illuminate what might be a fatal glass of milk that Grant is bringing to his wife. The character that Grant plays in the film is a killer in the book the film is based on, Before the Fact by Francis Iles, but Hitchcock and the studio felt that Grant's image would be tarnished by that. So instead Hitchcock settled for an ambiguous finale, though, as he stated to François Truffaut, a murder would have suited him better. \n\nSaboteur (1942) is the first of two films that Hitchcock made for Universal during the decade. Hitchcock was forced to use Universal contract player Robert Cummings and Priscilla Lane (a freelancer who signed a one-picture deal with Universal), both known for their work in comedies and light dramas. Breaking with Hollywood conventions of the time, Hitchcock did extensive location filming, especially in New York City, and depicted a confrontation between a suspected saboteur (Cummings) and a real saboteur (Norman Lloyd) atop the Statue of Liberty. That year, he also directed Have You Heard?, a photographic dramatisation of the dangers of rumours during wartime, for Life magazine. \n\nShadow of a Doubt (1943) was Hitchcock's personal favourite of all his films and the second of the early Universal films. It is about young Charlotte \"Charlie\" Newton (Teresa Wright), who suspects her beloved uncle Charlie Oakley (Joseph Cotten) of being a serial murderer. Hitchcock again filmed extensively on location, this time in the Northern California city of Santa Rosa during the summer of 1942. The director showcased his personal fascination with crime and criminals when he had two of his characters discuss various ways of killing people, to the obvious annoyance of Charlotte.\n\nWorking at 20th Century Fox, Hitchcock adapted a script of John Steinbeck's, which recorded the experiences of the survivors of a German U-boat attack in the film Lifeboat (1944). The action sequences were shot in a small boat in the studio water tank. The locale posed problems for Hitchcock's traditional cameo appearance. That was solved by having Hitchcock's image appear in a newspaper that William Bendix is reading in the boat, showing the director in a before-and-after advertisement for \"Reduco-Obesity Slayer\". \n\nWhile at Fox Hitchcock seriously considered directing the film version of A. J. Cronin's novel about a Catholic priest in China, The Keys of the Kingdom, but the plans for this fell through. John M. Stahl ended up directing the 1944 film, which was produced by Joseph L. Mankiewicz and starred Gregory Peck. \n\nWartime non-fiction films\n\nHitchcock returned to the UK for an extended visit in late 1943 and early 1944. While there he made two short films for the British Ministry of Information: Bon Voyage and Aventure Malgache. The two British propaganda films made for the Free French were the only films that Hitchcock made in the French language, and they \"feature typical Hitchcockian touches\". On his motivation for making the films, Hitchcock stated: \"I felt the need to make a little contribution to the war effort, and I was both overweight and over-age for military service. I knew that if I did nothing, I'd regret it for the rest of my life.\" \n\nFrom late June to late July 1945, Hitchcock served as \"treatment advisor\" on a Holocaust documentary which used footage provided by the Allied Forces. It was produced by Sidney Bernstein of the British Ministry of Information, and was assembled in London. Bernstein brought his future 1948–49 production partner Hitchcock on board as a consultant for the film editing process for the British Ministry of Information and the American Office of War Information. \n\nThe film-makers were commissioned to provide irrefutable evidence of the Nazis' crimes, and the film recorded the liberation of Nazi concentration camps. It was transferred in 1952 from the British War Office film vaults to London's Imperial War Museum and remained unreleased until 1985, when an edited version was broadcast as an episode of the PBS network series Frontline under the title which the Imperial War Museum had given it: Memory of the Camps. The full-length version of the film German Concentration Camps Factual Survey was completed in 2014, and was restored by film scholars at the Imperial War Museum.\n\nLater Selznick films\n\nHitchcock worked for Selznick again when he directed Spellbound (1945), which explores psychoanalysis and features a dream sequence designed by Salvador Dalí. Gregory Peck plays amnesiac Dr. Anthony Edwardes under the treatment of analyst Dr. Peterson (Ingrid Bergman), who falls in love with him while trying to unlock his repressed past. The dream sequence as it appears in the film is ten minutes shorter than was originally envisioned, having been edited by Selznick to make it \"play\" more effectively. Two point-of-view shots were achieved by building a large wooden hand (which would appear to belong to the character whose point of view the camera took) and out-sized props for it to hold: a bucket-sized glass of milk and a large wooden gun. For added novelty and impact, the climactic gunshot was hand-coloured red on some copies of the black-and-white film.\nThe original musical score by Miklós Rózsa makes use of the theremin, and some of it was later adapted by the composer into a concert piano concerto.\n\nNotorious (1946) followed Spellbound. Hitchcock gave a book-length interview to François Truffaut, in which he said that Selznick had sold the director, the two stars (Grant and Bergman), and the screenplay (by Ben Hecht) to RKO Radio Pictures as a \"package\" for $500,000 due to cost overruns on Selznick's Duel in the Sun (1946). Notorious stars Hitchcock regulars Ingrid Bergman and Cary Grant, and features a plot about Nazis, uranium and South America. His prescient use of uranium as a plot device led to Hitchcock's being briefly under FBI surveillance. McGilligan writes that Hitchcock consulted Dr. Robert Millikan of Caltech about the development of an atomic bomb. Selznick complained that the notion was \"science fiction\", only to be confronted by the news stories of the detonation of two atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan in August 1945. \n\nHis last film under his contract with Selznick was The Paradine Case (1947), a courtroom drama which critics thought lost momentum because it apparently ran too long and exhausted its resource of ideas.\n\nSidney Bernstein and Transatlantic Pictures\n\nHitchcock formed an independent production company with his friend Sidney Bernstein called Transatlantic Pictures, through which he made two films, his first in colour and making use of long takes. With Rope (1948), Hitchcock experimented with marshaling suspense in a confined environment, as he had done earlier with Lifeboat (1944). The film appears to have been shot in a single take, but it was actually shot in 10 takes ranging from 4-½ to 10 minutes each, a 10-minute length of film being the maximum that a camera's film magazine could hold at the time. Some transitions between reels were hidden by having a dark object fill the entire screen for a moment. Hitchcock used those points to hide the cut, and began the next take with the camera in the same place. It features James Stewart in the leading role, and was the first of four films that Stewart made with Hitchcock. It was inspired by the Leopold and Loeb case of the 1920s.\n\nUnder Capricorn (1949), set in 19th century Australia, also uses the short-lived technique of long takes, but to a more limited extent. He again used Technicolor in this production, then returned to black-and-white films for several years. Transatlantic Pictures became inactive after these two unsuccessful films. But Hitchcock continued to produce his own films for the rest of his life.\n\n1950s: Peak years\n\nHitchcock filmed Stage Fright (1950) at studios in Elstree, England where he had worked during his British International Pictures contract many years before. He matched one of Warner Bros.' most popular stars, Jane Wyman, with the expatriate German actress Marlene Dietrich and used several prominent British actors, including Michael Wilding, Richard Todd and Alastair Sim. This was Hitchcock's first proper production for Warner Bros., which had distributed Rope and Under Capricorn, because Transatlantic Pictures was experiencing financial difficulties. \n\nHis film Strangers on a Train (1951) was based on the novel by Patricia Highsmith. In it, Hitchcock combined many elements from his preceding films. He approached Dashiell Hammett to write the dialogue, but Raymond Chandler took over, then left over disagreements with the director. In the film, two men casually meet, one of whom speculates on a foolproof method to murder; he suggests that two people, each wishing to do away with someone, should each perform the other's murder. Farley Granger's role was as the innocent victim of the scheme, while Robert Walker, previously known for \"boy-next-door\" roles, played the villain. \n\nI Confess (1953) was set in Quebec with Montgomery Clift as a Catholic priest. It was followed by three popular colour films starring Grace Kelly. Dial M for Murder (1954) was adapted from the stage play by Frederick Knott. Ray Milland plays the scheming villain, an ex-tennis pro who tries to murder his unfaithful wife (Kelly) for her money. She kills the hired assassin in self-defence, so Milland manipulates the evidence to make it look like a premeditated murder by his wife. Her lover Mark Halliday (Robert Cummings) and Police Inspector Hubbard (John Williams) work urgently to save her from execution. With Dial M, Hitchcock experimented with 3D cinematography, with the film now being available in the 3D format on Blu-ray.\n\nHitchcock then moved to Paramount Pictures and filmed Rear Window (1954), starring James Stewart and Kelly again, as well as Thelma Ritter and Raymond Burr. Stewart's character is a photographer (based on Robert Capa) who must temporarily use a wheelchair. Out of boredom, he begins observing his neighbours across the courtyard, and then becomes convinced that one of them (Raymond Burr) has murdered his wife. Stewart tries to convince both his policeman buddy (Wendell Corey) and his glamorous model-girlfriend (Kelly, whom screenwriter John Michael Hayes based on his own wife), and eventually he succeeds. As with Lifeboat and Rope, the principal characters are confined, in this case to Stewart's small studio apartment overlooking a large courtyard. Hitchcock uses close-ups of Stewart's face to show his character's reactions to all that he sees, \"from the comic voyeurism directed at his neighbours to his helpless terror watching Kelly and Burr in the villain's apartment\".\n\nIn 1955, Hitchcock became a United States citizen. His third Grace Kelly film To Catch a Thief (1955) is set in the French Riviera, and pairs her with Cary Grant. He plays retired thief John Robie, who becomes the prime suspect for a spate of robberies in the Riviera. A thrill-seeking American heiress played by Kelly surmises his true identity and tries to seduce him. \"Despite the obvious age disparity between Grant and Kelly and a lightweight plot, the witty script (loaded with double entendres) and the good-natured acting proved a commercial success.\" It was Hitchcock's last film with Kelly. She married Prince Rainier of Monaco in 1956, and ended her film career.\n\nHitchcock remade his own 1934 film The Man Who Knew Too Much in 1956. This time, the film starred James Stewart and Doris Day, who sang the theme song \"Que Sera, Sera\", which won the Oscar for Best Original Song and became a big hit for her. They play a couple whose son is kidnapped to prevent them from interfering with an assassination. As in the 1934 film, the climax takes place at the Royal Albert Hall, London. \n\nThe Wrong Man (1957), Hitchcock's final film for Warner Bros., is a low-key black-and-white production based on a real-life case of mistaken identity reported in Life magazine in 1953. This was the only film of Hitchcock to star Henry Fonda, who plays a Stork Club musician mistaken for a liquor store thief who is arrested and tried for robbery, while his wife (Vera Miles) emotionally collapses under the strain. Hitchcock told Truffaut that his lifelong fear of the police attracted him to the subject and was embedded in many scenes. \n\nVertigo (1958) again starred James Stewart, this time with Kim Novak and Barbara Bel Geddes. Stewart plays \"Scottie\", a former police investigator suffering from acrophobia, who develops an obsession with a woman that he is shadowing (Novak). Scottie's obsession leads to tragedy, and this time Hitchcock does not opt for a happy ending. Some critics, including Donald Spoto and Roger Ebert, agree that Vertigo represents the director's most personal and revealing film, dealing with the obsessions of a man who crafts a woman into the woman that he desires. Vertigo explores more frankly and at greater length his interest in the relation between sex and death than any other film in his filmography. \n\nThe film contains a camera technique developed by Irmin Roberts that has been copied many times by filmmakers commonly referred to as a dolly zoom. It was premiered in the San Sebastián International Film Festival, where Hitchcock won a Silver Seashell. Vertigo is considered a classic today, but it met with some negative reviews and poor box office receipts upon its release, and was the last collaboration between Stewart and Hitchcock. It had previously been ranked just behind Citizen Kane (1941) in earlier Sight and Sound decade polls, but it was voted best ever film in the 2012 Sight & Sound critics poll.\n\nBy this time, Hitchcock had filmed in many areas of the US. He followed Vertigo with three more successful films, which are also recognised as among his best films: North by Northwest (1959), Psycho (1960) and The Birds (1963).\n\nIn North by Northwest, Cary Grant portrays Roger Thornhill, a Madison Avenue advertising executive who is mistaken for a government secret agent. He is hotly pursued across the United States by enemy agents, apparently one of them being Eve Kendall (Eva Marie Saint), who is in reality working undercover.\n\n1960: Psycho\n\nPsycho is arguably Hitchcock's best-known film. Produced on a constrained budget of $800,000, it was shot in black-and-white on a spare set using crew members from his television show Alfred Hitchcock Presents. The unprecedented violence of the shower scene, the early death of the heroine and the innocent lives extinguished by a disturbed murderer became the defining hallmarks of a new horror film genre and have been copied by many authors of subsequent films. \n\nThe public loved the film, with lines stretching outside of cinemas as people had to wait for the next showing. It broke box-office records in the United Kingdom, France, South America, the United States and Canada and was a moderate success in Australia for a brief period. It was the most profitable film of Hitchcock's career; Hitchcock personally earned well in excess of $15 million. He subsequently swapped his rights to Psycho and his TV anthology for 150,000 shares of MCA, making him the third largest shareholder in MCA Inc. and his own boss at Universal, in theory at least, but that did not stop them from interfering with him. \n\nAfter 1960\n\nThe Birds (1963), inspired by a short story by English author Daphne du Maurier and by a news story about a mysterious infestation of birds in Capitola, California, was Hitchcock's 49th film, and the location scenes were filmed in Bodega Bay, California. Newcomer Tippi Hedren co-starred with Rod Taylor and Suzanne Pleshette. The scenes of the birds attacking included hundreds of shots mixing live and animated sequences. The cause of the birds' attack is left unanswered, \"perhaps highlighting the mystery of forces unknown\". Hitchcock cast Hedren again opposite Sean Connery in Marnie (1964), a romantic drama and psychological thriller. Decades later, Hedren called Hitchcock a misogynist and said that Hitchcock effectively ended her career by keeping her to an exclusive contract for two years when she rebuffed his sexual advances. However, Hedren appeared in two TV shows during the two years after Marnie. In 2012, Hedren described Hitchcock as a \"sad character\"; a man of \"unusual genius\", yet \"evil, and deviant, almost to the point of dangerous, because of the effect that he could have on people that were totally unsuspecting.\" In response, a Daily Telegraph article quoted several actresses who had worked with Hitchcock, including Eva Marie Saint, Doris Day and Kim Novak, none of whom shared Hedren's opinion about him. Novak, who worked on Hitchcock's Vertigo, told the Telegraph \"I never saw him make a pass at anybody or act strange to anybody.\" \n\nPsycho and The Birds had unconventional soundtracks: the screeching strings played in the murder scene in Psycho were unusually dissonant, and The Birds dispensed with any conventional score, instead using a new technique of electronically produced sound effects. Bernard Herrmann composed the former and was a consultant on the latter.\n\nFailing health reduced Hitchcock's output during the last two decades of his life. Biographer Stephen Rebello claimed Universal \"forced\" two movies on him, Torn Curtain (1966) and Topaz (1969). Both were spy thrillers set with Cold War-related themes. The first, Torn Curtain (1966), with Paul Newman and Julie Andrews, precipitated the bitter end of the twelve-year collaboration between Hitchcock and composer Bernard Herrmann. Herrmann was sacked when Hitchcock was unsatisfied with his score. Topaz (1969), based on a Leon Uris novel, is partly set in Cuba. Both received mixed reviews from critics.\n\nHitchcock returned to Britain to film his penultimate film Frenzy (1972). After two espionage films, the plot marks a return to the murder thriller genre, and is based upon the novel Goodbye Piccadilly, Farewell Leicester Square. The plot centres on a serial killer in contemporary London. The basic story recycles his early film The Lodger. Richard Blaney (Jon Finch), a volatile barman with a history of explosive anger, becomes the prime suspect for the \"Necktie Murders,\" which are actually committed by his friend Bob Rusk (Barry Foster). This time, Hitchcock makes the victim and villain kindreds, rather than opposites, as in Strangers on a Train. Only one of them, however, has crossed the line to murder. For the first time, Hitchcock allowed nudity and profane language, which had previously been taboo, in one of his films. He also shows rare sympathy for the chief inspector and his comic domestic life. \n\nBiographers have noted that Hitchcock had always pushed the limits of film censorship, often managing to fool Joseph Breen, the longtime head of Hollywood's Production Code. Many times Hitchcock slipped in subtle hints of improprieties forbidden by censorship until the mid-1960s. Yet Patrick McGilligan wrote that Breen and others often realised that Hitchcock was inserting such things and were actually amused as well as alarmed by Hitchcock's \"inescapable inferences\". Beginning with Torn Curtain, Hitchcock was finally able to blatantly include plot elements previously forbidden in American films.\n\nFamily Plot (1976) was Hitchcock's last film. It relates the escapades of \"Madam\" Blanche Tyler, played by Barbara Harris, a fraudulent spiritualist, and her taxi driver lover Bruce Dern, making a living from her phony powers. William Devane, Karen Black and Cathleen Nesbitt co-starred. It is the only Hitchcock film scored by John Williams. While Family Plot was based on the Victor Canning novel The Rainbird Pattern, the novel's tone is more sinister and dark than what Hitchcock wanted for the film. Screenwriter Ernest Lehman originally wrote the film with a dark tone but was pushed to a lighter, more comical tone by Hitchcock. The film went through various titles including Deceit and Missing Heir. It was changed to Family Plot at the suggestion of the studio.\n\nLast project and death\n\nNear the end of his life, Hitchcock had worked on the script for a projected spy thriller, The Short Night, collaborating with James Costigan, Ernest Lehman and David Freeman. Despite some preliminary work, the screenplay was never filmed. This was caused primarily by Hitchcock's seriously declining health and his concerns for his wife, Alma, who had suffered a stroke. The screenplay was eventually published in Freeman's 1999 book The Last Days of Alfred Hitchcock. \n\nHitchcock died aged 80 in his Bel Air home of renal failure on 29 April 1980. While biographer Spoto wrote that Hitchcock \"rejected suggestions that he allow a priest ... to come for a visit, or celebrate a quiet, informal ritual at the house for his comfort,\" Jesuit priest Father Mark Henninger wrote that he and fellow priest Tom Sullivan celebrated Mass at the filmmaker's home; Father Sullivan heard Hitchcock's confession. He was survived by his wife and their daughter. Lew Wasserman, board chairman and chief executive officer of MCA Inc. and previously Hitchcock’s longtime agent, stated:\n\nI am deeply saddened by the death of my close friend and colleague, Sir Alfred Hitchcock, whose death today at his home deprives us all of a great artist and an even greater human being. Almost every tribute paid to Sir Alfred in the past by film critics and historians has emphasised his continuing influence in the world of film. It is that continuing influence, embodied in the magnificent series of films he has given the world, during the last half-century, that will preserve his great spirit, his humour and his wit, not only for us but for succeeding generations of film-goers.\n\nHitchcock's funeral Mass was held at Good Shepherd Catholic Church in Beverly Hills on 30 April 1980, after which his body was cremated and his remains were scattered over the Pacific Ocean on 10 May 1980. \n\nAesthetic\n\nSignature appearances in his films\n\nHitchcock appears briefly in most of his own films. For example, he is seen struggling to get a double bass onto a train (Strangers on a Train), walking dogs out of a pet shop (The Birds), fixing a neighbour's clock (Rear Window), as a shadow (Family Plot), sitting at a table in a photograph (Dial M for Murder) and missing a bus (North by Northwest).\n\nThemes, plot devices and motifs\n\nHitchcock returned several times to cinematic devices such as suspense, the audience as voyeur, and his well-known \"MacGuffin,\" a plot device that is essential to the characters on the screen, but is irrelevant to the audience. Thus, the MacGuffin was always hazily described (in North By Northwest, Leo G. Carroll describes James Mason as an \"importer-exporter.\") A central theme of Hitchcock's films was murder and the psychology behind it. \n\nPsychology of characters\n\nHitchcock's films sometimes feature characters struggling in their relationships with their mothers. In North by Northwest (1959), Roger Thornhill (Cary Grant's character) is an innocent man ridiculed by his mother for insisting that shadowy, murderous men are after him. In The Birds (1963), the Rod Taylor character, an innocent man, finds his world under attack by vicious birds, and struggles to free himself of a clinging mother (Jessica Tandy). The killer in Frenzy (1972) has a loathing of women but idolises his mother. The villain Bruno in Strangers on a Train hates his father, but has an incredibly close relationship with his mother (played by Marion Lorne). Sebastian (Claude Rains) in Notorious has a clearly conflictual relationship with his mother, who is (correctly) suspicious of his new bride Alicia Huberman (Ingrid Bergman). Norman Bates has troubles with his mother in Psycho.\n\nHitchcock heroines tend to be blondes. The famous victims in The Lodger are all blondes. In The 39 Steps, Hitchcock's glamorous blonde star, Madeleine Carroll, is put in handcuffs. In Marnie (1964), the title character (played by Tippi Hedren) is a thief. In To Catch a Thief (1955), Francie (Grace Kelly) offers to help a man she believes is a burglar. In Rear Window, Lisa (Grace Kelly again) risks her life by breaking into Lars Thorwald's apartment. The best-known example is in Psycho where Janet Leigh's unfortunate character steals $40,000 and is murdered by a reclusive psychopath. Hitchcock's last blonde heroine was Barbara Harris as a phony psychic turned amateur sleuth in Family Plot (1976), his final film. In the same film, the diamond smuggler played by Karen Black could also fit that role, as she wears a long blonde wig in various scenes and becomes increasingly uncomfortable about her line of work. The English 'Hitchcock blonde' was based on his preference for the heroines to have an \"indirect\" sex appeal of English women, ladylike in public, but whores in the bedroom, with Hitchcock stating to Truffaut:\n\nStyle of working\n\nWriting\n\nHitchcock once commented, \"The writer and I plan out the entire script down to the smallest detail, and when we're finished all that's left to do is to shoot the film. Actually, it's only when one enters the studio that one enters the area of compromise. Really, the novelist has the best casting since he doesn't have to cope with the actors and all the rest.\" In an interview with Roger Ebert in 1969, Hitchcock elaborated further:\n\nIn Writing with Hitchcock, a book-length study of Hitchcock's working method with his writers, author Steven DeRosa noted that \"Although he rarely did any actual 'writing', especially on his Hollywood productions, Hitchcock supervised and guided his writers through every draft, insisting on a strict attention to detail and a preference for telling the story through visual rather than verbal means. While this exasperated some writers, others admitted the director inspired them to do their very best work. Hitchcock often emphasised that he took no screen credit for the writing of his films. However, over time the work of many of his writers has been attributed solely to Hitchcock's creative genius, a misconception he rarely went out of his way to correct. Notwithstanding his technical brilliance as a director, Hitchcock relied on his writers a great deal.\" \n\nStoryboards and production\n\nAccording to the majority of commentators, Hitchcock's films were extensively storyboarded to the finest detail. He was reported to have never even bothered looking through the viewfinder, since he did not need to, though in publicity photos he was shown doing so. He also used this as an excuse to never have to change his films from his initial vision. If a studio asked him to change a film, he would claim that it was already shot in a single way, and that there were no alternate takes to consider.\n\nHowever, this view of Hitchcock as a director who relied more on pre-production than on the actual production itself has been challenged by the book Hitchcock at Work, written by Bill Krohn, the American correspondent of Cahiers du cinéma. Krohn, after investigating several script revisions, notes to other production personnel written by or to Hitchcock alongside inspection of storyboards, and other production material, has observed that Hitchcock's work often deviated from how the screenplay was written or how the film was originally envisioned. He noted that the myth of storyboards in relation to Hitchcock, often regurgitated by generations of commentators on his films, was to a great degree perpetuated by Hitchcock himself or the publicity arm of the studios. A great example would be the celebrated crop-spraying sequence of North by Northwest which was not storyboarded at all. After the scene was filmed, the publicity department asked Hitchcock to make storyboards to promote the film and Hitchcock in turn hired an artist to match the scenes in detail.\n\nEven when storyboards were made, scenes that were shot differed from them significantly. Krohn's extensive analysis of the production of Hitchcock classics like Notorious reveals that Hitchcock was flexible enough to change a film's conception during its production. Another example Krohn notes is the American remake of The Man Who Knew Too Much, whose shooting schedule commenced without a finished script and moreover went over schedule, something that, as Krohn notes, was not an uncommon occurrence on many of Hitchcock's films, including Strangers on a Train and Topaz. While Hitchcock did do a great deal of preparation for all his films, he was fully cognisant that the actual film-making process often deviated from the best-laid plans and was flexible to adapt to the changes and needs of production as his films were not free from the normal hassles faced and common routines utilised during many other film productions.\n\nKrohn's work also sheds light on Hitchcock's practice of generally shooting in chronological order, which he notes sent many films over budget and over schedule and, more importantly, differed from the standard operating procedure of Hollywood in the Studio System Era. Equally important is Hitchcock's tendency to shoot alternate takes of scenes. This differed from coverage in that the films were not necessarily shot from varying angles so as to give the editor options to shape the film how he/she chooses (often under the producer's aegis). Rather they represented Hitchcock's tendency of giving himself options in the editing room, where he would provide advice to his editors after viewing a rough cut of the work. According to Krohn, this and a great deal of other information revealed through his research of Hitchcock's personal papers, script revisions and the like refute the notion of Hitchcock as a director who was always in control of his films, whose vision of his films did not change during production, which Krohn notes has remained the central long-standing myth of Alfred Hitchcock.\n\nHis fastidiousness and attention to detail also found its way into each film poster for his films. Hitchcock preferred to work with the best talent of his day—film poster designers such as Bill Gold and Saul Bass—who would produce posters that accurately represented his films. \n\nApproach to actors\n\nHitchcock became known for his alleged observation, \"Actors are cattle\". He once said that he first made this remark as early as the late 1920s, in connection to stage actors who were snobbish about motion pictures. However, the actor Michael Redgrave said that Hitchcock had made the statement during the filming of The Lady Vanishes (1938). Later, in Hollywood, during the filming of Mr. & Mrs. Smith (1941), Carole Lombard brought some heifers onto the set with name tags of Lombard, Robert Montgomery and Gene Raymond, the stars of the film, to surprise the director. Hitchcock said he was misquoted: \"I said 'Actors should be treated like cattle'.\" \n\nMuch of Hitchcock's supposed dislike of actors has been exaggerated. Hitchcock simply did not tolerate the method approach, as he believed that actors should only concentrate on their performances and leave work on script and character to the directors and screenwriters. In a Sight and Sound interview, he stated that, 'the method actor is OK in the theatre because he has a free space to move about. But when it comes to cutting the face and what he sees and so forth, there must be some discipline'. He often used the same actors in many of his films.\n\nDuring the making of Lifeboat, Walter Slezak, who played the German villain, stated that Hitchcock knew the mechanics of acting better than anyone he knew. Several critics have observed that despite his reputation as a man who disliked actors, several actors who worked with him gave fine, often brilliant performances and these performances contribute to the film's success. As more fully discussed above, in \"Inter-War British Career,\" actress Dolly Haas, who was a personal friend of Hitchcock and who acted for him in the 1953 film I Confess, stated that Hitchcock regarded actors as \"animated props.\"\n\nFor Hitchcock, the actors, like the props, were part of the film's setting, as he said to Truffaut:\n\nIn my opinion, the chief requisite for an actor is the ability to do nothing well, which is by no means as easy as it sounds. He should be willing to be utilised and wholly integrated into the picture by the director and the camera. He must allow the camera to determine the proper emphasis and the most effective dramatic highlights. \n\nRegarding Hitchcock's sometimes less than pleasant relationship with actors, there was a persistent rumour that he had said that actors were cattle. Hitchcock addressed this story in his interview with François Truffaut:\n\nI'm not quite sure in what context I might have made such a statement. It may have been made ... when we used actors who were simultaneously performing in stage plays. When they had a matinee, and I suspected they were allowing themselves plenty of time for a very leisurely lunch. And this meant that we had to shoot our scenes at breakneck speed so that the actors could get out on time. I couldn't help feeling that if they'd been really conscientious, they'd have swallowed their sandwich in the cab, on the way to the theatre, and get there in time to put on their make-up and go on stage. I had no use for that kind of actor. \n\nIn the late 1950s, French New Wave critics, especially Éric Rohmer, Claude Chabrol and François Truffaut, were among the first to see and promote Hitchcock's films as artistic works. Hitchcock was one of the first directors to whom they applied their auteur theory, which stresses the artistic authority of the director in the film-making process.\n\nHitchcock's innovations and vision have influenced a great number of filmmakers, producers and actors. His influence helped start a trend for film directors to control artistic aspects of their films without answering to the film's producer.\n\nInspiration for suspense and psychological thrillers\n\nIn a 1963 interview with Oriana Fallaci, Hitchcock was asked in spite of looking like a pleasant, innocuous man, he seemed to have fun making films which involve a lot of suspense and terrifying crime, to which he responded,\n\nTelevision, radio and books\n\nAlong with Walt Disney, Hitchcock was among the first prominent film producers to fully envisage just how popular the medium of television would become. From 1955 to 1965, Hitchcock was the host of the television series titled Alfred Hitchcock Presents. While his films had made Hitchcock's name strongly associated with suspense, the TV series made Hitchcock a celebrity himself. His irony-tinged voice and signature droll delivery, gallows humour, iconic image and mannerisms became instantly recognisable and were often the subject of parody.\n\nThe title-sequence of the show pictured a minimalist caricature of Hitchcock's profile (he drew it himself; it is composed of only nine strokes), which his real silhouette then filled. His introductions before the stories in his programme always included some sort of wry humour, such as the description of a recent multi-person execution hampered by having only one electric chair, while two are now shown with a sign \"Two chairs—no waiting!\". He directed 18 episodes of the TV series himself, which aired from 1955 to 1965 in two versions. It became The Alfred Hitchcock Hour in 1962.\n\nThe series theme tune was Funeral March of a Marionette, by the French composer Charles Gounod (1818–1893), the composer of the 1859 opera Faust. The composer Bernard Herrmann suggested the music be used. Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops Orchestra included the piece on one of their extended play 45-rpm discs for RCA Victor during the 1950s. In the 1980s, a new version of Alfred Hitchcock Presents was produced for television, making use of Hitchcock's original introductions in a colourised form.\n\nHitchcock appears as a character in the popular juvenile detective book series, Alfred Hitchcock and the Three Investigators. The long-running detective series was created by Robert Arthur, who wrote the first several books, although other authors took over after he left the series. The Three Investigators—Jupiter Jones, Bob Andrews and Peter Crenshaw—were amateur detectives, slightly younger than the Hardy Boys. In the introduction to each book, \"Alfred Hitchcock\" introduces the mystery, and he sometimes refers a case to the boys to solve. At the end of each book, the boys report to Hitchcock, and sometimes give him a memento of their case.\n\nAt the height of Hitchcock's success, he was also asked to introduce a set of books with his name attached. The series was a collection of short stories by popular short-story writers, primarily focused on suspense and thrillers. These titles included Alfred Hitchcock's Anthology, Alfred Hitchcock Presents: Stories to be Read with the Door Locked, Alfred Hitchcock's Monster Museum, Alfred Hitchcock's Supernatural Tales of Terror and Suspense, Alfred Hitchcock's Spellbinders in Suspense, Alfred Hitchcock's Witch's Brew, Alfred Hitchcock's Ghostly Gallery, Alfred Hitchcock's A Hangman's Dozen, Alfred Hitchcock's Stories Not For the Nervous and Alfred Hitchcock's Haunted Houseful. Hitchcock himself was not actually involved in the reading, reviewing, editing or selection of the short stories; in fact, even his introductions were ghost-written. The entire extent of his involvement with the project was to lend his name and collect a cheque.\n\nSome notable writers whose works were used in the collection include Shirley Jackson (Strangers in Town, The Lottery), T. H. White (The Once and Future King), Robert Bloch, H. G. Wells (The War of the Worlds), Robert Louis Stevenson, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Mark Twain and the creator of The Three Investigators, Robert Arthur. In a similar manner, Hitchcock's name was licensed for a digest-sized monthly, Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, which has been published since 1956.\n\nHitchcock also wrote a mystery story for Look magazine in 1943, \"The Murder of Monty Woolley\". This was a sequence of captioned photographs inviting the reader to inspect the pictures for clues to the murderer's identity; Hitchcock cast the performers as themselves, such as Woolley, Doris Merrick and make-up man Guy Pearce, whom Hitchcock identified, in the last photo, as the murderer. The article was reprinted in Games Magazine in November/December 1980.\n\nIn 2012, Hitchcock featured in the BBC Radio 4 series The New Elizabethans to mark the diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II. A panel of 7 academics, journalists and historians named Hitchcock among the group of people in the UK \"whose actions during the reign of Elizabeth II have had a significant impact on lives in these islands and given the age its character\". \n\nAwards and honours\n\nHitchcock was a multiple nominee and winner of a number of prestigious awards, receiving two Golden Globes, eight Laurel Awards, and five lifetime achievement awards including the first BAFTA Academy Fellowship Award, as well as being five times nominated for, albeit never winning, an Academy Award as Best Director. His film Rebecca (nominated for 11 Oscars) won the Academy Award for Best Picture of 1940—another Hitchcock film, Foreign Correspondent, was also nominated that year. Hitchcock has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, receiving one for his contribution to television and another for his work in motion pictures.\n\nAfter refusing a CBE in 1962, Hitchcock received a knighthood in 1980 when he was appointed a Knight Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (KBE) by Queen Elizabeth II in the 1980 New Year Honours. Asked by a reporter why it had taken the Queen so long, Hitchcock quipped, \"I suppose it was a matter of carelessness\". An English Heritage blue plaque, unveiled in 1999, marks where Sir Alfred Hitchcock lived in London at 153 Cromwell Road, Kensington and Chelsea, SW5.\n\nIn June 2013, nine restored versions of Hitchcock's early silent films, including his directorial debut, The Pleasure Garden (1925), were shown at the Brooklyn Academy of Music's Harvey Theatre. Known as \"The Hitchcock 9,\" the travelling tribute was made possible by a $3 million programme organised by the British Film Institute.\n\nArchives\n\nThe Alfred Hitchcock Collection is housed at the Academy Film Archive. The collection includes home movies, 16mm film shot on the set of Blackmail (1929) and Frenzy (1972), and the earliest known colour footage of Hitchcock. The Academy Film Archive preserved many of Hitchcock's home movies. The Alfred Hitchcock papers at the Academy's Margaret Herrick Library complement the film material. \n\nPortrayals in film and television\n\n* Anthony Hopkins in the 2012 film Hitchcock.\n* Toby Jones in the 2012 HBO telefilm The Girl.\n* Roger Ashton-Griffiths in the 2014 film Grace of Monaco.\n\nFilmography\n\n* Number 13 (1922, unfinished)\n* Always Tell Your Wife (1923, short)\n* The Pleasure Garden (1925)\n* The Mountain Eagle (1926, lost)\n* The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog (1927)\n* The Ring (1927)\n* Downhill (1927)\n* The Farmer's Wife (1928)\n* Easy Virtue (1928)\n* Champagne (1928)\n* The Manxman (1929)\n* Blackmail (1929)\n* Juno and the Paycock (1930)\n* Murder! (1930)\n* Elstree Calling (1930)\n* The Skin Game (1931)\n* Mary (1931)\n* Rich and Strange (1931)\n* Number Seventeen (1932)\n* Waltzes from Vienna (1934)\n* The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934)\n* The 39 Steps (1935)\n* Secret Agent (1936)\n* Sabotage (1936)\n* Young and Innocent (1937)\n* The Lady Vanishes (1938)\n* Jamaica Inn (1939)\n* Rebecca (1940)\n* Foreign Correspondent (1940)\n* Mr. & Mrs. Smith (1941)\n* Suspicion (1941)\n* Saboteur (1942)\n* Shadow of a Doubt (1943)\n* Lifeboat (1944)\n* Aventure Malgache (1944, short)\n* Bon Voyage (1944, short)\n* Spellbound (1945)\n* Notorious (1946)\n* The Paradine Case (1947)\n* Rope (1948)\n* Under Capricorn (1949)\n* Stage Fright (1950)\n* Strangers on a Train (1951)\n* I Confess (1953)\n* Dial M for Murder (1954)\n* Rear Window (1954)\n* To Catch a Thief (1955)\n* The Trouble with Harry (1955)\n* The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956)\n* The Wrong Man (1956)\n* Vertigo (1958)\n* North by Northwest (1959)\n* Psycho (1960)\n* The Birds (1963)\n* Marnie (1964)\n* Torn Curtain (1966)\n* Topaz (1969)\n* Frenzy (1972)\n* Family Plot (1976)\n* The Short Night (1979, cancelled)", "Nathalie Kay \"Tippi\" Hedren (born January 19, 1930) is an American actress, animal rights activist, and former fashion model.\n\nA successful fashion model from her twenties, appearing on the front covers of Life and Glamour among others, Hedren became an actress after she was discovered by director Alfred Hitchcock while appearing on a television commercial in 1961. She received world recognition for her work in two of his films, the suspense-thriller The Birds in 1963, for which she won a Golden Globe, and the psychological drama Marnie in 1964.\nHedren has appeared in over eighty films and TV shows including the Alexander Payne film, Citizen Ruth (1996), and the David O. Russell comedy, I Heart Huckabees (2004),\nand her contributions to world cinema have been honored with the Jules Verne Award and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame among others.\n\nHer strong commitment to animal rescue began in 1969 while she was shooting two films in Africa and was introduced to the plight of African lions.\nIn an attempt to raise awareness for wildlife, she spent nearly eleven years bringing Roar (1981) to the screen.\nShe started her own non-profit organization in 1983, the Roar Foundation, to support The Shambala Preserve, an 80 acre wildlife habitat which enables her to continue her work in the care and preservation of lions and tigers. Hedren has also traveled worldwide to set up relief programs following earthquakes, hurricanes, famine and war. She was instrumental in the development of Vietnamese-American nail salons in the United States.\n\nEarly life\n\nFor much of her career, Hedren's year of birth was misreported as 1935. In 2004, however, she acknowledged that she was actually born on January 19, 1930 (which is confirmed by her birth registration information at the Minnesota Historical Society) in New Ulm, Minnesota, to Bernard Carl and Dorothea Henrietta (née Eckhardt) Hedren. Her paternal grandparents were Swedish immigrants, while her maternal ancestry is German and Norwegian. Her father ran a small general store in the town of Lafayette, Minnesota, and gave her the nickname \"Tippi\". When she was four, she moved with her parents to Minneapolis, Minnesota.\n\nAs a teenager, Hedren took part in department store fashion shows. Her parents relocated to California while she was a high school student. On reaching her 20th birthday, she bought a ticket to New York City where she joined the Eileen Ford Agency. Within the year she made her unofficial film debut as an uncredited extra in the musical comedy The Petty Girl. In interviews she refers to The Birds, her first credited role, as her first film. Although she received several film offers during that time, Hedren had no interest in acting as she knew it was very difficult to succeed. She had a highly successful modeling career during the 1950s and early 1960s, appearing on the covers of Life, The Saturday Evening Post, McCall's and Glamour among others.\nIn 1961, after seven years of marriage to the actor Peter Griffith, Hedren divorced and returned to California with her daughter, Melanie Griffith, and rented an expensive home in Sherman Oaks. \"I thought I could continue my career as it had been in New York. I thought everything would be just fine, and it wasn’t. So I thought, well, I don’t type, what shall I do?\"\n\nCareer\n\nCollaboration with Alfred Hitchcock\n\nDiscovery\n\nOn October 13, 1961, she received a call from an agent who told her a producer was interested in working with her. When she was told it was Alfred Hitchcock who, while he was watching The Today Show, saw her in a commercial for a diet drink called Sego, she agreed to sign a seven-year contract. During their first meeting, the two talked about everything except the role he was considering her for. Hedren was convinced for several weeks it was for his television series, Alfred Hitchcock Presents. Hitchcock later said, \"I was not primarily concerned with how she looked in person. Most important was her appearance on the screen, and I liked that immediately. She has a touch of that high-style, lady-like quality which was once well-represented in films by actresses like Irene Dunne, Grace Kelly, Claudette Colbert, and others but which is now quite rare.\"\n\nHitchcock put Hedren through an extensive colour screen test that lasted two days and cost $25,000, doing scenes from his previous films, such as Rebecca, Notorious and To Catch a Thief with actor Martin Balsam. According to Balsam, Hedren was very nervous but studied every line, did every move she was asked to, and tried to do everything right. Hitchcock asked costume designer Edith Head to design clothes for Hedren's private life and he personally advised her about wine and food. He also insisted for publicity purposes that her name should be printed only in single quotes, 'Tippi'. The press mostly ignored this directive from the director, who felt that the single quotes added distinction and mystery to her name. Hitchcock was impressed with Hedren. As production designer Robert F. Boyle explained, \"Hitch always liked women who behaved like well-bred ladies. Tippi generated that quality.\" \n\nAfterward, Hedren was invited to lunch with Hitchcock, his wife, Alma, and Lew Wasserman, head of Universal, at one of Hitchcock's favorite restaurants, Chasen's. There she was presented with a golden pin of three birds in flight, adorned by three tiny seed pearls, and was asked by Hitchcock to play the leading role in his upcoming film, The Birds. \"I was so stunned. It never occurred to me that I would be given a leading role in a major motion picture. I had great big tears in my eyes,” Hedren later recalled.\n\nThe Birds\n\nThe Birds (1963) was Hedren's screen debut. Hitchcock became her drama coach, and gave her an education in film-making as she attended many of the production meetings such as script, music or photography conferences. Hedren said, \"I probably learned in three years what it would have taken me 15 years to learn otherwise.\" She learned how to break down a script, to become another character, and to study the relationship of different characters. Hedren portrayed her role of Melanie Daniels as Hitchcock requested. She said, \"He gives his actors very little leeway. He'll listen, but he has a very definite plan in mind as to how he wants his characters to act. With me, it was understandable, because I was not an actress of stature. I welcomed his guidance.\" \n\nDuring the six months of principal photography, Hedren's schedule was tight, as she was only given one afternoon off a week. At first, she found the shooting \"wonderful\". Hitchcock told a reporter, after a few weeks of filming, that she was remarkable, and said, \"She's already reaching the lows and highs of terror.\" Nonetheless, Hedren recalled the week she did the final bird attack scene in a second-floor bedroom as the worst of her life. Before filming it, she asked Hitchcock about her character's motivations to go upstairs, and his response was, \"Because I tell you to.\" She was then assured that the crew would use mechanical birds. Instead, Hedren endured five solid days of prop men, protected by thick leather gloves, flinging dozens of live gulls, ravens and crows at her (their beaks clamped shut with elastic bands). In a state of exhaustion, when one of the birds gouged her cheek and narrowly missed her eye, Hedren sat down on the set and began crying. A physician ordered a week's rest. Hitchcock protested, according to Hedren, saying there was nobody but her to film. The doctor's reply was, \"Are you trying to kill her?\" She said the week also appeared to be an ordeal for the director. \n\nUniversal's executives, who did not back Hitchcock's decision to hire Hedren in the first place, were impressed with her performance and Wasserman described it as \"remarkable\". While promoting The Birds, Hitchcock was full of praise for his new protégé, and compared her to Grace Kelly. \"Tippi has a faster tempo, city glibness, more humor [than Grace Kelly]. She displayed jaunty assuredness, pertness, an attractive throw of the head. And she memorized and read lines extraordinarily well and is sharper in expression.\" The film was screened out of competition in May at a prestigious invitational showing at the 1963 Cannes Film Festival. Hedren's performance was positively received with Varietys review stating that, \"Aside from the birds, the film belongs to Hedren, who makes an auspicious screen bow. She virtually has to carry the picture alone for the first forty-five minute stretch, prior to the advent of the first wave of organized attackers from the sky. Miss Hedren has a star quality and Hitchcock has provided her with a potent vehicle to launch her career\" and she received the Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year, tied with Elke Sommer and Ursula Andress. Her role as Melanie Daniels was named by Premiere to be one of the greatest movie characters of all time. \n\nMarnie\n\nHitchcock was so impressed with Hedren's acting abilities he decided to offer her the leading role of his next film, Marnie (1964), a romantic drama and psychological thriller from the novel by Winston Graham, during the filming of The Birds. Hedren was stunned and felt extremely fortunate to be offered to play \"such a complicated, sad, tragic woman\", and later said, \"I consider my acting, while not necessarily being method acting, but one that draws upon my own feelings. I thought Marnie was an extremely interesting role to play and a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity\". She voiced doubts about her ability to play that demanding role, but was assured by Hitchcock she could do it. As opposed to The Birds, where she had received little acting guidance, for this film Hedren studied every scene with Hitchcock. \n\nHedren recalled Marnie as her favorite of the two films she did with Hitchcock for the challenge of playing an emotionally battered young woman who travels from city to city assuming various guises in order to rob her employers. During the filming, Hitchcock was quoted as saying about Hedren, \"an Academy Award performance is in the making\". On release, the film was greeted by mixed reviews and indifferent box-office returns, and received no Oscar nominations. Of Hedren's performance in this film, Variety wrote, \"Hedren returns in a particularly demanding role. Miss Hedren, undertaking role originally offered Grace Kelly for a resumption of her screen career, lends credence to a part never sympathetic. It’s a difficult assignment which she fulfills satisfactorily.\" Hedren later said that Marnie was \"ahead of its time\" because \"people didn't talk about childhood and its effects on adult life. It was taboo to discuss sexuality and psychology and to put all that into a film was shocking\". Despite its original lukewarm reception, the film was later acclaimed and described as a \"masterpiece\" and Hedren's performance is now highly regarded as one of the finest in any Hitchcock film.\n\nTroubled relations\n\nMarnie was the second and last collaboration between Hedren and Hitchcock. In 1973, she admitted that a major life-style difference caused a split in their relationship. \"He was too possessive and too demanding. I cannot be possessed by anyone. But, then, that's my own hangup.\" In 1983, author Donald Spoto published his second book about Hitchcock, The Dark Side of a Genius, in which Hedren agreed to talk about her relationship with the director in detail for the first time.\nThe book was controversial as several of Hitchcock's friends claimed the Hitchcock portrayed in the book was not the man they knew. For years after its release, Hedren was not keen to talk about it in interviews but thought the chapter devoted to her story was \"accurate as to just what he was.\" Hedren later explained her long silence before telling her story, \"It was embarrassing and insulting–there were a lot of reasons why I didn't want to tell the story. I didn't want it to be taken advantage of, twisted, turned and made into an even uglier situation than it was.\"\n\nAccording to Spoto's book, Hitchcock brought in two members of his crew during the filming of The Birds and asked them to keep careful watch on the activities of Hedren, \"when she left the set - where she went, who she visited, how she spent her free time\". He then advised her on what she should eat, whom she should see, and how she should live. He told the cast and crew they were not allowed to talk to her. Hedren's co-star in The Birds, Rod Taylor, later remembered, \"Hitch was becoming very domineering and covetous of 'Tippi,' and it was very difficult for her. No one was permitted to come physically close to her during the production. 'Don't touch the girl after I call \"Cut!\"' he said to me repeatedly.\" Hitchcock also attempted, on one occasion, to grab and violently kiss Hedren in the back of a car as they drove on to the set. Hedren told his assistant, Peggy Robertson, and the studio chief, Lew Wasserman, that she was becoming very unhappy about the whole situation. \"But he was Alfred Hitchcock, the great and famous director, and I was Tippi Hedren, an inexperienced actress who had no clout.\" She decided she could not quit her contract because she was afraid to be blacklisted and unable to find work. Hedren's own daughter, Melanie Griffith, remembered that while Hedren was doing The Birds, she thought Hitchcock was taking her mother away from her. \"Suddenly, I wasn't allowed even to visit my mom at the studio.\" \n\nDuring the filming of Marnie, Hedren found Hitchcock's behavior toward her increasingly difficult to bear as filming progressed. \"Everyone–I mean everyone–knew he was obsessed with me. He always wanted a glass of wine or champagne, with me alone, at the end of the day. He was really isolating me from everyone.\" Hedren's co-star in Marnie, Diane Baker, later recalled, \"She was never allowed to gather around with the rest of us, and he demanded that every conversation between her and Hitch be held in private... Nothing could have been more horrible for me than to arrive on that movie set and to see her being treated the way she was.\" \nHitchcock revealed to Hedren one day he had a recurring dream where she came up to him and said, \"Hitch, I love you–I'll always love you.\" When she heard this, Hedren replied \"But it was a dream. Just a dream,\" and excused herself from his presence. She believed Hitchcock had no consideration for her feelings and remembered she was humiliated after he asked her to touch him, just before shooting a scene. \"He made sure no one else could hear, and his tone and glance made it clear exactly what he meant.\" Hedren asked Hitchcock's permission one day to travel to New York to appear on The Tonight Show where she was supposed to be presented an award as the Most Promising New Star. Hitchcock refused, according to his biographer, because he claimed the break would affect her performance. It was during that meeting that he apparently \"made an overt sexual proposition\" that Hedren \"could neither ignore nor answer casually, as she could his previous gestures\". In Spoto's third book about Hitchcock, Spellbound by Beauty (2008), Hedren revealed that Hitchcock actually made offensive demands on her. \"He stared at me and simply said, as if it was the most natural thing in the world, that from this time on, he expected me to make myself sexually available and accessible to him–however and whenever and wherever he wanted.\" Hitchcock's demands led to a \"horrible, horrible fight,\" according to Hedren. \"He made these demands on me, and no way could I acquiesce to them.\"\n\nHedren then told him Marnie would be their last film together and later recalled how Hitchcock told her he would destroy her career. \"I said I wanted to get out of my contract. He said: 'You can’t. You have your daughter to support, and your parents are getting older.' I said: 'Nobody would want me to be in this situation, I want to get out.' And he said: 'I’ll ruin your career.' I said: 'Do what you have to do.' And he did ruin my career. He kept me under contract, paid me to do nothing for close on two years.\" Hedren felt so humiliated she called the director a \"fat pig\" in front of people on the set. Hitchcock made only a comment about it to his biographer, John Russell Taylor: \"She did what no one is permitted to do. She referred to my weight.\" The two communicated only through a third party for the rest of the film. According to Marnies screenwriter, Jay Presson Allen, Hitchcock was \"mad\" for Hedren. She felt unhappy for both and described the situation as \"an old man's cri de coeur\", adding that Hitchcock had a \"Pygmalion complex about Tippi\". She advised Hedren to finish the film and then get on with her life and be happy. Hedren's hairdresser, Virginia Darcy, even told Hitchcock he should not be possessive with Hedren. \"Tippi felt rightly that she was not his property, but he'd say, 'You are, I have a contract.'\" Although Hitchcock thought he might mend fences with Hedren and make another film with her, she refused to reconsider her decision. Hedren's contract terms gave Hitchcock the final say as to any work she could take on and he used that power to turn down several film roles on her behalf. She was particularly disappointed when French director François Truffaut told her he had wanted her for one of them. In 1966, Hitchcock finally sold her contract to Universal Studios after Hedren appeared in two of their TV shows, Kraft Suspense Theatre (1965) and Run for Your Life (id.). The studio ultimately released her from her contract after she refused to appear on a television Western for them. \n\nIn 2012, The Girl, an HBO/BBC film about Hedren and Hitchcock's relationship, based on Donald Spoto's 2009 book, Spellbound by Beauty: Alfred Hitchcock and His Leading Ladies, was released. When she was first told about the project, Hedren said she had mixed feelings about it, \"To be still alive and have a film made about you is an awesome and incredibly frightening experience.\" Hedren and Hitchcock were respectively portrayed by Sienna Miller and Toby Jones.\nAlthough she was thrilled with the choice of Miller, Hedren was worried she would not be portrayed \"as strong a character as I was–and still am. I had to be extremely strong to fight off Mr. Hitchcock.\" She described the moment she saw the film as \"probably one of the most involved, emotionally tense 90 minutes that I have ever lived.\" Upon the film's release, Hedren said although she believed the film accurately portrays Hitchcock's behaviour towards her, the time constraints of a 90-minute film prevented telling the entire story of her career with him. \"It wasn't a constant barrage of harassment. If it had been constantly the way we have had to do it in this film, I would have been long gone.\" She recalled there were times she described as \"absolutely delightful and wonderful”, and insisted that “Hitchcock had a charm about him. He was very funny at times. He was incredibly brilliant in his field.\" The film was controversial, as others who knew and worked with Hitchcock responded to it negatively. Kim Novak, who worked on Hitchcock's Vertigo (1958), disputed Hitchcock's portrayal as a sexual predator in The Girl: \"I never saw him make a pass at anybody or act strange to anybody. And wouldn't you think if he was that way, I would've seen it or at least seen him with somebody? I think it's unfortunate when someone's no longer around and can't defend themselves.\" Novak previously described Hitchcock as a gentleman and, when asked about reports of his behaviour, she said, \"Maybe I just wasn't his type.\" \n\nHedren herself was asked why her account of sexual harassment contrasted with the many interviews she gave about her time with Hitchcock, her warm tribute to him when he was honored with the AFI Life Achievement Award by the AFI in 1979, and her presence at his funeral. She explained that, \"He ruined my career, but he didn't ruin my life. That time of my life was over. I still admire the man for who he was.\" She also said, \"I've been able to separate the two. The man who was the artist. I mean, what he gave to the motion picture industry can never be taken away from him and I certainly wouldn't be want to try. But on the other side, there is that dark side that was really awful.\" \n\nChaplin's last film and 1970s projects\n\nHedren's first feature film appearance after Marnie was in A Countess from Hong Kong (1967), starring Marlon Brando and Sophia Loren. She was told by writer/director Charlie Chaplin that she was offered a major supporting role as Brando's estranged wife and had to accept the role without reading the script. However, when she arrived in England where the filming took place, she finally received the script and realized that her part was little more than a cameo. Hedren was \"a little bit upset about the whole thing\" and asked Chaplin why he lied to her. \"Every actor in the world was asking if they could do this film, to just do a walk-on, without even being paid for it. When I said, 'Why didn't you just tell me that it was a cameo? I would have done this film anyway,' he said, 'I didn't think you would come,' which was very sweet. He was a very clever man.\" Hedren asked Chaplin to expand the role and, although he tried to accommodate her, he could not, as the story mostly takes place on a ship, which Hedren's character boards near the end of the film. In the end, she remained in the film and later said that it was both amusing and strange to work with Chaplin. She found him to be a very serious man and loved his approach to directing. She later said, \"I wish someone would have been allowed to do a documentary. The way he directed was unlike anyone I ever saw. He acted out all the parts himself. He did Sophia's part, then Marlon's part, then mine, and then he'd say, \"Okay, now you can do it.\" Which would be impossible, to mimic the master. It was incredible. None of us believed it. Marlon hated it.\" \n\nAfter the release of A Countess from Hong Kong, Hedren's career was described as \"spectacular\" by the press. She told a reporter at the time, \"I don't want to wait myself out of this business, but working for Hitch and Charlie has been very special to me, and now I'm going to wait for something special to come along\". In 1968, she signed on to do the American Civil War drama Five Against Kansas with Farley Granger and Jeffrey Hunter but the project was never realized. In 1970, Hedren returned to film as a socialite who helps her boyfriend (played by George Armstrong) catch a killer, in Tiger by the Tail. That same year, she guest-starred on The Courtship of Eddie's Father. She agreed to take part in Satan's Harvest (1970) and Mister Kingstreet's War (1973) -- which were actually shot back-to-back despite the discrepancy in their release dates—for the sole reason that they were being filmed in Africa. In 1973, Hedren played a teacher of an experimental sex school in The Harrad Experiment, which starred James Whitmore and Don Johnson - the latter of which would later become the husband of her daughter, Melanie Griffith. Hedren felt that the film \"deals with vital themes - themes like the decline in importance of ideas like possession and jealousy and, by inference, marriage. I have four teenage children and I think this picture says some valuable things to them.\" She confessed at the time she was occasionally depressed over the fact she wasn't doing any major films and told a magazine, \"My husband just cancelled all the trade magazines because he felt I should cut off the source of my discontent. He's the type who won't stand for sustained down feelings\". \n\nRoar (1981)\n\nIn 1969, during the filming of Satan's Harvest in Africa, Hedren and then-husband Noel Marshall watched a pride of lions move into a house after a game warden moved out. Hedren later said, \"We were delighted with the way they adapted themselves to living there. And they were so funny we knew we had an idea for a picture.\" Back home, Marshall wrote a script for a film originally titled Lions, Lions and More Lions centered around their experience. The film was later retitled Roar and centered around a family's misadventures in a research park filled with lions, tigers, and other wild cats.\nHedren played the lead role and co-starred her daughter, Melanie Griffith, Marshall and his own sons, Jerry and John.\nHedren and Marshall attempted to rent Hollywood animals for a nine-month shoot. However, upon approaching animal trainers for support, they were discouraged and nobody would rent them thirty or forty lions, as the script required, because of their natural tendency to fight. The couple was suggested to start collecting and training their own exotic beasts for the purposes of the film, as Ron Oxley, an animal trainer, told them that \"to get to know about lions, you’ve got to live with them for a while\". They started to raise a lion cub, Neil, in their Sherman Oaks house and made sure the animal even slept in their bed. In 1971, their life was documented by Life photographer, Michael Rougier, who pictured the lion with the whole family inside and outside the house, from Hedren's daughter bed to the living room to the swimming pool. \nAfter complaints from their neighbors, Hedren and Marshall bought a ranch outside of Los Angeles, in Acton, that would serve as the set for Roar. They got permission there to rescue and raise several lions, tigers, a couple of African elephants and other exotic felines. \n\nFilming started in 1974 and took five years just to complete the photography. Every scene involving lions was improvised and shot with four or sometimes eight cameras. More than a hundred people worked on the film as well as more than a hundred and fifty untrained lions, tigers, leopards and cheetahs. During production, no animals were hurt but over seventy members of the cast and crew were mauled. According to Marshall's son, John, \"You’re fine with lions and tigers as long as you don’t show any fear. The problem is that the plot required us to show fear. These animals who had learned to respect us were totally confused when we started acting terrified.\" Cinematographer Jan de Bont had his scalp lifted by a lion, resulting in 220 stitches. Hedren received a fractured leg and also had scalp wounds. This occurred after an elephant bucked her off its back while she was riding it. \nShe was also bitten in the neck by a lion and required 38 stitches. This incident can also be seen in the film. Melanie Griffith was also attacked, receiving 50 stitches to her face; it was feared she would lose an eye, but she recovered and was not disfigured. Marshall was attacked so many times that he eventually was diagnosed with gangrene. In one of those incidents, he was clawed by a cheetah when protecting the animals during a bushfire that occurred in 1979. All animals were evacuated though it took several years for him to recover from his injuries. In 1978, a big flood destroyed the movie sets and killed three of the lions. The project was set back several years. Hedren later said they were all determined to finish the film, \"We were so sure the film was going to be a success that we thought everything (financing the ranch and the lions, etc.) would take care of itself.\" \n\nRoar was released worldwide in 1981 with the exception of the United States because, according to Hedren, \"The United States distributors wanted the lion's share of the profits, and we thought it ought to go to the beautiful animals that made the movie.\" The film cost $17 million and grossed only $2 million. However, the film was a turning point in Hedren's life. In 1983, she established the non-profit organization, The Roar Foundation, to take care of the big cats as she later explained, \"After our movie was over, it was unconscionable to see the animals go any place else. We said we would become a foundation so that we can take in donations so that we can keep the cats here, and that is what we did.\" Roar was later re-released in 2015 but Hedren declined to discuss it as she felt that promotion for the film was filled with \"inaccuracies\". However, she expressed regrets at letting a fully grown lion live with her family in the 1970s, saying they were \"stupid beyond belief to have that lion in our house. We should never have taken those risks. These animals are so fast, and if they decide to go after you, nothing but a bullet to the brain will stop them.\" \n\nLater career\n\nAfter Roar, Hedren accepted any low budget television or cinema role that could help bring funds to her foundation in order to provide protection, shelter, care and maintenance for the animals at the Shambala Preserve. In 1982, she co-starred with Leslie Nielsen in Foxfire Light. During the 1980s, she appeared in several television series, including Hart to Hart in 1983 and the late-night horror series Tales from the Darkside in 1984. In the 1985 pilot episode of The New Alfred Hitchcock Presents, she made a brief appearance as a waitress in a bar who berates a customer, played by her daughter Melanie Griffith. In 1990, she had a non-speaking, minor part as a wealthy widow romanced by Michael Keaton in the film Pacific Heights (1990), which also starred her daughter. That same year, she had a role on The Bold and the Beautiful, a daytime soap opera she said she was \"proud to have in my resume\". \n\nIn 1994, Hedren lamented that, \"People think that I'm no longer interested in acting and only interested in working with the animals. Obviously I have given that impression, but it is not how I feel. I think I'm a good actor. I think I look OK. I don't understand why I'm not working all the time.\" That same year, she appeared in the made-for-cable sequel, The Birds II: Land's End, in a role different from the one she had played in the original. She was however disappointed that she didn't get a starring role and admitted before the film's release, \"I wish that it was more than a cameo. I think they made a mistake by not doing that. But it has helped me to feed my lions and tigers.\" When asked about what could have been Hitchcock's opinion, she answered: \"I'd hate to think what he would say!\" In a 2007 interview, Hedren said of the film, \"It's absolutely horrible, it embarrasses me horribly.\" \n\nFrom 1994 to 1996, Hedren had a guest-starring role in Dream On. The sitcom gave her \"the opportunity to do comedy. I’d never done comedy before and it was just wonderful for me to be able to do that. Everybody just thought of me as a serious actress so I owe that to John Landis (the executive producer), giving me that opportunity\". In 1996, she played an abortion rights activist in Alexander Payne's political satire Citizen Ruth with Laura Dern. In 1998, she co-starred alongside Billy Zane and Christina Ricci in I Woke Up Early the Day I Died, a film she felt was \"incredible\". \"I must say I really love that film. It was a unique kind of film to do also, because of the fact that it had no dialogue in it. It was very, very different\". That same year, she guest-starred in a special episode titled \"Psychodrama\" of the television series, Chicago Hope, that paid tribute to the Hitchcock movies. Hedren's character, Alfreda Perkins, was a reference to Alfred Hitchcock and actor Anthony Perkins, who starred in the director's 1960 film, Psycho. \n\nAfter appearing in a number of little-exposed films between 1999 and 2003, Hedren had a small but showy role in the 2004 David O. Russell comedy, I Heart Huckabees, as a foul-mouthed attractive older woman who slaps Jude Law in an elevator. She felt that the director, who had a reputation for being difficult, was \"totally crazy\" but also, \"very interesting. I was able to work well with him\". She also added it was a strange experience as, \"While we were filming, I thought, \"How is he going to edit this?\" Because all of a sudden, he’d be like, \"Now I’m going to do it this way,\" and you’d think, \"How is he going to edit this? How is this going to work?\" But he made it work.\" In 2006, Hedren was a cast member of the short-lived primetime soap opera Fashion House with Bo Derek and Morgan Fairchild and continued to guest-star in television series such as The 4400 (2006) and CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (2008). In 2012, Hedren and her daughter Griffith guest-starred together on an episode of Raising Hope. That same year, she was thrilled to appear in Free Samples, an indie film where she had a supporting role as an old movie star. In 2013, she made an appearance as herself in the fourth season finale of Cougar Town.\n\nShe also wrote her second book titled Tippi: A Memoir that is scheduled to be released in November, 2016. \n\nInfluence\n\nA Louis Vuitton ad campaign in 2006 paid tribute to Hedren and Hitchcock with a modern-day interpretation of the deserted railway station opening sequence of Marnie. Her look from The Birds (1963) inspired designer Bill Gaytten to design for John Galliano Pre-Fall 2012 collection. \n\nNaomi Watts stated that her character interpretation in Mulholland Drive (2001) was influenced by the look and performances of Hedren in Hitchcock films. Watts and Hedren both appeared in I ♥ Huckabees (2004) but didn't share any scenes together. Off-screen, the film's director David O. Russell introduced them both, and Watts said of Hedren: \"I was pretty fascinated by her then, because people have often said we're alike.\" Watts dressed up as Hedren's title character from Marnie for a photo shoot for March 2008 issue of Vanity Fair. In the same issue, Jodie Foster dressed up as Hedren's character, Melanie Daniels, from The Birds. \n\nShambala Preserve\n\nIn 1981, Hedren produced Roar, an 11-year project that ended up costing $17 million and starring dozens of African lions. \"This was probably one of the most dangerous films that Hollywood has ever seen\", remarked the actress. \"It's amazing no one was killed.\" During the production of Roar, Hedren, her husband at the time, Noel Marshall, and daughter Melanie were attacked by lions; Jan de Bont, the director of photography, was scalped. Hedren later co-wrote Cats of Shambala (1985) about the experience. Roar made only $2 million worldwide. Hedren ended her marriage to Marshall a year later in 1982. The film directly led to the 1983 establishment of the non-profit Roar Foundation and Hedren's Shambala Preserve, located at the edge of the Mojave Desert in Acton, California between the Antelope Valley and the Santa Clarita Valley 40 mi northeast of Los Angeles. Shambala currently houses some 70 animals. Hedren lives on the Shambala site and conducts monthly tours of the preserve for the public. In a 2015 interview with ABILITY Magazine, Hedren emphasized that there is no human contact with the animals and that all of the cats are spayed and neutered, since they are being raised in captivity. \n\nShe took in and cared for Togar, a lion that belonged to Anton LaVey, after he was told by San Francisco officials that he couldn't keep a fully grown lion as a house pet. Shambala became the new home for Michael Jackson's two Bengal tigers, Sabu and Thriller, after he decided to close his zoo at his Neverland Valley Ranch in Los Olivos. Thriller died in June 2012 of lung cancer. \n\nOn December 3, 2007, Shambala Preserve made headlines when Chris Orr, a caretaker for the animals, was mauled by a tiger named Alexander. Several documentaries have focused on Shambala Preserve, including the 30-minute Lions: Kings of the Serengeti (1995), narrated by Melanie Griffith, and Animal Planet's Life with Big Cats (1998), which won the Genesis Award for best documentary in 1999. The animals at the preserve served as the initial inspiration for the life's work of artist A.E. London, who started her career working for Hedren. \n\nPersonal life\n\nIn 1952, Hedren met and married 18-year-old future advertising executive Peter Griffith. Their daughter, actress Melanie Griffith, was born on August 9, 1957. They were divorced in 1961. On September 22, 1964, Hedren married her then-agent Noel Marshall, who later produced three of her films; they divorced in 1982. In 1985, she married steel manufacturer Luis Barrenechea, but they divorced in 1995. Hedren was engaged to veterinarian Martin Dinnes from 2002 until their breakup in mid-2008. In September 2008, Hedren told The Sunday Times \"I’m waiting for someone to sweep me off my feet.”\n\nHedren played a role in the development of Vietnamese-American nail salons in the United States. \n\nIn 1975, while an international relief coordinator with Food for the Hungry, she began visiting with refugees at Hope Village outside Sacramento, California. When she learned the women were interested in her manicured nails, she employed her manicurist to teach them the skills of the trade and worked with a local beauty school to help them find jobs. Hedren's work with the Vietnamese-Americans was the subject of Happy Hands, directed by Honey Lauren, which won Best Documentary Short at the Sonoma International Film Festival in 2014. CND and Beauty Changes Lives Foundation (BCL) have announced the BCL CND Tippi Hedren Nail Scholarship Fund to support professional nail education and will be administered starting January 1, 2014. \n\nHedren suffered from severe and persistent headaches for a long time and therefore was unable to accept several projects, including a television series produced by and starring Betty White. After she got a titanium plate put in her neck, she improved and then agreed, with the blessing of her doctor, to take the part of a dying woman in the soap opera Fashion House. While she was rehearsing a scene, a gallon of water fell from the ceiling onto her head. The headaches returned after the incident and persisted. Hedren filed a suit to receive recompense following her inability to work. Hedren's lawyer, Joseph Allen, made a mistake in his discussions with the defendants that allowed them to block him from filing suit. Hedren sued Allen for malpractice. In 2013, The Hollywood Reporter reported that Hedren had been awarded a $1.5 million settlement, including $213,400 for past lost earnings and $440,308 for future lost earnings, against her former lawyer. Hedren was hurt by the report as she had not collected the award. She gave an interview to explain that her former lawyer does not have the money to pay her, and discussed how the report put her in a difficult situation as her Foundation is in dire need of funds. She explained that she has to raise $75,000 monthly just to keep it going. \"Chances are I won't ever even see the money, and that what hurts so badly, that in all of this pain and suffering that publication ran with a swift and not researched story, which told people around the world who have been so gracious and thoughtful about sending donations, that I no longer needed them.\" \n\nFilmography\n\nFilm\n\nTelevision\n\nHonors and awards\n\n* 1964: Most Promising Newcomer Award by Photoplay\n* 1964: Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year - Actress (shared with Ursula Andress and Elke Sommer)\n* 1994: Life Achievement Award in France at The Beauvais Film Festival Cinemalia\n* 1995: Life Achievement Award in Spain, La Fundación Municipal de Cine\n* 1995: The Helen Woodward Animal Center's Annual Humane Award\n* 1996: Founder's Award from the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals\n* 1997: Lion and Lamb Award from Wildhaven \n* 1999: Woman of Vision Award from Women of Film and Video in Washington, D.C. \n* 1999: Presidential Medal for her work in film from Hofstra University \n* 1999: Humanitarian Award at the Las Vegas International Film Festival \n* 2000: Best Actress in a Comedy Short Award in the short film Mulligans! at the Method Fest, Independent Film Festival\n* 2002: Best Actress Award for the short film Tea with Grandma from the New York International Independent Film Festival\n* 2003: Received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame\n* 2003: [http://www.wireimage.com/GalleryListing.asp?nbc11&navtyp\nCAL28621&ym\n200305 Women of Los Angeles Annual Hope is a Woman Honor]\n* 2004: PAWS Companion for Life Award \n* 2004: Best Actress Award for the short film Rose's Garden from the Los Angeles TV Short Film Festival\n* 2004: Animal Rights Advocacy Award at Artivist Film Festival\n* 2005: Living Legacy Award \n* 2006: Conservationist of the Year—Dino Award from the Las Vegas Natural History Museum\n* 2007: Lifetime Achievement Award—Riverside Film Festival \n* 2007: Jules Verne \"Nature\" Award — the 1st Annual Jules Verne Adventure Film Festival of Los Angeles\n* 2008: Academy of Art University's 2nd Epidemic Film Festival Award \n* 2008: Jules Verne Legendaire Award\n* 2008: Thespian Award-La Femme Film Festival \n* 2009: \"When a Woman Wills She Will!\" Award by the Woman's Club of Hollywood\n* 2009: Workhouse's first Lifetime Achievement in the Arts Award\n* 2009: Received the First Star on the Orinda Theater Walk of Fame \n* 2010: Received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 24th Annual Genesis Awards show from the Humane Society \n* 2010: BraveHeart Award \n* 2010: Who-Manitarian Award \n* 2011: Lifetime Achievement Award from the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce at its 90th Annual Installation & Awards Luncheon \n* 2011: \"The Women Together Award\" from the United Nations\n* 2011: Vietnamese-American Marton Saint Award from the Boat People SOS Organization\n* 2011: Omni Youth Humanitarian/Career Achievement Award \n* 2012: Honorary Masters of Fine Arts Degree from the New York Film Academy \n* 2012: Mayor Career Achievement Award from Starz Denver Film Festival \n* 2013: Legacy of Style Award \n* 2013: [http://www.broadwayworld.com/bwwmusic/article/Smokey-Robinson-Tippi-Hedren-More-to-Receive-The-Touching-Lives-TV-People-Helping-People-Award-20131120 \"People Helping People\" Award by the Touching Live TV Award Show], broadwayworld.com; accessed November 14, 2015.\n* 2014: [http://patch.com/california/brentwood/melanie-griffith-confirmed-honor-tippi-hedren-bel-air-film-festival-0 Lifetime Achievement Award from Bel-Air Film Festival]\n* 2014: [http://www.actonwomensclub.com/October2014.pdf Special Recognition Award from Acton Women's Club]\n* 2014:[http://thewifts.org The Women's International Film & Television Showcase Foundation International Visionary Award], thewifts.org; accessed November 14, 2015.\n* 2015: [http://www.viennale.at/en/preview/special-programs/choreography-of-desire Choreography of Desire (A Tribute to Tippi Hedren) by the Vienna International Film Festival], viennale.at; accessed November 14, 2015.\n* 2015: Believe, Achieve, Empower Award \n\nNotes", "California ( , ) is the most populous state in the United States. It is also the third most extensive by area. Los Angeles, in Southern California, is the state's most populous city and the country's second largest after New York City. California also includes the nation's most populous county, Los Angeles County, and the largest county by area, San Bernardino County. Geographically located in the western part of the United States, California is bordered by the other U.S. states of Oregon to the north, Nevada to the east, and Arizona to the southeast. California shares an international border with the Mexican state of Baja California to the south and the Pacific Ocean is on the state's western coastline. The state capital is Sacramento, which is located in the northern part of the state.\n\nWhat is now California was first settled by various Native American tribes before being explored by a number of European expeditions during the 16th and 17th centuries. It was then claimed by the Spanish Empire as part of Alta California in the larger territory of New Spain. Alta California became a part of Mexico in 1821 following its successful war for independence, but was ceded to the United States in 1848 after the Mexican–American War. The western portion of Alta California was organized as the State of California, which was admitted as the 31st state on September 9, 1850. The California Gold Rush starting in 1848 led to dramatic social and demographic changes, with large-scale immigration from the east and abroad with an accompanying economic boom.\n\nCalifornia's diverse geography ranges from the Sierra Nevada in the east to the Pacific Coast in the west, from the redwood–Douglas fir forests of the northwest, to the Mojave Desert areas in the southeast. The center of the state is dominated by the Central Valley, a major agricultural area. California contains both the highest point (Mount Whitney) and the lowest point (Death Valley) in the contiguous United States. Earthquakes are common because of the state's location along the Pacific Ring of Fire. About 37,000 earthquakes are recorded each year, but most are too small to be felt. Drought has also become a notable feature. \n\nCalifornia is regarded as a global trendsetter in both popular culture and politics, and is the birthplace of the film industry, the hippie counterculture, the Internet, and the personal computer. The state's economy is centered on finance, government, real estate services, technology, and professional, scientific and technical business services; together comprising 58% of the state's economy. Three of the world's largest 20 firms by revenue, Chevron, Apple, and McKesson, are headquartered in the state. Although only 1.5% of the state's economy, California's agriculture industry has the highest output of any U.S. state. If it were a country, California would be the 6th largest economy in the world and the 35th most populous.\n\nEtymology\n\nThe word California originally referred to the entire region composed of the Baja California Peninsula of Mexico, the current U.S. states of California, Nevada, and Utah, and parts of Arizona, New Mexico, Texas and Wyoming.\n\nThe name California is most commonly believed to have derived from a fictional paradise peopled by Black Amazons and ruled by Queen Calafia, who fought alongside Muslims and whose name was chosen to echo the title of a Muslim leader, the Caliph, fictionally implying that California was the Caliphate. The story of Calafia is recorded in a 1510 work The Adventures of Esplandián, written as a sequel to Amadis de Gaula by Spanish adventure writer Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo.Gudde, Erwin G. and William Bright. 2004. California Place Names: The Origin and Etymology of Current Geographical Names. p. 59–60 The kingdom of Queen Calafia, according to Montalvo, was said to be a remote land inhabited by griffins and other strange beasts, and rich in gold.\n\nShortened forms of the state's name include CA, Cal., Calif. and US-CA.\n\nHistory\n\nPre-contact\n\nSettled by successive waves of arrivals during the last 10,000 years, California was one of the most culturally and linguistically diverse areas in pre-Columbian North America. Various estimates of the native population range from 100,000 to 300,000. The Indigenous peoples of California included more than 70 distinct groups of Native Americans, ranging from large, settled populations living on the coast to groups in the interior. California groups also were diverse in their political organization with bands, tribes, villages, and on the resource-rich coasts, large chiefdoms, such as the Chumash, Pomo and Salinan. Trade, intermarriage and military alliances fostered many social and economic relationships among the diverse groups.\n\n16th, 17th and 18th centuries\n\nThe first European effort to explore the coast as far north as the Russian River was a Spanish sailing expedition, led by Portuguese captain Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo, in 1542. Some 37 years later English explorer Francis Drake also explored and claimed an undefined portion of the California coast in 1579. Spanish traders made unintended visits with the Manila galleons on their return trips from the Philippines beginning in 1565. The first Asians to set foot on what would be the United States occurred in 1587, when Filipino sailors arrived in Spanish ships at Morro Bay. Sebastián Vizcaíno explored and mapped the coast of California in 1602 for New Spain.\n\nDespite the on-the-ground explorations of California in the 16th century, Rodríguez's idea of California as an island persisted. That depiction appeared on many European maps well into the 18th century. \n\nAfter the Portolà expedition of 1769-70, Spanish missionaries began setting up 21 California Missions on or near the coast of Alta (Upper) California, beginning in San Diego. During the same period, Spanish military forces built several forts (presidios) and three small towns (pueblos). Two of the pueblos grew into the cities of Los Angeles and San Jose. The Spanish colonization brought the genocide of the indigenous Californian peoples.\n\n19th century\n\nImperial Russia explored the California coast and established a trading post at Fort Ross. Its early 19th-century coastal settlements north of San Francisco Bay constituted the southernmost Russian colony in North America and were spread over an area stretching from Point Arena to Tomales Bay. \n\nIn 1821 the Mexican War of Independence gave Mexico (including California) independence from Spain; for the next 25 years, Alta California remained a remote northern province of the nation of Mexico.\n\nCattle ranches, or ranchos, emerged as the dominant institutions of Mexican California. After Mexican independence from Spain, the chain of missions became the property of the Mexican government and were secularized by 1834. The ranchos developed under ownership by Californios (Spanish-speaking Californians) who had received land grants, and traded cowhides and tallow with Boston merchants.\n\nFrom the 1820s, trappers and settlers from the U.S. and Canada arrived in Northern California. These new arrivals used the Siskiyou Trail, California Trail, Oregon Trail and Old Spanish Trail to cross the rugged mountains and harsh deserts in and surrounding California.\n\nBetween 1831 and 1836, California experienced a series of revolts against Mexico; this culminated in the 1836 California revolt led by Juan Bautista Alvarado, which ended after Mexico appointed him governor of the department.Starr, Kevin. California: A History. [https://books.google.com/books?idZd3L-BAN_04C&pg\nPR17&dq1836+California+revolt&hl\nen&saX&ei\nrq5EUfmyNMrm2QXbo4GQBQ&ved0CFEQ6AEwBg#v\nonepage&q1836%20California%20revolt&f\nfalse p. 17] The revolt, which had momentarily declared California an independent state, was successful with the assistance of American and British residents of California, including Isaac Graham; after 1840, 100 of those residents who did not have passports were arrested, leading to the Graham affair in 1840.\n\nOne of the largest ranchers in California was John Marsh. After failing to obtain justice against squatters on his land from the Mexican courts, he determined that California should become part of the United States. Marsh conducted a letter-writing campaign espousing the California climate, soil and other reasons to settle there, as well as the best route to follow, which became known as \"Marsh's route.\" His letters were read, reread, passed around, and printed in newspapers throughout the country, and started the first wagon trains rolling to California. He invited immigrants to stay on his ranch until they could get settled, and assisted in their obtaining passports. \n\nAfter ushering in the period of organized emigration to California, Marsh helped end the rule of the last Mexican governor of California, thereby paving the way to California's ultimate acquisition by the United States. \n\nIn 1846 settlers rebelled against Mexican rule during the Bear Flag Revolt. Afterwards, rebels raised the Bear Flag (featuring a bear, a star, a red stripe and the words \"California Republic\") at Sonoma. The Republic's only president was William B. Ide, who played a pivotal role during the Bear Flag Revolt.\n\nThe California Republic was short lived; the same year marked the outbreak of the Mexican–American War (1846–48). When Commodore John D. Sloat of the United States Navy sailed into Monterey Bay and began the military occupation of California by the United States, Northern California capitulated in less than a month to the U.S. forces. After a series of defensive battles in Southern California, the Treaty of Cahuenga was signed by the Californios on January 13, 1847, securing American control in California.\n\nFollowing the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo that ended the war, the western territory of Alta California, became the U.S. state of California, and Arizona, Nevada, Colorado and Utah became U.S. Territories. The Lightly populated lower region of California, the Baja Peninsula, remained in the possession of Mexico.\n\nIn 1846 the non-native population of California was estimated to be no more than 8,000, plus about 100,000 Native Americans down from about 300,000 before Hispanic settlement in 1769. After gold was discovered, the population burgeoned with U.S. citizens, Europeans, Chinese and other immigrants during the great California Gold Rush. By 1854 over 300,000 settlers had come. Between 1847 and 1870, the population of San Francisco increased from 500 to 150,000. On September 9, 1850, as part of the Compromise of 1850, California was admitted to the United States undivided as a free state, denying the expansion of slavery to the Pacific Coast.\n\nCalifornia's native population precipitously declined, above all, from Eurasian diseases to which they had no natural immunity. As in other states, the native inhabitants were forcibly removed from their lands by incoming miners, ranchers, and farmers. And although California entered the union as a free state, the \"loitering or orphaned Indians\" were de facto enslaved by Mexican and Anglo-American masters under the 1853 Act for the Government and Protection of Indians. There were massacres in which hundreds of indigenous people were killed. Between 1850 and 1860, California paid around 1.5 million dollars (some 250,000 of which was reimbursed by the federal government) to hire militias whose purpose was to protect settlers from the indigenous populations. In later decades, the native population was placed in reservations and rancherias, which were often small and isolated and without enough natural resources or funding from the government to sustain the populations living on them. As a result, the rise of California was a calamity for the native inhabitants. Several scholars and Native American activists, including Benjamin Madley and Ed Castillo, have described the actions of the California government as a genocide. \n\nThe seat of government for California under Spanish and later Mexican rule was located at Monterey from 1777 until 1845. Pio Pico, last Mexican governor of Alta California, moved the capital to Los Angeles in 1845. The United States consulate was also located in Monterey, under consul Thomas O. Larkin.\n\nIn 1849, the Constitutional Convention was first held in Monterey. Among the tasks was a decision on a location for the new state capital. The first legislative sessions were held in San Jose (1850–1851). Subsequent locations included Vallejo (1852–1853), and nearby Benicia (1853–1854); these locations eventually proved to be inadequate as well. The capital has been located in Sacramento since 1854 with only a short break in 1861 when legislative sessions were held in San Francisco due to flooding in Sacramento.\n\nInitially, travel between California and the rest of the continental U.S. was time consuming and dangerous. A more direct connection came in 1869 with the completion of the First Transcontinental Railroad through Donner Pass in the Sierra Nevada mountains. Once completed, hundreds of thousands of U.S. citizens came west, where new Californians were discovering that land in the state, if irrigated during the dry summer months, was extremely well suited to fruit cultivation and agriculture in general. Vast expanses of wheat, other cereal crops, vegetable crops, cotton, and nut and fruit trees were grown (including oranges in Southern California), and the foundation was laid for the state's prodigious agricultural production in the Central Valley and elsewhere.\n\n20th century\n\nMigration to California accelerated during the early 20th century with the completion of major transcontinental highways like the Lincoln Highway and Route 66. In the period from 1900 to 1965, the population grew from fewer than one million to become the most populous state in the Union. In 1940, the Census Bureau reported California's population as 6.0% Hispanic, 2.4% Asian, and 89.5% non-Hispanic white. \n\nTo meet the population's needs, major engineering feats like the California and Los Angeles Aqueducts; the Oroville and Shasta Dams; and the Bay and Golden Gate Bridges were built across the state. The state government also adopted the California Master Plan for Higher Education in 1960 to develop a highly efficient system of public education.\n\nMeanwhile, attracted to the mild Mediterranean climate, cheap land, and the state's wide variety of geography, filmmakers established the studio system in Hollywood in the 1920s. California manufactured 8.7 percent of total United States military armaments produced during World War II, ranking third (behind New York and Michigan) among the 48 states. After World War II, California's economy greatly expanded due to strong aerospace and defense industries, whose size decreased following the end of the Cold War. Stanford University and its Dean of Engineering Frederick Terman began encouraging faculty and graduates to stay in California instead of leaving the state, and develop a high-tech region in the area now known as Silicon Valley. As a result of these efforts, California is regarded as a world center of the entertainment and music industries, of technology, engineering, and the aerospace industry, and as the U.S. center of agricultural production. Just before the \"Dot Com Bust\" California had the 5th largest economy in the world among nations. Yet since 1991, and starting in the late 1980s in Southern California, California has seen a net loss of domestic migrants most years. This is often referred to by the media as the California exodus. \n\nHowever, during the 20th century, two great disasters happened in California. The 1906 San Francisco earthquake and 1928 St. Francis Dam flood remain the deadliest in U.S history. \n\nGeography\n\nCalifornia is the 3rd largest state in the United States in area, after Alaska and Texas. California is often geographically bisected into two regions, Southern California, comprising the 10 southernmost counties, and Northern California, comprising the 48 northernmost counties. \n\nIn the middle of the state lies the California Central Valley, bounded by the Sierra Nevada in the east, the coastal mountain ranges in the west, the Cascade Range to the north and by the Tehachapi Mountains in the south. The Central Valley is California's productive agricultural heartland.\n\nDivided in two by the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, the northern portion, the Sacramento Valley serves as the watershed of the Sacramento River, while the southern portion, the San Joaquin Valley is the watershed for the San Joaquin River. Both valleys derive their names from the rivers that flow through them. With dredging, the Sacramento and the San Joaquin Rivers have remained deep enough for several inland cities to be seaports.\n\nThe Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta is a critical water supply hub for the state. Water is diverted from the delta and through an extensive network of pumps and canals that traverse nearly the length of the state, to the Central Valley and the State Water Projects and other needs. Water from the Delta provides drinking water for nearly 23 million people, almost two-thirds of the state's population as well as water for farmers on the west side of the San Joaquin Valley.\n\nThe Channel Islands are located off the Southern coast.\n\nThe Sierra Nevada (Spanish for \"snowy range\") includes the highest peak in the contiguous 48 states, Mount Whitney, at 14505 ft.Elevation adjusted to North American Vertical Datum of 1988. The range embraces Yosemite Valley, famous for its glacially carved domes, and Sequoia National Park, home to the giant sequoia trees, the largest living organisms on Earth, and the deep freshwater lake, Lake Tahoe, the largest lake in the state by volume.\n\nTo the east of the Sierra Nevada are Owens Valley and Mono Lake, an essential migratory bird habitat. In the western part of the state is Clear Lake, the largest freshwater lake by area entirely in California. Though Lake Tahoe is larger, it is divided by the California/Nevada border. The Sierra Nevada falls to Arctic temperatures in winter and has several dozen small glaciers, including Palisade Glacier, the southernmost glacier in the United States.\n\nAbout 45 percent of the state's total surface area is covered by forests, and California's diversity of pine species is unmatched by any other state. California contains more forestland than any other state except Alaska. Many of the trees in the California White Mountains are the oldest in the world; an individual bristlecone pine is over 5,000 years old.\n\nIn the south is a large inland salt lake, the Salton Sea. The south-central desert is called the Mojave; to the northeast of the Mojave lies Death Valley, which contains the lowest and hottest place in North America, the Badwater Basin at . The horizontal distance from the bottom of Death Valley to the top of Mount Whitney is less than 90 mi. Indeed, almost all of southeastern California is arid, hot desert, with routine extreme high temperatures during the summer. The southeastern border of California with Arizona is entirely formed by the Colorado River, from which the southern part of the state gets about half of its water.\n\nAlong the California coast are several major metropolitan areas, including the Greater Los Angeles Area, the San Francisco Bay Area, and the San Diego metropolitan area.\n\nAs part of the Ring of Fire, California is subject to tsunamis, floods, droughts, Santa Ana winds, wildfires, landslides on steep terrain, and has several volcanoes. It has many earthquakes due to several faults running through the state, in particular the San Andreas Fault.\n\nClimate\n\nAlthough most of the state has a Mediterranean climate, due to the state's large size, the climate ranges from subarctic to subtropical. The cool California Current offshore often creates summer fog near the coast. Farther inland, there are colder winters and hotter summers. The maritime moderation results in the shoreline summertime temperatures of Los Angeles and San Francisco being the coolest of all major metropolitan areas of the United States and uniquely cool compared to areas on the same latitude in the interior and on the east coast of the North American continent. Even the San Diego shoreline bordering Mexico is cooler in summer than most areas in the contiguous United States. Just a few miles inland, summer temperature extremes are significantly higher, with downtown Los Angeles being several degrees warmer than at the coast. The same microclimate phenomenon is seen in the climate of the Bay Area, where areas sheltered from the sea sees significantly hotter summers than nearby areas close to the ocean.\n\nNorthern parts of the state have more rain than the south. California's mountain ranges also influence the climate: some of the rainiest parts of the state are west-facing mountain slopes. Northwestern California has a temperate climate, and the Central Valley has a Mediterranean climate but with greater temperature extremes than the coast. The high mountains, including the Sierra Nevada, have an alpine climate with snow in winter and mild to moderate heat in summer.\n\nCalifornia's mountains produce rain shadows on the eastern side, creating extensive deserts. The higher elevation deserts of eastern California have hot summers and cold winters, while the low deserts east of the Southern California mountains have hot summers and nearly frostless mild winters. Death Valley, a desert with large expanses below sea level, is considered the hottest location in the world; the highest temperature in the world, (The 136.4 °F (58 °C), claimed by 'Aziziya, Libya, on September 13, 1922, has been officially deemed invalid by the World Meteorological Organization.) 134 °F, was recorded there on July 10, 1913. The lowest temperature in California was in 1937 in Boca.\n\nThe table below lists average temperatures for August and December in some of the major urban areas of California. Since extremes like the cool summers of the Humboldt Bay and the extreme heat of Death Valley do not effect any major urban areas these are not listed.\n\nEcology\n\nCalifornia is one of the richest and most diverse parts of the world, and includes some of the most endangered ecological communities. California is part of the Nearctic ecozone and spans a number of terrestrial ecoregions. \n\nCalifornia's large number of endemic species includes relict species, which have died out elsewhere, such as the Catalina ironwood (Lyonothamnus floribundus). Many other endemics originated through differentiation or adaptive radiation, whereby multiple species develop from a common ancestor to take advantage of diverse ecological conditions such as the California lilac (Ceanothus). Many California endemics have become endangered, as urbanization, logging, overgrazing, and the introduction of exotic species have encroached on their habitat.\n\nFlora and fauna\n\nCalifornia boasts several superlatives in its collection of flora: the largest trees, the tallest trees, and the oldest trees. California's native grasses are perennial plants. After European contact, these were generally replaced by invasive species of European annual grasses; and, in modern times, California's hills turn a characteristic golden-brown in summer. \n\nBecause California has the greatest diversity of climate and terrain, the state has six life zones which are the lower Sonoran (desert); upper Sonoran (foothill regions and some coastal lands), transition (coastal areas and moist northeastern counties); and the Canadian, Hudsonian, and Arctic Zones, comprising the state's highest elevations. \n\nPlant life in the dry climate of the lower Sonoran zone contains a diversity of native cactus, mesquite, and paloverde. The Joshua tree is found in the Mojave Desert. Flowering plants include the dwarf desert poppy and a variety of asters. Fremont cottonwood and valley oak thrive in the Central Valley. The upper Sonoran zone includes the chaparral belt, characterized by forests of small shrubs, stunted trees, and herbaceous plants. Nemophila, mint, Phacelia, Viola, and the California poppy (Eschscholzia californica) – the state flower – also flourish in this zone, along with the lupine, more species of which occur here than anywhere else in the world.\n\nThe transition zone includes most of California's forests with the redwood (Sequoia sempervirens) and the \"big tree\" or giant sequoia (Sequoiadendron giganteum), among the oldest living things on earth (some are said to have lived at least 4,000 years). Tanbark oak, California laurel, sugar pine, madrona, broad-leaved maple, and Douglas-fir also grow here. Forest floors are covered with swordfern, alumnroot, barrenwort, and trillium, and there are thickets of huckleberry, azalea, elder, and wild currant. Characteristic wild flowers include varieties of mariposa, tulip, and tiger and leopard lilies. \n\nThe high elevations of the Canadian zone allow the Jeffrey pine, red fir, and lodgepole pine to thrive. Brushy areas are abundant with dwarf manzanita and ceanothus; the unique Sierra puffball is also found here. Right below the timberline, in the Hudsonian zone, the whitebark, foxtail, and silver pines grow. At about 10500 ft, begins the Arctic zone, a treeless region whose flora include a number of wildflowers, including Sierra primrose, yellow columbine, alpine buttercup, and alpine shooting star. \n\nCommon plants that have been introduced to the state include the eucalyptus, acacia, pepper tree, geranium, and Scotch broom. The species that are federally classified as endangered are the Contra Costa wallflower, Antioch Dunes evening primrose, Solano grass, San Clemente Island larkspur, salt marsh bird's beak, McDonald's rock-cress, and Santa Barbara Island liveforever. , 85 plant species were listed as threatened or endangered.\n\nIn the deserts of the lower Sonoran zone, the mammals include the jackrabbit, kangaroo rat, squirrel, and opossum. Common birds include the owl, roadrunner, cactus wren, and various species of hawk. The area's reptilian life include the sidewinder viper, desert tortoise, and horned toad. The upper Sonoran zone boasts mammals such as the antelope, brown-footed woodrat, and ring-tailed cat. Birds unique to this zone are the California thrasher, bushtit, and California condor. \n\nIn the transition zone, there are Colombian black-tailed deer, black bears, gray foxes, cougars, bobcats, and Roosevelt elk. Reptiles such as the garter snakes and rattlesnakes inhabit the zone. In addition, amphibians such as the water puppy and redwood salamander are common too. Birds such as the kingfisher, chickadee, towhee, and hummingbird thrive here as well. \n\nThe Canadian zone mammals include the mountain weasel, snowshoe hare, and several species of chipmunks. Conspicuous birds include the blue-fronted jay, Sierra chickadee. Sierra hermit thrush, water ouzel, and Townsend's solitaire. As one ascends into the Hudsonian zone, birds become scarcer. While the Sierra rosy finch is the only bird native to the high Arctic region, other bird species such as the hummingbird and Clark's nutcracker. Principal mammals found in this region include the Sierra coney, white-tailed jackrabbit, and the bighorn sheep. , the bighorn sheep was listed as endangered by the US Fish and Wildlife Service. The fauna found throughout several zones are the mule deer, coyote, mountain lion, northern flicker, and several species of hawk and sparrow.\n\nAquatic life in California thrives, from the state's mountain lakes and streams to the rocky Pacific coastline. Numerous trout species are found, among them rainbow, golden, and cutthroat. Migratory species of salmon are common as well. Deep-sea life forms include sea bass, yellowfin tuna, barracuda, and several types of whale. Native to the cliffs of northern California are seals, sea lions, and many types of shorebirds, including migratory species.\n\nAs of April 2003, 118 California animals were on the federal endangered list; 181 plants were listed as endangered or threatened. Endangered animals include the San Joaquin kitfox, Point Arena mountain beaver, Pacific pocket mouse, salt marsh harvest mouse, Morro Bay kangaroo rat (and five other species of kangaroo rat), Amargosa vole, California least tern, California condor, loggerhead shrike, San Clemente sage sparrow, San Francisco garter snake, five species of salamander, three species of chub, and two species of pupfish. Eleven butterflies are also endangered and two that are threatened are on the federal list. Among threatened animals are the coastal California gnatcatcher, Paiute cutthroat trout, southern sea otter, and northern spotted owl. California has a total of 290821 acre of National Wildlife Refuges. , 123 California animals were listed as either endangered or threatened on the federal list provided by the US Fish & Wildlife Service. Also, , 178 species of California plants were listed either as endangered or threatened on this federal list.\n\nRivers\n\nThe vast majority of rivers in California are dammed as part of two massive water projects: the Central Valley Project, providing water to the agricultural central valley, the California State Water Project diverting water from northern to southern California. The state's coasts, rivers, and other bodies of water are regulated by the California Coastal Commission.\n\nThe two most prominent rivers within California are the Sacramento River and the San Joaquin River, which drain the Central Valley and the west slope of the Sierra Nevada and flow to the Pacific Ocean through San Francisco Bay. Several major tributaries feed into the Sacramento and the San Joaquin, including the Pit River, the Tuolumne River, and the Feather River.\n\nThe Eel River and Salinas River each drain portions of the California coast, north and south of San Francisco Bay, respectively, and the Eel River is the largest river in the state to remain in its natural un-dammed state. The Mojave River is the primary watercourse in the Mojave Desert, and the Santa Ana River drains much of the Transverse Ranges as it bisects Southern California. Some other important rivers are the Klamath River and the Trinity River in the far north coast, and the Colorado River on the southeast border with Arizona.\n\nRegions\n\nDemographics\n\nPopulation\n\nThe United States Census Bureau estimates that the population of California was 39,144,818 on July 1, 2015, a 5.08% increase since the 2010 United States Census. Between 2000 and 2009, there was a natural increase of 3,090,016 (5,058,440 births minus 2,179,958 deaths). During this time period, international migration produced a net increase of 1,816,633 people while domestic migration produced a net decrease of 1,509,708, resulting in a net in-migration of 306,925 people. The state of California's own statistics show a population of 38,292,687 for January 1, 2009. However, according to the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, since 1990 almost 3.4 million Californians have moved to other states, with most leaving to Texas, Nevada, and Arizona. \n\nCalifornia is the second-most-populous sub-national entity in the Western Hemisphere and the Americas, with a population second to that of State of São Paulo, Brazil. California's population is greater than that of all but 34 countries of the world. The Greater Los Angeles Area is the second-largest metropolitan area in the United States, after the New York metropolitan area, while Los Angeles, with nearly half the population of New York City, is the second-largest city in the United States. Also, Los Angeles County has held the title of most populous U.S. county for decades, and it alone is more populous than 42 U.S. states. In addition to Los Angeles, California is home to seven of the other 50 most populous cities in the United States: San Diego (8th), San Jose (10th), San Francisco (13th), Fresno (34th), Sacramento (35th), Long Beach (36th), and Oakland (47th). The center of population of California is located in the town of Buttonwillow, Kern County.\n\nCities and metropolitan areas\n\nThe state has 482 incorporated cities and towns; of which 460 are cities and 22 are towns. Under California law, the terms \"city\" and \"town\" are explicitly interchangeable; the name of an incorporated municipality in the state can either be \"City of (Name)\" or \"Town of (Name)\". \n\nSacramento became California's first incorporated city on February 27, 1850. San Jose, San Diego and Benicia tied for California's second incorporated city, each receiving incorporation on March 27, 1850. Jurupa Valley became the state's most recent and 482nd incorporated municipality on July 1, 2011. \n\nThe majority of these cities and towns are within one of five metropolitan areas: the Los Angeles Metropolitan Area, the San Francisco Bay Area, the Riverside-San Bernardino Area, the San Diego metropolitan area and the Sacramento metropolitan area.\n\nImmigration\n\nStarting in the year 2010, for the first time since the California Gold Rush, California-born residents make up the majority of the state's population. Along with the rest of the U.S., California's immigration pattern has also shifted over the course of the late 2000s-early 2010s. Immigration from Latin American countries has dropped significantly with most immigrants now coming from Asia. In total for 2011, there were 277,304 immigrants. 57% came from Asian countries vs. 22% from Latin American countries. Net immigration from Mexico, previously the most common country of origin for new immigrants has dropped to zero/less than zero, since more Mexican nationals are departing for their home country than immigrating. As a result it is estimated that Hispanics citizens will constitute 49% of the population by 2060, instead of the previously projected 2050, due primarily to domestic births. \n\nIllegal immigration\n\nThe state's population of illegal immigrants has been shrinking in recent years, due to increased enforcement and decreased job opportunities for lower-skilled workers. The number of migrants arrested attempting to cross the Mexican border in the Southwest plunged from a high of 1.1 million in 2005 to just 367,000 in 2011. Despite these recent trends, illegal aliens constituted an estimated 7.3 percent of the state's population, the third highest percentage of any state in the country, behind Nevada and Arizona totaling nearly 2.6 million. In particular, illegal immigrants tended to be concentrated in Los Angeles, Monterey, San Benito, Imperial, and Napa Counties – the latter four of which have significant agricultural industries that depend on manual labor. More than half of illegal immigrants originate from Mexico.\n\nRacial and ancestral makeup\n\nAccording to the U.S. Census Bureau during the 2010 Census the population self-identifies as (alone or in combination): \n* 61.6% White (22,953,374)(57.6% single-race White) \n* 14.9% Asian (5,556,592)(13.0% single-race Asian)(Filipino 1,474,707; Chinese 1,349,111; Vietnamese 647,589; Indian 590,445; Korean 505,225; Japanese 428,014; Taiwanese 109,928; Cambodian 102,317) \n* 7.2% Black or African American (2,684,914)(6.2% single-race Black or African American)\n* 1.9% Native American and Alaska Native (723,225)(1.0% single-race Native American and Alaska Native)(Cherokee 92,246; Mexican American 66,424; Apache 24,799; Choctaw 23,403; Navajo 17,080) \n* 0.8% Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander (286,145)(0.4% single-race Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander)(Hawaiian 74,932; Samoan 60,876; Chamorro 44,425) \n37.6% are Hispanic or Latino (of any race) (14,013,719) (19.3% White Hispanic or Latino, 0.9% Asian Hispanic or Latino, 0.7% Black Hispanic or Latino, 0.9% Native American Hispanic or Latino, 0.1% Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander Hispanic or Latino)\n\nIn terms of total numbers, California has the largest population of White Americans in the U.S., an estimated 22,200,000 residents. The state has the 5th largest population of African Americans in the U.S., an estimated 2,250,000 residents. California's Asian American population is estimated at 4.4 million, constituting a third of the nation's total. California's Native American population of 285,000 is the most of any state. \n\nAccording to estimates from 2011, California has the largest minority population in the United States by numbers, making up 60% of the state population. Over the past 25 years, the population of non-Hispanic whites has declined, while Hispanic and Asian populations have grown. Between 1970 and 2011, non-Hispanic whites declined from 80% of the State's population to 40%, while Hispanics grew from 32% in 2000 to 38% in 2011. It is currently projected that Hispanics will rise to 49% of the population by 2060, primarily due to domestic births rather than immigration. With the decline of immigration from Latin America, Asian Americans now constitute the fastest growing racial/ethnic group in California; this growth primarily driven by immigration from China, India and the Philippines, respectively. \n\nLanguages\n\nEnglish serves as California's De jure and De facto official language. In 2010, the Modern Language Association of America estimated that 57.02% (19,429,309) of California residents age 5 and older spoke only English at home, while 42.98% spoke another primary language at home. According to the 2007 American Community Survey, 73% of people who speak a language other than English at home are able to speak English well or very well, with 9.8% not speaking English at all. Unlike most U.S. States, California law enshrines English as its official language (rather than it being simply the most commonly used), since the passage of Proposition 63 by California voters. Additionally, Proposition 227 requires instruction in public schools take place in English. Yet, various government agencies do, and are often required to, furnish documents in the various languages needed to reach their intended audiences. \n\nIn total, 16 languages other than English were spoken as primary languages at home by more than 100,000 persons, more than any other state in the nation. New York State, in second place, had 9 languages other than English spoken by more than 100,000 persons. The most common language spoken besides English was Spanish, spoken by 28.46% (9,696,638) of the population. As the primary driver of the Hispanic population is domestic births, however, it is estimated the Spanish language use will peak and then decline over the course of the coming decades. With Asia contributing most of California's new immigrants, California had the highest concentration nationwide of Vietnamese and Chinese speakers, the second highest concentration of Korean, and the third highest concentration of Tagalog speakers.\n\nCalifornia has historically been one of the most linguistically diverse areas in the world, with more than 70 indigenous languages derived from 64 root languages in 6 language families. A survey conducted between 2007 and 2009 identified 23 different indigenous languages of Mexico that are spoken among California farmworkers. All of California's indigenous languages are endangered, although there are now efforts toward language revitalization.The following are a list of the indigenous languages: Root languages of California: Athabaskan Family: Hupa, Mattole, Lassik, Wailaki, Sinkyone, Cahto, Tolowa, Nongatl, Wiyot, Chilula; Hokan Family: Pomo, Shasta, Karok, Chimiriko; Algonquian Family: Whilkut, Yurok; Yukian Family: Wappo; Penutian Family: Modok, Wintu, Nomlaki, Konkow, Maidu, Patwin, Nisenan, Miwok, Coast Miwok, Lake Miwok, Ohlone, Northern Valley Yokuts, Southern Valley Yokuts, Foothill Yokuts; Hokan Family: Esselen, Salinan, Chumash, Ipai, Tipai, Yuma, Halchichoma, Mohave; Uto-Aztecan Family: Mono Paiute, Monache, Owens Valley Paiute, Tubatulabal, Panamint Shoshone, Kawaisu, Kitanemuk, Tataviam, Gabrielino, Juaneno, Luiseno, Cuipeno, Cahuilla, Serrano, Chemehuevi\n\nAs a result of the state's increasing diversity and migration from other areas across the country and around the globe, linguists began noticing a noteworthy set of emerging characteristics of spoken English in California since the late 20th century. This dialect, known as California English, has a vowel shift and several other phonological processes that are different from the dialects used in other regions of the country. \n\nCulture\n\nThe culture of California is a Western culture and most clearly has its modern roots in the culture of the United States, but also, historically, many Hispanic influences. As a border and coastal state, Californian culture has been greatly influenced by several large immigrant populations, especially those from Latin America and Asia. \n\nCalifornia has long been a subject of interest in the public mind and has often been promoted by its boosters as a kind of paradise. In the early 20th century, fueled by the efforts of state and local boosters, many Americans saw the Golden State as an ideal resort destination, sunny and dry all year round with easy access to the ocean and mountains. In the 1960s, popular music groups such as The Beach Boys promoted the image of Californians as laid-back, tanned beach-goers.\n\nThe California Gold Rush of the 1850s is still seen as a symbol of California's economic style, which tends to generate technology, social, entertainment, and economic fads and booms and related busts.\n\nReligion\n\nThe largest religious denominations by number of adherents as a percentage of California's population in 2014 were the Catholic Church with 28 percent; Evangelical Protestants with 20 percent; and Mainline Protestants with 10 percent. Those unaffiliated with any religion represented 27 percent of the population. The breakdown of other religions is 1% Muslim, 2% Hindu and 2% Buddhist. This is a change from 2008, when the population identified their religion with the Catholic Church with 31 percent; Evangelical Protestants with 18 percent; and Mainline Protestants with 14 percent. In 2008, those unaffiliated with any religion represented 21 percent of the population. The breakdown of other religions in 2008 was 0.5% Muslim, 1% Hindu and 2% Buddhist. The American Jewish Year Book placed the total Jewish population of California at about 1,194,190 in 2006. According to the Association of Religion Data Archives (ARDA) the largest denominations by adherents in 2010 were the Roman Catholic Church with 10,233,334; The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints with 763,818; and the Southern Baptist Convention with 489,953. \n\nThe first priests to come to California were Roman Catholic missionaries from Spain. Roman Catholics founded 21 missions along the California coast, as well as the cities of Los Angeles and San Francisco. California continues to have a large Roman Catholic population due to the large numbers of Mexicans and Central Americans living within its borders. California has twelve dioceses and two archdioceses, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles and the Archdiocese of San Francisco, the former being the largest archdiocese in the United States.\n\nA Pew Research Center survey revealed that California is somewhat less religious than the rest of the US: 62 percent of Californians say they are \"absolutely certain\" of their belief in God, while in the nation 71 percent say so. The survey also revealed 48 percent of Californians say religion is \"very important\", compared to 56 percent nationally. \n\nEconomy\n\nThe economy of California is large enough to be comparable to that of the largest of countries. , the gross state product (GSP) is about $2.203 trillion, the largest in the United States. California is responsible for 13.2 percent of the United States' approximate $16.7 trillion gross domestic product (GDP). California's GSP is larger than the GDP of all but 7 countries in dollar terms (the United States, China, Japan, Germany, France, Brazil, and the United Kingdom), larger than Russia, Italy, India, Canada, Australia, Spain and Turkey. In Purchasing Power Parity, it is larger than all but 10 countries (the United States, China, India, Japan, Germany, Russia, Brazil, France, the United Kingdom, and Indonesia), larger than Italy, Mexico, Spain, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, Canada and Turkey. \n\nThe five largest sectors of employment in California are trade, transportation, and utilities; government; professional and business services; education and health services; and leisure and hospitality. In output, the five largest sectors are financial services, followed by trade, transportation, and utilities; education and health services; government; and manufacturing. , California has the 5th highest unemployment rate in the nation at 7.6%. \n\nCalifornia's economy is dependent on trade and international related commerce accounts for about one-quarter of the state's economy. In 2008, California exported $144 billion worth of goods, up from $134 billion in 2007 and $127 billion in 2006. \nComputers and electronic products are California's top export, accounting for 42 percent of all the state's exports in 2008.\n\nAgriculture is an important sector in California's economy. Farming-related sales more than quadrupled over the past three decades, from $7.3 billion in 1974 to nearly $31 billion in 2004. This increase has occurred despite a 15 percent decline in acreage devoted to farming during the period, and water supply suffering from chronic instability. Factors contributing to the growth in sales-per-acre include more intensive use of active farmlands and technological improvements in crop production. In 2008, California's 81,500 farms and ranches generated $36.2 billion products revenue. In 2011, that number grew to $43.5 billion products revenue. The Agriculture sector accounts for two percent of the state's GDP and employs around three percent of its total workforce. According to the USDA in 2011, the three largest California agricultural products by value were milk and cream, shelled almonds, and grapes. \n\nPer capita GDP in 2007 was $38,956, ranking eleventh in the nation. Per capita income varies widely by geographic region and profession. The Central Valley is the most impoverished, with migrant farm workers making less than minimum wage. According to a 2005 report by the Congressional Research Service, the San Joaquin Valley was characterized as one of the most economically depressed regions in the U.S., on par with the region of Appalachia. California has a poverty rate of 23.5%, the highest of any state in the country. Many coastal cities include some of the wealthiest per-capita areas in the U.S. The high-technology sectors in Northern California, specifically Silicon Valley, in Santa Clara and San Mateo counties, have emerged from the economic downturn caused by the dot-com bust.\n\nIn 2010, there were more than 663,000 millionaires in the state, more than any other state in the nation. In 2010, California residents were ranked first among the states with the best average credit score of 754. \n\nState finances\n\nState spending increased from $56 billion in 1998 to $127 billion in 2011. California, with 12% of the U.S. population, has one-third of the nation's welfare recipients. California has the third highest per capita spending on welfare among the states, as well as the highest spending on welfare at $6.67 billion. In January 2011 the California's total debt was at least $265 billion. On June 27, 2013, Governor Jerry Brown signed a balanced budget (no deficit) for the state, its first in decades; however the state's debt remains at $132 billion. \n\nWith the passage of Proposition 30 in 2012, California now levies a 13.3% maximum marginal income tax rate with ten tax brackets, ranging from 1% at the bottom tax bracket of $0 annual individual income to 13.3% for annual individual income over $1,000,000. California has a state sales tax of 7.5%, though local governments can and do levy additional sales taxes. Many of these taxes are temporary for a seven-year period (as stipulated in Proposition 30) and afterwards will revert to a previous maximum marginal income tax bracket of 10.3% and state sales tax rate of 7.25%. \n\nAll real property is taxable annually; the tax is based on the property's fair market value at the time of purchase or new construction. Property tax increases are capped at 2% per year (see Proposition 13).\n\nInfrastructure\n\nEnergy\n\n \n\nBecause it is the most populous U.S. state, California is one of the country's largest users of energy. However because of its high energy rates, conservation mandates, mild weather in the largest population centers and strong environmental movement, its per capita energy use is one of the smallest of any U.S. state. Due to the high electricity demand, California imports more electricity than any other state, primarily hydroelectric power from states in the Pacific Northwest (via Path 15 and Path 66) and coal- and natural gas-fired production from the desert Southwest via Path 46. \n\nAs a result of the state's strong environmental movement, California has some of the most aggressive renewable energy goals in the United States, with a target for California to obtain a third of its electricity from renewables by 2020. Currently, several solar power plants such as the Solar Energy Generating Systems facility are located in the Mojave Desert. California's wind farms include Altamont Pass, San Gorgonio Pass, and Tehachapi Pass. Several dams across the state provide hydro-electric power. It would be possible to convert the total supply to 100% renewable energy, including heating, cooling and mobility, by 2050. \n\nThe state's crude oil and natural gas deposits are located in the Central Valley and along the coast, including the large Midway-Sunset Oil Field. Natural gas-fired power plants typically account for more than one-half of state electricity generation.\n\nCalifornia is also home to two major nuclear power plants: Diablo Canyon and San Onofre, the latter having been shut down in 2013. Also voters banned the approval of new nuclear power plants since the late 1970s because of concerns over radioactive waste disposal. In addition, several cities such as Oakland, Berkeley and Davis have declared themselves as nuclear-free zones.\n\nTransportation\n\nCalifornia's vast terrain is connected by an extensive system of controlled-access highways ('freeways'), limited-access roads ('expressways'), and highways. California is known for its car culture, giving California's cities a reputation for severe traffic congestion. Construction and maintenance of state roads and statewide transportation planning are primarily the responsibility of the California Department of Transportation, nicknamed \"Caltrans\". The rapidly growing population of the state is straining all of its transportation networks, and California has some of the worst roads in the United States. The Reason Foundation's 19th Annual Report on the Performance of State Highway Systems ranked California's highways the third-worst of any state, with Alaska second, and Rhode Island first. \n\nThe state has been a pioneer in road construction. One of the state's more visible landmarks, the Golden Gate Bridge, was once the longest suspension bridge main span in the world at 4200 ft when it opened in 1937. With its orange paint and panoramic views of the bay, this highway bridge is a popular tourist attraction and also accommodates pedestrians and bicyclists. The San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge (often abbreviated the \"Bay Bridge\"), completed in 1936, transports about 280,000 vehicles per day on two-decks. Its two sections meet at Yerba Buena Island through the world's largest diameter transportation bore tunnel, at 76 ft wide by 58 ft high. The Arroyo Seco Parkway, connecting Los Angeles and Pasadena, opened in 1940 as the first freeway in the Western United States. It was later extended south to the Four Level Interchange in downtown Los Angeles, regarded as the first stack interchange ever built. \n\nLos Angeles International Airport (LAX), the 6th busiest airport in the world, and San Francisco International Airport (SFO), the 21st busiest airport in the world, are major hubs for trans-Pacific and transcontinental traffic. There are about a dozen important commercial airports and many more general aviation airports throughout the state.\n\nCalifornia also has several important seaports. The giant seaport complex formed by the Port of Los Angeles and the Port of Long Beach in Southern California is the largest in the country and responsible for handling about a fourth of all container cargo traffic in the United States. The Port of Oakland, fourth largest in the nation, also handles trade entering from the Pacific Rim to the rest of the country.\n\nThe California Highway Patrol is the largest statewide police agency in the United States in employment with over 10,000 employees. They are responsible for providing any police-sanctioned service to anyone on California's state maintained highways and on state property.\n\nThe California Department of Motor Vehicles is by far the largest in North America. By the end of 2009, the California DMV had 26,555,006 driver's licenses and ID cards on file. In 2010, there were 1.17 million new vehicle registrations in force. \n\nIntercity rail travel is provided by Amtrak California, which manages the three busiest intercity rail lines in the U.S. outside the Northeast Corridor, all of which are funded by Caltrans. This service is becoming increasingly popular over flying and ridership is continuing to set records, especially on the LAX-SFO route. Integrated subway and light rail networks are found in Los Angeles (Metro Rail) and San Francisco (MUNI Metro). Light rail systems are also found in San Jose (VTA), San Diego (San Diego Trolley), Sacramento (RT Light Rail), and Northern San Diego County (Sprinter). Furthermore, commuter rail networks serve the San Francisco Bay Area (ACE, BART, Caltrain), Greater Los Angeles (Metrolink), and San Diego County (Coaster).\n\nThe California High-Speed Rail Authority was created in 1996 by the state to implement an extensive 700 mi rail system. Construction was approved by the voters during the November 2008 general election, a $9.95 billion state bond will go toward its construction. Nearly all counties operate bus lines, and many cities operate their own city bus lines as well. Intercity bus travel is provided by Greyhound and Amtrak Thruway Coach.\n\nWater\n\nCalifornia's interconnected water system is the world's largest, managing over 40,000,000 acre feet of water per year, centered on six main systems of aqueducts and infrastructure projects. Water use and conservation in California is a politically divisive issue, as the state experiences periodic droughts and has to balance the demands of its large agricultural and urban sectors, especially in the arid southern portion of the state. The state's widespread redistribution of water also invites the frequent scorn of environmentalists.\n\nThe California Water Wars, a conflict between Los Angeles and the Owens Valley over water rights, is one of the most well-known examples of the struggle to secure adequate water supplies. Former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger said: \"We've been in crisis for quite some time because we're now 38 million people and not anymore 18 million people like we were in the late 60s. So it developed into a battle between environmentalists and farmers and between the south and the north and between rural and urban. And everyone has been fighting for the last four decades about water.\" \n\nGovernment and politics\n\nGovernment\n\nThe state's capital is Sacramento.\n\nCalifornia is organized into three branches of government – the executive branch consisting of the Governor and the other independently elected constitutional officers; the legislative branch consisting of the Assembly and Senate; and the judicial branch consisting of the Supreme Court of California and lower courts. The state also allows ballot propositions: direct participation of the electorate by initiative, referendum, recall, and ratification. Before the passage of California Proposition 14 (2010), California allowed each political party to choose whether to have a closed primary or a primary where only party members and independents vote. After June 8, 2010 when Proposition 14 was approved, excepting only the U.S. President and county central committee offices, all candidates in the primary elections are listed on the ballot with their preferred party affiliation, but they are not the official nominee of that party. At the primary election, the two candidates with the top votes will advance to the general election regardless of party affiliation. If at a special primary election, one candidate receives more than 50% of all the votes cast, they are elected to fill the vacancy and no special general election will be held.\n\n;Executive branch\nThe California executive branch consists of the Governor of California and seven other elected constitutional officers: Lieutenant Governor, Attorney General, Secretary of State, State Controller, State Treasurer, Insurance Commissioner, and State Superintendent of Public Instruction. They serve four-year terms and may be re-elected only once. \n\n;Legislative branch\nThe California State Legislature consists of a 40-member Senate and 80-member Assembly. Senators serve four-year terms and Assembly members two. Members of the Assembly are subject to term limits of three terms, and members of the Senate are subject to term limits of two terms.\n\n;Judicial branch\nCalifornia's legal system is explicitly based upon English common law (as is the case with all other states except Louisiana) but carries a few features from Spanish civil law, such as community property. California's prison population grew from 25,000 in 1980 to over 170,000 in 2007. Capital punishment is a legal form of punishment and the state has the largest \"Death Row\" population in the country (though Texas is far more active in carrying out executions).\n\nCalifornia's judiciary system is the largest in the United States (with a total of 1,600 judges, while the federal system has only about 840). At the apex is the seven Justices of the Supreme Court of California, while the California Courts of Appeal serve as the primary appellate courts and the California Superior Courts serve as the primary trial courts. Justices of the Supreme Court and Courts of Appeal are appointed by the Governor, but are subject to retention by the electorate every 12 years. The administration of the state's court system is controlled by the Judicial Council, composed of the Chief Justice of the California Supreme Court, 14 judicial officers, four representatives from the State Bar of California, and one member from each house of the state legislature.\n\nLocal government\n\nCounties\n\nCalifornia is divided into 58 counties. Per Article 11, Section 1, of the Constitution of California, they are the legal subdivisions of the state. The county government provides countywide services such as law enforcement, jails, elections and voter registration, vital records, property assessment and records, tax collection, public health, health care, social services, libraries, flood control, fire protection, animal control, agricultural regulations, building inspections, ambulance services, and education departments in charge of maintaining statewide standards. In addition, the county serves as the local government for all unincorporated areas. Each county is governed by an elected board of supervisors.\n\nCity and town governments\n\nIncorporated cities and towns in California are either charter or general-law municipalities. General-law municipalities owe their existence to state law and are consequently governed by it; charter municipalities are governed by their own city or town charters. Municipalities incorporated in the 19th century tend to be charter municipalities. All ten of the state's most populous cities are charter cities. Most small cities have a council-manager form of government, where the elected city council appoints a city manager to supervise the operations of the city. Some larger cities have a directly-elected mayor who oversees the city government. In many council-manager cities, the city council selects one of its members as a mayor, sometimes rotating through the council membership—but this type of mayoral position is primarily ceremonial.\n\nThe Government of San Francisco is the only consolidated city-county in California, where both the city and county governments have been merged into one unified jurisdiction. The San Francisco Board of Supervisors also acts as the city council and the Mayor of San Francisco also serves as the county administrative officer.\n\nSchool districts and special districts\n\nAbout 1,102 school districts, independent of cities and counties, handle California's public education. California school districts may be organized as elementary districts, high school districts, unified school districts combining elementary and high school grades, or community college districts.\n\nThere are about 3,400 special districts in California. A special district, defined by California Government Code § 16271(d) as \"any agency of the state for the local performance of governmental or proprietary functions within limited boundaries\", provides a limited range of services within a defined geographic area. The geographic area of a special district can spread across multiple cities or counties, or could consist of only a portion of one. Most of California's special districts are single-purpose districts, and provide one service.\n\nFederal representation\n\nThe state of California sends 53 members to the House of Representatives, the nation's largest congressional state delegation. Consequently California also has the largest number of electoral votes in national presidential elections, with 55. California's U.S. Senators are Dianne Feinstein, a native and former mayor of San Francisco, and Barbara Boxer, a former congresswoman from Marin County. As of the beginning of the 114th Congress this is the current longest continuous representation of a state by the same senators, dating from Boxer's accession in 1993.\n\nPolitics\n\nCalifornia has an idiosyncratic political culture compared to the rest of the country, and is sometimes regarded as a trendsetter. In socio-cultural mores and national politics, Californians are perceived as more liberal than other Americans, especially those who live in the inland states.\n\nAmong the political idiosyncrasies and trendsetting, California was the second state to recall their state governor, the second state to legalize abortion, and the only state to ban marriage for gay couples twice by voters (including Proposition 8 in 2008). Voters also passed Proposition 71 in 2004 to fund stem cell research, and Proposition 14 in 2010 to completely change the state's primary election process. California has also experienced disputes over water rights; and a tax revolt, culminating with the passage of Proposition 13 in 1978, limiting state property taxes.\n\nThe state's trend towards the Democratic Party and away from the Republican Party can be seen in state elections. From 1899 to 1939, California had Republican governors. Since 1990, California has generally elected Democratic candidates to federal, state and local offices, including current Governor Jerry Brown; however, the state has elected Republican Governors, though many of its Republican Governors, such as Arnold Schwarzenegger, tend to be considered moderate Republicans and more centrist than the national party.\n\nThe Democrats also now hold a majority in both houses of the state legislature. There are 56 Democrats and 24 Republicans in the Assembly; and 26 Democrats and 12 Republicans in the Senate.\n\nThe trend towards the Democratic Party is most obvious in presidential elections; Republicans have not won California's electoral votes since 1988. Additionally, both the state's current Democratic U.S. Senators, Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer, have held onto their seats since they were first elected in 1992.\n\nIn the U.S. House, the Democrats held a 34–19 edge in the CA delegation of the 110th United States Congress in 2007. As the result of gerrymandering, the districts in California were usually dominated by one or the other party, and few districts were considered competitive. In 2008, Californians passed Proposition 20 to empower a 14-member independent citizen commission to redraw districts for both local politicians and Congress. After the 2012 elections, when the new system took effect, Democrats gained 4 seats and held a 38-15 majority in the delegation.\n\nIn general, Democratic strength is centered in the populous coastal regions of the Los Angeles metropolitan area and the San Francisco Bay Area. Republican strength is still greatest in eastern parts of the state. Orange County also remains mostly Republican. One study ranked Berkeley, Oakland, Inglewood and San Francisco in the top 20 most liberal American cities; and Bakersfield, Orange, Escondido, Garden Grove, and Simi Valley in the top 20 most conservative cities. \n\nIn October 2012, out of the 23,802,577 people eligible to vote, 18,245,970 people were registered to vote. Of the people registered, the three largest registered groups were Democrats (7,966,422), Republicans (5,356,608), and Decline to State (3,820,545). Los Angeles County had the largest number of registered Democrats (2,430,612) and Republicans (1,037,031) of any county in the state.\n\nLGBT\n\nCalifornia is considered generally liberal in its policies regarding the LGBT community, and the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people have received greater recognition since 1960 at both the state and municipal level. California is home to a number of gay villages such as the Castro District in San Francisco, Hillcrest in San Diego, and West Hollywood. Through the Domestic Partnership Act of 1999, California became the first state in the United States to recognize same-sex relationships in any legal capacity. In 2000, voters passed Proposition 22, which restricted state recognition of marriage to opposite-sex couples. This was struck down by the California Supreme Court in May 2008, effectively legalizing same-sex marriage; however, this was overruled later that same year when California voters passed Proposition 8. After further judicial cases, in 2013 the U.S. Supreme Court rendered the law void, allowing same-sex marriages in California to resume.\n\nArmed forces\n\nIn California, , the U.S. Department of Defense had a total of 117,806 active duty servicemembers of which 88,370 were Sailors or Marines, 18,339 were Airmen, and 11,097 were Soldiers, with 61,365 Department of Defense civilian employees. Additionally, there were a total of 57,792 Reservists and Guardsman in California.\n\nIn 2010, Los Angeles County was the largest origin of military recruits in the United States by county, with 1,437 individuals enlisting in the military.\n However, as of 2002, Californians were relatively under-represented in the military as a proportion to its population. \n\nIn 2000, California, had 2,569,340 veterans of U.S. military service: 504,010 served in World War II, 301,034 in the Korean War, 754,682 during the Vietnam War, and 278,003 during 1990–2000 (including the Persian Gulf War). , there were 1,942,775 veterans living in California, of which 1,457,875 served during a period of armed conflict, and just over four thousand served before World War II (the largest population of this group of any state).\n\nCalifornia's military forces consist of the Army and Air National Guard, the naval and state military reserve (militia), and the California Cadet Corps.\n\nEducation\n\nPublic secondary education consists of high schools that teach elective courses in trades, languages, and liberal arts with tracks for gifted, college-bound and industrial arts students. California's public educational system is supported by a unique constitutional amendment that requires a minimum annual funding level for grades K–12 and community colleges that grows with the economy and student enrollment figures. \n\nCalifornia had over 6.2 million school students in the 2005–06 school year. Funding and staffing levels in California schools lag behind other states. In expenditure per pupil, California ranked 29th (of the 50 states and the District of Columbia) in 2005–06. In teaching staff expenditure per pupil, California ranked 49th of 51. In overall teacher-pupil ratio, California was also 49th, with 21 students per teacher. Only Arizona and Utah were lower. \n\nA 2007 study concluded that California's public school system was \"broken\" in that it suffered from over-regulation. \n\nCalifornia's public postsecondary education offers three separate systems:\n* The research university system in the state is the University of California (UC), a public university system. As of fall 2011, the University of California had a combined student body of 234,464 students. There are ten general UC campuses, and a number of specialized campuses in the UC system. The system was originally intended to accept the top one-eighth of California high school students, but several of the schools have become even more selective. The UC system was originally given exclusive authority in awarding Ph.Ds, but this has since changed and the CSU is also able to award several Doctoral degrees.\n* The California State University (CSU) system has almost 430,000 students, making it the largest university system in the United States. The CSU was originally intended to accept the top one-third of California high school students, but several of the schools have become much more selective. The CSU was originally set up to award only bachelor's and master's degrees, but has since been granted the authority to award several Doctoral degrees.\n* The California Community Colleges System provides lower division coursework as well as basic skills and workforce training. It is the largest network of higher education in the US, composed of 112 colleges serving a student population of over 2.6 million.\n\nCalifornia is also home to such notable private universities as Stanford University, the University of Southern California, the California Institute of Technology, and the Claremont Colleges. California has hundreds of other private colleges and universities, including many religious and special-purpose institutions.\n\nSports\n\nCalifornia has twenty major professional sports league franchises, far more than any other state. The San Francisco Bay Area has seven major league teams spread in its three major cities: San Francisco, San Jose, and Oakland. While the Greater Los Angeles Area is home to ten major league franchises. San Diego has two major league teams, and Sacramento has one. The NFL Super Bowl has been hosted in California 11 times at four different stadiums: Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, the Rose Bowl, Stanford Stadium, and San Diego's Qualcomm Stadium. A twelfth, Super Bowl 50, was held at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara on February 7, 2016. \n\nCalifornia has long had many respected collegiate sports programs. California is home to the oldest college bowl game, the annual Rose Bowl, among others.\n\nCalifornia is the only US state to have hosted both the Summer and Winter Olympics. The 1932 and 1984 Summer Olympics were held in Los Angeles. Squaw Valley Ski Resort in the Lake Tahoe region hosted the 1960 Winter Olympics. Multiple games during the 1994 FIFA World Cup took place in California, with the Rose Bowl hosting eight matches including the final, while Stanford Stadium hosted six matches.\n\nBelow is a list of major league sports teams in California:", "Bodega Bay is a town and census-designated place (CDP) in Sonoma County, California, United States. The population was 1,077 at the 2010 census. The town, located along State Route 1, is on the eastern side of Bodega Harbor, an inlet of Bodega Bay on the Pacific coast.\n\nBodega Bay is the site of the first Russian structures built in California, which were built in 1809 by Commerce Counseller Ivan Alexandrovich Kuskov of the Russian-American Company in the lead-up to the establishment of Fort Ross. For the Russians, the settlement in Bodega Bay was called Port Rumyantsev, named after the Russian Foreign Minister Nikolai Petrovich Rumyantsev, and it served as a port to support Fort Ross and the larger Russian community known as Colony Ross. \n\nThe location scenes in the Alfred Hitchcock-directed film The Birds (1963) were filmed in Bodega Bay. The town markets itself with the film in many ways, including its Birds-themed visitors' center. The location was also featured in the cult horror movie Puppet Master (1989).\n\nPG+E wanted to build a nuclear power plant on Bodega Head in the 1960s, but the plans were shut down after large protest (the first for environmental reasons) and the fault, which they found while they were digging the hole for the first reactor. The hole filled with water and became known as \"The Hole in the Head\".\n\nGeography\n\nAccording to the United States Census Bureau, the CDP has a total area of , of it is land, and of it (33.37%) is water. The town lies on the edge of Bodega Harbor. Bodega Bay itself extends south along the coast to Tomales Bay. North of town lies a long coastal exposure of alternating rock outcrops and sandy beaches which is known as Sonoma Coast State Beach.\n\nThe U.S. National Weather Service provides a helpful visual aid graphing weather and climate information from the nearby Monterey sensors to display visually by month the annual typical temperatures, the past year's temperatures, and record temperatures.\nClimate\n\nThis region experiences warm (but not hot) and dry summers, with no average monthly temperatures above 71.6 °F. According to the Köppen Climate Classification system, Bodega Bay has a warm-summer Mediterranean climate, abbreviated \"Csb\" on climate maps. Like much of the California coast, summer afternoons are often cool and windy (and sometimes foggy) as winds blow in off the ocean.\n\nGovernment\n\nIn the California State Legislature, Bodega Bay is in , and in . \n\nIn the United States House of Representatives, Bodega Bay is in . \n\nDemographics\n\n2010 Census data\n\nThe 2010 United States Census reported that Bodega Bay had a population of 1,077. The population density was 86.0 people per square mile (33.2/km²). The ethnic makeup of Bodega Bay was 951 (88.3%) White, 2 (0.2%) African American, 4 (0.4%) Native American, 33 (3.1%) Asian, 4 (0.4%) Pacific Islander, 49 (4.5%) from other races, and 34 (3.2%) from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 126 persons (11.7%).\n\nThe Census reported that 99.0% of the population lived in households and 1.0% lived in non-institutionalized group quarters.\n\nThere were 533 households, out of which 77 (14.4%) had children under the age of 18 living in them, 278 (52.2%) were opposite-sex married couples living together, 22 (4.1%) had a female householder with no husband present, 14 (2.6%) had a male householder with no wife present. There were 33 (6.2%) unmarried opposite-sex partnerships, and 8 (1.5%) same-sex married couples or partnerships. 170 households (31.9%) were made up of individuals and 67 (12.6%) had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.00. There were 314 families (58.9% of all households); the average family size was 2.48.\n\nThe population was spread out with 131 people (12.2%) under the age of 18, 52 people (4.8%) aged 18 to 24, 172 people (16.0%) aged 25 to 44, 409 people (38.0%) aged 45 to 64, and 313 people (29.1%) who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 57.2 years. For every 100 females there were 105.9 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 106.1 males.\n\nThere were 1,060 housing units at an average density of 84.6 per square mile (32.7/km²), of which 67.9% were owner-occupied and 32.1% were occupied by renters. The homeowner vacancy rate was 4.6%; the rental vacancy rate was 23.7%. 65.3% of the population lived in owner-occupied housing units and 33.7% lived in rental housing units.\n\n2000 Census data\n\nAs of the census of 2000, there were 1,423 people, 669 households, and 432 families residing in the CDP. The population density was 169.7 per square mile (65.6/km²). There were 1,144 housing units at an average density of 136.4 per square mile (52.7/km²). The racial makeup of the CDP was 85.52% White, 0.35% African American, 1.55% Native American, 1.34% Asian, 9.07% from other races, and 2.18% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 15.18% of the population. There were 669 households out of which 14.5% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 57.5% were married couples living together, 3.9% had a female householder with no husband present, and 35.4% were non-families. 27.2% of all households were made up of individuals and 9.1% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.11 and the average family size was 2.47.\n\nIn the CDP the population was 12.7% under the age of 18, 6.2% from 18 to 24, 21.7% from 25 to 44, 36.5% from 45 to 64, and 22.8% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 51 years. For every 100 females there were 108.0 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 106.3 males. The median income for a household in the CDP was $56,818, and the median income for a family was $60,750. Males had a median income of $27,778 versus $28,375 for females. The per capita income for the CDP was $37,226. About 2.0% of families and 4.0% of the population were below the poverty line, including none of those under the age of eighteen or sixty-five or over.\n\nFilm locations \n\nBodega Bay has served as a location for several major films: \n\n* The Birds (1963) Except for a short sequence at the beginning filmed in San Francisco, most of the film's exterior scenes were filmed around the two towns of Bodega (a small inland village) and Bodega Bay (a larger village on the bay). Special sites used for shooting included Potter School, the Bay, the two towns which were made to appear as one, and the home and barn across the bay from the town of Bodega Bay.\n* The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming (1966) Some scenes filmed in Bodega Bay.\n* The Pack (1977) Filmed around Bodega Bay.\n* The Fog (1980)\n* The Goonies (1985) Some scenes filmed along the Sonoma Coast, Bodega Bay (and Astoria OR, and Cannon Beach OR).\n* Puppet Master (1989) Setting is Bodega Bay for the first two, fourth and fifth films.\n* Sleepwalkers (1992) Opening scene filmed in Bodega Bay.\n* Hart to Hart: Home Is Where the Hart Is (1994 TV Movie) Exterior scenes of the town.\n* I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997) Scenes around the road accident.\n\nOther facilities\n\nA branch of the University of California operates a marine lab at Bodega Bay, the Bodega Marine Laboratory.\n\nA nuclear power plant had been planned for Bodega Bay in the 1960s but was abandoned after both local and statewide protests and the discovery of an earthquake fault across the proposed site. Excavation for the site began at Bodega Head, and when the project was abandoned the area has been referred to by locals as \"The Hole in the Head.\" \n\nNotable people\n\nBodega Bay was the hometown of Nicholas Green, the American child shot dead during a robbery by highwaymen in Italy where his family were on vacation. Nicholas and his family became famous when almost every harvestable organ or body part was donated to those in need following his death. \n\nErden Eruç made history here when he completed the first entirely solo and entirely human-powered circumnavigation of the Earth. He began the expedition on 10 July 2007 in Bodega Bay and returned a little more than five years later on 21 July 2012.", "Bodega Bay is a shallow, rocky inlet of the Pacific Ocean on the coast of northern California in the United States. It is approximately 5 mi across and is located approximately 40 mi northwest of San Francisco and 20 mi west of Santa Rosa. The bay straddles the boundary between Sonoma County to the north and Marin County to the south. The bay is a marine habitat used for navigation, recreation, and commercial and sport fishing including shellfish harvesting. \n\nBodega Bay is protected on its north end from the Pacific Ocean by Bodega Head, which shelters the small Bodega Harbor and is separated from the main bay by a jetty. The San Andreas Fault runs parallel to the coastline and bisects Bodega Head, which lies on the Pacific Plate; the town is on the North American Plate. The village of Bodega Bay sits on the east side of Bodega Harbor. The bay connects on its south end to the mouth of Tomales Bay.\n\nStreams flowing into Bodega Bay include the Estero de San Antonio and the Estero Americano.\nAccessible beaches on Bodega Bay include Doran Regional Park (on the jetty) and Pinnacle Gulch. \nApart from the harbor, all of Bodega Bay lies within the boundaries of the Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary.\n\nHistory\n\nCoast Miwok Native Americans lived on the shores of Bodega Bay. Documented village names include: Helapattai, Hime-takala, Ho-takala, and Tokau. \nThere is speculation that Bodega Bay may have been Sir Francis Drake's Nova Albion landing location on the California coast. \n\nPresent day Bodega Bay was first charted in 1775 by the Spanish Peruvian explorer of the Spanish Navy Juan Francisco de la Bodega y Quadra, but the bay that was originally named for him was not present day Bodega, but Tomales Bay. His ship, the Sonora, anchored in the lee of Tomales Point on October 3, 1775, departing the next day. Bodega y Quadra named Tomales Bay Puerto de la Bodega. \"There is no evidence in the journal or on the charts that Bodega y Quadra ever saw the entrance to [present day] Bodega Harbor or knew of the lagoon to the north\". Bodega y Quadra planned to return, but was not able to. Later, as commandant of the naval base at San Blas, New Spain, Bodega y Quadra sent other expeditions to Bodega Bay with the intention of establishing a colony and mission there. It was decided, however, that the location was non-ideal.\n\nThe first Russians to see Bodega Bay were the supervisors of the Aleut hunting parties aboard the American otter hunting ship Peacock in 1807. Timofei Osipovich Tarakanov of the Russian-American Company returned to Novo Arkhangelsk, Alaska and reported the location to Alexander Andreyevich Baranov, the chief administrator of the RAC. Baranov instructed his assistant Ivan Kuskov to survey the area for a settlement. Kuskov, the Commerce Counselor of the Russian-American Company sailing in the Kodiak, entered Bodega Bay on January 8, 1809. Instructed by Baranov to leave \"secret signs\" (possession plates), Kuskov buried possession plaques at Trinidad Harbor, Bodega Head (or Tomales Point) and on the north shore of San Francisco Bay, indicating the company's intention to claim this section of northern California for Russia. Temporary buildings were erected to house the ship's complement of 190 crew (130 native Alaskan males, 20 native females, and 40 Russians) \n\nThe Kodiak remained in Bodega Bay until October 1809, returning to Alaska with more than 2,000 otter pelts. Kuskov returned to Novo Arkhangelsk, reporting abundant fur bearing mammals, fish, timber and tillable lands. Baranov instructed Kuskov to return and establish a permanent settlement in the area. In 1811 Kuskov returned, this time aboard the Chirikov but found fewer otter in Bodega Bay (only 1,160 otter skins were taken). Three American ships were also operating in the area from a base in Drake's Bay, sending hunters into San Francisco Bay and the surrounding bays.\n\nKuskov sailed the Brig Chirikov back to present day Bodega Harbor on March 15, 1812; and as Bodega Anchorage and Bodega Harbor had not been claimed by the Spanish\" Kuskov named it in honor of the Russian Minister of Commerce, Count Nikolai Petrovich Rumyantsev. \n\nZaliv Rumyantsev (Rumyantsev Bay) appears on the earliest Russian charts of Bodega Bay (1817–1819) identifying present day Bodega Bay and Bodega Harbor. Bodega Head was named Mouis Rumyantsev (Point Rumyantsev). Tomales Point was named Point Great Bodega and Tomales Bay Great Bodega Bay, more or less conforming to Bodega y Quadra's original naming.\n\nOn his return Kuskov found otter now scarce in Bodega Bay, the harbor having been frequented by numerous American and English otter-hunting expeditions. After exploring the area they ended up selecting a place 15 mi north that the native Kashaya Pomo people called Mad shui nui or Metini. Metini, the seasonal home of the native Kashaya Pomo people, had a modest anchorage and abundant natural resources and would become the Russian settlement of Fort Ross. \n\nBy 1817 sea otter in the area were practically eliminated by international over-hunting. Zaliv Rumyantsev continued to be the main entrepôt for the Russian Colony until January 1842, and the earliest European structures built at Bodega Bay were the wharf, warehouse and barracks of the Russian-American Company.\n\nBodega Bay remained an active harbor for shipping lumber until the 1870s, when the North Pacific Coast Railroad was built, bypassing the coast in favor of a more inland route.\n\nA plan by Pacific Gas & Electric to build a nuclear power plant received significant negative attention from local citizens, beginning in 1958. By 1964, the plans for the plant were abandoned.Paula Garb. [http://jpe.library.arizona.edu/volume_6/wellockvol6.htm Critical Masses: Opposition to Nuclear Power in California, 1958-1978 (book review)] Journal of Political Ecology, Vol 6, 1999.Office of Technology Assessment. (1984). [http://www.princeton.edu/~ota/disk3/1984/8421/842111.PDF Public Attitudes Toward Nuclear Power] p. 231.\n\nBodega Bay was the setting for the 1963 Alfred Hitchcock film, The Birds, starring Rod Taylor, Tippi Hedren and Suzanne Pleshette. \n\nMarine protected areas near Bodega Bay\n\nLike underwater parks, these marine protected areas help conserve ocean wildlife and marine ecosystems.\n*Russian River State Marine Reserve and Russian River State Marine Conservation Area\n*Bodega Head State Marine Reserve & Bodega Head State Marine Conservation Area\n*Estero Americano State Marine Recreational Management Area\n*Estero de San Antonio State Marine Recreational Management Area" ] }

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{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe", "TagMe", "TagMe", "TagMe", "TagMe", "TagMe" ], "filename": [ "Keith_Moon.txt", "Ginger_Baker.txt", "Charlie_Watts.txt", "Buddy_Rich.txt", "Phil_Collins.txt", "Karen_Carpenter.txt" ], "title": [ "Keith Moon", "Ginger Baker", "Charlie Watts", "Buddy Rich", "Phil Collins", "Karen Carpenter" ], "wiki_context": [ "Keith John Moon (23 August 1946 – 7 September 1978) was an English drummer who played with the English rock band the Who. He was noted for his unique style and his eccentric, often self-destructive behaviour. His drumming continues to be praised by critics and musicians. He was posthumously inducted into the Modern Drummer Hall of Fame in 1982, becoming only the second rock drummer to be chosen, and in 2011, Moon was voted the second-greatest drummer in history by a Rolling Stone readers' poll. \n\nMoon grew up in Alperton, a suburb of Wembley, Middlesex, and took up the drums during the early 1960s. After playing with a local band, the Beachcombers, he joined the Who in 1964 before they recorded their first single. Moon remained with the band during their rise to fame, and was quickly recognised for his drumming style, which emphasised tom-toms, cymbal crashes, and drum fills. He occasionally collaborated with other musicians and later appeared in films, but considered playing in the Who his primary occupation and remained a member of the band until his death. In addition to his talent as a drummer, however, Moon developed a reputation for smashing his kit on stage and destroying hotel rooms on tour. He was fascinated by blowing up toilets with cherry bombs or dynamite, and by destroying television sets. Moon enjoyed touring and socialising, and was bored and restless when the Who were inactive. His 21st birthday party in Flint, Michigan, has been cited as a notorious example of decadent behaviour by rock groups.\n\nMoon suffered a number of setbacks during the 1970s, most notably the accidental death of chauffeur Neil Boland and the breakdown of his marriage. He became addicted to alcohol, particularly brandy and champagne, and acquired a reputation for decadence and dark humour; his nickname was \"Moon the Loon.\" After moving to Los Angeles with personal assistant Peter \"Dougal\" Butler during the mid-1970s, Moon recorded his only solo album, the poorly received Two Sides of the Moon. While touring with the Who, on several occasions he passed out on stage and was hospitalised. By their final tour with him in 1976, and particularly during production of The Kids Are Alright and Who Are You, the drummer's deterioration was evident. Moon moved back to London in 1978, dying in September of that year from an overdose of Heminevrin, a drug intended to treat or prevent symptoms of alcohol withdrawal.\n\nEarly life\n\nKeith John Moon was born to Alfred Charles (Alf) and Kathleen Winifred (Kit) Moon on 23 August 1946 at Central Middlesex Hospital in northwest London, and grew up in Wembley. He was hyperactive as a boy, with a restless imagination and a particular fondness for The Goon Show and music. Moon attended Alperton Secondary Modern School after failing his eleven plus exam, which precluded his attending a grammar school. His art teacher said in a report: \"Retarded artistically. Idiotic in other respects\". His music teacher wrote that Moon \"has great ability, but must guard against a tendency to show off.\"\n\nMoon joined his local Sea Cadet Corps band at the age of twelve on the bugle, but found the instrument too difficult to learn and decided to take up drums instead. He was interested in practical jokes and home science kits, with a particular fondness for explosions. On his way home from school, Moon would often go to Macari's Music Studio on Ealing Road to practise on the drums there, learning his basic skills on the instrument. He left school at age fourteen, around Easter in 1961. Moon then enrolled at Harrow Technical College; this led to a job as a radio repairman, enabling him to buy his first drum kit.\n\nCareer\n\nEarly years\n\nMoon took lessons from one of the loudest contemporary drummers, Screaming Lord Sutch's Carlo Little, at ten shillings per lesson. Moon's early style was influenced by jazz, American surf music and rhythm and blues, exemplified by noted Los Angeles studio drummer Hal Blaine. His favourite musicians were jazz artists, particularly Gene Krupa (whose flamboyant style he subsequently copied). Moon also admired Elvis Presley's original drummer DJ Fontana, the Shadows' original drummer Tony Meehan and the Pretty Things' Viv Prince. He also enjoyed singing, with a particular interest in Motown. Moon idolised the Beach Boys; Roger Daltrey later said that given the opportunity, Moon would have left to play for the California band even at the peak of the Who's fame. \n\nDuring this time Moon joined his first serious band: the Escorts, replacing his best friend Gerry Evans. In December 1962 he joined the Beachcombers, a semi-professional London cover band playing hits by groups such as the Shadows. During his time in the group Moon incorporated theatrical tricks into his act, including \"shooting\" the group's lead singer with a starter pistol. The Beachcombers all had day jobs; Moon, who worked in the sales department at British Gypsum, had the keenest interest in turning professional. In April 1964, at age seventeen, he auditioned for the Who as a replacement for Doug Sandom. The Beachcombers continued as a local cover band after his departure.\n\nThe Who\n\nA commonly cited story of how Moon joined the Who is that he appeared at a show shortly after Sandom's departure, where a session drummer was used. Dressed in ginger clothes and with his hair dyed ginger (future bandmate Pete Townshend later described him as a \"ginger vision\"), he claimed to his would-be bandmates that he could play better; he played in the set's second half, nearly demolishing the drum kit in the process. In the words of the drummer, \"they said go ahead, and I got behind this other guy's drums and did one song-'Road Runner.' I'd several drinks to get me courage up and when I got onstage I went arrgggGhhhh on the drums, broke the bass drum pedal and two skins, and got off. I figured that was it. I was scared to death. Afterwards I was sitting at the bar and Pete came over. He said: 'You ... come 'ere.' I said, mild as you please: 'Yes, yes?' And Roger, who was the spokesman then, said: 'What are you doing next Monday?' I said: 'Nothing.' I was working during the day, selling plaster. He said: 'You'll have to give up work ... there's this gig on Monday. If you want to come, we'll pick you up in the van.' I said: 'Right.' And that was it.\" Moon later claimed that he was never formally invited to join the Who permanently; when Ringo Starr asked how he had joined the band, he said he had \"just been filling in for the last fifteen years.\"\n\nMoon's arrival in the Who changed the dynamics of the group. Sandom had generally been the peacemaker as Daltrey and Townshend feuded between themselves, but because of Moon's temperament the group now had four members frequently in conflict. \"We used to fight regularly,\" remembered Moon in later years. \"John [Entwistle] and I used to have fights – it wasn't very serious, it was more of an emotional spur-of-the moment thing.\" Moon also clashed with Daltrey and Townshend: \"We really have absolutely nothing in common apart from music,\" he said in a later interview. Although Townshend described him as a \"completely different person to anyone I've ever met,\" the pair had a rapport in the early years and enjoyed practical jokes and improvised comedy. Moon's drumming style affected the band's musical structure; although Entwistle initially found Moon's lack of conventional timekeeping problematic, it created an original sound.\n\nMoon was particularly fond of touring, since it was his only chance to regularly socialise with his bandmates, and was generally restless and bored when not playing live. This later carried over to other aspects of his life, as he acted them out (according to journalist and Who biographer Dave Marsh) \"as if his life were one long tour.\" These antics earned him the nickname \"Moon the Loon.\"\n\nMusical contributions\n\nMoon's style of drumming was considered unique by his bandmates, although they sometimes found his unconventional playing frustrating; Entwistle noted that he tended to play faster or slower according to his mood. \"He wouldn't play across his kit,\" he later added. \"He'd play zig-zag. That's why he had two sets of tom-toms. He'd move his arms forward like a skier.\" Daltrey said that Moon \"just instinctively put drum rolls in places that other people would never have thought of putting them.\"\n\nWho biographer John Atkins wrote that the group's early test sessions for Pye Records in 1964 show that \"they seemed to have understood just how important was ... Moon's contribution.\" Contemporary critics questioned his ability to keep time, with biographer Tony Fletcher suggesting that the timing on Tommy was \"all over the place.\" Who producer Jon Astley said, \"You didn't think he was keeping time, but he was.\" Early recordings of Moon's drumming sound tinny and disorganised; it was not until the recording of Who's Next, with Glyn Johns' no-nonsense production techniques and the need to keep time to a synthesizer track, that he began developing more discipline in the studio. Fletcher considers the drumming on this album to be the best of Moon's career.\n\nUnlike contemporary rock drummers such as Ginger Baker and John Bonham, Moon hated drum solos and refused to play them in concert. At a Madison Square Garden show on 10 June 1974, Townshend and Entwistle decided to spontaneously stop playing during \"Wasp Man\" to listen to Moon's drum solo. Moon continued briefly and then stopped, shouting \"Drum solos are boring!\" However, in 1977, he made a guest appearance in a Led Zeppelin concert, joining John Bonham for his \"Moby Dick\" drum solo. The concert was bootlegged as For Badgeholders Only.Luis Rey (1997) Led Zeppelin Live: An Illustrated Exploration of Underground Tapes, Ontario: The Hot Wacks Press, pp. 396-398\n\nAlthough not an especially gifted vocalist, Moon was enthusiastic about singing and wanted to sing lead with the rest of the group. While the other three members handled the lion's share of onstage vocals, Moon would attempt to sing backup (particularly on \"I Can't Explain\"). He provided humorous commentary during song announcements, although sound engineer Bob Pridden preferred to mute his vocal microphone on the mixing desk whenever possible. Moon's knack for making his bandmates laugh around the microphone led them to banish him from the studio when vocals were being recorded; this led to a game in which Moon would sneak in to join the singing. At the end of \"Happy Jack,\" Townshend can be heard saying \"I saw ya!\" to Moon as he tries to sneak into the studio. The drummer's interest in surf music and his desire to sing lead spawned lead vocals on several early tracks, including \"Bucket T\" and \"Barbara Ann\" (Ready Steady Who EP, 1966) and high backing vocals on other songs, such as \"Pictures of Lily.\" Moon's performance on \"Bell Boy\" (Quadrophenia, 1973) saw him abandon \"serious\" vocal performances to sing in character, which gave him (in Fletcher's words) \"full licence to live up to his reputation as a lecherous drunk\"; it was \"exactly the kind of performance the Who needed from him to bring them back down to earth.\"\n\nMoon composed \"I Need You\" (which he also sang), the instrumental \"Cobwebs and Strange\" (from the album A Quick One, 1966), the single B-sides \"In The City\" (co-written with Entwistle) and \"Girl's Eyes\" (from The Who Sell Out sessions featured on Thirty Years of Maximum R&B and a 1995 re-release of The Who Sell Out), \"Dogs Part Two\" (1969), \"Tommy's Holiday Camp\" (1969) and \"Waspman\" (1972). Moon also co-composed \"The Ox\" (an instrumental from their debut album, My Generation) with Townshend, Entwistle and keyboardist Nicky Hopkins. The setting for \"Tommy's Holiday Camp\" (from Tommy) was credited to Moon; the song was primarily written by Townshend and, although there is a misconception that Moon sings on it, the album version is Townshend's demo. \n\nThe drummer produced the violin solo on \"Baba O'Riley.\" Moon sat in on congas with East of Eden at the Lyceum, and afterwards suggested to violinist Dave Arbus that he play on the track. \n\nEquipment\n\nMoon played a four, then a five-piece drum kit during his early career. His 1965 set consisted of Ludwig drums and Zildjian cymbals. By 1966, feeling limited by this setup and inspired by Ginger Baker's double bass drum, he switched to a larger Premier kit. This setup did not have a hi-hat, since Moon used crash and ride cymbals instead. He remained a loyal customer of Premier.\n\nMoon's Classic Red Sparkle Premier setup consisted of two 22 inch bass drums, three 14 inch mounted toms, two 16 inch floor toms and a 14 inch Ludwig Supraphonic 400 snare. His cymbals consisted of two Paiste Giant Beat 18 inch crashes and one 20 inch ride. This kit was not used at the Who's performance at the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival. From 1967 to 1969 Moon used the \"Pictures of Lily\" drum kit (named for its artwork), which had two 22 inch bass drums, two 16 inch floor toms and three mounted toms. In recognition of his loyalty to the company, Premier reissued the kit in 2006 as the \"Spirit of Lily.\" \n\nBy 1970 Moon had begun to use timbales, gongs and timpani, and these were included in his setup for the rest of his career. In 1973 Premier's marketing manager, Eddie Haynes, began consulting with Moon about specific requirements. At one point, Moon asked Premier to make a white kit with gold-plated fittings. When Haynes said that it would be prohibitively expensive, Moon replied: \"Dear boy, do exactly as you feel it should be, but that's the way I want it.\" The kit was eventually fitted with copper fittings and later given to a young Zak Starkey.\n\nDestroying instruments and other stunts\n\nAt an early show at the Railway Tavern in Harrow, Townshend smashed his guitar after accidentally breaking it. When the audience demanded he do it again, Moon kicked over his drum kit. Subsequent live sets culminated in what the band later described as \"auto-destructive art,\" in which band members (particularly Moon and Townshend) elaborately destroyed their equipment. Moon developed a habit of kicking over his drums, claiming that he did so in exasperation at an audience's indifference. Townshend later said, \"A set of skins is about $300 [then £96] and after every show he'd just go bang, bang, bang and then kick the whole thing over.\"\n\nIn May 1966, Moon discovered that the Beach Boys' Bruce Johnston was visiting London. After the pair socialised for a few days, Moon and Entwistle brought Johnston to the set of Ready Steady Go!, which made them late for a show with the Who that evening. During the finale of \"My Generation,\" an altercation broke out on stage between Moon and Townshend which was reported on the front page of the New Musical Express the following week. Moon and Entwistle left the Who for a week (with Moon hoping to join the Animals or the Nashville Teens), but they changed their minds and returned.\n\nOn the Who's early US package tour at the RKO Theatre in New York in March and April 1967 Moon performed five shows a day, kicking over his drum kit after every show. Later that year, during their appearance on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, he bribed a stagehand to load gunpowder into one of his bass drums; the stagehand used about ten times the standard amount. During the finale of \"My Generation,\" he kicked the drum off the riser and set off the charge. The intensity of the explosion singed Townshend's hair and embedded a piece of cymbal in Moon's arm. A clip of the incident became the opening scene for the film The Kids Are Alright.\n\nAlthough Moon was known for kicking over his drum kit, Haynes claimed that it was done carefully and the kit rarely needed repairs. However, stands and foot pedals were frequently replaced; the drummer \"would go through them like a knife through butter.\"\n\nOther work\n\nMusic\n\nWhile Moon generally said he was only interested in working with the Who, he participated in outside musical projects. In 1966 he worked with Yardbirds guitarist Jeff Beck, pianist Nicky Hopkins and future Led Zeppelin members Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones on the instrumental \"Beck's Bolero,\" which was the B-side to \"Hi Ho Silver Lining\" and appeared on the album Truth. Moon also played timpani on another track, a cover of Jerome Kern's \"Ol' Man River.\" He was credited on the album as \"You Know Who.\" \n\nMoon may have inspired the name for Led Zeppelin. When he briefly considered leaving the Who in 1966, he spoke with Entwistle and Page about forming a supergroup. Moon (or Entwistle) remarked that a particular suggestion had gone down like a \"lead zeppelin\" (a play on \"lead balloon\"). Although the supergroup was never formed, Page remembered the phrase and later adapted it as the name of his new band.\n\nThe Beatles became friends with Moon, leading to occasional collaborations. In 1967, he contributed backing vocals to \"All You Need Is Love.\" On 15 December 1969, Moon joined John Lennon's Plastic Ono Band for a live performance at the Lyceum Theatre in London for a UNICEF charity concert. In 1972 the performance was released as a companion disc to Lennon and Ono's album, Some Time in New York City. \n\nMoon's friendship with Entwistle led to an appearance on Smash Your Head Against the Wall, Entwistle's first solo album and the first by a member of the Who. Moon did not play drums on the album; Jerry Shirley did, with Moon providing percussion. Rolling Stone's John Hoegel appreciated Entwistle's decision not to let Moon drum, saying that it distanced his album from the familiar sound of the Who. \n\nMoon became involved in solo work when he moved to Los Angeles during the mid-1970s. In 1974, Track Records-MCA released a Moon solo single covering the Beach Boys' \"Don't Worry, Baby\" and \"Teenage Idol.\" The next year he released his only solo album, entitled Two Sides of the Moon. Although it featured Moon on vocals, he played drums on only three tracks; most of the drumming was left to others (including Ringo Starr, session musicians Curly Smith and Jim Keltner and actor-musician Miguel Ferrer). The album was received poorly by critics. NME's Roy Carr wrote, \"Moonie, if you didn't have talent, I wouldn't care; but you have, which is why I'm not about to accept Two Sides of the Moon.\" Dave Marsh, reviewing the album in Rolling Stone, wrote: \"There isn't any legitimate reason for this album's existence.\" During one of his few televised solo drum performances (for ABC's Wide World), Moon played a five-minute drum solo dressed as a cat on transparent acrylic drums filled with water and goldfish. When asked by an audience member what would happen to the kit, he joked that \"even the best drummers get hungry.\" His performance was not appreciated by animal lovers, several of whom called the station with complaints.\n\nFilm\n\nIn the 2007 documentary film, Amazing Journey: The Story of The Who, Daltrey and Townshend reminisced about Moon's talent for dressing as (and embodying) a variety of characters. They remembered his dream of getting out of music and becoming a Hollywood film actor, although Daltrey did not think Moon had the patience and work ethic required by a professional actor. Who manager Bill Curbishley agreed that Moon \"wasn't disciplined enough to actually turn up or commit to doing the stuff.\"\n\nNevertheless, the drummer landed several acting roles. His first was in 1971, a cameo in Frank Zappa's 200 Motels as a nun afraid of dying from a drug overdose. Although it only took 13 days to film, fellow cast member Howard Kaylan remembers Moon spending off-camera time at the Kensington Garden Hotel bar instead of sleeping. Moon's next film role was J.D. Clover, drummer for the fictional Stray Cats at a holiday camp during the early days of British rock 'n' roll, in 1973's That'll Be the Day. He reprised the role for the film's 1974 sequel, Stardust, and played Uncle Ernie in Ken Russell's 1975 film adaptation of Tommy. Moon's last film appearance was in 1978's Sextette with Starr and Alice Cooper. This was the last film to star Mae West.\n\nDestructive behaviour\n\nMoon led a destructive lifestyle. During the Who's early days he began taking amphetamines, and in a New Musical Express interview said his favourite food was \"French Blues.\" He spent his share of the band's income quickly, and was a regular at London clubs such as the Speakeasy and the Bag O' Nails; the combination of pills and alcohol escalated into alcoholism and drug addiction later in his life. \"[We] went through the same stages everybody goes through – the bloody drug corridor,\" he later reflected. \"Drinking suited the group a lot better.\"\n\nAccording to Townshend, Moon began destroying hotel rooms when the Who stayed at the Berlin Hilton on tour in late 1966. In addition to hotel rooms, Moon destroyed friends' homes and even his own, throwing furniture from upper-storey windows and setting fire to buildings. Andrew Neill and Matthew Kent estimated that his destruction of hotel toilets and plumbing cost as much as £300,000 ($500,000). These acts, often fuelled by drugs and alcohol, were Moon's way of demonstrating his eccentricity; he enjoyed shocking the public with them. Longtime friend and personal assistant Butler observed, \"He was trying to make people laugh and be Mr Funny, he wanted people to love him and enjoy him, but he would go so far. Like a train ride you couldn't stop.\" \n\nIn a limousine on the way to the airport Moon insisted they return to their hotel, saying \"I forgot something.\" At the hotel he ran back to his room, grabbed the television and threw it out the window into the swimming pool below. He then jumped back into the limo, saying \"I nearly forgot.\" \n\nFletcher argues that The Who's lengthy break between the end of their 1972 European tour and the beginning of the Quadrophenia sessions devastated Moon's health, as without the rigours of lengthy shows and regular touring that had previously kept him in shape, his hard-partying lifestyle took a greater toll on his body. He did not keep a drum kit or practice at Tara, and began to deteriorate physically as a result of his lifestyle. Around the same time he became a severe alcoholic, starting the day with drinks and changing from the \"lovable boozer\" he presented himself as to a \"boorish drunk\". David Puttnam recalled, \"The drinking went from being a joke to being a problem. On That'll Be the Day it was social drinking. By the time Stardust came round it was hard drinking.\"\n\nExploding toilets\n\nMoon's favourite stunt was to flush powerful explosives down toilets. According to Fletcher, Moon's toilet pyrotechnics began in 1965 when he purchased a case of 500 cherry bombs. He moved from cherry bombs to M-80 fireworks to sticks of dynamite, which became his explosive of choice. \"All that porcelain flying through the air was quite unforgettable,\" Moon remembered. \"I never realised dynamite was so powerful. I'd been used to penny bangers before.\" He quickly developed a reputation for destroying bathrooms and blowing up toilets. The destruction mesmerised him, and enhanced his public image as rock's premier hell-raiser. Tony Fletcher wrote that \"no toilet in a hotel or changing room was safe\" until Moon had exhausted his supply of explosives.\n\nPete Townshend walked into the bathroom of Moon's hotel room and noticed the toilet had disappeared, with only the S-bend remaining. The drummer explained that since a cherry bomb was about to explode, he had thrown it down the loo and showed Townshend the case of cherry bombs. \"And of course from that moment on,\" the guitarist remembered, \"we got thrown out of every hotel we ever stayed in.\"\n\nEntwistle recalled being close to Moon on tour: \"I suppose we were two of a kind\"... We shared a room on the road and got up to no good.\" Consequently, both were often involved in blowing up toilets. In a 1981 Los Angeles Times interview he admitted, \"A lot of times when Keith was blowing up toilets I was standing behind him with the matches.\" In Alabama, Moon and Entwistle loaded a toilet with cherry bombs after being denied room service. According to Entwistle, \"That toilet was just dust all over the walls by the time we checked out. The management brought our suitcases down to the gig and said: 'Don't come back ...'\" \n\nA hotel manager called Moon in his room and asked him to lower the volume on his cassette recorder because it made \"too much noise.\" In response the drummer asked him up to his room, excused himself to go the bathroom, put a lit stick of dynamite in the toilet and shut the bathroom door. Upon returning, he asked the manager to stay for a moment, as he wanted to explain something. Following the explosion, Moon turned the recorder back on and said, \"That, dear boy, was noise. This is the 'Oo.\"\n\nFlint Holiday Inn incident\n\nOn 23 August 1967, on tour opening for Herman's Hermits, Moon celebrated what he said was his 21st birthday (although it was thought at the time to be his 20th) at a Holiday Inn in Flint, Michigan. Entwistle later said, \"He decided that if it was a publicised fact that it was his 21st birthday, he would be able to drink.\"\n\nThe drummer immediately began drinking upon his arrival in Flint. The Who spent the afternoon visiting local radio stations with Nancy Lewis (then the band's publicist), and Moon posed for a photo outside the hotel in front of a \"Happy Birthday Keith\" sign put up by the hotel management. According to Lewis, Moon was drunk by the time the band went onstage at the Atwood High School football stadium.\n\nReturning to the hotel, Moon started a food fight and soon cake began flying through the air. The drummer knocked out part of his front tooth; at the hospital, doctors could not give him an anaesthetic (due to his inebriation) before removing the remainder of the tooth. Back at the hotel a mêlée erupted; fire extinguishers were set off, guests (and objects) thrown into the swimming pool and a piano reportedly destroyed. The chaos ended only when police arrived with guns drawn.\n\nA furious Holiday Inn management presented the groups with a bill for $24,000, which was reportedly settled by Herman's Hermits tour manager Edd McCann. Townshend claimed that the Who were banned for life from all of the hotel's properties, but Fletcher wrote that they stayed at a Holiday Inn in Rochester, New York a week later. He also disputed a widely held belief that Moon drove a Lincoln Continental into the hotel's swimming pool, as claimed by the drummer in a 1972 Rolling Stone interview.\n\nPassing out on stage\n\nMoon's lifestyle began to undermine his health and reliability. During the 1973 Quadrophenia tour, at the Who's debut US date at the Cow Palace in Daly City, California, Moon ingested a mixture of tranquillisers and brandy. During the concert, Moon passed out on his drum kit during \"Won't Get Fooled Again.\" The band stopped playing, and a group of roadies carried Moon offstage. They gave him a shower and an injection of cortisone, sending him back onstage after a thirty-minute delay. Moon passed out again during \"Magic Bus,\" and was again removed from the stage. The band continued without him for several songs before Townshend asked, \"Can anyone play the drums? – I mean somebody good?\" A drummer in the audience, Scot Halpin, came up and played the rest of the show.\n\nDuring the opening date of the band's March 1976 US tour at the Boston Garden, Moon passed out over his drum kit after two numbers and the show was rescheduled. The next evening Moon systematically destroyed everything in his hotel room, cut himself doing so and passed out. He was discovered by manager Bill Curbishley, who took him to a hospital, telling him \"I'm gonna get the doctor to get you nice and fit, so you're back within two days. Because I want to break your fucking jaw ... You have fucked this band around so many times and I'm not having it any more.\" Doctors told Curbishley that if he had not intervened, Moon would have bled to death. Marsh suggested that at this point Daltrey and Entwistle seriously considered firing Moon, but decided that doing so would make his life worse.\n\nDuring the band's recording sabbatical from 1975 to 1978, Moon gained a considerable amount of weight. Entwistle has said that Moon and the Who reached their live peak in 1975–76. At the end of the 1976 US tour in Miami that August, the drummer, delirious, was treated in Hollywood Memorial Hospital for eight days. The group was concerned that he would be unable to complete the last leg of the tour, which ended at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto on 21 October (Moon's last public show). By the time of the Who's invitation-only show at the Kilburn Gaumont in December 1977 for The Kids are Alright, Moon was visibly overweight and had difficulty sustaining a solid performance. After recording Who Are You, Townshend refused to follow the album with a tour until Moon stopped drinking, and said that if Moon's playing did not improve he would be fired. Daltrey later denied threatening to fire him, but said that by this time the drummer was out of control.\n\nFinancial problems\n\nBecause the Who's early stage act relied on smashing instruments, and owing to Moon's enthusiasm for damaging hotels, the group were in debt for much of the 1960s; Entwistle estimated they lost about £150,000. Even when the group became relatively financially stable after Tommy, Moon continued to rack up debts. He bought a number of cars and gadgets, and flirted with bankruptcy. Moon's recklessness with money reduced his profit from the group's 1975 UK tour to £47.35.\n\nPersonal life and relationships\n\nBirthdate\n\nBefore the 1998 release of Tony Fletcher's Dear Boy: The Life of Keith Moon, Moon's date of birth was presumed to be 23 August 1947. This erroneous date appeared in several otherwise-reliable sources, including the Townshend-authorised biography Before I Get Old: The Story of The Who. The incorrect date had been supplied by Moon in interviews before it was corrected by Fletcher to 1946.\n\nKim Kerrigan\n\nMoon's first serious relationship was with Kim Kerrigan, whom he started dating in January 1965 after she saw the Who play at the Disc A Go Go in Bournemouth. By the end of the year, she discovered she was pregnant; her parents, who were furious, met with the Moons to discuss their options and she moved into the Moon family home in Wembley. They were married on 17 March 1966 at Brent Registry Office, and their daughter Amanda was born on 12 July. The marriage (and child) were kept secret from the press until May 1968. Moon was occasionally violent towards Kim: \"if we went out after I had Mandy,\" she later said, \"if someone talked to me, he'd lose it. We'd go home and he'd start a fight with me.\" He loved Amanda, but his absences due to touring and fondness for practical jokes made their relationship uneasy when she was very young. \"He had no idea how to be a father,\" Kim said. \"He was too much of a child himself.\"\n\nFrom 1971 to 1975 Moon owned Tara, a home in Chertsey where he initially lived with his wife and daughter. The Moons entertained extravagantly at home, and owned a number of cars. Jack McCullogh, then working for Track Records (The Who's label), recalls Moon ordering him to purchase a milk float to store in the garage at Tara.\n\nIn 1973 Kim, convinced that neither she nor anyone else could moderate Keith's behaviour, left her husband and took Amanda; she sued for divorce in 1975 and later married Faces keyboard player Ian McLagan. Marsh believes that Moon never truly recovered from the loss of his family. Butler agrees; despite his relationship with Annette Walter-Lax, he believes that Kim was the only woman Moon loved. McLagan commented that Moon \"couldn't handle it.\" Moon would harass them with phone calls, and on one occasion before Kim sued for divorce, he invited McLagan for a drink at a Richmond pub and sent several \"heavies\" to break into McLagan's home on Fife Road and look for Kim, forcing her to hide in a walk-in closet. She died in a car accident in Austin, Texas on 2 August 2006. \n\nAnnette Walter-Lax\n\nIn 1975 Moon began a relationship with Swedish model Annette Walter-Lax, who later said that Moon was \"so sweet when he was sober, that I was just living with him in the hope that he would kick all this craziness.\" She begged Malibu neighbour Larry Hagman to check Moon into a clinic to dry out (as he had attempted to do before), but when doctors recorded Moon's chemical intake at breakfast – a bottle of champagne, Courvoisier and amphetamines – they concluded that there was no hope for his rehabilitation.\n\nFriends\n\nMoon enjoyed being the life of the party. Bill Curbishley remembered that \"he wouldn't walk into any room and just listen. He was an attention seeker and he had to have it.\"\n\nEarly in the Who's career, Moon got to know the Beatles. He would join them at clubs, forming a particularly close friendship with Ringo Starr. Moon later became friends with Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band members Vivian Stanshall and \"Legs\" Larry Smith, and the trio would drink and play practical jokes together. Smith remembers one occasion where he and Moon tore apart a pair of trousers, with an accomplice later looking for one-legged trousers. In the early 1970s Moon helped Stanshall with his \"Radio Flashes\" radio show for BBC Radio 1, filling in for the vacationing John Peel (see Rawlinson End Radio Flashes). Subsequently, in 1973, Moon himself filled in for John Peel in \"A Touch of the Moon,\" a series of four programmes produced by John Walters. \n\nGuitarist Joe Walsh enjoyed socialising with Moon. In an interview with Guitar World magazine, he recalled that the drummer \"taught me how to break things.\" In 1974, Moon struck up a friendship with actor Oliver Reed while working on the film version of Tommy. Although Reed matched Moon drink for drink, he appeared on set the next morning ready to perform; Moon, on the other hand, would cost several hours of filming time. Reed later said that Moon \"showed me the way to insanity.\" \n\nDougal Butler\n\nPeter \"Dougal\" Butler began working for the Who in 1967, becoming Moon's personal assistant the following year to help him stay out of trouble. He remembers managers Kit Lambert and Chris Stamp saying, \"We trust you with Keith but if you ever want any time off, for a holiday or some sort of rest, let us know and we'll pay for it.\" Butler never took them up on the offer.\n\nHe followed Moon when the drummer relocated to Los Angeles, but felt that the drug culture prevalent at the time was bad for Moon: \"My job was to have eyes in the back of my head.\" Townshend agreed, saying that by 1975 Butler had \"no influence over him whatsoever.\" Although he was a loyal companion to Moon, the lifestyle eventually became too much for him; he phoned Curbishley, saying that they needed to move back to England or one of them might die. Butler quit in 1978, and later wrote of his experiences in a book entitled Full Moon: The Amazing Rock and Roll Life of Keith Moon (2012).\n\nNeil Boland\n\nOn 4 January 1970 Moon accidentally killed his friend, driver and bodyguard, Neil Boland, outside the Red Lion pub in Hatfield, Hertfordshire. Pub patrons had begun to attack his Bentley and Moon, drunk, began driving to escape them. During the fracas, he hit Boland. After an investigation, the coroner ruled Boland's death an accident and Moon received an absolute discharge after being charged with a number of offences.\n\nThose close to Moon said that he was haunted by Boland's death for the rest of his life. According to Pamela Des Barres, Moon had nightmares (which woke them both) about the incident and said he had no right to be alive. \n\nDeath\n\nIn mid-1978 Moon moved into Flat 12, 9 Curzon Place (later Curzon Square), Shepherd Market, Mayfair, London, renting from Harry Nilsson. Cass Elliot had died there four years earlier, at the age of 32; Nilsson was concerned about letting the flat to Moon, believing it was cursed. Townshend disagreed, assuring him that \"lightning wouldn't strike the same place twice\".\n\nAfter moving in, Moon began a prescribed course of Heminevrin (clomethiazole, a sedative) to alleviate his alcohol withdrawal symptoms. He wanted to get sober, but due to his fear of psychiatric hospitals he wanted to do it at home. Clomethiazole is discouraged for unsupervised detoxification because of its addictive potential, its tendency to induce tolerance, and its risk of death when mixed with alcohol. The pills were prescribed by Geoffrey Dymond, a physician who was unaware of Moon's lifestyle. Dymond prescribed a bottle of 100 pills, instructing him to take one pill when he felt a craving for alcohol but not more than three pills per day.\n\nBy September 1978 Moon was having difficulty playing the drums, according to roadie Dave \"Cy\" Langston. After seeing Moon in the studio trying to overdub drums for The Kids Are Alright, he said, \"After two or three hours, he got more and more sluggish, he could barely hold a drum stick.\"\n\nOn 6 September Moon and Walter-Lax were guests of Paul and Linda McCartney at a preview of the film, The Buddy Holly Story. After dining with the McCartneys at Peppermint Park in Covent Garden, Moon and Walter-Lax returned to their flat. He watched a film (The Abominable Dr. Phibes), and asked Walter-Lax to cook him steak and eggs. When she objected, Moon replied \"If you don't like it, you can fuck off!\" These were his last words. Moon then took 32 clomethiazole tablets. When Walter-Lax checked on him the following afternoon, she discovered he was dead.\n\nCurbishley phoned the flat at around 5 pm looking for Moon, and Dymond gave him the news. Curbishley told Townshend, who informed the rest of the band. Entwistle was giving an interview to French journalists when he was interrupted by a phone call with the news of Moon's death. Trying to tactfully and quickly end the interview, he broke down and wept when the journalist asked him about the Who's future plans.\n\nMoon's death came shortly after the release of Who Are You. On the album cover, he is straddling a chair to hide his weight gain; the words \"Not to be taken away\" are on the back of the chair.\n\nPolice determined that there were 32 clomethiazole pills in Moon's system. Six were digested, sufficient to cause his death; the other 26 were undigested when he died. Max Glatt, an authority on alcoholism, wrote in The Sunday Times that Moon should never have been given the drug. Moon was cremated on 13 September 1978 at Golders Green Crematorium in London, and his ashes were scattered in its Gardens of Remembrance.\n\nTownshend convinced Daltrey and Entwistle to carry on touring as The Who, although he later said that it was his means of coping with Moon's death and \"completely irrational, bordering on insane\". AllMusic's Bruce Eder said, \"When Keith Moon died, the Who carried on and were far more competent and reliable musically, but that wasn't what sold rock records.\" In November 1978, Faces drummer Kenney Jones joined the Who. Townshend later said that Jones \"was one of the few British drummers who could fill Keith's shoes\"; Daltrey was less enthusiastic, saying that Jones \"wasn't the right style\". Keyboardist John \"Rabbit\" Bundrick, who had rehearsed with Moon earlier in the year, joined the live band as an unofficial member.\n\nJones left the Who in 1988, and drummer Simon Phillips (who praised Moon's ability to drum over the backing track of \"Baba O'Riley\") toured with the band the following year. Since 1994, the Who's drummer has been Ringo Starr's son Zak Starkey, who had been given a drum kit by Moon (whom he called \"Uncle Keith\"). \n\nThe London 2012 Summer Olympic Committee contacted Curbishley about Moon performing at the games, 34 years after his death. In an interview with The Times Curbishley quipped, \"I emailed back saying Keith now resides in Golders Green crematorium, having lived up to the Who's anthemic line 'I hope I die before I get old' ... If they have a round table, some glasses and candles, we might contact him.\" \n\nLegacy\n\nMoon's drumming has been praised by critics. Author Nick Talevski described him as \"the greatest drummer in rock,\" adding that \"he was to the drums what Jimi Hendrix was to the guitar.\" Holly George-Warren, editor and author of The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: The First 25 Years, said: \"With the death of Keith Moon in 1978, rock arguably lost its single greatest drummer.\" According to Eder, \"Moon, with his manic, lunatic side, and his life of excessive drinking, partying, and other indulgences, probably represented the youthful, zany side of rock & roll, as well as its self-destructive side, better than anyone else on the planet.\" The New Book of Rock Lists ranked Moon No. 1 on its list of \"50 Greatest Rock 'n' Roll Drummers,\" and he was ranked No. 2 on the 2011 Rolling Stone \"Best Drummers of All Time\" readers' poll. In 2016, the same magazine ranked him No. 2 in their list of the 100 Greatest Drummers of All Time, behind John Bonham. Adam Budofsky, editor of Drummer magazine, said that Moon's performances on Who's Next and Quadrophenia \"represent a perfect balance of technique and passion\" and \"there's been no drummer who's touched his unique slant on rock and rhythm since.\" \n\nSeveral rock drummers, including Neil Peart and Dave Grohl, have cited Moon as an influence. The Jam paid homage to Moon on the second single from their third album, \"Down in the Tube Station at Midnight\"; the B-side of the single is a Who cover (\"So Sad About Us\"), and the back cover of the record has a photo of Moon's face. The Jam's single was released about a month after Moon's death. Animal, one of puppeteer Jim Henson's Muppet characters, may have been based on Keith Moon due to their similar hair, eyebrows, personality and drumming style. \n\n\"God bless his beautiful heart ...\" Ozzy Osbourne told Sounds a month after the drummer's death. \"People will be talking about Keith Moon 'til they die, man. Someone somewhere will say, 'Remember Keith Moon?' Who will remember Joe Bloggs who got killed in a car crash? No one. He's dead, so what? He didn't do anything to talk of.\" \n\nClem Burke of Blondie has said \"Early on all I cared about was Keith Moon and the Who. When I was about eleven or twelve, my favourite part of drum lessons was the last ten minutes, when I'd get to sit at the drumset and play along to my favourite record. I'd bring in 'My Generation'. At the end of the song, the drums go nuts. 'My Generation' was a turning point for me because before that it was all the Charlie Watts and Ringo type of thing.\" \n\nIn 1998 Tony Fletcher published a biography of Moon, Dear Boy: The Life of Keith Moon, in the United Kingdom. The phrase \"Dear Boy\" became a catchphrase of Moon's when, influenced by Kit Lambert, he began affecting a pompous English accent. In 2000, the book was released in the US as Moon (The Life and Death of a Rock Legend). Q Magazine called the book \"horrific and terrific reading,\" and Record Collector said it was \"one of rock's great biographies.\" \n\nIn 2008, English Heritage declined an application for Moon to be awarded a blue plaque. Speaking to The Guardian, Christopher Frayling said they \"decided that bad behaviour and overdosing on various substances wasn't a sufficient qualification.\" The UK's Heritage Foundation disagreed with the decision, presenting a plaque which was unveiled on 9 March 2009. Daltrey, Townshend, Robin Gibb and Moon's mother Kit were present at the ceremony. \n\nDiscography\n\n;Solo albums\n*Two Sides of the Moon (1975)", "Peter Edward \"Ginger\" Baker (born 19 August 1939) is an English drummer, best known as the founder of the rock band Cream. Baker's work in the 1960s earned him praise as \"rock's first superstar drummer\", although his individual style melded a jazz background with his personal interest in African rhythms. Baker is an inductee of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Cream and is widely considered one of the most influential drummers of all time, recognised by his induction into the Modern Drummer Hall of Fame in 2008. In 2016, he was ranked 3rd on Rolling Stones \"100 Greatest Drummers of All Time\". Baker is credited as a pioneer of drumming in genres like jazz fusion, heavy metal and world music. \n\nBaker began playing drums at age 15 around 1954, and later took lessons from Phil Seamen. In the 1960s, he joined Blues Incorporated, where he met bassist Jack Bruce. The two clashed often, but would be rhythm section partners again in the Graham Bond Organisation and Cream, the latter of which Baker co-founded with Eric Clapton in 1966. Cream achieved worldwide success but only lasted until 1968, Cream's two-year lifespan was in part due to Baker's and Bruce's volatile relationship. After briefly working with Clapton in Blind Faith and leading Ginger Baker's Air Force, Baker spent several years in the 1970s living and recording in Africa, often with Fela Kuti, in pursuit of his long-time interest in African music. Among Baker's other collaborations are his work with Gary Moore, Masters of Reality, Public Image Ltd, Atomic Rooster, Bill Laswell, jazz bassist Charlie Haden, jazz guitarist Bill Frisell, and another personally led effort, Ginger Baker's Energy.\n\nBaker's drumming attracted attention for his style, showmanship, and use of two bass drums instead of the conventional one. In his early days, he performed lengthy drum solos, most notably in the Cream song \"Toad\", one of the earliest recorded examples in rock music. Baker is noted for his eccentric, often self-destructive lifestyle; he struggled with heroin addiction for many years, moved around the world often after making enemies, and has been beset with financial and tax troubles, partially as a result of his polo hobby. He has been married four times and has fathered three children.\n\nBiography\n\nEarly life and career\n\nBaker was born in Lewisham, south London. His mother worked in a tobacco shop; his father, Frederick Louvain Formidable Baker, was a bricklayer and Lance Corporal in the Royal Corps of Signals in WWII who died in the 1943 Dodecanese Campaign. \n\nAn athletic child, Baker began playing drums at about 15 years old. In the early 1960s he took lessons from Phil Seamen, one of the leading British jazz drummers of the post-war era. He gained early fame as a member of the Graham Bond Organisation with future Cream bandmate Jack Bruce. The Graham Bond Organisation was an R&B/blues group with strong jazz leanings.\n\nCream\n\nBaker founded the rock band Cream in 1966 with Bruce and guitarist Eric Clapton. An innovative fusion of blues, psychedelic rock and hard rock, the band released four albums in a little over two years before breaking up in 1968. \n\nBlind Faith\n\nBaker then joined the short-lived \"supergroup\" Blind Faith, composed of Clapton, bassist Ric Grech, and Stevie Winwood on vocals. They released one album.\n\nGinger Baker's Air Force\n\nIn 1970 Baker formed, toured and recorded with fusion rock group Ginger Baker's Air Force.\n\n1970s\n\nBaker lived in Nigeria from 1970 until 1976. He sat in for Fela Kuti during recording sessions in 1971 released by Regal Zonophone as Live! (1971)' Fela also appeared with Ginger Baker on Stratavarious (1972) alongside Bobby Gass, a pseudonym for Bobby Tench from the Jeff Beck Group. Stratavarious was later re-issued as part of the compilation Do What You Like. Baker formed Baker Gurvitz Army in 1974 and recorded three albums with them before the band broke up in 1976.\n\n1980s and 1990s\n\nIn the early 1980s, Baker joined Hawkwind for an album and tour, and in the mid-1980s was part of John Lydon's Public Image Ltd., the latter leading to occasional collaborations with bassist/producer Bill Laswell.\n\nIn 1992 Baker played with the hard-rock group Masters of Reality with bassist Googe and singer/guitarist Chris Goss on the album Sunrise on the Sufferbus. The album received critical acclaim but sold fewer than 10,000 copies.\n\nBaker lived in Parker, Colorado, a rural suburb of Denver, between 1993 and 1999, in part due to his passion for polo. Baker not only participated in polo events at the Salisbury Equestrian Park, but he also sponsored an ongoing series of jam sessions and concerts at the equestrian centre on weekends. \n\nIn 1994 he formed The Ginger Baker Trio with bassist Charlie Haden and guitarist Bill Frisell. He also joined BBM, a short-lived power trio with the line-up of Baker, Jack Bruce and Irish blues rock guitarist Gary Moore.\n\n2000s\n\nOn 3 May 2005, Baker reunited with Eric Clapton and Bruce for a series of Cream concerts at the Royal Albert Hall and Madison Square Garden. The London concerts were recorded and released as Royal Albert Hall London May 2–3–5–6 2005 (2005), In a Rolling Stone article written in 2009, Bruce is quoted as saying: \"It's a knife-edge thing between me and Ginger. Nowadays, we're happily co-existing in different continents [Bruce lives in Britain, Baker in South Africa] ... although I was thinking of asking him to move. He's still a bit too close\". \nBaker performing in 2011\n\nIn 2008 a bank clerk, Lindiwe Noko, was charged with defrauding him of almost half a million Rand ($60,000). The bank clerk claimed that it was a gift after she and Baker became lovers. Not so, insisted Baker, who explained, \"I've a scar that only a woman who had a thing with me would know. It's there and she doesn't know it's there\". Noko was convicted of fraud and in October 2010 was sentenced to three years \"correctional supervision\" (a type of community service). \n\nBaker's autobiography Hellraiser was published in 2009.\n\nBaker has Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, a lung disease.\n\nIn 2013 and 2014 Baker toured with the Ginger Baker Jazz Confusion, a quartet comprising Baker, saxophonist Pee Wee Ellis, bassist Alec Dankworth and percussionist Abass Dodoo. \n\nIn 2014 Baker signed with record label Motéma Music to release a new jazz album. The album will feature members of the aforementioned quartet. \n\nIn February 2016, Baker announced he had been diagnosed with \"serious heart issues\" and cancelled all future gigs until further notice. Writing on his blog, he said, \"Just seen doctor... big shock... no more gigs for this old drummer... everything is off... of all things I never thought it would be my heart...\" Little is known about Baker's sudden and serious illness. In late March 2016, it was revealed that Baker is now set for pioneering treatment after explaining: \"There are two options for surgery and, depending on how strong my old lungs are, they may do both.\"\nHe added: \"Cardiologist is brilliant. Yesterday he inserted a tube into the artery at my right wrist and fed it all the way to my heart – quite an experience. He was taking pictures of my heart from inside – amazing technology... He says he's going to get me playing again! Thanks all for your support.\" \n\nDocumentaries\n\nIn 2012, the documentary film Beware of Mr. Baker of Ginger Baker's life by Jay Bulger had its world premiere at South By Southwest in Austin, Texas where it won the grand jury award for best documentary feature. It received its UK premiere on BBC One on 7 July 2015 as part of the channel's Imagine series.\n\nGinger Baker in Africa (1971) documents Baker's drive from Algeria to Nigeria (across the Sahara desert by Range Rover), where in the capital, Lagos, he sets up a recording studio and jams with Fela Kuti.\n\nStyle and technique\n\nBaker cited Phil Seamen, Art Blakey, Max Roach, Elvin Jones, Philly Joe Jones and Baby Dodds as influences on his style. \n\nBaker's early performance attracted attention for both his innate musicality and showmanship. Baker was a pioneer in the use of two bass drums in rock and roll music - though in the jazz idiom, a similar set-up had previously been used by Louie Bellson during his days with Duke Ellington. This double bass drum set-up and technique later became a mainstay of hard rock and heavy metal music. While he became famous during his time with Cream for his wild, unpredictable, and flamboyant performances that were often viewed in a vein similar to that of Keith Moon from the Who, Baker has also frequently employed a much more restrained and straightforward performance style influenced by the British jazz groups he heard during the late 1950s and early 1960s. In his early days, he developed what would later become the archetypal rock drum solo, with the best known example being the five-minute-long \"Toad\" from Cream's debut album Fresh Cream (1966).\n\nBaker's strong jazz influence and experience is apparent throughout his recorded work, particularly in his philosophy of \"time\" and the role of a drummer as the \"driving force\" of an ensemble. While he is frequently seen playing with matched grip, Baker is equally proficient in the use of traditional grip, and made use of such on his instructional video \"Master Drum Technique.\" Baker possesses both tremendous hand speed and outstanding finger control of the drum stick, which allows him to generate rapid and dynamically complex patterns marked by accents and rebounds while still conserving his overall limb movement - a technique that is developed and coveted extensively by jazz drummers. Baker is known to prefer a light, thin, fast-rebounding drum stick (size 7A), as opposed to the thicker, heavier sticks favored by most rock and heavy metal drummers. Baker was one of the first drummers in rock music to apply the concept of \"coordinated independence\" - a drum technique in which two (or more) limbs play rhythmic patterns that are completely separate, independent, and often contrapuntal to one another. Baker's recorded solos make use of sophisticated syncopation and technically complex ride cymbal patterns characteristic of bebop and other advanced forms of jazz. He frequently employs differing tambres and colours in his percussive work, using a variety of other percussion instruments in addition to the standard drum kit. Baker was also one of the first rock drummers to make frequent use of timpani mallets, brushes, and other beaters/strikers in order to obtain the desired tone colour from his drums and cymbals. As mentioned previously, Baker's playing features the frequent application of African rhythms and groove patterns, particularly hemiolas and polyrhythms. Baker's jazz/fusion work features frequent rolls, drag variants, and drum-to-drum diddle patterns, while his work with Cream and Blind Faith was marked by an emphasis on both double stops and the flam, thereby producing a heavy, thunderous sound.\n\nSomewhat atypically, Baker mounts all of the tom toms on his drum kit in a vertical fashion, with the shells of the drums perpendicular to the floor - as opposed to the more common practice of angling the hanging (or \"rack\") toms toward the player.\n\nAlthough he is usually categorized as a \"rock drummer,\" Baker himself prefers to be viewed as a jazz drummer, or as just \"a drummer.\" \n\nLegacy\n\nBaker's style influenced many drummers, including John Bonham, Peter Criss, Neil Peart, Stewart Copeland, Ian Paice, Terry Bozzio, Dave Lombardo, Tommy Aldridge, Bill Bruford, Alex Van Halen, Danny Seraphine and Nick Mason. \n\nModern Drummer magazine has described him as \"one of classic rock's first influential drumming superstars of the 1960s\" and \"one of classic rock's true drum gods\". AllMusic has described him as \"the most influential percussionist of the 1960s\" and stated that \"virtually every drummer of every heavy metal band that has followed since that time has sought to emulate some aspect of Baker's playing\". Although he is widely considered a pioneer of heavy metal drumming, Baker has expressed his repugnance for the genre. \n\nDrum! magazine listed Baker among the \"50 Most Important Drummers of All Time\" and has defined him as \"one of the most imitated '60s drummers\", stating also that \"he forever changed the face of rock music\". He was voted the ninth greatest drummer of all time in a Rolling Stone reader poll and has been considered the \"drummer who practically invented the rock drum solo\". According to author and columnist Ken Micalief in his book Classic Rock Drummers: \"the pantheon of contemporary drummers from metal, fusion, and rock owe their very existence to Baker's trailblazing work with Cream\". \n\nNeil Peart has said: \"His playing was revolutionary – extrovert, primal and inventive. He set the bar for what rock drumming could be. [...] Every rock drummer since has been influenced in some way by Ginger – even if they don't know it\".\n\nPersonal life\n\nBaker and his wife, Liz Finch, had their first child, Ginette Karen, on 20 December 1960. Baker's second daughter, Leda, was born 20 February 1968. Baker's son Kofi Streatfield Baker was born in March 1969 and named for a friend of Baker's, a Ghanaian drummer named Kofi Ghanaba. \n\nDiscography\n\nThe Storyville Jazz Men and The Hugh Rainey Allstars\n\n*Storyville Re-Visited (1958) also featuring Bob Wallis and Ginger Baker\n\nAlexis Korner Blues Incorporated\n\n* Alexis Korner and Friends (1963)\n\nGraham Bond Organisation\n\n*Live at Klooks Kleek (1964)\n*The Sound of '65 (1965)\n*There's a Bond Between Us (1965)\n\nCream discography\n\n*Fresh Cream Polydor (1966)\n*Disraeli Gears Polydor (1967)\n*Wheels of Fire Polydor (1968)\n*Goodbye Polydor (1969)\n*Live Cream Polydor (1970)\n*Live Cream Volume II Polydor (1972)\n*BBC Sessions (2003)\n*Royal Albert Hall London, 2–3 and 5–6 May 2005 Reprise (2005)\n\nBlind Faith discography\n\n*Blind Faith Polydor (1969)\n\nGinger Baker's Air Force discography\n\n*Ginger Baker's Air Force Atco (1970)\n*Ginger Baker's Air Force II Atco (1970)\n\nBaker Gurvitz Army discography\n\n*Baker Gurvitz Army Janus (1974)\n*Elysian Encounter Atco (1975)\n*Hearts on Fire Atco (1976)\n*Flying in and Out of Stardom Castle (2003)\n*Greatest Hits GB Music (2003)\n*Live in Derby Major league productions (2005)\n*Live Revisited (2005)\n\nSolo discography\n\n*Ginger Baker at His Best (1972)\n*Stratavarious Polydor (1972)\n* Ginger Baker & Friends Mountain (1976)\n*Eleven Sides of Baker Sire (1977)\n*From Humble Oranges CDG (1983)\n*Horses & Trees Celluloid (1986)\n*No Material live album ITM (1989)\n*Middle Passage Axiom (1990)\n*Unseen Rain Day Eight (1992)\n*Ginger Baker's Energy ITM (1992)\n*Going Back Home Atlantic (1994)\n*Ginger Baker The Album ITM (1995)\n*Falling Off the Roof Atlantic (1995)\n*Do What You Like Polydor (1998)\n*Coward of the County Atlantic (1999)\n*African Force (2001)\n*African Force: Palanquin's Pole (2006)\n*Why? (2014)\n\nWith Fela Kuti\n*Fela's London Scene (EMI, 1971) – uncredited\n*Why Black Man Dey Suffer (African Sounds, 1971)\n* Live! (Regal Zonophone Records, 1972)\n\nOther\n\n* Levitation by Hawkwind, Bronze (1980)\n* Zones by Hawkwind, Flicknife (1983)\n* This Is Hawkwind, Do Not Panic by Hawkwind, Flicknife (1984)\n* Album by Public Image Ltd, Elektra/Virgin (1986)\n* Unseen Rain with Jens Johansson and Jonas Hellborg, Day Eight (1992)\n* Sunrise on the Sufferbus by Masters of Reality, Chrysalis (1992)\n* \"Cities of the Heart\" by Jack Bruce, CMP Records (1993)\n* Around the Next Dream by BBM, Capitol (1994)\n* Synaesthesia by Andy Summers, CMP Records (1996)\n* Coward of the County by Ginger Baker and the Denver Jazz Quintet-to-Octet (DJQ2O), Atlantic (1999)\n\nInstruments and sound\n\nBaker's current kit is made by Drum Workshop. He used Ludwig drums until the late 1990s. All of his cymbals are made by Zildjian; the 22\" rivet ride cymbal and the 14\" hi-hats he currently uses are the same ones he used during the last two Cream tours in 1968. \n\nDrums\n\n;1960s\n* 20\" × 14\" Bass (right foot)\n* 22\" × 14\" Bass (left foot)\n* 12×8\" & 13×9\" top toms\n* 14×14\" & 16×14\" floor toms\n* 1940s 6.5\" × 14\" black finished Leedy Broadway wood Snare\nSnare tuned high, toms and bass tuned low\n\nIn May 1968 Baker purchased a new Ludwig drum kit with 20\" × 14\" and 22\" × 14\" bass drums, a 14\" × 5\" metal Super-Sensitive snare and the same-sized toms for Cream's farewell tour.\n\n; Current drums\n* 10\" × 8\", 12\" × 9\", 13\" × 10\", 14\" × 12\", Toms on front rack stands\n* 20\" × 14\" & 22\" × 14\" Bass Drums\n* 13\" × 5.5\" DW Craviotto Snare\n* 14\" × 6.5\" Leedy Snare (Spare)\n* DW 5000 Accelerator Bass Drum Pedals\n* 4 DW cymbal stands\n* 1 DW 5000 Hi-hat Stand\n* 1 DW Snare Stand\n* Zildjian Ginger Baker 7A sticks\n\nCymbals\n\n1963–present made by Zildjian \n\n;1960s\n*16\" crash left upper\n*13\" crash left lower\n*14\" hi-hats left\n*20\" ride right front lower\n*14\" crash right front upper\n*22\" rivet crash/ride right back upper\n*18\" crash right back lower\n*8\" which Ginger once called a \"joke effect\" splash right of middle\n\n;Current\n*16\" K Dark Medium Thin Crash\n*14\" A New Beat Hi-hats\n*8\" A Splash\n*8\" A Fast Splash\n*10\" A Splash\n*8\" A Splash\n*13\" Top A Mastersound Hat\n*22\" A Series Medium Ride Rivet Ride\n*18\" A China Low\n*18\" A Medium Crash\n*Cow bells front right\n\nNotes", "Charles Robert \"Charlie\" Watts (born 2 June 1941) is an English drummer, best known as a member of The Rolling Stones. Originally trained as a graphic artist, he started playing drums in London’s rhythm and blues clubs, where he met Brian Jones, Mick Jagger, and Keith Richards. In 1963, he joined their group, the Rolling Stones, as drummer, while doubling as designer of their record sleeves and tour stages. He has also toured with his own group, the Charlie Watts Quintet, and appeared at London’s prestigious jazz-club Ronnie Scott’s with the Charlie Watts Tentet.\n\nIn 2006, Watts was elected into the Modern Drummer Hall of Fame; in the same year, Vanity Fair elected him into the International Best Dressed List Hall of Fame. In the estimation of noted music critic Robert Christgau, Watts is \"rock's greatest drummer.\" In 2016 he was ranked 12th on Rolling Stone magazine's \"100 Greatest Drummers of All Time\" list.\n\nEarly life\n\nCharles Robert \"Charlie\" Watts was born to Charles Richard Watts, a lorry driver for the London Midland & Scottish Railway, and his wife Lillian Charlotte (née Eaves), at University College Hospital, London, and raised (along with his sister Linda) in Kingsbury. He attended Tylers Croft Secondary Modern School from 1952 to 1956; as a schoolboy, he displayed a talent for art, cricket and football. \n\nAs a child, Watts lived in Wembley, at 23 Pilgrims Way. Many of Wembley’s houses had been destroyed by German bombs during World War II; Watts and his family lived in a prefabricated home, as did many in the community. Watts's neighbour Dave Green, who lived next door at 22 Pilgrims Way, was a childhood friend, and they remain friends today; Green went on to become a jazz bass player. Green recalls that as boys, \"we discovered 78rpm records. Charlie had more records than I did... We used to go to Charlie's bedroom and just get these records out.\" Watts' earliest records were jazz recordings; he remembers owning 78 RPM records of Jelly Roll Morton, and Charlie Parker. Green recalls that Watts also \"had the one with Monk and the Johnny Dodge Trio. Charlie was ahead of me in listening and acquisitions.\" When Watts and Green were both about thirteen, Watts became interested in drumming:\n\nGreen and Watts began their musical careers together from 1958 to 1959, playing in a jazz band in Middlesex called the Jo Jones All Stars.\n\nWatts initially found his transition to rhythm and blues puzzling; commenting, \"I went into rhythm and blues. When they asked me to play, I didn't know what it was. I thought it meant Charlie Parker, played slow.\n\nWatts' parents gave him his first drum kit in 1955; he was interested in jazz, and would practice drumming along with jazz records he collected. After completing secondary school, he enrolled at Harrow Art School (now the University of Westminster), which he attended until 1960. After leaving school, Watts worked as a graphic designer for an advertising company called Charlie Daniels Studios, and also played drums occasionally with local bands in coffee shops and clubs. In 1961 he met Alexis Korner, who invited him to join his band, Blues Incorporated. At that time Watts was on his way to a sojourn working as a graphic designer in Denmark, but he accepted Korner's offer when he returned to London in February 1962. \n\nWatts played regularly with Blues Incorporated and maintained a job with another advertising firm of Charles, Hobson and Grey. It was in mid-1962 that Watts first met Brian Jones, Ian \"Stu\" Stewart, Mick Jagger, and Keith Richards, who also frequented the London rhythm and blues clubs, but it was not until January 1963 that Watts finally agreed to join The Rolling Stones. \n\nMusical career\n\nBesides his music, Watts contributed graphic art to early Rolling Stones records such as the Between the Buttons record sleeve and was responsible for the 1975 tour announcement press conference in New York City. The band surprised the throng of waiting reporters by driving and playing \"Brown Sugar\" on the back of a flatbed truck in the middle of Manhattan traffic, a gimmick AC/DC copied later the same year. (Status Quo repeated the trick for the 1984 video to \"The Wanderer\" and U2 would later emulate it in the 2004 video for \"All Because of You\".) Watts remembered this was a common way for New Orleans jazz bands to promote upcoming dates. Moreover, with Jagger, he designed the elaborate stages for tours, first contributing to the lotus-shaped design of that 1975 Tour of the Americas, as well as the 1989–1990 Steel Wheels/Urban Jungle Tour, the 1997 Bridges to Babylon Tour, the 2002-2003 Licks Tour, and the 2005-2007 A Bigger Bang Tour.\n\nWatts has been involved in many activities outside his life as a member of The Rolling Stones. In 1964, he published a cartoon tribute to Charlie Parker entitled Ode to a High Flying Bird. Although he has made his name in rock, his personal tastes lie principally in jazz. In the late 1970s, he joined Ian Stewart in the back-to-the-roots boogie-woogie band Rocket 88, which featured many of the UK's top jazz, rock and R&B musicians. In the 1980s, he toured worldwide with a big band that included such names as Evan Parker, Courtney Pine and Jack Bruce, who was also a member of Rocket 88. In 1991, he organised a jazz quintet as another tribute to Charlie Parker. 1993 saw the release of Warm And Tender, by the Charlie Watts Quintet, which included vocalist Bernard Fowler. This same group then released Long Ago And Far Away in 1996. Both records included a collection of Great American Songbook standards. After a successful collaboration with Jim Keltner on The Rolling Stones' Bridges to Babylon, Watts and Keltner released a techno/instrumental album simply titled, Charlie Watts/Jim Keltner Project. Watts stated that even though the tracks bore such names as the \"Elvin Suite\" in honour of the late Elvin Jones, Max Roach and Roy Haynes, they were not copying their style of drumming, but rather capturing a feeling by those artists. Watts at Scott's was recorded with his group, \"the Charlie Watts Tentet\", at the famous jazz club in London, Ronnie Scott's. In April 2009 he started to perform concerts with the ABC&D of Boogie Woogie together with pianists Axel Zwingenberger and Ben Waters plus his childhood friend Dave Green on bass.\n\nIn 1989, The Rolling Stones were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In the July 2006 issue of Modern Drummer magazine, Watts was voted into the Modern Drummer Hall of Fame, joining Ringo Starr, Keith Moon, Steve Gadd, Buddy Rich and other highly esteemed and influential drummers from the history of rock and jazz. In the estimation of noted music critic Robert Christgau, Watts is \"rock's greatest drummer.\" \n\nPrivate life and public image\n\nOn 14 October 1964, Watts married Shirley Ann Shepherd (born 11 September 1938), whom he had met before the band became successful. The couple have one daughter, Serafina, born in March 1968, who in turn has given birth to Watts' only grandchild, a girl named Charlotte.\n\nWatts has expressed a love–hate attitude toward touring. When he appeared on the BBC's Radio 4 Desert Island Discs, in February 2001, he said that he has had a compulsive habit for decades of sketching every new hotel room he occupies – and its furnishings. He stated that he keeps every sketch, but still doesn't know why he feels the compulsion to do this.\n\nWatts' personal life has outwardly appeared to be substantially quieter than those of his bandmates and many of his rock-and-roll colleagues; onstage, he seems to furnish a calm and amused counterpoint to his flamboyant bandmates. Ever faithful to his wife Shirley, Watts consistently refused sexual favours from groupies on the road; in Robert Greenfield's STP: A Journey Through America with The Rolling Stones, a documentary of the 1972 American Tour, it is noted that when the group was invited to the Playboy Mansion during that tour, Watts took advantage of Hugh Hefner's game room instead of frolicking with the women. \"I've never filled the stereotype of the rock star,\" he remarked. \"Back in the '70s, Bill Wyman and I decided to grow beards, and the effort left us exhausted.\" \n\nWatts has spoken openly about a period in the mid-1980s when his previously moderate use of alcohol and drugs became problematic: \"[My drug and alcohol problems were] my way of dealing with [family problems]... Looking back on it, I think it was a mid-life crisis. All I know is that I became totally another person around 1983 and came out of it about 1986. I nearly lost my wife and everything over my behaviour\". \n\nOne anecdote relates that in the mid-1980s, an intoxicated Jagger phoned Watts' hotel room in the middle of the night asking \"Where's my drummer?\". Watts reportedly got up, shaved, dressed in a suit, put on a tie and freshly shined shoes, descended the stairs, and punched Jagger in the face, saying: \"Don't ever call me your drummer again. You're my fucking singer!\" \n\nWatts is noted for his personal wardrobe: the British newspaper The Daily Telegraph has named him one of the World's Best Dressed Men. In 2006, Vanity Fair elected Watts into the International Best Dressed List Hall of Fame. \n\nIn June 2004, Watts was diagnosed with throat cancer, despite having quit smoking in the late 1980s, and underwent a course of radiotherapy. The cancer has since gone into remission, and he returned to recording and touring with The Rolling Stones.\n\nWatts now lives in Dolton, a rural village in west Devon, where he and wife Shirley own an Arabian horse stud farm. He also owns a percentage of The Rolling Stones' various corporate entities.\n\nDiscography\n\nIn addition to his work with The Rolling Stones, Watts has released the following albums:\n\n* The Charlie Watts Orchestra Live at Fulham Town Hall (1986/Columbia Records)\n* The Charlie Watts Quintet - From One Charlie (1991/Continuum Records)\n* The Charlie Watts Quintet - A Tribute to Charlie Parker with Strings (1992/Continuum Records)\n* The Charlie Watts Quintet - Warm and Tender (1993/Continuum Records)\n* The Charlie Watts Quintet - Long Ago and Far Away (1996/Virgin Records)\n* The Charlie Watts-Jim Keltner Project (2000/Cyber Octave Records)\n* The Charlie Watts Tentet - Watts at Scott's (2004/Sanctuary Records)\n* The ABC&D of Boogie Woogie - The Magic of Boogie Woogie (2010/Vagabond Records)\n* The ABC&D of Boogie Woogie Live in Paris (2012/Columbia Records)", "Bernard \"Buddy\" Rich (September 30, 1917 – April 2, 1987) was an American jazz drummer and bandleader.\n\nKnown for his virtuoso technique, power and speed, Rich was billed as \"the world's greatest drummer\" during his career. He performed with many bandleaders, most notably Tommy Dorsey, Harry James, Count Basie, and led his own \"Buddy Rich Big Band\".\n\nBiography\n\nEarly life\n\nRich was born in Brooklyn to Jewish-American parents Bess (née Skolnik) and Robert Rich, both vaudevillians. His talent for rhythm was first noted by his father, who saw that Buddy could keep a steady beat with spoons at the age of one. He began playing drums in vaudeville when he was 18 months old, billed as \"Traps the Drum Wonder\". At the peak of Rich's childhood career, he was reportedly the second-highest paid child entertainer in the world (after Jackie Coogan). \n\nAt age 11, he was performing as a bandleader. He received no formal drum instruction and went so far as to claim that instruction would only degrade his musical talent. He also never admitted to practicing, claiming to play the drums only during performances and was not known to read music.\n\nJazz career\n\nRich first played jazz with a major group in 1937 with Joe Marsala and guitarist Jack Lemaire. He then played with Bunny Berigan (1938) and Artie Shaw (1939), and even instructed a 14-year-old Mel Brooks in drumming for a short period when playing for Shaw. At 21, Rich participated in his first major recording with the Vic Schoen Orchestra (the band that backed the Andrews Sisters). In 1938, he was hired to play in Tommy Dorsey's orchestra, where he met and performed with Frank Sinatra. In 1942, Rich left the Dorsey band to join the United States Marine Corps. He rejoined the Dorsey group after leaving the Marines two years later. In 1946, Rich formed his own band with financial support from Sinatra, and continued to lead different groups on and off until the early fifties. \n\nIn addition to Tommy Dorsey (1939–42, 1945, 1954–55), Rich also played with Benny Carter (1942), Harry James (1953–56–62, 1964, 1965), Les Brown, Charlie Ventura, and Jazz at the Philharmonic, as well as leading his own band and performing with all-star groups. In the early fifties Rich played with Dorsey and began to perform with trumpeter Harry James, an association which lasted until 1966. In 1966, Rich left James to develop a new big band. For most of the period from 1966 until his death, he led successful big bands in an era when the popularity of big bands had waned from their 1930s and 1940s peak. In this later period, Rich continued to play clubs, but stated in multiple interviews that the great majority of his big bands' performances were at high schools, colleges and universities, with club performances done to a much lesser degree. Rich also served as the session drummer for many recordings, where his playing was often much more understated than in his own big-band performances. Especially notable were Rich's sessions for recordings of Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong, on which he worked with pianist Oscar Peterson and his famous trio featuring bassist Ray Brown and guitarist Herb Ellis. In 1968 Rich collaborated with the Indian drummer Ustad Alla Rakha in the studio album \"Rich à la Rakha\" by Buddy Rich and Alla Rakha.\n\nThe \"West Side Story Medley\"\n\nPerhaps his most popular later performance was a big-band arrangement of a medley derived from Leonard Bernstein's West Side Story, first released on the 1966 album Swingin' New Big Band. The \"West Side Story medley\" is a complex big-band arrangement which highlights Rich's ability to blend the rhythm of his drumming into his band's playing of the musical chart. Penned by Bill Reddie, Rich received the West Side Story arrangement of Leonard Bernstein's melodies from the famed musical in the mid-1960s and found it challenging. It consists of many rapid-fire time changes and signatures and took almost a month of constant rehearsals to perfect. It later became a staple in all his performances, clocking in at various lengths from seven to fifteen minutes. In 2002, a DVD was released called The Lost West Side Story Tapes that captured a 1985 performance of this along with other numbers.Bowers, Jack. \"Buddy Rich: The Lost Tapes\", All About Jazz. December 9, 2005; accessed June 27, 2007 \n\nChannel One Suite\n\nAfter the \"West Side Story Medley\", Rich's most famous performance was the \"Channel One Suite\" by Bill Reddie. Like the \"West Side Story Medley\", the \"Channel One Suite\" generally was a quite long performance ranging from about 12 minutes to about 26 minutes and usually contained two or three drum solos. A recording of one of his live performances was released in January 2001, which contained a 26-minute \"Channel One Suite\". \n\nA live recording of the \"Channel One Suite\" is featured on the 1968 Buddy Rich Big Band album, Mercy, Mercy, recorded at Caesars Palace in 1968. The album received acclaim as the \"finest all-round recording by Buddy Rich's big band\". \n\nTV appearances\n\nIn the 1950s, Rich was a frequent guest on The Steve Allen Show and other television variety shows. Beginning in 1962, Rich was a frequent guest on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson and The Merv Griffin Show, among others, and appeared with his big band on British television, on Michael Parkinson's talk show Parkinson and on the Terry Wogan Show (the last time on October 29, 1986, several months before Rich's death). Rich starred in a 1967 summer replacement television series called Away We Go along with singer Buddy Greco and comedian George Carlin. \n\nIn 1973, PBS broadcast and syndicated Rich's February 6, 1973, performance at the Top of the Plaza in Rochester, New York. It was the first time thousands of drummers were exposed to Buddy in a full-length concert setting, and many drummers continue to name this program as a prime influence on their own playing. One of his most widely-seen television performances was in a 1981 episode of The Muppet Show, in which he engaged Muppet drummer \"Animal\" (played by Ronnie Verrell) in a drum battle. Rich's famous televised drum battles also included Gene Krupa, Ed Shaughnessy and Louie Bellson.\n\nOn an episode of Michael Parkinson's British talk show, Parkinson kidded Rich about his Donny Osmond kick, by claiming that Rich was the president of The Osmonds' fan club. \n\nDeath\n\nBuddy Rich continued touring and performing until the end of his life. On April 2, 1987, he died of heart failure following surgery for a malignant brain tumor. He was interred in the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles. He was 69.\n\nDrumming technique and well-known performances\n\nRich typically held his sticks using the traditional grip. He also used the matched grip technique at times when playing on the floor toms (as captured in early video footage) and sometimes around the drum set while performing cross-stickings (crossing arm over arm), which was one of his party tricks, often leading to loud cheers from the audience. Another technique he used to impress during his performances was the stick-trick : a fast roll performed by slapping two drumsticks together in a circular motion using \"taps\" or single-stroke stickings.\n\nHe often used contrasting techniques to keep long drum solos from getting mundane. Aside from his energetic, explosive displays, he would go into quieter passages. One passage he would use in most solos started with a simple single-stroke roll on the snare picking up speed and power, then slowly moving his sticks closer to the rim as he got quieter, and eventually playing on just the rim itself while still maintaining speed. Then he would reverse the effect and slowly move towards the center of the snare while increasing power.\n\nThough well known as an explosive, powerful drummer, he did occasionally use brushes. On one album, 1955's The Lionel Hampton Art Tatum Buddy Rich Trio, Rich played with brushes almost exclusively throughout. In 1942, Rich and drum teacher Henry Adler co-authored the instructional book Buddy Rich's Modern Interpretation of Snare Drum Rudiments, regarded as one of the more popular snare-drum rudiment books One of Adler's former students introduced Adler to Rich. Adler said, \"The kid told me Buddy played better than [Gene] Krupa. Buddy was only in his teens at the time and his friend was my first pupil. Buddy played and I watched his hands. Well, he knocked me right out. He did everything I wanted to do, and he did it with such ease. When I met his folks, I asked them who his teacher was. 'He never studied', they told me. That made me feel very good. I realized that it was something physical, not only mental, that you had to have.\"\n\nIn a 1985 interview , Adler clarified the extent of his teacher-student relationship with Rich and their collaboration on the instructional book. \"I had nothing to do with [the rumor that I taught Buddy how to play]. That was a result of Tommy Dorsey's introduction to the Buddy Rich book\", Adler said. \"I used to go around denying it, knowing that Buddy was a natural player. Sure, he studied with me, but he didn't come to me to learn how to hold the drumsticks. I set out to teach Buddy to read. He'd take six lessons, go on the road for six weeks and come back. He didn't have time to practice. ... Tommy Dorsey wanted Buddy to write a book and he told him to get in touch with me. I did the book and Tommy wrote the foreword. Technically, I was Buddy's teacher, but I came along after he had already acquired his technique.\" \n\nWhen asked about Rich's ability to read music, Bobby Shew, lead trumpeter in Rich's mid-60s big band replied: \"No. He'd always have a drummer there during rehearsals to read and play the parts initially on new arrangements... He'd only have to listen to a chart once and he'd have it memorized. We'd run through it and he'd know exactly how it went, how many measures it ran and what he'd have to do to drive it... The guy had the most natural instincts.\" \n\nInstruments\n\nRich was known as a performer and endorser of Ludwig, Slingerland and Rogers Drums. He switched exclusively to Ludwig for much of the 1970s to the early 1980s. While recovering from a heart attack in 1983, Rich was presented with a 1940s-vintage Slingerland Radio King set – refurbished by Joe MacSweeney of Eames Drums – which he used until his death in 1987. Rich's typical setup included a 14\"X24\" bass drum, a 9\"X13\" mounted tom, two 16\"X16\" floor toms (with the second tom serving as a towel holder), and a 5.5\"X14\" snare drum. His cymbals were typically Avedis Zildjian: 14\" New Beat hi-hats, 20\" medium ride, 6\" or 8\" splash, two 18\" crashes (thin and medium-thin), and later a 22\" swish. \n\nPersonality\n\nRich was known to have a short temper. Dusty Springfield reportedly slapped Rich after several days of \"putting up with Rich's insults and show-biz sabotage\". He was also known for his rivalry with Frank Sinatra—which sometimes ended in brawls—when both were members of Tommy Dorsey's band. Nonetheless, the two remained lifelong friends and Sinatra delivered a eulogy at Rich's funeral. Billy Cobham stated he once met Rich in a club and asked him to sign his snare but Rich dropped it down the stairs. \n\nAccording to bassist Bill Crow, Rich reacted strongly to Max Roach's increasing popularity when he was the drummer for Charlie Parker, especially when a jazz critic stated Roach had topped Rich as the world's greatest drummer.Korall, Burt. Drummin' Men: The Heartbeat of Jazz The Bebop Years, Oxford University Press, 2004, p.94 Drummer John JR Robinson told Crow he was with Roach when Rich came driving with a beautiful woman next to him and Rich yelled: \"Hey, Max! Top this!\". Nonetheless the two worked together for the album Rich Versus Roach (1959) and Roach appeared on the Rich tribute album Burning For Buddy (1994).\n\nRich preferred to concentrate his efforts on big band and jazz music, rarely venturing outside of those genres. He held a low opinion of country and rock and declined to involve himself with those genres. During the medical therapy prior to his death, a nurse asked him whether he was allergic to anything, to whom Rich replied \"Yes, country and western music\". \n\nIn the Beastie Boys song \"Sabotage\", the lyrics \"I'm Buddy Rich when I fly off the handle\" refer to Rich's temper. Rich held a black belt in karate. \n\nThe Bus Tapes\n\nRich's temper, mercurial attitude, and imposing personality were documented in secret recordings that pianist Lee Musiker made during some of his tantrums on tour buses and backstage in the early 1980s. These recordings, long circulated in bootleg form, have done much to fuel the reputation of Rich's personality. The tapes were popular with comedians Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David, who used three quotes from them more or less verbatim on Seinfeld: \n* \"If I have to tell you again, we're gonna take it outside and I'm gonna show you what it's like!\" (\"The Opposite\")\n* \"This guy – this is not my kind of guy.\" (\"The Understudy\")\n* \"Then let's see how he does, up there, without all the assistance!\" (\"The Butter Shave\")\n\nOn one recording, Rich threatens to fire Dave Panichi, a trombonist, for having a beard. While he threatened many times to fire members of his band, he seldom did so, and for the most part he lauded his musicians during television and print interviews. The day before Rich died, he was visited by Mel Tormé, who claims that one of Rich's last requests was to hear the tapes that featured his angry outbursts. At the time, Tormé was working on an authorized biography of Rich, which was released after Rich's death, titled Traps – The Drum Wonder: The Life of Buddy Rich. Tormé included edited excerpts of the tapes in the book, but never played them for Rich.\n\nLegacy\n\nRich's technique, including speed, smooth execution and precision, is one of the most coveted in drumming and has become a common standard. Gene Krupa defined him as \"the greatest drummer ever to have drawn breath\".\n\nRich's influence extended from jazz to rock music and jazz fusion. He influenced drummers such as Led Zeppelin's John Bonham, Deep Purple's Ian Paice, Black Sabbath's Bill Ward, and Emerson, Lake & Palmer's Carl Palmer. Phil Collins stopped using two bass drums and started playing the hi-hat after reading Rich's opinion on the importance of the hi-hat. Queen drummer Roger Taylor has acknowledged Rich as the best drummer he ever saw for sheer technique. Topper Headon of the punk rock band the Clash often stated Buddy Rich and Billy Cobham as his favourite drummers.\n\nSince Rich's death, a number of memorial concerts have been held. In 1994, the Rich tribute album Burning for Buddy: A Tribute to the Music of Buddy Rich was released. Produced by Rush drummer/lyricist Neil Peart, the album features performances of Rich staples by a number of jazz and rock drummers such as Joe Morello, Steve Gadd, Max Roach, Billy Cobham, Dave Weckl, Simon Phillips, Steve Smith, and Peart himself, accompanied by the Buddy Rich Big Band. A second volume was issued in 1997. Phil Collins also featured in a DVD tribute organized by Rich's daughter, A Salute to Buddy Rich, which included Steve Smith and Dennis Chambers. \n\nRich's grandson, Nick Rich, also plays drums and was briefly in the post-hardcore band Falling in Reverse. \n\nIn the 2014 film Whiplash, a first-year jazz student at the prestigious (fictional) Shaffer Conservatory aspires to become one of the greats like Buddy Rich; though both the film's treatment of music in general and jazz in particular, and the choice of Rich as a jazz personality to aspire to, have been criticized by jazz aficionados. \n\nIn 2016, Rolling Stone ranked Buddy Rich no.15 in their list of the 100 Greatest Drummers of all time.\n\nDiscography\n\nStudio and live albums as leader or co-leader\n\n* 1953: The Flip Phillips Buddy Rich Trio (Clef Records) \n* 1954: The Swinging Buddy Rich (Norgran Records)\n* 1955: Sing and Swing with Buddy Rich (Norgran)\n* 1955: Buddy and Sweets (Norgran)\n* 1955: The Lester Young Buddy Rich Trio (Norgran)\n* 1955: The Wailing Buddy Rich (Norgran)\n* 1955: Krupa and Rich (Clef) – with Gene Krupa\n* 1955: The Lionel Hampton Art Tatum Buddy Rich Trio (Clef)\n* 1956: Buddy Rich Sings Johnny Mercer (Verve Records)\n* 1956: This One's for Basie (Verve) – re-issued 1967 as Big Band Shout \n* 1957: Buddy Rich Just Sings (Verve)\n* 1958: Buddy Rich in Miami (Verve)\n* 1959: Richcraft (Mercury Records) – also The Rich Rebellion (Wing)\n* 1959: Rich versus Roach (Mercury) – with Max Roach\n* 1959: The Voice is Rich (Mercury)\n* 1960: The Driver (EmArcy Records)\n* 1961: Playtime (Argo Records)\n* 1961: Blues Caravan (Verve)\n* 1962: Burnin' Beat (Verve) – with Gene Krupa\n* 1965: Are You Ready for This? (Roost) – with Louie Bellson\n* 1966: Swingin' New Big Band (Pacific Jazz Records/Blue Note Records)\n* 1966: The Sounds of '66 (Reprise Records) – Live, with Sammy Davis, Jr.\n* 1967: Big Swing Face (Pacific Jazz) – Live\n* 1967: The New One! (Pacific Jazz) – aka Take it Away\n* 1968: Rich à la Rakha (World Pacific) – with Alla Rakha\n* 1968: Mercy, Mercy (Pacific Jazz) – Live\n* 1969: Buddy & Soul (Pacific Jazz) – Live\n* 1970: Keep the Customer Satisfied (Liberty Records) – Live\n* 1971: A Different Drummer (RCA Records)\n* 1971: Rich in London (RCA) – expanded UK release – Buddy Rich: Very Alive at Ronnie Scott's (RCA (UK)) – Live\n* 1971: Conversations (with Louie Bellson, Kenny Clare, & the Bobby Lamb/Ray Premru Orch) (London Records) – Reissued 2011\n* 1972: Stick It (RCA)\n* 1973: The Roar of '74 (Groove Merchant Records)\n* 1974: Very Live at Buddy's Place (Groove Merchant) – Live\n* 1974: Transition (Groove Merchant) – with Lionel Hampton\n* 1974: The Last Blues Album, Vol. 1 (Groove Merchant)\n* 1975: Big Band Machine (Groove Merchant)\n* 1976: Speak No Evil (RCA)\n* 1977: Buddy Rich Plays and Plays and Plays (RCA)\n* 1977: Lionel Hampton Presents Buddy Rich (Who's Who in Jazz) – aka Buddy's Cherokee... also released as The Sound of Jazz, Vol 10\n* 1977: Class of '78 (The Great American Gramophone Company) – also released as The Greatest Drummer That Ever Lived with The Best Band I Ever Had\n* 1978: Together Again: For the First Time (Gryphon/Century) – aka When I Found You (with Mel Tormé)\n* 1980: Live at Ronnie Scott's (DRG) – Live. aka The Man from Planet Jazz\n* 1981: The Buddy Rich Band (MCA)\n* 1982: Live at the 1982 Montreal Jazz Festival (Hudson Music)\n* 1983: Rich and Famous (Amway) – aka The Magic of Buddy Rich, aka Buddy Rich – The Man\n* 1985: Mr. Drums: ...Live on King Street (Cafe) – \"Live\" in-studio concert recording. Also released on (2 separate) video discs\n\nPosthumous releases of previously unreleased recordings\n\n* 1993: Europe '77 (Magic)\n* 1996: Buddy Rich & His Big Band At Stadthalle Leonberg, Germany 10 July 1986 (Jazz Band)\n* 2001: Wham! The Buddy Rich Big Band Live (Label M)\n* 2004: No Funny Hats (Lightyear)\n* 2007: Time Out (Lightyear)\n* 2009: Buddy Rich Up Close (Drum Channel, LLC) - DVD and CD package\n* 2015: Birdland (Buddy Rich's best hits)\n\nNotable compilation and retrospective albums\n\n* 1960: The Drum Battle (Gene Krupa and Buddy Rich at JATP) (Verve)\n* 1964: The Best of Buddy Rich (Pacific Jazz)\n* 1969: Super Rich (Verve)\n* 1971: Time Being (Bluebird/RCA)\n* 1987: Compact Jazz: Buddy Rich (Verve)\n* 1990: Compact Jazz: Gene Krupa & Buddy Rich (Verve)\n* 1992: No Jive (Novus)\n* 1994: Burning For Buddy: A Tribute to the Music Of Buddy Rich (Atlantic Records) – Produced By Neil Peart \n* 1998: Buddy Rich: The Legendary '47–'48 Orchestra Vol. 1 (Hep Records)\n* 1998: Buddy Rich: The Legendary '46–'48 Orchestra Vol. 2 (Hep)\n* 2005: Classic EmArcy, Verve, Small Group Buddy Rich Sessions (Mosaic Records No. 232) – 7 CD box set\n\nAs sideman\n\nWith Count Basie\n*Basie Jazz (Clef, 1952 [1954])\n*The Swinging Count! (Clef 1952 [1956])\nWith Benny Carter\n*Alone Together (Norgran, 1952 [1955])\n*Benny Carter Plays Pretty (Norgran, 1954)\n*New Jazz Sounds (Norgran, 1954)\nWith Roy Eldridge\n*Little Jazz (Clef, 1954)\nWith Harry James\n*Wild About Harry! (Capitol Records – ST 874, 1957) \nWith Charlie Parker\n*Big Band (Clef, 1954)\nWith Lester Young and Harry Edison\n*Pres and Sweets (Norgran, 1955)", "Philip David Charles \"Phil\" Collins (born 30 January 1951) is an English singer, songwriter, instrumentalist, record producer and actor. He is known as the drummer and lead singer in the rock band Genesis and as a solo artist. Between 1983 and 1990, Collins scored three UK and seven US number-one singles in his solo career. When his work with Genesis, his work with other artists, as well as his solo career is totalled, Collins had more US top 40 singles than any other artist during the 1980s. His most successful singles from the period include \"In the Air Tonight\", \"Against All Odds\", \"Sussudio\" and \"Another Day in Paradise\".\n\nBorn and raised in west London, Collins played drums from the age of five and completed drama school training, which secured him various roles as a child actor. He then pursued a music career, joining Genesis in 1970 as their drummer and becoming lead singer in 1975 following the departure of Peter Gabriel. Collins began a solo career in the 1980s, initially inspired by his marital breakdown and love of soul music, releasing a series of successful albums, including Face Value (1981), No Jacket Required (1985), and ...But Seriously (1989). Collins became \"one of the most successful pop and adult contemporary singers of the '80s and beyond\". He also became known for a distinctive gated reverb drum sound on many of his recordings. After leaving Genesis in 1996, Collins pursued various solo projects before a return in 2007 for the Turn It On Again Tour. In 2011, he retired to focus on his family life, but continued to write songs. He announced his return to the music industry in 2015.\n\nCollins' discography includes eight studio albums that have sold 33.5 million certified units in the US and an estimated 150 million worldwide, making him one of the world's best-selling artists. He is one of three recording artists, along with Paul McCartney and Michael Jackson, who have sold over 100 million albums worldwide both as solo artists and separately as principal members of a band. He has won seven Grammy Awards, six Brit Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, an Academy Award, and a Disney Legend Award. In 1999, he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2003, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Genesis in 2010, and the Modern Drummer Hall of Fame in 2012. Despite his commercial success and his status as a respected and influential drummer, music critics are divided in their opinion of his work and he has publicly received both criticism and praise from other prominent music artists.\n\nEarly life\n\nPhilip David Charles Collins was born on 30 January 1951 in Chiswick, the son of Winifred M. \"June\" (née Strange), a theatrical agent, and Greville Philip Austin Collins, an insurance agent. He was given a toy drum kit for Christmas when he was five. Later, his uncle made him a makeshift set that he used regularly. As Collins grew older, these were followed by more complete sets bought by his parents. He practiced by playing with music on the television and radio, but never learned to read and write conventional musical notation; instead, he used a system which he devised himself. According to Barbara Speake, founder of the eponymous stage school he later attended, Collins always had a rare ear for music: \"Phil was always special; aged five he entered a Butlins talent contest singing Davy Crockett, but he stopped the orchestra halfway through to tell them they were in the wrong key.\" \n\nCollins studied drum rudiments as a teenager, first learning basic rudiments under Lloyd Ryan and later studying further under Frank King. Collins would recall: \"Rudiments I found very, very helpful – much more helpful than anything else because they're used all the time. In any kind of funk or jazz drumming, the rudiments are always there.\" However, Collins regretted that he never mastered musical notation, saying: \"I never really came to grips with the music. I should have stuck with it. I've always felt that if I could hum it, I could play it. For me, that was good enough, but that attitude is bad.\" Lloyd Ryan recalled: \"Phil always had a problem with reading. That was always a big problem for him. That’s a shame because reading drum music isn’t that difficult.\" \n\nThe Beatles were a strong early musical influence on Collins, including their drummer Ringo Starr. He also followed the lesser-known London band the Action, whose drummer he would copy and whose work introduced him to the soul music of Motown and Stax Records. Collins was also influenced by the jazz and big band drummer Buddy Rich, whose opinion on the importance of the hi-hat prompted Collins to stop using two bass drums and start using the hi-hat. While attending Chiswick County School for Boys, Collins formed a band called the Real Thing and later joined the Freehold. With the latter group, he wrote his first song titled \"Lying Crying Dying\". His professional acting training began at age 14, at the Barbara Speake Stage School, a fee-paying but non-selective independent school in East Acton, whose talent agency had been established by his mother. \n\nCareer\n\n1963–1970: Early acting roles and Flaming Youth\n\nCollins began a career as a child actor while at the Barbara Speake Stage School and won his first major role as the Artful Dodger in the London stage production of Oliver! He was an extra in the the Beatles's film A Hard Day's Night (1964) among the screaming teenagers during the television concert sequence. This was followed by a role in Calamity the Cow (1967), produced by the Children's Film Foundation, and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968) as one of the children who storm the castle at the end, but the scene was cut. Collins auditioned for the role of Romeo in Romeo and Juliet (1968) but this was won by Leonard Whiting. \n\nDespite the beginnings of an acting career, Collins continued to gravitate towards music. His first record deal came as drummer for Hickory with guitarists Ronnie Caryl and Gordon Smith and keyboardist Brian Chatton. After changing their name to Flaming Youth they recorded one album, Ark 2, released in October 1969 on Uni Records that premiered with a performance at the London Planetarium. A concept album inspired by the media attention surrounding the 1969 moon landing, Ark 2 featured each member sharing lead vocals. Though a commercial failure, it received some positive critical reviews; Melody Maker named it \"Pop Album of the Month\", describing it as \"adult music beautifully played with nice tight harmonies\". After a year of touring, the group disbanded in 1970. Collins went on to play percussion on \"Art of Dying\" by George Harrison for his album All Things Must Pass. Harrison acknowledged Collins's contribution in the remastered edition released in 2000.\n\n1970–1978: Joining Genesis\n\nIn mid-1970, rock band Genesis advertised for \"a drummer sensitive to acoustic music and 12-string acoustic guitarist\" following the departure of guitarist Anthony Phillips and drummer John Mayhew. Collins recognised Charisma Records owner Tony Stratton-Smith's name in the ad and applied to audition with Caryl. Auditions took place at the parents' home of singer Peter Gabriel in Chobham, Surrey. As they arrived early, Collins took a swim in the pool and memorised the pieces before his own audition. He recalled, \"They put on 'Trespass', and my initial impression was of a very soft and round music, not edgy, with vocal harmonies and I came away thinking Crosby, Stills and Nash\". In August 1970, Collins became Genesis's new drummer. Caryl's audition was unsuccessful; guitarist Mike Rutherford thought he was not a good fit for the group (they selected Steve Hackett in January 1971).\n\nFrom 1970 to 1975, Collins played the drums, percussion, and backing vocals on Genesis albums and live shows. His first album recorded with the band, Nursery Cryme, was recorded and released in 1971. \"For Absent Friends\", an acoustic track written by Collins and Hackett, is the first Genesis song with Collins on lead vocals. He sang \"More Fool Me\" on their 1973 album Selling England by the Pound. In 1974, during the recording of The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, Collins played drums on Brian Eno's second album Taking Tiger Mountain after Eno had contributed electronic effects known as \"Enossification\" on \"In the Cage\" and \"Grand Parade of Lifeless Packaging\". \n\nIn August 1975, following the The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway tour, Gabriel left Genesis. Collins became lead vocalist during production of A Trick of the Tail after a lengthy search for Gabriel's replacement where he sang back-up with applicants that responded to a Melody Maker advert that attracted around 400 replies. A Trick of the Tail was a commercial and critical success for the band, reaching No. 3 in the UK and No. 31 in the U.S. Rolling Stone wrote, \"Genesis has managed to turn the possible catastrophe of Gabriel's departure into their first broad-based American success.\" For the album's 1976 tour, Collins accepted an offer from former Yes and King Crimson drummer Bill Bruford to play drums while Collins sang vocals. Wind & Wuthering is the last album recorded with Hackett before his 1977 departure. Bruford was replaced by Chester Thompson, who became a mainstay of the band's live line-up, as well as Collins's solo back-up band, through the following decades.\n\nIn 1977, Collins, Banks, and Rutherford decided to continue Genesis as a trio. As the decade closed, Genesis began to shift from their progressive rock roots to a more accessible, radio-friendly pop-rock sound. The 1978 album ...And Then There Were Three... featured their first UK Top 10 and U.S. Top 40 single, \"Follow You Follow Me\".\n\nIn 1975 Collins played with several artists. He played the drums and sang on Hackett's first solo album, Voyage of the Acolyte; performed on Eno's albums Another Green World, Before and After Science, and Music for Films; and replaced drummer Phil Spinelli of the jazz fusion group Brand X before recording their 1976 debut album, Unorthodox Behaviour. Collins credits Brand X as his first use of a drum machine as well as his first use of a home 8-track tape machine. He then sang on Phillips's solo album, The Geese and the Ghost, and the second Brand X album, Moroccan Roll.\n\n1978–1983: Start of solo career: Face Value and Hello, I Must Be Going!\n\nIn December 1978, Genesis began a period of inactivity as Collins's marriage was at risk of collapse after touring had made him frequently absent from his wife and children. Collins went to Vancouver, Canada to try and rebuild the family. He explained: \"I was never going to leave the band. It was just that if I was going to be living in Vancouver then we'd have had to organise ourselves differently.\" In April 1979, Collins returned to the UK after his attempt to save his marriage had failed. With time to spare before working on a new Genesis album, Collins played on the Brand X album Product and its accompanying tour, and started writing his first solo album, Face Value, at his home in Shalford, Surrey. After Banks and Rutherford rejoined with Collins, work began on Duke, released in 1980. The dominant theme running through Collins's early solo recordings, though never specifically mentioned, was the acrimonious breakdown of his first marriage. Two songs he wrote on Duke, \"Please Don't Ask\", and the U.S. top 20 hit \"Misunderstanding\", dealt with his failed relationships.\n\nFace Value was released in February 1981. It features a rework of \"Behind the Lines\" from Duke with a more funk and dance-oriented style. Collins cited his divorce as his main influence. Regarding Face Value, he says, \"I had a wife, two children, two dogs, and the next day I didn't have anything. So a lot of these songs were written because I was going through these emotional changes.\" Collins produced the album in collaboration with Hugh Padgham, with whom he had worked on Peter Gabriel's 1980 studio album. Collins played keyboards and drums on Face Value. \n\nUpon its release, Face Value was an international success, reaching No. 1 in seven countries worldwide and No. 7 in the U.S. where it went on to sell 5 million copies. \"In the Air Tonight\", the album's lead single, became a hit and reached No. 2 in the UK. The song is known for the gated reverb effect used on Collins's drums, a technique developed by producer Hugh Padgham when he worked as an engineer on Peter Gabriel's song \"Intruder\", which Collins played drums on. Following an invitation by record producer Martin Lewis, Collins made his debut live performance as a solo artist at the Amnesty International benefit show The Secret Policeman's Other Ball at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in London in September 1981. He performed \"In the Air Tonight\" and \"The Roof Is Leaking\" accompanied by Troy Street United.\n\nIn September 1981, Genesis released Abacab. This was followed by its 1981 supporting tour and a two-month tour in 1982 promoting the Genesis live album Three Sides Live. On 2 October 1982, Collins took part in a Genesis concert, 'Six of the Best' which featured Gabriel on lead vocals and Hackett on guitar.\n\nCollins's second solo album, Hello, I Must Be Going!, was released in November 1982. His marital problems continued to provide inspiration for his songs, including \"I Don't Care Anymore\" and \"Do You Know, Do You Care\". The album reached No. 2 in the UK and No. 8 in the U.S., where it sold 3 million copies. Its second single, a cover of \"You Can't Hurry Love\" by The Supremes, became Collins's first UK No. 1 single and went to No. 10 in the US. Collins supported the album with the Hello, I Must Be Going! tour of Europe and North America from November 1982 to February 1983.\n\nIn May 1983, Collins recorded Genesis with Banks and Rutherford. Its tour ended in February 1984.\n\n1984–1985: No Jacket Required\n\nCollins changed his musical style with \"Against All Odds\", the main theme song for the movie of the same name in 1984. The more pop-friendly and radio-accessible single became Collins's first solo single to reach No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and gave him his first Grammy Award for Best Pop Vocal Performance, Male. Later that year, Collins contributed to production on Earth, Wind & Fire vocalist Philip Bailey's third solo album, Chinese Wall, collaborating with Bailey on the duet, \"Easy Lover\", which reached No. 1 in the UK.\n\nIn November 1984, Collins played drums and was part of the all-star choir for Band Aid's \"Do They Know It's Christmas?\", a song written by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure to raise funds for the victims of the 1983–1985 famine in Ethiopia, which became the UK Christmas #1 and the best-selling single in UK Singles Chart history, selling a million copies in the first week alone. \n\nCollins released his most successful album, the Diamond-certified No Jacket Required, in February 1985. It reached No. 1 in both the UK and U.S. It contained the U.S. number-one hits \"One More Night\" and \"Sussudio\" as well top ten hits \"Don't Lose My Number\" and \"Take Me Home\". It also contains the lesser known \"Who Said I Would\", and \"Only You Know and I Know\". The album featured contributions from The Police's vocalist, Sting, ex-bandmate Peter Gabriel, and Helen Terry as backing vocalists. He also recorded the successful song \"Separate Lives\", a duet with Marilyn Martin, and a U.S. #1, for the movie White Nights. Collins had three U.S. number-one songs in 1985, the most by any artist that year. No Jacket Required won three Grammy Awards including Album of the Year. \n\nNo Jacket Required was criticised for being \"too commercial\", despite favourable reviews from many music critics. A positive review by David Fricke of Rolling Stone ended, \"After years on the art-rock fringe, Collins has established himself firmly in the middle of the road. Perhaps he should consider testing himself and his new fans's expectations next time around.\" \"Sussudio\" attracted negative attention for sounding too similar to Prince's \"1999\", a charge that Collins did not deny, and its hook line (\"Su-su-su-sussudio\") has been named as the most widely disliked element of his career.\n\nIn 1985 Bob Geldof asked Collins to perform at the Live Aid charity event, a continuation of the fundraising effort for Ethiopia started by Band Aid. Collins had the distinction of being the only performer to appear at both the UK concert at Wembley Stadium and the U.S. concert at JFK Stadium in Philadelphia; he performed several songs, including \"Against All Odds (Take a Look at Me Now)\" and \"In the Air Tonight\". He accomplished this by performing early in the day at Wembley as both a solo artist and alongside Sting, then transferring to a Concorde flight to the U.S. enabling him to perform his solo material, and play drums with Led Zeppelin and Eric Clapton in Philadelphia. The Led Zeppelin reunion was poorly received and later disowned by the band. Guitarist Jimmy Page alleged that Collins \"hadn't learned\" his drum part. Page said: \"You can get away with that in a pop band but not with Led Zeppelin\". Collins responded that the band \"weren't very good\" and that he \"was made to feel a little uncomfortable by the dribbling Jimmy Page.\" To avoid negative attention, he persisted with the set rather than leave the stage. \n\nBesides his number-one duet with Marilyn Martin in 1985, Collins scored two more hits from movies with the singles, \"A Groovy Kind of Love\" (#1 UK and U.S.) and \"Two Hearts\" (#1 U.S., #6 UK), both from the soundtrack of his feature film, Buster. In 1986 Collins won the first two of his six Brit Awards for Best British Male and Best British Album for No Jacket Required. \n\nThe music press noted Collins's astronomical success as a solo artist had made him more popular than Genesis. Before the release of No Jacket Required, Collins insisted that he would not leave the band. \"The next one to leave the band will finish it,\" Collins told Rolling Stone magazine in May 1985. \"I feel happier with what we're doing now, because I feel it's closer to me. I won't be the one.\" Collins added, \"Poor old Genesis does get in the way sometimes. I still won't leave the group, but I imagine it will end by mutual consent.\"\n\n1985–1991: ...But Seriously\n\nIn October 1985, Collins reunited with Banks and Rutherford to record the next Genesis album, Invisible Touch. Its title track was released as a single and reached No. 1 in the US, the only Genesis song to do so. The group received a Grammy Award (their only one) and a nomination for the MTV Video Music Award for Video of the Year in 1987 for the single \"Land of Confusion\" which featured puppet caricatures created by the British satirical team Spitting Image. The video was directed by Jim Yukich. Reviews of Invisible Touch were mixed and many comparisons were made with Collins's solo work, but Rolling Stones J. D. Considine praised the album's commercial appeal, stating, \"every tune is carefully pruned so that each flourish delivers not an instrumental epiphany but a solid hook\". \n\nIn 1989 Collins worked on his fourth studio album ...But Seriously, and appeared on The Who Tour 1989, performing the role of young Tommy's wicked Uncle Ernie in a reprisal of the rock opera Tommy (a part originally played by their late drummer, Keith Moon). In November, Collins released ...But Seriously, which became another huge success, featuring as its lead single the anti-homelessness anthem \"Another Day in Paradise\", with David Crosby singing backing vocals. \"Another Day in Paradise\" reached No. 1 on the Billboard charts at the end of 1989, won Collins Best British Single at the Brit Awards in 1990, and the Grammy Award for Record of the Year in 1991; it was also one of Germany's most successful singles of all time. It became the final U.S. number-one single of the 1980s. Despite its success, the song was also heavily criticised. It also became linked to allegations of hypocrisy made against Collins.\n\n...But Seriously became the first number-one U.S. album of the 1990s and the best-selling album of 1990 in the UK. Other songs included \"Something Happened on the Way to Heaven\" (#4 U.S., #15 UK), \"Do You Remember?\" (not released in the UK, but #4 in the U.S.), and \"I Wish It Would Rain Down\" (the latter featuring Eric Clapton on guitar; #3 U.S., #7 UK). Songs about apartheid and homelessness demonstrated Collins's turn to political themes. A live album, Serious Hits... Live!, followed, which reached the top ten around the world. In September 1990 Collins performed \"Sussudio\" at the 1990 MTV Video Music Awards in Los Angeles. Collins also played drums on the 1989 Tears for Fears hit single, \"Woman in Chains\". \n\n1991–1997: Leaving Genesis, Both Sides and Dance into the Light\n\nAfter a hiatus of five years, Genesis reconvened for the 1991 album release We Can't Dance, Collins's last studio album with the group to date. It features the singles \"Jesus He Knows Me\", \"I Can't Dance\", \"No Son of Mine\", and \"Hold on My Heart\". Collins performed on their 1992 tour. At the 1993 American Music Awards, Genesis won the award for Favorite Pop/Rock Band, Duo, or Group. \n\nCollins's record sales began to drop with the 1993 release of Both Sides, a largely experimental album that, according to Collins, included songs that \"were becoming so personal, so private, I didn't want anyone else's input\". Featuring a less polished sound and fewer up-tempo songs than his previous albums, Both Sides was a significant departure. Collins used no backing musicians and he performed all the vocal and instrumental parts at his home studio, using rough vocal takes for the final product. The album was not as well received by radio. Its two biggest hits were \"Both Sides of the Story\" and \"Everyday\". In 1995, Collins turned down the chance to contribute to Tower of Song, an album of covers of Leonard Cohen songs, due to his touring commitments. \n\nCollins left Genesis in 1996 to focus on his solo career. He formed The Phil Collins Big Band with himself on drums. The band performed jazz renditions of songs from Genesis and his solo career. His sixth solo album, Dance into the Light, was released in October 1996. The album was received negatively by the music press and sold less than his previous albums. Entertainment Weekly reviewed by saying that \"even Phil Collins must know that we all grew weary of Phil Collins\". Singles from the album included the title track, which reached No. 9 in the UK, and The Beatles-inspired \"It's in Your Eyes\". The album achieved Gold certification in the United States. On 15 September 1997, Collins appeared at the Music for Montserrat concert at the Royal Albert Hall. \n\n1998–2006: Big Band Tour, work with Disney and Testify\n\nThe Phil Collins Big Band completed a world tour in 1998 that included a performance at the Montreux Jazz Festival. In 1999 they released the CD A Hot Night in Paris including big band versions of \"Invisible Touch\", \"Sussudio\", and \"The Los Endos Suite\" from A Trick of the Tail.\n\nA compilation album ...Hits was released in 1998 and sold well, returning Collins to multi-platinum status in the U.S. The album's one new track, a cover of the Cyndi Lauper hit \"True Colors\", received considerable airplay on U.S. Adult Contemporary stations while peaking at No. 2. \n\nIn 1999 Collins reunited with Genesis to re-record \"The Carpet Crawlers\" for the compilation album Turn It On Again: The Hits.\n\nCollins's next single, \"You'll Be in My Heart\", from the Disney animated movie Tarzan, spent 19 weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart—the longest time ever up to that point. The song won Collins an Academy Award and a Golden Globe Award both for Best Original Song. It was his third nomination in the songwriters's category, after being nominated in 1985 and 1989. Collins was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, on 16 June 1999. \n\nIn 2000 Collins suddenly developed a deafness in one ear, due to a viral infection.[http://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/feb/11/phil-collins-interview-take-a-look-at-me-now-remastered-albums-rerelease-2016?utm_source\nesp&utm_mediumEmail&utm_campaign\nGU+Today+USA+-+Version+CB+header&utm_term158329&subid\n9600366&CMP=ema_565] \"Phil Collins Returns\", The Guardian, 11 February 2016 He contemplated ending his musical career at that point; the combined partial deafness and growing criticism were wearing him down. However, when medical treatment cured his deafness, he continued his chosen path. In June 2002 he accepted an invitation to drum for the house band at the Party at the Palace event held at Buckingham Palace Garden, a concert celebrating Queen Elizabeth II's Golden Jubilee. \n\nIn November 2002 Collins released his seventh solo album, Testify. Metacritic's roundup of album reviews found this record to be the worst-reviewed album at the time of its release, though it has since been \"surpassed\" by three more recent releases. The album's single \"Can't Stop Loving You\" (a Leo Sayer cover) was a number-one Adult Contemporary hit. Testify only sold 140,000 copies in the U.S. by year's end. From June 2004 to November 2005, Collins performed his First Final Farewell Tour, a reference to the multiple farewell tours of other popular artists. In 2006, he worked with Disney on a musical production of Tarzan. \n\n2006–2015: Genesis reunion, Going Back, and retirement\n\nCollins reunited with Banks and Rutherford and announced Turn It On Again: The Tour on 7 November 2006, nearly 40 years after the band first formed. The tour took place during summer 2007, and played in twelve countries across Europe, followed by a second leg in North America. During the tour Genesis performed at the Live Earth concert at Wembley Stadium, London. In 2007 they were honoured at the second annual VH1 Rock Honors, performing \"Turn It On Again\", \"No Son of Mine\" and \"Los Endos\" at the ceremony in Las Vegas. \n\nIn October 2009, it was reported that Collins was to record a Motown covers album. He told a German newspaper, \"I want the songs to sound exactly like the originals\", and that the album would feature up to 30 songs. In January 2010, Chester Thompson said that the album had been completed and would be released some time soon. He also revealed that Collins managed to play the drums on the album despite a spinal operation. \n\nGoing Back was released on 13 September 2010, entering the UK charts at No. 4, rising to No. 1 the following week. In summer 2010, Collins played six concerts with the music from Going Back. These included a special programme, Phil Collins: One Night Only, aired ITV1 on 18 September 2010. Collins also promoted Going Back with his first and only appearance on the BBC's foremost music series Later... with Jools Holland, broadcast on 17 September 2010. \n\nIn March 2010, Collins was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Genesis at a ceremony in New York City. As of January 2011, Collins has spent 1,730 weeks in the German music charts—766 weeks of them with Genesis albums and singles and 964 weeks with solo releases. \n\nOn 4 March 2011, citing health problems and other concerns, Collins announced that he was taking time off from his career, prompting widespread reports of his retirement. On 7 March his UK representative told the press, \"He is not, has no intention of, retiring.\" However, later that day, Collins posted a message to his fans on his own website, confirming his intention to retire to focus on his family life. \n\nIn July 2012, Collins's greatest hits collection ...Hits re-entered the U.S. charts, reaching No. 6 on the Billboard 200. \n\nIn November 2013, Collins told German media that he was considering a return to music and speculated that this could mean further live shows with Genesis, stating: \"Everything is possible. We could tour in Australia and South America. We haven't been there yet.\" Speaking to reporters in Miami, Florida in December 2013 at an event promoting his charity work, Collins indicated that he was writing music once again and might tour again. \n\nOn 24 January 2014, Collins announced in an interview with Inside South Florida that he was writing new compositions with fellow English singer Adele. Collins said he had no idea who Adele was when he learned she wanted to collaborate with him. He said \"I wasn't actually too aware [of her]. I live in a cave.\" Collins agreed to join her in the studio after hearing her voice. He said, \"[She] achieved an incredible amount. I really love her voice. I love some of this stuff she's done, too.\" However, in September 2014, Collins revealed that the collaboration had ended and he said it had been \"a bit of a non-starter\". \n\nIn May 2014, Collins gave a live performance of \"In the Air Tonight\" and \"Land of Confusion\" with young student musicians at the Miami Country Day School in Miami, Florida. Collins was asked to perform there by his sons, who are students at the school. In August 2014, Collins was reported to have accepted an invitation to perform in December at a benefit concert in Miami in aid of his Little Dreams Foundation charity. He ultimately missed the concert due to illness. \n\n2015–present: Out of retirement\n\nIn May 2015 Collins signed a deal with Warner Music Group to remaster his eight solo albums with previously unreleased material. In October, he announced that he was no longer officially retired and is planning to tour and write a new album. Collins said that he plans to release an autobiography Not Dead Yet on 25 October 2016. \n\nDrumming and impact\n\nIn his book on the \"legends\" who defined progressive rock drumming, American drummer Rich Lackowski wrote: \"Phil Collins's grooves in early Genesis recordings paved the way for many talented drummers to come. His ability to make the drums bark with musicality and to communicate so convincingly in odd time signatures left many a drummer tossing on the headphones and playing along to Phil's lead.\" In 2014, readers of Rhythm voted Collins the fourth most influential progressive rock drummer for his work on the 1974 Genesis album The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway. MusicRadar named Collins one of the six pioneers of progressive rock drumming. In 2005, Planet Rock listeners voted Collins the fifth greatest rock drummer in history. Collins was ranked tenth in \"The Greatest Drummers of All Time\" list by Gigwise and number nine in a list of \"The 20 greatest drummers of the last 25 years\" by MusicRadar in 2010. \n\nFoo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins cites Collins as one of his drumming heroes. He said, \"Collins is an incredible drummer. Anyone who wants to be good on the drums should check him out – the man is a master.\" In the April 2001 issue of Modern Drummer, Dream Theater drummer Mike Portnoy named Collins in an interview when asked about drummers he was influenced by and had respect for. In another conversation in 2014, Portnoy lauded his \"amazing progressive drumming\" back in the early and mid-1970s. Rush drummer Neil Peart praised his \"beautiful drumming\" and \"lovely sound\" on the 1973 Genesis album Selling England by the Pound, which he called \"an enduring masterpiece of drumming\". Marco Minnemann, drummer for artists including Joe Satriani and Steven Wilson, described Collins as \"brilliant\" for the way \"he composes his parts, and the sounds he gets\". He said, \"Phil is almost like John Bonham to me. I hear his personality, his perspective.\" He singled out the drumming on \"In the Air Tonight\" as an example of \"ten notes that everybody knows\" and concluded \"Phil is a insanely talented drummer\". \n\nModern Drummer readers voted for Collins every year between 1987 and 1991 as Pop/Mainstream Rock drummer of the year. In 2000, he was voted as Big Band drummer of the year. In 2012, he was inducted into the Hall of Fame.\n\nEquipment\n\nCollins is a left-handed drummer, and uses Gretsch drums, Remo heads and Sabian cymbals. Past kits he used were made by Pearl and Premier.\n\nThe Gretsch Company drums: (all drums are single head concert toms except snare)\n* 14 x 20\" bass drum\n* 5.5 x 8\" rack tom\n* 6.5 x 10\" rack tom\n* 8 x 12\" rack tom\n* 12 x 15\" rack tom\n* 16 x 16\" floor tom\n* 18 x 18\" floor tom\n* 3.5 x 14\" snare drum\n\nSabian cymbals:\n*15\" Hi Hats\n*22\" HH China\n*16\" HH Medium Thin Crash\n*17\" HH Extra Thin Crash\n*21\" HH Raw Bell Dry Ride\n*20\" HH Medium Crash\n*20\" HH China\n\nOther instruments associated with Collins's sound (particularly in his post-1978 Genesis and subsequent solo career) include the Roland CR-78, Roland TR-808, Roland TR-909, the Simmons SDS-V electronic drum set, and the Linn LM-1 and LinnDrum drum machines; he also used a Sequential Circuits Prophet-5 synthesizer, the Yamaha CP-70 electric grand piano, the Yamaha DX7 synthesizer, Oberheim DMX drum machine (as heard on \"Sussudio\"), Korg Wavestation, Korg KARMA, Korg Trinity, \n\nRecord producer and guest musician\n\nFor his solo career and his career with Genesis, Collins produced or co-produced virtually all of his singles and albums, the notable exceptions being \"Against All Odds\" (produced by Arif Mardin), and his cover of \"True Colors\" (produced by Kenneth \"Babyface\" Edmonds). \n\nCollins also maintained a career as a producer for other artists throughout the 1980s, usually working on outside projects at the rate of one artist per year. His first outside work as a producer was the 1981 album Glorious Fool for John Martyn; in 1979 he had played drums and contributed backing vocals on Martyn's Grace and Danger. He followed that up by producing Anni-Frid \"Frida\" Lyngstad's (Frida Lyngstad of ABBA) 1982 album Something's Going On, which contained the international hit \"I Know There's Something Going On\". \n\nIn 1976 Collins was brought in to contribute some percussion to one or more tracks on Thin Lizzy's album Johnny The Fox, seemingly because he was a close friend of Phil Lynott. Brian Robertson later said, \"Collins was a mate of Phil's... I think Phil probably wanted to get him on the album to name-drop.\" Neither Brian Robertson nor Brian Downey has been able to remember exactly which songs Collins played on. \n\nCollins played drums on Robert Plant's first two solo albums, Pictures at Eleven and The Principle of Moments. \n\nIn 1983 Collins produced two tracks for Adam Ant, on which he also played drums, both of which hit the UK charts: \"Puss 'N' Boots\" and \"Strip\". \"Strip\" was a minor US hit as well. \n\nIn 1984 Collins produced Phillip Bailey's album Chinese Wall, which included the hit Bailey/Collins duet \"Easy Lover\". It also contained the Bailey hit \"Walking on the Chinese Wall\". \n\nIn 1985 Collins produced and played drums on several tracks on the Eric Clapton album Behind the Sun. The following year, he produced (in collaboration with Hugh Padgham) one track for Howard Jones, the international hit No One Is to Blame, on which he also played drums. \n\nCollins was one of the producers on Eric Clapton's 1987 album August, which included the UK top 20 single \"Behind the Mask\". \n\nIn 1988, Collins and Lamont Dozier collaborated as writers and producers of The Four Tops top 10 UK hit Loco in Acapulco, from the soundtrack of the film Buster, in which Collins starred.\n\nIn 1989, Collins played drums on one track, \"Bad Love,\" on Eric Clapton's Journeyman album. He also appeared in the music video for the song. \n\nCollins co-wrote, sang and played on the song \"Hero\" on David Crosby's 1993 album Thousand Roads. \n\nFilm, theatre, and television\n\nThe majority of Collins's film work has been through music. Four of his seven U.S. number-one songs came from film soundtracks, and his work on Disney's Tarzan earned him an Oscar. Collins also sang German, Italian, Spanish and French versions of the Tarzan soundtrack for the respective film versions. He also did the soundtrack to another Disney film Brother Bear in 2003. His acting career has been brief. As a child, he appeared in three films, although two of the films were for brief moments as an extra. \n\nCollins wrote and performed the title song to Against All Odds in 1984. The song became the first of his seven U.S. number-one songs, and received an Academy Award nomination for Best Song. Collins was not invited to perform the song at that year's presentation, although he was in the audience as the song's composer. Collins had arranged his U.S. tour to accommodate the possibility of appearing on the telecast in the event his song was nominated for an Oscar. It is believed that the producers of that year's Academy Awards show were not aware of his prominence as a musical performer. A note to Collins's label from telecast co-producer Larry Gelbart explaining the lack of invitation stated, \"Thank you for your note regarding Phil Cooper [sic]. I'm afraid the spots have already been filled\". Collins instead watched actress and dancer Ann Reinking perform his song. Reinking's performance was described by one critic as an \"absurdly inept rendition\" of the song. The Los Angeles Times said: \"Reinking did an incredible job of totally destroying a beautiful song. The best that can be said about her performance is that the stage set was nice.\" Collins would introduce it at subsequent concerts by saying: \"I'm sorry Miss Ann Reinking couldn't be here tonight; I guess I just have to sing my own song.\"\n\nAs a lead vocalist, Collins sang Stephen Bishop's composition \"Separate Lives\" for the film White Nights (1985) as a duet with Marilyn Martin. The single of the recording became another number-one hit for Collins. The song was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Song (a category that honours composers, not vocalists). Bishop's song had parallels to some of those on Collins's first two albums. Writer Stephen Bishop noted that he was inspired by a failed relationship and called \"Separate Lives\" \"a song about anger\". When the song was being nominated for an Academy Award, in interviews about the original snub by the Academy for \"Against All Odds\", Collins would jokingly say \"the hell with him – I'm going up too,\" should Bishop's song win the award.\n\nCollins's first film role since embarking on his career as a musician came in 1988 with the romantic comedy-drama Buster. He starred as Buster Edwards, a criminal convicted for his role in the Great Train Robbery, which took place in England in August 1963. Reviews for the film were mixed and controversy ensued over its subject matter, with Prince Charles and Princess Diana deciding to withdraw from attending the film's première after it was accused of glorifying crime. However, Collins's performance opposite Julie Walters received good reviews and he contributed four songs to the film's soundtrack. His slow ballad rendition of \"A Groovy Kind of Love\", originally a 1966 single by The Mindbenders, became his only single to reach No. 1 in both the U.S. and the UK. The film also spawned the hit single Two Hearts, which he co-wrote with legendary Motown songwriter Lamont Dozier; the two artists would go on to win a Golden Globe for Best Original Song and receive an Oscar nomination in the same category, the second such honour for Collins; \"Big Noise\", written by Phil Collins and Lamont Dozier, which included Collins on the lead vocals (although the song was not released as a single, an instrumental version of this song appeared as the B-side to the single version of \"A Groovy Kind of Love\"). The final song, \"Loco in Acapulco\", was another collaboration with Dozier, with the vocals performed by the legendary Motown group The Four Tops. Film critic Roger Ebert said the role of Buster was \"played with surprising effectiveness\" by Collins, although the film's soundtrack proved more successful than the film did. \n\nCollins had cameo appearances in Steven Spielberg's Hook (1991) and the AIDS docudrama And the Band Played On (1993). He starred in Frauds, which competed for the Palme d'Or at the 1993 Cannes Film Festival. He supplied voices to two animated features: Amblin's Balto (1995) and Disney's The Jungle Book 2 (2003). A long-discussed but never completed project was a film titled The Three Bears; originally meant to star Collins, Danny DeVito, and Bob Hoskins. He often mentioned the film, though an appropriate script never materialised. \n\nCollins performed the soundtrack to the animated film Tarzan (1999) for The Walt Disney Company. He won an Academy Award for You'll Be in My Heart, which he performed at that year's telecast as well as during a Disney-themed Super Bowl halftime show. The song, which he also recorded in Spanish among other languages, became his only appearance on the Billboard Hot Latin Tracks chart. Disney hired Collins and Tina Turner for the soundtrack to the 2003 animated film, Brother Bear, and had some airplay with the song \"Look Through My Eyes\". \n\nCollins's music is featured in the satirical black comedy film American Psycho, with psychotic lead character Patrick Bateman (played by Christian Bale) portrayed as an obsessive fan who reads deep meaning into his work, especially with Genesis, while describing his solo music as \"...more commercial and therefore more satisfying, in a narrower way.\" Bateman delivers a monologue praising Collins and Genesis during a sequence in which he engages the services of two prostitutes while playing \"In Too Deep\" and \"Sussudio\".\n\nCollins twice hosted the Billboard Music Awards on television, which were produced and directed by his longtime music video and TV special collaborators, Paul Flattery and Jim Yukich of FYI (Flattery Yukich Inc). He also appeared in an episode of the series Miami Vice, entitled \"Phil the Shill\", in which he plays a cheating con-man. He also appeared in several sketches with The Two Ronnies.\n\nIn 2001, Collins was one of several celebrities who were tricked into appearing in a controversial British comedy series, Brass Eye, shown on public service broadcaster Channel 4. In the episode, Collins endorsed a hoax anti-paedophile campaign wearing a T-shirt with the words \"Nonce Sense\" and warned children against speaking to suspicious people. Collins was reported by the BBC to have consulted lawyers regarding the programme, which was originally pulled from broadcast but eventually rescheduled. Collins said he had taken part in the programme \"in good faith for the public benefit\", believing it to be \"a public service programme that would be going around schools and colleges in a bid to stem child abduction and abuse\". Collins also accused the makers of the programme of \"some serious taste problems\" and warned it would prevent celebrities from supporting \"public spirited causes\" in the future. \n\nCollins appeared as himself in the 2006 PSP and PS2 video game Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories. Set in 1984, he appears in three missions in which the main character, Victor, must save him from a gang that is trying to kill him, the final mission occurring during his concert, where the player must defend the scaffolding against saboteurs while Collins is performing \"In the Air Tonight\". After this, the player is given the opportunity to watch this performance of \"In the Air Tonight\" for only 6,000 dollars in the game. \"In the Air Tonight\" was also featured in the soundtrack of Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories and it was also featured in the film Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film For Theaters, the 2009 movie The Hangover and the 2007 Gorilla commercial for Cadbury's Dairy Milk chocolate. The advertisement also helped the song re-enter the New Zealand RIANZ Singles Chart at No. 3 in July 2008, the following week reaching No. 1, beating its original 1981 No. 6 peak. \"In the Air Tonight\" was also sampled in the song \"I Can Feel It\" on Sean Kingston's self-titled debut album. \n\nCollins was portrayed in the cartoon South Park in the episode \"Timmy 2000\" holding his Oscar throughout, referring to his 1999 win for You'll Be in My Heart, which defeated \"Blame Canada\" from South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut. He was seen again in the episode \"Cartman's Silly Hate Crime 2000\". Collins appears briefly in the Finnish animated sitcom Pasila in the episode \"Phil Collins Hangover\". The music of this episode is a pastiche of Collins's Another Day in Paradise. Collins was mentioned in the Psych episode \"Disco Didn't Die. It Was Murdered!\" as resembling Shawn Spencer's father, Henry, portrayed by actor Corbin Bernsen. \n\nCriticism and praise\n\nCritical and public perceptions \n\nAccording to a 2000 BBC biography of Collins, \"critics sneer at him\" and \"bad publicity also caused problems\", which \"damaged his public profile\". Rock historian Martin C. Strong wrote that Collins \"truly polarised opinion from the start, his ubiquitous smugness and increasingly sterile pop making him a favourite target for critics\". During his recording career Collins would regularly place telephone calls to music writers to take issue with their written reviews. Over time, he came to be personally disliked; in 2009, journalist Mark Lawson told how Collins's media profile had shifted from \"pop's Mr. Nice Guy, patron saint of ordinary blokes\", to someone accused of \"blandness, tax exile and ending a marriage by sending a fax\". Collins has rejected accusations of tax avoidance, and, despite confirming that some of the divorce-related correspondence between him and second wife Jill Tavelman, was by fax (a message from Collins regarding access to their daughter was reproduced for the front cover of The Sun in 1993), he states that he did not terminate the marriage in that fashion. Nevertheless, the British media has often repeated the fax claim. Collins has been the victim of scathing remarks in regard to his alleged right-wing political leanings. Caroline Sullivan, a music critic of The Guardian, referred to his cumulative negative publicity in her 2007 article \"I wish I'd never heard of Phil Collins\", writing that it was difficult for her to hear his work \"without being riven by distaste for the man himself\". According to Jeff Shannon in The Seattle Times, Collins is the \"target of much South Park derision\". A New Musical Express writer also observed the series' \"endless lampooning\" of Collins. \n\nSeveral critics have commented on Collins's omnipresence, especially in the 1980s and early 1990s. Journalist Frank DiGiacomo wrote a 1999 piece for The New York Observer titled The Collins Menace; he said, \"Even when I sought to escape the sounds [of Collins] in my head by turning on the TV, there would be Mr. Collins...mugging for the cameras—intent on showing the world just how hard he would work to sell millions of records to millions of stupid people.\" In his 2010 article Love don't come easy: artists we love to hate, The Irish Times critic Kevin Courtney expressed similar sentiments. Naming Collins as one of the ten most disliked pop stars in the world, he wrote: \"[Collins] performed at Live Aid, playing first at Wembley, then flying over to Philadelphia via Concorde, just to make sure no one in the U.S. got off lightly. By the early 1990s, Phil phatigue [sic] had really set in.\" Appraising Collins's legacy in a 2013 review of the American Psycho musical (adapted from a 2000 film incorporating his music), The Guardian critic Tom Service described Collins as \"un-stomachable\" and his music as \"perfectly vacuous\". He also compared him unfavourably with pop contemporaries such as the Pet Shop Boys and The Human League, whose music he said had endured far more successfully. Service described Collins's most popular album No Jacket Required (1985) as \"unlistenable to today\", reserving particular criticism for \"Sussudio\". \n\nCollins received acerbic comments in the press following reports about his retirement in 2011. He was dubbed \"the most hated man in rock\" by The Daily Telegraph, and by FHM as \"the pop star that nobody likes\". Rolling Stone journalist John Dioso acknowledged \"the incredible, overwhelming popularity\" Collins and Genesis achieved, but said that he had become \"a negative figure in the music world\" and that the reaction to his legacy was strongly unfavourable. Tim Chester of the New Musical Express alluded to the widespread disdain for Collins in an article titled, \"Is It Time We All Stopped Hating Phil Collins?\" He described Collins as \"the go-to guy for ironic appreciation and guilty pleasures\" and stated he was responsible for \"some moments of true genius (often accompanied, it must be said, by some real stinkers)\". He also argued that \"Genesis turned shit at the precise point he jumped off the drum stool\" to replace the departing Peter Gabriel as frontman, and said of the unrelenting derision he has suffered, \"..a lot of it he brings on himself.\" He said that Collins was \"responsible for some of the cheesiest music ever committed to acetate\". Erik Hedegaard of Rolling Stone mentioned that Phil Collins hate sites had \"flourished\" online, and acknowledged that he had been called \"the sellout who took Peter Gabriel's Genesis, that paragon of prog-rock, and turned it into a lame-o pop act and went on to make all those supercheesy hits that really did define the 1980s\". \n\nCriticism from other artists\n\nWriting about Collins in a 2013 publication on 1980s popular music, Dylan Jones said that, along with the press, \"many of his peers despised him so\". Some fellow artists have criticised Collins publicly. Appearing on a 1989 edition of BBC programme Juke Box Jury, Collins applauded an upcoming single by British new wave band Sigue Sigue Sputnik; this prompted their singer, Martin Degville, to say directly to Collins's face: \"God! We must have really got it wrong if you like us!\" In 1990, former Pink Floyd frontman Roger Waters criticised Collins's \"ubiquitous nature\", including his involvement in The Who's 1989 reunion tour. David Bowie subsequently dismissed his own critically reviled 1980s output as his \"Phil Collins years/albums\". In addition to the song's negative press from music journalists, singer-songwriter and political activist Billy Bragg also criticised Collins for writing \"Another Day in Paradise\", stating: \"Phil Collins might write a song about the homeless, but if he doesn't have the action to go with it he's just exploiting that for a subject.\" \n\nOasis songwriter Noel Gallagher criticised Collins on multiple occasions, including the comment: \"Just because you sell lots of records, it doesn't mean to say you're any good. Look at Phil Collins.\" Collins said he has \"at times, been very down\" about Gallagher's criticisms. Gallagher's brother, Oasis singer Liam, recalled the \"boring\" Collins's chart dominance in the 1980s and stated that, by the 1990s, it was \"time for some real lads to get up there and take charge\". Appearing on television series Room 101 in 2005, Collins nominated the Gallaghers as entrants into the titular room. He described them as \"horrible\" and stated: \"They're rude and not as talented as they think they are. I won't mince words here, but they've had a go at me personally.\" On the closing track of their 2014 album What Have We Become?, titled \"When I Get Back to Blighty\", former Beautiful South collaborators Paul Heaton and Jacqui Abbott included the lyric: \"Everyone around us agrees that Phil Collins must die\". MusicOMH critic David Meller remarked that the line \"is delivered with willing, almost pleasurable conviction by Abbott\". \n\nCollins on criticism \n\nCollins acknowledged in 2010 that he had been \"omnipresent\". He said of his character: \"The persona on stage came out of insecurity...it seems embarrassing now. I recently started transferring all my VHS tapes onto DVD to create an archive, and everything I was watching, I thought, 'God, I'm annoying.' I appeared to be very cocky, and really I wasn't.\" Collins concedes his status as a figure of contempt for many people and has said that he believes this is a consequence of his music being overplayed. In 2011 Collins was quoted: \"The fact that people got so sick of me wasn't really my fault … It's hardly surprising that people grew to hate me. I'm sorry that it was all so successful. I honestly didn't mean it to happen like that!\" Collins has described criticism of his physical appearance over the years as \"a cheap shot\", but has acknowledged the \"very vocal element\" of Genesis fans who believe that the group sold out under his tenure as lead singer. \n\nRegarding criticism of his single \"Another Day in Paradise\", Collins stated: \"When I drive down the street, I see the same things everyone else sees. It's a misconception that if you have a lot of money you're somehow out of touch with reality.\" \n\nResponding to reports about his retirement in 2011, Collins dismissed the notion that his departure from the music industry was due to negative attention, and stated small parts of conversations had been made into headlines. He said: \"I have ended up sounding like a tormented weirdo who thinks he was at the Alamo in another life, who feels very sorry for himself, and is retiring hurt because of the bad press over the years. None of this is true.\"\n\nPraise\n\nPaul Lester of The Guardian wrote in 2013 that Collins is one of several pop acts that \"used to be a joke\" but are \"now being hailed as gods\". Despite the criticism he has received, Collins has become an iconic figure within U.S. urban music, influencing artists such as Kanye West, Alicia Keys and Beyoncé. His songs have been sampled by various hip-hop and contemporary R&B acts, and performers including Lil' Kim, Kelis and Wu-Tang Clan co-founder Ol' Dirty Bastard covered his work on the 2001 tribute album Urban Renewal. In 2004, indie rock musician Ben Gibbard praised Collins's singing, claiming he's a \"great vocalist\". Collins's music has been championed by his contemporary, the heavy metal singer Ozzy Osbourne, David Crosby has called him \"a dear friend\" who has helped him \"enormously\" and Robert Plant paid tribute to him as \"the most spirited and positive and really encouraging force\" when commencing his own solo career after the break-up of Led Zeppelin. Collins has been championed by modern artists in diverse genres, including indie rock groups The 1975, Generationals, Neon Indian, Yeasayer, St. Lucia and Sleigh Bells, electronica artist Lorde, and soul singer Diane Birch, who said in 2014, \"Collins walks a really fine line between being really cheesy and being really sophisticated. He can seem appalling, but at the same time, he has awesome production values and there's a particular richness to the sound. It's very proficient in the instrumentation and savvy about melodies.\" \n\nGenesis bandmate Mike Rutherford has praised Collins's personality, saying that \"he always had a bloke-next-door, happy-go-lucky demeanour about him: let's have a drink in the pub, crack a joke, smoke a cigarette or a joint\". He has been characterised by favourable critics as a \"rock god\", and an artist who has remained \"down to earth\". In The New Rolling Stone Album Guide, published in 2004, J. D. Considine wrote: \"For a time, Phil Collins was nearly inescapable on the radio, and enormously popular with the listening public—something that made him an obvious target for critics. Despite his lumpen-pop appeal, however, Collins is an incisive songwriter and resourceful musician.\" Creation Records founder Alan McGee wrote in 2009 that there was a \"non-ironic revival of Phil Collins\" happening. According to McGee: \"The kids don't care about 'indie cred' anymore. To them, a great pop song is just that: a great pop song. In this time of revivals, nothing is a sacred cow anymore, and that can only be a good thing for music.\" Commenting on Collins's popularity with hip-hop acts, he argued: \"It's not surprising. Collins is a world-class drummer whose songs immediately lend themselves to being sampled.\"\n\nIn 2010, Gary Mills of The Quietus made an impassioned defence of Collins: \"There can't be many figures in the world of pop who have inspired quite the same kind of hatred-bordering-on-civil-unrest as Collins, and there can't be too many who have shifted anything like the 150 million plus units that he's got through as a solo artist either...The disgrace of a career bogged entirely in the determined dross of No Jacket Required however is simply not justified, regardless of how Collins gained either his fortune, or his public image.\" David Sheppard wrote for the BBC in 2010: \"Granted, Collins has sometimes been guilty of painting the bull’s-eye on his own forehead (that self-aggrandising Live Aid Concorde business, the cringe-worthy lyrics to 'Another Day in Paradise', Buster, etc.), but nonetheless, the sometime Genesis frontman’s canon is so substantial and his hits so profuse that it feels myopic to dismiss him merely as a haughty purveyor of tortured, romantic ballads for the middle income world.\" \n\nRolling Stone journalist Erik Hedegaard has expressed disapproval of the widespread criticism which Collins has received, suggesting that he has been \"unfairly and inexplicably vilified\". Martin C. Strong stated in 2011 that \"the enigmatic and amiable Phil Collins has had his fair share of mockers and critics over the years, although one thing is sure, and that is his dexterity and undeniable talent\". In a piece the following year, titled \"10 Much-Mocked Artists It's Time We Forgave\", New Musical Express critic Anna Conrad said Collins had been portrayed as a \"villain\", and wrote: \"Was the bile really justified?...come on, admit it. You've air drummed to 'In the Air Tonight', and loved it.\" The Guardian journalist Dave Simpson wrote a complimentary article in 2013; while acknowledging \"few pop figures have become as successful and yet reviled as Phil Collins\", he argued \"it's about time we recognised Collins's vast influence as one of the godfathers of popular culture\".\n\nPersonal life\n\nFamily\n\nCollins has been married three times; each has ended in divorce. He married Andrea Bertorelli in 1975. They met as students in a London drama class. They had a son, Simon Collins, who became a vocalist and drummer with the band Sound of Contact. Collins adopted Bertorelli's daughter Joely, who became a Canadian actress and film producer. \n\nCollins met his second wife, U.S. citizen Jill Tavelman, in 1980. They were married from 1984 to 1996. They had one daughter, Lily Collins, born in 1989. \n\nCollins married his third wife, Orianne Cevey, a Swiss national, in 1999. They have two sons, Nicholas and Matthew. They bought Sir Jackie Stewart's former house located in Begnins, Switzerland, overlooking Lake Geneva. Announcing their separation on 16 March 2006, they were divorced on 17 August 2008. Collins continued to live in Switzerland at the time, residing in Féchy, while he also maintained homes in New York City and Dersingham, Norfolk. In 2008, after his wife left him, she and the boys moved to Miami, leaving Collins devastated. He recalled: \"I went through a few bits of darkness; drinking too much. I killed my hours watching TV and drinking, and it almost killed me.\" He revealed in 2015 that he hadn't consumed alcohol in three years. In 2015, Collins then moved to Miami (in a separate home, previously owned by Jennifer Lopez) to be closer to his family. In January 2016, Collins said he was back with his third wife and they were living together in the house he had bought in Miami. \n\nFrom 2007 to 2015, Collins dated CBS 2 WCBS-TV news reporter Dana Tyler. \n\nFortune\n\nCollins was estimated to have a fortune of £115 million in the Sunday Times Rich List of 2011, making him one of the 20 wealthiest people in the British music industry. In 2012 Collins was estimated to be the second wealthiest drummer in the world, beaten to first place by Ringo Starr. \n\nCourt case\n\nOn 29 March 2000, Collins launched a case against two former musicians from his band to recoup £500,000 ($780,000) in royalties that were overpaid. Louis Satterfield, 62, and Rahmlee Davis, 51, claimed their contract entitled them to 0.5 per cent of the royalties from Serious Hits... Live!, a live album recorded during Collins's Seriously, Live! World Tour in 1990. Their claim was they were an integral part of the whole album, but Collins responded the two should only receive royalties from the five tracks in which they were involved. Instead of asking for a return of what Collins considered overpayment, he sought to recoup the funds by withholding future royalties to Satterfield and Davis.\n\nOn 19 April 2000, the High Court ruled that the two musicians would receive no more royalty money from Phil Collins. The amount that Collins was seeking was halved, and Satterfield and Davis (who originally brought the suit forward in California) would not have to repay any of it. The judge agreed with Collins's argument that Satterfield and Davis should have been paid for only the five tracks on which they performed, including the hit \"Sussudio\". \n\nHealth problems\n\nCollins had reportedly lost hearing in his left ear in 2000 due to a viral infection; the condition was resolved after the infection was cured. In September 2009, it was reported that Collins could no longer play the drums, due to a recent operation to repair dislocated vertebrae in his neck. A statement from Collins on the Genesis band website said, \"There isn't any drama regarding my 'disability' and playing drums. Somehow during the last Genesis tour I dislocated some vertebrae in my upper neck and that affected my hands. After a successful operation on my neck, my hands still can't function normally. Maybe in a year or so it will change, but for now it is impossible for me to play drums or piano. I am not in any 'distressed' state; stuff happens in life.\" However, in 2010 Collins alluded to feelings of depression and low self-esteem in recent years, claiming in an interview that he had contemplated committing suicide, but he resisted for the sake of his children. \n\nIn October 2014, Collins told John Wilson on BBC Radio 4's Front Row that he still could not play the drums; he said the problem was not arthritis but an undiagnosed nerve problem where he was unable to \"grip the sticks\". He confirmed in a 2016 interview that he was still unable to drum with the left hand; however, he has also said that after a major back surgery, his doctor advised him that if he wanted to play the drums again, all he needed to do was practice as long as he took it step by step. \n\nHonorary degrees\n\nCollins has received several honorary degrees in recognition of his work in music and his personal interests. In 1987 he received an honorary doctorate of fine arts at Fairleigh Dickinson University. In 1991 he received an honorary doctorate of music at the Berklee College of Music. On 12 May 2012 he received an honorary doctorate of history at the McMurry University in Abilene, Texas, for his research and collection of Texas Revolution artefacts and documents (see other interests section).\n\nPolitics\n\nCollins has often been mentioned erroneously in the British media as being a supporter of the Conservative Party and an opponent of the Labour Party. This derives from the famous article in The Sun, printed on the day of the 1992 UK general election, titled \"If Kinnock wins today will the last person to leave Britain please turn out the lights\", which stated that Collins was among several celebrities who were planning to leave Britain in the event of a Labour victory. \n\nCollins is sometimes reported in the British press to have left the UK and moved to Switzerland in protest at the Labour Party's victory in the 1997 general election. Shortly before the 2005 election (when Collins was living in Switzerland), Labour supporter Noel Gallagher was quoted: \"Vote Labour. If you don't and the Tories get in, Phil Collins is threatening to come back and live here. And let's face it, none of us want that.\" However, Collins has since stated that although he did once claim many years earlier that he might leave Britain if most of his income was taken in tax, which was Labour Party policy at that time for top earners, he has never been a Conservative Party supporter and he left Britain for Switzerland in 1994 purely because he started a relationship with a woman who lived there. He said of Gallagher: \"I don't care if he likes my music or not. I do care if he starts telling people I'm a wanker because of my politics. It's an opinion based on an old misunderstood quote.\" \n\nDespite his statement that he did not leave Britain for tax purposes, Collins was one of several wealthy figures living in tax havens who were singled out for criticism in a 2008 report by the charity Christian Aid. The Independent included Collins as one of their \"ten celebrity tax exiles\", erroneously repeating that he had left the country when Labour won the 1997 general election and that he threatened to return if the Conservatives won in 2005. Referring to the 1997 general election in his article \"Famous men and their misunderstood politics\" for MSN, Hugh Wilson stated: \"Labour won it in a landslide, which just goes to show the influence pop stars really wield\". He also wrote that Collins's reported comments and subsequent move to Switzerland led to \"accusations of hypocrisy\" since he had \"bemoaned the plight of the homeless in the song 'Another Day in Paradise'\", making him \"an easy target when future elections came round\". The Paul Heaton and Jacqui Abbott song \"When I Get Back to Blighty\", from their 2014 album What Have We Become?, made reference to Collins as \"a prisoner to his tax returns\".\n\nQuestioned about his politics by Mark Lawson in an interview for the BBC, broadcast in 2009, Collins said: \"My father was Conservative but it wasn't quite the same, I don't think, when he was alive. Politics never loomed large in our family anyway. I think the politics of the country were very different then.\" In a 2016 interview in The Guardian, Collins stated that talking about politics to The Sun was one of his biggest regrets. When asked whether he had ever voted Conservative, he said: \"I didn’t vote, actually. And that’s not something I’m proud of. I was just so busy that I rarely was here.\" \n\nOther interests\n\nCollins has a long-standing interest in the Alamo. He has collected hundreds of artefacts related to the famous 1836 battle in San Antonio, Texas, narrated a light and sound show about the Alamo, and has spoken at related events. His passion for the Battle of the Alamo has also led him to write the book The Alamo and Beyond: A Collector's Journey, ISBN 978-1-933337-50-0, published in 2012. A short film was released in 2013 called Phil Collins and the Wild Frontier which captures Collins on a book tour in June 2012. On 26 June 2014, a press conference was held from The Alamo, where Collins spoke, announcing that he was donating his entire collection to The Alamo via the State of Texas. On 11 March 2015, in honour of his donation, Collins was named an honorary Texan by the state legislature. \n\nIn common with Rod Stewart and Eric Clapton, Collins is also a model railway enthusiast. \n\nActivism\n\nCollins was appointed a Lieutenant of the Royal Victorian Order (LVO) in 1994, in recognition of his work on behalf of the Prince's Trust. Collins has stated he is a supporter of animal rights and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA). In 2005 he donated autographed drum sticks in support of PETA's campaign against Kentucky Fried Chicken. \n\nIn February 2000, Collins and his wife Orianne founded Little Dreams Foundation, a non-profit organisation that aims to \"...realise the dreams of children in the fields of sports and art\" by providing future prodigies aged 4 to 16 years with financial, material, and mentoring support with the help of experts in various fields. Collins took the action after receiving letters from children asking him how they could break into the music industry. Mentors to the students who have benefited from his foundation include Tina Turner and Natalie Cole. In 2013 he visited Miami Beach, Florida, to promote the expansion of his foundation. \n\nCollins supports the South African charity Topsy Foundation, which provides relief services to some of South Africa's most under-resourced rural communities through a multi-faceted approach to the consequences of HIV/AIDS and extreme poverty. He donates all the royalties earned from his music sales in South Africa to the organisation. \n\nAwards and nominations\n\nDiscography\n\n;Studio albums\n* Face Value (1981)\n* Hello, I Must Be Going! (1982)\n* No Jacket Required (1985)\n* ...But Seriously (1989)\n* Both Sides (1993)\n* Dance into the Light (1996)\n* Testify (2002)\n* Going Back (2010)\n\nFilmography", "Karen Anne Carpenter (March 2, 1950 – February 4, 1983) was an American singer and drummer. She and her brother, Richard Carpenter, formed the 1970s duo Carpenters. Although her skills as a drummer earned admiration from drumming luminaries and peers, she is best known for her vocal performances. She had a contralto vocal range. \n\nCarpenter suffered from anorexia nervosa, an eating disorder that was little known at the time. She died at age 32 from heart failure caused by complications related to her illness.VH1, Behind the Music: Carpenters (1998). Carpenter's death led to increased visibility and awareness of eating disorders. \n\nEarly life\n\nKaren Anne Carpenter was born in New Haven, Connecticut, the daughter of Agnes Reuwer (née Tatum) (March 5, 1915 – November 10, 1996) and Harold Bertram Carpenter (November 8, 1908 – October 15, 1988). When she was young, she enjoyed playing baseball with other children on the street. On the TV program This Is Your Life, she stated that she liked pitching and later, in the early 1970s, she would become the pitcher on the Carpenters' official softball team.E! Channel, \"True Hollywood Story – Karen Carpenter\" Her brother Richard developed an interest in music at an early age, becoming a piano prodigy. Karen enjoyed dancing and by age 4 was enrolled in tap dancing and ballet classes. The family moved in June 1963 to the Los Angeles suburb of Downey.\n\nWhen Carpenter entered Downey High School, she joined the school band. Bruce Gifford, the conductor (who had previously taught her older brother) gave her the glockenspiel, an instrument she disliked and after admiring the performance of her friend, Frankie Chavez (who idolized famous jazz drummer Buddy Rich), she asked if she could play the drums instead. She and her brother made their first recordings in 1965 and 1966. The following year she began dieting. Under a doctor's guidance, she went on the Stillman Diet. She rigorously ate lean foods, drank eight glasses of water a day, and avoided fatty foods. She was 5' 4\" (163 cm) in height and before dieting weighed 145 lb and afterwards weighed 120 lb until 1973, when the Carpenters' career reached its peak. By September 1975, her weight was 91 lb. \n\nMusic career\n\nFrom 1965 to 1968 Karen, her brother Richard, and his college friend Wes Jacobs, a bassist and tuba player, formed The Richard Carpenter Trio. The band played jazz at numerous nightclubs and also appeared on the TV talent show Your All-American College Show. Karen, Richard and other musicians, including Gary Sims and John Bettis, also performed as an ensemble known as Spectrum. Spectrum focused on a harmonious and vocal sound, and recorded many demo tapes in the garage studio of friend and bassist Joe Osborn. Many of those tapes were rejected by record companies. According to former Carpenters member John Bettis, those rejections \"took their toll.\" The tapes of the original sessions were lost in a fire at Joe Osborn's house, and the surviving versions of those early songs exist only as fragile acetate reference discs. Finally A&M Records signed the Carpenters to a recording contract in 1969. Karen sang most of the songs on the band's first album, Offering (later retitled Ticket to Ride), and her brother wrote 10 out of the album's 13 songs. The issued single (later the title track), which was a cover of a Beatles song, became their first single; it reached #54 on the Billboard Hot 100. Their next album, 1970's Close to You, featured two massive hit singles: \"(They Long to Be) Close to You\" and \"We've Only Just Begun\". They peaked at #1 and #2, respectively, on the Hot 100.\n\nCarpenter started out as both the group's drummer and lead singer, and she originally sang all her vocals from behind the drum set. Because she was just 5 feet 4 inches tall, it was difficult for people in the audience to see her behind her drum kit, so she was eventually persuaded to stand at the microphone to sing the band's hits while another musician played the drums (former Disney Mouseketeer Cubby O'Brien served as the band's other drummer for many years). After the release of Now & Then in 1973, the albums tended to have Carpenter singing more and drumming less. At this time, her brother developed an addiction to Quaaludes. The Carpenters frequently cancelled tour dates, and they stopped touring altogether after their September 4, 1978, concert at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. The Carpenters' Very First TV Special aired December 8, 1976. In 1980, she performed a medley of standards in a duet with Ella Fitzgerald on the Carpenters' television program Music, Music, Music. In 1981, after the release of the Made in America album (which turned out to be their last), the Carpenters returned to the stage and did some tour dates, including their final live performance in Brazil.\n\nIn addition to being a drummer and a singer, Karen Carpenter could also play the electric bass guitar. She played bass guitar on two songs on Offering/Ticket to Ride (the Carpenters first album released by A&M). The two songs were All of My Life and Eve. Although Karen's bass playing is heard on the original album(s), Richard remixed both songs (as he has done with almost every Carpenters song), and Joe Osborn's bass playing was substituted for later \"greatest hits\" releases. \n\nRecognition of drumming skills\n\nCarpenter started playing the drums in 1964. She was always enthusiastic about the drums and taught herself how to play complicated drum lines with \"exotic time signatures,\" according to her brother. Carpenter's drumming was praised by fellow drummers Hal Blaine, Cubby O'Brien, and Buddy Rich and by Modern Drummer magazine. According to her brother, Carpenter always considered herself a \"drummer who sang.\" Despite this, she was not often featured as a drummer on the Carpenters' albums. She was, however, the only drummer on the albums Ticket to Ride and Now & Then (except for one song) and on the songs \"Mr. Guder\", \"I'll Never Fall in Love Again\", \"Love is Surrender\", \"Bacharach/David Medley\", the piano instrumental \"Flat Baroque\" (highlighting her use of brushes), \"Happy\", \"Another Song\" and \"Please Mr. Postman.\" The role of drummer in the Carpenters entourage was mainly taken over by Hal Blaine as she went from behind the drum set to the front of the stage. Karen was known for endorsing Ludwig Drums and she had two setups (20\" bass drum, 14 and 16\" floor toms, 13\" mounted tom, 4, 6, 8 and 10\" concert toms and the Ludwig SuperSensitive snare drum was the one she really liked). She also used a Rogers hi-hat, a Rogers bass drum pedal, Zildjian cymbals, 11A drumsticks (brand unspecified) and Remo drumheads. On Made in America, Karen provided percussion on \"Those Good Old Dreams\" in tandem with Paulinho da Costa and made a final return to playing drums on the song \"When it's Gone (It's Just Gone)\" in unison with Larrie Londin.\n\nSolo album\n\nIn 1979, Richard took a year off to cure his dependency on Quaaludes, and Karen decided to make a solo album with producer Phil Ramone. Her solo work was markedly different from the usual Carpenters fare, consisting of adult-oriented and disco / up-tempo material with more sexual lyrics and the use of Karen's higher vocal register. The project met a tepid response from Richard and A&M executives in early 1980. The album was shelved by A&M Records CEO Herb Alpert, in spite of attempts by producer Quincy Jones to convince Alpert to release the record after a remix. A&M charged the Carpenters $400,000 to cover the cost of recording Karen's solo album, to be paid out of the duo's future royalties. Carpenters fans got a taste of the solo album in 1989 when some of its tracks (as remixed by Richard) were included on the album Lovelines, the final album of Carpenters' unreleased new material. In 1996, the complete album, titled Karen Carpenter, was finally released.\n\nPersonal life\n\nCarpenter lived with her parents until she was 26. In September and October of 1971, two years after the Carpenters' debut album, she and her brother bought two apartment buildings in Downey as a financial investment. Formerly named the \"Geneva\", the two complexes were renamed \"Only Just Begun\" and \"Close to You\" in honor of the duo's first smash hits. The apartment buildings are located at 8353 and 8356 5th Street, Downey, California. In 1976, Carpenter bought two Century City apartments, gutted them, and turned them into one condominium. Located at 2222 Avenue of the Stars, the doorbell chimed the first six notes of \"We've Only Just Begun\". As a housewarming gift, her mother gave her a collection of leather-bound classic works of literature. Carpenter collected Disney memorabilia, loved to play softball and baseball, and counted Petula Clark, Olivia Newton-John, and Dionne Warwick among her closest friends.\n\nCarpenter dated a number of well-known men, including Mike Curb, Tony Danza, Terry Ellis, Mark Harmon, Steve Martin, and Alan Osmond. After a whirlwind romance, she married real-estate developer Thomas James Burris on August 31, 1980, in the Crystal Room of the Beverly Hills Hotel. Burris, divorced with an 18-year-old son, was nine years her senior. A new song performed by Carpenter at the ceremony, \"Because We Are in Love\", was released in 1981. Burris concealed from Carpenter, who desperately wanted children, the fact that he had undergone a vasectomy. Their marriage did not survive the deceit and ended after 14 months. In addition to that, Burris was said to have been broke and living well beyond his means, borrowing up to $35,000 and $50,000 at a time from his wife, to the point that she had only stocks and bonds left. He was also said to have been abusive towards her, often being impatient with Karen, who shared with close friends that she remained fearful when he would occasionally lose his temper with her. Close friend Karen \"Itchie\" Ramone recounted one incident where she and Carpenter went to their normal hangout, Hamburger Hamlet, and Karen appeared to be distant emotionally, sitting not at their regular table but in the dark, and wearing large dark sunglasses, unable to eat and crying. According to Itchie, the marriage was \"the straw that broke the camel's back. It was absolutely the worse thing that could have ever happened to her.\" \n\nIn September 1981, Carpenter revised her will and left everything to her brother and parents. Two months later, following an argument after a family dinner in a restaurant, Carpenter and Burris broke up. Carpenter filed for divorce while staying in Lenox Hill Hospital. \n\nBurris later remarried and now resides in Lincoln, California, with his wife and son. He has not publicly spoken about his marriage to Carpenter due to a confidentiality agreement. \n\nFinal months\n\n\"Now\", recorded in April 1982, was the last song Carpenter recorded. She recorded it after a two-week intermission in her therapy with psychotherapist Steven Levenkron in New York City for her anorexia, during which she had lost a considerable amount of weight. During her illness, in order to lose weight, she had taken thyroid replacement medication (to speed up her metabolism) and laxatives. Despite her participation in therapy, her condition continued to deteriorate and she only lost more weight, leading Carpenter to call her psychotherapist to tell him she felt dizzy and that her heart was beating irregularly. Finally in September 1982, she was admitted to Lenox Hill Hospital in New York and hooked up to an intravenous drip, which caused her to gain a considerable amount of weight (30 pounds) in just eight weeks. The sudden weight gain further strained her heart, which was already weak from years of dietary restriction.\n\nCarpenter returned to California in November 1982, determined to reinvigorate her career, finalize her divorce, and begin a new album with Richard. On December 17, 1982, Karen gave her last singing performance in the multi-purpose room of the Buckley School in Sherman Oaks, California, singing Christmas carols for her godchildren, their classmates who attended the school, and other friends. On January 11, 1983, Karen made her last public appearance at a photocall of past Grammy Award winners to celebrate the award's 25th anniversary. Karen appeared somewhat frail and worn out, but according to Dionne Warwick, she was vibrant and outgoing, exclaiming to everyone, \"Look at me! I've got an ass!\" \n\nDeath\n\nOn February 4, 1983, less than a month before her 33rd birthday, Carpenter intended to sign papers making her divorce from Tom Burris official. Shortly after waking up, Carpenter collapsed in her bedroom at her parents' home in Downey, California. Paramedics called to the scene by Karen's mother found her heart beating once every 10 seconds. She was taken to nearby Downey Community Hospital for treatment, where – by then in full cardiac arrest – she was pronounced dead 20 minutes later at 9:51 a.m.\n\nCause of death \n\nThe acting Los Angeles County coroner Dr. Ronald Kornblum performed the autopsy on Karen Carpenter. The results of the autopsy and cause of death were released to the public on March 11, 1983, by way of a press conference and accompanying press release. A drug or medication overdose was explicitly ruled out. The cause of Karen Carpenter's death was stated as \"emetine cardiotoxicity due to or as a consequence of anorexia nervosa.\" What was not specified in the report was how the emetine got into Carpenter's system. \n\nThe March 11, 1983 press release for the autopsy did not use the word \"Ipecac\", and causation between the use of ipecac syrup and Carpenter's death was not made at that time. Media reports describing the primary cause of Carpenter's death frequently used the phrase \"'heartbeat irregularities brought on by chemical imbalances' associated with anorexia nervosa\", phrasing used by Dr. Ronald Kornblum during the press conference. He explained in a 1985 interview, \"It never occurred to me to mention ipecac. In my mind, emetine and ipecac are the same thing.\" Two years after Carpenter's death, March 21, 1985, Kornblum was a part of a teleconference with other medical doctors. At that time, Kornblum explicitly stated that Carpenter's heart failure was caused by repeated use of ipecac syrup, an over-the-counter emetic often used to induce vomiting in cases of overdosing or poisoning. During the teleconference, the process was explained \"...over time, (emetine) attacks the heart muscle, ultimately causing disorders in the small electric impulses that coordinate the heart's beating. Those disorders lead to heartbeat irregularities, which in turn lead to death.\" Doctors on the 1985 conference call urged making Ipecac syrup available only by prescription, or at the least, the addition of warning labels to the product.\n\nThe conclusion that Carpenter's death was caused by chronic use of ipecac syrup was disputed by her mother and brother, who both stated that they never found empty vials of ipecac in her apartment, and have denied that there was any evidence that she had been vomiting. Richard has also expressed the belief that Karen was not willing to ingest ipecac syrup because of the potential damage that both the syrup and excessive vomiting would do to her vocal cords, and that she relied on laxatives alone to maintain her low body weight.\n\nDr. Richard Shepherd, a forensic pathologist, believed that Karen's abuse of ipecac syrup and synthroid contributed to her death along with the singer's anorexia and shrunken heart. \n\nFuneral and burial \n\nCarpenter's funeral service took place on February 8, 1983, at the Downey United Methodist Church. Dressed in a rose-colored suit, Carpenter lay in an open white casket. Over 1,000 mourners passed through to say goodbye, among them her friends Dorothy Hamill, Olivia Newton-John, Petula Clark, and Dionne Warwick. Carpenter's estranged husband Tom attended her funeral, where he took off his wedding ring and placed it inside the casket. She was entombed at the Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Cypress, California. In 2003, Richard had Karen re-interred, along with their parents, in a newly constructed outdoor Carpenter family mausoleum at the Pierce Brothers Valley Oaks Memorial Park in Westlake Village, California, which is closer to his Southern California home.\n\nLegacy\n\nCarpenter's death brought media attention to anorexia nervosa and also to bulimia. The general public had little knowledge of anorexia nervosa and bulimia prior to Carpenter's death, making the condition difficult to identify and treat. Her family started the Karen A. Carpenter Memorial Foundation, which raised money for research on anorexia nervosa and eating disorders. Today the name of the organization has been changed to the Carpenter Family Foundation. In addition to eating disorders, the foundation now funds the arts, entertainment and education.\n\nOn October 12, 1983, the Carpenters received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. It is located at 6931 Hollywood Blvd., a few yards from the Dolby Theater. Richard, Harold and Agnes Carpenter attended the inauguration, as did many fans.\n\nAccolades\n\n* 1975 – In Playboy magazine's annual opinion poll, its readers voted Carpenter the Best Rock Drummer of the year. \n* 1999 – VH1 ranked Carpenter at #29 on its list of the 100 Greatest Women of Rock and Roll. \n* 2008 – Rolling Stone ranked Carpenter number 94 on its list of the 100 Greatest Singers of All Time. \n\nDiscography\n\nStudio albums\n\n* Offering (later reissued as Ticket to Ride) (1969)\n* Close to You (1970)\n* Carpenters (1971)\n* A Song for You (1972)\n* Now & Then (1973)\n* Horizon (1975)\n* A Kind of Hush (1976)\n* Passage (1977)\n* Christmas Portrait (1978)\n* Made in America (1981)\nPosthumous albums\n\n* Voice of the Heart (1983)\n* An Old-Fashioned Christmas (1984)\n* Lovelines (1989)\n* As Time Goes By (2001/2004)\n\nSolo albums\n\n* Karen Carpenter (1996)\n\nBiographical films\n\nThe 43-minute film Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story (1987) was directed by Todd Haynes and was withdrawn from circulation in 1990, after Haynes lost a copyright infringement lawsuit filed by Karen's brother and musical collaborator, Richard Carpenter. The film's title is derived from The Carpenters' 1971 hit song, \"Superstar\". Over the years, it has developed into a cult film and is included in Entertainment Weeklys 2003 list of top 50 cult movies. \n\nOn January 1, 1989, the similarly titled made-for-TV movie The Karen Carpenter Story aired on CBS with Cynthia Gibb in the title role. Gibb lip-synced the songs to Carpenter's recorded voice, with the exception of \"The End of the World.\" Both films use the song \"This Masquerade\" in the background while showing Carpenter's marriage to Burris.\n\nRichard Carpenter helped in the productions of the documentaries Close to You: Remembering the Carpenters (1997) and Only Yesterday: The Carpenters Story (2007). PBS aired the 1997 documentary with reruns starting in December 2015." ] }

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{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe", "TagMe" ], "filename": [ "Crimean_War.txt", "Charge_of_the_Light_Brigade.txt" ], "title": [ "Crimean War", "Charge of the Light Brigade" ], "wiki_context": [ "The Crimean War was a military conflict fought between October 1853 – March 1856 in which Russia lost to an alliance of France, the British Empire, the Ottoman Empire, and Sardinia. The immediate cause involved the rights of Christian minorities in the Holy Land, which was a part of the Ottoman Empire. The French promoted the rights of Roman Catholics, while Russia promoted those of the Eastern Orthodox Church. The longer-term causes involved the decline of the Ottoman Empire and the unwillingness of Britain and France to allow Russia to gain territory and power at Ottoman expense. It has widely been noted that the causes, in one case involving an argument over a key, have never revealed a \"greater confusion of purpose\", yet led to a war noted for its \"notoriously incompetent international butchery.\"\n\nWhile the churches eventually worked out their differences and came to an initial agreement, both Nicholas I of Russia and the French Emperor Napoleon III refused to back down. Nicholas issued an ultimatum that the Orthodox subjects of the Empire be placed under his protection. Britain attempted to mediate and arranged a compromise that Nicholas agreed to. When the Ottomans demanded changes, Nicholas refused and prepared for war. Having obtained promises of support from France and Britain, the Ottomans officially declared war on Russia in October 1853.\n\nThe war opened in the Balkans, when Russian troops occupied provinces in modern Romania and began to cross the Danube. Led by Omar Pasha, the Ottomans fought a strong defensive battle and stopped the advance at Silistra. A separate action on the fort town of Kars in eastern Anatolia led to a siege, and a Turkish attempt to reinforce the garrison was destroyed by a Russian fleet at Sinop. Fearing an Ottoman collapse, France and Britain rushed forces to Gallipoli. They then moved north to Varna in June, arriving just in time for the Russians to abandon Silistra. Aside from a minor skirmish at Constanța, there was little for the allies to do. Karl Marx quipped that \"there they are, the French doing nothing and the British helping them as fast as possible\".\n\nFrustrated by the wasted effort, and with demands for action from their citizens, the allied force decided to attack the center of Russian strength in the Black Sea at Sevastopol on the Crimean peninsula. After extended preparations, the forces landed on the peninsula in September 1854 and fought their way to a point south of Sevastopol after a series of successful battles. The Russians counterattacked on 25 October in what became the Battle of Balaclava and were repulsed, but at the cost of seriously depleting the British Army forces. A second counterattack, ordered personally by Nicholas, was defeated by Omar Pasha. The front settled into a siege and led to horrible conditions for troops on both sides. Smaller actions were carried out in the Baltic, the Caucasus, the White Sea and in the North Pacific.\n\nSevastopol fell after eleven months, and formerly neutral countries began to join the allied cause. Isolated and facing a bleak prospect of invasion from the west if the war continued, Russia sued for peace in March 1856. This was welcomed by France and Britain, as their subjects were beginning to turn against their governments as the war dragged on. The war was officially ended by the Treaty of Paris, signed on 30 March 1856. Russia lost the war and was forbidden from hosting warships in the Black Sea. The Ottoman vassal states of Wallachia and Moldavia became largely independent. Christians were granted a degree of official equality, and the Orthodox church regained control of the Christian churches in dispute. \n\nThe Crimean War was one of the first conflicts to use modern technologies such as explosive naval shells, railways, and telegraphs. The war was one of the first to be documented extensively in written reports and photographs. As the legend of the \"Charge of the Light Brigade\" demonstrates, the war quickly became an iconic symbol of logistical, medical and tactical failures and mismanagement. The reaction in the British Isles was a demand for professionalization, most famously achieved by Florence Nightingale, who gained worldwide attention for pioneering modern nursing while treating the wounded.\n\nThe \"Eastern Question\"\n\n As the Ottoman Empire steadily weakened decade after decade, Russia stood poised to take advantage by expanding south. In the 1850s, the British, as well as the French, who were allied with the Ottoman Empire, were determined not to allow this to happen. \nTaylor argues that the war resulted not from aggression but from the interacting fears of the major players:\n\nWeakening of the Ottoman Empire in 1820–1840s\n\nIn the 1820s and '30s the Ottoman Empire endured a number of strikes which challenged the existence of the country. The Greek Uprising (began in the spring of 1821) evidenced internal and military weakness of Ottoman Empire and the performance of severe atrocities by Ottoman military forces (see Chios massacre). The disbandment of the centuries-old Janissary corps by Sultan Mahmud II on 15 June 1826 (Auspicious Incident) was a good deed for the country in the longer term, but in the short term it deprived the country of its existing standing army. In 1827 the allied Anglo-Franco-Russian fleet destroyed almost all the Ottoman naval forces during the Battle of Navarino. In 1830 Greece became an independent state after 10 years of independence war and the Russo-Turkish War of 1828–1829. According to the Treaty of Adrianople (1829) Russian and European commercial ships were authorized to freely pass through Black Sea straits, Serbia received autonomy, and Danubian Principalities (Moldavia and Wallachia) became territories under Russian protection.\n\nFrance took the opportunity to occupy Algeria in 1830. In 1831 Muhammad Ali of Egypt, who was the most powerful vassal of the Ottoman Empire, claimed independence. Ottoman forces were defeated in a number of battles, and Egyptians were ready to capture Constantinople, which forced the sultan Mahmud II to seek Russian military aid. A Russian army of 10,000 landed on the Bosphorus shores in 1833 and helped to prevent the capture of Constantinople; thus the possible dissolution of the Ottoman Empire was prevented.\n\nAs the result of that Russian military operation, the Treaty of Hünkâr İskelesi was signed. Russia benefited greatly from this treaty. It provided military union between Russia and Ottoman Empire, if one of the countries would be attacked. A secret additional clause allowed Ottomans not to send troops but to close the Straits to foreign warships if and when Russia was under threat.\n\nIn 1838 the situation was similar to 1831. Muhammad Ali of Egypt was not happy about his lack of control and power in Syria, and he resumed military action. The Ottoman army lost to the Egyptians at the Battle of Nezib on 24 June 1839. The Ottoman Empire was saved by Great Britain, Austria, Prussia and Russia, who signed a convention in London on 15 July 1840 granting Muhammad Ali and his descendants the right to inherit power in Egypt in exchange for removal of Egyptian military forces from Syria and Lebanon. Moreover, Muhammad Ali had to admit a formal dependence to the Ottoman sultan. After Muhammad Ali refused to obey the requirements of the London convention, the allied Anglo-Austrian fleet blocked the Delta, bombarded Beirut and captured Acre. Muhammad Ali accepted the conditions of the London convention in 1840.\n\nOn 13 July 1841, after the expiry of the Treaty of Hünkâr İskelesi, the London Straits Convention was signed under pressure from European countries. The new treaty deprived Russia of its right to block warships to pass into the Black Sea in case of war. Thus the way to the Black Sea was open for British and French warships in case of a possible Russo-Turkish/Ottoman conflict.\n\nThus the support by European countries twice saved the Ottoman Empire from decay, but the Ottomans lost their independence in external policy. Great Britain and France desired more than any other state to preserve the integrity of the Ottoman Empire because they did not want at all to see Russia gaining access to the Mediterranean Sea. Austria had fears for the same reasons.\n\nRussian expansionism\n\nRussia, as a member of the Holy Alliance, had operated as the \"police of Europe\", maintaining the balance of power that had been established in the Treaty of Vienna in 1815. Russia had assisted Austria's efforts in suppressing the Hungarian Revolution of 1848, and expected gratitude; it wanted a free hand in settling its problems with the Ottoman Empire — the \"sick man of Europe\". The United Kingdom could not tolerate Russian dominance of Ottoman affairs, as that would challenge the British domination of the eastern Mediterranean. \n\nFor over 200 years, Russia had been expanding southwards across the sparsely populated \"Wild Fields\" toward the warm water ports of the Black Sea that did not freeze over like the handful of other ports available in the north. The goal was to promote year-round trade and a year-round navy. Pursuit of this goal brought the emerging Russian state into conflict with the Ukrainian Cossacks and then with the Tatars of the Crimean Khanate and Circassians. When Russia conquered these groups and gained possession of southern Ukraine, known as New Russia during Russian imperial times, the Ottoman Empire lost its buffer zone against Russian expansion, and Russia and the Ottoman Empire fell into direct conflict. The conflict with the Ottoman Empire also presented a religious issue of importance, as Russia saw itself as the protector of Orthodox Christians, many of whom lived under Ottoman control and were treated as second-class citizens.\n\nThe United Kingdom's immediate fear was Russian expansion at the expense of the Ottoman Empire, which the UK desired to preserve. The British were also concerned that Russia might make advances toward India, or move toward Scandinavia, or Western Europe. The Royal Navy also wanted to undermine the threat of a powerful Russian navy. \n\nTaylor says that from the British perspective:\n\nIt is often said that Russia was militarily weak, technologically backward, and administratively incompetent. Despite its grand ambitions toward the south, it had not built its railroad network in that direction, and communications were poor. The bureaucracy was riddled with graft, corruption and inefficiency and was unprepared for war. Its navy was weak and technologically backward; its army, although very large, was good only for parades, suffered from colonels who pocketed their men's pay, poor morale, and was out of touch with the latest technology developed by Britain and France. By the war's end, everyone realized the profound weaknesses of the Russian military, and the Russian leadership was determined to reform it. \n\nThe immediate causes of the war\n\nThe immediate chain of events leading to France and the United Kingdom declaring war on Russia on 27 and 28 March 1854 came from the ambition of the French emperor Napoleon III to restore the grandeur of France. He wanted Catholic support that would come his way if he attacked Eastern Orthodoxy, as sponsored by Russia. The Marquis Charles de La Valette was a zealous Catholic and a leading member of the \"clerical party,\" which demanded French protection of the Roman Catholic rights to the holy places in Palestine. In May 1851, Napoleon appointed La Valette as his ambassador to the Porte (the Ottoman Empire). The appointment was made with the intent of forcing the Ottomans to recognise France as the \"sovereign authority\" over the Christian population. Russia disputed this attempted change in authority. Pointing to two more treaties, one in 1757 and the 1774 Treaty of Küçük Kaynarca, the Ottomans reversed their earlier decision, renouncing the French treaty and insisting that Russia was the protector of the Orthodox Christians in the Ottoman Empire.\n\nNapoleon III responded with a show of force, sending the ship of the line Charlemagne to the Black Sea. This action was a violation of the London Straits Convention. Thus, France's show of force presented a real threat, and when combined with aggressive diplomacy and money, induced the Ottoman Sultan Abdülmecid I to accept a new treaty, confirming France and the Roman Catholic Church as the supreme Christian authority with control over the Roman Catholic holy places and possession of the keys to the Church of the Nativity, previously held by the Greek Orthodox Church.\n\nTsar Nicholas I then deployed his 4th and 5th army corps along the River Danube in Wallachia, as a direct threat to the Ottoman lands south of the river, and had Count Karl Nesselrode, his foreign minister, undertake talks with the Ottomans. Nesselrode confided to Sir George Hamilton Seymour, the British ambassador in Saint Petersburg:\n\n[The dispute over the holy places] had assumed a new character—that the acts of injustice towards the Greek church which it had been desired to prevent had been perpetrated and consequently that now the object must be to find a remedy for these wrongs. The success of French negotiations at Constantinople was to be ascribed solely to intrigue and violence—violence which had been supposed to be the ultima ratio of kings, being, it had been seen, the means which the present ruler of France was in the habit of employing in the first instance.\n\nAs conflict emerged over the issue of the holy places, Nicholas I and Nesselrode began a diplomatic offensive, which they hoped would prevent either Britain's or France's interfering in any conflict between Russia and the Ottomans, as well as to prevent their allying.\n\nNicholas began courting Britain by means of conversations with the British ambassador, George Hamilton Seymour, in January and February 1853. Nicholas insisted that he no longer wished to expand Imperial Russia but that he had an obligation to the Christian communities in the Ottoman Empire.\n\nThe Tsar next dispatched a highly abrasive diplomat, Prince Menshikov, on a special mission to the Ottoman Sublime Porte in February 1853. By previous treaties, the sultan was committed \"to protect the (Eastern Orthodox) Christian religion and its churches.\" Menshikov demanded a Russian protectorate over all 12 million Orthodox Christians in the Empire, with control of the Orthodox Church's hierarchy. A compromise was reached regarding Orthodox access to the Holy Land, but the Sultan, strongly supported by the British ambassador, rejected the more sweeping demands. \n\nThe British and French sent in naval task forces to support the Ottomans, as Russia prepared to seize the Danubian Principalities.\n\nFirst hostilities\n\nIn February 1853, the British government of Lord Aberdeen, the prime minister, re-appointed Stratford Canning as British ambassador to the Ottoman Empire. Having resigned the ambassadorship in January, he had been replaced by Colonel Rose as chargé d'affaires. Lord Stratford then turned around and sailed back to Constantinople, arriving there on 5 April 1853. There he convinced the Sultan to reject the Russian treaty proposal, as compromising the independence of the Turks. The Leader of the Opposition in the British House of Commons, Benjamin Disraeli, blamed Aberdeen and Stratford's actions for making war inevitable, thus starting the process which would eventually force the Aberdeen government to resign in January 1855, over the war.\n\nShortly after he learned of the failure of Menshikov's diplomacy toward the end of June 1853, the Tsar sent armies under the commands of Field Marshal Ivan Paskevich and General Mikhail Gorchakov across the Pruth River into the Ottoman-controlled Danubian Principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia. Fewer than half of the 80,000 Russian soldiers who crossed the Pruth in 1853 survived. By far, most of the deaths would result from sickness rather than combat, for the Russian army still suffered from medical services that ranged from bad to none.\n\nRussia had previously obtained recognition from the Ottoman Empire of the Tsar's role as special guardian of the Orthodox Christians in Moldavia and Wallachia. Now Russia used the Sultan's failure to resolve the issue of the protection of the Christian sites in the Holy Land as a pretext for Russian occupation of these Danubian provinces. Nicholas believed that the European powers, especially Austria, would not object strongly to the annexation of a few neighbouring Ottoman provinces, especially considering that Russia had assisted Austria's efforts in suppressing the Hungarian Revolution in 1849.\n\nIn July 1853, the Tsar sent his troops into the Danubian Principalities. The United Kingdom, hoping to maintain the Ottoman Empire as a bulwark against the expansion of Russian power in Asia, sent a fleet to the Dardanelles, where it joined another fleet sent by France. \n\nSultan Abdulmecid I formally declared war on Russia and proceeded to the attack, his armies moving on the Russian army near the Danube later that month. Russia and the Ottoman Empire massed forces on two main fronts, the Caucasus and the Danube. Ottoman leader Omar Pasha managed to achieve some victories on the Danubian front. In the Caucasus, the Ottomans were able to stand ground with the help of Chechen Muslims led by Imam Shamil. \n\nBattle of Sinop\n\nThe European powers continued to pursue diplomatic avenues. The representatives of the four neutral Great Powers—the United Kingdom, France, Austria and Prussia—met in Vienna, where they drafted a note that they hoped would be acceptable to both the Russians and the Ottomans. The peace terms arrived at by the four powers at the Vienna Conference were delivered to the Russians by the Austrian Foreign Minister Count Karl von Buol on 5 December 1853. The note met with the approval of Nicholas I; however, Abdülmecid I rejected the proposal, feeling that the document's poor phrasing left it open to many different interpretations. The United Kingdom, France, and Austria united in proposing amendments to mollify the Sultan, but the court of St. Petersburg ignored their suggestions. The UK and France then set aside the idea of continuing negotiations, but Austria and Prussia did not believe that the rejection of the proposed amendments justified the abandonment of the diplomatic process.\n\nThe Russians sent a fleet to Sinop in northern Anatolia. In the Battle of Sinop on 30 November 1853 they destroyed a patrol squadron of Ottoman frigates and corvettes while they were anchored in port. Public opinion in the UK and France was outraged and demanded war. Sinop provided the United Kingdom and France with the casus belli (\"cause for war\") for declaring war against Russia. On 28 March 1854, after Russia ignored an Anglo-French ultimatum to withdraw from the Danubian Principalities, the UK and France formally declared war. \n\nDardanelles\n\nBritain was concerned about Russian activity and Sir John Burgoyne, senior advisor to Lord Aberdeen, urged that the Dardanelles should be occupied and throw up works of sufficient strength to block any Russian move to capture Constantinople and gain access to the Mediterranean Sea. The Corps of Royal Engineers sent men to the Dardanelles while Burgoyne went to Paris, meeting the British Ambassador and the French Emperor. The Lord Cowley wrote on 8 February to Burgoyne \"Your visit to Paris has produced a visible change in the Emperor's views, and he is making every preparation for a land expedition in case the last attempt at negotiation should break down.\" \n\nBurgoyne and his team of engineers inspected and surveyed the Dardanelles area in February, being fired on by Russian riflemen when they went to Varna. A team of sappers arrived in March and major building works commenced on a seven-mile line of defence designed to block the Gallipoli peninsula. French sappers were working on one half of the line which was finished in May.\n\nPeace attempts\n\nNicholas felt that, because of Russian assistance in suppressing the Hungarian revolution of 1848, Austria would side with him, or at the very least remain neutral. Austria, however, felt threatened by the Russian troops in the Balkans. On 27 February 1854, the United Kingdom and France demanded the withdrawal of Russian forces from the principalities; Austria supported them and, though it did not declare war on Russia, it refused to guarantee its neutrality. Russia's rejection of the ultimatum caused the UK and France to enter the war.\n\nRussia soon withdrew its troops from the Danubian principalities, which were then occupied by Austria for the duration of the war. This removed the original grounds for war, but the UK and France continued with hostilities. Determined to address the Eastern Question by putting an end to the Russian threat to the Ottoman Empire, the allies in August 1854 proposed the \"Four Points\" for ending the conflict, in addition to the Russian withdrawal:\n* Russia was to give up its protectorate over the Danubian Principalities;\n* The Danube was to be opened up to foreign commerce;\n* The Straits Convention of 1841, which allowed only Ottoman and Russian warships in the Black Sea, was to be revised;\n* Russia was to abandon any claim granting it the right to interfere in Ottoman affairs on behalf of Orthodox Christians.\n\nThese points (particularly the third) would require clarification through negotiation, but Russia refused to negotiate. The allies including Austria therefore agreed that the UK and France should take further military action to prevent further Russian aggression against the Ottoman Empire. The United Kingdom and France agreed on the invasion of the Crimean peninsula as the first step. \n\nBattles\n\nDanube campaign\n\nThe Danube campaign opened when the Russians occupied the Danubian Principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia in May 1853, bringing their forces to the north bank of the river Danube. In response, the Ottoman Empire also moved its forces up to the river. It established strongholds at Vidin in the west, and Silistra, which was located in the east, near the mouth of the Danube.\n\nThe Turkish/Ottoman move up the Danube River was also of concern to the Austrians, who moved forces into Transylvania in response. However, the Austrians had begun to fear the Russians more than the Turks. Indeed, like the British, the Austrians were now coming to see that an intact Ottoman Empire was necessary as a bulwark against the Russians. Accordingly, the Austrians resisted Russian diplomatic attempts to join the war on the Russian side. Austria remained neutral in the Crimean War. \n\nFollowing the Ottoman ultimatum in September 1853, forces under the Ottoman general Omar Pasha crossed the Danube at Vidin and captured Calafat in October 1853. Simultaneously, in the east, the Ottomans crossed the Danube at Silistra and attacked the Russians at Oltenița. The resulting Battle of Oltenița was the first engagement following the declaration of war. The Russians counterattacked, but were beaten back. On 31 December 1853, the Ottoman forces at Calafat moved against the Russian force at Chetatea or Cetate, a small village nine miles north of Calafat, and engaged them on 6 January 1854. The battle began when the Russians made a move to recapture Calafat. Most of the heavy fighting, however, took place in and around Chetatea until the Russians were driven out of the village. Despite the setback at Chetatea, on 28 January 1854, Russian forces laid siege to Calafat. The siege would continue until May 1854 when the Russians lifted the siege. The Ottomans would also later beat the Russians in battle at Caracal.\n\nIn the spring of 1854 the Russians again advanced, crossing the Danube River into the Turkish province of Dobruja. By April 1854, the Russians had reached the lines of Trajan's Wall where they were finally halted. In the center, the Russian forces crossed the Danube and laid siege to Silistra from 14 April with 60,000 troops, the defenders with 15,000 had supplies for three months. The siege was lifted on 23 June 1854. The English and French forces at this time were unable to take the field for lack of equipment.\n\nIn the west, the Russians were dissuaded from attacking Vidin by the presence of the Austrian forces, which had swelled to 280,000 men. On 28 May 1854 a protocol of the Vienna Conference was signed by Austria and Russia. One of the aims of the Russian advance had been to encourage the Orthodox Christian Serbs and Bulgarians living under Ottoman rule to rebel. However, when the Russian troops actually crossed the River Pruth into Moldavia, the Orthodox Christians still showed no interest in rising up against the Turks. Adding to the worries of Nicholas I was the concern that Austria would enter the war against the Russians and attack his armies on the western flank. Indeed, after attempting to mediate a peaceful settlement between Russia and Turkey, the Austrians entered the war on the side of Turkey with an attack against the Russians in the Principalities which threatened to cut off the Russian supply lines. Accordingly, the Russians were forced to raise the siege of Silistra on 23 June 1854, and begin abandoning the Principalities. The lifting of the siege reduced the threat of a Russian advance into Bulgaria.\n\nIn June 1854, the Allied expeditionary force landed at Varna, a city on the Black Sea's western coast (now in Bulgaria). They made little advance from their base there. In July 1854, the Turks under Omar Pasha crossed the Danube into Wallachia and on 7 July 1854, engaged the Russians in the city of Giurgiu and conquered it. The capture of Giurgiu by the Turks immediately threatened Bucharest in Wallachia with capture by the same Turk army. On 26 July 1854, Tsar Nicholas I ordered the withdrawal of Russian troops from the Principalities. Also, in late July 1854, following up on the Russian retreat, the French staged an expedition against the Russian forces still in Dobruja, but this was a failure.\n\nBy then, the Russian withdrawal was complete, except for the fortress towns of northern Dobruja, while their place in the Principalities was taken by the Austrians, as a neutral peacekeeping force. There was little further action on this front after the autumn of 1854 and in September the allied force boarded ships at Varna to invade the Crimean Peninsula.\n\nBlack Sea theatre\n\nThe naval operations of the Crimean war commenced with the dispatch, in the summer of 1853, of the French and British fleets to the Black Sea region, to support the Ottomans and to dissuade the Russians from encroachment. By June 1853, both fleets were stationed at Besikas bay, outside the Dardanelles. With the Russian occupation of the Danube Principalities in October, they moved to the Bosphorus and in November entered the Black Sea.\n\nDuring this period, the Russian Black Sea Fleet was operating against Ottoman coastal traffic between Constantinople (currently named Istanbul) and the Caucasus ports, while the Ottoman fleet sought to protect this supply line. The clash came on 30 November 1853 when a Russian fleet attacked an Ottoman force in the harbour at Sinop, and destroyed it at the Battle of Sinop. The battle outraged opinion in UK, which called for war. There was little additional naval action until March 1854 when on the declaration of war the British frigate Furious was fired on outside Odessa harbour. In response an Anglo-French fleet bombarded the port, causing much damage to the town. To show support for Turkey after the battle of Sinop, on the 22nd of December 1853, the Anglo-French squadron entered the Black Sea and the steamship approached the Port of Sevastopol, the commander of which received an ultimatum not to allow any ships in the Black Sea.\n\nIn June, the fleets transported the Allied expeditionary forces to Varna, in support of the Ottoman operations on the Danube; in September they again transported the armies, this time to the Crimea. The Russian fleet during this time declined to engage the allies, preferring to maintain a \"fleet in being\"; this strategy failed when Sevastopol, the main port and where most of the Black Sea fleet was based, came under siege. The Russians were reduced to scuttling their warships as blockships, after stripping them of their guns and men to reinforce batteries on shore. During the siege, the Russians lost four 110- or 120-gun, three-decker ships of the line, twelve 84-gun two-deckers and four 60-gun frigates in the Black Sea, plus a large number of smaller vessels. During the rest of the campaign the allied fleets remained in control of the Black Sea, ensuring the various fronts were kept supplied.\n\nIn April 1855, they supported an invasion of Kerch and operated against Taganrog in the Sea of Azov. In September they moved against Russian installations in the Dnieper estuary, attacking Kinburn in the first use of ironclad ships in naval warfare.\n\nCrimean campaign\n\nThe Russians evacuated Wallachia and Moldavia in late July 1854. With the evacuation of the Danubian Principalities, the immediate cause of war was withdrawn and the war might have ended at this time. However, war fever among the public in both the UK and France had been whipped up by the press in both countries to the degree that politicians found it untenable to propose ending the war at this point. Indeed, the coalition government of George Hamilton-Gordon, 4th Earl of Aberdeen fell on 30 January 1855 on a no-confidence vote as Parliament voted to appoint a committee to investigate mismanagement of the war.\n\nFrench and British officers and engineers were sent on 20 July on HMS Fury, a wooden Bulldog-class paddle sloop, to survey the harbour of Sevastopol and the coast near it, managing to get close to the harbour mouth to inspect the formidable batteries. Returning, they reported that they believed there were 15,000–20,000 troops encamped. Ships were prepared to transport horses and siege equipment was both manufactured and imported.\n\nThe Crimean campaign opened in September 1854. Three hundred and sixty ships sailed in seven columns, each steamer towing two sailing ships. Anchoring on 13 September in the bay of Eupatoria, the town surrendered and 500 Marines landed to occupy it. This town and bay would provide a fall back position in case of disaster. The ships then sailed east to make the landing of the allied expeditionary force on the sandy beaches of Calamita Bay on the south west coast of the Crimean Peninsula. The landing surprised the Russians, as they had been expecting a landing at Katcha; the last minute change proving that Russia had known the original battle plan. There was no sign of the enemy and the men were all landed on 14 September. It took another four days to land all the stores, equipment, horses and artillery.\n\nThe landing was north of Sevastopol, so the Russians had arrayed their army in expectation of a direct attack. The allies advanced and on the morning of 20 September came up to the Alma river and the whole Russian army. The position was strong, but after three hours, the frontal attack had driven the Russians out of their dug in positions with losses of 6000 men. The Battle of the Alma had 3,300 Allied losses. Failing to pursue the retreating forces was one of many strategic errors made during the war, and the Russians themselves noted that had they pressed south that day they would have easily captured Sevastopol.\n\nBelieving the northern approaches to the city too well defended, especially due to the presence of a large star fort and because Sevastopol was on the south side of the inlet from the sea that made the harbour, Sir John Burgoyne, the engineer advisor, recommended that the allies attack Sevastopol from the south. This was agreed by the joint commanders, Raglan and St Arnaud. On 25 September the whole army marched southeast and encircled the city to the south. This let them set up a new supply center in a number of protected inlets on the south coast. The Russians retreated into the city. \n\nThe Allied army relocated without problems to the south and the heavy artillery was brought ashore with batteries and connecting trenches built so that by 10 October some batteries were ready and by 17 October—when the bombardment commenced—126 guns were firing, 53 of them French. The fleet at the same time engaged the shore batteries. The British bombardment worked better than the French, who had smaller caliber guns. The fleet suffered high casualties during the day. The British wanted to attack that afternoon, but the French wanted to defer the attack. A postponement was agreed, but on the next day the French were still not ready. By 19 October the Russians had transferred some heavy guns to the southern defenses and outgunned the allies.\n\nReinforcements for the Russians gave them the courage to send out probing attacks. The Allied lines, beginning to suffer from cholera as early as September, were stretched. The French, on the west had less to do than the British on the east with their siege lines and the large nine mile open wing back to their supply base on the south coast.\n\nBattle of Balaclava\n\nA large Russian assault on the allied supply base to the southeast, at Balaclava was rebuffed on 25 October 1854. The Battle of Balaclava is remembered in the UK for the actions of two British units. At the start of the battle, a large body of Russian cavalry charged the 93rd Highlanders, who were posted north of the village of Kadikoi. Commanding them was Sir Colin Campbell. Rather than 'form square', the traditional method of repelling cavalry, Campbell took the risky decision to have his Highlanders form a single line, two men deep. Campbell had seen the effectiveness of the new Minie rifles, with which his troops were armed, at the Battle of the Alma a month before, and was confident his men could beat back the Russians. His tactics succeeded. From up on the ridge to the west, Times correspondent William Howard Russell saw the Highlanders as a 'thin red streak topped with steel', a phrase which soon became the 'Thin Red Line.' \n\nSoon after, a Russian cavalry movement was countered by the Heavy Brigade, who charged and fought hand-to-hand until the Russians retreated. This caused a more widespread Russian retreat, including a number of their artillery units. When the local commanders failed to take advantage of the retreat, Lord Raglan sent out orders to move up. The local commanders ignored the demands, leading to the British aide-de-camp personally delivering a quickly written and confusing order to attack the artillery. When the Earl of Cardigan questioned what they referred to, the aide-de-camp pointed to the first Russian battery he could see – the wrong one.\n\nCardigan formed up his unit and charged the length of the Valley of the Balaclava, under fire from Russian batteries in the hills. The charge of the Light Brigade caused 278 casualties of the 700-man unit. The Light Brigade was memorialized in the famous poem by Alfred Lord Tennyson, \"The Charge of the Light Brigade.\" Although traditionally the charge of the Light Brigade was looked upon as a glorious but wasted sacrifice of good men and horses, recent historians say that the charge of the Light Brigade did succeed in at least some of its objectives. The aim of any cavalry charge is to scatter the enemy lines and frighten the enemy off the battlefield. The charge of the Light Brigade had so unnerved the Russian cavalry, which had previously been routed by the Heavy Brigade, that the Russian Cavalry was set to full-scale flight by the subsequent charge of the Light Brigade. \n\nThe shortage of men led to the failure of the British and French to follow up on the Battle of Balaclava which led directly to a much bloodier battle—the Battle of Inkerman. On 5 November 1854, the Russians attempted to raise the siege at Sevastopol with an attack against the allies which resulted in another allied victory. \n\nWinter of 1854–55\n\nWinter, and a deteriorating supply situation on both sides of troops and materiel, led to a halt in ground operations. Sevastopol remained invested by the allies, while the allied armies were hemmed in by the Russian army in the interior. On 14 November a storm sank thirty allied transport ships including which was carrying a cargo of winter clothing. The storm and heavy traffic caused the road from the coast to the troops to disintegrate into a quagmire, requiring engineers to devote most of their time to its repair including quarrying stone. A tramroad was ordered. It arrived in January with a civilian engineering crew; however, it was March before it was sufficiently advanced to be of any appreciable value. An Electrical telegraph was also ordered, but the frozen ground delayed its installation until March, when communications from the base port of Balaklava to the British HQ was established. The pipe-and-cable-laying plough failed because of the hard frozen soil but, even so, 21 miles of cable were laid.\n\nThe troops suffered greatly from cold and sickness, the shortage of fuel led them to start dismantling their defensive Gabions and Fascines. In February 1855, the Russians attacked the allied base at Eupatoria, where an Ottoman army had built up and was threatening Russian supply routes. The battle saw the Russians defeated and led to a change in command.\n\nThe strain of directing the war had taken its toll on the health of Tsar Nicholas. The Tsar, full of remorse for the disasters he had caused, caught pneumonia and died on 2 March. \n\nSiege of Sevastopol\n\nThe Allies had had time to consider the problem. The French being brought around to agree that the key to the defence was the Malakoff. Emphasis of the siege at Sevastopol shifted to the British left, against the fortifications on Malakoff hill. In March, there was fighting by the French over a new fort being built by the Russians at Mamelon, located on a hill in front of the Malakoff. Several weeks of fighting saw little change in the front line, and the Mamelon remained in Russian hands.\n\nIn April 1855, the allies staged a second all-out bombardment, leading to an artillery duel with the Russian guns, but no ground assault followed.\n\nOn 24 May 1855, sixty ships containing 7000 French, 5000 Turkish and 3000 British troops set off for a raid on the city of Kerch east of Sevastopol in an attempt to open another front on the Crimean peninsula and to cut off Russian supplies. When the allies landed the force at Kerch, the plan was to outflank the Russian army. The landings were successful, but the force made little progress thereafter.\n\nMany more artillery pieces had arrived and been dug into batteries. In June, a third bombardment was followed after two days by a successful attack on the Mamelon, but a follow-up assault on the Malakoff failed with heavy losses. During this time the garrison commander, Admiral Nakhimov fell on 30 June 1855. Raglan having also died on 28 June. In August, the Russians again made an attack towards the base at Balaclava, defended by the French, newly arrived Sardinian and Ottoman troops. The resulting battle of Tchernaya was a defeat for the Russians, who suffered heavy casualties.\n\nFor months each side had been building forward rifle pits and defensive positions, which resulted in many skirmishes. Artillery fire aiming to gain superiority over the enemy guns. September saw the final assault. On 5 September, another French bombardment (the sixth) was followed by an assault by the French Army on 8 September resulting in the capture of the Malakoff by the French, and following their failure to retake it, the collapse of the Russian defences. Meanwhile, the British captured the Great Redan, just south of the city of Sevastopol. The Russians retreated to the north, blowing up their magazines and the city fell on 9 September 1855 after a 337-day-long siege. \n\nAt this point, both sides were exhausted, and no further military operations were launched in the Crimea before the onset of winter. The main objective of the siege, the destruction of the Russian fleet and docks took place over winter. On 28 February, multiple mines blew up the five docks, the canal, and three locks.\n\nAzov campaign\n\nIn spring 1855, the allied British-French commanders decided to send an Anglo-French naval squadron into the Azov Sea to undermine Russian communications and supplies to besieged Sevastopol. On 12 May 1855, British-French warships entered the Kerch Strait and destroyed the coast battery of the Kamishevaya Bay. On 21 May 1855, the gunboats and armed steamers attacked the seaport of Taganrog, the most important hub near Rostov on Don. The vast amounts of food, especially bread, wheat, barley, and rye that were amassed in the city after the outbreak of war were prevented from being exported.\n\nThe Governor of Taganrog, Yegor Tolstoy, and lieutenant-general Ivan Krasnov refused the ultimatum, responding that \"Russians never surrender their cities\". The British–French squadron bombarded Taganrog for 6½ hours and landed 300 troops near the Old Stairway in downtown Taganrog, but they were thrown back by Don Cossacks and a volunteer corps.\n\nIn July 1855, the allied squadron tried to go past Taganrog to Rostov on Don, entering the Don River through the Mius River. On 12 July 1855 HMS Jasper grounded near Taganrog thanks to a fisherman who moved buoys into shallow water. The Cossacks captured the gunboat with all of its guns and blew it up. The third siege attempt was made 19–31 August 1855, but the city was already fortified and the squadron could not approach close enough for landing operations. The allied fleet left the Gulf of Taganrog on the 2nd September 1855, with minor military operations along the Azov Sea coast continuing until late autumn 1855.\n\nCaucasus theatre\n\nAs in the previous wars the Caucasus front was secondary to what was happening in the west. Perhaps because of better communications western events sometimes influenced the east. The main events were the second capture of Kars and a landing on the Georgian coast. Several commanders on both sides were either incompetent or unlucky and few fought aggressively. \n\n1853: There were four main events. 1. In the north the Turks captured the border fort of Saint Nicholas in a surprise night attack (27/28 October). They then pushed about 20000 troops across the Cholok River border. Being outnumbered the Russians abandoned Poti and Redut Kale and drew back to Marani. Both sides remained immobile for the next seven months. 2. In the center the Turks moved north from Ardahan to within cannon-shot of Akhaltsike and awaited reinforcements (13 November). The Russians routed them. The claimed losses were 4000 Turks and 400 Russians. 3. In the south about 30000 Turks slowly moved east to the main Russian concentration at Gyumri or Alexandropol (November). They crossed the border and set up artillery south of town. Prince Orbeliani tried to drive them off and found himself trapped. The Turks failed to press their advantage; the remaining Russians rescued Orbeliani and the Turks retired west. Orbeliani lost about 1000 men out of 5000. The Russians now decided to advance. The Turks took up a strong position on the Kars road and attacked. They were defeated in the battle of Başgedikler, losing 6000 men, half their artillery and all their supply train. The Russians lost 1300, including Prince Orbeliani. This was Prince Ellico Orbeliani whose wife was later kidnapped by Imam Shamil at Tsinandali. 4. At sea the Turks sent a fleet east which was destroyed by Admiral Nakhimov at Sinope.\n\n1854: The British and French declared war on 3 January. That spring the Anglo-French fleet appeared in the Black Sea and the Russians abandoned the Black Sea Defensive Line from Anapa south. N. A. Read, who replaced Vorontsov, fearing an Anglo-French landing in conjunction with Shamyl and the Persians, recommended withdrawal north of the Caucasus. For this he was replaced by Baryatinsky. When the allies chose a land attack on Sebastopol any plan for a landing in the east was abandoned.\n\nIn the north Eristov pushed southwest, fought two battles, forced the Turks back to Batum, retired behind the Cholok River and suspended action for the rest of the year (June). In the far south Wrangel pushed west, fought a battle and occupied Bayazit. In the center the main forces stood at Kars and Gyumri. Both slowly approached along the Kars-Gyumri road and faced each other, neither side choosing to fight (June–July). On 4 August Russian scouts saw a movement which they thought was the start of a withdrawal, the Russians advanced and the Turks attacked first. They were defeated, losing 8000 men to the Russian 3000. 10000 irregulars deserted to their villages. Both sides withdrew to their former positions. About this time the Persians made a semi-secret agreement to remain neutral in exchange for the cancellation of the indemnity from the previous war.\n\n1855:Kars: In the year up to May 1855 Turkish forces in the east were reduced from 120,000 to 75,000, mostly by disease. The local Armenian population kept Muravyev well-informed about the Turks at Kars and he judged they had about five months of supplies. He therefore decided to control the surrounding area with cavalry and starve them out. He started in May and by June was south and west of the town. A relieving force fell back and there was a possibility of taking Erzerum, but Muravyev chose not to. In late September he learned of the fall of Sevastopol and a Turkish landing at Batum. This led him to reverse policy and try a direct attack. It failed, the Russians losing 8000 men and the Turks 1500 (29 September). The blockade continued and Kars surrendered on 8 November.\n\n1855: Georgian coast: Omar Pasha, the Turkish commander at Crimea had long wanted to land in Georgia, but the western powers vetoed it. When they relented in August most of the campaigning season was lost. In September 8000 Turks landed at Batum, but the main concentration was at Sukhum Kale. This required a 100-mile march south through a country with poor roads. The Russians planned to hold the line of the Ingur River which separates Abkhazia from Georgia proper. Omar crossed the Ingur on 7 November and then wasted a great deal of time, the Russians doing little. By 2 December he had reached the Tskhenis-dzqali, the rainy season had started, his camps were submerged in mud and there was no bread. Learning of the fall of Kars he withdrew to the Ingur. The Russians did nothing and he evacuated to Batum in February of the following year.\n\nBaltic theatre\n\nThe Baltic was a forgotten theatre of the Crimean War. Popularisation of events elsewhere overshadowed the significance of this theatre, which was close to Saint Petersburg, the Russian capital. In April 1854 an Anglo-French fleet entered the Baltic to attack the Russian naval base of Kronstadt and the Russian fleet stationed there. In August 1854 the combined British and French fleet returned to Kronstadt for another attempt. The outnumbered Russian Baltic Fleet confined its movements to the areas around its fortifications. At the same time, the British and French commanders Sir Charles Napier and Alexandre Ferdinand Parseval-Deschenes—although they led the largest fleet assembled since the Napoleonic Wars—considered the Sveaborg fortress too well-defended to engage. Thus, shelling of the Russian batteries was limited to two attempts in the summers of 1854 and 1855, and initially, the attacking fleets limited their actions to blockading Russian trade in the Gulf of Finland. Naval attacks on other ports, such as the ones in the island of Hogland in the Gulf of Finland, proved more successful. Additionally, allies conducted raids on less fortified sections of the Finnish coast. These battles are known in Finland as the Åland war.\n\nRussia depended on imports - both for her domestic economy and for the supply of her military forces: the blockade forced Russia to rely on more expensive overland shipments from Prussia. The blockade seriously undermined the Russian export economy and helped shorten the war. \n\nThe burning of tar warehouses and ships led to international criticism, and in London the MP Thomas Gibson demanded in the House of Commons that the First Lord of the Admiralty explain \"a system which carried on a great war by plundering and destroying the property of defenceless villagers\". \n\nIn August 1855 a Franco-British naval force captured and destroyed the Russian Bomarsund fortress on Åland Islands. In the same month, the Western Allied Baltic Fleet tried to destroy heavily defended Russian dockyards at Sveaborg outside Helsinki. More than 1000 enemy guns tested the strength of the fortress for two days. Despite the shelling, the sailors of the 120-gun ship Rossiya, led by Captain Viktor Poplonsky, defended the entrance to the harbor. The Allies fired over 20,000 shells but failed to defeat the Russian batteries. A massive new fleet of more than 350 gunboats and mortar vessels was prepared, but before the attack was launched, the war ended.\n\nPart of the Russian resistance was credited to the deployment of newly invented blockade mines. Perhaps the most influential contributor to the development of naval mining was a Swede resident in Russia, the inventor and civil engineer Immanuel Nobel (the father of Alfred Nobel). Immanuel Nobel helped the Russian war effort by applying his knowledge of industrial explosives, such as nitroglycerin and gunpowder. One account dates modern naval mining from the Crimean War: \"Torpedo mines, if I may use this name given by Fulton to self-acting mines underwater, were among the novelties attempted by the Russians in their defences about Cronstadt and Sevastopol\", as one American officer put it in 1860.\n\nWhite Sea theatre\n\nIn autumn 1854, a squadron of three British warships led by HMS Miranda left the Baltic for the White Sea, where they shelled Kola (which was utterly destroyed) and the Solovki. Their attempt to storm Arkhangelsk proved unsuccessful.\n\nPacific theatre\n\nMinor naval skirmishes also occurred in the Far East, where at Petropavlovsk on the Kamchatka Peninsula a British and French Allied squadron including under Rear Admiral David Price and a French force under Counter-Admiral Auguste Febvrier Despointes besieged a smaller Russian force under Rear Admiral Yevfimy Putyatin. In September 1854, an Allied landing force was beaten back with heavy casualties, and the Allies withdrew. The Russians escaped under the cover of snow in early 1855 after Allied reinforcements arrived in the region.\n\nThe Anglo-French forces in the Far East also made several small landings on Sakhalin and Urup, one of the Kuril Islands. \n\nPiedmontese Involvement\n\nCamillo di Cavour, under orders of Victor Emmanuel II of Piedmont-Sardinia, sent an expeditionary corps of 15,000 soldiers, commanded by General Alfonso La Marmora, to side with French and British forces during the war. This was an attempt at gaining the favour of the French, especially when the issue of uniting Italy would become an important matter. The deployment of Italian troops to the Crimea, and the gallantry shown by them in the Battle of the Chernaya (16 August 1855) and in the siege of Sevastopol, allowed the Kingdom of Sardinia to be among the participants at the peace conference at the end of the war, where it could address the issue of the Risorgimento to other European powers.\n\nGreece\n\nGreece played a peripheral role in the war. When Russia attacked the Ottoman Empire in 1853, King Otto of Greece saw an opportunity to expand North and South into Ottoman areas that had large Greek Christian majorities. However, Greece did not coordinate its plans with Russia, did not declare war, and received no outside military or financial support. Greece, an Orthodox nation, had considerable support in Russia, but the Russian government decided it was too dangerous to help Greece expand its holdings. When the Russians invaded the Principalities, the Ottoman forces were tied down so Greece invaded Thessaly and Epirus. To block further Greek moves, the British and French occupied the main Greek port at Piraeus from April 1854 to February 1857, and effectively neutralized the Greek army. Greeks, gambling on a Russian victory, incited the large-scale Epirus Revolt of 1854 as well as uprisings in Crete. The insurrections were failures that were easily crushed by the Ottoman army. Greece was not invited to the peace conference and made no gains out of the war. The frustrated Greek leadership blamed the King for failing to take advantage of the situation; his popularity plunged and he was later forced to abdicate.\n\nKiev Cossack revolt and national awakening in Ukraine\n\nA Kiev cossack revolt that initially started in the Vasylkiv county of Kiev Governorate (province) in February 1855 spread across the whole Kiev and Chernigov governorates. Led by peasants, the revolt found great support among the Ukrainian landowners who opposed the war. The events were contemporary with the popular movement of Chłopomania that laid the foundations of the Ukrainian national awakening and the creation of the Kiev Hromada (Kiev Community). \n\nEnd of the war\n\nBritish position\n\nDissatisfaction with the conduct of the war was growing with the public in the UK and in other countries, aggravated by reports of fiascos, especially the devastating losses of the heroic Charge of the Light Brigade at the Battle of Balaclava. On Sunday, 21 January 1855, a \"snowball riot\" occurred in Trafalgar Square near St. Martin-in-the-Field in which 1,500 people gathered to protest against the war by pelting buses, cabs, and pedestrians with snow balls. When the police intervened, the snowballs were directed at them. The riot was finally put down by troops and police acting with truncheons. In Parliament, Tories demanded an accounting of all soldiers, cavalry and sailors sent to the Crimea and accurate figures as to the number of casualties that had been sustained by all British armed forces in the Crimea; they were especially concerned with the Battle of Balaclava. When Parliament passed a bill to investigate by the vote of 305 to 148, Aberdeen said he had lost a vote of no confidence and resigned as prime minister on 30 January 1855. The veteran former Foreign Secretary Lord Palmerston became prime minister. Palmerston took a hard line; he wanted to expand the war, foment unrest inside the Russian Empire, and permanently reduce the Russian threat to Europe. Sweden and Prussia were willing to join the UK and France, and Russia was isolated.\n\nPeace negotiations\n\nFrance, which had sent far more soldiers to the war than the United Kingdom had, and suffered far more casualties, wanted the war to end, as did Austria.\n\nPeace negotiations at the Congress of Paris resulted in the signing of the Treaty of Paris on 30 March 1856. In compliance with article III, Russia restored to the Ottoman Empire the city and citadel of Kars in common with \"all other parts of the Ottoman territory of which the Russian troop were in possession\". Russia ceded some land in Bessarabia at the mouth of the Danube to Moldavia. By article IV The United Kingdom, France, Sardinia and Turkey restored to Russia \"the towns and ports of Sevastopol, Balaklava, Kamish, Eupatoria, Kerch, Jenikale, Kinburn, as well as all other territories occupied by the allied troops\". In conformity with article XI and XIII, the Tsar and the Sultan agreed not to establish any naval or military arsenal on the Black Sea coast. The Black Sea clauses weakened Russia, and it no longer posed a naval threat to the Ottomans. The principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia were nominally returned to the Ottoman Empire; in practice they became independent. The Great Powers pledged to respect the independence and territorial integrity of the Ottoman Empire.\n\nHistorical analysis\n\nThe Treaty of Paris stood until 1871, when France was defeated by Prussia in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–1871. While Prussia and several other German states united to form a powerful German Empire, the Emperor of the French, Napoleon III, was deposed to permit the formation of a Third French Republic. During his reign, Napoleon III, eager for the support of the United Kingdom, had opposed Russia over the Eastern Question. Russian interference in the Ottoman Empire, however, did not in any significant manner threaten the interests of France. Thus, France abandoned its opposition to Russia after the establishment of a republic. Encouraged by the decision of the French, and supported by the German minister Otto von Bismarck, Russia renounced the Black Sea clauses of the treaty agreed to in 1856. As the United Kingdom alone could not enforce the clauses, Russia once again established a fleet in the Black Sea.\n\nAlthough it was Russia that was punished by the Paris Treaty, in the long run it was Austria that lost the most from the Crimean War despite having barely taken part in it. Having abandoned its alliance with Russia, Austria was diplomatically isolated following the war, which contributed to its disastrous defeats in the 1859 Franco-Austrian War that resulted in the cession of Lombardy to the Kingdom of Sardinia, and later in the loss of the Habsburg rule of Tuscany and Modena, which meant the end of Austrian influence in Italy. Furthermore, Russia did not do anything to assist its former ally, Austria, in the 1866 Austro-Prussian War with its loss of Venetia and more important than that, its influence in most German-speaking lands. The status of Austria as a great power, with the unifications of Germany and Italy was now severely questioned. It had to compromise with Hungary, the two countries shared the Danubian Empire and Austria slowly became a little more than a German satellite. With France now hostile to Germany, allied with Russia, and Russia competing with the newly renamed Austro-Hungarian Empire for an increased role in the Balkans at the expense of the Ottoman Empire, the foundations were in place for creating the diplomatic alliances that would lead to World War I.\n\nNot withstanding the guarantees to preserve Ottoman territories specified in the Treaty of Paris, Russia, exploiting nationalist unrest in the Ottoman states in the Balkans and seeking to regain lost prestige, once again declared war on the Ottoman Empire on 24 April 1877. In this later Russo-Turkish War the states of Romania, Serbia, Montenegro gained international recognition of their independence and Bulgaria achieved its autonomy from direct Ottoman rule.\n\nThe Crimean War marked the ascendancy of France to the position of pre-eminent power on the Continent, the continued decline of the Ottoman Empire, and the beginning of a decline for Tsarist Russia. As Fuller notes, \"Russia had been beaten on the Crimean peninsula, and the military feared that it would inevitably be beaten again unless steps were taken to surmount its military weakness.\" The Crimean War marks the demise of the Concert of Europe, the balance of power that had dominated Europe since the Congress of Vienna in 1815, and which had included France, Russia, Austria and the United Kingdom.\n\nAccording to historian Shepard Clough, the war:\n\nwas not the result of a calculated plan, nor even of hasty last-minute decisions made under stress. It was the consequence of more than two years of fatal blundering in slow-motion by inept statesmen who had months to reflect upon the actions they took. It arose from Napoleon's search for prestige; Nicholas’s quest for control over the Straits; his naive miscalculation of the probable reactions of the European powers; the failure of those powers to make their positions clear; and the pressure of public opinion in Britain and Constantinople at crucial moments. \nThis view of 'diplomatic drift' as the cause of the war was first popularised by A. W, Kinglake, who portrayed the British as victims of newspaper sensationalism and duplicitous French and Ottoman diplomacy. More recently, the historians Andrew Lambert and Winfried Baumgart have argued that, first, Britain was following a geopolitical strategy in aiming to destroy a fledgling Russian Navy which might challenge the Royal Navy for control of the seas, and second that the war was a joint European response to a century of Russian expansion not just southwards but also into western Europe.\n\nRussia feared losing Russian America without compensation in some future conflict, especially to the British. While Alaska attracted little interest at the time, the population of nearby British Columbia started to increase rapidly a few years after hostilities ended. Therefore, the Russian emperor, Alexander II, decided to sell Alaska. In 1859 the Russians offered to sell the territory to the United States, hoping that its presence in the region would offset the plans of Russia's greatest regional rival, the United Kingdom. \n\nDocumentation\n\nNotable documentation of the war was provided by William Howard Russell (writing for The Times newspaper) and the photographs of Roger Fenton. News from war correspondents reached all nations involved in the war and kept the public citizenry of those nations better informed of the day-to-day events of the war than had been the case in any other war to that date. The British public was very well informed regarding the day-to-day realities of the war in the Crimea. After the French extended the telegraph to the coast of the Black Sea during the winter of 1854, the news reached London in two days. When the British laid an underwater cable to the Crimean peninsula in April 1855, news reached London in a few hours. The daily news reports energised public opinion, which brought down the Aberdeen government and carried Lord Palmerston into office as prime minister.\n\nCriticisms and reform\n\n As the memory of the \"Charge of the Light Brigade\" demonstrates, the war became an iconic symbol of logistical, medical and tactical failures and mismanagement. Public opinion in the UK was outraged at the logistical and command failures of the war; the newspapers demanded drastic reforms, and parliamentary investigations demonstrated the multiple failures of the Army. However, the reform campaign was not well organized, and the traditional aristocratic leadership of the Army pulled itself together, and blocked all serious reforms. No one was punished. The outbreak of the Indian Revolution in 1857 shifted attention to the heroic defense of British interest by the army, and further talk of reform went nowhere. The demand for professionalization was, however, achieved by Florence Nightingale, who gained worldwide attention for pioneering and publicizing modern nursing while treating the wounded.\n\nThe Crimean War also saw the first tactical use of railways and other modern inventions, such as the electric telegraph, with the first \"live\" war reporting to The Times by William Howard Russell. Some credit Russell with prompting the resignation of the sitting British government through his reporting of the lacklustre condition of British forces deployed in Crimea. Additionally, the telegraph reduced the independence of British overseas possessions from their commanders in London due to such rapid communications. Newspaper readership informed public opinion in the United Kingdom and France as never before. It was the first European war to be photographed.\n\nThe war also employed modern military tactics, such as trenches and blind artillery fire. The use of the Minié ball for shot, coupled with the rifling of barrels, greatly increased range and damage of the allied forces.\n\nThe British Army system of sale of commissions came under great scrutiny during the war, especially in connection with the Battle of Balaclava, which saw the ill-fated Charge of the Light Brigade. This scrutiny eventually led to the abolition of the sale of commissions.\n\nThe Crimean War was a contributing factor in the Russian abolition of serfdom in 1861: Tsar Alexander II (Nicholas I's son and successor) saw the military defeat of the Russian serf-army by free troops from Britain and France as proof of the need for emancipation. The Crimean War also led to the eventual realisation by the Russian government of its technological inferiority, in military practices as well as weapons. \n\nMeanwhile, Russian military medicine saw dramatic progress: N. I. Pirogov, known as the father of Russian field surgery, developed the use of anaesthetics, plaster casts, enhanced amputation methods, and five-stage triage in Crimea, among other things.\n\nThe war also led to the establishment of the Victoria Cross in 1856 (backdated to 1854), the British Army's first universal award for valour. 111 medals were awarded.\n\nThe British issued the Crimea Medal with 5 clasps, and the Baltic Medal, as well as Valour medals, including the newly created Distinguished Conduct Medal, the Turkish the Turkish Crimea Medal, the French did not issue a campaign medal, issuing Médaille militaire and Legion of Honour for bravery, Sardinia also issued a medal. Russia issued a Defense of Sevastopol, and a Crimean War medal.\n\nChronology of major battles of the war\n\n* Battle of Sinop, 30 November 1853\n* Siege of Petropavlovsk, 30–31 August 1854, on the Pacific coast\n* Battle of Alma, 20 September 1854\n* Siege of Sevastopol, 25 September 1854 to 8 September 1855\n* Battle of Balaclava, 25 October 1854 (see also Charge of the Light Brigade and The Thin Red Line)\n* Battle of Inkerman, 5 November 1854\n* Battle of Eupatoria, 17 February 1855\n* Battle of the Chernaya (aka \"Traktir Bridge\"), 16 August 1855\n* Sea of Azoff naval campaign, May to November 1855\n* Siege of Kars, June to 28 November 1855\n\nProminent military commanders\n\n* Russian commanders\n** Prince Mikhail Dmitriyevich Gorchakov\n** Count and Namestnik Ivan Feodorovich Paskevich\n** Admiral Pavel Stepanovich Nakhimov\n** General Eduard Ivanovich Totleben\n** Prince Aleksandr Sergeyevich Menshikov\n* French commanders\n** Marshal Jacques Leroy de Saint Arnaud\n** Marshal François Certain Canrobert\n** Marshal Aimable Pélissier\n** Marshal Pierre Bosquet\n** Marshal Patrice de MacMahon\n** General Émile Herbillon\n* Ottoman commanders\n** General Abdülkerim Nadir Pasha\n** General Omar Pasha\n** General Iskender Pasha\n** General Ismail Pasha \n* British commanders\n** James Brudenell, 7th Earl of Cardigan\n** FitzRoy Somerset, 1st Baron Raglan\n** Sir Thomas James Harper\n** Sir Edmund Lyons (later 1st Baron Lyons)\n** George Charles Bingham, 3rd Earl of Lucan\n** Colin Campbell, 1st Baron Clyde\n* Kingdom of Sardinia commander\n** General Alfonso Ferrero La Marmora\n\nLast veterans\n\n* Yves Prigent (1833–1938). French sailor. \n* Charles Nathan (1834–1934). Last French soldier, also saw action in Italy, Syria, Mexico and the Franco-Prussian War.\n* Edwin Hughes (1830–1927). Last survivor of the Charge of the Light Brigade. \n* Colonel Rookes Evelyn Bell Crompton (1845–1940). Repeatedly claimed that he was a cadet on HMS Dragon during the siege of Sevastopol, earning two campaign medals before his twelfth birthday. There is no record of his having enrolled in the Navy; at the time of his visits to the Crimea (mid-May to mid-July 1856), nobody was entitled to the award of the British Crimea Medal. \n* Luigi Palma di Cesnola (1832–1904). An Italian soldier who served with the British Army in the Crimean War as the aide-de-camp to General Enrico Fardella. Also served in the American Civil War, on the Union Side.Maria Luisa Moncassoli Tibone. \"Dal Piemonte a Cipro, a New York: un’avventura appassionante\". \n* Timothy the Tortoise (1839–2004). The naval mascot of HMS Queen. \n\nIn popular culture\n\n* \"The Charge of the Light Brigade\" by Alfred, Lord Tennyson depicted a brave but disastrous cavalry charge during the Battle of Balaclava.\n* Leo Tolstoy wrote a few short sketches on the Siege of Sevastopol, collected in The Sebastopol Sketches. The stories detail the lives of the Russian soldiers and citizens in Sevastopol during the siege. Because of this work, Tolstoy has been called the world's first war correspondent.\n* In James Joyce's Finnegans Wake II.3, the Crimean War, especially the Battle of Balaclava, figures prominently. One of the focuses of that dense chapter is a radio program in which Butt & Taff retell an idiosyncratic anecdote from that battle, in which an Irishman named Buckley shot a Russian general.\n* Jack Archer: A Tale of the Crimea by G. A. Henty, 1883, a historical novel, details the adventures of two British midshipmen in the Crimean War.\n* The events of the Crimean War are depicted in the 1973 novel Flashman at the Charge in which the eponymous antihero participates in the battles of Sevastopol and Balaclava.\n* Franz Roubaud. Panorama Siege of Sevastopol (1854–1855)\n* Charge of the Light Brigade – 1936 film starring Errol Flynn\n* The Charge of the Light Brigade – 1968 film starring John Gielgud and Trevor Howard\n* The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde is an alternative history novel where the Crimean War has been raging for over 130 years and is still ongoing, albeit at a stalemate at the time of the novel.\n* A different alternative history treatment of the Crimean War is S. M. Stirling's story \"The Charge of Lee's Brigade\" . \n* \"The Trooper\", song by Iron Maiden included in their 1983 album Piece of Mind, inspired by Lord Tennyson poem, describes the charge from the point of view of a British soldier.\n* The Great Train Robbery by Michael Crichton was set on the English homefront during the Crimean War. The plot revolved around stealing gold intended for the British troops from a moving railway train. It was later made into The First Great Train Robbery (known as The Great Train Robbery in the U.S.), starring Sean Connery. The novel was based on the Great Gold Robbery of 1855.\n* Boris Akunin, under his Anatoly Brusnikin pen name, published the historical novel Bellona (Беллона) (2012), centering on the Crimean War from the Russian side.\n* Jasper Kent's novel The Third Section takes Crimean War as a background event for its theme", "The Charge of the Light Brigade was a charge of British light cavalry led by Lord Cardigan against Russian forces during the Battle of Balaclava on 25 October 1854, in the Crimean War. Lord Raglan, overall commander of the British forces, had intended to send the Light Brigade to pursue and harry a retreating Russian artillery battery, a task well-suited to light cavalry. However, due to miscommunication in the chain of command, the Light Brigade was instead sent on a frontal assault against a different artillery battery, one well-prepared with excellent fields of defensive fire.\n\nAlthough the Light Brigade reached the battery under withering direct fire and scattered some of the gunners, the badly mauled brigade was forced to retreat immediately. Thus, the assault ended with very high British casualties and no decisive gains.\n\nThe events are best remembered as the subject of Alfred, Lord Tennyson's narrative poem \"The Charge of the Light Brigade\" (1854). Published just six weeks after the event, its lines emphasize the valour of the cavalry in bravely carrying out their orders, regardless of the obvious outcome. Blame for the miscommunication has remained controversial, as the original order itself was vague, and the officer who delivered the written orders, with some verbal interpretation, died in the first minute of the assault.\n\nBackground\n\nThe charge was made by the Light Brigade of the British cavalry, which consisted of the 4th and 13th Light Dragoons, 17th Lancers, and the 8th and 11th Hussars, under the command of Major General James Brudenell, 7th Earl of Cardigan. Also present that day was the Heavy Brigade, commanded by Major General James Yorke Scarlett, who was a past Commanding Officer of the 5th Dragoon Guards. The Heavy Brigade was made up of the 4th Royal Irish Dragoon Guards, the 5th Dragoon Guards, the 6th Inniskilling Dragoons and the Scots Greys. The two brigades were the only British cavalry force at the battle.\n\nThe Light Brigade, as the name suggests, were the British light cavalry force. It mounted light, fast horses which were unarmoured. The men were armed with lances and sabres. Optimized for maximum mobility and speed, they were intended for reconnaissance and skirmishing. They were also ideal for cutting down infantry and artillery units as they attempted to retreat.\n\nThe Heavy Brigade under James Scarlett was the British heavy cavalry force. It mounted large, heavy chargers. The men were equipped with metal helmets and armed with cavalry swords for close combat. They were intended as the primary British shock force, leading frontal charges in order to break enemy lines.\n\nOverall command of the British cavalry resided with Lieutenant General George Bingham, 3rd Earl of Lucan. Cardigan and Lucan were brothers-in-law who disliked each other intensely. Lucan received an order from the army commander Lord Raglan stating: \"Lord Raglan wishes the cavalry to advance rapidly to the front, follow the enemy, and try to prevent the enemy carrying away the guns. Troop horse artillery may accompany. French cavalry is on your left. Immediate.\" Raglan wanted the light cavalry to prevent the Russians from successfully withdrawing the naval guns from the redoubts they had captured on the reverse side of the Causeway Heights, the hill forming the south side of the valley. This was an optimum task for the Light Brigade, as their superior speed would ensure the Russians would be forced to either quickly abandon the cumbersome guns or be cut down en masse while they attempted to flee with them.\n\nRaglan could see what was happening from his high vantage point on the west side of the valley. However, the lie of the land around Lucan and the cavalry prevented him from seeing the Russians' efforts to remove the guns from the redoubts and retreat. \n\nThe order was drafted by Brigadier Richard Airey and carried by Captain Louis Edward Nolan. Nolan carried the further oral instruction that the cavalry was to attack immediately. When Lucan asked what guns were referred to, Nolan is said to have indicated with a wide sweep of his arm—not the causeway redoubts—but the mass of Russian guns in a redoubt at the end of the valley, around a mile away. His reasons for the misdirection are unknown because he was killed in the ensuing battle.\n\nIn response to the order, Lucan instructed Cardigan to lead his command of about 670 troopers of the Light Brigade straight into the valley between the Fedyukhin Heights and the Causeway Heights. In his poem, \"The Charge of the Light Brigade\" (1854), Tennyson famously dubbed this hollow \"The Valley of Death\".\n\nThe opposing Russian forces were commanded by Pavel Liprandi and included approximately 20 battalions of infantry supported by over 50 artillery pieces. These forces were deployed on both sides and at the opposite end of the valley.\n\nLucan himself was to follow with the Heavy Brigade. Although the Heavy Brigade was better armoured and intended for frontal assaults on infantry positions, neither force was remotely equipped for a frontal assault on a fully dug-in and alerted artillery battery—much less one with an excellent line of sight over a mile in length and supported on two sides by artillery batteries providing enfilading fire from elevated ground. The semi-suicidal nature of this charge was surely evident to the troopers of the Light Brigade, but if there were any objection to the orders, it was not recorded.\n\nThe Charge\n\nThe Light Brigade set off down the valley with Cardigan out in front, leading the charge. Almost at once Nolan was seen to rush across the front, passing in front of Cardigan. It may be that he then realised the charge was aimed at the wrong target and was attempting to stop or turn the brigade, but he was killed by an artillery shell, and the cavalry continued on its course. Despite withering fire from three sides that devastated their force on the ride, the Light Brigade was able to engage the Russian forces at the end of the valley and force them back from the redoubt, but it suffered heavy casualties and was soon forced to retire. The surviving Russian artillerymen returned to their guns and opened fire once again, with grape and canister, indiscriminately at the mêlée of friend and foe before them.\n\nLucan failed to provide any support for Cardigan, and it was speculated that he was motivated by an enmity for his brother-in-law that had lasted some 30 years and had been intensified during the campaign up to that point. The troops of the Heavy Brigade entered the mouth of the valley but did not advance further. Lucan's subsequent explanation was that he saw no point in having a second brigade mown down, and he was best positioned where he was to render assistance to Light Brigade survivors returning from the charge. The French light cavalry, the Chasseurs d'Afrique, was more effective in that it cleared the Fedyukhin Heights of the two half batteries of guns, two infantry battalions, and Cossacks to ensure the Light Brigade would not be hit by fire from that flank, and it later provided cover for the remaining elements of the Light Brigade as they withdrew. \n\nWar correspondent William Russell, who witnessed the battle, declared \"our Light Brigade was annihilated by their own rashness, and by the brutality of a ferocious enemy.\"\n\nCardigan survived the battle. Although stories circulated afterwards that he was not actually present, he led the charge from the front and, never looking back, did not see what was happening to the troops behind him. He reached the Russian guns, took part in the fight, and then returned alone up the valley without bothering to rally or even find out what had happened to the survivors. He afterwards said all he could think about was his rage against Captain Nolan, who he thought had tried to take over the leadership of the charge from him. After riding back up the valley, he considered he had done all that he could and then, with considerable sang-froid, left the field and went on board his yacht in Balaclava harbour, where he ate a champagne dinner. He subsequently described the engagement in a speech delivered at the Mansion House in London that was afterwards quoted in length in the House of Commons:\n\nWe advanced down a gradual descent of more than three-quarters of a mile, with the batteries vomiting forth upon us shells and shot, round and grape, with one battery on our right flank and another on the left, and all the intermediate ground covered with the Russian riflemen; so that when we came to within a distance of fifty yards from the mouths of the artillery which had been hurling destruction upon us, we were, in fact, surrounded and encircled by a blaze of fire, in addition to the fire of the riflemen upon our flanks.\n\nAs we ascended the hill, the oblique fire of the artillery poured upon our rear, so that we had thus a strong fire upon our front, our flank, and our rear. We entered the battery—we went through the battery—the two leading regiments cutting down a great number of the Russian gunners in their onset. In the two regiments which I had the honour to lead, every officer, with one exception, was either killed or wounded, or had his horse shot under him or injured. Those regiments proceeded, followed by the second line, consisting of two more regiments of cavalry, which continued to perform the duty of cutting down the Russian gunners.\n\nThen came the third line, formed of another regiment, which endeavoured to complete the duty assigned to our brigade. I believe that this was achieved with great success, and the result was that this body, composed of only about 670 men, succeeded in passing through the mass of Russian cavalry of—as we have since learned—5,240 strong; and having broken through that mass, they went, according to our technical military expression, \"threes about,\" and retired in the same manner, doing as much execution in their course as they possibly could upon the enemy's cavalry. Upon our returning up the hill which we had descended in the attack, we had to run the same gauntlet and to incur the same risk from the flank fire of the Tirailleur as we had encountered before. Numbers of our men were shot down—men and horses were killed, and many of the soldiers who had lost their horses were also shot down while endeavouring to escape.\n\nBut what, my Lord, was the feeling and what the bearing of those brave men who returned to the position. Of each of these regiments there returned but a small detachment, two-thirds of the men engaged having been destroyed? I think that every man who was engaged in that disastrous affair at Balaklava, and who was fortunate enough to come out of it alive, must feel that it was only by a merciful decree of Almighty Providence that he escaped from the greatest apparent certainty of death which could possibly be conceived.\n\nAftermath\n\nThe brigade was not completely destroyed, but did suffer terribly, with 118 men killed, 127 wounded, and about 60 taken prisoner. After regrouping, only 195 men were still with horses. The futility of the action and its reckless bravery prompted the French Marshal Pierre Bosquet to state: \"C'est magnifique, mais ce n'est pas la guerre.\" (\"It is magnificent, but it is not war.\") He continued, in a rarely quoted phrase: \"C'est de la folie\" — \"It is madness.\" The Russian commanders are said to have initially believed that the British soldiers must have been drunk. Somerset Calthorpe, Aide de Camp to Lord Raglan, wrote a letter to a friend three days after the charge. He detailed casualty numbers but did not distinguish between those killed and those taken prisoner:\n\n — besides 335 horses killed in action, or obliged afterwards to be destroyed from wounds. It has since been ascertained that the Russians made a good many prisoners; the exact number is not yet known.\" The reputation of the British cavalry was significantly enhanced as a result of the charge, though the same cannot be said for their commanders.\n\nSlow communications meant that news of the disaster did not reach the British public until three weeks after the action. The British commanders' dispatches from the front were published in an extraordinary edition of the London Gazette of 12 November 1854. Raglan blamed Lucan for the charge, claiming that \"from some misconception of the order to advance, the Lieutenant-General (Lucan) considered that he was bound to attack at all hazards, and he accordingly ordered Major-General the Earl of Cardigan to move forward with the Light Brigade.\" Lucan was furious at being made a scapegoat: Raglan claimed he should have exercised his discretion, but throughout the campaign up to that date Lucan considered Raglan had allowed him no independence at all and required that his orders be followed to the letter. Cardigan, who had merely obeyed orders, blamed Lucan for giving those orders. He returned home a hero and was promoted to Inspector General of the Cavalry.\n\nLucan attempted to publish a letter refuting point by point Raglan's London Gazette dispatch, but his criticism of his superior was not tolerated, and Lucan was recalled to England in March 1855. The Charge of the Light Brigade became a subject of considerable controversy and public dispute on his return. He strongly rejected Raglan's version of events, calling it \"an imputation reflecting seriously on my professional character.\" In an exchange of public correspondence printed in the pages of The Times, Lucan blamed Raglan and his deceased aide-de-camp Captain Nolan, who had been the actual deliverer of the disputed order. Lucan subsequently defended himself with a speech in the House of Lords on 19 March.\n\nLucan evidently escaped blame for the charge, as he was made a member of the Order of the Bath in July of that same year. Although he never again saw active duty, he reached the rank of general in 1865 and was made a field marshal in the year before his death.\n\nThe charge of the Light Brigade continues to be studied by modern military historians and students as an example of what can go wrong when accurate military intelligence is lacking and orders are unclear. Prime Minister Winston Churchill, who was a keen military historian and a former cavalryman, insisted on taking time out during the Yalta Conference in 1945 to see the battlefield for himself.\n\nOne research project used a mathematical model to examine how the charge might have turned out if conducted differently. The analysis suggested that a charge toward the redoubt on the Causeway Heights, as Raglan had apparently intended, would have led to even higher British casualties. By contrast, the charge might have succeeded if the Heavy Brigade had accompanied the Light Brigade along the valley, as Lucan had initially directed. \n\nAccording to Norman Dixon, 19th-century accounts of the charge tended to focus on the bravery and glory of the cavalrymen, much more than the military blunders involved, with the perverse effect that it \"did much to strengthen those very forms of tradition which put such an incapacitating stranglehold on military endeavor for the next eighty or so years,\" i.e., until after World War I. \n\nThe fate of the surviving members of the Charge was investigated by Edward James Boys, a military historian, who documented their lives from leaving the army to their deaths. His records are described as being the most definitive project of its kind ever undertaken. Edwin Hughes, who died on 14 May 1927, aged 96, was the last survivor of the charge. \n\nIn October 1875, survivors of the Charge met at the Alexandra Palace in London to celebrate the 21st anniversary of the Charge. The celebrations were fully reported in the Illustrated London News of 30 October 1875, which included the recollections of several of the survivors, including those of Edward Richard Woodham, the Chairman of the Committee that organised the celebration. Tennyson was invited, but could not attend. Lucan, the senior commander surviving, was not present, but attended a separate celebration, held later in the day, with other senior officers at the fashionable Willis's Rooms, St James's Square. Reunion dinners were held for a number of years. \n\nOn 2 August 1890, trumpeter Martin Leonard Landfried, from the 17th Lancers, who may (or may not) have sounded the bugle charge at Balaclava, made a recording on an Edison cylinder that can be heard here, with a bugle which had been used at Waterloo in 1815. (Landfried's name is misspelled as \"Landfrey\" on the Edison cylinder recording). \n\nIn 2004, on the 150th anniversary of the Charge, a commemoration of the event was held at Balaklava. As part of the anniversary, a monument dedicated to the 25,000 British participants of the conflict was unveiled by Prince Michael of Kent. \n\nPoems\n\nAlfred, Lord Tennyson, the then Poet Laureate, wrote evocatively about the battle in his poem \"The Charge of the Light Brigade\". Tennyson's poem, written 2 December 1854 and , published six weeks after the event on 9 December 1854, in The Examiner, praises the Brigade (\"When can their glory fade? O the wild charge they made!\") while trenchantly mourning the appalling futility of the charge (\"Not tho' the soldier knew, someone had blunder'd... Charging an army, while all the world wonder'd\"). Tennyson wrote the poem inside only a few minutes after reading an account of the battle in The Times, according to his grandson Sir Charles Tennyson. It immediately became hugely popular, and even reached the troops in the Crimea, where it was distributed in pamphlet form.\n\nNearly 36 years later Kipling wrote \"The Last of the Light Brigade\" (1890), commemorating a visit by the last 20 survivors to Tennyson (then aged 80) to reproach him gently for not writing a sequel about the way in which England was treating its old soldiers. Some sources treat the poem as an account of a real event, but other commentators class the destitute old soldiers as allegorical, with the visit invented by Kipling to draw attention to the poverty in which the real survivors were living, in the same way that he evoked Tommy Atkins in \"The Absent-Minded Beggar\" (1899). \n\nSurvivor postscript\n\nYears after the battle, James Bosworth, a station-master at Northam, aged 70, was run over and killed by a railway engine. In his younger days, he was one of those who had fought at the Battle of Balaclava and survived. The English Illustrated Magazine states that he \"surviv[ed] 'The Charge of the Light Brigade' at Balaclava\". His epitaph as listed below referenced both his presence at the battle and Lord Tennyson's poem.\n\nThough shot and shell flew around fast,\nOn Balaclava's plain,\nUnscathed he passed, to fall at last,\nRun over by a train. \n\nAnother of the survivors, John Penn, who died in Dunbar in 1886, left a personal account of his military career including the infamous Charge written for a friend. This survives and is held by East Lothian Council Archives. \n\nMedia representations\n\nIn film\n\nTwo war movies were made, both titled The Charge of the Light Brigade: \n*The Charge of the Light Brigade (1936), starring Errol Flynn, is an historically inaccurate war movie, which turns the motive into a grudge match against an Indian ruler allied with the Russians. \n*The Charge of the Light Brigade (1968), featuring David Hemmings (as Nolan) and Trevor Howard (as Cardigan), is considered to be much more factually accurate, having been written by Charles Wood, who had himself served in the 17th/21st Lancers.\n\nIn literature\n\n* In Robert Forest-Webb's novel Pendragon - Late of Prince Albert's Own (2012, Saturday Review Press), the hero, an officer in the 11th Hussars, takes part in the charge. \n*George MacDonald Fraser's novel Flashman at the Charge (1973) has Harry Flashman participating (much against his will) in the Charge.\n*Anna Sewell's novel Black Beauty (1877) includes a horse named Captain, which previously had taken part in the Charge of the Light Brigade.\n\nIn music\n\n*The charge is the subject of Iron Maiden's song \"The Trooper\", on their Piece of Mind album. \n*The charge inspired the Pearls Before Swine album Balaklava, which begins with a sample of the 1890 recording of trumpeter Landfrey." ] }

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{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe", "TagMe", "TagMe", "TagMe", "TagMe", "Search", "Search" ], "filename": [ "Roald_Amundsen.txt", "Olav_Bjaaland.txt", "Helmer_Hanssen.txt", "Oscar_Wisting.txt", "South_Pole.txt", "Amundsen's_South_Pole_expedition.txt", "Comparison_of_the_Amundsen_and_Scott_Expeditions.txt" ], "title": [ "Roald Amundsen", "Olav Bjaaland", "Helmer Hanssen", "Oscar Wisting", "South Pole", "Amundsen's South Pole expedition", "Comparison of the Amundsen and Scott Expeditions" ], "wiki_context": [ "Roald Engelbregt Gravning Amundsen (; 16 July 1872 – c. 18 June 1928) was a Norwegian explorer of polar regions. He led the Antarctic expedition of 1910–12 which was the first to reach the South Pole, on 14 December 1911. In 1926, he was the first expedition leader for the air expedition to the North Pole.\n\nAmundsen is recognized as the first person, without dispute, as having reached both poles. He is also known as having the first expedition to traverse the Northwest Passage (1903–06) in the Arctic.\n\nIn June 1928, while taking part in a rescue mission for the Airship Italia, the plane he was in disappeared. Amundsen was a key expedition leader during the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration, in the class of Douglas Mawson, Robert Falcon Scott, and Ernest Shackleton.\n\nEarly life \n\nAmundsen was born to a family of Norwegian shipowners and captains in Borge, between the towns Fredrikstad and Sarpsborg. His parents were Jens Amundsen and Hanna Sahlqvist. Roald was the fourth son in the family. His mother wanted him to avoid the family maritime trade and encouraged him to become a doctor, a promise that Amundsen kept until his mother died when he was aged 21. He promptly quit university for a life at sea.\n\nAmundsen had hidden a lifelong desire inspired by Fridtjof Nansen's crossing of Greenland in 1888 and Franklin's lost expedition. He decided on a life of intense exploration of wilderness places. \n\nPolar treks \n\nBelgian Antarctic Expedition (1897–99) \n\nAmundsen joined the Belgian Antarctic Expedition (1897–99) as first mate. This expedition, led by Adrien de Gerlache using the ship the RV Belgica, became the first expedition to winter in Antarctica. The Belgica, whether by mistake or design, became locked in the sea ice at 70°30′S off Alexander Island, west of the Antarctic Peninsula. The crew endured a winter for which they were poorly prepared. By Amundsen's own estimation, the doctor for the expedition, the American Frederick Cook, probably saved the crew from scurvy by hunting for animals and feeding the crew fresh meat. In cases where citrus fruits are lacking, fresh meat from animals that make their own vitamin C (which most do) contains enough of the vitamin to prevent scurvy, and even partly treat it. This was an important lesson for Amundsen's future expeditions.\n\nNorthwest Passage (1903–1906) \n\nIn 1903, Amundsen led the first expedition to successfully traverse Canada's Northwest Passage between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. He planned a small expedition of six men in a 45-ton fishing vessel, Gjøa, in order to have flexibility. His ship had relatively shallow draft. His technique was to use a small ship and hug the coast. Amundsen had the ship outfitted with a small gasoline engine. They traveled via Baffin Bay, the Parry Channel and then south through Peel Sound, James Ross Strait, Simpson Strait and Rae Strait. They spent two winters (1903–04 and 1904–05) at King William Island in the harbor of what is today Gjoa Haven, Nunavut, Canada. During this time, Amundsen and the crew learned from the local Netsilik Inuit people about Arctic survival skills, which he found invaluable in his later expedition to the South Pole. For example, he learned to use sled dogs for transportation of goods and to wear animal skins in lieu of heavy, woolen parkas, which could not deter cold when wet.\n\nLeaving Gjoa Haven, he sailed west and passed Cambridge Bay, which had been reached from the west by Richard Collinson in 1852. Continuing to the south of Victoria Island, the ship cleared the Canadian Arctic Archipelago on 17 August 1905. It had to stop for the winter before going on to Nome on the Alaska District's Pacific coast. Five hundred miles (800 km) away, Eagle City, Alaska, had a telegraph station; Amundsen traveled there (and back) overland to wire a success message (collect) on 5 December 1905. His team reached Nome in 1906. Because the water along the route was sometimes as shallow as 3 ft, a larger ship could not have made the voyage.\n\nAt this time, Amundsen learned that Norway had formally become independent of Sweden and had a new king. The explorer sent the new King Haakon VII news that his traversing the Northwest Passage \"was a great achievement for Norway\". He said he hoped to do more and signed it \"Your loyal subject, Roald Amundsen.\" The crew returned to Oslo in November 1906, after almost 3.5 years abroad. It took until 1972 to have the Gjøa returned to Norway. After a 45-day trip from San Francisco on a bulk carrier, the Gjøa was placed in her current location on land, outside the Fram Museum in Oslo. \n\nSouth Pole Expedition (1910–12) \n\nAmundsen next planned to take an expedition to the North Pole and explore the Arctic Basin. Finding it difficult to raise funds, when he heard in 1909 that the Americans Frederick Cook and Robert Peary had claimed to reach the North Pole as a result of two different expeditions, he decided to reroute to Antarctica. He was not clear about his intentions, and the Englishman Robert F. Scott and the Norwegian supporters felt misled. Scott was planning his own expedition to the South Pole that year. Using the ship Fram (\"Forward\"), earlier used by Fridtjof Nansen, Amundsen left Oslo for the south on 3 June 1910. At Madeira, Amundsen alerted his men that they would be heading to Antarctica, and sent a telegram to Scott, notifying him simply: \"BEG TO INFORM YOU FRAM PROCEEDING ANTARCTIC--AMUNDSEN.\"\n\nNearly six months later, the expedition arrived at the eastern edge of the Ross Ice Shelf (then known as \"the Great Ice Barrier\"), at a large inlet called the Bay of Whales, on 14 January 1911. Amundsen established his base camp there, calling it Framheim. Amundsen eschewed the heavy wool clothing worn on earlier Antarctic attempts in favour of adopting Inuit-style furred skins.\n\nUsing skis and dog sleds for transportation, Amundsen and his men created supply depots at 80°, 81° and 82° South on the Barrier, along a line directly south to the Pole. Amundsen also planned to kill some of his dogs on the way and use them as a source for fresh meat. A small group, including Hjalmar Johansen, Kristian Prestrud and Jørgen Stubberud, set out on 8 September 1911, but had to abandon their trek due to extreme temperatures. The painful retreat caused a quarrel within the group, and Amundsen sent Johansen and the other two men to explore King Edward VII Land.\n\nA second attempt, with a team made up of Olav Bjaaland, Helmer Hanssen, Sverre Hassel, Oscar Wisting, and Amundsen, departed base camp on 19 October 1911. They took four sledges and 52 dogs. Using a route along the previously unknown Axel Heiberg Glacier, they arrived at the edge of the Polar Plateau on 21 November after a four-day climb. On 14 December 1911, the team of five, with 16 dogs, arrived at the Pole (90° 0′ S). They arrived 33–34 days before Scott’s group. Amundsen named their South Pole camp Polheim, meaning \"Home on the Pole.\" Amundsen renamed the Antarctic Plateau as King Haakon VII’s Plateau. They left a small tent and letter stating their accomplishment, in case they did not return safely to Framheim.\n\nThe team returned to Framheim on 25 January 1912, with 11 surviving dogs. They made their way off the continent and to Hobart, Australia, where Amundsen publicly announced his success on 7 March 1912. He telegraphed news to backers.\n\nAmundsen's expedition benefited from his careful preparation, good equipment, appropriate clothing, a simple primary task, an understanding of dogs and their handling, and the effective use of skis. In contrast to the misfortunes of Scott’s team, Amundsen’s trek proved relatively smooth and uneventful.\n\nIn Amundsen's own words:\n\nAmundsen wrote about the expedition in The South Pole: An Account of the Norwegian Antarctic Expedition in the 'Fram,' 1910–12 (1912).\n\nNortheast Passage (1918–20) \n\nIn 1918, an expedition Amundsen began with a new ship, Maud, lasted until 1925. Maud sailed west to east through the Northeast Passage, now called the Northern Route (1918–20).\n\nWith him on this expedition were Oscar Wisting and Helmer Hanssen, both of whom had been part of the team to reach the South Pole. In addition, Henrik Lindstrøm was included as a cook. He suffered a stroke and was so physically reduced that he could not participate.\n\nThe goal of the expedition was to explore the unknown areas of the Arctic Ocean, strongly inspired by Fridtjof Nansen's earlier expedition with Fram. The plan was to sail along the coast of Siberia and go into the ice farther to the north and east than Nansen had. In contrast to Amundsen's earlier expeditions, this was expected to yield more material for academic research, and he carried the geophysicist Harald Sverdrup on board.\n\nThe voyage was to the northeasterly direction over the Kara Sea. Amundsen planned to freeze the Maud into the polar ice cap and drift towards the North Pole (as Nansen had done with the Fram), and he did so off Cape Chelyuskin. But, the ice became so thick that the ship was unable to break free, although it was designed for such a journey in heavy ice. In September 1919, the crew got the ship loose from the ice, but it froze again after eleven days somewhere between the New Siberian Islands and Wrangel Island.\n\nDuring this time, Amundsen participated little in the work outdoors, such as sleigh rides and hunting, because he had suffered numerous injuries. He had a broken arm and had been attacked by polar bears. Hanssen and Wisting, along with two other men, embarked on an expedition by dog sled to Nome, Alaska, more than 1,000 kilometres away. But they found that the ice was not frozen solid in the Bering Strait, and it could not be crossed. They sent a telegram from Anadyr to signal their location.\n\nAfter two winters frozen in the ice, without having achieved the goal of drifting over the North Pole, Amundsen decided to go to Nome to repair the ship and buy provisions. Several of the crew ashore there, including Hanssen, did not return on time to the ship. Amundsen considered Hanssen to be in breach of contract, and dismissed him from the crew.\n\nDuring the third winter, Maud was frozen in the western Bering Strait. She finally became free and the expedition sailed south, reaching Seattle, Washington, in the US Pacific Northwest in 1921 for repairs. Amundsen returned to Norway, needing to put his finances in order. He took with him two young indigenous girls, the adopted four-year-old Kakonita and her companion Camilla. When Amundsen went bankrupt two years later, however, he sent the girls to be cared for by Camilla's father, who lived in eastern Russia.\n\nIn June 1922, Amundsen returned to Maud, which had been sailed to Nome. He decided to shift from the planned naval expedition to aerial ones, and arranged to charter a plane. He divided the expedition team in two: one part was to survive the winter and prepare for an attempt to fly over the pole. This part was led by Amundsen. The second team on Maud, under the command of Wisting, was to resume the original plan to drift over the North Pole in the ice. The ship drifted in the ice for three years east of the New Siberian Islands, never reaching the North Pole. It was finally seized by Amundsen's creditors as collateral for his mounting debt.\n\nThe attempt to fly over the Pole failed, too. Amundsen and Oskar Omdal, of the Royal Norwegian Navy, tried to fly from Wainwright, Alaska, to Spitsbergen across the North Pole. When their aircraft was damaged, they abandoned the journey. To raise additional funds, Amundsen traveled around the United States in 1924 on a lecture tour.\n\nAlthough he was unable to reach the North Pole, the scientific results of the expedition, mainly the work of Sverdrup, have proven to be of considerable value. Many of these carefully collected scientific data were lost during the ill-fated journey of Peter Tessem and Paul Knutsen, two crew members sent on a mission by Amundsen. The scientific materials were later retrieved by Russian scientist Nikolay Urvantsev from where they had been abandoned on the shores of the Kara Sea.\n\nReaching the North Pole \n\nIn 1925, accompanied by Lincoln Ellsworth, pilot Hjalmar Riiser-Larsen, and three other team members, Amundsen took two Dornier Do J flying boats, the N-24 and N-25, to 87° 44′ north. It was the northernmost latitude reached by plane up to that time. The aircraft landed a few miles apart without radio contact, yet the crews managed to reunite. The N-24 was damaged. Amundsen and his crew worked for more than three weeks to clean up an airstrip to take off from ice. They shovelled 600 tons of ice while consuming only one pound (400 g) of daily food rations. In the end, six crew members were packed into the N-25. In a remarkable feat, Riiser-Larsen took off, and they barely became airborne over the cracking ice. They returned triumphant when everyone thought they had been lost forever.\n\nIn 1926, Amundsen and 15 other men (including Ellsworth, Riiser-Larsen, Oscar Wisting, and the Italian air crew led by aeronautical engineer Umberto Nobile) made the first crossing of the Arctic in the airship Norge, designed by Nobile. They left Spitzbergen on 11 May 1926, and they landed in Alaska two days later. The three previous claims to have arrived at the North Pole: Frederick Cook in 1908; Robert Peary in 1909; and Richard E. Byrd in 1926 (just a few days before the Norge) are all disputed, as being either of dubious accuracy or outright fraud. If their claims are false, the crew of the Norge would be the first verified explorers to have reached the North Pole. If the Norge expedition was the first to the North Pole, Amundsen and Oscar Wisting were the first men to reach each geographical pole, by ground or by air.\n\nDisappearance and death \n\nAmundsen disappeared with five crew on 18 June 1928 while flying on a rescue mission in the Arctic. His team included Norwegian pilot Leif Dietrichson, French pilot René Guilbaud, and three more Frenchmen. They were seeking missing members of Nobile's crew, whose new airship Italia had crashed while returning from the North Pole. Afterward, a wing-float and bottom gasoline tank from Amundsen's French Latham 47 flying boat, adapted as a replacement wing-float, were found near the Tromsø coast. It is believed that the plane crashed in fog in the Barents Sea, and that Amundsen and his crew were killed in the crash, or died shortly afterward. The search for Amundsen and team was called off in September 1928 by the Norwegian Government and the bodies were never found.\n\nIn 2004 and in late August 2009, the Royal Norwegian Navy used the unmanned submarine Hugin 1000 to search for the wreckage of Amundsen's plane. The searches focused on a 40 sqmi area of the sea floor, and were documented by the German production company ContextTV. They found nothing from the Amundsen flight.\n\nLegacy \n\nA number of places have been named after Amundsen:\n* The Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station is named jointly with his rival\n* Amundsen Sea, off the coast of Antarctica\n* Amundsen Glacier, in Antarctica\n* Amundsen Bay, in Antarctica\n* Mount Amundsen, in Antarctica\n* Amundsen Gulf, in the Arctic Ocean, off the coast of the Northwest Territories in Canada (separating Banks Island and the western parts of Victoria Island from the mainland)\n* A large crater near the Moon's south pole is named Amundsen\n* Amundsen Basin, abyssal plain in the Arctic Ocean.\n* Amundsen Plain, abyssal plain in the Southern Ocean.\n\nSeveral ships are named after him:\n* The Canadian Coast Guard named an icebreaker CCGS Amundsen, whose mission is to perform scientific research in the waters of the Arctic\n* The Royal Norwegian Navy is building a class of Aegis frigates, the second of which is the HNoMS Roald Amundsen (completed 2006)\n* The German brig Roald Amundsen\n\nOther tributes include:\n* Writer Roald Dahl was named after Amundsen\n* Nobel Laureate, Chemist and Poet Roald Hoffmann was named after Amundsen\n* The Amundsen Trail and Amundsen Circle, Oakwood, Staten Island, New York\n* Amundsen High School, Chicago, Illinois\n* A Pullman Company railroad car was named after him\n\nPortraits\n\nAmundsenboy.jpg|As a boy, 1875\nPortrett av Roald Amundsen crop.jpg|1899\nNlc_amundsen.jpg|nnFile:Amundsen2.jpg|1908\nAmundsen-in-ice.jpg|1909\nRoald Amundsen2.jpg|North Pole expedition, 1920\n\nRoald_Engelbregt_Gravning_Amundsen_(4727306129).jpg|1920\nAmundsen2.jpg|Unknown date\nRoald Amundsen (colorized).jpg|Unknown date\n\nMaps\n\nFile:Amundsen Map 1 ru.png|1903 Northwest and 1918 Northeast passage\nFile:Aan de Zuidpool - p1913-108.gif|thumb|1911 South Pole expedition\n\nEuropean-Inuit descendant claims\n\nSome Inuit people in Gjøa Haven with European ancestry have claimed to be descendants of Amundsen (or one of his six crew, whose names have not remained as well known), from the period of their extended winter stay on King Williams Island from 1903 to 1905. Accounts by members of the expedition told of their relations with Inuit women, and historians have speculated that Amundsen might also have taken a partner, although he wrote a warning against this. Specifically, half brothers Bob Konona and Paul Ikuallaq say that their father Luke Ikuallaq (b. 1904) told them on his deathbed that he was the son of Amundsen. Konona said that their father Ikuallaq was left out on the ice to die after his birth, as his European ancestry made him illegitimate to the Inuit, threatening their community. His Inuit grandparents saved him. In 2012, Y-DNA analysis, with the families' permission, showed that Ikuallaq (and his sons) was not a match to the direct male line of Amundsen. Not all descendants claiming European ancestry have been tested for a match to Amundsen, nor has there been a comparison of Ikuallaq's DNA to that of other European members of Amundsen's crew.\n\nWorks by Amundsen \n\n* Nordvestpassagen, 2-vols, 1907. Translated as [http://www.wdl.org/en/item/7316/ The North-West Passage: Being the Record of a Voyage of Exploration of the ship \"Gjøa\" 1903–1907], 1908.\n* Sydpolen, 2-vols, 1912. Translated as The South Pole: An Account of the Norwegian Antarctic Expedition in the \"Fram,\" 1910–1912, translated by A. G. Chater, 1912.\n* Nordostpassagen. Maudfærden langs Asiens kyst 1918–1920. H. U. Sverdrups ophold blandt tsjuktsjerne. Godfred Hansens depotekspedition 1919–1920. Gyldendal, Kristiania 1921.\n* Gjennem luften til 88° Nord (by Roald Amundsen, Lincoln Ellsworth and other members of the expedition, 1925). Translated as Our Polar Flight: The Amundsen-Ellsworth Polar Flight, 1925; also as My Polar Flight, 1925.\n* Den første flukt over polhavet, with Lincoln Ellsworth and others, 1926. Translated as The First Flight Across the Polar Sea, 1927; also as The First Crossing of the Polar Sea, 1927.\n* Mitt liv som polarforsker, 1927. Translated as My Life as an Explorer, 1927.", "Olav Bjaaland (5 March 1873 – 8 June 1961) was a Norwegian ski champion from Telemark. In 1911, he was one of the first five men to reach the South Pole as part of an expedition led by Roald Amundsen.\n\nHis life \n\nOlav Bjaaland was born in Morgedal, Telemark, Norway. At the turn of the century, Bjaaland, together with the Hemmestveit brothers were among the best skiers in Norway. In 1902, he won the nordic combined at the Holmenkollen Ski Festival, to this day the classic event in nordic skiing. In 1909 Bjaaland, together with five others were invited to France to compete with the best skiers of Europe.\n\nOn this trip, Bjaaland by chance met Roald Amundsen; the already-successful explorer invited Bjaaland, as a skier, to join his forthcoming expedition to the North Pole. Bjaaland was thrilled, and still believing that they were heading to the North Pole, they left Oslo, Norway on 7 June 1910. Upon learning that they instead were heading south to race for the Antarctic pole against Robert Falcon Scott, Bjaaland had shouted: \"Hurrah, that means we’ll get there first!\" For his participation in the expedition, he was awarded the South Pole Medal (Sydpolsmedaljen), a Royal Norwegian award instituted by King Haakon VII in 1912 to reward participants in Roald Amundsen's South Pole expedition.\n\nBjaaland was a skilled carpenter, and on the trip he managed to reduce the prefabricated sledges bought in Oslo (Scott had bought the same type of sledges for his expedition, although never modified them) from 88 kg to 22 kg, without reducing their strength notably. On the actual sledge journey from the Bay of Whales to the pole and return, Bjaaland was often used as a forerunner so that the dogs had something to run after. He was known for being able to ski such that the traces he made formed almost perfect straight lines in the terrain. After returning from the successful conquest of the pole, Amundsen asked Bjaaland to go north with him to explore the Northeast Passage, but he turned down the offer.\n\nIn 1912, Bjaaland was awarded the Holmenkollen medal, one of the highest medals a skier can win. In later years he went back to Telemark and set up a successful ski manufacturing workshop with money lent from Amundsen.\n\nIn 1952, at Morgedal, Bjaaland lit the torch for the 1952 Winter Olympics.\n\nIn 1961, Bjaaland died peacefully at age 88; of the five to reach the South Pole, he lived the longest, and was the only one to witness the advances made by the IGY in Antarctica, including the construction of the permanent South Pole base named Amundsen-Scott in honor of his chief.", "Helmer Julius Hanssen (24 September 1870 – 2 August 1956) was a Norwegian polar explorer, and one of the first five to reach the South Pole on the expedition of Roald Amundsen.\n\nHis life \n\nHelmer Hanssen was born in Bjørnskinn, on the island of Andøya in the northern part of Norway. He was an experienced ice pilot, a skill he had learned while hunting seals around Spitsbergen.\n\nFrom 1903 to 1905 Helmer Hanssen participated in Roald Amundsen's successful search for the Northwest Passage, as second mate on board the ship Gjøa. On the expedition he learned from the Inuit how to drive sled dogs. In 1910 he headed south with Amundsen to conquer the South Pole. This time as an expert dog driver. He was also in charge of navigation, carrying the master compass on his sledge.\n\nHe was one of the first five people to reach the South Pole on 14 December 1911, along with Roald Amundsen, Olav Bjaaland, Oscar Wisting, and Sverre Hassel. During their stay at the South Pole, it is believed that Hanssen passed within 200 yards (180 meters) of the mathematical South Pole point. This was during one of his ski runs which Amundsen had ordered be performed to completely encircle or \"box\" the pole to ensure that there was no doubt that the expedition had attained the pole. For his participation in the expedition, he was awarded the South Pole Medal (Sydpolsmedaljen), the Royal Norwegian award instituted by King Haakon VII in 1912 to reward participants in Roald Amundsen's South Pole expedition.\n\nIn 1919 he once again went north this time as captain on Maud in Roald Amundsen's Northeast Passage expedition.\n\nIn 1936 Hanssen published his autobiography The Voyages of a Modern Viking, London: Rutledge, 1936.\n\nHelmer Julius Hanssen was awarded the Knight of St. Olav for exceptional seamanship on Roald Amundsen's expeditions in the northern and southern parts of the world.", "Oscar Adolf Wisting (6 June 1871 – 5 December 1936) was a Norwegian polar explorer. Together with Roald Amundsen he was the first person to reach both the North and South Poles. \n\nBiography \n\nOscar Wisting was born in Larvik, in Vestfold county, Norway. At the age of sixteen, he went to sea and in 1892 joined the Royal Norwegian Navy. He was working as a naval gunner at Karljohansvern, the naval base in Horten during 1909 when Roald Amundsen asked him to go north with him on his forthcoming North Pole expedition. Amundsen later secretly changed his plans. Wisting went to sea believing they were heading for the North Pole. Instead he learned that they were going south to pick up the race with Robert Falcon Scott to the South Pole.\n\nOn 14 December 1911 along with Amundsen, Helmer Hanssen, Olav Bjaaland and Sverre Hassel, Wisting planted the Norwegian flag on the Geographic South Pole, the first explorers to have reached that point.\n\nFrom 1918 to 1925 Wisting was chief officer on board the Maud in Roald Amundsen's attempt to traverse the Northeast passage. From 1923 to 1925 Wisting more or less acted as leader of the expedition after Amundsen left to try to fly to the pole instead.\n\nIn 1926 Wisting participated in Amundsen's successful attempt to fly over the North Pole. In the airship Norge they reached the pole on 12 May 1926. The three previous claims to have arrived at the North Pole—by Frederick Cook in 1908, Robert Peary in 1909, and Richard E. Byrd in 1926 (just a few days before the Norge)—are all disputed, as being either of dubious accuracy or outright fraud. Some of those disputing these earlier claims therefore consider the crew of the Norge to be the first verified explorers to have reached the North Pole. In addition Wisting, along with Amundsen, was one of the two first persons who had been to both the North Pole and the South Pole.\n\nIn later years Oscar Wisting was an active force behind the preparations and building of the Fram Museum in Oslo, a museum built to store and display the polar ship Fram. On 5 December 1936 Wisting was found dead from heart attack in his old bunk on board the Fram, a few days before the 25th anniversary of the successful South Pole expedition.\n\nFor his participation in the expedition, he was awarded the South Pole Medal (Sydpolsmedaljen), the Royal Norwegian award instituted by King Haakon VII in 1912 to reward participants in Roald Amundsen's South Pole expedition.\n\nSources \n\nOscar Wisting wrote about his experiences with Roald Amundsen in 16 år med Roald Amundsen (Oslo: Glydendal Norsk Forlag, 1930). Roald Amundsen wrote about the expedition in Sydpolen published in two volumes in 1912–1913. The work was translated into English by A. G. Chater, and published as The South Pole: An Account of the Norwegian Antarctic Expedition in the \"Fram\" 1910–1912.\n\nLegacy \n\n* Mount Wisting – the northwesternmost summit of the massif at the head of Amundsen Glacier in the Queen Maud Mountains.", "The South Pole, also known as the Geographic South Pole or Terrestrial South Pole, is one of the two points where the Earth's axis of rotation intersects its surface. It is the southernmost point on the surface of the Earth and lies on the opposite side of the Earth from the North Pole.\n\nSituated on the continent of Antarctica, it is the site of the United States Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station, which was established in 1956 and has been permanently staffed since that year. The Geographic South Pole should not be confused with the South Magnetic Pole, which is defined based on the Earth's magnetic field.\n\nGeography\n\nFor most purposes, the Geographic South Pole is defined as the southern point of the two points where the Earth's axis of rotation intersects its surface (the other being the Geographic North Pole). However, the Earth's axis of rotation is actually subject to very small \"wobbles\" (polar motion), so this definition is not adequate for very precise work.\n\nThe geographic coordinates of the South Pole are usually given simply as 90°S, since its longitude is geometrically undefined and irrelevant. When a longitude is desired, it may be given as At the South Pole, all directions face north. For this reason, directions at the Pole are given relative to \"grid north\", which points northwards along the prime meridian. Along tight latitude circles, clockwise is east, and counterclockwise is west, opposite the way it is at the North Pole.\n\nThe Geographic South Pole is located on the continent of Antarctica (although this has not been the case for all of Earth's history because of continental drift). It sits atop a featureless, barren, windswept and icy plateau at an altitude of 2,835 metres (9,301 ft) above sea level, and is located about 1,300 km (800 mi) from the nearest open sea at Bay of Whales. The ice is estimated to be about 2,700 metres (9,000 ft) thick at the Pole, so the land surface under the ice sheet is actually near sea level. \n\nThe polar ice sheet is moving at a rate of roughly 10 metres per year in a direction between 37° and 40° west of grid north, down towards the Weddell Sea. Therefore, the position of the station and other artificial features relative to the geographic pole gradually shift over time.\n\nThe Geographic South Pole is marked by a ceremony on New Year's Day in which a small sign and the American flag are moved, and newly revealed annual stake is placed in the ice pack, which are positioned each year to compensate for the movement of the ice. The sign records the respective dates that Roald Amundsen and Robert F. Scott reached the Pole, followed by a short quotation from each man, and gives the elevation as \"9,301 FT.\". The current stake has the position of the planets, sun, and moon on January 1, as well as a copper star marking the pole. \n\nCeremonial South Pole\n\nThe Ceremonial South Pole is an area set aside for photo opportunities at the South Pole Station. It is located around 180 m from the Geographic South Pole, and consists of a metallic sphere on a short bamboo pole, surrounded by the flags of the original Antarctic Treaty signatory states.\n\nHistoric monuments\n\nAmundsen's Tent: The tent was erected by the Norwegian expedition led by Roald Amundsen on its arrival on 14 December 1911. It is currently buried beneath the snow and ice in the vicinity of the Pole. It has been designated a Historic Site or Monument (HSM 80), following a proposal by Norway to the Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting. The precise location of the tent is unknown, but based on calculations of the rate of movement of the ice and the accumulation of snow, it is believed, as of 2010, to lie between 1.8 and 2.5 km (1.1 and 1.6 miles) from the Pole at a depth of 17 m (55.8 ft) below the present surface. \n\nArgentine Flagpole: A flagpole erected at the South Geographical Pole in December 1965 by the First Argentine Overland Polar Expedition has been designated a Historic Site or Monument (HSM 1) following a proposal by Argentina to the Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting.\n\nExploration\n\nSee also: History of Antarctica, List of Antarctic expeditions, Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration and Farthest South.\n\nPre-1900\n\nIn 1820, several expeditions claimed to have been the first to have sighted Antarctica, with the very first being the Russian expedition led by Faddey Bellingshausen and Mikhail Lazarev. The first landing was probably just over a year later when American Captain John Davis, a sealer, set foot on the ice. \n\nThe basic geography of the Antarctic coastline was not understood until the mid-to-late 19th century. American naval officer Charles Wilkes claimed (correctly) that Antarctica was a new continent based on his exploration in 1839–40, while James Clark Ross, in his expedition of 1839–43, hoped that he might be able to sail all the way to the South Pole (he was unsuccessful). \n\n1900–1950\n\nThe first attempt to find a route from the Antarctic coastline to the South Pole was made by British explorer Robert Falcon Scott on the Discovery Expedition of 1901–04. Scott, accompanied by Ernest Shackleton and Edward Wilson, set out with the aim of travelling as far south as possible, and on 31 December 1902, reached 82°16′ S. Shackleton later returned to Antarctica as leader of the British Antarctic Expedition (Nimrod Expedition) in a bid to reach the Pole. On 9 January 1909, with three companions, he reached 88°23' S – 112 statute miles from the Pole – before being forced to turn back. \n\nThe first men to reach the Geographic South Pole were the Norwegian Roald Amundsen and his party on December 14, 1911. Amundsen named his camp Polheim and the entire plateau surrounding the Pole King Haakon VII Vidde in honour of King Haakon VII of Norway. Robert Falcon Scott returned to Antarctica with his second expedition, the Terra Nova Expedition, initially unaware of Amundsen's secretive expedition. Scott and four other men reached the South Pole on January 17, 1912, thirty-four days after Amundsen. On the return trip, Scott and his four companions all died of starvation and extreme cold.\n\nIn 1914 Ernest Shackleton's Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition set out with the goal of crossing Antarctica via the South Pole, but his ship, the Endurance, was frozen in pack ice and sank 11 months later. The overland journey was never made.\n\nUS Admiral Richard Evelyn Byrd, with the assistance of his first pilot Bernt Balchen, became the first person to fly over the South Pole on November 29, 1928.\n\n1950–present\n\nIt was not until 31 October 1956 that humans once again set foot at the South Pole, when a party led by Admiral George J. Dufek of the US Navy landed there in an R4D-5L Skytrain (C-47 Skytrain) aircraft. The US Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station was established by air over 1956–1957 for the International Geophysical Year and has been continuously staffed since then by research and support personnel.\n\nAfter Amundsen and Scott, the next people to reach the South Pole overland (albeit with some air support) were Edmund Hillary (January 4, 1958) and Vivian Fuchs (January 19, 1958) and their respective parties, during the Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition. There have been many subsequent expeditions to arrive at the South Pole by surface transportation, including those by Havola, Crary and Fiennes.\n\nSubsequent to the establishment, in 1987, of the logistic support base at Patriot Hills Base Camp, the South Pole became more accessible to non-government expeditions.\n\nOn December 30, 1989, Arved Fuchs and Reinhold Messner were the first to traverse Antarctica via the South Pole without animal or motorized help, using only skis and the help of wind. \n\nThe fastest unsupported journey to the Geographic South Pole from the ocean is 24 days and one hour from Hercules Inlet and was set in 2011 by Norwegian adventurer Christian Eide, who beat the previous solo record set in 2009 by American Todd Carmichael of 39 days and seven hours, and the previous group record also set in 2009 of 33 days and 23 hours. \n\nIn the 2011/12 summer, separate expeditions by Norwegian Aleksander Gamme and Australians James Castrission and Justin Jones jointly claimed the first unsupported trek without dogs or kites from the Antarctic coast to the South Pole and back. The two expeditions started from Hercules Inlet a day apart, with Gamme starting first, but completing according to plan the last few kilometres together. As Gamme traveled alone he thus simultaneously became the first to complete the task solo. \n\nClimate and day and night\n\nSee also Climate of Antarctica, Midnight sun and Polar night\n\nDuring the southern winter (March–September), the South Pole receives no sunlight at all, and from May to July, between extended periods of twilight, it is completely dark (apart from moonlight). In the summer (September–March), the sun is continuously above the horizon and appears to move in a counter-clockwise circle. However, it is always low in the sky, reaching a maximum of 23.5° in December. Much of the sunlight that does reach the surface is reflected by the white snow. This lack of warmth from the sun, combined with the high altitude (about 2800 m), means that the South Pole has one of the coldest climates on Earth (though it is not quite the coldest; that record goes to the region in the vicinity of the Vostok Station, also in Antarctica, which lies at a higher elevation). Temperatures at the South Pole are much lower than at the North Pole, primarily because the South Pole is located at altitude in the middle of a continental land mass, while the North Pole is at sea level in the middle of an ocean, which acts as a reservoir of heat.\n\nIn midsummer, as the sun reaches its maximum elevation of about 23.5 degrees, high temperatures at the South Pole in January average at . As the six-month \"day\" wears on and the sun gets lower, temperatures drop as well: they reach around sunset (late March) and sunrise (late September). In midwinter, the average temperature remains steady at around . The highest temperature ever recorded at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station was on Christmas Day, 2011, and the lowest was on June 23, 1982 (for comparison, the lowest temperature directly recorded anywhere on earth was at Vostok Station on July 21, 1983, though was measured indirectly by satellite in East Antarctica between Dome A and Dome F in August 2010 ).\n\nThe South Pole has a desert climate, almost never receiving any precipitation. Air humidity is near zero. However, high winds can cause the blowing of snowfall, and the accumulation of snow amounts to about 20 cm per year. The former dome seen in pictures of the Amundsen-Scott station is partially buried due to snow storms, and the entrance to the dome had to be regularly bulldozed to uncover it. More recent buildings are raised on stilts so that the snow does not build up against the sides of them.\n\nTime\n\nIn most places on Earth, local time is determined by longitude, such that the time of day is more-or-less synchronised to the position of the sun in the sky (for example, at midday the sun is roughly at its highest). This line of reasoning fails at the South Pole, where the sun rises and sets only once per year, and all lines of longitude, and hence all time zones, converge. There is no a priori reason for placing the South Pole in any particular time zone, but as a matter of practical convenience the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station keeps New Zealand Time. This is because the US flies its resupply missions (\"Operation Deep Freeze\") out of McMurdo Station, which is supplied from Christchurch, New Zealand.\n\nFlora and fauna\n\nDue to its exceptionally harsh climate, there are no native resident plants or animals at the South Pole. Remarkably, though, off-course south polar skuas and snow petrels are occasionally seen there. \n\nIn 2000 it was reported that microbes had been detected living in the South Pole ice, though scientists think it is unlikely that they evolved in Antarctica. \n\nIn August 2014, scientists reported finding thousands of different types of microorganisms in Lake Whillans, a large body of water buried 800 m under the Antarctic ice sheet.", "The first expedition to reach the geographic South Pole was led by the Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen. He and four others arrived at the pole on 14 December 1911, five weeks ahead of a British party led by Robert Falcon Scott as part of the Terra Nova Expedition. Amundsen and his team returned safely to their base, and later learned that Scott and his four companions had died on their return journey.\n\nAmundsen's initial plans had focused on the Arctic and the conquest of the North Pole by means of an extended drift in an icebound ship. He obtained the use of Fridtjof Nansen's polar exploration ship Fram, and undertook extensive fundraising. Preparations for this expedition were disrupted when, in 1909, the rival American explorers Frederick Cook and Robert E. Peary each claimed to have reached the North Pole. Amundsen then changed his plan and began to prepare for a conquest of the South Pole; uncertain of the extent to which the public and his backers would support him, he kept this revised objective secret. When he set out in June 1910, he led even his crew to believe they were embarking on an Arctic drift, and revealed their true Antarctic destination only when Fram was leaving their last port of call, Madeira.\n\nAmundsen made his Antarctic base, which he named \"Framheim\", in the Bay of Whales on the Great Ice Barrier. After months of preparation, depot-laying and a false start that ended in near-disaster, he and his party set out for the pole in October 1911. In the course of their journey they discovered the Axel Heiberg Glacier, which provided their route to the polar plateau and ultimately to the South Pole. The party's mastery of the use of skis and their expertise with sledge dogs ensured rapid and relatively trouble-free travel. Other achievements of the expedition included the first exploration of King Edward VII Land and an extensive oceanographic cruise.\n\nThe expedition's success was widely applauded. The story of Scott's heroic failure overshadowed its achievement in the United Kingdom, unable to accept that a Norwegian had been the first person to set foot in the South Pole, but not in the rest of the world. Amundsen's decision to keep his true plans secret until the last moment was criticised by some. Recent polar historians have more fully recognised the skill and courage of Amundsen's party; the permanent scientific base at the pole bears his name, together with that of Scott.\n\nBackground\n\nAmundsen was born in Fredrikstad (around 80 km from Christiania (now Oslo)), Norway, in 1872, the son of a ship-owner. In 1893, he abandoned his medical studies at Christiania University and signed up as a seaman aboard the sealer Magdalena for a voyage to the Arctic. After several further voyages he qualified as a second mate; when not at sea, he developed his skills as a cross-country skier in the harsh environment of Norway's Hardangervidda plateau. In 1896, inspired by the polar exploits of his countryman Fridtjof Nansen, Amundsen joined the Belgian Antarctic Expedition as mate, aboard Belgica under Adrien de Gerlache. Early in 1898 the ship became trapped by pack ice in the Bellinghausen Sea, and was held fast for almost a year. The expedition thus became, involuntarily, the first to spend a complete winter in Antarctic waters, a period marked by depression, near-starvation, insanity, and scurvy among the crew. Amundsen remained dispassionate, recording everything and using the experience as an education in all aspects of polar exploration techniques, particularly aids, clothing and diet.\n\nBelgicas voyage marked the beginning of what became known as the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration, and was rapidly followed by expeditions from the United Kingdom, Sweden, Germany and France. However, on his return to Norway in 1899, Amundsen turned his attention northwards. Confident in his abilities to lead an expedition, he planned a traversal of the Northwest Passage, the then-uncharted sea route from the Atlantic to the Pacific through the labyrinth of north Canadian islands. Having earned his master's ticket, Amundsen acquired a small sloop, Gjøa, which he adapted for Arctic travel. He secured the patronage of King Oscar of Sweden and Norway, the support of Nansen, and sufficient financial backing to set out in June 1903 with a crew of six. The voyage lasted until 1906 and was wholly successful; the Northwest Passage, which defeated mariners for centuries, was finally conquered. At the age of 34 Amundsen became a national hero, in the first rank of polar explorers.\n\nIn November 1906 the American Robert Peary returned from his latest unsuccessful quest for the North Pole, claiming a new Farthest North of 87° 6′—a record disputed by later historians. He immediately began raising funds for a further attempt. In July 1907 Dr Frederick Cook, a former shipmate of Amundsen's from Belgica, set off northwards on what was ostensibly a hunting trip but was rumoured to be an attempt on the North Pole. A month later Ernest Shackleton's Nimrod Expedition sailed for Antarctica, while Robert Falcon Scott was preparing a further expedition should Shackleton fail. Amundsen saw no reason to concede priority in the south to the British, and spoke publicly about the prospects of leading an Antarctic expedition—although his preferred goal remained the North Pole.\n\nPreparation\n\nNansen and Fram\n\nIn 1893 Nansen had driven his ship Fram into the Arctic pack ice off the northern Siberian coast and allowed it to drift in the ice towards Greenland, hoping that this route would cross the North Pole. In the event, the drift did not approach the pole, and an attempt by Nansen and Hjalmar Johansen to reach it on foot was likewise unsuccessful. Nevertheless, Nansen's strategy became the basis of Amundsen's own Arctic plans. He reasoned that if he entered the Arctic Ocean via the Bering Strait, well to the east of Nansen's starting point, his ship would achieve a more northerly drift and pass near or through the pole.\n\nAmundsen consulted Nansen, who insisted that Fram was the only vessel fit for such an undertaking. Fram had been designed and built in 1891–93 by Colin Archer, Norway's leading shipbuilder and naval architect, in accordance with Nansen's exacting specifications, as a vessel that would withstand prolonged exposure to the harshest of Arctic conditions. The ship's most distinctive feature was its rounded hull which, according to Nansen, enabled the vessel to \"slip like an eel out of the embraces of the ice\". For extra strength the hull was sheathed in South American greenheart, the hardest timber available, and crossbeams and braces were fitted throughout its length. The ship's wide beam of 36 ft in relation to its overall length of 128 ft gave it a markedly stubby appearance. This shape improved its strength in the ice but affected its performance in the open sea, where it moved sluggishly and was inclined to roll most uncomfortably. However, its looks, speed, and sailing qualities were secondary to the provision of a secure and warm shelter for the crew during a voyage that might extend over several years.\n\nFram had emerged virtually unscathed from Nansen's expedition after nearly three years in the polar ice. On its return it had been refitted, before spending four years under the command of Otto Sverdrup, charting and exploring 100000 sqmi of uninhabited territory in the northern Canadian islands. After Sverdrup's voyage ended in 1902 Fram was laid up in Christiania. Although the ship was technically the property of the state, it was tacitly acknowledged that Nansen had first call on it. After his return from the Arctic in 1896 he had aspired to take Fram on an expedition to Antarctica, but by 1907 such hopes had faded. Late in September of that year, Amundsen was summoned to Nansen's home and told he could have the ship.\n\nInitial steps\n\nAmundsen made his plans public on 10 November 1908, at a meeting of the Norwegian Geographical Society. He would take Fram round Cape Horn to the Pacific Ocean; after provisioning in San Francisco the ship would continue northwards, through the Bering Strait to Point Barrow. From here he would set a course directly into the ice to begin a drift that would extend over four or five years. Science would be as important as geographical exploration; continuous observations would, Amundsen hoped, help to explain a number of unresolved problems. The plan was received enthusiastically, and the next day King Haakon opened a subscription list with a gift of 20,000 kroner. On 6 February 1909 the Norwegian Parliament approved a grant of 75,000 kroner to refit the ship. The general fundraising and business management of the expedition was placed in the hands of Amundsen's brother Leon so that the explorer could concentrate on the more practical aspects of organisation.\n\nIn March 1909 it was announced that Shackleton had reached a southern latitude of 88° 23′— 97 nmi from the South Pole—before turning back; thus, as Amundsen observed, in the south \"a little corner remained\". He was unreserved in his praise for Shackleton's achievement, writing that Shackleton was the south's equivalent of Nansen in the north. Following this near miss, Scott immediately confirmed his intention to lead an expedition (what became the Terra Nova Expedition) that would encompass the \"little corner\" and claim the prize for the British Empire.\n\nPersonnel\n\nAmundsen chose three naval lieutenants as his expedition's officers: Thorvald Nilsen, a navigator who would be second-in-command; Hjalmar Fredrik Gjertsen, and Kristian Prestrud. Gjertsen, despite lacking a medical background, was made expedition doctor, and was sent on a \"lightning course\" in surgery and dentistry. A naval gunner, Oscar Wisting, was accepted on Prestrud's recommendation because he could turn his hand to most tasks. Although he had little previous experience of sledge dogs, Amundsen wrote that Wisting developed \"a way of his own\" with them, and became a useful amateur veterinarian.\n\nAn early choice for the party was Olav Bjaaland, a champion skier who was a skilled carpenter and ski-maker. Bjaaland was from Morgedal in the Telemark province of Norway, a region renowned for the prowess of its skiers and as the home of the pioneer of modern techniques, Sondre Norheim. Amundsen shared Nansen's belief that skis and sledge dogs provided by far the most efficient method of Arctic transport, and was determined to recruit the most skilful dog drivers. Helmer Hanssen, who had proved his worth on the Gjøa expedition, agreed to travel with Amundsen again. He was joined later by Sverre Hassel, an expert on dogs, and veteran of Sverdrup's 1898–1902 Fram voyage, who intended only to travel with Amundsen as far as San Francisco. Mindful of the value of a competent cook, Amundsen secured the services of Adolf Lindstrøm, another Sverdrup veteran who had been cook aboard Gjøa.\n\nFrom his experiences on board Belgica and Gjøa, Amundsen had learned the importance on long voyages of stable and compatible companions, and with these experienced personnel he felt he had the core of his expedition. He continued to recruit through 1909; the Fram party would eventually total 19. All of these except one were Amundsen's personal choices; the exception was Hjalmar Johansen, who was taken on at the request of Nansen. Since his epic march with Nansen, Johansen had been unable to settle down. Despite the efforts of Nansen and others to help him, his life became a spiral of drink and indebtedness. Nansen wished to give his former comrade a final chance to show that he was still a capable worker in the field; feeling that he could not refuse Nansen's wishes, Amundsen reluctantly accepted Johansen. The party contained two foreigners: a young Russian oceanographer Alexander Kuchin (or Kutchin), who was a pupil of Bjorn Helland-Hansen, and a Swedish engineer, Knut Sundbeck.\n\nChange of plan\n\nIn September 1909 newspapers carried reports that Cook and Peary had each reached the North Pole, Cook in April 1908 and Peary a year later. Asked to comment, Amundsen avoided an outright endorsement of either explorer, but surmised that \"probably something will be left to be done\". While he avoided the controversy over the rival claims, he saw immediately that his own plans would be seriously affected. Without the allure of capturing the pole, he would struggle to maintain public interest or funding. \"If the expedition was to be saved ... there was nothing left for me but to try and solve the last great problem—the South Pole\". Thus Amundsen decided to go south; the Arctic drift could wait \"for a year or two\" until the South Pole had been conquered.\n\nAmundsen did not publicise his change of plan. As Scott's biographer David Crane points out, the expedition's public and private funding was earmarked for scientific work in the Arctic; there was no guarantee that the backers would understand or agree to the proposed volte-face. Furthermore, the altered objective might cause Nansen to revoke the use of Fram, or parliament to halt the expedition for fear of undermining Scott and offending the British. Amundsen concealed his intentions from everyone except his brother Leon and his second-in-command, Nilsen. This secrecy led to awkwardness; Scott had sent Amundsen instruments to enable their two expeditions, at opposite ends of the earth, to make comparative readings. When Scott, in Norway to test his motor sledges, telephoned Amundsen's home to discuss cooperation, the Norwegian would not take the call.\n\nThe privately revised expedition schedule required Fram to leave Norway in August 1910 and sail to Madeira in the Atlantic, its only port of call. From there the ship would proceed directly to the Ross Sea in Antarctica, heading for the Bay of Whales, an inlet on the Ross Ice Shelf (then known as the \"Great Ice Barrier\") where Amundsen intended to make his base camp. The Bay of Whales was the southernmost point in the Ross Sea to which a ship could penetrate, 60 nmi closer to the Pole than Scott's intended base at McMurdo Sound. In 1907–09 Shackleton had considered the ice in the Bay of Whales to be unstable, but from his studies of Shackleton's records Amundsen decided that the Barrier here was grounded on shoals or skerries, and would support a safe and secure base. After landing the shore party, Fram was to carry out oceanographic work in the Atlantic before picking up the shore party early in the following year.\n\nTransport, equipment and supplies\n\nAmundsen did not understand the apparent aversion of British explorers to dogs: \"Can it be that the dog has not understood its master? Or is it the master who has not understood the dog?\" he later wrote. Following his decision to go south he ordered 100 North Greenland sledge dogs—the best and strongest available. Besides their durability as pack animals, dogs could be fed to other dogs and could provide fresh meat for the men in the polar party.\n\nThe party's ski boots, specially designed by Amundsen, were the product of two years' testing and modification in search of perfection. The party's polar clothing included suits of sealskin from Northern Greenland, and clothes fashioned after the style of the Netsilik Inuit from reindeer skins, wolf skin, Burberry cloth and gabardine. The sledges were constructed from Norwegian ash with steel-shod runners made from American hickory. Skis, also fashioned from hickory, were extra long to reduce the likelihood of slipping into crevasses. The tents—\"the strongest and most practical that have ever been used\"—had built-in floors and required a single pole. For cooking on the march, Amundsen chose the Swedish Primus stove rather than the special cooker devised by Nansen, because he felt the latter took up too much space.\n\nFrom his experiences on Belgica, Amundsen was aware of the dangers of scurvy. Although the true cause of the disease, vitamin C deficiency, was not understood at the time, it was generally known that the disease could be countered by eating fresh meat. To neutralise the danger, Amundsen planned to supplement sledging rations with regular helpings of seal meat. He also ordered a special kind of pemmican which included vegetables and oatmeal: \"a more stimulating, nourishing and appetising food it would be impossible to find\". The expedition was well supplied with wines and spirits, for use as medicine and on festive or social occasions. Mindful of the loss of morale on Belgica, Amundsen provided for leisure time with a library of around 3,000 books, a gramophone, a large quantity of records and a range of musical instruments.\n\nDeparture\n\nIn the months before departure, funds for the expedition became harder to acquire. Because of limited public interest, newspaper deals were cancelled and parliament refused a request for a further 25,000 kroner. Amundsen mortgaged his house to keep the expedition afloat; heavily in debt, he was now wholly dependent on the expedition's success to avoid personal financial ruin.\n\nAfter a month's trial cruise in the northern Atlantic, Fram sailed to Kristiansand in late July 1910 to take the dogs on board and to make final preparations for departure. While at Kristiansand, Amundsen received an offer of help from Peter \"Don Pedro\" Christophersen, a Norwegian expatriate whose brother was Norway's Minister in Buenos Aires. Christophersen would provide fuel and other provisions to Fram at either Montevideo or Buenos Aires, an offer which Amundsen gratefully accepted. Just before Fram sailed on 9 August, Amundsen revealed the expedition's true destination to the two junior officers, Prestrud and Gjertsen. On the four-week voyage to Funchal in Madeira, a mood of uncertainty developed among the crew, who could not make sense of some of the preparations and whose questions were met with evasive answers from their officers. This, says Amundsen's biographer Roland Huntford, was \"enough to generate suspicion and low spirits\".\n\nFram reached Funchal on 6 September. Three days later Amundsen informed the crew of the revised plan. He told them he intended to make \"a detour\" to the South Pole on the way to the North Pole, which was still his ultimate destination, but would have to wait for a while. After Amundsen outlined his new proposals, each man was asked whether he was willing to go on, and all responded positively. Amundsen wrote a lengthy letter of explanation to Nansen, stressing how the North Pole claims of Cook and Peary had dealt a \"death blow\" to his original plans. He felt he had been forced into this action by necessity, asked for forgiveness and expressed the hope that his achievements would ultimately atone for any offence. \n\nBefore leaving Funchal on 9 September Amundsen sent a cable to Scott, to inform him of the change of plan. Scott's ship Terra Nova had left Cardiff amid much publicity on 15 June, and was due to arrive in Australia early in October. It was to Melbourne that Amundsen sent his telegram, containing the bare information that he was proceeding southwards. No indication was given of the Norwegian's plans or his destination in Antarctica; Scott wrote to the Royal Geographical Society (RGS) secretary, John Scott Keltie: \"We shall know in due course I suppose\". News of Amundsen's revised plans reached Norway early in October and provoked a generally hostile response. Although Nansen gave his blessing and warm approval, Amundsen's actions were with few exceptions condemned by press and public, and funding dried up almost completely. Reactions in Britain were predictably adverse; an initial disbelief expressed by Keltie soon turned to anger and scorn. \"I have sent full details of Amundsen's underhand conduct to Scott ... If I was Scott I would not let them land\", wrote Sir Clements Markham, the influential former RGS president. Unaware of the world's reactions, Fram sailed south for four months. The first icebergs were sighted on New Year's Day 1911; the Barrier itself came into view on 11 January, and on 14 January Fram was in the Bay of Whales.\n\nFirst season, 1910–11\n\nFramheim\n\nAfter Fram was anchored to ice in an inlet in the south-eastern corner of the Bay, Amundsen selected a site for the expedition's main hut, from the ship. Six teams of dogs were used to move supplies to the site, as work on erecting the hut began. Bjaaland and Stubberud laid the foundations deep into the ice, levelling the sloping ground. Because the prevailing winds came from the east, the hut was erected on an east-west axis, with the door facing west; in this way the wind caught only the shorter eastern wall. The roof was in place by 21 January, and six days later the hut was complete. By then a large supply of meat—including 200 seals—had been brought to the base, for use by the shore party and to be laid in depots before the journey to the pole. The base was dubbed Framheim, \"the home of Fram\".\n\nEarly on the morning of 3 February, Terra Nova arrived unexpectedly in the Bay of Whales. She had sailed from New Zealand on 29 November 1910 and had arrived in McMurdo Sound early in January. After landing Scott and his main party there, Terra Nova had taken a party of six men, led by Victor Campbell, eastward to King Edward VII Land. This group intended to explore this then-unknown territory, but had been prevented by sea ice from approaching the shore. The ship was sailing westward along the Barrier edge in search of a possible landing place when it encountered Fram. Scott had previously speculated that Amundsen might make his base in the Weddell Sea area, on the opposite side of the continent; this proof that the Norwegians would be starting the race for the pole with a 60 nautical mile advantage was an alarming prospect for the British. The two groups behaved civilly towards each other; Campbell and his officers Harry Pennell and George Murray Levick breakfasted aboard Fram, and reciprocated with lunch on the Terra Nova. Amundsen was relieved to learn that Terra Nova had no wireless radio, since that might have imperilled his strategy to be first with the news of a polar victory. He was worried, however, by a remark of Campbell's that implied that Scott's motorised sledges were working well. Nevertheless, he offered the British party a site alongside Framheim as a base for the exploration of King Edward VII Land. Campbell turned the offer down, and sailed for McMurdo Sound to inform Scott of Amundsen's whereabouts.\n\nDepot journeys\n\nIn early February Amundsen began organising the depot-laying journeys across the Barrier, in preparation for the following summer's assault on the pole. Supply depots laid in advance at regular intervals on the projected route would limit the amount of food and fuel that the South Pole party would have to carry. The depot journeys would be the first true tests of equipment, dogs and men. For the first journey, to begin on 10 February, Amundsen chose Prestrud, Helmer Hanssen and Johansen to accompany him; 18 dogs would pull three sledges. Before leaving, Amundsen left instructions with Nilsen regarding Fram. The ship was to sail to Buenos Aires for reprovisioning, before undertaking a programme of oceanographic work in the Southern Ocean and then returning to the Barrier as early as possible in 1912.\n\nWhen the four men began their journey south, their only knowledge of the Barrier was from books previous explorers had published, and they anticipated difficult travelling conditions. They were surprised to find the Barrier surface was much like that of a conventional glacier; they covered 15 nmi on the first day. Amundsen noted how well his dogs were performing in these conditions, and wondered at the English aversion to the use of dogs on the Barrier. The party reached 80° S on 14 February, and after laying the depot turned for home, reaching Framheim on 16 February.\n\nThe second depot-laying party left Framheim on 22 February, with eight men, seven sledges and forty-two dogs. Conditions on the Barrier had deteriorated sharply; average temperatures had dropped by 9 °C (16 °F), and rough snow had drifted across the previously smooth ice surface. In temperatures sometimes as low as , on 3 March the party reached 81° S, where they established a second depot. Amundsen, Helmer Hanssen, Prestrud, Johansen and Wisting then continued with the strongest dogs, hoping to reach 83° S, but in difficult conditions they halted at 82° S on 8 March. Amundsen could see that the dogs were exhausted; the party turned for home, and with light sledges travelled swiftly to reach Framheim on 22 March. Amundsen wanted more supplies taken south before the impending polar night made travel impossible, and on 31 March a party of seven men led by Johansen left Framheim for the 80° S depot with six slaughtered seals—2400 lb of meat. The party returned on 11 April—three days later than expected—after they strayed into a field of crevasses.\n\nOverall, the depot-laying journeys established three depots containing 7500 lb of supplies, which included 3000 lb of seal meat and 40 impgal of paraffin oil. Amundsen learned much from the journeys, especially on the second, when the dogs struggled with sledges that were too heavy. He decided to increase the number of dogs for the polar journey, if necessary at the expense of the number of men. The journeys revealed some disunity among the men, particularly between Johansen and Amundsen. During the second depot journey, Johansen openly complained about the unsatisfactory nature of the equipment; Amundsen believed that his authority had been challenged.\n\nWinter\n\nThe sun set over Framheim on 21 April, not to reappear for four months. Amundsen was mindful of the boredom and loss of morale that had blighted the Belgica expedition's winter in the ice, and although there was no possibility of sledging he ensured that the shore party kept busy. One urgent task was to improve the sledges, which had not worked well during the depot journeys. In addition to those chosen specifically for the expedition, Amundsen had brought along several sledges from Sverdrup's 1898–1902 Fram expedition, which he now thought would be better suited to the task ahead. Bjaaland reduced the weight of these older sledges by almost a third by planing down the timber, and also constructed three sledges of his own from some spare hickory wood. The adapted sledges were to be used to cross the Barrier, while Bjaaland's new set would be used in the final stages of the journey, across the polar plateau itself. Johansen prepared the sledging rations (42,000 biscuits, 1,320 tins of pemmican and about 220 lb of chocolate), while other men worked on improving the boots, cooking equipment, goggles, skis and tents. To combat the dangers of scurvy, twice a day the men ate seal meat that had been collected and frozen in quantities before the onset of winter. The cook, Lindstrøm, supplemented the vitamin C intake with bottled cloudberries and blueberries, and provided wholemeal bread made with fresh yeast, rich in B vitamins.\n\nWhile Amundsen was confident in his men and equipment, he was, Hassel recorded, tormented by thoughts of Scott's motor sledges and the fear that these would carry the British party to success. With this in mind Amundsen planned to begin the polar journey as soon as the sun rose in late August, though Johansen warned that it would be too cold on the Barrier so early in the season. Amundsen overruled him, and at sunrise on 24 August seven sledges were made ready. Johansen's concerns seemed justified, as harsh conditions for the next two weeks—temperatures as low as —prevented the men from leaving. On 8 September 1911, when the temperature rose to , Amundsen decided he could wait no longer, and the party of eight set off; Lindstrøm remained alone at Framheim.\n\nSecond season, 1911–12\n\nFalse start\n\nThe party made good initial progress, travelling around 15 nmi each day. The dogs ran so hard that several from the strongest teams were detached from the traces and secured onto the sledges to act as ballast. In their wolf-skin and reindeer-skin clothing the men could cope with the freezing temperatures while they kept moving, but when they stopped they suffered, and barely slept at night. The dogs' paws became frostbitten. On 12 September, with temperatures down to , the party halted after only 4 nmi and built igloos for shelter. Amundsen now recognised that they had started the march too early in the season, and decided they should return to Framheim. He would not risk the lives of men and dogs for reasons of stubbornness. Johansen, in his diary, wrote of the foolishness of starting prematurely on such a long and historic journey, and of the dangers of an obsession with beating the English.\n\nOn 14 September, on their way back to Framheim, they left most of their equipment at the 80° S depot, to lighten the sledges. Next day, in freezing temperatures with a strong headwind, several dogs froze to death while others, too weak to continue, were placed upon the sledges. On 16 September, 40 nmi from Framheim, Amundsen ordered his men to push for home as quickly as possible. Not having a sledge of his own, he leapt onto Wisting's, and with Helmer Hanssen and his team raced away, leaving the rest behind. The three arrived back at Framheim after nine hours, followed by Stubberud and Bjaaland two hours later and Hassel shortly after. Johansen and Prestrud were still out on the ice, without food or fuel; Prestrud's dogs had failed, and his heels were badly frostbitten. They reached Framheim after midnight, more than seventeen hours after they had turned for home.\n\nNext day, Amundsen asked Johansen why he and Prestrud had been so late. Johansen answered angrily that he felt they had been abandoned, and castigated the leader for leaving his men behind. Amundsen would later inform Nansen that Johansen had been \"violently insubordinate\"; as a result, he was excluded from the polar party, which Amundsen now reduced to five. Johansen was placed under the command of Prestrud, much his junior as an explorer, in a party that would explore King Edward VII Land. Stubberud was persuaded to join them, leaving Amundsen, Helmer Hanssen, Bjaaland, Hassel and Wisting as the revised South Pole party.\n\nSouth Pole journey\n\nBarrier and mountains\n\nDespite his eagerness to start out again, Amundsen waited until mid-October and the first hints of spring. He was ready to leave on 15 October, but was held up by the weather for a few more days. On 19 October 1911 the five men, with four sledges and fifty-two dogs, began their journey. The weather quickly worsened, and in heavy fog the party strayed into the field of crevasses that Johansen's depot party had discovered the previous autumn. Wisting later recalled how his sledge, with Amundsen aboard, nearly disappeared down a crevasse when the snow bridge broke underneath it.\n\nDespite this near mishap they were covering more than 15 nmi a day, and reached their 82° S depot on 5 November. They marked their route by a line of cairns, built of snow blocks, at three-mile intervals. On 17 November they reached the edge of the Barrier and faced the Transantarctic Mountains. Unlike Scott, who would be following the Beardmore Glacier route pioneered by Shackleton, Amundsen had to find his own route through the mountains. After probing the foothills for several days and climbing to around 1500 ft, the party found what appeared to be a clear route, a steep glacier 30 nmi long leading upwards to the plateau. Amundsen named this the Axel Heiberg Glacier, after one of his chief financial backers. It was a harder ascent than the team had anticipated, made much longer by the need to take detours, and by the deep, soft snow. After three days of difficult climbing the party reached the glacier summit. Amundsen was full of praise for his dogs, and scorned the idea that they could not work in such conditions; on 21 November the party travelled 17 miles and climbed 5000 ft.\n\nMarch to the pole\n\nUpon reaching 10600 ft at the summit of the glacier, at 85° 36′ S, Amundsen prepared for the final stage of the journey. Of the 45 dogs who had made the ascent (7 had perished during the Barrier stage), only 18 would go forward; the remainder were to be killed for food. Each of the sledge-drivers killed dogs from his own team, skinned them, and divided the meat between dogs and men. \"We called the place the Butchers' Shop\", Amundsen recalled. \"[T]here was depression and sadness in the air; we had grown so fond of our dogs\". Regrets did not prevent the team from enjoying the plentiful food; Wisting proved particularly skilful in his preparation and presentation of the meat.\n\nThe party loaded up three sledges with supplies for a march of up to 60 days, leaving the remaining provisions and dog carcasses in a depot. Bad weather prevented their departure until 25 November, when they set off cautiously over the unknown ground in persistent fog. They were travelling over an icy surface broken by frequent crevasses, which together with the poor visibility slowed their progress. Amundsen called this area the \"Devil's Glacier\". On 4 December they came to an area where the crevasses were concealed under layers of snow and ice with a space between, which gave what Amundsen called an \"unpleasantly hollow\" sound as the party passed over it. He christened this area \"The Devil's Ballroom.\" When later that day they emerged on to more solid ground, they had reached 87° S.\n\nOn 8 December the Norwegians passed Shackleton's Farthest South record of 88° 23′. As they neared the pole, they looked for any break in the landscape that might indicate another expedition had got there ahead of them. While camped on 12 December they were momentarily alarmed by a black object that appeared on the horizon, but this proved to be their own dogs' droppings off in the distance, magnified by mirage. Next day they camped at 89° 45′ S, 15 nmi from the pole. On the following day, 14 December 1911, with the concurrence of his comrades Amundsen travelled in front of the sledges, and at around 3 pm the party reached the vicinity of the South Pole. They planted the Norwegian flag and named the polar plateau \"King Haakon VII's Plateau\". Amundsen later reflected on the irony of his achievement: \"Never has a man achieved a goal so diametrically opposed to his wishes. The area around the North Pole—devil take it—had fascinated me since childhood, and now here I was at the South Pole. Could anything be more crazy?\"\n\nFor the next three days the men worked to fix the exact position of the pole; after the conflicting and disputed claims of Cook and Peary in the north, Amundsen wanted to leave unmistakable markers for Scott. After taking several sextant readings at different times of day, Bjaaland, Wisting and Hassel skied out in different directions to \"box\" the pole; Amundsen reasoned that at least one of them would cross the exact point. Finally the party pitched a tent, which they called Polheim, as near as possible to the actual pole as they could calculate by their observations. In the tent Amundsen left equipment for Scott, and a letter addressed to King Haakon which he requested Scott to deliver.\n\nReturn to Framheim\n\nOn 18 December, the party began the journey back to Framheim. Amundsen was determined to return to civilisation before Scott, and be first with the news. Nevertheless, he limited their daily distances to 15 nmi, to preserve the strength of dogs and men. In the 24-hour daylight the party travelled during the notional night, to keep the sun at their backs and thus reduce the danger of snow-blindness. Guided by the snow cairns built on their outward journey, they reached the Butchers' Shop on 4 January 1912, and began the descent to the Barrier. The men on skis \"went whizzing down\", but for the sledge drivers—Helmer Hanssen and Wisting—the descent was precarious; the sledges were hard to manoeuvre, and brakes were added to the runners to enable rapid stops when crevasses were encountered.\n\nOn 7 January, the party reached the first of their depots on the Barrier. Amundsen now felt their pace could be increased, and the men adopted a routine of travelling 15 nmi, stopping for six hours, then resuming the march. Under this regime they covered around 30 nmi a day, and on 25 January, at 4 am, they reached Framheim. Of the 52 dogs that had started in October, 11 had survived, pulling 2 sledges. The journey to the pole and back had taken 99 days—10 fewer than scheduled—and they had covered about 1860 nmi.\n\nInforming the world\n\nOn his return to Framheim, Amundsen lost no time in winding up the expedition. After a farewell dinner in the hut, the party loaded the surviving dogs and the more valuable equipment aboard Fram, which departed the Bay of Whales late on 30 January 1912. The destination was Hobart in Tasmania. During the five-week voyage Amundsen prepared his telegrams and drafted the first report that he would give to the press. On 7 March, Fram reached Hobart, where Amundsen quickly learned there was as yet no news from Scott. He immediately sent telegrams to his brother Leon, to Nansen and to King Haakon, briefly informing them of his success. The next day he cabled the first full account of the story to London's Daily Chronicle, to which he had sold exclusive rights. Fram remained in Hobart for two weeks; while there she was joined by Douglas Mawson's ship Aurora, which was in service with the Australasian Antarctic Expedition. Amundsen presented them with a gift of his 11 surviving dogs.\n\nOther expedition achievements\n\nEastern party\n\nOn 8 November 1911, Prestrud, Stubberud and Johansen had departed for King Edward VII Land. The search for the point at which the solid ice of the Barrier became ice-covered land proved difficult. On 1 December the party had their first sighting of what was indubitably dry land, a nunatak which had been recorded by Scott during the Discovery expedition in 1902. After reaching this point they collected geological specimens and samples of mosses, and briefly explored their surroundings before returning to Framheim on 16 December. They were the first men to set foot on King Edward VII Land.\n\nFram and Kainan Maru\n\nAfter leaving the Bay of Whales on 15 February 1911, Fram sailed for Buenos Aires where she arrived on 17 April. Here, Nilsen learned that the expedition's funds were exhausted; a sum supposedly set aside for the ship's needs had not materialised. Fortunately, Amundsen's friend Don Pedro Christopherson was at hand to fulfil his earlier promises to provide supplies and fuel. Fram departed in June for an oceanographic cruise between South America and Africa, which occupied the next three months. The ship returned to Buenos Aires in September for final refitting and re-provisioning, before sailing south on 5 October. Strong winds and stormy seas prolonged the voyage, but the ship arrived at the Bay of Whales on 9 January 1912. On 17 January the men in Framheim were surprised by the appearance of a second ship; it was Kainan Maru, carrying the Japanese Antarctic Expedition led by Nobu Shirase. Communication between the two expeditions was limited by language difficulties, though the Norwegians gathered that the Japanese were heading for King Edward VII Land. Kainan Maru departed the next day, and on 26 January she landed a party on King Edward VII Land. This was the first landing on this shore from the sea; attempts by Discovery (1902), Nimrod (1908) and Terra Nova (1911) had all failed.\n\nAftermath\n\nContemporary reactions\n\nIn Hobart, Amundsen received congratulatory telegrams from, among others, former US President Theodore Roosevelt and King George V of England. The king expressed particular pleasure that Amundsen's first port of call on his return had been on soil of the British Empire. In Norway, which only six years earlier had become a free country after 500 years of Danish and Swedish supremacy, the news was proclaimed in banner headlines, and the national flag was flown throughout the country. All the expedition's participants received the Norwegian South Pole medal (Sydpolsmedaljen), established by King Haakon to commemorate the expedition. However, Amundsen's biographer Roland Huntford refers to \"the chill underneath the cheers\"; there remained a residue of unease over Amundsen's tactics. One Norwegian newspaper expressed relief that Amundsen had found a new route, and had not intruded on Scott's path from McMurdo Sound.\n\nIn Britain, press reaction to Amundsen's victory was restrained but generally positive. Apart from the enthusiastic reports in the Daily Chronicle and the Illustrated London News—which each had a financial stake in Amundsen's success—the Manchester Guardian remarked that any cause for reproach was wiped out by the Norwegians' courage and determination. Readers of Young England were exhorted not to grudge \"the brave Norseman\" the honour he had earned, and The Boy's Own Paper suggested that every British boy should read Amundsen's expedition account. The Times correspondent offered a mild rebuke to Amundsen for his failure to inform Scott until it was too late for the latter to respond, \"all the more unnecessary, for no one would have welcomed co-operation in the work of South Polar exploration more than Captain Scott ... Still, no one who knows Captain Amundsen can have any doubt of his integrity, and since he states he has reached the Pole we are bound to believe him\".\n\nSenior figures at the RGS expressed more hostile sentiments, at least privately. To them, Amundsen's feat was the result of \"a dirty trick\". Markham hinted that Amundsen's claim might be fraudulent: \"We must wait for the truth until the return of the Terra Nova\". When later in 1912 Amundsen addressed the RGS he felt slighted after Lord Curzon, the Society's president, jocularly called for \"three cheers for the dogs\". Shackleton did not join in denigrating Amundsen's victory, and called him \"perhaps the greatest polar explorer of today\". Before she heard the news of her husband's death, Kathleen Scott conceded that Amundsen's journey \"was a very fine feat ... in spite of one's irritation one has to admire it\".\n\nScott tragedy\n\nAmundsen left Hobart to undertake a lecture tour of Australia and New Zealand. He then went to Buenos Aires where he finished writing his expedition account. Back in Norway he supervised the publication of the book, then visited Britain before embarking on a long lecture tour of the United States. In February 1913, while in Madison, Wisconsin, he received the news that Scott and four comrades had reached the pole on 17 January 1912, but had all perished by 29 March, during their return journey. The bodies of Scott, Wilson and Bowers had been discovered in November 1912, after the end of the Antarctic winter. In his initial response, Amundsen called the news \"Horrible, horrible\". His more formal tribute followed: \"Captain Scott left a record, for honesty, for sincerity, for bravery, for everything that makes a man\".\n\nAccording to Huntford, the news of Scott's death meant that \"Amundsen the victor was eclipsed ... by Scott the martyr\". In the United Kingdom a myth quickly developed in which Scott was portrayed as one who had behaved nobly and played the game fairly. He had been defeated because, by contrast, Amundsen was a mere glory-seeker who had concealed his true intentions, had used dogs rather than relying on honest man-hauling and had slaughtered these same dogs for food. Furthermore, he was considered a \"professional\" which, in the mindset of upper-class Britain of that time, diminished anything he might have accomplished. The myth was heavily reinforced with the publication of Scott's journals and his \"Message to the Public\". Huntford points out that \"[Scott's] literary talent was his trump. It was as if he had reached out from his buried tent and taken revenge.\" Even so, among explorers Amundsen's name continued to be respected. In his account of the Terra Nova expedition written a few years later, Scott's comrade Apsley Cherry-Garrard wrote that the primary reason for Amundsen's success was \"the very remarkable qualities of the man\", specifically his courage in choosing to discover a new route rather than follow the known path.\n\nHistorical perspective\n\nThe outbreak of the First World War in 1914 delayed the start of Amundsen's northern polar drift—to which the South Pole expedition had been intended as a preliminary—until July 1918. He then set off in a specially-constructed vessel, Maud, which remained in Arctic waters for the next seven years. The ship did not drift over the North Pole, although in the course of the expedition it became the second ship to traverse the North-East Passage. Amundsen left the expedition in 1923; the remaining years of his life were largely devoted to polar exploration by air. On 12 May 1926, aboard the airship Norge with Lincoln Ellsworth and Umberto Nobile, Amundsen flew over the North Pole. He and Wisting, also on the airship, were the first men to see both poles. In 1928, while attempting to rescue a later Nobile expedition, Amundsen disappeared with his aircraft in the seas between Norway and Spitsbergen.\n\nThe four men who had stood at the pole with Amundsen were all asked to accompany their leader on the Maud drift. Bjaaland and Hassel declined; neither participated in any further polar ventures. Helmer Hanssen and Wisting both joined Maud; the latter took over the leadership when Amundsen left the expedition. In 1936 Wisting captained Fram on the ship's final voyage to Oslo, where it became a museum. Johansen, who had been unable to settle back into normal life on his return from Antarctica, became withdrawn and uncommunicative. He refused to discuss his experiences or his dispute with Amundsen, and retreated into a life of depression and poverty. On 4 January 1913 he shot himself in his Oslo lodgings.\n\nThe Scott myth lasted until the final quarter of the 20th century, when it was replaced by one that characterised him as a \"heroic bungler\" whose failure was largely the result of his own mistakes. This portrayal, the cultural historian Stephanie Barczewski asserts, is as fallacious as the earlier one in which he was considered beyond criticism. In the early 21st century, writers have suggested more reasoned explanations for the Scott tragedy than his incompetence, and his reputation has to some extent been rescued. The renewed spotlight on Scott has also highlighted Amundsen's achievements: Barczewski writes that \"Amundsen and his men reached the pole due to a combination of superb planning, long experience with sledge-dogs and skis and impressive physical stamina\". In her account of Scott's expedition, Diana Preston is equally specific in identifying the basis of Amundsen's success. He was focused on the single goal of reaching the pole, whereas Scott had to reconcile the competing claims of geographical exploration and scientific knowledge. \"A practical and experienced professional, [Amundsen] planned carefully and applied all the lessons he had learned in the Arctic ... [H]e relied exclusively on the well-tried means of transport and unsentimentally exploited their food potential. He was similarly efficient and unsentimental in his management of his men\". The United States' scientific base at the South Pole, founded in 1957, is named the Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station, to honour the memories of both polar pioneers.\n\nModern research\n\nIn a paper published 100 years after the Amundsen expedition, researchers claimed that the tent and flags are buried under 17 m of ice and about a minute north of the South Pole. Scott's party was the last to see the tent, which found it on January 18, 1912. Henry Robertson Bowers took a photo of the tent, but died returning from the Pole.\n\nNotes and references\n\nNotes\n\nReferences\n\nSources\n\nBooks\n\n* First published in 1912 by John Murray, London.\n* \n* First published in 1922 by Chatto and Windus, London.\n* \n* \n* \n* \n* \n* \n* \n* \n* \n* \n* \n* \n* \n* \n* \n* \n* \n* \n* \n\nOnline\n\n* \n* \n* \n* \n* \n* \n* (in Norwegian)\n* (in Norwegian)\n* \n* (in Norwegian)", "Both Roald Amundsen (leading his South Pole expedition) and Robert Falcon Scott (leading the Terra Nova Expedition) reached the South Pole within a month of each other. But while Scott and his four companions died on the return journey, Amundsen's party managed to reach the pole first and subsequently return to their base camp at Framheim without loss of lives, suggesting that they were better prepared for the expedition. The contrasting fates of the two teams seeking the same prize at the same time invites comparison. This article focuses on some common points that have been raised in the literature.\n\nOverview \n\nThe outcomes of the two expeditions were as follows.\n*Priority at the South Pole: Amundsen beat Scott to the South Pole by 34 days.\n*Fatalities: Scott lost five men including himself returning from the Pole, out of a team of 65. Amundsen's entire team of 19 returned to Norway safely.\n*Some authors (including Huntford and Fiennes) associate up to two further deaths (the drowning of Robert Brissenden and the suicide of Hjalmar Johansen) with the two expeditions, but these happened outside the Antarctic Circle.\n\nHistorically, several factors have been discussed and many contributing factors claimed, including:\n\n* Priority at the Pole: Scott wrote that Amundsen's dogs seriously threatened his Polar aspirations, because dogs, being more cold-tolerant than ponies, would be able to start earlier in the season than Scott's mixed transport of dogs, ponies and motors. \n* Cherry Garrard in The Worst Journey of the World agreed but added that in his experience, dogs would not have been able to ascend the Beardmore Glacier. \n* With regards to the causes of the deaths of Scott and his companions, Cherry-Garrard devotes chapter 19 in his book to examine the causes. Among several other factors, he surmised that the rations of Scott's team were inadequate and did not provide enough energy for the men. \n* Much of Scott's hauling was to be done by ponies, which are ill-suited to work on snow and ice without snow-shoes: their relatively small hooves and large weight caused them to sink into anything other than very firm snow or ice. Oates was opposed to snow-shoes and had left most of them at base camp.\n* Ponies' coats easily became soaked with perspiration during exertion, thus necessitating constant attention with blankets to avoid hypothermia through evaporation. Dogs in contrast do not have sweat glands - they cool themselves via panting, making them less vulnerable to the cold. With ponies, Scott acknowledged he could not depart until 1 November 1911 when the weather would be warmer, leaving him less time to complete the journey.\n* The loss of ponies, several of whom had drowned on disintegrating sea-ice, limited the supplies that could be hauled to the depots. Of 19 ponies brought south to aid in laying depots on the Ross Ice Shelf (traversed during the first and final quarters of the trek) nine were lost before the journey began. Further, unlike dogs which could eat the abundant seal and penguin meat found in Antarctica, the ponies' food had to be carried forward from the ship, vastly increasing the stores that had to be transported as Scott's expedition moved towards the Pole. \n* Had the one-ton depot been placed at latitude 80° S., as planned, Scott and his two surviving companions could have reached it on their return march. Instead, because Scott refused to drive the ponies to their deaths, despite Oates' urgent advice to do so, the depot was placed some 31 miles short of there. Scott’s party died only 11 miles away.\n* The last-minute addition of Lieutenant Henry R. Bowers to the planned four-man pole party may have strained the rationing plans, although the death of Petty Officer Evans weeks later brought the party down to four again.\n* The rations were deficient in B and C vitamins. The party became weaker a few weeks after reaching the Pole, despite Scott's racing ambitions before the return march, writing \"Now for a desperate struggle to get the news through first [before Amundsen reaches the cablehead in Australia]. I wonder if we can do it.\"\n* The tins of cooking fuel cached along the return route were found to be partly empty, which forced the men to eat frozen food. Shortage of fuel to melt water likely caused the men to become dehydrated. Apparently the heat of the sun had vaporised part of the fuel, enabling it to escape past the corks.\n* The weather on the return march seems to have been unusually bad. In particular, when the party reached the Great Ice Barrier, the temperature was much lower than expected for the season, making the surface much less suitable for the sledge runners. Furthermore, the tail-wind which they had expected to aid them home did not appear. Scott wrote, in his final \"Message to the Public\": “. . . our wreck is certainly due to this sudden advent of severe weather. . . .”\n* The complexity of the transportation plan made it vulnerable. It depended in part on motor-sledges, ponies, dogs, and southerly winds to assist the sledges (which were fitted with sails). Half of the distance was intended to be covered by man-hauling (and sails whenever conditions permitted).\n\nSullivan states that it was the last factor that probably was decisive. He states \"Man is a poor beast of burden, as was shown in the terrible experience of Scott, Shackleton, and Wilson in their thrust to the south of 1902–3. However, Scott relied chiefly on man-hauling in 1911–12 because ponies could not ascend the glacier midway to the Pole. The Norwegians correctly estimated that dog teams could go all the way. Furthermore, they used a simple plan, based on their native skill with skis and on dog-driving methods that were tried and true. In a similar fashion to the way the moon was reached by expending a succession of rocket stages and then casting each aside; the Norwegians used the same strategy, sacrificing the weaker animals along the journey to feed the other animals and the men themselves.\n\nObjectives of the respective expeditions \n\nScott and his financial backers saw the expedition as having a scientific basis, while also wishing to reach the Pole. However, it was recognised by all involved that the South Pole was the primary objective (\"The Southern Journey involves the most important object of the Expedition\" – Scott), and had priority in terms of resources, such as the best ponies and all the dogs and motor sledges as well as involvement of the vast majority of the expedition personnel. Scott and his team knew the expedition would be judged on his attainment of the Pole (\"The ... public will gauge the result of the scientific work of the expedition largely in accordance with the success or failure of the main object\" – Scott). He was prepared to make a second attempt the following year (1912–13) if this attempt failed and had Indian Army Mules and additional dogs delivered in anticipation. In fact the mules were used by the team that discovered the dead bodies of Scott, Henry Robertson Bowers and Edward Adrian Wilson in November 1912, but proved even less useful than the ponies, according to Cherry-Garrard.\n\nAmundsen's expedition was planned to reach the South Pole. This was a plan he conceived in 1909. Amundsen's expedition did conduct geographical work under Kristian Prestrud who conducted an expedition to King Edward VII Land while Amundsen was undertaking his attempt at the Pole.\n\nBase camps \n\nAmundsen camped on the Ross Ice Shelf at the Bay of Whales which is 60 miles (96 km) closer to the Pole than Scott's camp (which was 350 miles west of Amundsen). Amundsen had deduced that, as the Trans-Antarctic Mountains ran north-west to south-east then if he were to meet a mountain range on his route then the time spent at the high altitude of the Antarctic plateau would be less than Scott's. \nScott's base was at Cape Evans on Ross Island, with access to the Trans-Antarctic mountain range to the west, and was a better base for geological exploration. He had based his previous expedition in the same area. However, he knew it to be poor as a route to the Pole as he had to start before sea ice melted and had suffered delay in returning while waiting for the sea ice to freeze. They also had to make detours around Ross Island and its known crevassed areas which meant a longer journey.\n\nMethods of transport \n\nMotor sledges \n\nThe major comparison between Scott and Amundsen has focused on the choice of draft transport – dog versus pony/man hauling. In fact Scott took dogs, ponies and three \"motor sledges\". Scott spent nearly seven times the amount of money on his motor sledges than on the dogs and horses combined. They were therefore a vital part of the expedition. Unfortunately, Scott decided to leave behind the engineer Lieutenant Commander Reginald William Skelton who had created and trialled the motor sledges. This was due to the selection of Lieutenant E.R.G.R. \"Teddy\" Evans as the expedition second in command. As Evans was junior in rank to Skelton he insisted that Skelton could not come on the expedition. Scott agreed to this request and Skelton's invaluable experience and knowledge was lost. One of the original three motor sledges was a failure even before the expedition set out; the heavy sledge was lost through thin ice on unloading it from the ship. The two remaining motor sledges failed relatively early in the main expedition because of repeated faults. Skelton's experience might have been valuable in overcoming the failures. \n\nPonies vs dogs \n\nScott had used dogs on his first (Discovery) expedition and felt they had failed. On that journey, Scott, Shackleton, and Wilson started with three sledges and 13 dogs. But on that expedition, the men had not properly understood how to travel on snow with the use of dogs. The party had skis but were too inexperienced to make good use of them. As a result, the dogs travelled so fast that the men could not keep up with them. The Discovery expedition had to increase their loads to slow the dogs down. Additionally, the dogs were fed Norwegian dried fish, which did not agree with them and soon they began to deteriorate. The whole team of dogs eventually died (and were eaten), and the men took over hauling the sleds.\n\nScott's opinion was reinforced by Shackleton's experience on his Nimrod expedition that got to within of the Pole. Shackleton used ponies. Scott planned to use ponies only to the base of the Beardmore Glacier (25% of the total journey). Scott then planned to man haul the rest of the journey. Scott's team had developed snow shoes for his ponies, and trials showed they could significantly increase the daily mileage. However, Lawrence Oates, whom Scott had made responsible for the ponies, was reluctant to use the snow shoes and Scott failed to insist on their use. \n\nThere was plenty of evidence that dogs could succeed in the achievements of William Speirs Bruce in his work in the Arctic, Antarctic and the Scottish National Antarctic Expedition, Amundsen in the Gjøa North West passage expedition, Fridtjof Nansen's crossing of Greenland, Robert Peary's three attempts at the North Pole, Eivind Astrup's work supporting Peary, Frederick Cook's discredited North Pole expedition, and Otto Sverdrup's explorations of Ellesmere Island. Moreover, Scott ignored the direct advice he received (while attending trials of the motor sledges in Norway) from Nansen (the most famous explorer of the day) who told Scott to take \"dogs, dogs and more dogs\". \n\nAt the time of the events, the expert view in England had been that dogs were of dubious value as a means of Antarctic transport. Broadly speaking, Scott saw two ways in which dogs may be used—they may be taken with the idea of bringing them all back safe and sound, or they may be treated as pawns in the game, from which the best value is to be got regardless of their lives. He stated that if, and only if, the comparison was made with a dog sledge journey which aimed to preserve the dogs' lives, 'I am inclined to state my belief that in the polar regions properly organised parties of men will perform as extended journeys as teams of dogs.' On the other hand, if the lives of the dogs were to be sacrificed, then 'the dog-team is invested with a capacity for work which is beyond the emulation of men. To appreciate this is a matter of simple arithmetic'. But efficiency notwithstanding, he expressed 'reluctance' to use dogs in this way: \"One cannot calmly contemplate the murder of animals which possess such intelligence and individuality, which have frequently such endearing qualities, and which very possibly one has learnt to regard as friends and companions.\"\n\nAmundsen, by contrast, took an entirely utilitarian approach. Amundsen planned from the start to have weaker animals killed to feed the other animals and the men themselves. He expressed the opinion that it was less cruel to feed and work dogs correctly before shooting them, than it would be to starve and overwork them to the point of collapse. Amundsen and his team had similar affection for their dogs as those expressed above by the English, but they \"also had agreed to shrink from nothing in order to achieve our goal\" Such a procedure was claimed to be distasteful to the British. At the same time the British were willing to eat their ponies.\n\nAmundsen had used the opportunity of learning from the Inuit while on his Gjøa North West passage expedition of 1905. He recruited experienced dog drivers. To make the most of the dogs he paced them and deliberately kept daily mileages shorter than he need have for 75% of the journey, and his team spent up to 16 hours a day resting. His dogs could eat seals and penguins hunted in the Antarctic while Scott's pony fodder had to be brought all the way from England in their ship. It has been later shown that seal meat with the blubber attached is the ideal food for a sledge dog. Amundsen went with 52 dogs, and came back with 11.\n\nWhat Scott did not realise is a sledge dog, if it is to do the same work as a man, will require the same amount of food. Furthermore, when sledge dogs are given insufficient food they become difficult to handle. The advantage of the sledge dog is its greater mobility. Not only were the Norwegians accustomed to skiing, which enabled them to keep up with their dogs, but they also understood how to feed them and not overwork them.\n\nWalking vs skiing on snow \n\nScott did take the Norwegian pilot and skier Tryggve Gran to the Antarctic on the recommendation of Nansen to train his expedition to ski, but although a few of his party began to learn, he made no arrangements for compulsory training for the full party. Gran (possibly because he was Norwegian) was not included in the South Pole party, which could have made a difference. Gran was, one year later, the first to locate the deceased Scott and his remaining companions in their tent just some 18 km (11 miles) short of One Ton depot, that might have saved their lives if they had reached it.\n\nScott would subsequently complain in his diary, while well into his journey and therefore too late to take any corrective action and after over 10 years since the Discovery expedition, that \"Skis are the thing, and here are my tiresome fellow countrymen too prejudiced to have prepared themselves for the event\". \n\nAmundsen on his side recruited a team of well experienced skiers, all Norwegians who had skied from an early age. He also recruited a champion skier, Olav Bjaaland, as the front runner. The Amundsen party gained weight on their return travel from the South Pole.\n\nWeather conditions \n\nScott and Shackleton's experience in 1903 and 1907 gave them first-hand experience of average conditions in Antarctica. Simpson, Scott's meteorologist 1910–1912, did a huge amount of research into the weather during the time of their expedition, often taking two readings a day. On their return to the Ross Ice Shelf, Scott's group experienced a prolonged period of low temperatures from 27 February until 10 March which have only been matched once in 15 years of current records. The exceptional severity of the weather meant they failed to make the daily mileages they needed to get to the next depot. This was a serious position as they were short of fuel and food. When Scott, Wilson and Bowers died (Petty Officer Edgar Evans and Lawrence Oates had died earlier during the return from the South Pole) they were 11 miles short of One-Ton Depot, which was 140 miles from Corner Camp, where they would have been safe.\n\nOn the other hand, Cherry-Garrard had travelled nearly three hundred miles in the same area, at the same time period and same temperatures, using a dog team. Scott did also blame \"a prolonged blizzard\". But while there is evidence to support the low temperature period, there is only evidence for a \"normal\" two- to four-day blizzard, and not the ten days that Scott claims. \n\nRoute marking and depot laying \n\nDuring the depot laying in February 1911, Roald Amundsen had his first (and last) 180 miles of his route marked like a Norwegian ski course using marker flags initially every eight miles. He added to this by using parts of empty food containers that had been prepared by painting the outside black resulting in a marker every mile. From 82 degrees on Amundsen built a 6 ft cairn every three miles with a note inside recording the cairn's position, the distance to the next depot, and direction to the next cairn. In order not to miss a depot considering the snow and great distances, Amundsen took precautions. Each depot laid out up to 85 degrees (laid out every degree of latitude) had a line of bamboo flags laid out transversely every half-mile for 5 miles on either side of the depot, by that ensuring that the returning party would locate the designated depot.\n\nScott relied on depots much less frequently laid out. For one distance where Amundsen laid seven depots, Scott laid only two. Routes were marked by the walls made at lunch and evening stops to protect the ponies. Depots had a single flag.\n\nAs a result, Scott has much concern recorded in his diaries over route finding, and experienced close calls about finding depots. It is also clear that Scott's team did not travel on a number of days, because the swirling snow hid their three-month-old outward tracks. With better depot and route marking they would have been able to travel on more days with a following wind which would have filled the sail attached to their sledge, and so travel further, and might have reached safety.\n\nFood and fuel \n\nBy the time they arrived at the pole, the health of Scott's team had significantly deteriorated, whereas Amundsen's team actually gained weight during the expedition. While the team managed to maintain the scheduled pace for most of the return leg, and hence was virtually always on full rations, their condition continued to worsen rapidly. (The only delay occurred when they were held for four days by a blizzard, and had to open their summit rations early as a consequence. )\n\nApsley Cherry-Garrard in his analysis of the expedition estimated that even under optimistic assumptions the summit rations contained only a little more than half the calories actually required for the man-hauling of sledges. A carefully planned 2006 re-enactment of both Amundsen's and Scott's travels, sponsored by the BBC, confirmed Cherry-Garrard's theory; the British team eventually had to abort their tour due to the severe weight loss of all members. The experts hinted that Scott's reports of unusually bad surfaces and weather conditions might in part have been due to their exhausted state which made them feel the sledge weights and the chill more severely.\n\nScott's calculations for the supply requirements were based on a number of expeditions, both by members of his team (e.g. Wilson's trip with Cherry-Garrard and Bowers to the Emperor penguin colony which had each man on a different type of experimental ration), and by Shackleton. Apparently, Scott didn't take the strain of prolonged man-hauling at high altitudes sufficiently into account.\n\nSince the rations contained no B and C vitamins, the only source of these vitamins during the trek was from the slaughter of ponies or dogs. This made the men progressively malnourished, manifested most clearly in the form of scurvy.\n\nScott also had to fight with a shortage of fuel due to leakage from stored fuel cans which used leather washers. This was a known phenomenon that had been noticed previously by other expeditions, but Scott took no measures to prevent it. Amundsen, in contrast, had learned the lesson and had his fuel cans soldered closed. A fuel depot he left on Betty's Knoll was found 50 years later still full. \n\nDehydration may also have been a factor. Amundsen's team had plenty of fuel due to the better planning and soldered fuel cans. Scott had a shortage of fuel and was unable to melt as much water as Amundsen. At the same time Scott's team were more physically active in man-hauling the sledges.\n\nClothing and goggles \n\nIt has been said (by the present-day explorer Ranulph Fiennes amongst others) that Scott's team was appropriately dressed for man-hauling in their woolen and wind-proof clothing, and as Amundsen was skiing it was appropriate he wore furs. Skiing at the pace of a dog team is a strenuous activity. Yet Amundsen never complained about the clothing being too hot. That is because the furs are worn loose so air circulates and sweat evaporates. Scott's team, on the other hand, made regular complaints about the cold.\n\nAmundsen's team did initially have problems with their boots. However, the depot-laying trips of January and February 1911 and an abortive departure to the South Pole on 8 September 1911 allowed changes to be made before it was too late.\n\nScott's team suffered regularly from snow blindness and sometimes this affected over half the team at any one time. By contrast, there was no recorded case during the whole of Amundsen's expedition. On the return journey, Amundsen's team rested during the \"day\" (while the sun was in front of them) and travelled during the \"night\" (while the sun was behind them) to minimise the effects of snow blindness.\n\nDelay in meeting Scott's returning party \n\nIn 1921, 'Teddy' Evans wrote in his book South with Scott that Scott had left the following written orders at Cape Evans.\n\nExpedition member Apsley Cherry-Garrard did not mention Scott's order in his 1922 book The Worst Journey in the World. However, in the 1948 preface to his book, discusses Scott's order. Cherry-Garrard writes that he and Edward Atkinson, reached Cape Evans on January 28. Scott had estimated Atkinson would reach camp by January 13. Atkinson, now the senior officer discovered that the dog handler Cecil Meares had resigned from the expedition and that neither Meares nor anyone else had resupplied dog food to the depots. Cherry-Garrard also wrote \"In my opinion he [Atkinson] would not have been fit to take out the dogs in the first week of February\".\n\nOn 13 February, Atkinson set off on the first lap southwards to Hut Point with the dog assistant, Dimitri Gerov and the dogs to avoid being cut off by disintegrating sea ice. Atkinson and Gerov were still at Hut Point when, on 19 February, Tom Crean arrived on foot from the Barrier and reported that Lt Edward Evans was lying seriously ill in a tent some 35 miles to the south, and in urgent need of rescue. Atkinson decided that this mission was his priority, and set out with the dogs to bring Evans back. This was achieved; the party was back at Hut Point on 22 February.\n\nAtkinson sent a note back to the Cape Evans base camp requesting either the meteorologist Wright or Cherry-Garrard to take over the task of meeting Scott with the dogs. Chief meteorologist Simpson was unwilling to release Wright from his scientific work, and Atkinson therefore selected Apsley Cherry-Garrard. It was still not in Atkinson's mind that Cherry-Garrard's was a relief mission, and according to Cherry-Garrard's account, told him to 'use his judgement' as to what to do in the event of not meeting the polar party by One Ton, and that Scott's orders were that the dogs must not be risked. Cherry-Garrard left with Gerov and the dogs on 26 February, carrying extra rations for the polar party to be added to the depot and 24 days' of dog food. They arrived at One Ton depot on 4 March and did not proceed further south. Instead, he and Gerov, after waiting there for Scott for several days, apparently mostly in blizzard conditions (although no blizzard was recorded by Scott some 100 miles further south until 10 March), they returned to Hut Point on 16 March, in poor physical condition and without news of the polar party.\n\nOn the return journey from the Pole, Scott reached the 82.30°S meeting point for the dog teams three days ahead of schedule, around 27 February 1912. Scott's diary for that day notes \"We are naturally always discussing possibility of meeting dogs, where and when, etc. It is a critical position. We may find ourselves in safety at the next depot, but there is a horrid element of doubt.\" By March 10 it became clear that the dog teams were not coming: \"The dogs which would have been our salvation have evidently failed. Meares [the dog-driver] had a bad trip home I suppose. It's a miserable jumble.\"\n\nAround March 25, awaiting death in his tent at latitude 79.30°S, Scott speculated, in a farewell letter to his expedition treasurer Sir Edgar Speyer, that he had overshot the meeting point with the dog relief teams, writing \"We very nearly came through, and it's a pity to have missed it, but lately I have felt that we have overshot our mark. No-one is to blame and I hope no attempt will be made to suggest that we had lacked support.\" (Farewell letter to Sir Edgar Speyer, cited from Karen May 2012.)\n\nOther reasons for Scott's Failure \n\n; Geology samples\nScott's team continued to haul over 14 kg (30 lb) of rock samples. This would appear to be a major handicap when pulling a sledge in a race against the weather and a shortage of food and fuel. Scott could have left the samples at one of the cairns along the way to be picked up later. However, Ranulph Fiennes has suggested that the extra weight would not have been a major handicap. Tryggve Gran on the other hand thought \"they might have saved themselves the bother\". \n; Final 5-man team\nScott's planning, equipment and rations had been based on three sledge teams of four men ascending the Beardmore, with a team turning back every 10 days or so as rations required finally leaving one four-man team to attempt the Pole. At the last moment when down to two teams (Scott's and Evans's) Scott decided to send a returning party of three, and take on five. This increased the cooking time for the team of five and affected the fuel supply. It also meant the Evans party of three had to try and split the ration pack (at a time when they were cold and tired and later when one member was suffering from scurvy) to leave an allowance for the 5th man in Scott's party. This also will have affected the seepage of fuel from cans which were opened and then re-closed and left for several weeks before Scott's team got to them. Moreover, for some unexplained reason Scott had ordered Evans's team to depot their skis a week before so Bowers (the 5th man) walked to the Pole and back to the depoted skis (360 miles) while the rest of Scott's team skied.\n; Misuse of the dog team\nFor no clear reason Scott took the dogs on 140 miles further than originally planned. This meant killing the ponies early (and starting man-hauling earlier) to feed the dogs for no obvious benefit to the overall expedition. Scott also gave conflicting and changing orders for their use to each returning party. It was only in late February 1912 that it was discovered that the final supplies needed by Scott's returning party had not been delivered to One Ton Depot. Cherry-Garrard was sent with these supplies on 25 February 1912 and he was relieved to discover that he had beaten Scott's team to the depot. He also found that promised supplies of dog food were not in place. Cherry-Garrard remained at the depot (within 60 miles of Scott) 4–10 March 1912 when he could possibly have saved Scott, Wilson, Bowers and Oates if the management of the dog team had been better.\n; Navigation\nAmundsen used prepared navigation sheets that simplified the calculations for his team when they were tired and cold. Four out of his team of five were qualified navigators. Amundsen's expedition also used a sextant during the journey, which is a relatively light and simple piece of equipment. He also attended a symposium that reviewed how to fix position at high latitudes. Scott used a theodolite which is heavier and requires more mental arithmetic. Scott also lacked navigators having only one per team. Scott dismissed Cherry-Garrard's request for navigational training and Wilson only attempted to learn how to read latitudes at the last moment. \n; Camp routine\nAmundsen used canisters that left his sledges permanently lashed and loaded. Scott's team had to unload, and load and relash their sledge at every camp, no matter what the weather.\n\nTimelines of Amundsen and Scott Expeditions" ] }

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{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe" ], "filename": [ "The_Twelve_Days_of_Christmas_(song).txt" ], "title": [ "The Twelve Days of Christmas (song)" ], "wiki_context": [ "\"The Twelve Days of Christmas\" is an English Christmas carol that enumerates in the manner of a cumulative song a series of increasingly grand gifts given on each of the twelve days of Christmas (the twelve days after Christmas). The song, published in England in 1780 without music as a chant or rhyme, is thought to be French in origin. \"The Twelve Days of Christmas\" has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 68. The tunes of collected versions vary. The standard tune now associated with it is derived from a 1909 arrangement of a traditional folk melody by English composer Frederic Austin, who first introduced the now familiar prolongation of the verse \"five gold rings\".\n\nLyrics \n\n\"The Twelve Days of Christmas\" is a cumulative song, meaning that each verse is built on top of the previous verses. There are twelve verses, each describing a gift given by \"my true love\" on one of the twelve days of Christmas.\nThere are many variations in the lyrics. The lyrics given here are from Austin's 1909 publication that first established the current form of the carol. The first three verses run, in full, as follows:\n\nSubsequent verses follow the same pattern, each adding one new gift and repeating all the earlier gifts, so that each verse is one line longer than its predecessor:\n\n4 Calling Birds \n5 Gold Rings \n6 Geese a-Laying\n7 Swans a-Swimming\n8 Maids a-Milking\n9 Ladies Dancing\n10 Lords a-Leaping\n11 Pipers Piping\n12 Drummers Drumming\n\nVariations of the lyrics \n\nThe earliest known version of the lyrics was published under the title \"The Twelve Days of Christmas sung at King Pepin's Ball\", as part of a 1780 children's book, Mirth without Mischief. Subsequent versions have shown considerable variation:\n* In the earliest versions, the word \"On\" is not present at the beginning of each verse—for example, the first verse begins simply \"The first day of Christmas\". \"On\" was added in Austin's 1909 version, and became very popular thereafter.\n* In the early versions \"my true love sent\" me the gifts. However, a 20th-century variant has \"my true love gave to me\"; this wording has become particularly common in North America. \n* The 1780 version has \"four colly birds\"—\"colly\" being a regional English expression for \"black\". This wording must have been opaque to many even in the 19th century: \"canary birds\", \"colour'd birds\", \"curley birds\", and \"corley birds\" are found in its place. Frederic Austin's 1909 version, which introduced the now-standard melody, also altered the fourth day's gift to four \"calling\" birds, and this variant has become the most popular, although \"colly\" is still found.\n* The \"five gold rings\" may become \"five golden rings\", especially in North America. In the standard melody, this change enables singers to fit one syllable per musical note. \n* The gifts associated with the final four days are often reordered. For example, the pipers may be on the ninth day rather than the eleventh. Annotations reprinted from 4000 Years of Christmas by Earl W. Count (New York: Henry Schuman, 1948)\n\nFor ease of comparison with Austin's 1909 version given above:\n(a) differences in wording, ignoring capitalisation and punctuation, are indicated in italics;\n(b) items that do not appear at all in Austin's version are indicated in bold italics.\n\nScotland \n\nIn Scotland, early in the 19th century, the recitation began: \"The king sent his lady on the first Yule day, | A popingo-aye [parrot]; | Wha learns my carol and carries it away?\" The succeeding gifts were two partridges, three plovers, a goose that was grey, three starlings, three goldspinks, a bull that was brown, three ducks a-merry laying, three swans a-merry swimming, an Arabian baboon, three hinds a-merry hunting, three maids a-merry dancing, three stalks o' merry corn.\n\nFaroe Islands \n\nIn the Faroe Islands, there is a comparable counting Christmas song. The gifts include: one feather, two geese, three sides of meat, four sheep, five cows, six oxen, seven dishes, eight ponies, nine banners, ten barrels, eleven goats, twelve men, thirteen hides, fourteen rounds of cheese and fifteen deer. These were illustrated in 1994 by local cartoonist Óli Petersen (born 1936) on a series of two stamps issued by the Faroese Philatelic Office. \n\nFrance \n\nThe French folk song \"La Perdriole\" (\"The Partridge\") is a cumulative song with the same kind of lyrics and a similar (but slightly different) melody. One variant iterates over the 12 months of the year (\"Le premier mois d'l'année\", etc...). Another version may be found in the Rondes et chansons de France, Vol. 10. It iterates over the first 12 days of May (\"Au premier jour de Mai\", etc...) \n\nOrigins and meaning \n\nThe exact origins and the meaning of the song are unknown, but it is highly probable that it originated from a children's memory and forfeit game. \n\nThe twelve days in the song are the twelve days starting with Christmas Day, or in some traditions, the day after Christmas (December 26) (Boxing Day or St. Stephen's Day, as being the feast day of St. Stephen Protomartyr), to the day before Epiphany, or the Feast of the Epiphany (January 6, or the Twelfth Day). Twelfth Night is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as \"the evening of the fifth of January, preceding Twelfth Day, the eve of the Epiphany, formerly the last day of the Christmas festivities and observed as a time of merrymaking.\" \n\nThe best known English version was first printed in English in 1780 in a little book intended for children, Mirth without Mischief, as a Twelfth Night \"memories-and-forfeits\" game, in which a leader recited a verse, each of the players repeated the verse, the leader added another verse, and so on until one of the players made a mistake, with the player who erred having to pay a penalty, such as offering up a kiss or a sweet. One hundred years later, Lady Gomme, a collector of folktales and rhymes, described how it used to be played every Twelfth Day night before eating mince pies and twelfth cake. \n\nHusk, writing in 1864, stated: \n\nSalmon, writing from Newcastle, claimed in 1855 that the song \"[had] been, up to within twenty years, extremely popular as a schoolboy's Christmas chant\".\n\n\"Twelve days of Christmas\" was adapted from similar New Years' or spring French carols, of which at least three are known, all featuring a partridge, perdriz or perdriole, as the first gift. The pear tree appears in only the English version, but this could also indicate a French origin. According to Iona and Peter Opie, the red-legged (or French) partridge perches in trees more frequently than the native common (or grey) partridge and was not successfully introduced into England until about 1770. Cecil Sharp observed that \"from the constancy in English, French, and Languedoc versions of the 'merry little partridge,' I suspect that 'pear-tree' is really perdrix (Old French pertriz) carried into England\"; and \"juniper tree\" in some English versions may have been \"joli perdrix,\" [pretty partridge]. Sharp also suggests the adjective \"French\" in \"three French hens\", probably simply means \"foreign\". \n\nIn the northern counties of England, the song was often called the \"Ten Days of Christmas\", as there were only ten gifts. It was also known in Somerset, Dorsetshire, and elsewhere in England. The kinds of gifts vary in a number of the versions, some of them becoming alliterative tongue-twisters. \"The Twelve Days of Christmas\" was also widely popular in the United States and Canada. It is mentioned in the section on \"Chain Songs\" in Stith Thompson's Motif-Index of Folk-Literature (Indiana University Studies, Vol. 5, 1935), p. 416.\n\nThere is evidence pointing to the North of England, specifically the area around Newcastle upon Tyne, as the origin of the carol. Husk, in the 1864 excerpt quoted above, stated that the carol was \"found on broadsides printed at Newcastle at various periods during the last hundred and fifty years\", i.e. from approximately 1714. In addition, many of the nineteenth century citations come from the Newcastle area.\n\nMeanings of the gifts \n\nAccording to The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes, \"Suggestions have been made that the gifts have significance, as representing the food or sport for each month of the year. Importance [certainly has] long been attached to the Twelve Days, when, for instance, the weather on each day was carefully observed to see what it would be in the corresponding month of the coming year. Nevertheless, whatever the ultimate origin of the chant, it seems probable [that] the lines that survive today both in England and France are merely an irreligious travesty.\"\n\nIn 1979, a Canadian hymnologist, Hugh D. McKellar, published an article, \"How to Decode the Twelve Days of Christmas\" in which he suggested that \"The Twelve Days of Christmas\" lyrics were intended as a catechism song to help young Catholics learn their faith, at a time when practising Catholicism was criminalized in England (1558 until 1829). Three years later in 1982, Fr. Hal Stockert wrote an article (subsequently posted on-line in 1995) in which he suggested a similar possible use of the 12 gifts as part of a catechism. The possibility that the 12 gifts were used as a catechism during English and Irish Catholic penal times was also hypothesized in this same time period (1987 and 1992) by Fr. James Gilhooley, chaplain of Mount Saint Mary College of Newburgh, New York. Snopes.com, a website reviewing urban legends, Internet rumors, e-mail forwards, and other stories of unknown or questionable origin also gave an opinion on the meaning of the gifts when the authors suggested that the hypothesis of the 12 gifts of Christmas as a surreptitious catechism during the penal days was incorrect.\n\nWilliam S. Baring-Gould suggest that the presents sent on the first seven days were all birds—the \"Five gold rings\" were not actually gold rings, but refer to the five golden rings of the ringed pheasant. Others suggest the gold rings refer to \"five goldspinks\"—a goldspink being an old name for a Goldfinch; or even canaries. However, the 1780 publication includes an illustration that clearly depicts the \"five gold rings\" as being jewelry.\n\nMusic \n\nThe now-standard melody for the carol was published in 1909 by Novello & Co.. English composer Frederic Austin fitted the words to a traditional melody, to which he added his own two-bar motif for \"Five gold rings\". Many of the decisions Austin made with regard to the lyrics subsequently became widespread:\n* The initial \"on\" at the beginning of each verse.\n* The use of \"calling birds\", rather than \"colly birds\", on the fourth day.\n* The ordering of the final four verses.\nThe time signature of this song is not constant, unlike most popular music. This irregular meter perhaps reflects the song's folk origin. The introductory lines, such as \"On the twelfth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me\", are made up of two 4/4 bars, while most of the lines naming gifts receive one 3/4 bar per gift with the exception of \"Five gold(en) rings,\" which receives two 4/4 bars, \"Two turtle doves\" getting a 4/4 bar with \"And a\" on its fourth beat and \"Partridge in a pear tree\" getting two 4/4 bars of music. In most versions, a 4/4 bar of music immediately follows \"Partridge in a pear tree.\" \"On the\" is found in that bar on the 4th (pickup) beat for the next verse. The successive bars of three for the gifts surrounded by bars of four give the song its hallmark \"hurried\" quality.\n\nThe second to fourth verses' melody is different from that of the fifth to twelfth verses. Before the fifth verse (when \"five gold(en) rings\" is first sung), the melody, using solfege, is \"sol re mi fa re\" for the fourth to second items, and this same melody is thereafter sung for the twelfth to sixth items. However, the melody for \"four colly birds, three French hens, two turtle doves\" changes from this point, differing from the way these lines were sung in the opening four verses.\n\nIn the final verse, Austin inserted a flourish on the words \"Five Gold Rings\". This has not been copied by later versions, which simply repeat the melody from the earlier verses.\n\nEarlier versions \n\nIn the 19th century, most sources for the lyrics do not include music, and those that do often include music different from what has become the standard melody. Cecil Sharp's Folk Songs from Somerset (1905) contains two different melodies for the song, both distinct from the now-standard melody. \n\nParodies and other versions \n\n \n\n* Burl Ives, backed by Percy Faith and his Orchestra and Chorus, recorded a traditional version of \"The Twelve Days of Christmas\" in 1951. Bing Crosby and The Andrews Sisters also recorded the traditional version of this song in the same year as Burl Ives did. The Ray Conniff Singers also recorded a traditional version in 1962, appearing on the album We Wish You a Merry Christmas.\n* Perry Como recorded a traditional version of \"Twelve Days of Christmas\" in 1953 but varied the lyrics with \"11 Lords a Leaping\", \"10 Ladies Dancing\", and \"9 Pipers Piping\". It was musically supervised by Mitchell Ayres.\n* Allan Sherman recorded—or at least released—two different versions of \"The Twelve Gifts of Christmas\". Sherman wrote and performed his version of the classic Christmas carol on a 1963 TV special that was taped well in advance of the holiday. Warner Bros. Records rushed out a 45 RPM version in early December. \n* Alvin and the Chipmunks covered the song for their 1963 album Christmas with The Chipmunks, Vol. 2.\n* Frank Sinatra and his children, Frank Sinatra, Jr., Nancy Sinatra, and Tina Sinatra, included their own version of \"The Twelve Days of Christmas\" on their 1968 album, The Sinatra Family Wish You a Merry Christmas. \n* Fay McKay, an American musical comedian, is best known for \"The Twelve Daze of Christmas\", a parody in which the gifts were replaced with various alcoholic drinks, resulting in her performance becoming increasingly inebriated over the course of the song.[http://www.lvrj.com/news/17321084.html Obituary: \"R.I.P. FAY MCKAY\"]. Las Vegas Review-Journal, April 5, 2008.\n* A radio play written by Brian Sibley, \"And Yet Another Partridge in a Pear Tree\" was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on Christmas Day 1977. Starring Penelope Keith, it imagines the increasingly exasperated response of the recipient of the \"twelve days\" gifts. It was rebroadcast in 2011. \n* The Muppets and singer-songwriter John Denver performed \"The Twelve Days of Christmas\" on the 1979 television special John Denver and the Muppets: A Christmas Together. It was featured on the album of the same name. The song has been recorded by the Muppets five different times, featuring different Muppets in different roles each time. \n*In 1975, the Sesame Street characters recorded a version of this song, using different lyrics. The 12 things are: one delicious cookie (Cookie Monster), two baby frogs (Hardhead Henry Harris, Elmo in the 1995 version), three footballs (Prairie Dawn), four wooly bears (Grover), five argyle socks (Bert), six rubber duckies (Ernie), seven rusty trashcans (Oscar the Grouch), eight counts a' counting (Count von Count), nine pounds of birdseed (Big Bird), ten wind-up rabbits (Smart Tina, later replaced by ten triangles Telly Monster), eleven broken buildings (Herry Monster) and \"Twelve.... I can't remember!\" (Mr. Snuffleupagus).\n* A Māori / New Zealand version, titled \"A Pukeko in a Ponga Tree,\" written by Kingi Matutaera Ihaka, appeared as a picture book and cassette recording in 1981. \n* On the late-night sketch-comedy program Second City TV in 1982, the Canadian-rustic characters Bob & Doug McKenzie (Rick Moranis and Dave Thomas) released a version on the SCTV spin-off album Great White North. \n* Roger Whittaker recorded the traditional version with Angus' format in 1984.\n* The Twelve Days of Christmas (TV 1993), an animated tale which aired on NBC, features the voices of Marcia Savella, Larry Kenney, Carter Cathcart, Donna Vivino and Phil Hartman. \n* Walt Kelly did a number of takes on the carol in Pogo. In one of them, the various characters, in fantastic hats, bring the gifts to Miz Beaver. By the 11th day, she, having run out of room -and patience-, calls a halt to the proceedings and speaks to Mr.Miggle, the general store proprieter, about taking them all off her hands.\n* A program hosted by Tom Arnold, The 12 Days of Redneck Christmas, which takes a look at Christmas traditions, premiered on CMT in 2008. The theme music is \"The Twelve Days of Christmas.\" \n* Polkadot Cadaver did a satiric version of the song on their album From Bethlehem to Oblivion.\n* Shannon Chan-Kent, as her character of Pinkie Pie from My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, sings her own version of the song on the album My Little Pony: It's a Pony Kind of Christmas. \n* Frank Kelly recorded \"Christmas Countdown\" in 1982 in which a man named Gouvinet O'Lunacy receives 12 different Christmas gifts from a lady named Nuala. As each gift is received, the man gets upset with the person who sent them. This version charted in both Ireland (where it reached number 8 in 1982) and the UK (entering the UK chart in December 1983 and reaching number 26) \n* A special Creature Comforts orchestral arrangement of \"The Twelve Days of Christmas\" was made by British animator Nick Park and Aardman Animations. Featuring different animals discussing or trying to remember the lyrics of the song, it was released on Christmas Day 2005. \n\nChristmas Price Index \n\nSince 1984, the cumulative costs of the items mentioned in the song have been used as a tongue-in-cheek economic indicator. Assuming the gifts are repeated in full in each round of the song, then a total of 364 items are delivered by the twelfth day. This custom began with and is maintained by PNC Bank. Two pricing charts are created, referred to as the Christmas Price Index and The True Cost of Christmas. The former is an index of the current costs of one set of each of the gifts given by the True Love to the singer of the song \"The Twelve Days of Christmas\". The latter is the cumulative cost of all the gifts with the repetitions listed in the song. The people mentioned in the song are hired, not purchased. The total costs of all goods and services for the 2015 Christmas Price Index is US$34,130.99, or $155,407.18 for all 364 items. The original 1984 cost was $12,623.10. The index has been criticized for not accurately reflecting the true cost of the gifts featured in the Christmas carol." ] }

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{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe" ], "filename": [ "Ben_Bernanke.txt" ], "title": [ "Ben Bernanke" ], "wiki_context": [ "Ben Shalom Bernanke ( ; born December 13, 1953) is an American economist at the Brookings Institution who served two terms as chairman of the Federal Reserve, the central bank of the United States, from 2006 to 2014. During his tenure as chairman, Bernanke oversaw the Federal Reserve's response to the late-2000s financial crisis.\nBefore becoming Federal Reserve chairman, Bernanke was a tenured professor at Princeton University and chaired the department of economics there from 1996 to September 2002, when he went on public service leave.\n\nFrom August 5, 2002 until June 21, 2005, he was a member of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, proposed the Bernanke Doctrine, and first discussed \"the Great Moderation\" — the theory that traditional business cycles have declined in volatility in recent decades through structural changes that have occurred in the international economy, particularly increases in the economic stability of developing nations, diminishing the influence of macroeconomic (monetary and fiscal) policy.\n\nBernanke then served as chairman of President George W. Bush's Council of Economic Advisers before President Bush nominated him to succeed Alan Greenspan as chairman of the United States Federal Reserve. His first term began February 1, 2006. Bernanke was confirmed for a second term as chairman on January 28, 2010, after being renominated by President Barack Obama, who later referred to him as \"the epitome of calm.\" His second term ended February 1, 2014, when he was succeeded by Janet Yellen.\n\nBernanke wrote about his time as chairman of the Federal Reserve in his 2015 book, The Courage to Act, in which he revealed that the world's economy came close to collapse in 2007 and 2008. Bernanke asserts that it was only the novel efforts of the Fed (cooperating with other agencies and agencies of foreign governments) that prevented an economic catastrophe greater than the Great Depression. \n\nFamily and childhood\n\nBernanke was born in Augusta, Georgia, and was raised on East Jefferson Street in Dillon, South Carolina. His father Philip was a pharmacist and part-time theater manager. His mother Edna was an elementary school teacher. Bernanke has two younger siblings. His brother, Seth, is a lawyer in Charlotte, North Carolina. His sister, Sharon, is a longtime administrator at Berklee College of Music in Boston.\n\nThe Bernankes were one of the few Jewish families in Dillon and attended Ohav Shalom, a local synagogue; Bernanke learned Hebrew as a child from his maternal grandfather, Harold Friedman, a professional hazzan (service leader), shochet, and Hebrew teacher. Bernanke's father and uncle owned and managed a drugstore they purchased from Bernanke's paternal grandfather, Jonas Bernanke.\n\nJonas Bernanke was born in Boryslav, Austria-Hungary (today part of Ukraine), on January 23, 1891. He immigrated to the United States from Przemyśl, Austria-Hungary (today part of Poland) and arrived at Ellis Island, aged 30, on June 30, 1921, with his wife Pauline, aged 25. On the ship's manifest, Jonas's occupation is listed as \"clerk\" and Pauline's as \"doctor med\". \n\nThe family moved to Dillon from New York in the 1940s. Bernanke's mother gave up her job as a schoolteacher when her son was born and worked at the family drugstore. Ben Bernanke also worked there sometimes.\n\nYoung adult\n\nAs a teenager, Bernanke worked construction on a new hospital and waited tables at a restaurant at nearby South of the Border, a roadside attraction in his hometown of Dillon, before leaving for college. To support himself throughout college, he worked during the summers at South of the Border. \n\nReligion\n\nAs a teenager in the 1960s in the small town of Dillon, Bernanke used to help roll the Torah scrolls in his local synagogue. Although he keeps his beliefs private, his friend Mark Gertler, chairman of New York University's economics department, says they are \"embedded in who he (Bernanke) is\". On the other hand, the Bernanke family was concerned that Ben would \"lose his Jewish identity\" if he went to Harvard. Fellow Dillon native Kenneth Manning, who would eventually become a professor of the history of sciences at MIT, assured the family \"there are Jews in Boston\". Once Bernanke was at Harvard for his freshman year, Manning took him to Brookline for Rosh Hashanah services. \n\nEducation\n\nBernanke was educated at East Elementary, J.V. Martin Junior High, and Dillon High School, where he was class valedictorian and played saxophone in the marching band. Since Dillon High School did not offer calculus at the time, Bernanke taught it to himself. Bernanke scored 1590 out of 1600 on the SAT and was a National Merit Scholar. He also was a contestant in the 1965 National Spelling Bee. \n\nBernanke attended Harvard University, where he lived in Winthrop House, as did the future CEO of Goldman Sachs, Lloyd Blankfein, and graduated with an A.B. degree, and later with an A.M. in economics summa cum laude in 1975. He received a Ph.D. degree in Economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1979 after completing and defending his dissertation, Long-Term Commitments, Dynamic Optimization, and the Business Cycle. Bernanke's thesis adviser was the future governor of the Bank of Israel, Stanley Fischer, and his readers included Irwin S. Bernstein, Rüdiger Dornbusch, Robert Solow, and Peter Diamond of MIT and Dale Jorgenson of Harvard.\n\nAdult life\n\nBernanke met his wife, Anna, a schoolteacher, on a blind date. She was a student at Wellesley College, and he was in graduate school at MIT. The Bernankes have two children. He is an ardent fan of the Washington Nationals baseball team, and frequently attends games at Nationals Park. \n\nAfter Bernanke accepted a position at Princeton, the family moved to Montgomery Township, New Jersey in 1985, where Bernanke's children attended the local public schools. Bernanke served for six years as a member of the board of education of the Montgomery Township School District. \n\nIn 2009 The Wall Street Journal reported that Bernanke was a victim of identity theft, a spreading crime the Federal Reserve has for years issued warnings about. \n\nAcademic and government career (1979–2006)\n\nBernanke taught at the Stanford Graduate School of Business from 1979 until 1985, was a visiting professor at New York University and went on to become a tenured professor at Princeton University in the Department of Economics. He chaired that department from 1996 until September 2002, when he went on public service leave. He resigned his position at Princeton July 1, 2005.\n\nBernanke served as a member of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System from 2002 to 2005. In one of his first speeches as a Governor, entitled \"Deflation: Making Sure It Doesn't Happen Here\", he outlined what has been referred to as the Bernanke Doctrine. \n\nAs a member of the board of governors of the Federal Reserve System on February 20, 2004, Bernanke gave a speech in which he postulated that we are in a new era called the Great Moderation, where modern macroeconomic policy has decreased the volatility of the business cycle to the point that it should no longer be a central issue in economics. \n\nIn June 2005, Bernanke was named chairman of President George W. Bush's Council of Economic Advisers, and resigned as Fed Governor. The appointment was largely viewed as a test run to ascertain if Bernanke could be Bush's pick to succeed Greenspan as Fed chairman the next year.Andrews, Edmund L.; Leonhardt, David; Porter, Eduardo; Uchitelle, Louis (October 26, 2005), [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res\n950CE7DC113FF935A15753C1A9639C8B63 \"At the Fed, an Unknown Became a Safe Choice\"], The New York Times. Retrieved January 31, 2010 He held the post until January 2006.\n\nChairman of the United States Federal Reserve\n\nOn February 1, 2006, Bernanke began a fourteen-year term as a member of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors and a four-year term as chairman (after having been nominated by President Bush in late 2005). By virtue of the chairmanship, he sat on the Financial Stability Oversight Board that oversees the Troubled Asset Relief Program. He also served as chairman of the Federal Open Market Committee, the System's principal monetary policy making body.\n\nHis first months as chairman of the Federal Reserve System were marked by difficulties communicating with the media. An advocate of more transparent Fed policy and clearer statements than Greenspan had made, he had to back away from his initial idea of stating clearer inflation goals as such statements tended to affect the stock market. Maria Bartiromo disclosed on CNBC comments from their private conversation at the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner. She reported that Bernanke said investors had misinterpreted his comments as indicating that he was \"dovish\" on inflation. He was sharply criticized for making public statements about Fed direction, which he said was a \"lapse in judgment.\"\n\nOn August 25, 2009, President Obama announced he would nominate Bernanke to a second term as chairman of the Federal Reserve. In a short statement on Martha's Vineyard, with Bernanke standing at his side, Obama said Bernanke's background, temperament, courage and creativity helped to prevent another Great Depression in 2008. When Senate Banking Committee hearings on his nomination began on December 3, 2009, several senators from both parties indicated they would not support a second term. \n\nHowever, Bernanke was confirmed for a second term as chairman on January 28, 2010, by a 70–30 vote of the full Senate, the narrowest margin, at the time, for any occupant of the position. (For the roll-call vote, see Obama confirmations, 2010.) The Senate first voted 77–23 to end debate, Bernanke winning more than the 60 approval votes needed to overcome the possibility of a filibuster. On a second vote to confirm, the 30 dissents came from 11 Democrats, 18 Republicans and one independent.\n\nBernanke was succeeded as Chair of the Federal Reserve by Janet Yellen, the first woman to hold the position. Yellen was nominated on October 9, 2013, by President Obama and, confirmed by the United States Senate on January 6, 2014. \n\nControversies as Federal Reserve Chairman\n\nBernanke has been subjected to criticism concerning the late-2000s financial crisis. According to The New York Times, Bernanke \"has been attacked for failing to foresee the financial crisis, for bailing out Wall Street, and, most recently, for injecting an additional $600 billion into the banking system to give the slow recovery a boost.\"Chan, Sewell (December 11, 2010) [http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/12/weekinreview/12chan.html?src\ntwrhp \"The Fed? Ron Paul's Not a Fan\"], The New York Times\n\nMerrill Lynch merger with Bank of America\n\nIn a letter to Congress from then-New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo dated April 23, 2009, Bernanke was mentioned along with former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson in allegations of fraud concerning the acquisition of Merrill Lynch by Bank of America. The letter alleged that the extent of the losses at Merrill Lynch were not disclosed to Bank of America by Bernanke and Paulson. When Bank of America CEO Ken Lewis informed Paulson that Bank of America was exiting the merger by invoking the \"Materially Adverse Change\" (MAC) clause, Paulson immediately called Lewis to a meeting in Washington. At the meeting, which allegedly took place on December 21, 2008, Paulson told Lewis that he and the board would be replaced if they invoked the MAC clause and additionally not to reveal the extent of the losses to shareholders. Paulson stated to Cuomo's office that he was directed by Bernanke to threaten Lewis in this manner. \n\nCongressional hearings into these allegations were conducted on June 25, 2009, with Bernanke testifying that he did not bully Ken Lewis. Under intense questioning by members of Congress, Bernanke said, \"I never said anything about firing the board and the management [of Bank of America].\" In further testimony, Bernanke said the Fed did nothing illegal or unethical in its efforts to convince Bank of America not to end the merger. Lewis told the panel that authorities expressed \"strong views\" but said he would not characterize their stance as improper. \n\nAIG bailout\n\nAccording to a January 26, 2010, column in The Huffington Post, a whistleblower has disclosed documents providing troubling details' of Bernanke's role in the AIG bailout\". Republican Senator Jim Bunning of Kentucky said on CNBC that he had seen documents which show Bernanke overruled recommendations from his staff in bailing out AIG. The columnist says this raises questions as to whether or not the decision to bail out AIG was necessary. Senators from both parties who support Bernanke say his actions averted worse problems and outweigh whatever responsibility he may have for the financial crisis. \n\nEdward Quince\n\nThe crisis in 2008 also made then-Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke create a pseudonym, Edward Quince. According to the Wall Street Journal, the false name was evidence in a class-action lawsuit against the government by shareholders of AIG, which had been given a Fed-backed bailout when it was near collapse. One of Mr. Quince's emails reads, \"We think they are days from failure. They think it is a temporary problem. This disconnect is dangerous.\" \n\nUpon the revelation of the Quince pseudonym during the Starr v. United States trial, the New York Times created a cocktail inspired by Mr. Bernanke's chosen alias: the \"Rye & Quince.\" \n\nEconomic views\n\nBernanke has given several lectures at the London School of Economics on monetary theory and policy and has written three textbooks on macroeconomics, and one on microeconomics. He was the Director of the Monetary Economics Program of the National Bureau of Economic Research and the editor of the American Economic Review. He is among the [https://ideas.repec.org/top/top.person.all.html 50 most published economists] in the world according to IDEAS/RePEc.\n\nBernanke is particularly interested in the economic and political causes of the Great Depression, on which he has published numerous academic journal articles. Before Bernanke's work, the dominant monetarist theory of the Great Depression was Milton Friedman's view that it had been largely caused by the Federal Reserve's having reduced the money supply and has on several occasions argued that one of the biggest mistakes made during the period was to raise interest rates too early. In a speech on Milton Friedman's ninetieth birthday (November 8, 2002), Bernanke said, \"Let me end my talk by abusing slightly my status as an official representative of the Federal Reserve. I would like to say to Milton and Anna [Schwartz, Friedman's coauthor]: Regarding the Great Depression. You're right, we did it. We're very sorry. But thanks to you, we won't do it again.\" \n\nBernanke has cited Milton Friedman and Anna Schwartz in his decision to lower interest rates to zero. Anna Schwartz, however, was highly critical of Bernanke and wrote an opinion piece in the New York Times advising Obama against his reappointment as chair of the Federal Reserve. Bernanke focused less on the role of the Federal Reserve and more on the role of private banks and financial institutions. \n\nBernanke found that the financial disruptions of 1930–33 reduced the efficiency of the credit allocation process; and that the resulting higher cost and reduced availability of credit acted to depress aggregate demand, identifying an effect he called the financial accelerator. When faced with a mild downturn, banks are likely to significantly cut back lending and other risky ventures. This further hurts the economy, creating a vicious cycle and potentially turning a mild recession into a major depression. Economist Brad DeLong, who had previously advocated his own theory for the Great Depression, notes that the current financial crisis has raised the pertinence of Bernanke's theory. \n\nIn 2002, following coverage of concerns about deflation in the business news, Bernanke gave a speech about the topic. In that speech, he mentioned that the government in a fiat money system owns the physical means of creating money and to maintain market liquidity. Control of the money supply implies that the government can always avoid deflation by simply issuing more money. He said \"The U.S. government has a technology, called a printing press (or today, its electronic equivalent), that allows it to produce as many U.S. dollars as it wishes at no cost.\"\n\nHe referred to a statement made by Milton Friedman about using a \"helicopter drop\" of money into the economy to fight deflation. Bernanke's critics have since referred to him as \"Helicopter Ben\" or to his \"helicopter printing press.\" In a footnote to his speech, Bernanke noted that \"people know that inflation erodes the real value of the government's debt and, therefore, that it is in the interest of the government to create some inflation.\"\n\nFor example, while Greenspan publicly supported President Clinton's deficit reduction plan and the Bush tax cuts, Bernanke, when questioned about taxation policy, said that it was none of his business, his exclusive remit being monetary policy, and said that fiscal policy and wider society related issues were what politicians were for and got elected for. But Bernanke has been identified by The Wall Street Journal and a close colleague as a \"libertarian-Republican\" in the mold of Alan Greenspan.\n\nIn 2005 Bernanke coined the term saving glut, the idea that relatively high level of worldwide savings was holding down interest rates and financing the current account deficits of the United States. (Alternative reasons include relatively low worldwide investment coupled with low U.S. savings.)\n\nAs the recession began to deepen in 2007, many economists urged Bernanke (and the rest of the Federal Open Market Committee) to lower the federal funds rate below what it had done. For example, Larry Summers, later named Director of the White House's National Economic Council under President Obama, wrote in the Financial Times on November 26, 2007—in a column in which he argued that recession was likely—that \"... maintaining demand must be the macro-economic priority. That means the Federal Reserve System has to get ahead of the curve and recognize—as the market already has—that levels of the Federal Funds rate that were neutral when the financial system was working normally are quite contractionary today.\" \n\nDavid Leonhardt of The New York Times wrote, on January 30, 2008, that \"Dr. Bernanke's forecasts have been too sunny over the last six months. [On] the other hand, his forecast was a lot better than Wall Street's in mid-2006. Back then, he resisted calls for further interest rate increases because he thought the economy might be weakening.\" \n\nAfter the Federal Reserve\n\nIn a speech at the American Economics Association conference in January 2014, Bernanke reflected on his tenure as chairman of the Federal Reserve. He expressed his hope that economic growth was building momentum and stated that he was confident that the central bank would be able to withdraw its support smoothly. \n\nIn an October 2014 speech, Bernanke disclosed that he was unsuccessful in efforts to refinance his home. He suggested that lenders \"may have gone a little bit too far on mortgage credit conditions\". \n\nSince February 2014, Bernanke has been employed as a Distinguished Fellow in Residence with the Economic Studies Program at the Brookings Institution. \n\nOn April 16, 2015, it was announced publicly that Bernanke will work with Citadel, the $25 billion hedge fund founded by billionaire Kenneth C. Griffin, as a senior adviser. \n\nIn his 2015 book, The Courage to Act, Bernanke revealed that he was no longer a Republican, having \"lost patience with Republicans' susceptibility to the know-nothing-ism of the far right. ... I view myself now as a moderate independent, and I think that's where I'll stay.\" \n\nStatements on deficit reduction and reform of Social Security / Medicare\n\nBernanke favors reducing the U.S. budget deficit, particularly by reforming the Social Security and Medicare entitlement programs. During a speech delivered on April 7, 2010, he warned that the U.S. must soon develop a \"credible\" plan to address the pending funding crisis faced by \"entitlement programs such as Social Security and Medicare\" or \"in the longer run we will have neither financial stability nor healthy economic growth.\" Bernanke said that formulation of such a plan would help the economy now, even if actual implementation of the plan might have to wait until the economic outlook improves.\n\nHis remarks were most likely intended for the federal government's executive and legislative branches, since entitlement reform is a fiscal exercise that will be accomplished by the Congress and the President rather than a monetary task falling within the implementation powers of the Federal Reserve. Bernanke also pointed out that deficit reduction will necessarily consist of either raising taxes, cutting entitlement payments and other government spending, or some combination of both.\n\nAwards and honors\n\n*Fellow of the Econometric Society (1997)\n*Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2001)\n*Order of the Palmetto (2006)\n*Distinguished Leadership in Government Award, Columbia Business School (2008) \n*In 2009, the South Carolina Department of Transportation (SCDOT) Commission approved a resolution on February 21 to name Exit 190 along Interstate Highway 95 in Dillon County the Ben Bernanke Interchange. \n*In 2009, he was named the TIME magazine person of the year.\n\nIn media\n\nBernanke is portrayed by actor Paul Giamatti in the HBO film Too Big to Fail.\n\nBibliography\n\n*\n*\n*\n*\n*([http://press.princeton.edu/titles/6817.html Description], [http://press.princeton.edu/TOCs/c6817.html TOC], and [http://press.princeton.edu/chapters/s6817.html preview of ch. 1, \"The Macroeconomics of the Great Depression\"])\n*\n*\n*\n*" ] }

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{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe" ], "filename": [ "Gilligan's_Island.txt" ], "title": [ "Gilligan's Island" ], "wiki_context": [ "Gilligan's Island is an American sitcom created and produced by Sherwood Schwartz via United Artists Television. The show had an ensemble cast that featured Bob Denver, Alan Hale, Jr., Jim Backus, Natalie Schafer, Russell Johnson, Tina Louise, and Dawn Wells. It aired for three seasons on the CBS network from September 26, 1964, to April 17, 1967. Originally sponsored by Philip Morris & Co and Procter & Gamble, the show followed the comic adventures of seven castaways as they attempted to survive the island on which they had been shipwrecked. Most episodes revolve around the dissimilar castaways' conflicts and their unsuccessful attempts, for whose failure Gilligan was frequently responsible, to escape their plight.\n\nGilligan's Island ran for a total of 98 episodes. The first season, consisting of 36 episodes, was filmed in black and white. These episodes were later colorized for syndication. The show's second and third seasons (62 episodes) and the three television movie sequels were filmed in color.\n\nThe show received solid ratings during its original run, then grew in popularity during decades of syndication, especially in the 1970s and 1980s when many markets ran the show in the late afternoon after school. Today, the title character of Gilligan is widely recognized as an American cultural icon.\n\nPremise\n\nThe two-man crew of the charter boat SS Minnow and five passengers on a \"three-hour tour\" from Honolulu run into a tropical storm and are shipwrecked on an uncharted island somewhere in the Pacific Ocean.\n\nUncharted island\n\nThe island was close enough to Hawaii to clearly pick up Hawaiian AM radio transmissions on a portable receiver. The location given in the series varies.\n\nIn the first season episode \"'X' Marks the Spot\", the radio warns that the Air Force will test launch an armed missile to strike a location near 140° latitude, 10° longitude. The Skipper calculates this as their island's location, based on their starting point when the storm hit before they \"... drifted for that three days... with the prevailing western current...\", meaning the deadly missile will hit the island.\n\nLater in the first season, the episode \"Big Man on Little Stick\" has the Professor giving the position as \"approximately 110° longitude and 10° latitude\".\n\nIn the third season episode \"The Pigeon\", the island is placed about southeast of Honolulu.\n\nCast and characters\n\n* Bob Denver is First Mate Gilligan, the bumbling, accident-prone crewman (affectionately known as \"Little Buddy\" by \"the Skipper\") of the SS Minnow. Denver was not the first choice to play Gilligan; actor Jerry Van Dyke was offered the role, but he turned it down, believing that the show would never be successful. He chose instead to play the lead in My Mother the Car, which premiered the following year and was cancelled after one season. The producers looked to Bob Denver, the actor who had played Maynard G. Krebs, the goofy but lovable beatnik in The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis. None of the show's episodes ever specified Gilligan's full name or clearly indicated whether \"Gilligan\" was the character's first name or his last. In the DVD collection, Sherwood Schwartz states that he preferred the full name of \"Willy Gilligan\" for the character. Denver, on various television/radio interviews (The Pat Sajak Show; KDKA radio), said that \"Gil Egan\" was his choice. The actor reasoned that because everyone yelled at the first mate, it ran together as \"Gilligan.\" In the unaired pilot episode, whether Lovey Howell refers to Gilligan as \"Stewart\" or steward is unclear. On Rescue from Gilligan's Island, the writers artfully dodged Gilligan's full name when the other names are announced. Little is revealed about Gilligan's past, except his occasional reference to best friend Skinny Mulligan.\n* Alan Hale, Jr. is The Skipper/Captain Jonas Grumby, the captain of the S.S. Minnow. Alan Hale Jr. was a longtime actor in B-Westerns and the look-alike son of Alan Hale, Sr., a legendary movie character actor. Hale so loved his role that, long after the show went off the air, he still appeared in character in his Los Angeles restaurant, Alan Hale's Lobster Barrel. Although the Skipper was a father figure to Gilligan, Hale was only 14 years older than Denver. Gilligan pushed the Skipper out of the way of a loose depth charge when they were both serving in the United States Navy. Skipper is a World War II veteran, and served in the Seventh Fleet. In one episode, he describes his participation in the Battle of Guadalcanal. In the episode \"They're Off and Running\" (season 1 episode 28), Ginger is reading from a horoscope magazine and asks the Skipper his birthday, to which he responds, \"May 5th.\" In moments of exasperation, the Skipper would swat Gilligan on the head with his cap. Just as often, the Skipper endearingly called Gilligan \"Little Buddy\". In addition, Hale wore his Skipper outfit when four other Gilligan's Island cast members and he appeared on a few celebrity Family Feud shows.\n* Jim Backus is Thurston Howell III, the millionaire. Backus was already a well-known character actor when he took the part. The origin of the super-rich Howell character dates back to 1949 radio when Backus portrayed \"Hubert Updike III\" on The Alan Young Show. Also, in the inaugural 1962-63 season (episode 31) of The Beverly Hillbillies, Backus basically plays the same character, this time as the eccentric millionaire Martin von Ransohoff. In the 1963 movie It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World, Backus played Tyler Fitzgerald, a boozy and rich airplane owner who briefly gets caught up in the race for the money. He was perhaps best known as the voice of the cartoon character Mr. Magoo. He reused some of the voice inflections and mannerisms of Magoo in the role. He was well known for his ad-libs on the set. The character Howell was a Harvard graduate, a Republican, and a multibillionaire until his losses in the Great Depression left him a multimillionaire.\n* Natalie Schafer is Eunice Lovelle Wentworth Howell, Thurston's wife, whom he affectionately called \"Lovey\". Schafer had it written into her contract that no close-ups would be made of her, perhaps because of her age. Schafer was 63 when the pilot was shot, although reportedly no one on the set or in the cast knew her real age and she refused to divulge it. Originally, she only accepted the role because the pilot was filmed on location in Hawaii. She looked at the job as nothing more than a free vacation, as she was convinced that a show this silly would \"never go.\"\n* Tina Louise is Ginger Grant, the movie star. Louise clashed with producer Sherwood Schwartz because she believed that she was hired as the central character. Her character was originally written as a hard-nosed, sharp-tongued temptress, but Louise argued that this portrayal was too harsh and refused to play it as written. A compromise was reached; Louise agreed to play her as a Marilyn Monroe/Jayne Mansfield type. The evening gowns and hairstyle used were designed to recreate the look of Myrna Loy. Louise continued to clash with producers over her role and was the only cast member who refused to return for any of the post-series TV movies, saying that the role had killed her career as a serious actress. However, she did appear in a reunion of the cast on a late-night television talk show in 1988 and on an episode of Roseanne in 1995 when the Roseanne cast re-enacted Gilligan's Island. In the first season, Ginger often wore gowns that looked as if they were tailored from Minnow tarpaulins or similar substitute cloth (some had the name of the vessel stenciled on them). In the pilot episode, the character of Ginger (then a secretary) was played by actress Kit Smythe.\n* Russell Johnson is Professor Roy Hinkley, Ph.D.. John Gabriel was originally cast, but the network thought he looked too young to have all the degrees attributed to the Professor. Actually, \"the Professor\" was in fact a high school science teacher, not a university professor. In the first episode, the radio announcer describes him as a research scientist and well known scoutmaster. Johnson, who served as a bombardier in the Pacific during World War II, stated that he had some difficulty remembering his more technically oriented lines. Johnson's role in the series was spoofed in a \"Bloom County\" comic strip for the Professor's technical expertise being unable to get the castaways off the island. This odd contradiction was played up in \"Weird Al\" Yankovic's parody song, \"Isle Thing\", when the Professor, who is brilliant enough to \"make a nuclear reactor from a couple of coconuts\" cannot \"build a lousy raft\". In his autobiography, Here On Gilligan's Isle, Russell Johnson admitted the Professor indeed for all his smarts could not build a boat, but despite popular beliefs stated in the aforementioned Bloom County strip or the \"Weird Al\" parody song, firmly added the Professor also did not build a nuclear reactor from coconuts nor a satellite dish from clam shells.\n* Dawn Wells is Mary Ann Summers. Wells was a former Miss Nevada when she auditioned for the role. Her competition included Raquel Welch and Patricia Ann Priest. The pilot episode had a different character (\"Bunny\") played by actress Nancy McCarthy. After it was shot, the network decided to recast the roles of the Professor and the two young women. Mary Ann became a simple farm girl from Winfield, Kansas. In 1993, Wells published Mary Ann's Gilligan's Island Cookbook with co-writers Ken Beck and Jim Clark, including a foreword by Bob Denver. In February 2007, she starred as Lovey Howell in Gilligan's Island: The Musical, a musical stage adaptation of the TV show.\n* Charles Maxwell was the uncredited voice of the \"Radio Announcer\" (1964–65). The castaways listened to his plot-advancing radio bulletins in many episodes and always with perfect timing to hear the exact news they needed to know. Maxwell often paused between sentences, allowing the characters to react to his news and sometimes even responding to their comments. \n\nEpisodes\n\nPilot episode\n\nThe pilot episode, titled \"Marooned\", was filmed in November 1963. On November 22, the day of the John F. Kennedy assassination, the crew continued to work after hearing the shocking news.\n\nThe pilot featured seven characters (as in the series), but only four of the characters – and their associated actors – were carried forward into the series: Gilligan (Denver), the Skipper (Hale, Jr.), and the two Howells (Backus and Schafer). As it happens, only these four characters/actors were featured in the opening credits used in the pilot, with the remaining three characters only mentioned in the opening theme song as \"the other tourists\".\n\nDue to the three significant character and casting changes between the pilot episode and the first series episode, the pilot was not shown before the series first aired on 26 September 1964. The original pilot eventually aired on TBS on 16 October 1992, over 29 years later.\n\nThe three characters who did not carry forward from the pilot were two secretaries and a high school teacher. In the pilot, the scientifically inclined Professor was instead a high school teacher played by John Gabriel. Ginger the movie star was still red haired Ginger, but worked as a secretary, played by Kit Smythe. Mary Ann the Kansas farm girl was instead Bunny, Ginger's co-worker, played as a cheerful \"dumb blonde\" by Nancy McCarthy.\n\nThe pilot's opening and ending songs were two similar Calypso-styled tracks written by John Williams and performed by Sherwood Schwarz himself impersonating singer Sir Lancelot. The lyrics were quite different from those of the actual series. The short scenes during the opening theme song (which is longer than the series opening theme song) include Gilligan taking the Howells' luggage to the boat before cast-off and Gilligan attempting to give a cup of coffee to the Skipper during the storm that would ultimately maroon the boat.\n\nAfter the opening theme song and opening credits end, the pilot proper begins with the seven castaways waking up on the beached SS Minnow and continues with them performing various tasks, including exploring the island, attempting to fix the transmitter, building huts, and finding food. Contrary to some descriptions, no detailed accounts of the pilot characters' backgrounds were written into the pilot storylines. The pilot then ends with the ending theme song and ending credits.\n\nThe background music and even the laugh tracks of the pilot appear all but identical to those used during the series.\n\nFirst broadcast episode\n\nThe first episode actually broadcast, \"Two on a Raft\", is sometimes wrongly referred to as the series pilot. This episode begins with the same scene of Gilligan and the Skipper awakening on the boat as in the pilot (though slightly differently cut, to eliminate most shots of the departed actors) and continues with the characters sitting on the beach listening to a radio news report about their disappearance. No equivalent scene or background information is in the pilot, except for the description of the passengers in the original theme song. Rather than reshooting the rest of the pilot story for broadcast, the show just proceeded on. The plot thus skips over the topics of the pilot; the bulk of the episode tells of Gilligan and the Skipper setting off on a raft to try to bring help, but unknowingly landing back on the other side of the same island.\n\nThe scene with the radio report is one of two scenes that reveal the names of the Skipper (Jonas Grumby) and the Professor (Roy Hinkley); the names are used in a similar radio report early in the series. The name Jonas Grumby appears nowhere else in the series except for an episode in which the Maritime Board of Review blames the Skipper for the loss of the ship. The name Roy Hinkley is used one other time when Mr. Howell introduces the Professor as Roy Huntley and the professor corrects him, to which Mr. Howell replies, \"Brinkley, Brinkley.\"\n\nThe plot for the pilot episode was eventually recycled into that season's Christmas episode, \"Birds Gotta Fly, Fish Gotta Talk\", in which the story of the pilot episode, concerning the practical problems on landing, is related through a series of flashbacks. Footage featuring characters that had been recast was reshot using the current actors. For scenes including only Denver, Hale, Backus, and Schafer, the original footage was reused.\n\nLast broadcast episode\n\nThe last episode of the show, \"Gilligan the Goddess\", aired on April 17, 1967, and ended just like the rest, with the castaways still stranded on the island. It was not known at the time that it would be the series finale, as a fourth season was expected but then cancelled.\n\nIn its last year, Gilligan's Island was the lead-in program for the CBS Monday night schedule. It was followed for the first 16 weeks by the sitcom Run, Buddy, Run. The timeslot from 7:30 to 8:30 Eastern was filled in the 1967–68 season by Gunsmoke, moved from its traditional Saturday 10 pm timeslot.\n\nTypical plots\n\nThe shipwrecked castaways want to leave the remote island, and various opportunities present themselves. They typically fail owing to some bumbling error committed by Gilligan (with the exception of \"The Big Gold Strike\", where everyone except Gilligan is responsible for their failed escape). Sometimes this would result in Gilligan saving the others from some unforeseen flaw in their plan. \n\nRecurring elements center on one of five primary themes. The first deals with life on the island. A running gag is the castaways' ability to fashion a vast array of useful objects from bamboo and other local material. Some are simple everyday things, while others are stretches of the imagination. Russell Johnson noted in his autobiography that the production crew enjoyed the challenge of building these props. Some bamboo items include framed huts with thatched grass sides and roofs, along with bamboo closets strong enough to withstand hurricane-force winds and rain; the communal dining table and chairs, pipes for Gilligan's hot water, a stethoscope, and a pedal-powered car. Many scenes occur at the dining table, where the castaways enjoy a large number of dishes that Ginger and Mary Ann prepare while the radio provides news and entertainment. Gilligan and the Skipper often catch fish, and the island has citrus trees to avoid scurvy and a good supply of fresh water to drink and to prepare refreshing tropical drinks. Naturally, despite their obvious skill and inventiveness, the castaways never quite manage to put together a functional raft out of bamboo (or repair the hole in their original ship as the ship itself fell to pieces when they tried that in one episode), although in the television movie Rescue from Gilligan's Island, they do end up tying their huts together and using that as a raft for escape.\n\nThe second theme involves visitors to the \"uncharted\" island. One challenge to a viewer's suspension of disbelief is the frequency with which the castaways are visited by people who do nothing to assist them. Some have hidden motives for not assisting the castaways. Others are simply unable to help, incompetent, or are foiled in their efforts to help the castaways by Gilligan's bumbling. Bob Denver, Jim Backus, and Tina Louise each had feature episodes in which look-alikes come to the island (who were, of course, played by themselves in dual roles). The island itself is also home to an unusual assortment of animal life, some native, some visiting.\n\nThe third recurring theme is the use of dream sequences in which one of the castaways \"dreams\" he or she is some character related to that week's storyline. All of the castaways appeared as other characters within the dream. In later interviews and memoirs, almost all of the actors stated that the dream episodes were among their personal favorites.\n\nThe fourth recurring theme is a piece of news concerning the castaways arriving from the outside world that causes discord among them. Then, a second piece of news arrives that says the first was incorrect. An exception to the latter part of this statement is the episode \"The Postman Cometh\", where Gilligan and the Skipper hear over the radio that Mary Ann's boyfriend eloped and the three single men try to cheer her up by wooing her; Mary Ann actually lied about having a boyfriend, and she created a romance with \"a real creep\" so that the others would think she had someone waiting for her back home.\n\nThe fifth recurring theme is the appearance or arrival of strange objects, like a WWII mine or a \"Mars Rover\" that the scientists back in the USA think is sending them pictures of Mars, and in one episode a meteorite.\n\nMost of the slapstick comedic sequences between Hale and Denver were heavily inspired by Laurel and Hardy, particularly by Hale breaking the fourth wall by looking directly into the camera expressing his frustration with Denver's clumsiness as Oliver Hardy often did. \n\nProduction\n\nFilming of the show took place at the CBS Radford Studios complex in Studio City, Los Angeles. The same stage was later used for The Mary Tyler Moore Show and Roseanne (which featured Gilligan's Island prominently on one episode). The lagoon was drained and used as a parking lot during the show's off-season and was the last surviving element of the show when it was demolished in 1997 as part of an expansion project.\n\nFour different boats played the part of the S.S. Minnow. One was used in the opening credits and rented in Ala Wai Yacht Harbor in Honolulu. Another boat, the Bluejacket, was used in the opening credits shown during the second and third seasons and eventually turned up for sale on Vancouver Island in August 2006, after running aground on a reef in the Hecate Strait on the way south from Alaska. One boat was used for beach scenes after being towed to Kauai in Hawaii. The fourth Minnow was built on the CBS Studios set in the second season. The Minnow was named in reference to Newton Minow, chairman of the U.S. FCC, who was most famous for describing television as \"a vast wasteland\". \n\nThe final day of filming of the scenes of the pilot episode was Friday, November 22, 1963, the day of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. The cast and crew found out about the assassination late that morning, Hawaii time. Between the filming of scenes, they crowded around a radio, listening to news bulletins. A reminder of the tragedy appears in the opening sequence of the show's first season, when the theme song is played. As the Minnow is leaving the harbor and heading out to sea, an American flag flying at half staff can be seen briefly in the background. \n\nThe United States Coast Guard occasionally received telegrams from concerned citizens, who apparently did not realize it was a scripted show, pleading for them to rescue the people on the deserted island. The Coast Guard simply forwarded these telegrams to producer Sherwood Schwartz. \n\nTheme song\n\nThe music and lyrics for the theme song, \"The Ballad of Gilligan’s Isle\", were written by Sherwood Schwartz and George Wyle. One version was used for the first season and another for the second and third seasons. In the original song, the Professor and Mary Ann, originally considered \"second-billed co-stars\", were referred to as \"and the rest\", but with the growing popularity of those characters, their names were inserted into the lyrics. The Gilligan theme song underwent this one major change due to star Bob Denver, who personally went to the studio executives and asked that Johnson and Wells be added to the theme song's opening credits. When the studio at first refused, saying it would be too expensive to reshoot, Denver insisted, even saying that if Johnson and Wells were not included, he wanted his name out of the song, as well. The studio caved in, and \"the Professor and Mary Ann\" were added. \n\nThe first-season version was recorded by the folk group The Wellingtons. The second-season version, which incorporated more of a sea shanty sound, was uncredited, but according to Russell Johnson in his book Here on Gilligan's Isle, it was performed by a group called the Eligibles. \n\nThe show's original pilot episode featured a Calypso theme song by future film composer John Williams, and different lyrics. The original length of the voyage was \"a six-hour ride\", not \"a three-hour tour\". John Williams (or Johnny Williams as he was often listed in the show credits) also started out as the composer of the incidental music for the show (from 1964 to 1965), but was replaced by Gerald Fried for the remaining seasons (1965–67). \n\nThe band Little Roger and the Goosebumps recorded \"Stairway to Gilligan's Island,\" a parody of Led Zeppelin's \"Stairway to Heaven\", substituting the words to the Gilligan's Island theme song. \"Weird Al\" Yankovic recorded a song called \"Isle Thing\", a parody of Tone Lōc's \"Wild Thing\", about a rapper whose girlfriend introduces him to the show. Yankovic also used one verse from the closing theme lyrics in \"Amish Paradise\" (1996), a parody of Coolio's \"Gangsta's Paradise\" (1995). The song has also been covered by many bands, including Bowling for Soup for the TBS show The Real Gilligan's Island. Israel Kamakawiwo'ole also recorded a comic tribute to the theme song on his album E Ala E.\n\nCancellation\n\nDuring the 1966–67 television season, Gilligan's Island aired on Monday nights at 7:30 pm. Though the sitcom's ratings had fallen well out of the top-30 programs, during the last few weeks of its third season, the series was more than holding its own against its chief competitor, The Monkees, which aired at the same time on NBC-TV. Therefore, CBS assured Sherwood Schwartz that Gilligan's Island would definitely be picked up for a fourth year.\n\nHowever, CBS had signaled its intention to cancel the long-running Western series Gunsmoke, which had been airing late on Saturday nights during the 1966–67 television season. Under pressure from CBS network president William S. Paley and his wife Babe, along with many network affiliates and longtime fans of Gunsmoke, CBS rescheduled the Western to an earlier time slot on Monday evenings at 7:30 pm. As a result, Gilligan's Island was quietly cancelled at practically the last minute, while the cast members were all on vacation. Some of the cast had bought houses based on Sherwood Schwartz's verbal confirmation that the series would be renewed for a fourth season.\n\nThe nearly cancelled Gunsmoke thrived in the new timeslot, vaulting to the top five in the television rankings (far exceeding Gilligan's Island) and staying in the top ten for six consecutive seasons, finally being cancelled after a total of eight additional seasons.\n\nNielsen ratings/television schedule\n\nFilm sequels\n\nIn a 1978 made-for-television movie, Rescue from Gilligan's Island, the castaways do successfully leave the island, but have difficulty reintegrating back into society. During a reunion cruise on the first Christmas after their rescue, fate intervenes and they find themselves wrecked on the same island at the end of the film. It starred the original cast except for Tina Louise, who refused to participate due to her disputes with the producers and was replaced by Judith Baldwin. The plot involved Soviet agents seeking a memory disc from a spy satellite that landed on the island and facilitated their rescue.\n\nIn a 1979 sequel, The Castaways on Gilligan's Island, they are rescued once again, and the Howells convert the island into a getaway resort with the other five castaways as \"silent partners\". Ginger was again played by Judith Baldwin. This sequel was intended as a pilot for a possible new series in which the castaways would host new groups of tourists each week, using the all-star cast anthology format made popular by Fantasy Island and The Love Boat. The series never materialized, though the premise was the basis of a short-lived 1981 series titled Aloha Paradise.\n\nIn a second sequel, The Harlem Globetrotters on Gilligan's Island (1981), villains played by Martin Landau and then-wife Barbara Bain (who also appeared together on Mission: Impossible and Space: 1999) try to take over the island to gain access to a vein of supremium, a valuable but volatile element. This time, Ginger was played by Constance Forslund. They are thwarted by the timely intervention of the Harlem Globetrotters. Jim Backus, who was in poor health at the time, only appeared at the very end, arriving back on the island. David Ruprecht played the role of Thurston Howell IV, though the series had established that the Howells were childless. Unlike the previous two movies, The Harlem Globetrotters on Gilligan's Island used a laugh track like the original series.\n\nSpin-offs\n\nThe New Adventures of Gilligan was a Filmation-produced animated remake that aired on ABC on Saturday mornings from September 7, 1974, to September 4, 1977, for 24 episodes (16 installments airing in 1974–75 and eight new ones combined with repeats in 1975–76). The voices were done by the original cast except for Ginger and Mary Ann (both were voiced by Jane Webb). Dawn Wells could not voice her own character due to an on-the-road play. An additional character was Gilligan's pet Snubby the Monkey.\n\nGilligan's Planet was an animated science-fiction version produced by Filmation and starring the voices of the Gilligan's Island cast, save for Tina Louise (Dawn Wells voiced both Mary Ann and Ginger). In a follow-up to The New Adventures of Gilligan, the castaways escape from the island by building a spaceship, and get shipwrecked on a distant planet. Only 12 episodes aired on CBS between September 18, 1982, and September 3, 1983. In the episode \"Let Sleeping Minnows Lie\", they travel to an island, get shipwrecked there, and Gilligan observes, \"First we were stranded on an island, then we were stranded on a planet, and now we're stranded on an island on a planet.\"\n\nDusty's Trail was a series produced and created by Sherwood Schwartz. Based on characters from Gilligan's Island, it also starred Bob Denver as Dusty, a mumbling, bumbling scout for a wagon train, with Forrest Tucker as the wagon master, a rich couple (Mr. and Mrs. Brookhaven), a smart science professor, a school teacher, and a saloon girl. The series aired from September 11, 1973, to March 12, 1974, in broadcast syndication. The series was canceled after its first season, having run for 26 episodes. In the series, a wagon and stagecoach are separated from a wagon train and must find their way to California, facing troubles along the way.\n\nAppearances in other TV shows\n\nALF featured an episode in 1987 called \"The Ballad of Gilligan's Island\" in which the alien dreams he is on the island after getting familiar with the show and meets the featured castaways. Bob Denver, Alan Hale, Dawn Wells, and Russell Johnson portray darkly-skewed versions of their characters after being stuck on the island for 23 years. During ALF's dream, Gilligan was shown as getting tired of being called \"Little Buddy\", and the Professor argues with the Skipper on how his ideas to get off the island were ruined by Gilligan. The Howells are explained as having set up a camp on the other side of the island, with no references to Ginger. Skipper puts ALF to work digging a hole for their minigolf course (the opposite of ALF's order from Willie Tanner to fill in the lagoon he dug in his backyard) to compete with the Howells' golf course. The Professor was also shown to have successfully made a television on which they watch sitcom versions of the Tanner family.\n\nIn an unaired episode of the short-lived 1997 CBS sitcom Meego, Gilligan, the Professor, and Mary Ann all appear, played by the original actors, and Gilligan yells, \"We've been trapped here for 35 years!\" This episode did not air in the US because CBS canceled the series after six episodes aired.\n\nBaywatch, season 2, episode 16, \"Now Sit Back and You'll Hear a Tale\" (1992) features Bob Denver and Dawn Wells as Gilligan and Mary Ann as part of Eddie's dream.\n\nIn Newhart a men's lodge called the \"Beavers\" is watching Gilligan's Island when they have to leave before seeing the end. One member -played by Russell Johnson- wants to know how the episode ends: He is assured that the castaways never get off the island! \n\nRoseanne (which was shot on the same Studio City sound stage as Gilligan's Island) had an episode titled \"Sherwood Schwartz: A Loving Tribute\". Part of the episode is a fantasy sequence parodying this series. Most of the regular/recurring Roseanne cast portrayed the Gilligan's Island characters:\n* Jackie (Laurie Metcalf) / Gilligan\n* Dan (John Goodman) / Skipper\n* Leon (Martin Mull) / Mr. Howell\n* Bev (Estelle Parsons) / Mrs. Howell\n* Roseanne (Roseanne Barr) / Ginger\n* Mark (Glenn Quinn) / Professor\n* Darlene (Sara Gilbert) / Mary Ann\n\nDuring the end credits, Tina Louise, Bob Denver, Russell Johnson, and Dawn Wells appeared as their Roseanne character counterparts. Sherwood Schwartz also appeared as himself, although his appearance is edited out in syndication.\n\nReunions and documentaries\n\nGood Morning America featured a Gilligan's Island reunion presided over by guest host Kathie Lee Gifford on November 26, 1982. This was the first time that the entire cast had been reunited (including Tina Louise), though Jim Backus was not able to be physically present. He was able to join the cast via a live video remote from Los Angeles.\n\nThe original cast members (along with Sherwood Schwartz) reunited on television for one last time on a 1988 episode of The Late Show with Ross Shafer.\n\nGilligan's Island: Underneath the Grass Skirt is a 1999 documentary featuring Denver and Louise.\n\nE! True Hollywood Story presented a backstage history of the show in 2000, featuring interviews with some of the stars or their widows.\n\nSurviving Gilligan's Island (2001) was a docudrama in which Bob Denver, Dawn Wells, and Russell Johnson reminisce about the show.\n\nClones, parodies, allusions etc.\n\n* Gilligan's Island: The Musical was first produced in the early 1990s, with a script by Lloyd Schwartz, Sherwood Schwartz's son, and songs by Schwartz's daughter and son-in-law, Hope and Laurence Juber. After extensive revisions, since 2001 it has been produced at various theaters around the U.S.\n* The VeggieTales episode \"God Wants Me to Forgive THEM!?!\" featured a parody of Gilligan's Island with Larry the Cucumber as Gilligan and Bob the Tomato as The Skipper.\n* \"Weird Al\" Yankovic used one verse verbatim from the Gilligan's Island theme in his single and video Amish Paradise (1996), which was a parody of Coolio's \"Gangsta Paradise\" (1995). The verse was: \"There's no phone, no lights, no motorcar/Not a single luxury/Like Robinson Crusoe/It's as primitive as can be...\"\n* In 2000, the Comedy Channel series, The Man Show, explored the long-standing controversy \"Mary Ann vs. Ginger\". Dawn Wells portrayed herself in island attire, while the Man Show gave their version of the issue. The episode was \"The Beach Show\", season 2, episode 7.\n* Gilligan's Wake is a 2003 parallel novel loosely based on the 1960s CBS sitcom, from the viewpoints of the seven major characters, written by Esquire film and television critic Tom Carson. The title is derived from the title of the TV show and Finnegans Wake, the seminal work of Irish novelist James Joyce.\n* On November 30, 2004, the TBS network launched a reality series titled The Real Gilligan's Island, which placed two groups of people on an island, leaving them to fend for themselves à la Survivor – the catch being that each islander matched a character type established in the original series (a klutz, a sea captain, a movie star, a millionaire's wife, etc.). While heavily marketed by TBS, the show turned out to be a flop with a very Survivor-like feel, but little of its success. A second season began June 8, 2005, with two-hour episodes for four weeks. TBS announced in July 2005 that a third season of the show would not be produced.\n\nSyndication\n\nCurrently, syndication is handled by Warner Bros. Television (under Turner Entertainment Co., which in 1986 acquired UA's share of the series as part of the classic MGM library). It has aired on TBS from 1990 to 2003, where it also aired with colorization on season one for a while. TNT aired it at some point in the 1990s, and also aired the colorized season one. Nick at Nite later aired the series from 2000 to 2001. It then shifted to TV Land, where it aired from 2001 to 2003 (and again from January to June 2014). Then, in 2004, it aired on Hallmark Channel.\n\nAs of 2015, the show airs nationally on both TV Land and Me-TV.\n\nDVD releases\n\nWarner Home Video released all three seasons of Gilligan's Island on DVD in Region 1 between 2004 and 2005. The Complete First Season features all 36 episodes unedited with the original theme song. And, unlike other releases of older sitcoms, the episodes are in their original black-and-white format. The special features include the rare pilot episode with commentary with creator Sherwood Schwartz, and three other featurettes.\n\nThe Complete Second Season includes all 32 season-two episodes and mentions in an interesting way that this season is in color. Bonuses for this set include: a season-two introduction with Russell Johnson and Sherwood Schwartz and audio commentary on the season's third episode, \"The Little Dictator\".\n\nThe Complete Third Season includes all 30 season-three episodes and uses words from the theme song on the back: \"Just sit right back... for the final season!\" Special features include a season introduction with Russell Johnson and Sherwood Schwartz, commentary on the season's fourth episode, \"The Producer\", guest-starring Phil Silvers, and a 15-minute documentary entitled Gilligan's Island: A Pop Culture Phenomenon.\n\nThe Complete Series Collection contains all the same bonuses and featurettes, no added features for a complete series box set. All these releases were double-sided discs, and came in boxed sets.\n\nIn April 2012, the series was reissued in new DVD releases, with six episodes per disc and six discs per season, except for season 3, which only has five.\n\nIn other media\n\nA video game based on the series called The Adventures of Gilligan's Island was released for the Nintendo Entertainment System in July 1990. The game features the likenesses of all the original castaways except for Ginger, who is completely absent from the game.\n \nA pinball machine, manufactured by BALLY, based on the show was released in May 1991.\n\nFilm remake\n\nRights to the series were purchased, with an eye towards creating a movie scheduled for release March 30, 2012. When Sherwood Schwartz signed a deal granting all rights to the movie, he reportedly said, \"[It] just happened in the last 48 hours. I can’t take this much excitement at my age.\" Schwartz also said he would love to see Michael Cera as Gilligan and Beyoncé Knowles as Ginger. \n\nOn December 17, 2013, deadline.com reported that Josh Gad would star and co-write the film with Benji Samit and Dan Hernandez. \n\nGinger or Mary Ann?\n\nThe question of which of these two characters men prefer has endured long after the end of the series. (HighBeam subscription may be required) The question has inspired commercials, essays, videos, and a sermon. By most accounts, the wholesome, down-to-earth Mary Ann has consistently outpolled Ginger by a sizable margin. Bob Denver admitted he was a Mary Ann fan. According to Bob Denver in a 2001 interview, Wells received 3,000–5,000 fan letters weekly, whereas Louise may have gotten 1,500 or 2,000." ] }

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{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe", "Search" ], "filename": [ "President_of_the_United_States.txt", "Theodore_Roosevelt.txt" ], "title": [ "President of the United States", "Theodore Roosevelt" ], "wiki_context": [ "The President of the United States of America (POTUS) is the elected head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces.\n\nThe President of the United States is considered one of the world's most powerful people, leading the world's only contemporary superpower. The role includes being the commander-in-chief of the world's most expensive military with the largest nuclear arsenal and leading the nation with the largest economy by real and nominal GDP. The office of the president holds significant hard and soft power both in the United States and abroad.\n\nArticle II of the U.S. Constitution vests the executive power of the United States in the president. The power includes execution of federal law, alongside the responsibility of appointing federal executive, diplomatic, regulatory and judicial officers, and concluding treaties with foreign powers with the advice and consent of the Senate. The president is further empowered to grant federal pardons and reprieves, and to convene and adjourn either or both houses of Congress under extraordinary circumstances. The president is largely responsible for dictating the legislative agenda of the party to which the president is enrolled. The president also directs the foreign and domestic policy of the United States. Since the founding of the United States, the power of the president and the federal government has grown substantially. \n\nThe president is indirectly elected by the people through the Electoral College to a four-year term, and is one of only two nationally elected federal officers, the other being the Vice President of the United States. The Twenty-second Amendment, adopted in 1951, prohibits anyone from ever being elected to the presidency for a third full term. It also prohibits a person from being elected to the presidency more than once if that person previously had served as president, or acting president, for more than two years of another person's term as president. In all, 43 individuals have served 44 presidencies (counting Cleveland's two non-consecutive terms separately) spanning 56 full four-year terms. On January 20, 2009, Barack Obama became the 44th and current president. On November 6, 2012, he was re-elected and is currently serving the 57th term. The next presidential election is scheduled to take place on November 8, 2016; on January 20, 2017, the newly elected president will take office.\n\nOrigin\n\nIn 1776, the Thirteen Colonies, acting through the Second Continental Congress, declared political independence from Great Britain during the American Revolution. The new states, though independent of each other as nation states, recognized the necessity of closely coordinating their efforts against the British. Desiring to avoid anything that remotely resembled a monarchy, Congress negotiated the Articles of Confederation to establish a weak alliance between the states. As a central authority, Congress under the Articles was without any legislative power; it could make its own resolutions, determinations, and regulations, but not any laws, nor any taxes or local commercial regulations enforceable upon citizens. This institutional design reflected the conception of how Americans believed the deposed British system of Crown and Parliament ought to have functioned with respect to the royal dominion: a superintending body for matters that concerned the entire empire. Out from under any monarchy, the states assigned some formerly royal prerogatives (e.g., making war, receiving ambassadors, etc.) to Congress, while severally lodging the rest within their own respective state governments. Only after all the states agreed to a resolution settling competing western land claims did the Articles take effect on March 1, 1781, when Maryland became the final state to ratify them.\n\nIn 1783, the Treaty of Paris secured independence for each of the former colonies. With peace at hand, the states each turned toward their own internal affairs. By 1786, Americans found their continental borders besieged and weak, their respective economies in crises as neighboring states agitated trade rivalries with one another, witnessed their hard currency pouring into foreign markets to pay for imports, their Mediterranean commerce preyed upon by North African pirates, and their foreign-financed Revolutionary War debts unpaid and accruing interest. Civil and political unrest loomed.\n\nFollowing the successful resolution of commercial and fishing disputes between Virginia and Maryland at the Mount Vernon Conference in 1785, Virginia called for a trade conference between all the states, set for September 1786 in Annapolis, Maryland, with an aim toward resolving further-reaching interstate commercial antagonisms. When the convention failed for lack of attendance due to suspicions among most of the other states, the Annapolis delegates called for a convention to offer revisions to the Articles, to be held the next spring in Philadelphia. Prospects for the next convention appeared bleak until James Madison and Edmund Randolph succeeded in securing George Washington's attendance to Philadelphia as a delegate for Virginia.\n\nWhen the Constitutional Convention convened in May 1787, the 12 state delegations in attendance (Rhode Island did not send delegates) brought with them an accumulated experience over a diverse set of institutional arrangements between legislative and executive branches from within their respective state governments. Most states maintained a weak executive without veto or appointment powers, elected annually by the legislature to a single term only, sharing power with an executive council, and countered by a strong legislature. New York offered the greatest exception, having a strong, unitary governor with veto and appointment power elected to a three-year term, and eligible for reelection to an indefinite number of terms thereafter. It was through the closed-door negotiations at Philadelphia that the presidency framed in the U.S. Constitution emerged.\n\nPowers and duties\n\nArticle I legislative role\n\nThe first power the Constitution confers upon the president is the veto. The Presentment Clause requires any bill passed by Congress to be presented to the president before it can become law. Once the legislation has been presented, the president has three options:\n# Sign the legislation; the bill then becomes law.\n# Veto the legislation and return it to Congress, expressing any objections; the bill does not become law, unless each house of Congress votes to override the veto by a two-thirds vote.\n# Take no action. In this instance, the president neither signs nor vetoes the legislation. After 10 days, not counting Sundays, two possible outcomes emerge:\n#* If Congress is still convened, the bill becomes law.\n#* If Congress has adjourned, thus preventing the return of the legislation, the bill does not become law. This latter outcome is known as the pocket veto.\n\nIn 1996, Congress attempted to enhance the president's veto power with the Line Item Veto Act. The legislation empowered the president to sign any spending bill into law while simultaneously striking certain spending items within the bill, particularly any new spending, any amount of discretionary spending, or any new limited tax benefit. Congress could then repass that particular item. If the president then vetoed the new legislation, Congress could override the veto by its ordinary means, a two-thirds vote in both houses. In Clinton v. City of New York, , the U.S. Supreme Court ruled such a legislative alteration of the veto power to be unconstitutional.\n\nArticle II executive powers\n\nWar and foreign affairs powers\n\nPerhaps the most important of all presidential powers is the command of the United States Armed Forces as its commander-in-chief. While the power to declare war is constitutionally vested in Congress, the president has ultimate responsibility for direction and disposition of the military. The present-day operational command of the Armed Forces (belonging to the Department of Defense) is normally exercised through the Secretary of Defense, with assistance of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, to the Combatant Commands, as outlined in the presidentially approved Unified Command Plan (UCP). The framers of the Constitution took care to limit the president's powers regarding the military; Alexander Hamilton explains this in Federalist No. 69: Congress, pursuant to the War Powers Resolution, must authorize any troop deployments longer than 60 days, although that process relies on triggering mechanisms that have never been employed, rendering it ineffectual. Additionally, Congress provides a check to presidential military power through its control over military spending and regulation. While historically presidents initiated the process for going to war, critics have charged that there have been several conflicts in which presidents did not get official declarations, including Theodore Roosevelt's military move into Panama in 1903, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and the invasions of Grenada in 1983 and Panama in 1990.\n\nAlong with the armed forces, the president also directs U.S. foreign policy. Through the Department of State and the Department of Defense, the president is responsible for the protection of Americans abroad and of foreign nationals in the United States. The president decides whether to recognize new nations and new governments, and negotiates treaties with other nations, which become binding on the United States when approved by two-thirds vote of the Senate.\n\nAlthough not constitutionally provided, presidents also sometimes employ \"executive agreements\" in foreign relations. These agreements frequently regard administrative policy choices germane to executive power; for example, the extent to which either country presents an armed presence in a given area, how each country will enforce copyright treaties, or how each country will process foreign mail. However, the 20th century witnessed a vast expansion of the use of executive agreements, and critics have challenged the extent of that use as supplanting the treaty process and removing constitutionally prescribed checks and balances over the executive in foreign relations. Supporters counter that the agreements offer a pragmatic solution when the need for swift, secret, and/or concerted action arises.\n\nAdministrative powers\n\nThe president is the head of the executive branch of the federal government and is constitutionally obligated to \"take care that the laws be faithfully executed.\" The executive branch has over four million employees, including members of the military. \n\nPresidents make numerous executive branch appointments: an incoming president may make up to 6,000 before taking office and 8,000 more while serving. Ambassadors, members of the Cabinet, and other federal officers, are all appointed by a president with the \"advice and consent\" of a majority of the Senate. When the Senate is in recess for at least ten days, the president may make recess appointments. Recess appointments are temporary and expire at the end of the next session of the Senate.\n\nThe power of a president to fire executive officials has long been a contentious political issue. Generally, a president may remove purely executive officials at will. However, Congress can curtail and constrain a president's authority to fire commissioners of independent regulatory agencies and certain inferior executive officers by statute. \n\nThe president additionally possesses the ability to direct much of the executive branch through executive orders that are grounded in federal law or constitutionally granted executive power. Executive orders are reviewable by federal courts and can be superseded by federal legislation.\n\nTo manage the growing federal bureaucracy, Presidents have gradually surrounded themselves with many layers of staff, who were eventually organized into the Executive Office of the President of the United States. Within the Executive Office, the President's innermost layer of aides (and their assistants) are located in the White House Office.\n\nJuridical powers\n\nThe president also has the power to nominate federal judges, including members of the United States courts of appeals and the Supreme Court of the United States. However, these nominations do require Senate confirmation. Securing Senate approval can provide a major obstacle for presidents who wish to orient the federal judiciary toward a particular ideological stance. When nominating judges to U.S. district courts, presidents often respect the long-standing tradition of Senatorial courtesy. Presidents may also grant pardons and reprieves, as is often done just before the end of a presidential term, not without controversy.\n\nHistorically, two doctrines concerning executive power have developed that enable the president to exercise executive power with a degree of autonomy. The first is executive privilege, which allows the president to withhold from disclosure any communications made directly to the president in the performance of executive duties. George Washington first claimed privilege when Congress requested to see Chief Justice John Jay's notes from an unpopular treaty negotiation with Great Britain. While not enshrined in the Constitution, or any other law, Washington's action created the precedent for the privilege. When Richard Nixon tried to use executive privilege as a reason for not turning over subpoenaed evidence to Congress during the Watergate scandal, the Supreme Court ruled in United States v. Nixon, , that executive privilege did not apply in cases where a president was attempting to avoid criminal prosecution. When President Bill Clinton attempted to use executive privilege regarding the Lewinsky scandal, the Supreme Court ruled in Clinton v. Jones, , that the privilege also could not be used in civil suits. These cases established the legal precedent that executive privilege is valid, although the exact extent of the privilege has yet to be clearly defined. Additionally, federal courts have allowed this privilege to radiate outward and protect other executive branch employees, but have weakened that protection for those executive branch communications that do not involve the president. \n\nThe state secrets privilege allows the president and the executive branch to withhold information or documents from discovery in legal proceedings if such release would harm national security. Precedent for the privilege arose early in the 19th century when Thomas Jefferson refused to release military documents in the treason trial of Aaron Burr and again in Totten v. United States , when the Supreme Court dismissed a case brought by a former Union spy. However, the privilege was not formally recognized by the U.S. Supreme Court until United States v. Reynolds , where it was held to be a common law evidentiary privilege. Before the September 11 attacks, use of the privilege had been rare, but increasing in frequency. Since 2001, the government has asserted the privilege in more cases and at earlier stages of the litigation, thus in some instances causing dismissal of the suits before reaching the merits of the claims, as in the Ninth Circuit's ruling in Mohamed v. Jeppesen Dataplan, Inc. Critics of the privilege claim its use has become a tool for the government to cover up illegal or embarrassing government actions. \n\nLegislative facilitator\n\nThe Constitution's Ineligibility Clause prevents the President (and all other executive officers) from simultaneously being a member of Congress. Therefore, the president cannot directly introduce legislative proposals for consideration in Congress. However, the president can take an indirect role in shaping legislation, especially if the president's political party has a majority in one or both houses of Congress. For example, the president or other officials of the executive branch may draft legislation and then ask senators or representatives to introduce these drafts into Congress. The president can further influence the legislative branch through constitutionally mandated, periodic reports to Congress. These reports may be either written or oral, but today are given as the State of the Union address, which often outlines the president's legislative proposals for the coming year. Additionally, the president may attempt to have Congress alter proposed legislation by threatening to veto that legislation unless requested changes are made.\n\nIn the 20th century critics began charging that too many legislative and budgetary powers have slid into the hands of presidents that should belong to Congress. As the head of the executive branch, presidents control a vast array of agencies that can issue regulations with little oversight from Congress. One critic charged that presidents could appoint a \"virtual army of 'czars' – each wholly unaccountable to Congress yet tasked with spearheading major policy efforts for the White House.\" Presidents have been criticized for making signing statements when signing congressional legislation about how they understand a bill or plan to execute it. This practice has been criticized by the American Bar Association as unconstitutional. Conservative commentator George Will wrote of an \"increasingly swollen executive branch\" and \"the eclipse of Congress.\"\n\nAccording to Article II, Section 3, Clause 2 of the Constitution, the president may convene either or both houses of Congress. If both houses cannot agree on a date of adjournment, the president may appoint a date for Congress to adjourn.\n\nCeremonial roles\n\nAs head of state, the president can fulfill traditions established by previous presidents. William Howard Taft started the tradition of throwing out the ceremonial first pitch in 1910 at Griffith Stadium, Washington, D.C., on the Washington Senators' Opening Day. Every president since Taft, except for Jimmy Carter, threw out at least one ceremonial first ball or pitch for Opening Day, the All-Star Game, or the World Series, usually with much fanfare. \n\nThe President of the United States has served as the honorary president of the Boy Scouts of America since the founding of the organization. \n\nOther presidential traditions are associated with American holidays. Rutherford B. Hayes began in 1878 the first White House egg rolling for local children. Beginning in 1947 during the Harry S. Truman administration, every Thanksgiving the president is presented with a live domestic turkey during the annual national thanksgiving turkey presentation held at the White House. Since 1989, when the custom of \"pardoning\" the turkey was formalized by George H. W. Bush, the turkey has been taken to a farm where it will live out the rest of its natural life. \n\nPresidential traditions also involve the president's role as head of government. Many outgoing presidents since James Buchanan traditionally give advice to their successor during the presidential transition. Ronald Reagan and his successors have also left a private message on the desk of the Oval Office on Inauguration Day for the incoming president. \n\nDuring a state visit by a foreign head of state, the president typically hosts a State Arrival Ceremony held on the South Lawn, a custom begun by John F. Kennedy in 1961. This is followed by a state dinner given by the president which is held in the State Dining Room later in the evening. \n\nThe modern presidency holds the president as one of the nation's premier celebrities. Some argue that images of the presidency have a tendency to be manipulated by administration public relations officials as well as by presidents themselves. One critic described the presidency as \"propagandized leadership\" which has a \"mesmerizing power surrounding the office.\" Administration public relations managers staged carefully crafted photo-ops of smiling presidents with smiling crowds for television cameras. One critic wrote the image of John F. Kennedy was described as carefully framed \"in rich detail\" which \"drew on the power of myth\" regarding the incident of PT 109 and wrote that Kennedy understood how to use images to further his presidential ambitions. As a result, some political commentators have opined that American voters have unrealistic expectations of presidents: voters expect a president to \"drive the economy, vanquish enemies, lead the free world, comfort tornado victims, heal the national soul and protect borrowers from hidden credit-card fees.\"\n\nCritics of presidency's evolution\n\nMost of the nation's Founding Fathers expected the Congress, which was the first branch of government described in the Constitution, to be the dominant branch of government; they did not expect a strong executive. However, presidential power has shifted over time, which has resulted in claims that the modern presidency has become too powerful, unchecked, unbalanced, and \"monarchist\" in nature. Critic Dana D. Nelson believes presidents over the past thirty years have worked towards \"undivided presidential control of the executive branch and its agencies.\" She criticizes proponents of the unitary executive for expanding \"the many existing uncheckable executive powers – such as executive orders, decrees, memorandums, proclamations, national security directives and legislative signing statements – that already allow presidents to enact a good deal of foreign and domestic policy without aid, interference or consent from Congress.\" Activist Bill Wilson opined that the expanded presidency was \"the greatest threat ever to individual freedom and democratic rule.\"\n\nSelection process\n\nEligibility\n\nArticle II, Section 1, Clause 5 of the Constitution sets the following qualifications for holding the presidency:\n* be a natural-born citizen of the United States;Foreign-born American citizens who met the age and residency requirements at the time the Constitution was adopted were also eligible for the presidency. However, this allowance has since become obsolete.\n* be at least thirty-five years old;\n* be a resident in the United States for at least fourteen years.\n\nThe Twelfth Amendment precludes anyone ineligible to being the president from becoming the vice president.\n\nA person who meets the above qualifications is still disqualified from holding the office of president under any of the following conditions:\n* Under the Twenty-second Amendment, no person can be elected president more than twice. The amendment also specifies that if any eligible person serves as president or acting president for more than two years of a term for which some other eligible person was elected president, the former can only be elected president once. Scholars disagree over whether a person precluded by the Twenty-second Amendment to being elected president is also precluded to being vice president. \n* Under Article I, Section 3, Clause 7, upon conviction in impeachment cases, the Senate has the option of disqualifying convicted individuals from holding federal office, including that of president. \n* Under Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment, no person who swore an oath to support the Constitution, and later rebelled against the United States, can become president. However, this disqualification can be lifted by a two-thirds vote of each house of Congress.\n\nCampaigns and nomination\n\nThe modern presidential campaign begins before the primary elections, which the two major political parties use to clear the field of candidates before their national nominating conventions, where the most successful candidate is made the party's nominee for president. Typically, the party's presidential candidate chooses a vice presidential nominee, and this choice is rubber-stamped by the convention. The most common previous profession by U.S. presidents is lawyer. \n\nNominees participate in nationally televised debates, and while the debates are usually restricted to the Democratic and Republican nominees, third party candidates may be invited, such as Ross Perot in the 1992 debates. Nominees campaign across the country to explain their views, convince voters and solicit contributions. Much of the modern electoral process is concerned with winning swing states through frequent visits and mass media advertising drives.\n\nElection and oath\n\nThe president is elected indirectly. A number of electors, collectively known as the Electoral College, officially select the president. On Election Day, voters in each of the states and the District of Columbia cast ballots for these electors. Each state is allocated a number of electors, equal to the size of its delegation in both Houses of Congress combined. Generally, the ticket that wins the most votes in a state wins all of that state's electoral votes and thus has its slate of electors chosen to vote in the Electoral College.\n\nThe winning slate of electors meet at its state's capital on the first Monday after the second Wednesday in December, about six weeks after the election, to vote. They then send a record of that vote to Congress. The vote of the electors is opened by the sitting vice president—acting in that role's capacity as President of the Senate—and read aloud to a joint session of the incoming Congress, which was elected at the same time as the president.\n\nPursuant to the Twentieth Amendment, the president's term of office begins at noon on January 20 of the year following the election. This date, known as Inauguration Day, marks the beginning of the four-year terms of both the president and the vice president. Before executing the powers of the office, a president is constitutionally required to take the presidential oath:\n\nAlthough not required, presidents have traditionally palmed a Bible while swearing the oath and have added, \"So help me God!\" to the end of the oath. Further, although the oath may be administered by any person authorized by law to administer oaths, presidents are traditionally sworn in by the Chief Justice of the United States.\n\nTenure and term limits\n\nThe term of office for president and vice president is four years. George Washington, the first president, set an unofficial precedent of serving only two terms, which subsequent presidents followed until 1940. Before Franklin D. Roosevelt, attempts at a third term were encouraged by supporters of Ulysses S. Grant and Theodore Roosevelt; neither of these attempts succeeded. In 1940, Franklin D. Roosevelt declined to seek a third term, but allowed his political party to \"draft\" him as its presidential candidate and was subsequently elected to a third term. In 1941, the United States entered World War II, leading voters to elect Roosevelt to a fourth term in 1944. But Roosevelt died only 82 days after taking office for the fourth term on 12 April 1945.\n\nAfter the war, and in response to Roosevelt being elected to third and fourth terms, the Twenty-second Amendment was adopted. The amendment bars anyone from being elected president more than twice, or once if that person served more than half of another president's term. Harry S. Truman, president when this amendment was adopted, was exempted from its limitations and briefly sought a third (a second full) term before withdrawing from the 1952 election.\n\nSince the amendment's adoption, four presidents have served two full terms: Dwight D. Eisenhower, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush. Barack Obama has been elected to a second term, and will complete his term on 20 January 2017, if he does not die or resign before that date. Jimmy Carter and George H. W. Bush sought a second term, but were defeated. Richard Nixon was elected to a second term, but resigned before completing it. Lyndon B. Johnson was the only president under the amendment to be eligible to serve more than two terms in total, having served for only fourteen months following John F. Kennedy's assassination. However, Johnson withdrew from the 1968 Democratic Primary, surprising many Americans. Gerald Ford sought a full term, after serving out the last two years and five months of Nixon's second term, but was not elected.\n\nVacancy or disability\n\nVacancies in the office of President may arise under several possible circumstances: death, resignation and removal from office.\n\nArticle II, Section 4 of the Constitution allows the House of Representatives to impeach high federal officials, including the president, for \"treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors.\" Article I, Section 3, Clause 6 gives the Senate the power to remove impeached officials from office, given a two-thirds vote to convict. The House has thus far impeached two presidents: Andrew Johnson in 1868 and Bill Clinton in 1998. Neither was subsequently convicted by the Senate; however, Johnson was acquitted by just one vote.\n\nUnder Section 3 of the Twenty-fifth Amendment, the president may transfer the presidential powers and duties to the vice president, who then becomes acting president, by transmitting a statement to the Speaker of the House and the President pro tempore of the Senate stating the reasons for the transfer. The president resumes the discharge of the presidential powers and duties upon transmitting, to those two officials, a written declaration stating that resumption. This transfer of power may occur for any reason the president considers appropriate; in 2002 and again in 2007, President George W. Bush briefly transferred presidential authority to Vice President Dick Cheney. In both cases, this was done to accommodate a medical procedure which required Bush to be sedated; both times, Bush returned to duty later the same day. \n\nUnder Section 4 of the Twenty-fifth Amendment, the vice president, in conjunction with a majority of the Cabinet, may transfer the presidential powers and duties from the president to the vice president by transmitting a written declaration to the Speaker of the House and the president pro tempore of the Senate that the president is unable to discharge the presidential powers and duties. If this occurs, then the vice president will assume the presidential powers and duties as acting president; however, the president can declare that no such inability exists and resume the discharge of the presidential powers and duties. If the vice president and Cabinet contest this claim, it is up to Congress, which must meet within two days if not already in session, to decide the merit of the claim.\n\nThe United States Constitution mentions the resignation of the president, but does not regulate its form or the conditions for its validity. Pursuant to federal law, the only valid evidence of the president's resignation is a written instrument to that effect, signed by the president and delivered to the office of the Secretary of State. This has only occurred once, when Richard Nixon delivered a letter to Henry Kissinger to that effect.\n\nSection 1 of the Twenty-fifth Amendment states that the vice president becomes president upon the removal from office, death or resignation of the preceding president. The Presidential Succession Act of 1947 provides that if the offices of President and Vice President are each either vacant or are held by a disabled person, the next officer in the presidential line of succession, the Speaker of the House, becomes acting president. The line then extends to the President pro tempore of the Senate, followed by every member of the Cabinet. These persons must fulfill all eligibility requirements of the office of President to be eligible to become acting president; ineligible individuals are skipped. There has never been a special election for the office of President.\n\nCompensation\n\nSince 2001, the president has earned a $400,000 annual salary, along with a $50,000 annual expense account, a $100,000 nontaxable travel account, and $19,000 for entertainment. The most recent raise in salary was approved by Congress and President Bill Clinton in 1999 and went into effect in 2001.\n\nThe White House in Washington, D.C., serves as the official place of residence for the president. As well as access to the White House staff, facilities available to the president include medical care, recreation, housekeeping, and security services. The government pays for state dinners and other official functions, but the president pays for personal, family and guest dry cleaning and food; the high food bill often amazes new residents. Naval Support Facility Thurmont, popularly known as Camp David, is a mountain-based military camp in Frederick County, Maryland, used as a country retreat and for high alert protection of the president and guests. Blair House, located next to the Eisenhower Executive Office Building at the White House Complex and Lafayette Park, is a complex of four connected townhouses exceeding 70000 sqft of floor space which serves as the president's official guest house and as a secondary residence for the president if needed. \n\nFor ground travel, the president uses the presidential state car, which is an armored limousine built on a heavily modified Cadillac-based chassis.[http://www.secretservice.gov/press/GPA02-09_Limo.pdf New Presidential Limousine enters Secret Service Fleet] U.S. Secret Service Press Release (January 14, 2009) Retrieved on January 20, 2009. One of two identical Boeing VC-25 aircraft, which are extensively modified versions of Boeing 747-200B airliners, serve as long distance travel for the president and are referred to as Air Force One while the president is on board (although any U.S. Air Force aircraft the President is aboard is designated as \"Air Force One\" for the duration of the flight). In-country trips are typically handled with just one of the two planes while overseas trips are handled with both, one primary and one backup. Any civilian aircraft the President is aboard is designated Executive One for the flight. The president also has access to a fleet of thirty-five U.S. Marine Corps helicopters of varying models, designated Marine One when the president is aboard any particular one in the fleet. Flights are typically handled with as many as five helicopters all flying together and frequently swapping positions as to disguise which helicopter the President is actually aboard to any would-be threats.\n\nThe U.S. Secret Service is charged with protecting the sitting president and the first family. As part of their protection, presidents, first ladies, their children and other immediate family members, and other prominent persons and locations are assigned Secret Service codenames. The use of such names was originally for security purposes and dates to a time when sensitive electronic communications were not routinely encrypted; today, the names simply serve for purposes of brevity, clarity, and tradition. \n\nFile:White House lawn (1).tif|The White House\n\nFile:Camp David 1959.jpg|Camp David\nFile:Blair House daylight.jpg|Blair House\nFile:GPA02-09 US SecretService press release 2009 Limousine Page 3 Image.jpg|State car\nFile:Air Force One over Mt. Rushmore.jpg|Air Force One\nFile:Marine One (1970).jpg|Marine One\n\nPost-presidency\n\nBeginning in 1959, all living former presidents were granted a pension, an office, and a staff. The pension has increased numerous times with Congressional approval. Retired presidents now receive a pension based on the salary of the current administration's cabinet secretaries, which was $199,700 each year in 2012. Former presidents who served in Congress may also collect congressional pensions. The Former Presidents Act, as amended, also provides former presidents with travel funds and franking privileges. Prior to 1997, all former presidents, their spouses, and their children until age 16 were protected by the Secret Service until the president's death. In 1997, Congress passed legislation limiting secret service protection to no more than 10 years from the date a president leaves office. On January 10, 2013, President Obama signed legislation reinstating lifetime secret service protection for him, George W. Bush, and all subsequent presidents. A spouse who remarries is no longer eligible for secret service protection.\n\nSome presidents have had significant careers after leaving office. Prominent examples include William Howard Taft's tenure as Chief Justice of the United States and Herbert Hoover's work on government reorganization after World War II. Grover Cleveland, whose bid for reelection failed in 1888, was elected president again four years later in 1892. Two former presidents served in Congress after leaving the White House: John Quincy Adams was elected to the House of Representatives, serving there for seventeen years, and Andrew Johnson returned to the Senate in 1875. John Tyler served in the provisional Congress of the Confederate States during the Civil War and was elected to the Confederate House of Representatives, but died before that body first met.\n\nPresidents may use their predecessors as emissaries to deliver private messages to other nations or as official representatives of the United States to state funerals and other important foreign events. Richard Nixon made multiple foreign trips to countries including China and Russia and was lauded as an elder statesman. Jimmy Carter has become a global human rights campaigner, international arbiter, and election monitor, as well as a recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. Bill Clinton has also worked as an informal ambassador, most recently in the negotiations that led to the release of two American journalists, Laura Ling and Euna Lee, from North Korea. Clinton has also been active politically since his presidential term ended, working with his wife Hillary on her 2008 and 2016 presidential bids and President Obama on his reelection campaign.\n\nFile:Carter 2k14.tif|Jimmy Carter39th (1977–81)\nFile:President George H. W.tif|George H. W. Bush41st (1989–93)\nFile:Clinton 2k15.tif|Bill Clinton42nd (1993–2001)\nFile:Bush 2k14.tif|George W. Bush43rd (2001–09)\n\nPresidential libraries\n\nSince Herbert Hoover, each president has created a repository known as a presidential library for preserving and making available his papers, records and other documents and materials. Completed libraries are deeded to and maintained by the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA); the initial funding for building and equipping each library must come from private, non-federal sources. There are currently thirteen presidential libraries in the NARA system. There are also presidential libraries maintained by state governments and private foundations and Universities of Higher Education, such as the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum, which is run by the State of Illinois, the George H.W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum, which is run by Texas A&M University and the Lyndon Baines Johnson Presidential Library and Museum, which is run by the University of Texas at Austin.\n\nAs many presidents live for many years after leaving office, several of them have personally overseen the building and opening of their own presidential libraries, some even making arrangements for their own burial at the site. Several presidential libraries therefore contain the graves of the president they document, such as the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum in Yorba Linda, California and the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California. The graves are viewable by the general public visiting these libraries.\n\nTimeline of Presidents", "Theodore Roosevelt Jr. ( ; October 27, 1858 – January 6, 1919) was an American statesman, author, explorer, soldier, naturalist, and reformer who served as the 26th President of the United States from 1901 to 1909. As a leader of the Republican Party during this time, he became a driving force for the Progressive Era in the United States in the early 20th century.\n\nBorn a sickly child with debilitating asthma, Roosevelt successfully overcame his health problems by embracing a strenuous lifestyle. He integrated his exuberant personality, vast range of interests, and world-famous achievements into a \"cowboy\" persona defined by robust masculinity. Home-schooled, he became a lifelong naturalist before attending Harvard College. His first of many books, The Naval War of 1812 (1882), established his reputation as both a learned historian and as a popular writer. Upon entering politics, he became the leader of the reform faction of Republicans in New York's state legislature. Following the deaths of his wife and mother, he took time to grieve by escaping to the wilderness of the American West and operating a cattle ranch in the Dakotas for a time, before returning East to run unsuccessfully for Mayor of New York City in 1886. He served as Assistant Secretary of the Navy under William McKinley, resigning after one year to serve with the Rough Riders, where he gained national fame for courage during the Spanish–American War. Returning a war hero, he was elected governor of New York in 1898. The state party leadership distrusted him, so they took the lead in moving him to the prestigious but powerless role of vice president as McKinley's running mate in the election of 1900. Roosevelt campaigned vigorously across the country, helping McKinley's re-election in a landslide victory based on a platform of peace, prosperity, and conservatism.\n\nFollowing the assassination of President McKinley in September 1901, Roosevelt, at age 42, succeeded to the office, becoming the youngest United States President in history. Leading his party and country into the Progressive Era, he championed his \"Square Deal\" domestic policies, promising the average citizen fairness, breaking of trusts, regulation of railroads, and pure food and drugs. Making conservation a top priority, he established a myriad of new national parks, forests, and monuments intended to preserve the nation's natural resources. In foreign policy, he focused on Central America, where he began construction of the Panama Canal. He greatly expanded the United States Navy, and sent the Great White Fleet on a world tour to project the United States' naval power around the globe. His successful efforts to end the Russo-Japanese War won him the 1906 Nobel Peace Prize.\n\nElected in 1904 to a full term, Roosevelt continued to promote progressive policies, but many of his efforts and much of his legislative agenda were eventually blocked in Congress. Roosevelt successfully groomed his close friend, William Howard Taft, to succeed him in the presidency. After leaving office, Roosevelt went on safari in Africa and toured Europe. Returning to the USA, he became frustrated with Taft's approach as his successor. He tried but failed to win the presidential nomination in 1912. Roosevelt founded his own party, the Progressive, so-called \"Bull Moose\" Party, and called for wide-ranging progressive reforms. The split among Republicans enabled the Democrats to win both the White House and a majority in the Congress in 1912. The Democrats in the South had also gained power by having disenfranchised most blacks (and Republicans) from the political system from 1890 to 1908, fatally weakening the Republican Party across the region, and creating a Solid South dominated by their party alone. Republicans aligned with Taft nationally would control the Republican Party for decades.\n\nFrustrated at home, Roosevelt led a two-year expedition in the Amazon Basin, nearly dying of tropical disease. During World War I, he opposed President Woodrow Wilson for keeping the U.S. out of the war against Germany, and offered his military services, which were never summoned. Although planning to run again for president in 1920, Roosevelt suffered deteriorating health and died in early 1919. Roosevelt has consistently been ranked by scholars as one of the greatest U.S. presidents. His face was carved into Mount Rushmore alongside those of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Abraham Lincoln.\n\nEarly life and family\n\nTheodore Roosevelt Jr. was born on October 27, 1858, at East 20th Street in New York City, New York. He was the second of four children born to socialite Martha Stewart \"Mittie\" Bulloch and glass businessman and philanthropist Theodore Roosevelt Sr. He had an older sister, Anna (nicknamed \"Bamie\"), a younger brother, Elliott, and a younger sister, Corinne. Elliott was later the father of First Lady Anna Eleanor Roosevelt, the wife of Theodore's distant cousin, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. His paternal grandfather was of Dutch descent; his other ancestry included primarily Scottish and Scots-Irish, English and smaller amounts of German, Welsh, and French. Theodore Sr. was the fifth son of businessman Cornelius Van Schaack \"C.V.S.\" Roosevelt and Margaret Barnhill. Thee's fourth cousin, James Roosevelt I, who was also a businessman, was the father of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Mittie was the younger daughter of Major James Stephens Bulloch and Martha P. \"Patsy\" Stewart. Through the Van Schaacks Roosevelt is a descendant of the Schuyler family. \n\nRoosevelt's youth was largely shaped by his poor health and debilitating asthma. He repeatedly experienced sudden nighttime asthma attacks that caused the experience of being smothered to death, which terrified both Theodore and his parents. Doctors had no cure. Nevertheless, he was energetic and mischievously inquisitive. His lifelong interest in zoology began at age seven when he saw a dead seal at a local market; after obtaining the seal's head, Roosevelt and two cousins formed what they called the \"Roosevelt Museum of Natural History\". Having learned the rudiments of taxidermy, he filled his makeshift museum with animals that he killed or caught; he then studied the animals and prepared them for display. At age nine, he recorded his observation of insects in a paper entitled \"The Natural History of Insects\"..\n\nRoosevelt's father significantly influenced him. His father had been a prominent leader in New York's cultural affairs; he helped to found the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and had been especially active in mobilizing support for the Union war effort. Roosevelt wrote: \"My father, Theodore Roosevelt, was the best man I ever knew. He combined strength and courage with gentleness, tenderness, and great unselfishness. He would not tolerate in us children selfishness or cruelty, idleness, cowardice, or untruthfulness.\" Family trips abroad, including tours of Europe in 1869 and 1870, and Egypt in 1872, also had a lasting impact. Hiking with his family in the Alps in 1869, Roosevelt found that he could keep pace with his father. He had discovered the significant benefits of physical exertion to minimize his asthma and bolster his spirits. With encouragement from his father, Roosevelt began a heavy regime of exercise. After being manhandled by two older boys on a camping trip, he found a boxing coach to teach him to fight and strengthen his weakened body.\n\nRoosevelt later articulated the abiding influence of the courageous men he read about, including those in his family: \"I was nervous and timid. Yet from reading of the people I admired—ranging from the soldiers of Valley Forge and Morgan's riflemen, to the heroes of my favorite stories—and from hearing of the feats of my southern forefathers and kinsfolk and from knowing my father, I felt a great admiration for men who were fearless and who could hold their own in the world, and I had a great desire to be like them.\"\n\nEducation\n\nRoosevelt was mostly home schooled by tutors and his parents. Biographer H. W. Brands argues that \"The most obvious drawback to the home schooling Roosevelt received was uneven coverage of the various areas of human knowledge\". He was solid in geography (as a result of self study during travels), and bright in history, biology, French, and German; however, he struggled in mathematics and the classical languages. He entered Harvard College on September 27, 1876; his father told him \"Take care of your morals first, your health next, and finally your studies\".\n\nAfter recovering from devastation over his father's death on February 9, 1878, Roosevelt doubled his activities. He did well in science, philosophy, and rhetoric courses but continued to struggle in Latin and Greek. He studied biology intently and was already an accomplished naturalist and a published ornithologist; he read prodigiously with an almost photographic memory. While at Harvard, Roosevelt participated in rowing and boxing; he was once runner-up in a Harvard boxing tournament. Roosevelt was a member of the Alpha Delta Phi literary society, the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity, and the Porcellian Club; he was also an editor of The Harvard Advocate. On June 30, 1880, Roosevelt graduated Phi Beta Kappa (22nd of 177) from Harvard with an A.B. magna cum laude.\n\nHe entered Columbia Law School, and was an able student, but he often found law to be irrational; he spent much of his time writing a book on the War of 1812. Roosevelt eventually became entirely disenchanted with law and diverted his attention to politics at Morton Hall on 59th Street, the headquarters for New York's 21st District Republican Association. When the members of the association encouraged him to run for public office, he dropped out of law school to do so, later saying, \"I intended to be one of the governing class.\"\n\nNaval history and strategy\n\nWhile at Harvard, Roosevelt began a systematic study of the role played by the young US Navy in the War of 1812. Assisted by two uncles, he scrutinized original source materials and official US Navy records. Roosevelt's carefully researched book, published in 1882, remains one of the most important scholarly studies of the war, complete with drawings of individual and combined ship maneuvers, charts depicting the differences in iron throw weights of cannon shot between rival forces, and analyses of the differences between British and American leadership down to the ship-to-ship level. Published after Roosevelt's graduation from Harvard, The Naval War of 1812 was praised for its scholarship and style, and it showed Roosevelt to be a scholar of history. It remains a standard study of the war. Roosevelt waved the Stars and Stripes:\nIt must be but a poor spirited American whose veins do not tingle with pride when he reads of the cruises and fights of the sea-captains, and their grim prowess, which kept the old Yankee flag floating over the waters of the Atlantic for three years, in the teeth of the mightiest naval power the world has ever seen. \n\nWith the publication of The Influence of Sea Power upon History, 1660–1783 in 1890, Navy Captain Alfred Thayer Mahan was immediately hailed as the outstanding naval theorist by the leaders of Europe. Roosevelt paid very close attention to Mahan's emphasis that only a nation with the world's most powerful fleet could dominate the world's oceans, exert its diplomacy to the fullest, and defend its own borders. He incorporated Mahan's ideas into American naval strategy when he served as assistant secretary of the Navy in 1897-98. As president, 1901-1909, Roosevelt made building up a world-class fighting fleet of high priority, sending his \"white fleet\" around the globe in 1908-1909 to make sure all the naval powers understood the United States was now a major player. Roosevelt's fleet still did not challenge the superior British fleet, but it did become dominant in the Western Hemisphere. Building the Panama Canal was designed not just to open Pacific trade to East Coast cities, but also to enable the new Navy to move back and forth across the globe. \n\nFirst marriage and widowerhood\n\nOn his 22nd birthday, Roosevelt married socialite Alice Hathaway Lee, daughter of banker George Cabot Lee and Caroline Watts Haskell. Their daughter, Alice Lee Roosevelt, was born on February 12, 1884. Roosevelt's wife died two days after giving birth due to an undiagnosed case of kidney failure (called Bright's disease at the time), which had been masked by the pregnancy. In his diary, Roosevelt wrote a large 'X' on the page and then, \"The light has gone out of my life.\" His mother, Mittie, had died of typhoid fever eleven hours earlier at 3:00 a.m., in the same house. Distraught, Roosevelt left baby Alice in the care of his sister Bamie in New York City while he grieved. He assumed custody of his daughter when she was three.\n\nRoosevelt also reacted by focusing on work, specifically by re-energizing a legislative investigation into corruption of the New York City government, which arose from a concurrent bill proposing that power be centralized in the mayor's office. For the rest of his life, he rarely spoke about his wife Alice and did not write about her in his autobiography. While working with Joseph Bucklin Bishop on a biography that included a collection of his letters, Roosevelt did not mention his marriage to Alice nor his second marriage to Edith Kermit Carow. \n\nEarly political career\n\nState Assemblyman\n\nRoosevelt was soon put forth as the Republican party's candidate for the District's House seat in Albany. He was a member of the New York State Assembly (New York Co., 21st D.) in 1882, 1883 and 1884. He immediately began making his mark, specifically in corporate corruption issues. He blocked a corrupt effort by financier Jay Gould to lower his taxes. Roosevelt exposed suspected collusion in the matter by Judge Theodore Westbrook, and argued for and received approval for an investigation to proceed, aiming for the impeachment of the judge. The investigation committee rejected impeachment, but Roosevelt had exposed the potential corruption in Albany, and thus assumed a high and positive political profile in multiple New York publications. In 1883, Roosevelt became the Assembly Minority Leader. In 1884, he lost the nomination for Speaker to Titus Sheard by a vote of 41 to 29 in the GOP caucus. Roosevelt was also Chairman of the Committee on Affairs of Cities; he wrote more bills than any other legislator. \n\nPresidential election of 1884\n\nWith numerous presidential hopefuls to choose from, Roosevelt supported Senator George F. Edmunds of Vermont, a colorless reformer. The state GOP preferred the incumbent president, New York City's Chester Arthur, who was known as a spoilsman. Roosevelt fought hard and succeeded in influencing the Manhattan delegates at the state convention in Utica. He then took control of the state convention, bargaining through the night and outmaneuvering the supporters of Arthur and James G. Blaine; he gained a national reputation as a key person in New York State. \n\nRoosevelt attended the 1884 GOP National Convention in Chicago and fought alongside the Mugwump reformers; they lost to the Stalwart faction, who nominated James G. Blaine. In a crucial moment of his budding political career, Roosevelt resisted the demand of the Mugwumps that he bolt from Blaine. He bragged about his one small success: \"We achieved a victory in getting up a combination to beat the Blaine nominee for temporary chairman... To do this needed a mixture of skill, boldness and energy... to get the different factions to come in... to defeat the common foe.\" He was also impressed by an invitation to speak before an audience of ten thousand, the largest crowd he had addressed up to that date. Having gotten a taste of national politics, Roosevelt felt less aspiration for advocacy on the state level; he then retired to his new \"Chimney Butte Ranch\" on the Little Missouri. Roosevelt refused to join other Mugwumps in supporting Grover Cleveland, the governor of New York and the Democratic nominee in the general election. He debated the pros and cons of staying loyal with his political friend, Henry Cabot Lodge. After Blaine won the nomination, Roosevelt had carelessly said that he would give \"hearty support to any decent Democrat\". He distanced himself from the promise, saying that it had not been meant \"for publication\". When a reporter asked if he would support Blaine, Roosevelt replied, \"That question I decline to answer. It is a subject I do not care to talk about.\" In the end, he realized that he had to support Blaine to maintain his role in the GOP, and he did so in a press release on July 19. \n\nIn 1886, Roosevelt was the Republican candidate for mayor of New York City, portraying himself as \"The Cowboy of the Dakotas\". GOP precinct workers warned voters that the independent radical candidate Henry George was leading and that Roosevelt would lose, thus causing a last-minute defection of GOP voters to the Democratic candidate Abram Hewitt. Roosevelt took third place with 27% (60,435 votes). Hewitt won with 41% (90,552 votes), and George was held to 31% (68,110 votes). \n\nCowboy in Dakota\n\nRoosevelt built a second ranch named Elk Horn, thirty-five miles (56 km) north of the boomtown of Medora, North Dakota. On the banks of the Little Missouri, Roosevelt learned to ride western style, rope and hunt; though he earned the respect of the authentic cowboys, they were not overly impressed. However, he identified with the herdsman of history, a man he said possesses, \"few of the emasculated, milk-and-water moralities admired by the pseudo-philanthropists; but he does possess, to a very high degree, the stern, manly qualities that are invaluable to a nation\". He reoriented, and began writing about frontier life for national magazines; he also published three books – Hunting Trips of a Ranchman, Ranch Life and the Hunting-Trail, and The Wilderness Hunter.\n\nAs a deputy sheriff, Roosevelt pursued three outlaws who had stolen his riverboat and escaped north up the Little Missouri. He captured them, but decided against a vigilante hanging; instead, he sent his foreman back by boat, and conveyed the thieves to Dickinson for trial. He assumed guard over them for forty hours without sleep, while reading Leo Tolstoy to keep himself awake. When he ran out of his own books, he read a dime store western that one of the thieves was carrying. On another occasion, while searching for a group of relentless horse thieves, Roosevelt met Seth Bullock, the famous sheriff of Deadwood, South Dakota. The two would remain friends for life.\n\nRoosevelt brought his desire to address the common interests of citizens to the west. He successfully led efforts to organize ranchers to address the problems of overgrazing and other shared concerns; his work resulted in the formation of the Little Missouri Stockmen's Association. He was also compelled to coordinate conservation efforts and was able to form the Boone and Crockett Club, whose primary goal was the conservation of large game animals and their habitats. After the uniquely severe US winter of 1886–87 wiped out his herd of cattle and those of his competitors, and with it over half of his $80,000 investment, Roosevelt returned to the East.\n\nSecond marriage\n\nOn December 2, 1886, Roosevelt married his childhood and family friend, Edith Kermit Carow (August 6, 1861 – September 30, 1948), a daughter of Charles Carow and Gertrude Elizabeth Tyler. The couple married at St George's, Hanover Square in London, England. English diplomat Cecil Arthur Spring Rice, Roosevelt's close friend, served as best man. The couple honeymooned in Europe, and while there, Roosevelt led a group to the summit of Mont Blanc, an achievement that resulted in his induction into the Royal Society of London. They had five children: Theodore \"Ted\" III (1887–1944), Kermit (1889–1943), Ethel (1891–1977), Archibald (1894–1979), and Quentin (1897–1918). At the time of Ted's birth, Roosevelt was both eager and worried for Edith after losing his first wife, Alice, shortly after childbirth.\n\nReentering public life\n\nCivil Service Commission\n\nIn the 1888 presidential election, Roosevelt successfully campaigned, primarily in the Midwest, for Benjamin Harrison. President Harrison appointed Roosevelt to the United States Civil Service Commission, where he served until 1895. While in office, Roosevelt vigorously fought the spoilsmen and demanded enforcement of civil service laws. The New York Sun then described Roosevelt as \"irrepressible, belligerent, and enthusiastic\". Despite Roosevelt's support for Harrison's reelection bid in the presidential election of 1892, the eventual winner, Grover Cleveland (a Bourbon Democrat), reappointed him to the same post. Roosevelt's close friend and biographer, Joseph Bucklin Bishop, described his assault on the spoils system:\n\nNew York City Police Commissioner\n\nIn 1894, a group of reform Republicans approached Roosevelt about running for Mayor of New York again; he declined, mostly due to his wife's resistance to being removed from the Washington social set. Soon after he declined, he realized that he had missed an opportunity to reinvigorate a dormant political career. He retreated to the Dakotas for a time; his wife Edith regretted her role in the decision and vowed that there would be no repeat of it.\n\nRoosevelt became president of the board of the New York City Police Commissioners for two years in 1895 and radically reformed the police force. The New York Police Department (NYPD) was reputed as one of the most corrupt in America; the NYPD's history division records that Roosevelt was \"an iron-willed leader of unimpeachable honesty, (who) brought a reforming zeal to the New York City Police Commission in 1895\". Roosevelt implemented regular inspections of firearms and annual physical exams; he appointed 1,600 recruits based on their physical and mental qualifications, regardless of political affiliation, established Meritorious Service Medals and closed corrupt police hostelries. During his tenure, a Municipal Lodging House was established by the Board of Charities, and Roosevelt required officers to register with the Board; he also had telephones installed in station houses. \n\nIn 1894, Roosevelt met Jacob Riis, the muckraking Evening Sun newspaper journalist who was opening the eyes of New Yorkers to the terrible conditions of the city's millions of poor immigrants with such books as How the Other Half Lives. Riis described how his book affected Roosevelt:\n\nRoosevelt made a habit of walking officers' beats late at night and early in the morning to make sure that they were on duty. He made a concerted effort to uniformly enforce New York's Sunday closing law; in this, he ran up against boss Tom Platt as well as Tammany Hall—he was notified that the Police Commission was being legislated out of existence. Roosevelt chose to defer rather than split with his party. As Governor of New York State before becoming Vice President in March 1901, Roosevelt signed an act replacing the Police Commissioners with a single Police Commissioner. \n\nEmergence as a national figure\n\nAssistant Secretary of the Navy\n\nRoosevelt had demonstrated, through his research and writing, a fascination with naval history; President William McKinley, urged by Roosevelt's close friend Congressman Henry Cabot Lodge, appointed Roosevelt as the Assistant Secretary of the Navy in 1897. Secretary of the Navy John D. Long was more concerned about formalities than functions, was in poor health, and left major decisions to Roosevelt. Roosevelt seized the opportunity and began pressing his national security views regarding the Pacific and the Caribbean on McKinley. Roosevelt was particularly adamant that Spain be ejected from Cuba, to foster the latter's independence and to demonstrate the U.S. resolve to reinforce the Monroe Doctrine. Ten days after the battleship Maine exploded in the harbor of Havana, Cuba, the Secretary left the office and Roosevelt became Acting Secretary for four hours. Roosevelt cabled the Navy worldwide to prepare for war, ordered ammunition and supplies, brought in experts and went to Congress asking for the authority to recruit as many sailors as he wanted. Roosevelt was instrumental in preparing the Navy for the Spanish–American War. Roosevelt had an analytical mind, even as he was itching for war. He explained his priorities to one of the Navy's planners in late 1897:\n\nWar in Cuba\n\nPrior to his service in the Spanish–American War, Roosevelt had already seen reserve military service from 1882 to 1886 with the New York National Guard. Commissioned on August 1, 1882 as a 2nd Lieutenant with B Company, 8th Regiment, he was promoted to Captain and company commander a year later, and he remained in command until he resigned his commission. \n\nWhen the United States and Spain declared war against each other in late April 1898, Roosevelt resigned from his civilian leadership job with the Navy on May 6 and formed the First US Volunteer Cavalry Regiment along with Army Colonel Leonard Wood. Referred to by the press as the \"Rough Riders\", the regiment was one of many temporary units active only for the duration of the war.\n\nAfter securing modern multiple-round Krag smokeless carbines, Lieutenant Colonel Roosevelt arrived on May 15. The regiment trained for several weeks in San Antonio, Texas, and in his autobiography Roosevelt wrote that his prior National Guard experience had been invaluable, in that it enabled him to immediately begin teaching his men basic soldiering skills. The Rough Riders used some standard issue gear and some of their own design, purchased with gift money. Diversity characterized the regiment, which included Ivy Leaguers, professional and amateur athletes, upscale gentlemen as well as cowboys, frontiersmen, Native Americans, hunters, miners, prospectors, former soldiers, tradesmen, and sheriffs. The Rough Riders were part of the cavalry division commanded by former Confederate general Joseph Wheeler. It was one of three divisions in the V Corps under Lieutenant General William Rufus Shafter. Roosevelt and his men departed Tampa on June 13, landed in Daiquiri, Cuba, on June 23, 1898, and marched to Siboney. Wheeler sent parts of the 1st and 10th Regular Cavalry on the lower road northwest and sent the \"Rough Riders\" on the parallel road running along a ridge up from the beach. To throw off his infantry rival, Wheeler left one regiment of his Cavalry Division, the 9th, at Siboney so that he could claim that his move north was only a limited reconnaissance if things went wrong. Roosevelt was promoted to colonel and took command of the regiment when Wood was put in command of the brigade.\n\nThe Rough Riders had a short, minor skirmish known as the Battle of Las Guasimas; they fought their way through Spanish resistance and, together with the Regulars, forced the Spaniards to abandon their positions. \n\nUnder his leadership, the Rough Riders became famous for the charge up Kettle Hill on July 1, 1898, while supporting the regulars. Roosevelt had the only horse, and rode back and forth between rifle pits at the forefront of the advance up Kettle Hill, an advance that he urged despite the absence of any orders from superiors. He was forced to walk up the last part of Kettle Hill, because his horse had been entangled in barbed wire. The victories came at a cost of 200 killed and 1000 wounded.\n\nRoosevelt commented on his role in the battles: \"On the day of the big fight I had to ask my men to do a deed that European military writers consider utterly impossible of performance, that is, to attack over open ground an unshaken infantry armed with the best modern repeating rifles behind a formidable system of entrenchments. The only way to get them to do it in the way it had to be done was to lead them myself.\"\n\nRoosevelt as a veteran\n\nIn August, Roosevelt and other officers demanded that the soldiers be returned home. Roosevelt always recalled the Battle of Kettle Hill (part of the San Juan Heights) as \"the great day of my life\" and \"my crowded hour\". In 2001, Roosevelt was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions; he had been nominated during the war, but Army officials, annoyed at his grabbing the headlines, blocked it. After returning to civilian life, Roosevelt preferred to be known as \"Colonel Roosevelt\" or \"The Colonel\". However, \"Teddy\" remained much more popular with the public, even though Roosevelt openly despised it. Men working closely with Roosevelt customarily called him \"Colonel\" or \"Theodore\".\n\nGovernor of New York\n\nAfter leaving the Army, Roosevelt discovered that New York Republicans needed him, because their current governor was tainted by scandal and would probably lose. He campaigned vigorously on his war record, winning the 1898 state election by a historical margin of 1%.\n\nAs governor, Roosevelt learned much about ongoing economic issues and political techniques that later proved valuable in his presidency. He was exposed to the problems of trusts, monopolies, labor relations, and conservation. Chessman argues that Roosevelt's program \"rested firmly upon the concept of the square deal by a neutral state\". The rules for the Square Deal were \"honesty in public affairs, an equitable sharing of privilege and responsibility, and subordination of party and local concerns to the interests of the state at large\".\n\nBy holding twice-daily press conferences—which was an innovation—Roosevelt remained connected with his middle-class political base. Roosevelt successfully pushed the Ford Franchise-Tax bill, which taxed public franchises granted by the state and controlled by corporations, declaring that \"a corporation which derives its powers from the State, should pay to the State a just percentage of its earnings as a return for the privileges it enjoys\". He rejected \"boss\" Thomas C. Platt's worries that this approached Bryanite Socialism, explaining that without it, New York voters might get angry and adopt public ownership of streetcar lines and other franchises.\n\nThe New York state government affected many interests, and the power to make appointments to policy-making positions was a key role for the governor. Platt insisted that he be consulted; Roosevelt appeared to comply, but then made his own decisions. Historians marvel that Roosevelt managed to appoint so many first-rate men with Platt's approval. He even enlisted Platt's help in securing reform, such as in the spring of 1899, when Platt pressured state senators to vote for a civil service bill that the secretary of the Civil Service Reform Association called \"superior to any civil service statute heretofore secured in America\".\n\nChessman argues that as governor, Roosevelt developed the principles that shaped his presidency, especially insistence upon the public responsibility of large corporations, publicity as a first remedy for trusts, regulation of railroad rates, mediation of the conflict of capital and labor, conservation of natural resources and protection of the less fortunate members of society.\n\nVice President\n\nIn November 1899, William McKinley's first Vice-President Garret Hobart died of heart failure. Theodore Roosevelt had anticipated a second term as governor or, alternatively, a cabinet post in the War Department; his friends (especially Henry Cabot Lodge) saw this as a dead end. They supported him for Vice President, and no one else of prominence was actively seeking that job. Some people in the GOP wanted Roosevelt as Vice President. His friends were pushing, and so were his foes. Roosevelt's reforming zeal ran afoul of the insurance and franchise businesses, who had a major voice in the New York GOP. Platt engineered Roosevelt's removal from the state by pressuring him to accept the GOP nomination. McKinley refused to consider Roosevelt as Secretary of War, but saw no risk in making him Vice President. Roosevelt accepted the nomination, although his campaign manager, Mark Hanna, thought Roosevelt was too cowboy-like. While the party executives were pleased with their success in engineering Roosevelt's next political foray, Roosevelt, very much to the contrary, thought he had \"stood the state machine on its head\". Roosevelt proved highly energetic, and an equal match for William Jennings Bryan's famous barnstorming style of campaigning. Roosevelt's theme was that McKinley had brought America peace and prosperity and deserved reelection. In a whirlwind campaign, Roosevelt made 480 stops in 23 states. Roosevelt showed the nation his energy, crisscrossing the land denouncing the radicalism of William Jennings Bryan, in contrast to the heroism of the soldiers and sailors who fought and won the war against Spain. Bryan had strongly supported the war itself, but he denounced the annexation of the Philippines as imperialism, which would spoil America's innocence. Roosevelt countered that it was best for the Filipinos to have stability, and the Americans to have a proud place in the world. With the nation basking in peace and prosperity, the voters gave conservative McKinley an even larger landslide than in 1896. The Republicans won by a landslide.\n\nThe office of Vice President was a powerless sinecure, and did not suit Roosevelt's aggressive temperament. Roosevelt's six months as Vice President (March to September 1901) were uneventful. On September 2, 1901, Roosevelt first publicized an aphorism that thrilled his supporters at the Minnesota State Fair: \"Speak softly and carry a big stick, and you will go far.\"\n\nPresidency (1901–09)\n\nOn September 6, President McKinley was shot by an anarchist acting alone while in Buffalo, New York. Initial reports suggested that his condition was improving, so Roosevelt, after visiting the ailing president, embarked for the west. When McKinley's condition worsened, Roosevelt rushed back. McKinley died on September 14, and Roosevelt was sworn in at the Ansley Wilcox House. The following month, Roosevelt invited Booker T. Washington to dinner at the White House. To his dismay, this sparked a bitter, and at times vicious, reaction across the heavily segregated South. Roosevelt reacted with astonishment and protest, saying that he looked forward to many future dinners with Washington. Upon further reflection, Roosevelt wanted to ensure that this had no effect on political support in the South, and further dinner invitations to Washington were avoided; their next meeting was scheduled as typical business at 10:00am instead. Roosevelt kept McKinley's Cabinet and promised to continue McKinley's policies. In the November 1904 presidential election, Roosevelt won the presidency in his own right in a landslide victory against Alton Brooks Parker. His vice president was Charles Warren Fairbanks of Indiana.\n\nDomestic policies\n\nTrust busting\n\nOne of Roosevelt's first notable acts as president was to deliver a 20,000-word address to Congress asking it to curb the power of large corporations (called \"trusts\"). He also spoke in support of organized labor to further chagrin big business, but to their delight, he endorsed the gold standard, protective tariffs and lower taxes. For his aggressive use of United States antitrust law, he became known as the \"trust-buster\". He brought 40 antitrust suits, and broke up major companies, such as the largest railroad and Standard Oil, the largest oil company. \n\nCoal strike\n\nIn May 1902, anthracite coal miners went on strike, threatening a national energy shortage. After threatening the coal operators with intervention by federal troops, Roosevelt won their agreement to an arbitration of the dispute by a commission, which succeeded in stopping the strike, dropping coal prices and retiring furnaces; the accord with J.P. Morgan resulted in the workers getting more pay for fewer hours, but with no union recognition. Journalist Ray Baker quoted Roosevelt concerning his policy towards capitalists and laborers: \"My action on labor should always be considered in connection with my action as regards capital, and both are reducible to my favorite formula—a square deal for every man.\"\n\nRailroads\n\nRoosevelt thought it was particularly important for the government to supervise the workings of the railway to avoid corruption in interstate commerce related to the shipment of coal and other commodities and goods. The result was enactment of the Hepburn Act in 1906, that established Federal control over railroad rates.\n\nPure Food and drugs\n\nRoosevelt responded to public anger over the abuses in the food packing industry by pushing Congress to pass the Meat Inspection Act of 1906 and the Pure Food and Drug Act. The Meat Inspection Act of 1906 banned misleading labels and preservatives that contained harmful chemicals. The Pure Food and Drug Act banned food and drugs that were impure or falsely labeled from being made, sold, and shipped. Roosevelt also served as honorary president of the American School Hygiene Association from 1907 to 1908, and in 1909 he convened the first White House Conference on the Care of Dependent Children.\n\nBusiness\n\nDuring the Panic of 1907, nearly all agreed that a more flexible system to ensure liquidity was needed—the Republicans sought a response to the money supply through the bankers, whereas the Democrats sought government control; Roosevelt was unsure, but leaned towards the Republican view while continuing to denounce corporate corruption. Nonetheless, in 1910, Roosevelt commented on \"enormously wealthy and economically powerful men\" and suggested \"a graduated inheritance tax on big fortunes... increasing rapidly in amount with the size of the estate\". \n\nRoosevelt was also inclined to extend the regulatory reach of his office. In a moment of frustration, House Speaker Joseph Gurney Cannon commented on Roosevelt's desire for executive branch control in domestic policy-making: \"That fellow at the other end of the avenue wants everything from the birth of Christ to the death of the devil.\" Biographer Brands states, \"Even his friends occasionally wondered whether there wasn't any custom or practice too minor for him to try to regulate, update or otherwise improve.\" In fact, Roosevelt's willingness to exercise his power included attempted rule changes in the game of football; at the Naval Academy, he sought to force retention of martial arts classes and to revise disciplinary rules. He even ordered changes made in the minting of a coin whose design he disliked, and ordered the Government Printing Office to adopt simplified spellings for a core list of 300 words, according to reformers on the Simplified Spelling Board. He was forced to rescind the latter after substantial ridicule from the press and a resolution of protest from the House of Representatives.\n\nConservation\n\nOf all Roosevelt's achievements, he was proudest of his work in conservation of natural resources, and extending Federal protection to land and wildlife. Roosevelt established the United States Forest Service, signed into law the creation of five National Parks, and signed the 1906 Antiquities Act, under which he proclaimed 18 new U.S. National Monuments. He also established the first 51 Bird Reserves, four Game Preserves, and 150 National Forests, including Shoshone National Forest, the nation's first. The area of the United States that he placed under public protection totals approximately 230000000 acre. He worked closely with Gifford Pinchot. \n\nForeign policy\n\nIn the late 1890s, Roosevelt had been an ardent imperialist, and vigorously defended the permanent acquisition of the Philippines in the 1900 election campaign. After the rebellion ended in 1901, he largely lost interest in the Philippines and Asian expansion in general, despite the contradictory opinion of his Secretary of War, William Howard Taft. As president, he primarily focused the nation's overseas ambitions on the Caribbean, especially locations that had a bearing on the defense of his pet project, the Panama Canal.\n\nIn 1905, Roosevelt offered to mediate a treaty to end the Russo-Japanese War. The parties agreed to meet in Portsmouth, New Hampshire and they resolved the final conflict over the division of Sakhalin– Russia took the northern half, and Japan the south; Japan also dropped its demand for an indemnity. Roosevelt won the Nobel Peace Prize for his successful efforts. George E. Mowry concludes that Roosevelt handled the arbitration well, doing an \"excellent job of balancing Russian and Japanese power in the Orient, where the supremacy of either constituted a threat to growing America\". \n\nThe Gentlemen's Agreement of 1907 resolved unpleasant racial tensions with Japan. Tokyo was angered over the segregation of Japanese children in San Francisco schools. The tensions were ended, but Japan also agreed not to allow unskilled workers to emigrate to the U.S.\n\nLatin America\n\nRoosevelt's attention concerning Latin American turmoil was heightened by his plans for building a canal. In December 1902, the Germans, English, and Italians sought to impose a naval blockade against Venezuela in order to force the repayment of delinquent loans. Roosevelt was particularly concerned with the motives of Germany's Kaiser Wilhelm. He succeeded in getting the aggressors to agree to arbitration by a tribunal at The Hague, and averted the Venezuela Crisis of 1902–1903. The latitude granted to the Europeans by the arbiters was in part responsible for the \"Roosevelt Corollary\" to the Monroe Doctrine, which the President issued in 1904: \"Chronic wrongdoing or an impotence which results in a general loosening of the ties of civilized society, may in America, as elsewhere, ultimately require intervention by some civilized nation, and in the Western Hemisphere, the adherence of the United States to the Monroe doctrine may force the United States, however reluctantly, in flagrant cases of such wrongdoing or impotence, to the exercise of an international police power.\"\n\nThe pursuit of an isthmus canal in Central America during this period focused on two possible routes—Nicaragua and Panama, which was then a rebellious district within Colombia. Roosevelt convinced Congress to approve the Panamanian alternative, and a treaty was approved, only to be rejected by the Colombian government. When the Panamanians learned of this, a rebellion followed, was supported by Roosevelt, and succeeded. A treaty with the new Panama government for construction of the canal was then reached in 1903. \n\nIn 1906, following a disputed election, an insurrection ensued in Cuba; Roosevelt sent Taft, the Secretary of War, to monitor the situation; he was convinced that he had the authority to unilaterally authorize Taft to deploy Marines if necessary, without congressional approval.\n\nExamining the work of numerous scholars, Ricard (2014) reports that:\n\nThe most striking evolution in the twenty-first century historiography of Theodore Roosevelt is the switch from a partial arraignment of the imperialist to a quasi-unanimous celebration of the master diplomatist.... [Regarding British relations these studies] have underlined cogently Roosevelt's exceptional statesmanship in the construction of the nascent twentieth-century \"special relationship\". ...The twenty-sixth president's reputation as a brilliant diplomatist and realpolitician has undeniably reached new heights in the twenty-first century...yet, his Philippine policy still prompts criticism. \n\nThe media\n\nBuilding on McKinley's effective use of the press, Roosevelt made the White House the center of news every day, providing interviews and photo opportunities. After noticing the reporters huddled outside the White House in the rain one day, he gave them their own room inside, effectively inventing the presidential press briefing. The grateful press, with unprecedented access to the White House, rewarded Roosevelt with ample coverage.\n\nRoosevelt normally enjoyed very close relationships with the press, which he used to keep in daily contact with his middle-class base. While out of office, he made a living as a writer and magazine editor. He loved talking with intellectuals, authors, and writers. He drew the line, however, at expose-oriented scandal-mongering journalists who, during his term, set magazine subscriptions soaring by their attacks on corrupt politicians, mayors, and corporations. Roosevelt himself was not usually a target, but his speech in 1906 coined the term \"muckraker\" for unscrupulous journalists making wild charges. \"The liar,\" he said, \"is no whit better than the thief, and if his mendacity takes the form of slander he may be worse than most thieves.\" \n\nThe press did briefly target Roosevelt in one instance. Ever since 1904, he had been periodically criticized for the manner in which he facilitated the Panama Canal. In the least judicious use of executive power, according to biographer Brands, Roosevelt, near the end of his term, demanded that the Justice Department bring charges of criminal libel against Joseph Pulitzer's New York World. The publication had accused him of \"deliberate misstatements of fact\" in defense of family members who were criticized as a result of the Panama affair. Though indictment was obtained, the case was ultimately dismissed in federal court—it was not a federal offense, but one enforceable at the state court level. The Justice Department had predicted that result, and had also advised Roosevelt accordingly.\n\nElection of 1904\n\nThe control and management of the Republican Party lay in the hands of chairman Mark Hanna until McKinley's death. Hanna's domination, and potential rivalry for the party's nomination in 1904, began to wane with his own health issues; he died early that year. In deference to Hanna's conservative loyalists, Roosevelt at first offered the party chairmanship to Cornelius Bliss, but he declined. Roosevelt turned to his own man, George B. Cortelyou of New York, the first Secretary of Commerce and Labor. To buttress his hold on the party's nomination, Roosevelt made it clear that anyone opposing Cortelyou would be considered to be opposing the President. The President secured his own nomination, but his preferred vice-presidential running mate, Robert R. Hitt, was not nominated. Charles Warren Fairbanks gained the nomination.\n\nWhile Roosevelt followed the tradition of incumbents in not actively campaigning on the stump, he sought to control the campaign's message through specific instructions to Cortelyou. He also attempted to manage the press's release of White House statements by forming the Ananias Club. Any journalist who repeated a statement made by the president without approval was penalized by restriction of further access.\n\nThe Democratic Party's nominee in 1904 was Alton Brooks Parker. Roosevelt won 56% of the popular vote, and Parker received 38%; Roosevelt also won the Electoral College vote, 336 to 140. Before his inauguration ceremony, Roosevelt declared that he would not serve another term.\n\nSecond-term troubles\n\nRoosevelt, moving to the left of his Republican Party base, called for a series of reforms that were mostly not passed. He sought a national incorporation law (at a time when all corporations had state charters, which varied greatly state by state). He called for a federal income tax, but the Supreme Court in the 1890s had ruled any income tax would require a constitutional amendment. Roosevelt sought an inheritance tax so the great fortunes could not pay out in perpetuity. In the area of labor legislation, Roosevelt called for limits on the use of court injunctions against labor unions during strikes; injunctions were a powerful weapon that mostly helped business. He wanted an employee liability law for industrial injuries (pre-empting state laws). He called for an eight-hour law for federal employees. In other areas he also sought a postal savings system (to provide competition for local banks), and he asked for campaign reform laws. He secured passage of the Hepburn Bill, with help from Democrats, which increased the regulating power of the Interstate Commerce Commission. Eventually some of his proposals were enacted under his successors. When Roosevelt ran for president on an independent Progressive Party ticket in 1912, in addition to these policies he proposed stringent new controls on the court system, especially state courts, to make a more democratic. His court policies in particular caused his anointed successor, William Howard Taft, to lead a counter-crusade that defeated Roosevelt in 1912. \n\nPost-presidency\n\nElection of 1908\n\nBefore leaving office, while attempting to push through the nomination of William Howard Taft for the Presidency in 1908, Roosevelt declared Taft to be a \"genuine progressive\". In January of that year, Roosevelt wrote the following to Taft: \"Dear Will: Do you want any action about those federal officials? I will break their necks with the utmost cheerfulness if you say the word!\" Just weeks later he branded as \"false and malicious\"; the charge was that he was using the offices at his disposal to favor Taft.\n\nTaft easily defeated three-time candidate William Jennings Bryan. Taft promoted a progressivism that stressed the rule of law; he preferred that judges rather than administrators or politicians make the basic decisions about fairness. Taft usually proved to be a less adroit politician than Roosevelt and lacked the energy and personal magnetism, along with the publicity devices, the dedicated supporters, and the broad base of public support that made Roosevelt so formidable. When Roosevelt realized that lowering the tariff would risk creating severe tensions inside the Republican Party by pitting producers (manufacturers and farmers) against merchants and consumers, he stopped talking about the issue. Taft ignored the risks and tackled the tariff boldly, encouraging reformers to fight for lower rates, and then cutting deals with conservative leaders that kept overall rates high. The resulting Payne-Aldrich tariff of 1909 was too high for most reformers, but instead of blaming this on Senator Nelson Wilmarth Aldrich and big businesses, Taft took credit, calling it the best tariff ever. He managed to alienate all sides. While the crisis was building inside the Party, Roosevelt was touring Africa and Europe, to allow Taft to be his own man. \n\nRepublican Party schism\n\nRoosevelt had attempted to refashion Taft into a younger version of himself, but as soon as Taft began to display his individuality, the former president expressed his disenchantment. He was offended on election night when Taft wrote and indicated that his success had been possible not just through the efforts of Roosevelt, but also his brother Charley. Roosevelt was further alienated when Taft, intent on becoming his own man, did not consult him about cabinet appointments. Lodge empathized with Roosevelt, and therefore declined an offer to become Secretary of State.\n\nUnlike Roosevelt, Taft never attacked business or businessmen in his rhetoric. However, he was attentive to the law, so he launched 90 antitrust suits, including one against the largest corporation, US Steel, for an acquisition which Roosevelt had personally approved. Consequently, Taft lost the support of antitrust reformers (who disliked his conservative rhetoric), of big business (which disliked his actions), and of Roosevelt, who felt humiliated by his protégé. More trouble came when Taft fired Roosevelt's friend and appointee Gifford Pinchot, a leading conservationist. Pinchot alleged that Taft's Secretary of the Interior, Richard Ballinger, was in league with big timber interests. Conservationists sided with Pinchot, and Taft alienated yet another vocal constituency. The left wing of the Republican Party began turning against Taft.\n\nSenator Robert M. La Follette Sr. of Wisconsin joined with Pinchot, William White and Hiram Johnson to create the National Progressive Republican League; their objectives were to defeat the power of political bossism at the state level and to replace Taft at the national level. Roosevelt declined to join this group—he was reluctant to leave the GOP. Back from Europe, Roosevelt unexpectedly launched an attack on the courts. He gave a notable speech at Osawatomie, Kansas, in August 1910, which was the most radical of his career and openly initiated his break with the Taft administration and the conservative Republicans. Osawatomie was well known as the base used by John Brown when he launched his bloody attacks on slavery. Advocating a program of \"New Nationalism\", Roosevelt emphasized the priority of labor over capital interests, a need to more effectively control corporate creation and combination, and proposed a ban on corporate political contributions.\n\nRoosevelt shortly thereafter made it clear in a meeting with Lloyd Carpenter Griscom, a New York Republican regular, that Taft no longer enjoyed his support, since he had \"deliberately abandoned\" their previous close relations. Taft was deeply upset. In the 1910 Congressional elections, Democrats won a majority in the House, and significantly diminished the Republicans' hold on the Senate. From 1890 to 1908, Southern legislatures dominated by white conservative Democrats had completed the disenfranchisement of most blacks, and therefore most Republicans in the region, through a series of new constitutions and laws creating barriers to voter registration. Democrats built the Solid South, a one-party region, which was maintained as such nearly into the late 1960s.\n\nThese changes made Taft's reelection in 1912 doubtful. The Republican progressives interpreted the 1910 defeats as compelling argument for the complete reorganization of the party in 1911, and Roosevelt reacted with renewed interest in more personal political endeavors. Despite skepticism of La Follette's new League, Roosevelt expressed general support for progressive principles; between January and April 1911, Roosevelt wrote a series of articles for The Outlook, defending what he called \"the great movement of our day, the progressive nationalist movement against special privilege, and in favor of an honest and efficient political and industrial democracy\".\n\nSmithsonian-Roosevelt African Expedition (1909–10)\n\nIn March 1909, shortly after the end of his presidency, Roosevelt left New York for the Smithsonian-Roosevelt African Expedition, a safari in east and central Africa outfitted by the Smithsonian Institution. Roosevelt's party landed in Mombasa, British East Africa (now Kenya), traveled to the Belgian Congo (now Democratic Republic of the Congo), before following the Nile to Khartoum in modern Sudan. Financed by Andrew Carnegie and by his own writings, Roosevelt's party hunted for specimens for the Smithsonian Institution and for the American Museum of Natural History in New York. The group, led by the legendary hunter-tracker RJ Cunninghame, included scientists from the Smithsonian, and was joined from time to time by Frederick Selous, the famous big game hunter and explorer. Among other items, Roosevelt brought with him four tons of salt for preserving animal hides, a lucky rabbit's foot given to him by boxer John L. Sullivan, a Holland & Holland double rifle in .500/450 donated by a group of 56 admiring Britons, a Winchester 1895 rifle in .405 Winchester, an Army (M1903) Springfield in .30-06 caliber stocked and sighted for him, a Fox No. 12 shotgun, and the famous Pigskin Library, a collection of classics bound in pig leather and transported in a single reinforced trunk. Participants on the expedition included Kermit Roosevelt, Edgar Alexander Mearns, Edmund Heller, and John Alden Loring. \n\nRoosevelt and his companions killed or trapped approximately 11,400 animals, from insects and moles to hippopotamuses and elephants. The 1000 large animals included 512 big game animals, including six rare White rhinos. Tons of salted animals and their skins were shipped to Washington; it took years to mount them all, and the Smithsonian shared many duplicate specimens with other museums. Regarding the large number of animals taken, Roosevelt said, \"I can be condemned only if the existence of the National Museum, the American Museum of Natural History, and all similar zoological institutions are to be condemned\".\n\nAlthough the safari was ostensibly conducted in the name of science, it was as much a political and social event as it was a hunting excursion; Roosevelt interacted with renowned professional hunters and land-owning families, and met many native peoples and local leaders. Roosevelt had become a life member of the National Rifle Association in 1907. He wrote a detailed account of the safari in the book African Game Trails, recounting the excitement of the chase, the people he met, and the flora and fauna he collected in the name of science. \n\nElection of 1912\n\nRepublican primaries and convention\n\nIn November 1911, a group of Ohio Republicans endorsed Roosevelt for the party's nomination for president; the endorsers included James R. Garfield and Dan Hanna. This was notable, as the endorsement was made by leaders of President Taft's home state. Roosevelt conspicuously declined to make a statement requested by Garfield—that he flatly refuse a nomination. Soon thereafter, Roosevelt said, \"I am really sorry for Taft... I am sure he means well, but he means well feebly, and he does not know how! He is utterly unfit for leadership and this is a time when we need leadership.\" In January 1912, Roosevelt declared \"if the people make a draft on me I shall not decline to serve\". Later that year, Roosevelt spoke before the Constitutional Convention in Ohio, openly identifying as a progressive and endorsing progressive reforms—even endorsing popular review of state judicial decisions. In reaction to Roosevelt's proposals for popular overrule of court decisions, Taft said, \"Such extremists are not progressives—they are political emotionalists or neurotics\".\n\nRoosevelt began to envision himself as the savior of the Republican party (the \"GOP\") from defeat in the upcoming Presidential election and declared as a candidate for the GOP banner. In February 1912, Roosevelt announced in Boston, \"I will accept the nomination for president if it is tendered to me. I hope that so far as possible the people may be given the chance through direct primaries to express who shall be the nominee. Both Elihu Root and Henry Cabot Lodge thought that division of the party would lead to its defeat in the next election; Taft believed he was witnessing the end of his political career—it was only a matter of whether he would be defeated by his own party or in the general election.\n\nThe 1912 primaries represented the first extensive use of the presidential primary, a reform achievement of the progressive movement. The primaries in the South, where party regulars dominated, went for Taft, as did results in New York, Indiana, Michigan, Kentucky and Massachusetts. Meanwhile, Roosevelt won in Illinois, Minnesota, Nebraska, South Dakota, California, Maryland and Pennsylvania; Roosevelt also won Taft's home state of Ohio. These primary elections, while demonstrating Roosevelt's continuing popularity with the electorate, were not pivotal. The final credentials of the state delegates at the national convention were determined by the national committee, which was controlled by the party leaders, headed by the incumbent president.\n\nAt the Republican Convention in Chicago, though Taft's victory was not immediate, the hard fought outcome was in his favor. Black delegates from the South played a key role: they voted heavily for Taft and put him over the top. Roosevelt said \"Seven-eights of the negro delegates, and about the same proportion of white men representing negro districts in the South, went for Mr. Taft.\" \n\nThe Progressive (\"Bull Moose\") Party\n\nOnce his defeat as the GOP nominee was probable, Roosevelt announced that he would \"accept the progressive nomination on a progressive platform and I shall fight to the end, win or lose\". At the same time, Roosevelt prophetically said, \"My feeling is that the Democrats will probably win if they nominate a progressive\". After two weeks at the GOP convention, Roosevelt asked his followers to leave the hall, and they moved to the Auditorium Theatre. Then Roosevelt, along with key allies such as Pinchot and Albert Beveridge, created the Progressive Party, structuring it as a permanent organization that would field complete tickets at the presidential and state level. It was popularly known as the \"Bull Moose Party\", after Roosevelt told reporters, \"I'm as fit as a bull moose\". At the convention Roosevelt cried out, \"We stand at Armageddon and we battle for the Lord.\"\n\nRoosevelt's platform echoed his 1907–8 proposals, calling for vigorous government intervention to protect the people from the selfish interests;\n\nMany Progressive party supporters in the North were supporters of civil rights for blacks. Roosevelt did not want to alienate them. On the other hand, his chief advisors in the South insisted the Progressive party had to be a white man's party there. Rival all-white and all-black delegations from four southern states arrived at the Progressive national convention. Roosevelt decided to seat the all-white delegations. He ran a \"lily-white\" campaign in the South in 1912. Nevertheless, he won little support outside mountain Republican strongholds. Out of nearly 1100 counties in the South, Roosevelt won two counties in Alabama, one in Arkansas, seven in North Carolina, three in Georgia, 17 in Tennessee two in Texas, one in Virginia, and none in Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, or South Carolina. \n\nAssassination attempt\n\nOn October 14, 1912, while campaigning in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Roosevelt was shot by a saloonkeeper named John Flammang Schrank. The bullet lodged in his chest after penetrating his steel eyeglass case and passing through a thick (50 pages) single-folded copy of the speech he was carrying in his jacket. Roosevelt, as an experienced hunter and anatomist, correctly concluded that since he was not coughing blood, the bullet had not reached his lung, and he declined suggestions to go to the hospital immediately. Instead, he delivered his scheduled speech with blood seeping into his shirt. He spoke for 90 minutes. His opening comments to the gathered crowd were, \"Ladies and gentlemen, I don't know whether you fully understand that I have just been shot, but it takes more than that to kill a Bull Moose.\" Afterwards, probes and an x-ray showed that the bullet had lodged in Roosevelt's chest muscle, but did not penetrate the pleura, and it would be less dangerous to leave it in place. Roosevelt carried the bullet with him for the rest of his life. \n\nBecause of the bullet wound, Roosevelt was taken off the campaign trail in the final weeks of the race (which ended on election day, November 5). Though the other two campaigners stopped their own campaigns during the week Roosevelt was in the hospital, they resumed it once he was released. The bullet lodged in his chest exacerbated his rheumatoid arthritis and prevented him from doing his daily stint of exercises; Roosevelt soon became obese..\n\nElection of 1912\n\nIn an era of party loyalty, Roosevelt failed to move enough Republicans to vote a third party ticket. He won 4.1 million votes (27%), compared to Taft's 3.5 million (23%). The Democratic candidate, New Jersey governor Woodrow Wilson gained 6.3 million votes (42% of the total), enough for a massive landslide in the Electoral College, with 435 electoral votes; Roosevelt won 88 electoral votes, and Taft had 8. Pennsylvania was the only eastern state won by Roosevelt; in the Midwest, he carried Michigan, Minnesota, and South Dakota; in the West, California, and Washington. The South as usual was solidly Democratic. \n\n1913–14 South American Expedition\n\nA friend of Roosevelt's, Father John Augustine Zahm, a Catholic priest and scientist at the University of Notre Dame, had searched for new adventures and found them in the forests of South America. After a briefing of several of his own expeditions, he persuaded Roosevelt to participate in such an expedition in 1912. To finance the expedition, Roosevelt received support from the American Museum of Natural History, promising to bring back many new animal specimens. Roosevelt's popular book, Through the Brazilian Wilderness describes his expedition into the Brazilian jungle in 1913 as a member of the Roosevelt-Rondon Scientific Expedition, co-named after its leader, Brazilian explorer Cândido Rondon. The book describes the scientific discovery, scenic tropical vistas, and exotic flora and fauna experienced during the adventure.\n\nOnce in South America, a new, far more ambitious goal was added: to find the headwaters of the Rio da Duvida, the River of Doubt, and trace it north to the Madeira and thence to the Amazon River. It was later renamed Roosevelt River in honor of the former President. Roosevelt's crew consisted of his son Kermit, naturalist Colonel Rondon, George K. Cherrie, sent by the American Museum of Natural History, Brazilian Lieutenant João Lira, team physician Dr. José Antonio Cajazeira, and 16 skilled paddlers and porters (called camaradas [comrades] in Portuguese). The initial expedition started somewhat tenuously on December 9, 1913, at the height of the rainy season. The trip down the River of Doubt started on February 27, 1914. \n\nDuring the trip down the river, Roosevelt suffered a minor leg wound after he jumped into the river to try to prevent two canoes from smashing against the rocks. The flesh wound he received, however, soon gave him tropical fever that resembled the malaria he had contracted while in Cuba fifteen years before. Because the bullet lodged in his chest from the assassination attempt in 1912 was never removed, his health worsened from the infection. This weakened Roosevelt so greatly that six weeks into the adventure, he had to be attended to day and night by the expedition's physician and his son Kermit. By then, he could not walk because of the infection in his injured leg and an infirmity in the other, which was due to a traffic accident a decade earlier. Roosevelt was riddled with chest pains, fighting a fever that soared to 103 °F (39 °C) and at times made him delirious. Regarding his condition as a threat to the survival of the others, Roosevelt insisted he be left behind to allow the poorly provisioned expedition to proceed as rapidly as it could. Only an appeal by his son persuaded him to continue. \n\nDespite Roosevelt's continued decline and loss of over 50 pounds (20 kg), Commander Rondon reduced the pace of the expedition to allow for his commission's mapmaking and other geographical tasks, which required regular stops to fix the expedition's position by sun-based survey. Upon Roosevelt's return to New York, friends and family were startled by his physical appearance and fatigue. Roosevelt wrote, perhaps prophetically, to a friend that the trip had cut his life short by ten years. For the rest of his few remaining years, he would be plagued by flare-ups of malaria and leg inflammations so severe as to require surgery. Before Roosevelt had even completed his sea voyage home, critics raised doubts over his claims of exploring and navigating a completely uncharted river over 625 miles (1,000 km) long. When he had recovered sufficiently, he addressed a standing-room-only convention organized in Washington, D.C., by the National Geographic Society and satisfactorily defended his claims.\n\nWorld War I\n\nWhen World War I began in 1914, Roosevelt strongly supported the Allies and demanded a harsher policy against Germany, especially regarding submarine warfare. Roosevelt angrily denounced the foreign policy of President Wilson, calling it a failure regarding the atrocities in Belgium and the violations of American rights. In 1916, he campaigned energetically for Charles Evans Hughes and repeatedly denounced Irish-Americans and German-Americans whom he described as unpatriotic, saying they put the interests of Ireland and Germany ahead of America's by supporting neutrality. He insisted that one had to be 100% American, not a \"hyphenated American\" who juggled multiple loyalties. In March 1917, Congress gave Roosevelt the authority to raise a maximum of four divisions similar to the Rough Riders, and Major Frederick Russell Burnham was put in charge of both the general organization and recruitment. However, the Commander-in-chief, President Woodrow Wilson, announced to the press that he would not send Roosevelt and his volunteers to France, but instead would send an American Expeditionary Force under the command of General John J. Pershing. Roosevelt was forced to disband the volunteers. He never forgave Wilson, and quickly published The Foes Of Our Own Household, an indictment of the sitting president. \n\nRoosevelt's attacks on Wilson helped the Republicans win control of Congress in the off-year elections of 1918. Roosevelt was popular enough to contest the 1920 Republican nomination, but his health was broken by 1918, because of the lingering malaria. His family and supporters threw their support behind Roosevelt's old military companion, General Leonard Wood, who was ultimately defeated by Taft supporter Warren G. Harding. Roosevelt's youngest son, Quentin, a pilot with the American forces in France, was shot down behind German lines on July 14, 1918, at the age of 20. It is said that Quentin's death distressed Roosevelt so much that he never recovered from his loss. \n\nDeath\n\nOn the night of January 5, 1919, Roosevelt suffered breathing problems. He felt better after treatment from his physician, Dr. George W. Faller, and went to bed. Roosevelt's last words were \"Please put out that light, James\" to his family servant James Amos. Between 4:00 and 4:15 the next morning, Roosevelt died in his sleep at Sagamore Hill; a blood clot had detached from a vein and traveled to his lungs. Upon receiving word of his death, his son Archibald telegraphed his siblings: \"The old lion is dead.\" Woodrow Wilson's vice president, Thomas R. Marshall, said that \"Death had to take Roosevelt sleeping, for if he had been awake, there would have been a fight.\" Following a private farewell service in the North Room at Sagamore Hill, a simple funeral was held at Christ Episcopal Church in Oyster Bay. Vice President Thomas R. Marshall, Charles Evans Hughes, Warren Harding, Henry Cabot Lodge, and William Howard Taft were among the mourners. The snow-covered procession route to Youngs Memorial Cemetery was lined with spectators and a squad of mounted policemen who had ridden from New York City. Roosevelt was buried on a hillside overlooking Oyster Bay.\n\nPolitical positions and speeches\n\nTheodore Roosevelt introduced the phrase \"Square Deal\" to describe his progressive views in a speech delivered after leaving the office of the Presidency in August 1910. In his broad outline, he stressed equality of opportunity for all citizens and emphasized the importance of fair government regulations of corporate \"special interests\". Roosevelt was one of the first Presidents to make conservation a national issue. In his speech at Osawatomie, Kansas, on August 31, 1910, he outlined his views on conservation of the lands of the United States. He favored using America's natural resources, but opposed wasteful consumption. One of his most lasting legacies was his significant role in the creation of 5 national parks, 18 national monuments, and 150 National Forests, among other works of conservation. Roosevelt was instrumental in conserving about 230 e6acre of American soil among various parks and other federal projects. In the 21st century, historians have paid renewed attention to President Roosevelt as \"The Wilderness Warrior\" and his energetic promotion of the conservation movement. He collaborated with his chief advisor, Gifford Pinchot, the chief of the Forest Service. Pinchot and Roosevelt scheduled a series of news events that garnered nationwide media attention in magazines and newspapers. They used magazine articles, speeches, press conferences, interviews, and especially large-scale presidential commissions. Roosevelt's goal was to encourage his middle-class reform-minded base to add conservation to their list of issues. \n\nPositions on immigration, minorities, civil rights, and eugenics\n\nImmigration\n\nIn an 1894 article on immigration, Roosevelt said, \"We must Americanize in every way, in speech, in political ideas and principles, and in their way of looking at relations between church and state. We welcome the German and the Irishman who becomes an American. We have no use for the German or Irishman who remains such... He must revere only our flag, not only must it come first, but no other flag should even come second.\"\n\nRoosevelt took an active interest in immigration, and had launched an extensive reorganization of the federal immigration depot at Ellis Island within months of assuming the presidency. Roosevelt \"straddled the immigration question\", taking the position that \"we cannot have too much immigration of the right sort, and we should have none whatever of the wrong sort\". As president, his stated preferences were relatively inclusive, across the then diverse and mostly European sources of immigration:\n\nMinorities and Civil Rights\n\nHe was the first president to appoint a Jewish cabinet member—Secretary of Commerce and Labor, Oscar Solomon Straus, who served from 1906 to 1909. Straus, who had helped co-found the Immigration Protective League in 1898, was the Roosevelt Administration's cabinet official overseeing immigration; he helped secure the passage and implementation of the Immigration Act of 1907. \n\nIn 1886, Roosevelt criticized the morals of Indians he had seen:\nI don't go so far as to think that the only good Indians are dead Indians, but I believe nine out of ten are, and I shouldn't like to inquire too closely into the case of the tenth. The most vicious cowboy has more moral principle than the average Indian. Turn three hundred low families of New York into New Jersey, support them for fifty years in vicious idleness, and you will have some idea of what the Indians are. Reckless, revengeful, fiendishly cruel, they rob and murder, not the cowboys, who can take care of themselves, but the defenseless, lone settlers on the plains. \n\nRegarding African-Americans, Roosevelt told a civil rights leader:\nI have not been able to think out any solution of the terrible problem offered by the presence of the Negro on this continent, but of one thing I am sure, and that is that inasmuch as he is here and can neither be killed nor driven away, the only wise and honorable and Christian thing to do is to treat each black man and each white man strictly on his merits as a man, giving him no more and no less than he shows himself worthy to have. \n\nRoosevelt appointed numerous African Americans to federal offices, such as Walter L. Cohen of New Orleans, a leader of the Black and Tan Republican faction, whom Roosevelt named register of the federal land office. \n\nContrasting the European conquest of North America with that of Australia, Roosevelt wrote: \"The natives [of Australia] were so few in number and of such a low type, that they practically offered no resistance at all, being but little more hindrance than an equal number of ferocious beasts\"; however, the Native Americans were \"the most formidable savage foes ever faced ever encountered by colonists of European stock\". He regarded slavery as \"a crime whose shortsighted folly was worse than its guilt\" because it \"brought hordes of African slaves, whose descendants now form immense populations in certain portions of the land\". Contrasting the European conquest of North America with that of South Africa, Roosevelt felt that the fate of the latter's colonists would be different because, unlike the Native American, the African \"neither dies out nor recedes before their advance\", meaning the colonists would likely \"be swallowed up in the overwhelming mass of black barbarism\".\n\nRace suicide and eugenics\n\nRoosevelt was intensely active in warning against race suicide, and held a Neo-Lamarkist viewpoint. When Roosevelt used the word 'race', he meant the entirety of the human race or Americans as one race and culture. Americans, he repeatedly said, were getting too soft and having too few children and were thus dying out. While he agreed with some of the ideas of eugenics, he strongly opposed the core eugenics movement principle that some people should have fewer children. As historian Thomas Dyer explains, Roosevelt, \"Strenuously dissented from the ideas which contravened the race suicide..... And categorically rejected any measure which would not produce enough children to maintain racial integrity and national preeminence.\" Roosevelt attacked the fundamental axioms of eugenics, warning against \"twisted eugenics\". \n\nIn 1914 he said: \"I wish very much that the wrong people could be prevented entirely from breeding; and when the evil nature of these people is sufficiently flagrant, this should be done. Criminals should be sterilized and feeble-minded persons forbidden to leave offspring behind them.\" \n\nWhen Madison Grant published his book The Passing of the Great Race, Roosevelt wrote this to Scribner's Magazine to promote it:\nThe book is a capital book; in purpose, in vision, in grasp of the facts our people most need to realize. It shows an extraordinary range of reading and a wide scholarship. It shows a habit of singular serious thought on the subject of most commanding importance. It shows a fine fearlessness in assailing the popular and mischievous sentimentalities and attractive and corroding falsehoods which few men dare assail. It is the work of an American scholar and gentleman; and all Americans should be sincerely grateful to you for writing it. \n\nRoosevelt was greatly impressed by the performance of ethnic American soldiers in the world war. Biographer Kathleen Dalton says:\nHe insisted to [Madison] Grant that race and ethnicity did not matter because men of foreign parentage across the nation fought well, including Jews....Roosevelt took the final step toward believing in racial equality. At the end of his life TR repudiated the Madison Grants and other racists and promised W.E.B. DuBois to work with more energy for racial justice. \n\nWriter\n\nRoosevelt was a prolific author, writing with passion on subjects ranging from foreign policy to the importance of the national park system. Roosevelt was also an avid reader of poetry. Poet Robert Frost said that Roosevelt \"was our kind. He quoted poetry to me. He knew poetry.\" \n\nAs an editor of Outlook magazine, Roosevelt had weekly access to a large, educated national audience. In all, Roosevelt wrote about 18 books (each in several editions), including his autobiography, The Rough Riders, History of the Naval War of 1812, and others on subjects such as ranching, explorations, and wildlife. His most ambitious book was the four volume narrative The Winning of the West, focused on the American frontier in the 18th and early 19th centuries. Roosevelt said that the American character – indeed a new \"American race\" (ethnic group) had emerged from the heroic wilderness hunters and Indian fighters, acting on the frontier with little government help. Roosevelt also published an account of his 1909–10 African expedition entitled African Game Trails.\n\nIn 1907, Roosevelt became embroiled in a widely publicized literary debate known as the nature fakers controversy. A few years earlier, naturalist John Burroughs had published an article entitled \"Real and Sham Natural History\" in the Atlantic Monthly, attacking popular writers of the day such as Ernest Thompson Seton, Charles G. D. Roberts, and William J. Long for their fantastical representations of wildlife. Roosevelt agreed with Burroughs' criticisms, and published several essays of his own denouncing the booming genre of \"naturalistic\" animal stories as \"yellow journalism of the woods\". It was the President himself who popularized the negative term \"nature faker\" to describe writers who depicted their animal characters with excessive anthropomorphism. \n\nCharacter and beliefs\n\nRoosevelt intensely disliked being called \"Teddy\", and was quick to point out this fact to those who referred to him as such, though it would become widely used by newspapers during his political career. He attended church regularly. In 1907, concerning the motto \"In God We Trust\" on money, he wrote, \"It seems to me eminently unwise to cheapen such a motto by use on coins, just as it would be to cheapen it by use on postage stamps, or in advertisements.\" He was also a member of the Freemasons and Sons of the American Revolution. \n\nRoosevelt had a lifelong interest in pursuing what he called, in an 1899 speech, \"The Strenuous Life\". To this end, he exercised regularly and took up boxing, tennis, hiking, rowing, polo, and horseback riding. As governor of New York, he boxed with sparring partners several times each week, a practice he regularly continued as President until being hit so hard in the face he became blind in his left eye (a fact not made public until many years later). Thereafter, he practiced judo, attaining a third degree brown belt; he also continued his habit of skinny-dipping in the Potomac River during the winter. \n\nRoosevelt was an enthusiastic singlestick player and, according to Harper's Weekly, showed up at a White House reception with his arm bandaged after a bout with General Leonard Wood in 1905. Roosevelt was an avid reader, reading tens of thousands of books, at a rate of several per day in multiple languages. Along with Thomas Jefferson, Roosevelt was the most well-read of all American politicians. \n\nLegacy\n\nHistorians credit Roosevelt for changing the nation's political system by permanently placing the presidency at center stage and making character as important as the issues. His notable accomplishments include trust busting and conservationism. He is a hero to liberals for his proposals in 1907–12 that presaged the modern welfare state of the New Deal Era, and put the environment on the national agenda. Conservatives admire his \"big stick\" diplomacy and commitment to military values. Dalton says, \"Today he is heralded as the architect of the modern presidency, as a world leader who boldly reshaped the office to meet the needs of the new century and redefined America's place in the world.\"\n\nHowever, liberals have criticized him for his interventionist and imperialist approach to nations he considered \"uncivilized\". Conservatives reject his vision of the welfare state and emphasis on the superiority of government over private action. Historians typically rank Roosevelt among the top five presidents. \n\nPersona and masculinity\n\nDalton says Roosevelt is remembered as, \"one of the most picturesque personalities who has ever enlivened the landscape\". His friend, historian Henry Adams, proclaimed:\n\nRecent biographers have stressed Roosevelt's personality. Cooper compared him with Woodrow Wilson, and discovered that both of them played the roles of warrior and priest. Dalton stressed Roosevelt's strenuous life. Sarah Watts examined the desires of the \"Rough Rider in the White House\". Brands calls Roosevelt \"the last romantic\", arguing that his romantic concept of life emerged from his belief that \"physical bravery was the highest virtue and war the ultimate test of bravery\".\n\nRoosevelt as the exemplar of American masculinity has become a major theme. As president, he repeatedly warned men that they were becoming too office-bound, too complacent, too comfortable with physical ease and moral laxity, and were failing in their duties to propagate the race and exhibit masculine vigor. French historian Serge Ricard says, \"the ebullient apostle of the Strenuous Life offers ideal material for a detailed psycho-historical analysis of aggressive manhood in the changing socio-cultural environment of his era; McKinley, Taft, or Wilson would perhaps inadequately serve that purpose\". He promoted competitive sports and the Boy Scouts of America, founded in 1910, as the way forward. Brands shows that heroic displays of bravery were essential to Roosevelt's image and mission:\n\nMemorials\n\nRoosevelt was included with Presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Abraham Lincoln at the Mount Rushmore Memorial, designed in 1927 with the approval of Republican President Calvin Coolidge. For his gallantry at San Juan Hill, Roosevelt's commanders recommended him for the Medal of Honor. In the late 1990s, Roosevelt's supporters again recommended the award. On January 16, 2001, President Bill Clinton awarded Theodore Roosevelt the Medal of Honor posthumously for his charge on San Juan Hill, Cuba, during the Spanish–American War. \nThe United States Navy named two ships for Roosevelt: the , a submarine that was in commission from 1961 to 1982, and the , an aircraft carrier that has been on active duty in the Atlantic Fleet since 1986. On November 18, 1956, the United States Postal Service released a 6¢ Liberty Issue postage stamp honoring Roosevelt. A 32¢ stamp was issued on February 3, 1998, as part of the Celebrate the Century stamp sheet series. \n\nIn 2008, Columbia Law School awarded a law degree to Roosevelt, posthumously making him a member of the class of 1882. In Chicago, the city renamed 12th Street to Roosevelt Road four months after Roosevelt's death. \n\nTheodore Roosevelt Association\n\nIn 1919, the Theodore Roosevelt Association (originally known as the Permanent Memorial National Committee) was founded by friends and supporters of Roosevelt. Soon renamed the Roosevelt Memorial Association (RMA), it was chartered in 1920 under Title 36 of the United States Code. In parallel with the RMA was an organization for women, The Women's Theodore Roosevelt Association, that had been founded in 1919 by an act of the New York State Assembly. Both organizations merged in 1956 under the current name. This organization preserved Roosevelt's papers in a 20-year project, preserved his photos and established four public sites: the reconstructed Theodore Roosevelt Birthplace National Historic Site, New York City, dedicated in 1923 and donated to the National Park Service in 1963; Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Park, Oyster Bay, Long Island, New York, dedicated in 1928 and given to the people of Oyster Bay; Theodore Roosevelt Island in the Potomac River in Washington, D.C., given to the federal government in 1932; Sagamore Hill (house), Roosevelt's Oyster Bay home, opened to the public in 1953 and was donated to the National Park Service in 1963 and is now the Sagamore Hill National Historic Site. The organization has its own web site at http://www.theodoreroosevelt.org and maintains a Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/pages/Theodore-Roosevelt-Association/41852696878.\n\nOther locations named for Roosevelt include Theodore Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota, and Theodore Roosevelt Lake and Theodore Roosevelt Dam in Arizona.\n\nIn popular culture\n\nRoosevelt's \"Speak Softly and Carry a Big Stick\" ideology is still quoted by politicians and columnists in different countries—not only in English, but also in translations to various other languages.\n\nOne lasting, popular legacy of Roosevelt is the stuffed toy bears—teddy bears—named after him following an incident on a hunting trip in Mississippi in 1902. Roosevelt famously refused to shoot a defenseless black bear that had been tied to a tree. After the cartoonist Clifford K. Berryman illustrated the President with a bear, a toy maker heard the story and named the teddy bear after Roosevelt. Bears, and later bear cubs, became closely associated with Roosevelt in political cartoons, despite Roosevelt openly despising being called \"Teddy\". On June 26, 2006, Roosevelt was on the cover of TIME magazine with the lead story, \"The Making of America—Theodore Roosevelt—The 20th Century Express\": \"At home and abroad, Theodore Roosevelt was the locomotive President, the man who drew his flourishing nation into the future.\" \n\nIn 1905, Roosevelt, an admirer of various western figures, named Captain Bill McDonald of the Texas Rangers as his bodyguard and entertained the legendary Texan at the White House. Ironically, in the 1912 campaign, McDonald was Woodrow Wilson's bodyguard. Wilson thereafter named the Democrat McDonald as the U.S. Marshal for the Northern district of Texas. \n\nRoosevelt has been portrayed many times in film and on television. Karl Swenson played him in the 1967 western picture Brighty of the Grand Canyon, the story of a real-life burro who guided Roosevelt on a hunting trip to find mountain lions. Brian Keith played Roosevelt in the 1975 film The Wind and the Lion. He was also portrayed by actor Tom Berenger in 1997 for the TNT movie Rough Riders, a made-for-cable film about his exploits during the Spanish–American War in Cuba. Frank Albertson played Roosevelt in the episode \"Rough and Ready\" of the CBS series My Friend Flicka.\" Robin Williams portrayed Roosevelt in the form of a wax mannequin that comes to life in Night at the Museum and its sequels Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian and Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb.\n\nIn Don Rosa's comic book series The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck (1994–96), Roosevelt meets and befriends Scrooge McDuck in 1882 when both were visiting the Dakota badlands and later again in 1902 at Fort Duckburg. In Don Rosa's story The Sharpie of the Culebra Cut (2001), collected in The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck Companion, they meet for the third time during the construction of the Panama Canal in 1906.\n\nMedia\n\n* Theodore Roosevelt was one of the first presidents whose voice was recorded for posterity. Several of his recorded speeches survive. A 4.6-minute voice recording, which preserves Roosevelt's lower timbre ranges particularly well for its time, is among those available from the Michigan State University libraries (this is the 1912 recording of The Right of the People to Rule, recorded by Edison at Carnegie Hall). The audio clip sponsored by the Authentic History Center includes his defense of the Progressive Party in 1912, wherein he proclaims it the \"party of the people\", in contrast with the other major parties.\n\n* [http://www.loc.gov/item/mp76000114/ Roosevelt goes for a ride] in Arch Hoxsey's plane in October 1910\n\nAncestry\n\nSource:" ] }

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{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe", "TagMe", "TagMe" ], "filename": [ "Christmas_Island.txt", "British_Overseas_Territories.txt", "Australia.txt" ], "title": [ "Christmas Island", "British Overseas Territories", "Australia" ], "wiki_context": [ "Christmas Island, officially the Territory of Christmas Island, is an external territory of the Commonwealth of Australia in the Indian Ocean, comprising the island of the same name. It has a population of 2,072 residents, who live mainly in settlements on the northern tip of the island, including Flying Fish Cove (also known as Kampong), Silver City, Poon Saan, and Drumsite. Around two-thirds of the island's population are Malaysian Chinese, with significant numbers of Malays and European Australians as well as smaller numbers of Malaysian Indians and Eurasians. Several languages are in use, including English, Malay, and various Chinese dialects, while Buddhism is the primary religion, followed by three-quarters of the population.\n\nThe island was discovered on Christmas Day (25 December) 1643, but only settled in the late 19th century. Its geographic isolation and history of minimal human disturbance has led to a high level of endemism among its flora and fauna, which is of interest to scientists and naturalists. 63% of its 135 km2 is an Australian national park. There exist large areas of primary monsoonal forest. Phosphate, deposited originally as guano, has been mined on the island for many years.\n\nGeography\n\nLocated at , the island is about 19 km in greatest length and in breadth. The total land area is 135 km2, with of coastline. The island is the flat summit of an underwater mountain more than 4500 m high, which rises from about 4200 m below the sea and only about 300 m above it. The mountain was originally a volcano, and some basalt is exposed in places such as The Dales and Dolly Beach, but most of the surface rock is limestone accumulated from coral growth. The karst terrain supports numerous anchialine caves. The summit of this mountain peak is formed by a succession of tertiary limestones ranging from the eocene (or oligocene) up to recent reef deposits, with intercalations of volcanic rock in the older beds. \n\nSteep cliffs along much of the coast rise abruptly to a central plateau. Elevation ranges from sea level to 361 m at Murray Hill. The island is mainly tropical rainforest, 63% of which is national park land.\n\nThe narrow fringing reef surrounding the island can be a maritime hazard.\n\nChristmas Island lies 2600 km northwest of Perth, Western Australia, 500 km south of Indonesia, 975 km ENE of the Cocos (Keeling) Islands, and 2748 km west of Darwin, Northern Territory. Its closest point to the Australian mainland is 1560 km from the town of Exmouth, Western Australia.\n\nBeaches \n\nChristmas Island has 80 kilometres of shoreline but only small parts of the shoreline are easily accessible. The island's perimeter is embodied by sharp cliff faces, making many of the islands beaches difficult to get to. Some of the easily accessible beaches include Flying Fish Cove (main beach), Lily Beach, Ethel Beach, and Isabel Beach, while the more difficult beaches to access include Greta Beach, Dolly Beach, Winifred Beach, Merrial Beach, and West White Beach, which all require a vehicle with four wheel drive and a difficult walk through dense rainforest to access.\n\nClimate\n\nAs Christmas Island is located toward the southern edge of the equatorial region, climate is tropical and temperatures vary little throughout the months. The highest temperature is usually around 29 C in March and April, while the lowest temperature is 23 C and occurs in August. There is a dry season from July to November with only occasional showers. The wet season is between November and May, and includes monsoons, which are downpours of rain at random times of the day. Tropical cyclones may also occur in the wet season, bringing very solid winds, rain and enormous seas. These tropical cyclones only happen occasionally, for most of the time during the wet season is damp, subside weather.\n\nHistory\n\nFirst visits by Europeans, 1643\n\nCaptain William Mynors of the Royal Mary, an English East India Company vessel, named the island when he sailed past it on Christmas Day, in 1643. The island was included on English and Dutch navigation charts as early as the beginning of the 17th century, but it was not until 1666 that a map published by Dutch cartographer Pieter Goos included the island. Goos labelled the island \"Mony\", the meaning of which is unclear. \nEnglish navigator William Dampier, aboard the English ship Cygnet, made the earliest recorded visit to the sea around the island in March 1688. He found it uninhabited. Dampier gave an account of the visit which can be found in his Voyages. Dampier was trying to reach Cocos from New Holland. His ship was pulled off course in an easterly direction, arriving at Christmas Island twenty-eight days later. Dampier landed at the Dales (on the west coast). Two of his crewmen became the first Europeans to set foot on Christmas Island.\n\nDaniel Beeckman made the next recorded visit, chronicled in his 1718 book, A Voyage to and from the Island of Borneo, in the East-Indies.\n\nExploration and annexation\n\nThe first attempt at exploring the island was in 1857 by the crew of the Amethyst. They tried to reach the summit of the island, but found the cliffs impassable.\n\nDuring the 1872–76 Challenger expedition to Indonesia, naturalist John Murray carried out extensive surveys. \n\nIn 1887, Captain John Maclear of , having discovered an anchorage in a bay that he named \"Flying Fish Cove\", landed a party and made a small collection of the flora and fauna. In the next year, Pelham Aldrich, on board HMS Egeria, visited it for ten days, accompanied by J. J. Lister, who gathered a larger biological and mineralogical collection.\n\nAmong the rocks then obtained and submitted to Murray for examination were many of nearly pure phosphate of lime; this discovery led to annexation of the island by the British Crown on 6 June 1888.\n\nSettlement and exploitation\n\nSoon afterwards, a small settlement was established in Flying Fish Cove by G. Clunies Ross, the owner of the Cocos (Keeling) Islands (some 900 km to the south west) to collect timber and supplies for the growing industry on Cocos.\n\nPhosphate mining began in the 1890s using indentured workers from Singapore, Malaya and China. John Davis Murray, a mechanical engineer and recent graduate of Purdue University, was sent to supervise the operation on behalf of the Phosphate Mining and Shipping Company. Murray was known as the \"King of Christmas Island\" until 1910, when he married and settled in London. \n\nThe island was administered jointly by the British Phosphate commissioners and district officers from the United Kingdom Colonial Office through the Straits Settlements, and later the Crown Colony of Singapore. Hunt (2011) provides a detailed history of Chinese indentured labour on the island during those years. In 1922, scientists attempted unsuccessfully to view a solar eclipse from the island to test Einstein's Theory of Relativity. \n\nJapanese invasion\n\nFrom the outbreak of the South-East Asian theatre of World War II in December 1941, Christmas Island was a target for Japanese occupation because of its rich phosphate deposits. A naval gun was installed under a British officer and four NCOs and 27 Indian soldiers. The first attack was carried out on 20 January 1942, by the Japanese submarine , which torpedoed a Norwegian freighter, the Eidsvold. The vessel drifted and eventually sank off West White Beach. Most of the European and Asian staff and their families were evacuated to Perth. In late February and early March 1942, there were two aerial bombing raids. Shelling from a Japanese naval group on 7 March led the district officer to hoist the white flag. But after the Japanese naval group sailed away, the British officer raised the Union flag once more. During the night of 10–11 March, a mutiny of the Indian troops, abetted by Sikh policemen, led to the murder of the five British soldiers and the imprisonment of the remaining 21 Europeans. At dawn on 31 March 1942, a dozen Japanese bombers launched the attack, destroying the radio station. The same day, a Japanese fleet of nine vessels arrived, and the island was surrendered. About 850 men of the 21st and 24th special base forces and 102nd Construction Unit came ashore at Flying Fish Cove and occupied the island. They rounded up the workforce, most of whom had fled to the jungle. Sabotaged equipment was repaired and preparations were made to resume the mining and export of phosphate. Only 20 men from the 21st Special Base Force were left as a garrison.\n\nIsolated acts of sabotage and the torpedoing of the Nissei Maru at the wharf on 17 November 1942 meant that only small amounts of phosphate were exported to Japan during the occupation. In November 1943, over 60% of the island's population was evacuated to Surabayan prison camps, leaving a total population of just under 500 Chinese and Malays and 15 Japanese to survive as best they could. In October 1945, ' re-occupied Christmas Island. \n\nAfter the war, seven mutineers were traced and prosecuted by the Military Court in Singapore. In 1947, five of them were sentenced to death; however, following representations made by the newly independent government of India, their sentences were reduced to penal servitude for life.\n\nTransfer to Australia\n\nAt Australia's request, the United Kingdom transferred sovereignty to Australia, with a M$20 million payment from the Australian government to Singapore as compensation for the loss of earnings from the phosphate revenue. \n\nThe United Kingdom’s Christmas Island Act was given royal assent on 14 May 1958, enabling Britain to transfer authority over Christmas Island from Singapore to Australia by an order-in-council. \n\nAustralia's Christmas Island Act was passed in September 1958 and the island was officially placed under the authority of the Commonwealth of Australia on 1 October 1958. \n\nUnder Commonwealth Cabinet Decision 1573 of 9 September 1958, D. E. Nickels was appointed the first official representative of the new territory. In a media statement on 5 August 1960, the minister for territories, Paul Hasluck, said, among other things, that, \"His extensive knowledge of the Malay language and the customs of the Asian people... has proved invaluable in the inauguration of Australian administration... During his two years on the island he had faced unavoidable difficulties... and constantly sought to advance the island's interests.\" John William Stokes succeeded him and served from 1 October 1960, to 12 June 1966. On his departure he was lauded by all sectors of the island community. In 1968, the official secretary was re-titled an administrator and, since 1997, Christmas Island and the Cocos (Keeling) Islands together are called the Australian Indian Ocean Territories and share a single administrator resident on Christmas Island. Recollections of the island's history and lifestyle, and lists and timetables of the island's leaders and events since its settlement are at the World Statesmen site and in Neale (1988), Bosman (1993), Hunt (2011) and Stokes (2012).\n\nThe settlement of Silver City was built in the 1970s, with aluminium-clad houses that were supposed to be cyclone-proof. \n\nThe 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami centred off the western shore of Sumatra in Indonesia, resulted in no reported casualties, but some swimmers were swept some 150 m out to sea for a time before being swept back in. \n\nRefugee and immigration detention\n\nFrom the late 1980s and early 1990s, boats carrying asylum seekers, mainly departing from Indonesia, began landing on the island. In 2001, Christmas Island was the site of the Tampa controversy, in which the Australian government stopped a Norwegian ship, MV Tampa, from disembarking 438 rescued asylum-seekers. The ensuing standoff and the associated political reactions in Australia were a major issue in the 2001 Australian federal election. \n\nThe Howard government operated the \"Pacific Solution\" from 2001-2007, excising Christmas Island from Australia's migration zone so that asylum seekers on the island could not apply for refugee status. Asylum seekers were relocated from Christmas Island to Manus Island and Nauru. In 2006, an immigration detention centre, containing approximately 800 beds, was constructed on the island for the Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs. Originally estimated to cost  million, the final cost was over $400 million.\n\nIn 2007, the Rudd government announced plans to decommission Manus Island Regional Processing Centre and Nauru detention centre; processing would then occur on Christmas Island itself. \n\nIn December 2010, 48 asylum-seekers died just off the coast of the island in what became known as the Christmas Island boat disaster when the boat they were on hit rocks off Flying Fish Cove, and then smashed against nearby cliffs. \n\nIn June 2013, a surge of asylum-seekers resulted in the island's five detention facilities exceeding their designed capacity. Regular operating capacity is 1,094 people, with a \"contingency capacity\" of 2,724. After the interception of four boats in six days, carrying 350 people, the Immigration Department said there were 2,960 \"irregular maritime arrivals\" being held. \n\nDemographics\n\nAs of the 2011 Australian census, the estimated resident population is 2,072. This does not include the highly variable population at the Immigration Detention Centre.\n\nThe ethnic composition is 65% Chinese, 20% Malay, 10% European and 5% Indian and Eurasian. A 2011 report by the Australian government estimated that religions practised on Christmas Island include Buddhism 75%, Christianity 12%, Islam 10%, and other 3%. This includes Traditional Chinese religions like Taoism and Confucianism, as well as the Baha'i Faith. The cuisine of Christmas Island is mostly flown or shipped in.\n\nGovernment\n\nChristmas Island is a non-self-governing territory of Australia, currently administered by the Department of Infrastructure and Regional Development. Administration was carried out by the Attorney-General's Department until 14 September 2010, and prior to this by the Department of Transport and Regional Services before 29 November 2007. The legal system is under the authority of the Governor-General of Australia and Australian law. An administrator appointed by the Governor-General represents the monarch and Australia.\n\nThe Australian government provides services through the Christmas Island Administration and the Department of Infrastructure and Regional Development. Under the federal government's Territories Law Reform Act 1992, which came into force on 1 July 1992, Western Australian laws are applied to Christmas Island \"so far as they are capable of applying in the territory\";[http://www.comlaw.gov.au/Details/C2004A04395 Territories Law Reform Act 1992] non-application or partial application of such laws is at the discretion of the federal government. The act also gives Western Australian courts judicial power over Christmas Island. Christmas Island remains constitutionally distinct from Western Australia, however; the power of the state to legislate for the territory is delegated by the federal government. The kind of services typically provided by a state government elsewhere in Australia are provided by departments of the Western Australian government, and by contractors, with the costs met by the federal government. A unicameral Shire of Christmas Island with nine seats provides local government services and is elected by popular vote to serve four-year terms. Elections are held every two years, with four or five of the members standing for election.\n\nChristmas Island residents who are Australian citizens also vote in federal elections. Christmas Island residents are represented in the House of Representatives by the Division of Lingiari in the Northern Territory and in the Senate by Northern Territory senators. \n\nIn early 1986, the Christmas Island Assembly held a design competition for an island flag; the winning design was adopted as the informal flag of the territory for over a decade, and in 2002 it was made the official flag of Christmas Island.\n\nEconomy\n\nPhosphate mining had been the only significant economic activity, but in December 1987 the Australian government closed the mine. In 1991, the mine was reopened by a consortium which included many of the former mine workers as shareholders. With the support of the government, the $34 million Christmas Island Casino and Resort opened in 1993, but was closed in 1998. , the resort has re-opened without the casino.\n\nThe Australian government in 2001 agreed to support the creation of a commercial spaceport on the island, however this has not yet been constructed, and appears that it will not proceed. The Howard government built a temporary immigration detention centre on the island in 2001 and planned to replace it with a larger, modern facility at North West Point until Howard's defeat in the 2007 elections.\n\nCulture\n\nThe culture of Christmas Island is unique, for people of many different ethnicities inhabit the area. The majority of residents are Chinese, but Europeans and Malays reside there as well with small Indian and Eurasian communities too. The main languages of Christmas Island are English and Chinese. Dress is usually modest, and tourists should keep a wrap, such as a sarong or pareo, on hand to cover shorts, bathing suits, and tank tops. It is common to remove shoes when entering a house and to also avoid touching anyone's head.\n\nReligious beliefs are diverse, but people are very tolerant of each other's religions. The religions practised include Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism, Islam, and Christianity. There is a Mosque in Flying Fish Cove. With all of these religions, there are many religious festivals, such as Spring Festival, Hari Raya, Christmas and Easter. Additionally, there is a Bahá'í centre on the island \n\nAttractions\n\nChristmas Island is well known for its biological diversity. There are many rare species of animals and plants on the island, making nature-walking a popular activity. Along with the diversity of species, many different types of caves exist, such as plateau caves, coastal caves, raised coastal caves and alcoves, sea caves, fissure caves, collapse caves and basalt caves; most of these are near the sea and have been formed by the action of water. Altogether, there are 42 caves on the island, with Lost Lake Cave, Daniel Roux Cave and Full Frontal Cave being the most well-known. The many freshwater springs include Hosnies Spring Ramsar, which also has a mangrove stand. The Dales is a rainforest in the western part of the island and consists of seven deep valleys, all of which were formed by spring streams. Hugh's Dale waterfall is part of this area and is a popular attraction. The annual breeding migration of the red crabs is a popular event. Fishing is another common activity. There are many distinctive species of fish in the oceans surrounding Christmas Island. Snorkeling and swimming in the ocean are two other activities that are extremely popular. Walking trails are also very popular, for there are many beautiful trails surrounded by extravagant flora and fauna. 63% of the island is national park making it one of the main attractions to experience when visiting.\n\nFlora and fauna\n\nChristmas Island was uninhabited until the late 19th century, allowing many species to evolve without human interference. Two-thirds of the island has been declared a National Park, which is managed by the Australian Department of Environment and Heritage through Parks Australia. Christmas Island has always been known for its unique species, both of flora and fauna.\n\nFlora\n\nThe dense rainforest has grown in the deep soils of the plateau and on the terraces. The forests are dominated by 25 tree species. Ferns, orchids and vines grow on the branches in the humid atmosphere beneath the canopy. The 135 plant species include at least 18 that are found nowhere else. The rainforest is in great condition despite the mining activities over the last 100 years. Areas that have been damaged by mining are now apart of an ongoing rehabilitation project. The island is small and covers 135 square kilometres of land which 63% of that land has been declared National Park. \n\nChristmas Island's endemic plants include the trees Arenga listeri, Pandanus elatus and Dendrocnide peltata var. murrayana; the shrubs Abutilon listeri, Colubrina pedunculata, Grewia insularis and Pandanus christmatensis; the vines Hoya aldrichii and Zehneria alba; the herbs Asystasia alba, Dicliptera maclearii and Peperomia rossii; the grass Ischaemum nativitatis; the fern Asplenium listeri; and the orchids Brachypeza archytas, Flickingeria nativitatis, Phreatia listeri and Zeuxine exilis. \n\nFauna\n\nTwo species of native rats, the Maclear's and bulldog rats, have become extinct since the island was settled. The Javan rusa is an introduced species here. The endemic Christmas Island shrew has not been seen since the mid-1980s and may be already extinct, while the Christmas Island pipistrelle (a small bat) is critically endangered and possibly also extinct. \n\nThe land crabs and seabirds are the most noticeable fauna on the island. Christmas Island has been identified by BirdLife International as both an Endemic Bird Area and an Important Bird Area because it supports five endemic species and five subspecies as well as over 1% of the world populations of five other seabirds. \n\nTwenty terrestrial and intertidal species of crab have been described here, of which thirteen are regarded as true land crabs, being only dependent on the ocean for larval development. Robber crabs, known elsewhere as coconut crabs, also exist in large numbers on the island. The annual red crab mass migration (around 100 million animals) to the sea to spawn has been called one of the wonders of the natural world. This takes place each year around November – after the start of the wet season and in synchronisation with the cycle of the moon. Once at the ocean, the mothers release the embryos where they can survive and grow until they are able to live on land.\n\nThe island is a focal point for seabirds of various species. Eight species or subspecies of seabirds nest on it. The most numerous is the red-footed booby, which nests in colonies, using trees on many parts of the shore terrace. The widespread brown booby nests on the ground near the edge of the seacliff and inland cliffs. Abbott's booby (listed as endangered) nests on tall emergent trees of the western, northern and southern plateau rainforest, the only remaining nesting habitat for this bird in the world. Another endangered and endemic bird, the Christmas frigatebird, has nesting areas on the northeastern shore terraces. The more widespread great frigatebirds nest in semi-deciduous trees on the shore terrace, with the greatest concentrations being in the North West and South Point areas. The common noddy and two species of bosun or tropicbirds, with their brilliant gold or silver plumage and distinctive streamer tail feathers, also nest on the island.\n\nOf the ten native land birds and shorebirds, seven are endemic species or subspecies. This includes the Christmas thrush and the Christmas imperial pigeon. Some 86 migrant bird species have been recorded as visitors to the island.\n\nSix species of butterfly are known to occur on Christmas Island. These are the Christmas swallowtail (Papilio memnon), striped albatross (Appias olferna), Christmas emperor (Polyura andrewsi), king cerulean (Jamides bochus), lesser grass-blue (Zizina otis), and Papuan grass-yellow (Eurema blanda).\n\nMedia\n\nChristmas Island has access to a range of modern communication services.\n\nRadio broadcasts from Australia include ABC Radio National, ABC Kimberley, Triple J and Red FM. All services are provided by satellite links from the mainland. Broadband internet became available to subscribers in urban areas in mid-2005 through the local internet service provider, CIIA (formerly dotCX).\n\nChristmas Island, due to its close proximity to Australia's northern neighbours, falls within many of the more interesting satellite footprints throughout the region. This results in ideal conditions for receiving various Asian broadcasts, which locals sometimes prefer to the Western Australian-provided content. Additionally, ionospheric conditions usually bode well for many of the more terrestrial radio transmissions – HF through VHF and sometimes into UHF. The island plays home to a small array of radio equipment that spans a good chunk of the usable spectrum. A variety of government owned and operated antenna systems are employed on the island to take advantage of this.\n\nTelevision\n\nFree-to-air digital television stations from Australia are broadcast in the same time zone as Perth, and are broadcast from three separate locations:\n\n \n\nCable television from Australia, Malaysia, Singapore and the United States commenced in January 2013.\n\nTelecommunications\n\nTelephone services are provided by Telstra and are a part of the Australian network with the same prefix as Western Australia, South Australia and the Northern Territory (08). A GSM mobile telephone system replaced the old analogue network in February 2005.\n\nPostage stamps\n\nA postal agency was opened on the island in 1901 and sold stamps of the Strait Settlements. \n\nAfter the Japanese occupation (1942–45), postage stamps of the British Military Administration in Malaya were in use, then stamps of Singapore. \n\nIn 1958, the island received its own postage stamps after being put under Australian custody. It had a large philatelic and postal independence, managed first by the Phosphate Commission (1958–1969) and then by the island's administration (1969–93). This ended on 2 March 1993 when Australia Post became the island's postal operator; Christmas Island stamps may be used in Australia and Australian stamps may be used on the island.\n\nTransport\n\nA container port exists at Flying Fish Cove with an uncompleted alternative container-unloading point to the east of the island at Norris Point, intended for use during the December-to-March \"swell season\" of rough seas.\n\nAn 18-km standard gauge railway from Flying Fish Cove to the phosphate mine was constructed in 1914. It was closed in December 1987, when the Australian government closed the mine, and since has been recovered as scrap, leaving only earthworks in places.\n\nVirgin Australia Regional Airlines provides two weekly flights to Christmas Island Airport from Perth, Western Australia, and ad hoc charter flight from/to Jakarta organised by the Christmas Island Travel Exchange.\n\nThere is a recreation centre at Phosphate Hill operated by South Australian-based CASA Leisure Pty Ltd. There is also a taxi service. The road network covers most of the island and is generally good quality, although four-wheel drive vehicles are needed to access some of the more distant parts of the rainforest or the more isolated beaches, which are only accessible by rough dirt roads.\n\nEducation\n\nThe island-operated crèche is in the Recreation Centre. Christmas Island District High School, catering to students in grades P-12, is run by the Western Australian Education Department. There are no universities on Christmas Island.\n\nThe island has one public library.", "The fourteen British Overseas Territories (BOT) are territories under the jurisdiction and sovereignty of the United Kingdom. They are those parts of the former British Empire that have not chosen independence or have voted to remain British territories. Most of the inhabited territories are internally self-governing, with the UK retaining responsibility for defence and foreign relations. The rest are either uninhabited or have a transitory population of military or scientific personnel. They share the British monarch (Elizabeth II) as head of state.\n\nThe term \"British Overseas Territory\" was introduced by the British Overseas Territories Act 2002, replacing the term British Dependent Territory, introduced by the British Nationality Act 1981. Prior to 1 January 1983, the territories were officially referred to as British Crown Colonies. With the exceptions of the British Antarctic Territory and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands (which host only officials and research station staff) and the British Indian Ocean Territory (used as a military base), the Territories retain permanent civilian populations. Permanent residency for the 7,000 or so civilians living in the Sovereign Base Areas of Akrotiri and Dhekelia is limited to citizens of the Republic of Cyprus.\n\nCollectively, the Territories encompass a population of about 250,000 people and a land area of about 667018 sqmi. The vast majority of this, 660000 sqmi, constitutes the British Antarctic Territory. The United Kingdom participates in the Antarctic Treaty System and, as part of a mutual agreement, the British Antarctic Territory is recognised by four of the other sovereign nations making claims to Antarctic territory.\n\nAlthough the Crown dependencies of Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man are also under the sovereignty of the British monarch, they are in a different constitutional relationship with the United Kingdom. The British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies are themselves distinct from the Commonwealth realms, a group of 15 independent countries (and the United Kingdom) which each also have Queen Elizabeth II as their reigning monarch, and from the Commonwealth of Nations, a voluntary association of 53 countries mostly with historic links to the British Empire (which also includes all Commonwealth realms).\n\nThe current minister responsible for the Territories is James Duddridge MP, of the Foreign Office. Gibraltar and the Sovereign Base Areas, however, are the responsibility of the Minister for Europe, David Lidington MP, while the Falkland Islands are the responsibility of Hugo Swire MP, also of the Foreign Office. \n\nCurrent overseas territories \n\nThe fourteen British Overseas Territories are: \n\nHistory \n\nEarly colonies, in the sense of English subjects residing in lands hitherto outside the control of the English government, were generally known as \"Plantations\".\n\nThe first, unofficial, colony was Newfoundland, where English fishermen routinely set up seasonal camps in the 16th century. It is now a province of Canada known as Newfoundland and Labrador. It retains strong cultural ties with Britain.\n\nEnglish colonisation of North America began officially in 1607 with the settlement of Jamestown, the first successful permanent colony in \"Virginia\" (a term that was then applied generally to North America). Its offshoot, Bermuda, was settled inadvertently after the wrecking of the Virginia company's flagship there in 1609, with the Virginia Company's charter extended to officially include the archipelago in 1612. St. George's town, founded in Bermuda in that year, remains the oldest continuously inhabited British settlement in the New World (with some historians stating that – its formation predating the 1619 conversion of \"James Fort\" into \"Jamestown\" – St. George's was actually the first successful town the English established in the New World). Bermuda and Bermudians have played important, sometimes pivotal, but generally underestimated or unacknowledged roles in the shaping of the English and British trans-Atlantic Empires. These include maritime commerce, settlement of the continent and of the West Indies, and the projection of naval power via the colony's privateers, among other areas. \n\nThe growth of the British Empire in the 19th century, to its territorial peak in the 1920s, saw Britain acquire nearly one quarter of the world's land mass, including territories with large indigenous populations in Asia and Africa. From the mid-nineteenth century to the early twentieth century, the larger settler colonies – in Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa – first became self-governing colonies and then achieved independence in all matters except foreign policy, defence and trade. Separate self-governing colonies federated to become Canada (in 1867), Australia (in 1901), South Africa (in 1910), and Rhodesia (in 1965). These and other large self-governing colonies had become known as Dominions by the 1920s. The Dominions achieved almost full independence with the Statute of Westminster (1931).\n\nThrough a process of decolonisation following the second world war, most of the British colonies in Africa, Asia and the Caribbean gained independence. Some colonies became Commonwealth realms, retaining the British monarch as their own head of state. Most former colonies and protectorates became member states of the Commonwealth of Nations, a non-political, voluntary association of equal members, comprising a population of around 2.2 billion people. \n\nAfter the independence of Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) in Africa in 1980 and British Honduras (now Belize) in Central America in 1981, the last major colony that remained was Hong Kong, with a population of over 5 million. With 1997 approaching, the United Kingdom and China negotiated the Sino-British Joint Declaration, which led to the whole of Hong Kong becoming a \"special administrative region\" of China in 1997, subject to various conditions intended to guarantee the preservation of Hong Kong's capitalist economy and its way of life under British rule for at least 50 years after the handover. George Town in the Cayman Islands has consequently become the largest city in the Overseas Territories.\n\nIn 2002, the British Parliament passed the British Overseas Territories Act 2002. This reclassified the UK's dependent territories as overseas territories and, with the exception of those people solely connected with the Sovereign Base Areas of Cyprus, restored full British citizenship to their inhabitants. \n\nGovernment \n\nHead of state \n\nThe head of state in the overseas territories is the British monarch, Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom. The Queen's role in the territories is in her role as Queen of the United Kingdom, and not in right of each territory. The Queen appoints a representative in each territory to exercise her executive power. In territories with a permanent population, a Governor is appointed by the Queen on the advice of the British Government, usually a retired senior military officer, or a senior civil servant. In territories without a permanent population, a Commissioner is usually appointed to represent the Queen. Exceptionally, in the overseas territory of Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha, an Administrator is appointed to be the Governor's representative in each of the two distant parts of the territory, namely Ascension Island and Tristan da Cunha.\n\nThe role of the Governor is to act as the de facto head of state, and they are usually responsible for appointing the head of government, and senior political positions in the territory. The Governor is also responsible for liaising with the UK Government, and carrying out any ceremonial duties. A Commissioner has the same powers as a Governor, but also acts as the head of government.\n\nLocal government\n\nAll the overseas territories have their own system of government, and localised laws. The structure of the government appears to be closely correlated to the size and political development of the territory.\n\nLegal system\n\nEach overseas territory has its own legal system independent of the United Kingdom. The legal system is generally based on English common law, with some distinctions for local circumstances. Each territory has its own attorney general, and court system. For the smaller territories, the UK may appoint a UK-based lawyer or judge to work on legal cases. This is particularly important for cases involving serious crimes and where it is impossible to find a jury who will not know the defendant in a small population island.\n \nMany of them, such as Isle of Man, Cayman islands and Bermuda are used as tax havens and as flags of convenience for ships as part of the Red Ensign group.\n\nThe Pitcairn sexual assault trial of 2004 is an example of how the UK may choose to provide the legal framework for particular cases where the territory cannot do so alone.\n\nJoint Ministerial Council\n\nA joint ministerial council of UK ministers, and the leaders of the Overseas Territories has been held annually since 2012 to provide representation between UK Government departments and Overseas Territory Governments. \n\nRelations with the United Kingdom \n\nThe Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) has the responsibility of looking after the interests of all overseas territories except Akrotiri & Dhekelia, which comes under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Defence. Within the FCO, the general responsibility for the territories is handled by the Overseas Territories Directorate, which is headed by the Minister for the Overseas Territories. the Minister is James Duddridge, a Parliamentary Under Secretary of State.\n\nIn 2012, the FCO published the The Overseas Territories: security, success and sustainability which set out Britain's policy for the Overseas Territories, covering six main areas: \n* Defence, security and safety of the territories and their people\n* Successful and resilient economies\n* Cherishing the environment\n* Making government work better\n* Vibrant and flourishing communities\n* Productive links with the wider world\n\nBritain and the overseas territories do not have diplomatic representations, although the governments of the overseas territories with indigenous populations all retain a representative office in London. The United Kingdom Overseas Territories Association (UKOTA) also represents the interests of the territories in London. The governments in both London and territories occasionally meet to mitigate or resolve disagreements over the process of governance in the territories and levels of autonomy. \n\nBritain provides financial assistance to the overseas territories via the Department for International Development. Currently only Montserrat and Saint Helena receive budgetary aid (i.e. financial contribution to recurrent funding). Several specialist funds are made available by the UK, including:\n* The Good Government Fund which provides assistance on government administration;\n* The Economic Diversification Programme Budget which aim to diversify and enhance the economic bases of the territories.\n\nThe territories have no official representation in the UK Parliament, but have informal representation through the All-Party Parliamentary Group, and can petition the UK Government through the Directgov e-Petitions website. Only Gibraltar has representation in the European Parliament and it shares its Member with the region of South West England.\n\nForeign affairs \n\nForeign affairs of the overseas territories are handled by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in London. Some territories maintain diplomatic officers in nearby countries for trade and immigration purposes. Several of the territories in the Americas maintain membership within the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States, the Caribbean Community, the Caribbean Development Bank, Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency, and the Association of Caribbean States. The territories are members of the Commonwealth of Nations through the United Kingdom. The inhabited territories compete in their own right at the Commonwealth Games, and three of the territories (Bermuda, the Cayman Islands and the British Virgin Islands) sent teams to the 2008 Summer Olympics.\n\nGibraltar is the only overseas territory that is part of the European Union (EU), although it is not part of the European Customs Union, the European Tax Policy, the European Statistics Zone or the Common Agriculture Policy. Gibraltar is not a member of the European Union in its own right. The Sovereign Base Areas in Cyprus are not part of the European Union, but they are the only British overseas territory to use the Euro as official currency. None of the other Overseas Territories are members of the EU, the main body of EU law does not apply and, although certain slices of EU law are applied to those territories as part of the EU's Association of Overseas Countries and Territories (OCT Association), they are not commonly enforceable in local courts. The OCT Association also provides overseas territories with structural funding for regeneration projects.\n\nSince the return of full British citizenship to most 'belongers' of overseas territories (mainly since the British Overseas Territories Act 2002), the citizens of those territories hold concurrent European Union citizenship, giving them rights of free movement across all EU member states.\n\nSeveral nations dispute the UK's sovereignty in the following overseas territories:\n* Akrotiri and Dhekelia – claimed by Cyprus\n* British Antarctic Territory – Territory overlaps Antarctic claims made by Chile and Argentina\n* British Indian Ocean Territory – claimed by Mauritius and Seychelles\n* Falkland Islands – claimed by Argentina\n* Gibraltar – claimed by Spain\n* South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands – claimed by Argentina\n\nCitizenship \n\nNone of the overseas territories has its own nationality status, and all citizens are classed as British Overseas Territories citizens (BOTC). They do, however, have legislative independence over immigration, and holding the status of a BOTC does not automatically give a person a right of abode in any of the territories, as it depends on the territory's immigration laws. A territory may issue Belonger status to allow a person classed as a BOTC to reside in the territory that they have close links with. Non-BOTC citizens may acquire Belonger status to reside in a particular territory (and may subsequently become naturalised BOTC if they wish).\n\nHistorically, most inhabitants of the British Empire held the status of British subject, which was usually lost upon independence. From 1949, British subjects in the United Kingdom and the remaining colonies became citizens of the United Kingdom and Colonies. However changes in British immigration and nationality law between 1962 and 1983 saw the creation of a separate British Dependent Territories citizenship (BDTC) with effect from January 1983. Citizens in most territories were stripped of full British citizenship. This was mainly to prevent a mass exodus of the citizens of Hong Kong to the UK before the agreed handover to China in 1997. Exception was made for the Falkland Islands, which had been invaded in 1982 by Argentina. Full British citizenship was soon returned to the people of Gibraltar having regard to the friction with Spain.\n\nHowever, the British Overseas Territories Act 2002 replaced British Dependent Territory citizenship with British Overseas Territories citizenship (BOTC), and restored full British citizenship to all BOTCs except those from Akrotiri and Dhekelia. This restored to BOTCs the right to reside in the UK.\n\nBritish citizens, however, do not have an automatic right to reside in any of the Overseas Territories. Some territories prohibit immigration, and any visitors are required to seek the permission of the territory's government to live in the territory.\n\nMilitary \n\nDefence of the Overseas Territories is the responsibility of the UK. Many of the overseas territories are used as military bases by the UK and its allies.\n* Ascension Island (part of Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha) – the Base known as RAF Ascension Island is used by both the Royal Air Force and the United States Air Force.\n* Bermuda – became the primary Royal Navy base in America, following US independence. The Naval establishment included an admiralty, a dockyard, and a naval squadron. A considerable military garrison was built up to protect it, and Bermuda, which the British Government came to see as a base, rather than as a colony, was known as Fortress Bermuda, and the Gibraltar of the West (Bermudians, like Gibraltarians, also dub their territory \"The Rock\"). Canada and the USA also established bases in Bermuda during the Second World War, which were maintained through the Cold War. Four air bases were located in Bermuda during the Second World War (operated by the Royal Air Force, Royal Navy, US Navy, and US Army/Army Air Force). Since 1995, the military force in Bermuda has been reduced to the local territorial battalion, the Royal Bermuda Regiment.\n* British Indian Ocean Territory – the island of Diego Garcia is home to a large naval base and airbase leased to the United States by the United Kingdom until 2036 (unless renewed), but either government can opt out of the agreement in 2016. There are British forces in small numbers in the BIOT for administrative and immigration purposes.\n* Falkland Islands – the British Forces Falkland Islands includes commitments from the British Army, Royal Air Force and Royal Navy.\n* Gibraltar – British Forces Gibraltar includes a Royal Navy dockyard (also used by NATO), RAF Gibraltar – used by the RAF and NATO and a local garrison – the Royal Gibraltar Regiment.\n* The Sovereign Base Areas of Akrotiri and Dhekelia in Cyprus – maintained as strategic British military bases in the eastern Mediterranean Sea.\n* Montserrat – the Royal Montserrat Defence Force, historically connected with the Irish Guards, is a body of twenty volunteers, whose duties are primarily ceremonial. \n* Saint Helena – it has been speculated that the new Saint Helena Airport might be used for military purposes but this has neither been confirmed nor denied.\n\nLanguages \n\nMost of these contain a large degree of English, either as a root language, or in codeswitching, e.g. Llanito. The include:\n\n*Leeward Caribbean Creole English\n**Anguillian Creole\n**Montserrat Creole\n*Virgin Islands Creole\n*Llanito or Yanito (Gibraltar)\n*Cayman Creole (Cayman Islands)\n*Turks-Caicos Creole (Turks and Caicos Islands)\n*Pitkern (Pitcairn Islands)\n\nForms of English:\n*Bermudian English (Bermuda)\n*Falkland Islands English\n*Gibraltarian English\n*Caribbean English\n\nChagossian creole, spoken by former inhabitants of the Chagos Archipelago (BIOT) is a French-based Creole.\n\nCurrencies \n\nThe many British overseas territories use a varied assortment of currencies, including the euro, pound, US dollar, NZ dollar, or their own currencies, which may be pegged to one of these.\n\nSymbols and insignia \n\nEach overseas territory has been granted its own flag and coat of arms by the British monarch. Traditionally, the flags follow the Blue Ensign design, with the Union Flag in the canton, and the territory's coat of arms in the fly. Exceptions to this are Bermuda which uses a Red Ensign; British Antarctic Territory which uses a White Ensign; British Indian Ocean Territory which uses a Blue Ensign with wavy lines to symbolise the sea; and Gibraltar which uses a banner of its coat of arms (the flag of the city of Gibraltar).\n\nAkrotiri and Dhekelia and Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha are the only British overseas territories without their own flag. The Union Flag is used in these territories.\n\nSports \n\nBermuda, the British Virgin Islands and the Cayman Islands are the only British Overseas Territories with recognised National Olympic Committees (NOCs); the British Olympic Association is recognised as the appropriate NOC for athletes from the other territories, and thus athletes who hold a British passport are eligible to represent Great Britain at the Olympic Games. \n\nShara Proctor from Anguilla, Delano Williams from the Turks and Caicos Islands, Jenaya Wade-Fray from Bermuda and Georgina Cassar from Gibraltar strived to represent Team GB at the London 2012 Olympics. Proctor, Wade-Fray and Cassar qualified for Team GB, with Williams missing the cut, however wishing to represent the UK in 2016. \n\nThe Gibraltar national football team was accepted into UEFA in 2013 in time for the 2016 European Championships. It has also applied to be part of FIFA and hopes to be accepted in time for eligibility for the 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifying.\n\nBiodiversity \n\nThe British Overseas Territories have more biodiversity than the entire UK mainland. There are at least 180 endemic plant species in the overseas territories as opposed to only 12 on the UK mainland. Responsibility for protection of biodiversity and meeting obligations under international environmental conventions is shared between the UK Government and the local governments of the territories. \n\nTwo areas, Henderson Island in the Pitcairn Islands as well as the Gough and Inaccessible Islands of Tristan Da Cunha are listed as UNESCO World Heritage Sites, and two other territories, the Turks and Caicos Islands, and Saint Helena are on the United Kingdom's tentative list for future UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Gibraltar's Gorham's Cave Complex is also found on the UK's tentative UNESCO World Heritage Site list. \n\nThe three regions of biodiversity hotspots situated in the British Overseas Territories are the Caribbean Islands, the Mediterranean Basin and the Oceania ecozone in the Pacific.\n\nThe UK created the largest continuous marine protected areas in the world, the Chagos Marine Protected Area, and announced in 2015 funding to establish a new, larger, reserve around the Pitcairn Islands. \n\nIn January 2016, the UK government announced the intention to create a marine protected area around Ascension Island. The protected area would be 234,291 square kilometers, half of which would be closed to fishing. \n\nFile:Stoplight Parrotfish.jpg|A Stoplight Parrotfish in Princess Alexandra Land and Sea National Park, Providenciales, Turks and Caicos Islands\nFile:South Georgia Photo by Sascha Grabow.jpg|Penguins in South Georgia, 2010.\nFile:Henderson.JPG|Henderson Island in the Pitcairn Islands\nFile:Rothera from reptile.jpg|Rothera Research Station.", "Australia (,,), officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area. Neighbouring countries include Papua New Guinea, Indonesia and East Timor to the north; the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu to the north-east; and New Zealand to the south-east.\n\nFor about 50,000 years before the first British settlement in the late 18th century, Australia was inhabited by indigenous Australians, \nwho spoke languages grouped into roughly 250 language groups. After the European discovery of the continent by Dutch explorers in 1606, Australia's eastern half was claimed by Great Britain in 1770 and initially settled through penal transportation to the colony of New South Wales from 26 January 1788. The population grew steadily in subsequent decades; the continent was explored and an additional five self-governing crown colonies were established. On 1 January 1901, the six colonies federated, forming the Commonwealth of Australia. Since federation, Australia has maintained a stable liberal democratic political system that functions as a federal parliamentary constitutional monarchy comprising six states and several territories. The population of 24 million is highly urbanised and heavily concentrated in the eastern states and on the coast. \n\nAustralia is a developed country and one of the wealthiest in the world, with the world's 12th-largest economy. In 2014 Australia had the world's fifth-highest per capita income. Australia's military expenditure is the world's 13th-largest. With the second-highest human development index globally, Australia ranks highly in many international comparisons of national performance, such as quality of life, health, education, economic freedom, and the protection of civil liberties and political rights. Australia is a member of the United Nations, G20, Commonwealth of Nations, ANZUS, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), World Trade Organization, Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, and the Pacific Islands Forum.\n\nName\n\nThe name Australia (pronounced in Australian English ) is derived from the Latin Terra Australis (\"southern land\") a name used for putative lands in the southern hemisphere since ancient times. The earliest recorded use of the word Australia in English was in 1625 in \"A note of Australia del Espíritu Santo, written by Sir Richard Hakluyt\", published by Samuel Purchas in Hakluytus Posthumus, a corruption of the original Spanish name \"Austrialia del Espíritu Santo\" (Southern Land of the Holy Spirit) for an island in Vanuatu. The Dutch adjectival form Australische was used in a Dutch book in Batavia (Jakarta) in 1638, to refer to the newly discovered lands to the south. \nThe first time that the name Australia appears to have been officially used was in a despatch to Lord Bathurst of 4 April 1817 in which Governor Lachlan Macquarie acknowledges the receipt of Matthew Flinders' charts of Australia. On 12 December 1817, Macquarie recommended to the Colonial Office that it be formally adopted. In 1824, the Admiralty agreed that the continent should be known officially as Australia. \n\nHistory\n\nPrehistory\n\nHuman habitation of the Australian continent is estimated to have begun between 42,000 and 48,000 years ago, possibly with the migration of people by land bridges and short sea-crossings from what is now Southeast Asia. These first inhabitants may have been ancestors of modern Indigenous Australians. At the time of European settlement in the late 18th century, most Indigenous Australians were hunter-gatherers, with a complex oral culture and spiritual values based on reverence for the land and a belief in the Dreamtime. The Torres Strait Islanders, ethnically Melanesian, were originally horticulturists and hunter-gatherers. The northern coasts and waters of Australia were visited sporadically by fishermen from Maritime Southeast Asia. \n\nEuropean arrival\n\nThe first recorded European sighting of the Australian mainland, and the first recorded European landfall on the Australian continent, are attributed to the Dutch navigator Willem Janszoon. He sighted the coast of Cape York Peninsula in early 1606, and made landfall on 26 February at the Pennefather River near the modern town of Weipa on Cape York.Davison, Hirst and Macintyre, p. 233. The Dutch charted the whole of the western and northern coastlines and named the island continent \"New Holland\" during the 17th century, but made no attempt at settlement. William Dampier, an English explorer and privateer, landed on the north-west coast of New Holland in 1688 and again in 1699 on a return trip. In 1770, James Cook sailed along and mapped the east coast, which he named New South Wales and claimed for Great Britain. With the loss of its American colonies in 1783, the British Government sent a fleet of ships, the \"First Fleet\", under the command of Captain Arthur Phillip, to establish a new penal colony in New South Wales. A camp was set up and the flag raised at Sydney Cove, Port Jackson, on 26 January 1788, a date which became Australia's national day, Australia Day, although the British Crown Colony of New South Wales was not formally promulgated until 7 February 1788. The first settlement led to the foundation of Sydney, and the exploration and settlement of other regions.\n\nA British settlement was established in Van Diemen's Land, now known as Tasmania, in 1803, and it became a separate colony in 1825. The United Kingdom formally claimed the western part of Western Australia (the Swan River Colony) in 1828. Separate colonies were carved from parts of New South Wales: South Australia in 1836, Victoria in 1851, and Queensland in 1859. The Northern Territory was founded in 1911 when it was excised from South Australia. South Australia was founded as a \"free province\"—it was never a penal colony. Victoria and Western Australia were also founded \"free\", but later accepted transported convicts. A campaign by the settlers of New South Wales led to the end of convict transportation to that colony; the last convict ship arrived in 1848. \n\nThe indigenous population, estimated to have been between 750,000 and 1,000,000 in 1788, declined for 150 years following settlement, mainly due to infectious disease. Thousands more died as a result of frontier conflict with settlers. A government policy of \"assimilation\" beginning with the Aboriginal Protection Act 1869 resulted in the removal of many Aboriginal children from their families and communities—often referred to as the Stolen Generations—a practice which may also have contributed to the decline in the indigenous population. The Federal government gained the power to make laws with respect to Aborigines following the 1967 referendum. Traditional ownership of land—aboriginal title—was not recognised until 1992, when the High Court case Mabo v Queensland (No 2) overturned the legal doctrine that Australia had been terra nullius (\"land belonging to no one\") before the European occupation. \n\nColonial expansion\n\nA gold rush began in Australia in the early 1850s and the Eureka Rebellion against mining licence fees in 1854 was an early expression of civil disobedience. Between 1855 and 1890, the six colonies individually gained responsible government, managing most of their own affairs while remaining part of the British Empire. The Colonial Office in London retained control of some matters, notably foreign affairs, defence, and international shipping.\n\nNationhood\n\nOn 1 January 1901, federation of the colonies was achieved after a decade of planning, consultation and voting. This established the Commonwealth of Australia as a dominion of the British Empire. The Federal Capital Territory (later renamed the Australian Capital Territory) was formed in 1911 as the location for the future federal capital of Canberra. Melbourne was the temporary seat of government from 1901 to 1927 while Canberra was being constructed. The Northern Territory was transferred from the control of the South Australian government to the federal parliament in 1911. In 1914, Australia joined Britain in fighting World War I, with support from both the outgoing Commonwealth Liberal Party and the incoming Australian Labor Party. Australians took part in many of the major battles fought on the Western Front. Of about 416,000 who served, about 60,000 were killed and another 152,000 were wounded. Many Australians regard the defeat of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZACs) at Gallipoli as the birth of the nation—its first major military action. The Kokoda Track campaign is regarded by many as an analogous nation-defining event during World War II. \n\nBritain's Statute of Westminster 1931 formally ended most of the constitutional links between Australia and the UK. Australia adopted it in 1942, but it was backdated to 1939 to confirm the validity of legislation passed by the Australian Parliament during World War II. The shock of the United Kingdom's defeat in Asia in 1942 and the threat of Japanese invasion caused Australia to turn to the United States as a new ally and protector. Since 1951, Australia has been a formal military ally of the US, under the ANZUS treaty. After World War II Australia encouraged immigration from Europe. Since the 1970s and following the abolition of the White Australia policy, immigration from Asia and elsewhere was also promoted. As a result, Australia's demography, culture, and self-image were transformed. The final constitutional ties between Australia and the UK were severed with the passing of the Australia Act 1986, ending any British role in the government of the Australian States, and closing the option of judicial appeals to the Privy Council in London. In a 1999 referendum, 55% of voters and a majority in every state rejected a proposal to become a republic with a president appointed by a two-thirds vote in both Houses of the Australian Parliament. Since the election of the Whitlam Government in 1972, there has been an increasing focus in foreign policy on ties with other Pacific Rim nations, while maintaining close ties with Australia's traditional allies and trading partners. \n\nGovernment\n\nAustralia is a federal parliamentary constitutional monarchy with Elizabeth II at its apex as the Queen of Australia, a role that is distinct from her position as monarch of the other Commonwealth realms. The Queen is represented in Australia by the Governor-General at the federal level and by the Governors at the state level, who by convention act on the advice of her ministers. The most notable exercise to date of the Governor-General's reserve powers outside the Prime Minister's request was the dismissal of the Whitlam Government in the constitutional crisis of 1975. \n\nThe federal government is separated into three branches:\n* The legislature: the bicameral Parliament, defined in section 1 of the constitution as comprising the Queen (represented by the Governor-General), the Senate, and the House of Representatives;\n* The executive: the Federal Executive Council, which in practice gives legal effect to the decisions of the cabinet, comprising the prime minister and ministers of state who advise the Governor-General; \n* The judiciary: the High Court of Australia and other federal courts, whose judges are appointed by the Governor-General on advice of the Federal Executive Council.\n\nIn the Senate (the upper house), there are 76 senators: twelve each from the states and two each from the mainland territories (the Australian Capital Territory and the Northern Territory). The House of Representatives (the lower house) has 150 members elected from single-member electoral divisions, commonly known as \"electorates\" or \"seats\", allocated to states on the basis of population, with each original state guaranteed a minimum of five seats. Elections for both chambers are normally held every three years simultaneously; senators have overlapping six-year terms except for those from the territories, whose terms are not fixed but are tied to the electoral cycle for the lower house; thus only 40 of the 76 places in the Senate are put to each election unless the cycle is interrupted by a double dissolution.\n\nAustralia's electoral system uses preferential voting for all lower house elections with the exception of Tasmania and the ACT which, along with the Senate and most state upper houses, combine it with proportional representation in a system known as the single transferable vote. Voting is compulsory for all enrolled citizens 18 years and over in every jurisdiction, as is enrolment (with the exception of South Australia). The party with majority support in the House of Representatives forms the government and its leader becomes Prime Minister. In cases where no party has majority support, the Governor-General has the constitutional power to appoint the Prime Minister and, if necessary, dismiss one that has lost the confidence of Parliament. \n\nThere are two major political groups that usually form government, federally and in the states: the Australian Labor Party and the Coalition which is a formal grouping of the Liberal Party and its minor partner, the National Party. Within Australian political culture, the Coalition is considered centre-right and the Labor Party is considered centre-left. Independent members and several minor parties have achieved representation in Australian parliaments, mostly in upper houses.\n\nThe most recent federal election was held on 7 September 2013 and resulted in a majority government for the Coalition. Liberal Party leader Tony Abbott was sworn into office as Prime Minister by the Governor-General of Australia on 18 September. In September 2015, Malcolm Turnbull successfully challenged Abbott for leadership of the Coalition, and was sworn in as the 29th Prime Minister of Australia. \n\nStates and territories\n\nAustralia has six states—New South Wales (NSW), Queensland (QLD), South Australia (SA), Tasmania (TAS), Victoria (VIC) and Western Australia (WA)—and two major mainland territories—the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) and the Northern Territory (NT). In most respects these two territories function as states, but the Commonwealth Parliament can override any legislation of their parliaments. By contrast, federal legislation overrides state legislation only in areas that are set out in Section 51 of the Australian Constitution; state parliaments retain all residual legislative powers, including those over schools, state police, the state judiciary, roads, public transport and local government, since these do not fall under the provisions listed in Section 51. \n\nEach state and major mainland territory has its own parliament—unicameral in the Northern Territory, the ACT and Queensland, and bicameral in the other states. The states are sovereign entities, although subject to certain powers of the Commonwealth as defined by the Constitution. The lower houses are known as the Legislative Assembly (the House of Assembly in South Australia and Tasmania); the upper houses are known as the Legislative Council. The head of the government in each state is the Premier and in each territory the Chief Minister. The Queen is represented in each state by a Governor; and in the Northern Territory, the Administrator. In the Commonwealth, the Queen's representative is the Governor-General. \n\nThe federal parliament directly administers the following territories:\n* Ashmore and Cartier Islands\n* Australian Antarctic Territory\n* Christmas Island\n* Cocos (Keeling) Islands\n* Coral Sea Islands\n* Heard Island and McDonald Islands\n* Jervis Bay Territory, a naval base and sea port for the national capital in land that was formerly part of New South Wales\n\nThe external territory of Norfolk Island previously exercised considerable autonomy under the Norfolk Island Act 1979 through its own legislative assembly and an Administrator to represent the Queen. In 2015, the Commonwealth Parliament abolished self-government, integrating Norfolk Island into the Australian tax and welfare systems and replacing its legislative assembly with a council. \n\nMacquarie Island is administered by Tasmania, and Lord Howe Island by New South Wales.\n\nForeign relations and military\n\nOver recent decades, Australia's foreign relations have been driven by a close association with the United States through the ANZUS pact, and by a desire to develop relationships with Asia and the Pacific, particularly through ASEAN and the Pacific Islands Forum. In 2005 Australia secured an inaugural seat at the East Asia Summit following its accession to the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia, and in 2011 attended the Sixth East Asia Summit in Indonesia. Australia is a member of the Commonwealth of Nations, in which the Commonwealth Heads of Government meetings provide the main forum for co-operation. \n\nAustralia has pursued the cause of international trade liberalisation. It led the formation of the Cairns Group and Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation. Australia is a member of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and the World Trade Organization, and has pursued several major bilateral free trade agreements, most recently the Australia–United States Free Trade Agreement and Closer Economic Relations with New Zealand, with another free trade agreement being negotiated with China—the Australia–China Free Trade Agreement—and Japan, South Korea in 2011, Australia–Chile Free Trade Agreement, and as of November 2015 has put the Trans-Pacific Partnership before parliament for ratification. \n\nAlong with New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Malaysia and Singapore, Australia is party to the Five Power Defence Arrangements, a regional defence agreement. A founding member country of the United Nations, Australia is strongly committed to multilateralism and maintains an international aid program under which some 60 countries receive assistance. The 2005–06 budget provides A$2.5 billion for development assistance. Australia ranks fifteenth overall in the Center for Global Development's 2012 Commitment to Development Index. \n\nAustralia's armed forces—the Australian Defence Force (ADF)—comprise the Royal Australian Navy (RAN), the Australian Army and the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF), in total numbering 81,214 personnel (including 57,982 regulars and 23,232 reservists) as of November 2015. The titular role of Commander-in-Chief is vested in the Governor-General, who appoints a Chief of the Defence Force from one of the armed services on the advice of the government. Day-to-day force operations are under the command of the Chief, while broader administration and the formulation of defence policy is undertaken by the Minister and Department of Defence.\n\nIn the 2015–16 budget, defence spending was A$31.9 billion or 1.92% of GDP, representing the 13th largest defence budget. Australia has been involved in UN and regional peacekeeping, disaster relief and armed conflict, including the 2003 invasion of Iraq; it currently has deployed about 2,241 personnel in varying capacities to 12 international operations in areas including Iraq and Afghanistan. \n\nGeography and climate\n\nAustralia's landmass of 7617930 km2 is on the Indo-Australian Plate. Surrounded by the Indian and Pacific oceans, it is separated from Asia by the Arafura and Timor seas, with the Coral Sea lying off the Queensland coast, and the Tasman Sea lying between Australia and New Zealand. The world's smallest continent and sixth largest country by total area, Australia—owing to its size and isolation—is often dubbed the \"island continent\", and is sometimes considered the world's largest island. Australia has 34218 km of coastline (excluding all offshore islands), and claims an extensive Exclusive Economic Zone of 8148250 km2. This exclusive economic zone does not include the Australian Antarctic Territory. Apart from Macquarie Island, Australia lies between latitudes 9° and 44°S, and longitudes 112° and 154°E.\n\nThe Great Barrier Reef, the world's largest coral reef, lies a short distance off the north-east coast and extends for over 2000 km. Mount Augustus, claimed to be the world's largest monolith, is located in Western Australia. At 2228 m, Mount Kosciuszko on the Great Dividing Range is the highest mountain on the Australian mainland. Even taller are Mawson Peak (at 2745 m), on the remote Australian territory of Heard Island, and, in the Australian Antarctic Territory, Mount McClintock and Mount Menzies, at 3492 m and 3355 m respectively. \n\nAustralia's size gives it a wide variety of landscapes, with tropical rainforests in the north-east, mountain ranges in the south-east, south-west and east, and dry desert in the centre. It is the flattest continent, with the oldest and least fertile soils; desert or semi-arid land commonly known as the outback makes up by far the largest portion of land. The driest inhabited continent, its annual rainfall averaged over continental area is less than 500 mm. The population density, 2.8 inhabitants per square kilometre, is among the lowest in the world, although a large proportion of the population lives along the temperate south-eastern coastline. \n\nEastern Australia is marked by the Great Dividing Range, which runs parallel to the coast of Queensland, New South Wales and much of Victoria. The name is not strictly accurate, because parts of the range consist of low hills, and the highlands are typically no more than 1600 m in height. The coastal uplands and a belt of Brigalow grasslands lie between the coast and the mountains, while inland of the dividing range are large areas of grassland. These include the western plains of New South Wales, and the Einasleigh Uplands, Barkly Tableland, and Mulga Lands of inland Queensland. The northernmost point of the east coast is the tropical-rainforested Cape York Peninsula. \n\nThe landscapes of the Top End and the Gulf Countrywith their tropical climateinclude forest, woodland, wetland, grassland, rainforest and desert. At the north-west corner of the continent are the sandstone cliffs and gorges of The Kimberley, and below that the Pilbara. To the south of these and inland, lie more areas of grassland: the Ord Victoria Plain and the Western Australian Mulga shrublands. At the heart of the country are the uplands of central Australia. Prominent features of the centre and south include Uluru (also known as Ayers Rock), the famous sandstone monolith, and the inland Simpson, Tirari and Sturt Stony, Gibson, Great Sandy, Tanami, and Great Victoria deserts, with the famous Nullarbor Plain on the southern coast. \n\nThe climate of Australia is significantly influenced by ocean currents, including the Indian Ocean Dipole and the El Niño–Southern Oscillation, which is correlated with periodic drought, and the seasonal tropical low-pressure system that produces cyclones in northern Australia. These factors cause rainfall to vary markedly from year to year. Much of the northern part of the country has a tropical, predominantly summer-rainfall (monsoon) climate. The south-west corner of the country has a Mediterranean climate. Much of the south-east (including Tasmania) is temperate.\n\nEnvironment\n\nAlthough most of Australia is semi-arid or desert, it includes a diverse range of habitats from alpine heaths to tropical rainforests, and is recognised as a megadiverse country. Fungi typify that diversity; an estimated 250,000 species—of which only 5% have been described—occur in Australia. Because of the continent's great age, extremely variable weather patterns, and long-term geographic isolation, much of Australia's biota is unique. About 85% of flowering plants, 84% of mammals, more than 45% of birds, and 89% of in-shore, temperate-zone fish are endemic. Australia has the greatest number of reptiles of any country, with 755 species. \n\nAustralian forests are mostly made up of evergreen species, particularly eucalyptus trees in the less arid regions; wattles replace them as the dominant species in drier regions and deserts. Among well-known Australian animals are the monotremes (the platypus and echidna); a host of marsupials, including the kangaroo, koala, and wombat, and birds such as the emu and the kookaburra. Australia is home to many dangerous animals including some of the most venomous snakes in the world. The dingo was introduced by Austronesian people who traded with Indigenous Australians around 3000 BCE. Many animal and plant species became extinct soon after first human settlement, including the Australian megafauna; others have disappeared since European settlement, among them the thylacine. \n\nMany of Australia's ecoregions, and the species within those regions, are threatened by human activities and introduced animal, chromistan, fungal and plant species. All these factors have led to Australia having the highest mammal extinction rate of any country in the world. The federal Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 is the legal framework for the protection of threatened species. Numerous protected areas have been created under the National Strategy for the Conservation of Australia's Biological Diversity to protect and preserve unique ecosystems; 65 wetlands are listed under the Ramsar Convention, and 16 natural World Heritage Sites have been established. Australia was ranked 3rd out of 178 countries in the world on the 2014 Environmental Performance Index.\n\nEnvironmental issues\n\nProtection of the environment is a major political issue in Australia. In 2007, the First Rudd Government signed the instrument of ratification of the Kyoto Protocol. Nevertheless, Australia's carbon dioxide emissions per capita are among the highest in the world, lower than those of only a few other industrialised nations. Rainfall in southwestern Australia has decreased by 10–20% since the 1970s, while southeastern Australia has also experienced a moderate decline since the 1990s. \n\nAccording to the Bureau of Meteorology's 2011 Australian Climate Statement, Australia had lower than average temperatures in 2011 as a consequence of a La Niña weather pattern; however, \"the country's 10-year average continues to demonstrate the rising trend in temperatures, with 2002–2011 likely to rank in the top two warmest 10-year periods on record for Australia, at above the long-term average\". Furthermore, 2014 was Australia's third warmest year since national temperature observations commenced in 1910. Water restrictions are frequently in place in many regions and cities of Australia in response to chronic shortages due to urban population increases and localised drought. Throughout much of the continent, major flooding regularly follows extended periods of drought, flushing out inland river systems, overflowing dams and inundating large inland flood plains, as occurred throughout Eastern Australia in 2010, 2011 and 2012 after the 2000s Australian drought.\n\nA carbon tax was introduced in 2012 and helped to reduce Australia's emissions but was scrapped in 2014 under the Liberal Government. Since the carbon tax was repealed, emissions have again continued to rise. \n\nAustralian biota has been severely impacted by changes occurring since European settlement began in 1788, with more than 10% of mammal species lost in the past 225 years. There have also been 23 bird species or subspecies, 4 amphibians and more than 60 plant species known to be lost during this period. The Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act of 1999 was designed to minimise further impacts on ecological communities in Australia and its territories. \n\nEconomy\n\nAustralia is a wealthy country; it generates its income from various sources including mining-related exports, telecommunications, banking and manufacturing. It has a market economy, a relatively high GDP per capita, and a relatively low rate of poverty. In terms of average wealth, Australia ranked second in the world after Switzerland in 2013, although the nation's poverty rate increased from 10.2% to 11.8%, from 2000/01 to 2013. It was identified by the Credit Suisse Research Institute as the nation with the highest median wealth in the world and the second-highest average wealth per adult in 2013. \n\nThe Australian dollar is the currency for the nation, including Christmas Island, Cocos (Keeling) Islands, and Norfolk Island, as well as the independent Pacific Island states of Kiribati, Nauru, and Tuvalu. With the 2006 merger of the Australian Stock Exchange and the Sydney Futures Exchange, the Australian Securities Exchange became the ninth largest in the world. \n\nRanked third in the Index of Economic Freedom (2010), Australia is the world's twelfth largest economy and has the fifth highest per capita GDP (nominal) at $66,984. The country was ranked second in the United Nations 2011 Human Development Index and first in Legatum's 2008 Prosperity Index. All of Australia's major cities fare well in global comparative livability surveys; Melbourne reached top spot for the fourth year in a row on The Economists 2014 list of the world's most liveable cities, followed by Adelaide, Sydney, and Perth in the fifth, seventh, and ninth places respectively. Total government debt in Australia is about $190 billion – 20% of GDP in 2010. Australia has among the highest house prices and some of the highest household debt levels in the world. \n\nAn emphasis on exporting commodities rather than manufactured goods has underpinned a significant increase in Australia's terms of trade since the start of the 21st century, due to rising commodity prices. Australia has a balance of payments that is more than 7% of GDP negative, and has had persistently large current account deficits for more than 50 years. Australia has grown at an average annual rate of 3.6% for over 15 years, in comparison to the OECD annual average of 2.5%. Australia was the only advanced economy not to experience a recession due to the global financial downturn in 2008–2009. However, the economies of six of Australia's major trading partners have been in recession, which in turn has affected Australia, significantly hampering its economic growth in recent years. From 2012 to early 2013, Australia's national economy grew, but some non-mining states and Australia's non-mining economy experienced a recession. \n\nThe Hawke Government floated the Australian dollar in 1983 and partially deregulated the financial system. The Howard Government followed with a partial deregulation of the labour market and the further privatisation of state-owned businesses, most notably in the telecommunications industry. The indirect tax system was substantially changed in July 2000 with the introduction of a 10% Goods and Services Tax (GST). In Australia's tax system, personal and company income tax are the main sources of government revenue. \n\nIn May 2012, there were 11,537,900 people employed (either full- or part-time), with an unemployment rate of 5.1%. Youth unemployment (15–24) stood at 11.2%. Data released in mid-November 2013 showed that the number of welfare recipients had grown by 55%. In 2007 228,621 Newstart unemployment allowance recipients were registered, a total that increased to 646,414 in March 2013. According to the Graduate Careers Survey, full-time employment for newly qualified professionals from various occupations has declined since 2011 but it increases for graduates three years after graduation. \n\nSince 2008, inflation has typically been 2–3% and the base interest rate 5–6%. The service sector of the economy, including tourism, education, and financial services, accounts for about 70% of GDP. Rich in natural resources, Australia is a major exporter of agricultural products, particularly wheat and wool, minerals such as iron-ore and gold, and energy in the forms of liquified natural gas and coal. Although agriculture and natural resources account for only 3% and 5% of GDP respectively, they contribute substantially to export performance. Australia's largest export markets are Japan, China, the US, South Korea, and New Zealand. Australia is the world's fourth largest exporter of wine, and the wine industry contributes $5.5 billion per year to the nation's economy. \n\nDemographics\n\nUntil the Second World War, the vast majority of settlers and immigrants came from the British Isles, and a majority of Australians have some British or Irish ancestry. In the 2011 Australian census, the most commonly nominated ancestries were English (36.1%), Australian (35.4%), Irish (10.4%), Scottish (8.9%), Italian (4.6%), German (4.5%), Chinese (4.3%), Indian (2.0%), Greek (1.9%), and Dutch (1.7%).\n\nAustralia's population has quadrupled since the end of World War I, much of this increase from immigration. Following World War II and through to 2000, almost 5.9 million of the total population settled in the country as new immigrants, meaning that nearly two out of every seven Australians were born in another country. Most immigrants are skilled, but the immigration quota includes categories for family members and refugees. By 2050, Australia's population is currently projected to reach around 42 million. Nevertheless, its population density, 2.8 inhabitants per square kilometre, remains among the lowest in the world. As such, Australians have more living space per person than the inhabitants of any other nation. \n\nIn 2011, 24.6% of Australians were born elsewhere and 43.1% of people had at least one overseas-born parent; the five largest immigrant groups were those from the United Kingdom, New Zealand, China, India, and Vietnam. Following the abolition of the White Australia policy in 1973, numerous government initiatives have been established to encourage and promote racial harmony based on a policy of multiculturalism. In 2005–06, more than 131,000 people emigrated to Australia, mainly from Asia and Oceania. The migration target for 2012–13 is 190,000, compared to 67,900 in 1998–99. \n\nThe Indigenous population—Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders—was counted at 548,370 (2.5% of the total population) in 2011, a significant increase from 115,953 in the 1976 census. The increase is partly due to many people with Indigenous heritage previously having been overlooked by the census due to undercount and cases where their Indigenous status had not been recorded on the form. Indigenous Australians experience higher than average rates of imprisonment and unemployment, lower levels of education, and life expectancies for males and females that are, respectively, 11 and 17 years lower than those of non-indigenous Australians. Some remote Indigenous communities have been described as having \"failed state\"-like conditions. \n\nIn common with many other developed countries, Australia is experiencing a demographic shift towards an older population, with more retirees and fewer people of working age. In 2004, the average age of the civilian population was 38.8 years. A large number of Australians (759,849 for the period 2002–03; 1 million or 5% of the total population in 2005 ) live outside their home country.\n\nLanguage\n\nAlthough Australia has no official language, English has always been entrenched as the de facto national language. \"English has no de jure status but it is so entrenched as the common language that it is de facto the official language as well as the national language.\" Australian English is a major variety of the language with a distinctive accent and lexicon, and differs slightly from other varieties of English in grammar and spelling. General Australian serves as the standard dialect. According to the 2011 census, English is the only language spoken in the home for close to 81% of the population. The next most common languages spoken at home are Mandarin (1.7%), Italian (1.5%), Arabic (1.4%), Cantonese (1.3%), Greek (1.3%), and Vietnamese (1.2%); a considerable proportion of first- and second-generation migrants are bilingual. A 2010–2011 study by the Australia Early Development Index found the most common language spoken by children after English was Arabic, followed by Vietnamese, Greek, Chinese, and Hindi. \n\nOver 250 Indigenous Australian languages are thought to have existed at the time of first European contact, of which less than 20 are still in daily use by all age groups. About 110 others are spoken exclusively by older people. At the time of the 2006 census, 52,000 Indigenous Australians, representing 12% of the Indigenous population, reported that they spoke an Indigenous language at home. Australia has a sign language known as Auslan, which is the main language of about 5,500 deaf people. \n\nReligion\n\nAustralia has no state religion; Section 116 of the Australian Constitution prohibits the federal government from making any law to establish any religion, impose any religious observance, or prohibit the free exercise of any religion. In the 2011 census, 61.1% of Australians were counted as Christian, including 25.3% as Roman Catholic and 17.1% as Anglican; 22.3% of the population reported having \"no religion\"; 7.2% identify with non-Christian religions, the largest of these being Buddhism (2.5%), followed by Islam (2.2%), Hinduism (1.3%) and Judaism (0.5%). The remaining 9.4% of the population did not provide an adequate answer. \n\nBefore European settlement, the animist beliefs of Australia's indigenous people had been practised for many thousands of years. Mainland Aboriginal Australians' spirituality is known as the Dreamtime and it places a heavy emphasis on belonging to the land. The collection of stories that it contains shaped Aboriginal law and customs. Aboriginal art, story and dance continue to draw on these spiritual traditions. The spirituality and customs of Torres Strait Islanders, who inhabit the islands between Australia and New Guinea, reflected their Melanesian origins and dependence on the sea. The 1996 Australian census counted more than 7000 respondents as followers of a traditional Aboriginal religion. \n\nSince the arrival of the First Fleet of British ships in 1788, Christianity has grown to be the major religion practised in Australia. Christian churches have played an integral role in the development of education, health and welfare services in Australia. For much of Australian history the Church of England (now known as the Anglican Church of Australia) was the largest religious denomination. However, multicultural immigration has contributed to a decline in its relative position, and the Roman Catholic Church has benefitted from recent immigration to become the largest group. Similarly, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism and Judaism have all grown in Australia over the past half-century. \n\nAustralia has one of the lowest levels of religious adherence in the world. In 2001, only 8.8% of Australians attended church on a weekly basis. \n\nEducation\n\nSchool attendance, or registration for home schooling, is compulsory throughout Australia. Education is the responsibility of the individual states and territories so the rules vary between states, but in general children are required to attend school from the age of about 5 until about 16. In some states (e.g., Western Australia, the Northern Territory and New South Wales ), children aged 16–17 are required to either attend school or participate in vocational training, such as an apprenticeship.\n\nAustralia has an adult literacy rate that was estimated to be 99% in 2003. However, a 2011–12 report for the Australian Bureau of Statistics reported that Tasmania has a literacy and numeracy rate of only 50%. In the Programme for International Student Assessment, Australia regularly scores among the top five of thirty major developed countries (member countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development). Catholic education accounts for the largest non-government sector.\n\nAustralia has 37 government-funded universities and two private universities, as well as a number of other specialist institutions that provide approved courses at the higher education level. The OECD places Australia among the most expensive nations to attend university. There is a state-based system of vocational training, known as TAFE, and many trades conduct apprenticeships for training new tradespeople. About 58% of Australians aged from 25 to 64 have vocational or tertiary qualifications, and the tertiary graduation rate of 49% is the highest among OECD countries. The ratio of international to local students in tertiary education in Australia is the highest in the OECD countries. In addition, 38 percent of Australia's population has a university or college degree, which is among the highest percentages in the world. \n\nHealth\n\nAustralia has the third and seventh highest life expectancy of males and females respectively in the world. Life expectancy in Australia in 2010 was 79.5 years for males and 84.0 years for females. Australia has the highest rates of skin cancer in the world, while cigarette smoking is the largest preventable cause of death and disease, responsible for 7.8% of the total mortality and disease. Ranked second in preventable causes is hypertension at 7.6%, with obesity third at 7.5%. Australia ranks 35th in the world and near the top of developed nations for its proportion of obese adults and nearly two thirds (63%) of its adult population is either overweight or obese.\n\nTotal expenditure on health (including private sector spending) is around 9.8% of GDP. Australia introduced universal health care in 1975. Known as Medicare, it is now nominally funded by an income tax surcharge known as the Medicare levy, currently set at 1.5%. The states manage hospitals and attached outpatient services, while the Commonwealth funds the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (subsidising the costs of medicines) and general practice.\n\nCulture\n\nSince 1788, the primary influence behind Australian culture has been Anglo-Celtic Western culture, with some Indigenous influences. The divergence and evolution that has occurred in the ensuing centuries has resulted in a distinctive Australian culture.Davison, Hirst and Macintyre, pp. 98–99. Since the mid-20th century, American popular culture has strongly influenced Australia, particularly through television and cinema.Teo and White, pp. 121–23. Other cultural influences come from neighbouring Asian countries, and through large-scale immigration from non-English-speaking nations. \n\nArts\n\nThe rock art of Australia's Indigenous peoples is the oldest and richest in the world, dating as far back as 60,000 years and spread across hundreds of thousands of sites. Traditional designs, patterns and stories infuse contemporary Indigenous Australian art, \"the last great art movement of the 20th century\"; its exponents include Emily Kame Kngwarreye. During the first century of European settlement, colonial artists, trained in Europe, showed a fascination with the unfamiliar land. The naturalistic, sun-filled works of Arthur Streeton, Tom Roberts and others associated with the 19th-century Heidelberg School—the first \"distinctively Australian\" movement in Western art—gave expression to a burgeoning Australian nationalism in the lead-up to Federation.[http://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/discover-art/learn-more/australian-art/ Australian art], Art Gallery of New South Wales. Retrieved 27 August 2014. While the school remained influential into the new century, modernists such as Margaret Preston, and, later, Sidney Nolan and Arthur Boyd, explored new artistic trends. The landscape remained a central subject matter for Fred Williams, Brett Whiteley and other post-World War II artists whose works, eclectic in style yet uniquely Australian, moved between the figurative and the abstract. The National Gallery of Australia and state galleries maintain collections of Australian and international art. Australia has one of the world's highest attendances of art galleries and museums per head of population. \n\nAustralian literature grew slowly in the decades following European settlement though Indigenous oral traditions, many of which have since been recorded in writing, are much older. 19th-century writers such as Henry Lawson and Banjo Paterson captured the experience of the bush using a distinctive Australian vocabulary. Their works are still very popular; Paterson's bush poem \"Waltzing Matilda\" (1895) is regarded as Australia's unofficial national anthem. Miles Franklin is the namesake of Australia's most prestigious literary prize, awarded annually to the best novel about Australian life. Its first recipient, Patrick White, went on to win the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1973. Australian winners of the Booker Prize include Peter Carey, Thomas Keneally and Richard Flanagan. Author David Malouf, playwright David Williamson and poet Les Murray are also renowned literary figures. \n\nMany of Australia's performing arts companies receive funding through the federal government's Australia Council. There is a symphony orchestra in each state, and a national opera company, Opera Australia, well known for its famous soprano Joan Sutherland. At the beginning of the 20th century, Nellie Melba was one of the world's leading opera singers. Ballet and dance are represented by The Australian Ballet and various state companies. Each state has a publicly funded theatre company. \n\nMedia\n\nThe Story of the Kelly Gang (1906), the world's first feature length film, spurred a boom in Australian cinema during the silent film era. After World War I, Hollywood monopolised the industry, and by the 1960s Australian film production had effectively ceased. With the benefit of government support, the Australian New Wave of the 1970s brought provocative and successful films, many exploring themes of national identity, such as Wake in Fright and Gallipoli, while \"Crocodile\" Dundee and the Ozploitation movement's Mad Max series became international blockbusters. In a film market flooded with foreign content, Australian films delivered a 7.7% share of the local box office in 2015. The AACTAs are Australia's premier film and television awards, and notable Academy Award winners from Australia include Geoffrey Rush, Nicole Kidman, Cate Blanchett and Heath Ledger. \n\nAustralia has two public broadcasters (the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and the multicultural Special Broadcasting Service), three commercial television networks, several pay-TV services, and numerous public, non-profit television and radio stations. Each major city has at least one daily newspaper, and there are two national daily newspapers, The Australian and The Australian Financial Review. In 2010, Reporters Without Borders placed Australia 18th on a list of 178 countries ranked by press freedom, behind New Zealand (8th) but ahead of the United Kingdom (19th) and United States (20th). This relatively low ranking is primarily because of the limited diversity of commercial media ownership in Australia; most print media are under the control of News Corporation and Fairfax Media. \n\nCuisine\n\nMost Indigenous Australian tribal groups subsisted on a simple hunter-gatherer diet of native fauna and flora, otherwise called bush tucker. The first settlers introduced British food to the continent, much of which is now considered typical Australian food, such as the Sunday roast. Multicultural immigration transformed Australian cuisine; post-World War II European migrants, particularly from the Mediterranean, helped to build a thriving Australian coffee culture, and the influence of Asian cultures has led to Australian variants of their staple foods, such as the Chinese-inspired dim sim and Chiko Roll. Vegemite, pavlova, lamingtons and meat pies are regarded as iconic Australian foods. Australian wine is produced mainly in the southern, cooler parts of the country.\n\nSport and recreation\n\nAbout 24% of Australians over the age of 15 regularly participate in organised sporting activities. At an international level, Australia has excelled at cricket, field hockey, netball, rugby league and rugby union. The majority of Australians live within the coastal zone, making the beach a popular recreation spot and an integral part of the nation's identity. Australia is a powerhouse in water-based sports, such as swimming and surfing. The surf lifesaving movement originated in Australia, and the volunteer lifesaver is one of the country's icons. Nationally, other popular sports include Australian rules football, horse racing, basketball, surfing, soccer, and motor racing. The annual Melbourne Cup horse race and the Sydney to Hobart yacht race attract intense interest. \n\nAustralia is one of five nations to have participated in every Summer Olympics of the modern era, and has hosted the Games twice: 1956 in Melbourne and 2000 in Sydney. Australia has also participated in every Commonwealth Games, hosting the event in 1938, 1962, 1982, 2006 and will host the 2018 Commonwealth Games. Australia made its inaugural appearance at the Pacific Games in 2015. As well as being a regular FIFA World Cup participant, Australia has won the OFC Nations Cup four times and the AFC Asian Cup once – the only country to have won championships in two different FIFA confederations. The country regularly competes among the world elite basketball teams as it is among the global top three teams in terms of qualifications to the Basketball Tournament at the Summer Olympics. Other major international events held in Australia include the Australian Open tennis grand slam tournament, international cricket matches, and the Australian Formula One Grand Prix. The highest-rating television programs include sports telecasts such as the Summer Olympics, FIFA World Cup, The Ashes, Rugby League State of Origin, and the grand finals of the National Rugby League and Australian Football League. Skiing in Australia began in the 1860s and snow sports take place in the Australian Alps and parts of Tasmania." ] }

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{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe", "Search", "Search" ], "filename": [ "Boeing_787_Dreamliner.txt", "Boeing_747.txt", "Airbus.txt" ], "title": [ "Boeing 787 Dreamliner", "Boeing 747", "Airbus" ], "wiki_context": [ "The Boeing 787 Dreamliner is a long-range, mid-size widebody, twin-engine jet airliner developed by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. Its variants seat 242 to 335 passengers in typical three-class seating configurations. It is Boeing's most fuel-efficient airliner and is a pioneering airliner with the use of composite materials as the primary material in the construction of its airframe. The 787 was designed to be 20% more fuel efficient than the Boeing 767, which it was intended to replace. The 787 Dreamliner's distinguishing features include mostly electrical flight systems, swept wingtips, and noise-reducing chevrons on its engine nacelles. It shares a common type rating with the larger Boeing 777 to allow qualified pilots to operate both models.\n\nThe aircraft's initial designation was the 7E7, prior to its renaming in January 2005. The first 787 was unveiled in a roll-out ceremony on July 8, 2007 at Boeing's Everett factory. Development and production of the 787 has involved a large-scale collaboration with numerous suppliers worldwide. Final assembly takes place at the Boeing Everett Factory in Everett, Washington, and at the Boeing South Carolina factory in North Charleston, South Carolina. Originally planned to enter service in May 2008, the project experienced multiple delays. The airliner's maiden flight took place on December 15, 2009, and completed flight testing in mid-2011. Boeing has reportedly spent $32 billion on the 787 program.\n\nFinal US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) type certification was received in August 2011 and the first 787-8 was delivered in September 2011. It entered commercial service on October 26, 2011 with launch customer All Nippon Airways. The stretched 787-9 variant, which is 20 ft longer and can fly 450 nmi farther than the -8, first flew in September 2013. Deliveries of the 787-9 began in July 2014; it entered commercial service on August 7, 2014 with All Nippon Airways, with 787-9 launch customer Air New Zealand following two days later. As of June 2016, the 787 had orders for 1,155 aircraft from 63 customers, with All Nippon Airways having the largest number on order.\n\nThe aircraft has suffered from several in-service problems, including fires on board related to its lithium-ion batteries. These systems were reviewed by both the FAA and the Japan Civil Aviation Bureau. The FAA issued a directive in January 2013 that grounded all 787s in the US and other civil aviation authorities followed suit. After Boeing completed tests on a revised battery design, the FAA approved the revised design and lifted the grounding in April 2013; the 787 returned to passenger service later that month.\n\nDevelopment\n\nBackground\n\nDuring the late 1990s, Boeing began studying replacement aircraft programs as sales for the 767 and Boeing 747-400 slowed. The company proposed two new aircraft, the 747X, which would have lengthened the 747-400 and improved efficiency, and the Sonic Cruiser, which would have achieved 15% higher speeds (approximately Mach 0.98) while burning fuel at the same rate as the existing 767. Market interest for the 747X was tepid, but the Sonic Cruiser had brighter prospects. Several major airlines in the United States, including Continental Airlines, initially showed enthusiasm for the Sonic Cruiser concept, although they also expressed concerns about the operating cost. \n\nThe global airline market had been disrupted by the September 11, 2001 attacks and increased petroleum prices, making airlines more interested in efficiency than speed. The worst-affected airlines, those in the United States, had been considered the most likely customers of the Sonic Cruiser, and thus Boeing officially cancelled the Sonic Cruiser on December 20, 2002. Changing course, the company announced an alternative product using Sonic Cruiser technology in a more conventional configuration, the 7E7, on January 29, 2003. The emphasis on a smaller midsize twinjet rather than a large 747-size aircraft represented a shift from hub-and-spoke theory towards the point-to-point theory, in response to analysis of focus groups. \n\nThe replacement for the Sonic Cruiser project was dubbed the \"7E7\" (with a development code name of \"Y2\"). Technology from the Sonic Cruiser and 7E7 was to be used as part of Boeing's project to replace its entire airliner product line, an endeavor called the Yellowstone Project (of which the 7E7 became the first stage). Early concept images of the 7E7 included rakish cockpit windows, a dropped nose and a distinctive \"shark-fin\" tail. The \"E\" was said to stand for various things, such as \"efficiency\" or \"environmentally friendly\"; however, in the end, Boeing said that it merely stood for \"Eight\". In July 2003, a public naming competition was held for the 7E7, for which out of 500,000 votes cast online the winning title was Dreamliner. Other names in the pool included eLiner, Global Cruiser, and Stratoclimber. \n\nOn April 26, 2004, Japanese airline All Nippon Airways became the launch customer for the Dreamliner, by announcing a firm order for 50 aircraft with deliveries to begin in late 2008. All Nippon Airways' order was initially specified as 30 787-3, 290–330 seat, one-class domestic aircraft, and 20 787-8, long-haul, 210–250 seat, two-class aircraft for regional international routes such as Tokyo Narita–Beijing. The aircraft would allow All Nippon Airways to open new routes to cities not previously served, such as Denver, Moscow, and New Delhi. The 787-3 and 787-8 were to be the initial variants, with the 787-9 entering service in 2010.\n\nDesign phase\n\nThe 787 was designed to be the first production airliner with the fuselage assembled with one-piece composite barrel sections instead of the multiple aluminum sheets and some 50,000 fasteners used on existing aircraft. Boeing selected two new engine types to power the 787, the Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 and General Electric GEnx. Boeing stated the 787 would be approximately 20 percent more fuel-efficient than the 767, with approximately 40 percent of the efficiency gain from the engines, plus gains from aerodynamic improvements, increased use of lighter-weight composite materials, and advanced systems. The 787-8 and −9 were intended to be certified to 330 minute ETOPS capability. \n\nDuring the design phase, the 787 underwent extensive wind tunnel testing at Boeing's Transonic Wind Tunnel, QinetiQ's five-meter wind tunnel at Farnborough, United Kingdom, and NASA Ames Research Center's wind tunnel, as well as at the French aerodynamics research agency, ONERA. The final styling of the aircraft was more conservative than earlier proposals, with the fin, nose, and cockpit windows changed to a more conventional form. By the end of 2004, customer-announced orders and commitments for the 787 reached 237 aircraft. Boeing initially priced the 787-8 variant at US$120 million, a low figure that surprised the industry. In 2007, the list price was US$146–151.5 million for the 787-3, US$157–167 million for the 787-8 and US$189–200 million for the 787-9. The 787 airframe underwent extensive structural testing during its design. \n\nManufacturing and suppliers\n\nAfter stiff competition, Boeing announced on December 16, 2003, that the 787 would be assembled in its factory in Everett, Washington. Instead of building the complete aircraft from the ground up in the traditional manner, final assembly would employ 800 to 1,200 people to join completed subassemblies and to integrate systems. Boeing assigned its global subcontractors to do more assembly themselves and deliver completed subassemblies to Boeing for final assembly. This approach was intended to result in a leaner and simpler assembly line and lower inventory, with pre-installed systems reducing final assembly time by three-quarters to three days. \n\nSubcontracted assemblies included wing manufacture (Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Japan, central wing box) horizontal stabilizers (Alenia Aeronautica, Italy; Korea Aerospace Industries, South Korea); fuselage sections (Global Aeronautica, Italy; Boeing, North Charleston, US; Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Japan; Spirit AeroSystems, Wichita, US; Korean Air, South Korea); passenger doors (Latécoère, France); cargo doors, access doors, and crew escape door (Saab AB, Sweden); software development (HCL Enterprise India); floor beams (TAL Manufacturing Solutions Limited, India); wiring (Labinal, France); wing-tips, flap support fairings, wheel well bulkhead, and longerons (Korean Air, South Korea); landing gear (Messier-Bugatti-Dowty, UK/France); and power distribution and management systems, air conditioning packs (Hamilton Sundstrand, Connecticut, US). Boeing is considering bringing construction of the 787-9 tail in house; the tail of the 787-8 is currently made by Alenia. \n\nTo speed up delivery of the 787's major components, Boeing modified four used 747-400s into 747 Dreamlifters to transport 787 wings, fuselage sections, and other smaller parts. Japanese industrial participation was very important to the project, with Japanese companies co-designing and building 35% of the aircraft. This was the first time outside firms were given a key role in the design of Boeing airliner wings. The Japanese government also provided support with an estimated US$2 billion in loans. On April 26, 2006, Japanese manufacturer Toray Industries and Boeing signed a production agreement involving US$6 billion worth of carbon fiber, extending a 2004 contract and aimed at easing production concerns. In May 2007 final assembly on the first 787 began at Boeing's Everett, Washington plant. \n\nThe 787 project became less lucrative than expected for some subcontractors. Finmeccanica had a total loss of €750 million on the project by 2013. \n\nProduction and delivery delays\n\nWhile Boeing had been working to trim excess weight since assembly of the first airframe began, the company stated in late 2006 that the first six 787s were overweight, with the first aircraft expected to be 5000 lb heavier than specified. The seventh and subsequent aircraft would be the first optimized 787-8s and were expected to meet all goals, with Boeing working on weight reductions. As part of this process, Boeing redesigned some parts and made more use of titanium. Early built 787s were overweight and some carriers decided to take later aircraft. In February 2015, Boeing was trying to sell 10 such aircraft that have been parked by Boeing's factory. \n\nBoeing's early plans called for first flight by the end of August 2007 and premiered the first 787 at a rollout ceremony on July 8, 2007. The Dreamliner had 677 orders at this time, which is more orders from launch to roll-out than any previous wide-body airliner. The aircraft's major systems had not been installed at that time and many parts were attached with temporary non-aerospace fasteners requiring replacement with flight fasteners later. Although intended to shorten the production process, 787 subcontractors initially had difficulty completing the extra work because they could not procure the needed parts and perform the subassembly on schedule, leaving remaining assembly work for Boeing to complete as \"traveled work\". \n\nIn September 2007, Boeing announced a three-month delay, blaming a shortage of fasteners as well as incomplete software. On October 10, 2007, a second three-month delay to the first flight and a six-month delay to first deliveries was announced due to supply chain problems, a lack of documentation from overseas suppliers, and flight guidance software delays. Less than a week later, Mike Bair, the 787 program manager was replaced. On January 16, 2008, Boeing announced a third three-month delay to the first flight of the 787, citing insufficient progress on \"traveled work\". On March 28, 2008, in an effort to gain more control over the supply chain, Boeing announced plans to buy Vought Aircraft Industries' interest in Global Aeronautica; a later agreement was also made to buy Vought's factory in North Charleston. \n\nOn April 9, 2008, Boeing announced a fourth delay, shifting the maiden flight to the fourth quarter of 2008, and delaying initial deliveries by around 15 months to the third quarter of 2009. The 787-9 variant was postponed to 2012 and the 787-3 variant was to follow with no firm delivery date. On November 4, 2008, a fifth delay was announced due to incorrect fastener installation and the Boeing machinists strike, stating that the first test flight would not occur in the fourth quarter of 2008. After assessing the 787 program schedule with its suppliers, Boeing confirmed on December 11, 2008, that the first flight would be delayed until the second quarter of 2009. Airlines, including United Airlines and Air India, stated their intentions to seek compensation from Boeing for the delays. \n\nPre-flight ground testing\n\nAs Boeing worked with its suppliers towards production, the design proceeded through a series of test goals. On August 23, 2007, a crash test involving a vertical drop of a partial composite fuselage section from about 15 ft onto a 1 in-thick steel plate occurred in Mesa, Arizona; the results matched predictions, allowing modeling of various crash scenarios using computational analysis instead of further physical tests. While critics had expressed concerns that a composite fuselage could shatter and burn with toxic fumes during crash landings, test data indicated no greater toxicity than conventional metal airframes. The crash test was the third in a series of demonstrations conducted to match FAA requirements, including additional certification criteria due to the wide-scale use of composite materials. The 787 meets the FAA's requirement that passengers have at least as good a chance of surviving a crash landing as they would with current metal airliners. \n\nOn August 7, 2007, on-time certification of the Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 engine by European and US regulators was received. The alternative GE GEnx-1B engine achieved certification on March 31, 2008. On June 20, 2008, the first aircraft was powered up, for testing the electrical supply and distribution systems. A non-flightworthy static test airframe was built; on September 27, 2008, the fuselage was successfully tested at 14.9 psi (102.7 kPa) differential, which is 150 percent of the maximum pressure expected in commercial service. In December 2008, the 787's maintenance program was passed by the FAA. \n\nOn May 3, 2009, the first test 787 was moved to the flight line following extensive factory-testing, including landing gear swings, systems integration verification, and a total run-through of the first flight. On May 4, 2009, a press report indicated a 10–15% range reduction, about 6900 nmi instead of the originally promised 7,700 to 8,200 nmi (14,800–15,700 km), for early aircraft that were about 8% overweight. Substantial redesign work was expected to correct this, which would complicate increases in production rates; Boeing stated the early 787-8s would have a range of almost 8000 nmi. As a result, some airlines reportedly delayed deliveries of 787s in order to take later planes that may be closer to the original estimates. Boeing expected to have the weight issues addressed by the 21st production model. \n\nOn June 15, 2009, during the Paris Air Show, Boeing said that the 787 would make its first flight within two weeks. However, on June 23, 2009, the first flight was postponed due to structural reasons. Boeing provided an updated 787 schedule on August 27, 2009, with the first flight planned to occur by the end of 2009 and deliveries to begin at the end of 2010. The company expected to write off US$2.5 billion because it considered the first three Dreamliners built unsellable and suitable only for flight tests. On October 28, 2009, Boeing selected Charleston, SC as the site for a second 787 production line, after soliciting bids from multiple states. On December 12, 2009, the first 787 completed high speed taxi tests, the last major step before flight. \n\nFlight test program\n\nOn December 15, 2009, Boeing conducted the Dreamliner's maiden flight with the first 787-8, originating from Snohomish County Airport in Everett, Washington, at 10:27 am PST, and landing at Boeing Field in King County, Washington, at 1:35 pm PST. Originally scheduled for four hours, the test flight was shortened to three hours due to bad weather. Boeing's schedule called for a 9-month flight test campaign (later revised to 8.5 months). \n\nThe flight test program was composed of 6 aircraft, ZA001 through ZA006, four with Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 engines and two with GE GEnx-1B64 engines. The second 787, ZA002 in All Nippon Airways livery, flew to Boeing Field on December 22, 2009, to join the flight test program; the third 787, ZA004 joined the test fleet with its first flight on February 24, 2010, followed by ZA003 on March 14, 2010. On March 24, 2010, testing for flutter and ground effects was completed, clearing the aircraft to fly its entire flight envelope. On March 28, 2010, the 787 completed the ultimate wing load test, which requires that the wings of a fully assembled aircraft be loaded to 150% of design limit load and held for 3 seconds. The wings were flexed approximately 25 ft upward during the test. Unlike past aircraft, the wings were not tested to failure. On April 7, the data showed the test had been a success. \n\nOn April 23, 2010, Boeing delivered the newest 787, ZA003, to the McKinley Climatic Laboratory hangar at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida, for extreme weather testing in temperatures ranging from 115 to, and prepare it for takeoff at both temperature extremes. ZA005, the fifth 787 and the first with GEnx engines, began ground engine tests in May 2010, and made its first flight on June 16, 2010. In June 2010, gaps were discovered in the horizontal stabilizers of test aircraft, due to improperly installed shims; all aircraft produced were inspected and repaired. That same month, a 787 experienced its first in-flight lightning strike; inspections found no damage to the aircraft. As composites can have as little as 1/1,000th the electrical conductivity of aluminum, conductive material is added to ameliorate potential risks and to meet FAA requirements. FAA management also planned to adjust requirements to help the 787 show compliance. \n\nThe 787 made its first appearance at an international air show at the Farnborough Airshow, United Kingdom, on July 18, 2010. \n\nOn August 2, 2010, a Trent 1000 engine suffered a blowout at Rolls-Royce's test facility during ground testing. The failure caused Boeing to reevaluate its timeline for installing Trent 1000 engines, and on August 27, 2010 the manufacturer confirmed that the first delivery to launch customer All Nippon Airways would be delayed until early 2011. That same month, Boeing faced compensation claims from airlines owing to ongoing delivery delays. On September 9, 2010, it was reported that a further two 787s might join the test fleet for a total of eight flight test aircraft. On September 10, 2010, a partial engine surge or runaway occurred in a Trent engine on ZA001 at Roswell. On October 4, 2010, the sixth 787, ZA006 joined the test program with its first flight. \n\nOn November 5, 2010, it was reported that some early 787 deliveries would be delayed, in one case some three months, to allow for rework to address problems found during flight testing. On November 9, 2010, Boeing 787, ZA002 made an emergency landing after smoke and flames were detected in the main cabin during a test flight over Texas. A Boeing spokesperson said the airliner landed safely and the crew was evacuated after landing at the Laredo International Airport, Texas. The electrical fire caused some systems to fail before landing. Following this incident, Boeing suspended flight testing on November 10, 2010, ground testing continued. \n\nAfter investigation, the in-flight fire was primarily attributed to foreign object debris (FOD) that was present in the electrical bay. After electrical system and software changes, the 787 resumed company flight testing on December 23, 2010. In January 2011, the first 787 delivery was rescheduled to the third quarter of 2011 due to software and electrical updates following the in-flight fire. By February 24, 2011, the 787 had completed 80% of the test conditions for Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 engine and 60% of the conditions for the General Electric GEnx-1B engine. On July 4, 2011, All Nippon Airways began a week of airline operations testing using a 787 in Japan. \n\nThe 787 test aircraft had flown 4,828 hours in 1,707 flights combined by August 15, 2011. During testing the 787 has visited 14 countries in Asia, Europe, North America, and South America to test in extreme climates and conditions, and to perform route testing. Boeing completed certification testing for Rolls-Royce powered 787-8s on August 13, 2011. The FAA and European Aviation Safety Agency certified the 787 on August 26, 2011, at a ceremony in Everett, Washington. \n\nThe newer stretched version, 787-9, had flown 141 hours as of November 8, 2013. \n\nService entry and early operations\n\nCertification of the 787 cleared the way for deliveries. Boeing began preparations to increase 787 production rates from two to ten aircraft per month over the next two years. Production is taking place at assembly lines in Everett and Charleston. The Charleston site's contributions have been clouded by legal difficulties; on April 20, 2011, the National Labor Relations Board alleged that Boeing's second production line in South Carolina violated two sections of the National Labor Relations Act.Cohen, Aubrey. [http://www.seattlepi.com/default/article/Boeing-illegally-put-second-787-line-in-S-C-1345345.php \"Boeing illegally put second 787 line in S.C., complaint says.\"] Seattle Post-Intelligencer, April 20, 2011. Retrieved September 2, 2011. This labor dispute ended in December 2011 when the National Labor Relations Board dropped its lawsuit after the Machinists union withdrew its complaint as part of a new contract with Boeing. The first 787 assembled at the South Carolina facility was rolled out on April 27, 2012.\n\nThe first 787 was officially delivered to All Nippon Airways on September 25, 2011, at the Boeing factory. A ceremony to mark the occasion was also held the next day. On September 27, the Dreamliner flew to Tokyo Haneda Airport. The airline took delivery of the second 787 on October 13, 2011. On October 26, 2011, the 787 flew its first commercial flight from Tokyo Narita to Hong Kong on All Nippon Airways. The airliner was planned to enter service some three years prior. Tickets for the flight were sold in an online auction, the highest bidder had paid $34,000 for a seat. The 787 flew its first commercial long-haul flight on January 21, 2012 from Haneda to Frankfurt on All Nippon Airways. \n\nOn December 6, 2011, test aircraft ZA006 (sixth 787), powered by General Electric GEnx engines, flew 10710 nmi non-stop from Boeing Field eastward to Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka, Bangladesh, setting a new world distance record for aircraft in the 787's weight class, which is between 440000 and. This flight surpassed the previous record of 9127 nmi, set in 2002 by an Airbus A330. The Dreamliner then continued eastbound from Dhaka to return to Boeing Field, setting a world-circling speed record of 42 hours, 27 minutes. In April 2012, an All Nippon Airways 787 made a delivery flight from Boeing Field to Haneda Airport partially using biofuel from cooking oil. In 2011, Boeing conducted a 787 world tour to promote the airliner, visiting various cities in China, Africa, the Middle East, Europe, United States, and others. \n\nAccording to data from launch customer All Nippon Airways, the 787 surpassed the promised 20% fuel burn reduction compared to that of the Boeing 767. On the Tokyo-Frankfurt route, the fuel saving was 21%. ANA surveyed 800 passengers who flew the 787 from Tokyo to Frankfurt: expectations were surpassed for 90% of passengers; features that met or exceeded expectations included air quality and cabin pressure (90% of passengers), cabin ambiance (92% of passengers), higher cabin humidity levels (80% of passengers), headroom (40% of passengers) and the larger than usual windows (90% of passengers). 25% said they would go out of their way to again fly on the 787. Other 787 operators have reported similar fuel savings, ranging from 20-22% compared with the Boeing 767-300ER. An analysis performed by consulting firm AirInsight concluded that United Airlines' 787s achieved an operating cost per seat that was 6% lower than the Airbus A330.\n\nEarly operators discovered that if the APS5000 APU was shut down with the inlet door closed, heat continued to build up in the tail compartment and cause the rotor shaft to bow. It could take up to 2 hours for the shaft to straighten again. This was particularly acute on short haul flights as there was insufficient time to allow the unit to cool before a restart was needed. Procedures were modified and the APU was later redesigned to address the issue. \n\nQatar Airways placed its first 787 on display at the Farnborough Airshow in July 2012; the aircraft was to be officially delivered the following month. \n\nOn September 15, 2012, the NTSB requested the grounding of certain 787s due to GE engine failures; GE believed the production problem had been fixed by that time. \n\nIn March 2014, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries informed Boeing of a new problem that was caused by a change in manufacturing processes. Employees did not fill gaps with shims to connect wing rib aluminum shear ties to the carbon composite wing panels; the tightened fasteners, without shims, cause excessive stress that creates hairline cracks in the wings, which could enlarge and cause further damage. Forty-two aircraft awaiting delivery were affected, and each one required 1–2 weeks to inspect and repair. However, Boeing did not expect this problem to affect the overall delivery schedule, even if some airplanes were delivered late. \n\nDispatch reliability is an industry standard measure of the rate of departure from the gate with no more than 15 minutes delay due to technical issues. The 787-8 started out with a ~96% operational reliability, increasing to ~98.5% in April 2015. Daily utilization increased from five hours in 2013 to twelve hours in 2014. \n\nAirlines have successfully assigned the 787 to routes previously flown by larger aircraft that could not return a profit. For example, Air Canada offered a Toronto to New Delhi route, first utilizing a Lockheed L1011, then a Boeing 747, then an Airbus A340, but none of these types were efficient enough to avoid losing money. The airline now operates the route profitably with a 787-9. The airline credits the right number of seats and greater fuel efficiency for this success. \n\nMarket and production costs\n\nThe 787 Dreamliner program has reportedly cost Boeing $32 billion. \n\nThe cost of producing a 787 exceeded the purchase price at the end of 2013. Boeing's accounting method books sales immediately and distributes estimated production costs over ten years for the 1,300 aircraft it expects to deliver during that time. JPMorgan Chase analyst Joseph Nadol estimated the program's cash loss to be $45 million per airplane, decreasing as the program moves forward. The actual cash flow reflects Boeing collecting most of the purchase price upon delivery; Boeing expects deferred costs to total $25 billion before the company begins to break even on production; the comparable number for the Boeing 777, adjusted for inflation, is $3.7 billion. Boeing plans to improve financial return by reorganizing the production line, renegotiating contracts with suppliers and labor unions, and increasing the 787 production rate, stepwise, to 12 airplanes per month by the end of 2016 and 14 airplanes per month by the end of the decade. \n\nThe 787 program is expected to be profitable after 1,100 aircraft have been sold. , the production rate is 10 per month; Boeing lost $30 million per 787 delivered in the first quarter of 2015, although Boeing plans to break even by the end of the year. The accumulated losses for the 787 totaled almost $27 billion by May 2015. The cost of producing the fuselage may increase because of a tentative deal reached with Spirit Aerosystems of Wichita, Kansas, wherein severe price cuts demanded by Boeing would be eased, in return for a comprehensive agreement that lowers the cost of fuselages for other jetliners that Spirit helps Boeing manufacture. \n\nIn July 2015, Reuters reported that Boeing was investigating the reduction in use of expensive titanium to reduce construction costs to facilitate transition to profitability. \n\nOn July 21, 2016 Boeing reported charges of $847 million against two flight-test Dreamliners built in 2009. Boeing planned to refurbish and sell these early 787s, but now will write them off as research and development expense. \n\nDesign\n\nThe design features light-weight construction. The aircraft is 80% composite by volume. Boeing lists its materials by weight as 50% composite, 20% aluminum, 15% titanium, 10% steel, and 5% other. Aluminum is used for the wing and tail leading edges; titanium is used mainly on engines and fasteners, with steel used in various areas.\n\nExternal features include a smooth nose contour, raked wingtips and engine nacelles with noise-reducing serrated edges (chevrons). The longest-range 787 variant can fly 8000 to, enough to cover the Los Angeles to Bangkok or New York City to Hong Kong routes. Its cruising airspeed is Mach 0.85, equivalent to 561 mph at typical cruise altitudes.\n\nFlight systems\n\nAmong 787 flight systems, a key change from traditional airliners is the electrical architecture. The architecture is bleedless and replaces bleed air and hydraulic power sources with electrically powered compressors and pumps, while completely eliminating pneumatics and hydraulics from some subsystems, e.g., engine starters or brakes. Boeing says this system extracts 35% less power from the engines, allowing increased thrust and improved fuel economy. The total available on-board electrical power is 1.45 megawatts, which is five times the power available on conventional pneumatic airliners;Susanna Ray, Thomas Black & Mary Jane Credeur. \"[http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-01-17/boeing-787-groundings-trace-to-one-of-a-kind-technology.html Boeing 787 Groundings Traced to One-of-a-Kind Technology]\" Bloomberg, January 17, 2013. Retrieved January 17, 2013. the most notable electrically powered systems include: engine start, cabin pressurization, horizontal stabilizer trim, and wheel brakes. Wing ice protection is another new system; it uses electro-thermal heater mats on the wing slats instead of traditional hot bleed air.[http://www.boeing.com/commercial/aeromagazine/articles/qtr_4_07/article_02_4.html \"787 No Bleed Systems\"]. Boeing Aero magazine, Quarter 4, 2007. An active gust alleviation system, similar to the system used on the B-2 bomber, improves ride quality during turbulence.[http://www.freepatentsonline.com/4905934.html Universal-type gust alleviation system for aircraft, United States Patent 4905934]. Free patents online, original publication March 6, 1990. Retrieved December 9, 2009.\n\nThe 787 has a \"fly-by-wire\" control system similar in architecture to that of the Boeing 777. The flight deck features LCD multi-function displays, which use an industry standard Graphical user interface widget toolkit (Cockpit Display System Interfaces to User Systems / ARINC 661). The 787 flight deck includes two head-up displays (HUDs) as a standard feature. The 787 shares a common type rating with the larger 777, allowing qualified pilots to operate both models. Like other Boeing airliners, the 787 uses a yoke instead of a side-stick. Under consideration is future integration of forward looking infrared into the HUD for thermal sensing, allowing pilots to \"see\" through clouds. Lockheed Martin's Orion spacecraft will use a glass cockpit derived from Honeywell International's 787 flight deck systems. \n\nHoneywell and Rockwell Collins provide flight control, guidance, and other avionics systems, including standard dual head up guidance systems, Thales supplies the integrated standby flight display and power management, while Meggitt/Securaplane provides the auxiliary power unit (APU) starting system, electrical power conversion system, and battery control system with lithium cobalt oxide (LiCoO2) batteries by GS Yuasa. [http://translate.google.com/translate?slno&tl\nen&jsn&prev\n_t&hlen&ie\nUTF-8&eotf1&u\nhttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.tu.no%2Findustri%2F2013%2F01%2F17%2Fher-er-dreamliner-problemet English translation] One of the two batteries weighs 28.5 kg and is rated 29.6 V, 76 Ah, giving 2.2 kWh. Battery charging is controlled by four independent systems to prevent overcharging following early lab testing. The battery systems are the focus of regulatory investigation due to multiple lithium battery fires, which led to grounding of the 787 fleet starting in January 2013.\n\nA version of Ethernet (Avionics Full-Duplex Switched Ethernet (AFDX) / ARINC 664) transmits data between the flight deck and aircraft systems. The control, navigation, and communication systems are networked with the passenger cabin's in-flight internet systems. In January 2008, FAA concerns were reported regarding possible passenger access to the 787's computer networks; Boeing has stated that various protective hardware and software solutions are employed, including air gaps to physically separate the networks, and firewalls for software separation. These measures prevent data transfer from the passenger internet system to the maintenance or navigation systems.\n\nComposite materials\n\nThe 787 is the first major commercial airplane to have a composite fuselage, composite wings, and use composites in most other airframe components. Each 787 contains approximately 35 MT of carbon-fiber-reinforced polymer (CFRP), made with 23 MT of carbon fiber. Carbon fiber composites have a higher strength-to-weight ratio than conventional aircraft materials, and help make the 787 a lighter aircraft. Composites are used on fuselage, wings, tail, doors, and interior. Boeing had built and tested the first commercial aircraft composite section while studying the proposed Sonic Cruiser in the early 2000s; and the Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey military transport uses 50% composites. \n\nCarbon fiber, unlike metal, does not visibly show cracks and fatigue, prompting concerns about the safety risks of widespread use of the material; the rival Airbus A350 XWB uses composite panels on a frame, a more conventional approach, which its contractors regarded as less risky. Although fired in 2006, Boeing engineer Vince Weldon complained to management, and later to the public: the composite fuselage was unsafe compared to conventional aluminum designs, and in a crash, was more likely to \"shatter too easily and burn with toxic fumes\". \n\nIn addition, a potential issue is the porous nature of composite materials: collected moisture expanding with altitude can cause delamination. Boeing responded that composites have been used on wings and other passenger aircraft parts for many years without incident, and special defect detection procedures will be instituted for the 787 to detect any potential hidden damage. \n\nIn 2006, Boeing launched the 787 GoldCare program. This is an optional, comprehensive life-cycle management service, whereby aircraft in the program are routinely monitored and repaired, as needed. Although the first program of its kind from Boeing, post-sale protection programs are not new; such programs are usually offered by third party service centers. Boeing is also designing and testing composite hardware so inspections are mainly visual. This reduces the need for ultrasonic and other non-visual inspection methods, saving time and money. \n\nEngines\n\nThe 787 is powered by two engines; these engines use all-electrical bleedless systems, eliminating the superheated air conduits normally used for aircraft power, de-icing, and other functions. As part of its \"Quiet Technology Demonstrator 2\" project, Boeing adopted several engine noise-reducing technologies for the 787. These include an air inlet containing sound-absorbing materials and exhaust duct cover with a chevron-toothed pattern on the rim for a quieter mixing of exhaust and outside air. Boeing expects these developments to make the 787 significantly quieter both inside and out. The noise-reducing measures prevent sounds above 85 decibels from leaving airport boundaries.\n\nThe two different engine models compatible with the 787 use a standard electrical interface to allow an aircraft to be fitted with either Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 or General Electric GEnx engines. This interchangeability aims to save time and cost when changing engine types; while previous aircraft could exchange engines for those of a different manufacturer, the high cost and time required made it rare. In 2006, Boeing addressed reports of an extended change period by stating that the 787 engine swap was intended to take 24 hours.\n\nIn 2016, Rolls Royce began flight testing its new Trent 1000 TEN engine. It has a new compressor system based on the compressor in Rolls-Royce Trent XWB engine and a new turbine design for extra thrust, up to 78000 lbf. Rolls Royce plans to offer the TEN on the 787-8, -9 and -10. \n\nInterior\n\nThe 787-8 is designed to typically seat 234 passengers in a three-class setup, 240 in two-class domestic configuration, and 296 passengers in a high-density economy arrangement. Seat rows can be arranged in four to seven abreast in first or business (e.g., 1–2–1, 2–2–2, 2-3-2). Eight or nine abreast are options in economy (e.g., 3–2–3, 2–4–2, 3–3–3). Typical seat room ranges from 46 to pitch in first, 36 to in business, and 32 to in economy. \n\nCabin interior width is approximately 18 ft at armrest level, which is 1 in more than originally planned. The Dreamliner's cabin width is 15 in more than that of the Airbus A330 and A340, 5 in less than the A350, and 16 in less than the 777. Airlines use economy seat widths from a low of in charter configuration up to in premium economy layout. The 787's economy seats can be up to wide for nine-abreast seating and up to 19 in wide for eight-abreast seating arrangements. Most airlines are selecting the nine-abreast (3–3–3) configuration. The 787 interior was designed to better accommodate persons with mobility, sensory, and cognitive disabilities. For example, a 56 by convertible lavatory includes a movable center wall that allows two separate lavatories to become one large, wheelchair-accessible facility.\n\nThe 787's cabin windows are larger than any other civil air transport in-service or in development, with dimensions of , and a higher eye level so passengers can maintain a view of the horizon. The composite fuselage permits larger windows without the need for structural reinforcement. Instead of plastic window shades, the windows use electrochromism-based smart glass (supplied by PPG Industries) allowing flight attendants and passengers to adjust five levels of sunlight and visibility to their liking, reducing cabin glare while maintaining a view to the outside world, but the most opaque setting still has some transparency. The lavatory, however, has a traditional sunshade. The 787's cabin features light-emitting diodes (LEDs) as standard equipment, allowing the aircraft to be entirely 'bulbless'. LED lights have previously been an option on the Boeing 777 and Airbus aircraft. The system has three-color LEDs plus a white LED.\n\nThe internal cabin pressure of the 787 is increased to the equivalent of 6000 ft altitude instead of the 8000 ft on older conventional aircraft. According to Boeing, in a joint study with Oklahoma State University, this will significantly improve passenger comfort. Cabin air pressurization is provided by electrically driven compressors, rather than traditional engine-bleed air, thereby eliminating the need to cool heated air before it enters the cabin. The cabin's humidity is programmable based on the number of passengers carried, and allows 15% humidity settings instead of the 4% found in previous aircraft. The composite fuselage avoids metal fatigue issues associated with higher cabin pressure, and eliminates the risk of corrosion from higher humidity levels. The cabin air-conditioning system improves air quality by removing ozone from outside air, and besides standard HEPA filters which remove airborne particles, uses a gaseous filtration system to remove odors, irritants, and gaseous contaminants as well as particulates like viruses, bacteria and allergens. The bleedless engine cabin air system also allows the 787 air to avoid oil fumes and toxins which are dangerous to the health of passengers and crew and are found in all other aircraft bleed air systems. \n\nVariants\n\nBoeing has offered four passenger variants since the 787 program launch in 2004; three are being or will be built. The 787-8 was the first variant produced, and was followed by the 787-9 in 2014, with the 787-10 at a later date. A short-range model, the 787-3, was originally offered for sale but development was cancelled. The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) aircraft type designator system classifies the 787-8 and 787-9 under the codes \"B788\" and \"B789\", respectively.\n\n787-3\n\nThe 787-3 was targeted for high-density flights; it was designed as a 290-seat (two-class) short-range version with a fully loaded range of 2,500 to 3,050 nautical miles (4,650 to 5,650 km). Using the same basic fuselage as the 787-8, the wing was derived from the 787-8, with blended winglets replacing raked wingtips. The change decreased the wingspan by roughly 25 ft, allowing the -3 to fit more domestic gates, particularly in Japan. This model would have been limited in range by a reduced MTOW of 364000 lb. Actual range is based on remaining available weight for fuel after the aircraft empty weight and payload are subtracted from the MTOW.\n\nThe variant was designed to operate on Boeing 757-300/767-200-sized regional routes from airports with restricted gate spacing. Boeing projected the future of aviation as between very large, but close cities, of five million or more people; city populations may stabilize around the capacity level of the 787-3. \n\nTwo Japanese airlines ordered 45 Boeing 787-3s; however, production problems on the base 787-8 model led Boeing, in April 2008, to postpone the introduction of the -3 until after the 787-9's introduction, but without a firm delivery date. By January 2010, all 787-3 orders had been converted to the 787-8. The 787-3 experienced a lack of interest by potential customers because it was designed specifically for the Japanese market. Boeing canceled the 787-3 in December 2010 because it was no longer financially viable. \n\n787-8\n\nWith a typical capacity of 242 passengers and a range of 7355 nmi, the -8 is the base model of the 787 family and was the first to enter service in 2011. With a length of 186 ft and a wingspan of 197 ft, it is the third Boeing widebody after the 747SP and the 777-200LR with wingspan wider than its length. The 787-8 is targeted to replace the Boeing 767-200ER and -300ER, as well as expand into new non-stop markets where larger planes would not be economically viable. Approximately 37% of 787 orders are for the 787-8 in June 2016, with 306 delivered.\n\n787-9\n\nKeeping the same wingspan as the 787-8, the 787-9 is a lengthened and strengthened variant with a longer fuselage and a higher maximum take-off weight (MTOW), seating 280 passengers in a typical three-class arrangement over a 7635 nmi range. It features active boundary-layer control on the tail surfaces, reducing drag. Boeing is targeting the 787-9 to replace its own 767-400ER, to compete with both passenger variants of the Airbus A330 and to allow opening new long routes like the 787-8.\n\nIn 2005, the entry into service (EIS) was planned for 2010. The firm configuration was finalized on July 1, 2010. By October 2011, deliveries were scheduled to begin in 2014. \n\nThe prototype 787-9 made its maiden flight from Paine Field on September 17, 2013. A 787-9 was on static display at the 2014 Farnborough Air Show prior to first delivery. On July 8, 2014, Launch customer Air New Zealand took its first 787-9, in a distinctive black livery in a ceremony at Paine Field. Its first commercial flight was from Auckland to Sydney on August 9, 2014.\n\nThe 787-9 was to begin commercial service with All Nippon Airways on August 7, 2014. United Airlines was to start the longest nonstop scheduled 787 service between Los Angeles and Melbourne in October 2014. Air China started a 787-9 route between Beijing and Chengdu in May 2016. As of June 2016, 50% of all 787 orders are for the 787-9, with 125 deliveries.\n\n787-10\n\nIn December 2005, pushed by the interest of Emirates and Qantas, Boeing was studying the possibility of stretching the 787-9 in a 290 to 310 passengers with the 787-10, the capacity of the Airbus A350-900 and 777-200ER. Customers discussions were continuing in early 2006. Mike Bair, Boeing's vice president and general manager for the 787 development program at the time, said it was easier to proceed with the 787-10 development after other customers followed Emirates' request. \n\nOn May 30, 2013, Singapore Airlines became the launch customer by stating it would order 30 of the 787-10, provided Boeing launches the program, to be delivered in 2018–2019. On June 18, 2013, Boeing officially launched the 787-10 at the Paris Air Show, with orders or commitments for 102 aircraft from Air Lease Corporation (30), Singapore Airlines (30), United Airlines (20), British Airways (IAG) (12), and GE Capital Aviation Services (10).\n\nThe 787-10 is to be 224 ft long, seat 330 passengers in a two-class cabin configuration, and have a range of 6430 nmi. The variant was envisioned as replacing 777-200, Airbus A330, and A340 aircraft. The -10 is to compete against the A350-900, and offer better economics than the Airbus on shorter routes, according to Boeing. Steven Udvar-Hazy said \"If it's identically configured, the -10 has a little bit of an edge on the -900\", but smaller than Boeing's estimate of 10 percent. Boeing completed detailed design for the -10 on December 2, 2015, and is to begin major assembly in 2016, followed by first flight in 2017 and first delivery in 2018. \n\nFurther proposals\n\nAlthough with no set date, Boeing expects to build, possibly in the 2018-2023 timeframe, a 787 freighter version. Boeing also reportedly considered a 787 variant as a candidate to replace the 747-based VC-25 presidential transport in 2009; this was unlikely as the United States Air Force has traditionally used aircraft proven in service. \n\nOperators\n\nIn July 2015, a total of 286 Boeing 787 aircraft (all variants) were in airline service, with All Nippon Airways (38), Japan Airlines (23), Qatar Airways (22), Air India (21), United Airlines (18), Ethiopian Airlines (13), LATAM Chile (formerly LAN Airlines) (13), and other operators with fewer aircraft of the type.\n\n* All Nippon Airways first service October 26, 2011\n* Japan Airlines first service on April 22, 2012\n* Ethiopian Airlines first service on August 16, 2012 \n* Air India first service on September 19, 2012 \n* LATAM Chile (formerly LAN Airlines) first service on October 1, 2012 \n* United Airlines first service on November 4, 2012 \n* Qatar Airways first service on November 20, 2012 \n\nOrders and deliveries\n\nIn September 2011, the 787 was first officially delivered to launch customer All Nippon Airways. As of June 2016, the top three customers for the 787 are: All Nippon Airways with 83 orders (36 -8s, 44 -9s and 3 -10s), ILFC (an aircraft leasing company), with orders totaling 74 Boeing 787s (26 -8s and 48 -9s), and Etihad Airways with 71 orders (41 -9s and 30 -10s).\n\nAccidents and notable incidents\n\nThe Boeing 787 has been involved in 1 aviation incident. In December 2012, Boeing CEO James McNerney stated that the problems were no greater than those experienced with the introduction of other models such as the Boeing 777. \n\nOperational problems\n\nA Japan Airlines (JAL) 787 experienced a fuel leak on January 8, 2013, and its flight from Boston was canceled. On January 9, United Airlines reported a problem in one of its six 787s with the wiring near the main batteries. After these incidents, the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board subsequently opened a safety probe. Later, on January 11, 2013, another aircraft was found to have a fuel leak. \n\nAlso on January 11, 2013, the FAA completed a comprehensive review of the 787's critical systems, including the design, manufacture and assembly; the Department of Transportation secretary Ray LaHood stated the administration was \"looking for the root causes\" behind the recent issues. The head of the FAA, Michael Huerta, said that so far nothing found \"suggests [the 787] is not safe\". \n\nOn January 13, 2013, a JAL 787 at Narita International Airport outside Tokyo was found to also have a fuel leak during an inspection, the third time a fuel leak had been reported within a week. The aircraft reportedly was the same one that had a fuel leak in Boston on January 8. This leak was caused by a different valve; the causes of the leaks are unknown. Japan's transport ministry has also launched an investigation. \n\nOn July 12, 2013, a fire started on an empty Ethiopian Airlines 787 parked at Heathrow Airport before it was extinguished by the airport fire and rescue service. No injuries were reported. The fire caused extensive heat damage to the aircraft. The FAA and NTSB sent representatives to assist in the investigation. The initial investigation found no direct link with the aircraft's main batteries. Further investigations indicated that the fire was due to lithium-manganese dioxide batteries powering an emergency locator transmitter (ELT). The UK Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) issued a special bulletin on July 18, 2013 requesting the US FAA ensure that the locator is removed or disconnected in Boeing 787s, and to review the safety of lithium battery-powered ELT systems in other aircraft types. On August 19, 2015, the Associated Press reported that the fire was started by a short circuit, caused by crossed wires located under the battery. The Air Accidents Investigation Branch's investigators recommended that \"the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration, together with similar bodies in Europe and Canada, should conduct a review of equipment powered by lithium metal batteries to ensure they have 'an acceptable level of circuit protection.'\" \n\nOn July 26, 2013, ANA said it had found wiring damage on two 787 locator beacons. United Airlines also reported that it had found a pinched wire in one 787 locator beacon. On August 14, 2013, the media reported a fire extinguisher fault affecting three ANA airplanes, which was caused by a supplier assembly error. \n\nOn September 28, 2013, Norwegian Long Haul decided to take one of its two 787s in its fleet at the time out of service after the two aircraft broke down on more than six occasions in September. The company will lease an Airbus A340 for its long-haul operations while the 787 is returned to Boeing for repair. On December 20–22, 2013, Norwegian Long Haul experienced technical problems keeping two of its three 787 aircraft grounded at Fort Lauderdale airport and delayed six flights. \n\nOn November 22, 2013, Boeing issued an advisory to airlines using General Electric GEnx engines on 787 and 747-8 aircraft to avoid flying near high-level thunderstorms due to an increased risk of icing on the engines. The problem was caused by a buildup of ice crystals just behind the main fan, causing a brief loss of thrust on six occasions. \n\nOn January 21, 2014, a Norwegian Air Shuttle 787 experienced a fuel leak which caused a 19-hour delay to a flight from Bangkok to Oslo. Footage of the leak taken by passengers show fuel gushing out of the left wing of the aircraft. The leak became known to pilots only after it was pointed out by concerned passengers. It was found later that a faulty valve was responsible. This fuel leak is one of numerous problems experienced by Norwegian Air Shuttle's 787 fleet. Mike Fleming, Boeing's vice president for 787 support and services, subsequently met with executives of Norwegian Air Shuttle and expressed Boeing's commitment to improving the 787's dispatch reliability, \"we’re not satisfied with where the airplane is today, flying at a fleet average of 98 percent... The 777 today flies at 99.4 percent ... and that's the benchmark that the 787 needs to attain”. \n\nOn September 24, 2015, Indian media reported that an Air India 787 Dreamliner (VT-AND) had been grounded since January 2015 and had been scavenged for parts due to their lack of availability. Air India's aircraft engineers' body advised against accepting further deliveries until Boeing resolved reliability issues. India's Minister of State for Civil Aviation Mahesh Sharma stated the reliability issues to India's Parliament. \n\nOn March 4, 2016, Ethiopian Airlines 787-8 registration ET-ASH performing Flight ET-702 from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia to Rome Fiumicino, Italy, had its nose gear collapse before flight was ready to depart. A flight attendant received minor injuries and the aircraft was damaged. \n\nLater in March 2016 the FAA accelerated the release of an airworthiness directive in response to reports indicating that in certain weather conditions \"erroneous low airspeed may be displayed ...\" There was concern \"abrupt pilot control inputs in this condition could exceed the structural capability of the airplane.\" Pilots were told not to apply \"large, abrupt control column inputs\" in the event of an \"unrealistic\" drop in displayed airspeed. \n\nOn April 22, 2016, the FAA issued an airworthiness directive following a January 29 incident in which a General Electric GEnx-1B PIP2 engine suffered damage and non-restartable power loss while flying at an altitude of 20,000 feet. The damage is thought to have been caused by a fan imbalance resulting from fan ice shedding. \n\nBattery problems\n\nOn January 16, 2013, All Nippon Airways Flight NH-692, en route from Yamaguchi Ube Airport to Tokyo Haneda, had a battery problem warning followed by a burning smell while climbing from Ube about 35 nmi west of Takamatsu, Japan. The aircraft diverted to Takamatsu and was evacuated via the slides; three passengers received minor injuries during the evacuation. Inspection revealed a battery fire. A similar incident in a parked Japan Airlines 787 at Boston's Logan International Airport within the same week led the Federal Aviation Administration to ground all Boeing 787s in service at the time. \n\nOn January 16, 2013, both major Japanese airlines ANA and JAL voluntarily grounded their fleets of 787s after multiple incidents involving different 787s, including emergency landings. At the time, these two carriers operated 24 of the 50 Dreamliners delivered. The grounding is reported to have cost ANA some 9 billion yen (US$93 million) in lost sales. \n\nOn January 16, 2013, the FAA issued an emergency airworthiness directive ordering all American-based airlines to ground their Boeing 787s until yet-to-be-determined modifications were made to the electrical system to reduce the risk of the battery overheating or catching fire. This was the first time that the FAA had grounded an airliner type since 1979. Industry experts disagreed on consequences of the grounding: Airbus was confident that Boeing would resolve the issue and that no airlines will switch plane type, while other experts saw the problem as \"costly\" and \"could take upwards of a year\". \n\nThe FAA also conducted an extensive review of the 787's critical systems. The focus of the review was on the safety of the lithium-ion batteries made of lithium cobalt oxide (LiCoO2). The 787 battery contract was signed in 2005, when this was the only type of lithium aerospace battery available, but since then newer and safer types (such as LiFePO), which provide less reaction energy during thermal runaway, have become available. FAA approved a 787 battery in 2007 with nine \"special conditions\". A battery approved by FAA (through Mobile Power Solutions) was made by Rose Electronics using Kokam cells; the batteries installed in the 787 are made by Yuasa.\n\nOn January 20, the NTSB declared that overvoltage was not the cause of the Boston incident, as voltage did not exceed the battery limit of 32 V, and the charging unit passed tests. The battery had signs of short circuiting and thermal runaway. Despite this, by January 24, the NTSB had not yet pinpointed the cause of the Boston fire; the FAA would not allow Dreamliners based in the U.S. to fly again until the problem was found and corrected. In a press briefing that day, NTSB Chairwoman Deborah Hersman said that the NTSB had found evidence of failure of multiple safety systems designed to prevent these battery problems, and stated that fire must never happen on an airplane. \n\nThe Japan Transport Safety Board (JTSB) has said on January 23 that the battery in ANA jets in Japan reached a maximum voltage of 31 V (below the 32 V limit like the Boston JAL 787), but had a sudden unexplained voltage drop to near zero. All cells had signs of thermal damage before thermal runaway. ANA and JAL had replaced several 787 batteries before the mishaps. As of January 29, 2013, JTSB approved the Yuasa factory quality control while the NTSB continues to look for defects in the Boston battery. The failure rate, with two major battery thermal runaway events in 100,000 flight hours, was much higher than the rate of one in 10 million flight hours that Boeing predicted.\n\nThe only American airline that operated the Dreamliner at the time was United Airlines, which had six. Chile's Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGAC) grounded LAN Airlines' three 787s. The Indian Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) directed Air India to ground its six Dreamliners. The Japanese Transport Ministry made the ANA and JAL groundings official and indefinite following the FAA announcement. The European Aviation Safety Agency also followed the FAA's advice and grounded the only two European 787s operated by LOT Polish Airlines. Qatar Airways grounded their five Dreamliners. Ethiopian Airlines was the final operator to temporarily ground its four Dreamliners. By January 17, 2013, all 50 of the aircraft delivered to date had been grounded. \n\nOn January 18, Boeing halted 787 deliveries until the battery problem was resolved. On February 7, 2013, the FAA gave approval for Boeing to conduct 787 test flights to gather additional data. In February 2013, FAA oversight into the 2007 safety approval and certification of the 787 had come under scrutiny. \n\nOn March 7, 2013, the National Transportation Safety Board released an interim factual report about the 787 battery fire at Boston's Logan Airport on January 7, 2013. The investigation stated that \"heavy smoke and fire coming from the front of the APU battery case.\" Firefighters \"tried fire extinguishing, but smoke and flame (flame size about 3 inches) did not stop\". \n\nBoeing completed its final tests on a revised battery design on April 5, 2013. Qatar Airways said it expected to have its Dreamliners back in revenue service by the end of April. The FAA approved Boeing's revised battery design with three additional, overlapping protection methods on April 19, 2013. The FAA published a directive on April 25 to provide instructions for retrofitting battery hardware before the 787s could return to flight. The repairs were expected to be completed in weeks. \n\nFollowing the FAA approval in the U.S., Japan gave permission for passenger airlines to resume Boeing 787 flights in the country effective April 26, 2013. On April 27, 2013, Ethiopian Airlines took a 787 on the model's first commercial flight after battery system modifications.\n\nOn January 14, 2014, a battery in a JAL 787 emitted smoke from the battery's protection exhaust while the aircraft was undergoing pre-flight maintenance. The battery partially melted in the incident; one of its eight lithium-ion cells had its relief port vent and fluid sprayed inside the battery's container. It was later reported that the battery may have reached a temperature as high as 660 C, and that Boeing did not understand the root cause of the failure. \n\nThe NTSB has criticized FAA, Boeing and the battery manufacturer for the faults;Knudson, Peter. \"[https://www.ntsb.gov/news/2014/141201.html NTSB Recommends Process Improvements for Certifying Lithium-ion Batteries as it Concludes its Investigation of the 787 Boston Battery Fire Incident]\" NTSB, 1 December 2014. Retrieved 2 December 2014. it also criticized the flight data recorder. \n\nAircraft on display\n\n* N787BA (ZA001): Chubu Centrair Airport in Nagoya, Japan—first prototype aircraft \n* N787EX (ZA002): Pima Air & Space Museum in Tucson, Arizona—second prototype aircraft \n* N787BX (ZA003): Museum of Flight in Seattle, Washington—third prototype aircraft \n\nSpecifications\n\nSource, unless noted: Boeing 787 airport planning report", "The Boeing 747 is an American wide-body commercial jet airliner and cargo aircraft, often referred to by its original nickname, Jumbo Jet, or Queen of the Skies. Its distinctive \"hump\" upper deck along the forward part of the aircraft makes it among the world's most recognizable aircraft, and it was the first wide-body produced. Manufactured by Boeing's Commercial Airplane unit in the United States, the original version of the 747 had two and a half times greater capacity than the Boeing 707, one of the common large commercial aircraft of the 1960s. First flown commercially in 1970, the 747 held the passenger capacity record for 37 years. \n\nThe four-engine 747 uses a double deck configuration for part of its length. It is available in passenger, freighter and other versions. Boeing designed the 747's hump-like upper deck to serve as a first class lounge or extra seating, and to allow the aircraft to be easily converted to a cargo carrier by removing seats and installing a front cargo door. Boeing did so because the company expected supersonic airliners (development of which was announced in the early 1960s) to render the 747 and other subsonic airliners obsolete, while the demand for subsonic cargo aircraft would be robust well into the future. The 747 was expected to become obsolete after 400 were sold, but it exceeded critics' expectations with production passing the 1,000 mark in 1993.Sutter 2006, p. 259. By June 2016, 1,522 aircraft had been built, with 21 of the 747-8 variants remaining on order.[http://active.boeing.com/commercial/orders/displaystandardreport.cfm?cboCurrentModel747&optReportType\nAllModels&cboAllModel747&ViewReportF\nView+Report \"747 Model Orders and Deliveries data.\"] The Boeing Company, June 2016. Retrieved: July 22, 2016.\n\nThe 747-400, the most common passenger version in service, has a high-subsonic cruise speed of Mach 0.85–0.855 (up to 570 mph) with an intercontinental range of 7,260 nautical miles (8,350 mi or 13,450 km). The 747-400 passenger version can accommodate 416 passengers in a typical three-class layout, 524 passengers in a typical two-class layout, or 660 passengers in a high density one-class configuration. The newest version of the aircraft, the 747-8, is in production and received certification in 2011. Deliveries of the 747-8F freighter version to launch customer Cargolux began in October 2011; deliveries of the 747-8I passenger version to Lufthansa began in May 2012.\n\nDevelopment\n\nBackground\n\nIn 1963, the United States Air Force started a series of study projects on a very large strategic transport aircraft. Although the C-141 Starlifter was being introduced, they believed that a much larger and more capable aircraft was needed, especially the capability to carry outsized cargo that would not fit in any existing aircraft. These studies led to initial requirements for the CX-Heavy Logistics System (CX-HLS) in March 1964 for an aircraft with a load capacity of 180000 lb and a speed of Mach 0.75 (500 mph), and an unrefueled range of 5000 nmi with a payload of 115000 lb. The payload bay had to be 17 ft wide by high and 100 ft long with access through doors at the front and rear.Norton 2003, pp. 5–12.\n\nFeaturing only four engines, the design also required new engine designs with greatly increased power and better fuel economy. In May 1964, airframe proposals arrived from Boeing, Douglas, General Dynamics, Lockheed, and Martin Marietta; engine proposals were submitted by General Electric, Curtiss-Wright, and Pratt & Whitney. After a downselect, Boeing, Douglas, and Lockheed were given additional study contracts for the airframe, along with General Electric and Pratt & Whitney for the engines.\n\nAll three of the airframe proposals shared a number of features. As the CX-HLS needed to be able to be loaded from the front, a door had to be included where the cockpit usually was. All of the companies solved this problem by moving the cockpit above the cargo area; Douglas had a small \"pod\" just forward and above the wing, Lockheed used a long \"spine\" running the length of the aircraft with the wing spar passing through it, while Boeing blended the two, with a longer pod that ran from just behind the nose to just behind the wing.[http://wayback.archive.org/web/20141014202050/http://airwaysnews.com/html/museums/boeing-archives-bellevue-washington-usa/boeing-cx-hls-model-196364/19149 Boeing CX-HLS Model at Boeing Corporate Archives - 1963/64][http://bemil.chosun.com/nbrd/gallery/view.html?b_bbs_id10044&num\n169918 Models of Boeing C-5A proposal and Lockheed's (Korean text] - [http://bemil.chosun.com/nbrd/bbs/view.html?b_bbs_id10050&num\n4082 next page]) In 1965 Lockheed's aircraft design and General Electric's engine design were selected for the new C-5 Galaxy transport, which was the largest military aircraft in the world at the time. The nose door and raised cockpit concepts would be carried over to the design of the 747. \n\nAirliner proposal\n\nThe 747 was conceived while air travel was increasing in the 1960s.Norris and Wagner 1997, p. 13. The era of commercial jet transportation, led by the enormous popularity of the Boeing 707 and Douglas DC-8, had revolutionized long-distance travel. Even before it lost the CX-HLS contract, Boeing was pressed by Juan Trippe, president of Pan American World Airways (Pan Am), one of their most important airline customers, to build a passenger aircraft more than twice the size of the 707. During this time, airport congestion, worsened by increasing numbers of passengers carried on relatively small aircraft, became a problem that Trippe thought could be addressed by a large new aircraft. \n\nIn 1965, Joe Sutter was transferred from Boeing's 737 development team to manage the design studies for a new airliner, already assigned the model number 747.Sutter 2006, pp. 80–84. Sutter initiated a design study with Pan Am and other airlines, to better understand their requirements. At the time, it was widely thought that the 747 would eventually be superseded by supersonic transport aircraft. Boeing responded by designing the 747 so that it could be adapted easily to carry freight and remain in production even if sales of the passenger version declined. In the freighter role, the clear need was to support the containerized shipping methodologies that were being widely introduced at about the same time. Standard containers are 8 ft square at the front (slightly higher due to attachment points) and available in 20 and lengths. This meant that it would be possible to support a 2-wide 2-high stack of containers two or three ranks deep with a fuselage size similar to the earlier CX-HLS project.\n\nIn April 1966, Pan Am ordered 25 747-100 aircraft for US$525 million. During the ceremonial 747 contract-signing banquet in Seattle on Boeing's 50th Anniversary, Juan Trippe predicted that the 747 would be \"... a great weapon for peace, competing with intercontinental missiles for mankind's destiny\". As launch customer,Rumerman, Judy. [http://web.archive.org/web/20121007143215/http://www.centennialofflight.gov/essay/Aerospace/Boeing_747/Aero21.htm \"The Boeing 747.\"] U.S. Centennial of Flight Commission, 2003. Retrieved: April 30, 2006.Noland, David. [http://www.infoplease.com/spot/boeing747.html \"Passenger Planes: Boeing 747.\"] \"Info please.\" (Pearson Education). Retrieved: April 30, 2006. and because of its early involvement before placing a formal order, Pan Am was able to influence the design and development of the 747 to an extent unmatched by a single airline before or since.Irving 1994, p. 359.\n\nDesign effort\n\nUltimately, the high-winged CX-HLS Boeing design was not used for the 747, although technologies developed for their bid had an influence. The original design included a full-length double-deck fuselage with eight-across seating and two aisles on the lower deck and seven-across seating and two aisles on the upper deck.[http://airwaysnews.com/html/museums/boeing-archives-bellevue-washington-usa/boeing-747-double-decker-early-proposed-design-model-mid-to-late-1960s/19091 Boeing 747 \"Double Decker\" Early Proposed Design Model at Boeing Corporate Archives - mid-to-late 1960's] [http://airwaysnews.com/html/museums/boeing-archives-bellevue-washington-usa/boeing-747-early-proposed-designs-models-mid-to-late-1960s/19093 (alternate image)] Irving 1994, p. 282. However, concern over evacuation routes and limited cargo-carrying capability caused this idea to be scrapped in early 1966 in favor of a wider single deck design. The cockpit was, therefore, placed on a shortened upper deck so that a freight-loading door could be included in the nose cone; this design feature produced the 747's distinctive \"bulge\". In early models it was not clear what to do with the small space in the pod behind the cockpit, and this was initially specified as a \"lounge\" area with no permanent seating. (A different configuration that had been considered in order to keep the flight deck out of the way for freight loading had the pilots below the passengers, and was dubbed the \"anteater\".) \n\nOne of the principal technologies that enabled an aircraft as large as the 747 to be conceived was the high-bypass turbofan engine.Mecham, M. \"In review: 747, Creating the World's First Jumbo Jet and Other Adventures from a Life in Aviation.\" Aviation Week and Space Technology, Vol. 165, No. 9, September 4, 2006, p. 53. The engine technology was thought to be capable of delivering double the power of the earlier turbojets while consuming a third less fuel. General Electric had pioneered the concept but was committed to developing the engine for the C-5 Galaxy and did not enter the commercial market until later. Colson, Michael S. [http://www.memagazine.org/supparch/flight03/jetsfans/jetsfans.html \"Mechanical Engineering 100 Years of Flight.\"] memagazine.org. Retrieved: December 9, 2007. Pratt & Whitney was also working on the same principle and, by late 1966, Boeing, Pan Am and Pratt & Whitney agreed to develop a new engine, designated the JT9D to power the 747.\n\nThe project was designed with a new methodology called fault tree analysis, which allowed the effects of a failure of a single part to be studied to determine its impact on other systems. To address concerns about safety and flyability, the 747's design included structural redundancy, redundant hydraulic systems, quadruple main landing gear and dual control surfaces.Sutter 2006, pp. 121, 128–131. Additionally, some of the most advanced high-lift devices used in the industry were included in the new design, to allow it to operate from existing airports. These included slats running almost the entire length of the wing, as well as complex three-part slotted flaps along the trailing edge of the wing. The wing's complex three-part flaps increase wing area by 21 percent and lift by 90 percent when fully deployed compared to their non-deployed configuration. \n\nBoeing agreed to deliver the first 747 to Pan Am by the end of 1969. The delivery date left 28 months to design the aircraft, which was two-thirds of the normal time.Sutter 2006, pp. 96–97. The schedule was so fast paced that the people who worked on it were given the nickname \"The Incredibles\". Developing the aircraft was such a technical and financial challenge that management was said to have \"bet the company\" when it started the project.\n\nProduction plant\n\nAs Boeing did not have a plant large enough to assemble the giant airliner, they chose to build a new plant. The company considered locations in about 50 cities, and eventually decided to build the new plant some 30 mi north of Seattle on a site adjoining a military base at Paine Field near Everett, Washington. It bought the 780 acre site in June 1966.\n\nDeveloping the 747 had been a major challenge, and building its assembly plant was also a huge undertaking. Boeing president William M. Allen asked Malcolm T. Stamper, then head of the company's turbine division, to oversee construction of the Everett factory and to start production of the 747. To level the site, more than 4 e6cuyd of earth had to be moved.Irving 1994, p. 310. Time was so short that the 747's full-scale mock-up was built before the factory roof above it was finished.Irving 1994, p. 365. The plant is the largest building by volume ever built, and has been substantially expanded several times to permit construction of other models of Boeing wide-body commercial jets.\n\nDevelopment and testing\n\nBefore the first 747 was fully assembled, testing began on many components and systems. One important test involved the evacuation of 560 volunteers from a cabin mock-up via the aircraft's emergency chutes. The first full-scale evacuation took two and a half minutes instead of the maximum of 90 seconds mandated by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), and several volunteers were injured. Subsequent test evacuations achieved the 90-second goal but caused more injuries. Most problematic was evacuation from the aircraft's upper deck; instead of using a conventional slide, volunteer passengers escaped by using a harness attached to a reel.Irving 1994, p. 383. Tests also involved taxiing such a large aircraft. Boeing built an unusual training device known as \"Waddell's Wagon\" (named for a 747 test pilot, Jack Waddell) that consisted of a mock-up cockpit mounted on the roof of a truck. While the first 747s were still being built, the device allowed pilots to practice taxi maneuvers from a high upper-deck position.\n\nOn September 30, 1968, the first 747 was rolled out of the Everett assembly building before the world's press and representatives of the 26 airlines that had ordered the airliner.[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,838835,00.html \"All but off the Ground.\"] TIME, October 4, 1968. Retrieved: December 17, 2007. Over the following months, preparations were made for the first flight, which took place on February 9, 1969, with test pilots Jack Waddell and Brien Wygle at the controls[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,839015,00.html \"The Giant Takes Off.\"] TIME. Retrieved: December 13, 2007. and Jess Wallick at the flight engineer's station. Despite a minor problem with one of the flaps, the flight confirmed that the 747 handled extremely well. The 747 was found to be largely immune to \"Dutch roll\", a phenomenon that had been a major hazard to the early swept-wing jets.Irving 1994, pp. 417–418.\n\nDuring later stages of the flight test program, flutter testing showed that the wings suffered oscillation under certain conditions. This difficulty was partly solved by reducing the stiffness of some wing components. However, a particularly severe high-speed flutter problem was solved only by inserting depleted uranium counterweights as ballast in the outboard engine nacelles of the early 747s.Irving 1994, p. 428. This measure caused anxiety when these aircraft crashed, as did China Airlines Flight 358 at Wanli in 1991 and El Al Flight 1862 at Amsterdam in 1992 which had 282 kg of uranium in the tailplane. \n\nThe flight test program was hampered by problems with the 747's JT9D engines. Difficulties included engine stalls caused by rapid throttle movements and distortion of the turbine casings after a short period of service.Irving 1994, pp. 441–446. The problems delayed 747 deliveries for several months, up to 20 aircraft at the Everett plant were stranded while awaiting engine installation.[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,844949,00.html \"The Trouble with Jumbo.\"] Time, September 26, 1969. The program was further delayed when one of the five test aircraft suffered serious damage during a landing attempt at Renton Municipal Airport, site of the company's Renton factory. On December 13, 1969 a test aircraft was being taken to have test equipment removed and a cabin installed when pilot Ralph C. Cokely undershot the airport's short runway. The 747's right, outer landing gear was torn off and two engine nacelles were damaged.Irving 1994, p. 436. However, these difficulties did not prevent Boeing from taking a test aircraft to the 28th Paris Air Show in mid-1969, where it was displayed to the public for the first time. The 747 received its FAA airworthiness certificate in December 1969, clearing it for introduction into service. \n\nThe huge cost of developing the 747 and building the Everett factory meant that Boeing had to borrow heavily from a banking syndicate. During the final months before delivery of the first aircraft, the company had to repeatedly request additional funding to complete the project. Had this been refused, Boeing's survival would have been threatened.Irving 1994, pp. 437–438. The firm's debt exceeded $2 billion, with the $1.2 billion owed to the banks setting a record for all companies. Allen later said, \"It was really too large a project for us.\" Ultimately, the gamble succeeded, and Boeing held a monopoly in very large passenger aircraft production for many years. \n\nEntry into service\n\nOn January 15, 1970, First Lady of the United States Pat Nixon christened Pan Am's first 747, at Dulles International Airport (later Washington Dulles International Airport) in the presence of Pan Am chairman Najeeb Halaby. Instead of champagne, red, white, and blue water was sprayed on the aircraft. The 747 entered service on January 22, 1970, on Pan Am's New York–London route;Norris 1997, p. 48. the flight had been planned for the evening of January 21, but engine overheating made the original aircraft unusable. Finding a substitute delayed the flight by more than six hours to the following day.[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,878184,00.html \"Jumbo and the Gremlins.\"] TIME, February 2, 1970. Retrieved: December 20, 2007.\n\nThe 747 enjoyed a fairly smooth introduction into service, overcoming concerns that some airports would not be able to accommodate an aircraft that large. Although technical problems occurred, they were relatively minor and quickly solved. After the aircraft's introduction with Pan Am, other airlines that had bought the 747 to stay competitive began to put their own 747s into service. Boeing estimated that half of the early 747 sales were to airlines desiring the aircraft's long range rather than its payload capacity. While the 747 had the lowest potential operating cost per seat, this could only be achieved when the aircraft was fully loaded; costs per seat increased rapidly as occupancy declined. A moderately loaded 747, one with only 70 percent of its seats occupied, used more than 95 percent of the fuel needed by a fully occupied 747. \n\nThe recession of 1969-1970 greatly affected Boeing. For the year and a half after September 1970 it only sold two 747s in the world, and did not sell any to an American carrier for almost three years. When economic problems in the United States and other countries after the 1973 oil crisis led to reduced passenger traffic, several airlines found they did not have enough passengers to fly the 747 economically, and they replaced them with the smaller and recently introduced McDonnell Douglas DC-10 and Lockheed L-1011 TriStar trijet wide bodies (and later the 767 and A300 twinjets). Having tried replacing coach seats on its 747s with piano bars in an attempt to attract more customers, American Airlines eventually relegated its 747s to cargo service and in 1983 exchanged them with Pan Am for smaller aircraft; Delta Air Lines also removed its 747s from service after several years. Delta later reacquired 747s after it merged with Northwest Airlines. \n\nInternational flights that bypassed traditional hub airports and landed at smaller cities became more common throughout the 1980s, and this eroded the 747's original market. However, many international carriers continued to use the 747 on Pacific routes. In Japan, 747s on domestic routes were configured to carry close to the maximum passenger capacity. \n\nImproved 747 versions\n\nAfter the initial 747-100 model, Boeing developed the , a higher maximum takeoff weight (MTOW) variant, and the (Short Range), with higher passenger capacity.[http://www.boeing.com/commercial/747family/pf/pf_classic_back.html \"Boeing 747 Classics.\"] The Boeing Company. Retrieved: December 15, 2007. Increased maximum takeoff weight allows aircraft to carry more fuel and have longer range. The model followed in 1971, featuring more powerful engines and a higher MTOW. Passenger, freighter and combination passenger-freighter versions of the were produced. The shortened 747SP (special performance) with a longer range was also developed, and entered service in 1976. \n\nThe 747 line was further developed with the launch of the 747-300 in 1980. The 300 series resulted from Boeing studies to increase the seating capacity of the 747, during which modifications such as fuselage plugs and extending the upper deck over the entire length of the fuselage were rejected. The first 747-300, completed in 1983, included a stretched upper deck, increased cruise speed, and increased seating capacity. The -300 variant was previously designated 747SUD for stretched upper deck, then 747-200 SUD,[http://www.aircraft-commerce.com/sample_articles/sample_articles/owners_guide.pdf \"Aircraft Owner's and Operator's Guide: 747-200/300 (PDF).\"]Aircraft Commerce. Retrieved: July 15, 2011. followed by 747EUD, before the 747-300 designation was used.[http://www.airliners.net/aircraft-data/stats.main?id99 \"Boeing 747-300.\"] Airliners.net. Retrieved: June 3, 2011. Passenger, short range and combination freighter-passenger versions of the 300 series were produced.\n\nIn 1985, development of the longer range 747-400 began. The variant had a new glass cockpit, which allowed for a cockpit crew of two instead of three, new engines, lighter construction materials, and a redesigned interior. Development cost soared, and production delays occurred as new technologies were incorporated at the request of airlines. Insufficient workforce experience and reliance on overtime contributed to early production problems on the 747-400. The -400 entered service in 1989.Norris 1997, p. 88.\n\nIn 1991, a record-breaking 1,087 passengers were airlifted aboard a 747 to Israel as part of Operation Solomon. The 747 remained the heaviest commercial aircraft in regular service until the debut of the Antonov An-124 Ruslan in 1982; variants of the 747-400 would surpass the An-124's weight in 2000. The Antonov An-225 Mriya cargo transport, which debuted in 1988, remains the world's largest aircraft by several measures (including the most accepted measures of maximum takeoff weight and length); one aircraft has been completed and is in service . The Hughes H-4 Hercules is the largest aircraft by wingspan, but it only completed a single flight. \n\nFurther developments\n\nSince the arrival of the 747-400, several stretching schemes for the 747 have been proposed. Boeing announced the larger 747-500X and preliminary designs in 1996. The new variants would have cost more than US$5 billion to develop, and interest was not sufficient to launch the program.[http://wayback.archive.org/web/20071214001602/http://www.flightglobal.com/articles/1997/03/19/157/ba-warms-to-a3xx-plan.html \"BA warms to A3XX plan.\"] Flight International, March 19, 1997. Retrieved: December 17, 2007. In 2000, Boeing offered the more modest 747X and 747X stretch derivatives as alternatives to the Airbus A3XX. However, the 747X family was unable to attract enough interest to enter production. A year later, Boeing switched from the 747X studies to pursue the Sonic Cruiser,[http://english.people.com.cn/english/200103/30/eng20010330_66406.html \"Boeing Shelves 747X to Focus on Faster Jet.\"] People's Daily, March 30, 2001. Retrieved: December 17, 2007. and after the Sonic Cruiser program was put on hold, the 787 Dreamliner. Some of the ideas developed for the 747X were used on the 747-400ER, a longer range variant of the 747-400. \n\nAfter several variants were proposed but later abandoned, some industry observers became skeptical of new aircraft proposals from Boeing. However, in early 2004, Boeing announced tentative plans for the 747 Advanced that were eventually adopted. Similar in nature to the 747-X, the stretched 747 Advanced used technology from the 787 to modernize the design and its systems. The 747 remained the largest passenger airliner in service until the Airbus A380 began airline service in 2007. \n\nOn November 14, 2005, Boeing announced it was launching the 747 Advanced as the Boeing 747-8. The last 747-400s were completed in 2009.[http://www.businessday.co.nz/world/4842143 \"Downhill for the jumbo.\"] The Sydney Morning Herald, January 9, 2009. Retrieved: February 9, 2009. , most orders of the 747-8 have been for the freighter variant. On February 8, 2010, the 747-8 Freighter made its maiden flight. The first delivery of the 747-8 went to Cargolux in 2011. The 1,500th produced Boeing 747 was delivered in June 2014.[http://boeing.mediaroom.com/2014-06-28-Boeing-Delivers-1-500th-747 \"Boeing Delivers 1,500th 747\"]. Boeing, June 28, 2014.\n\nIn January 2016, Boeing stated it was reducing 747-8 production to six a year beginning in September 2016, incurring a $569 million post-tax charge against its fourth-quarter 2015 profits. At the end of 2015, the company had 20 orders outstanding. On January 29, 2016, Boeing announced that it had begun the preliminary work on the modifications to a commercial 747-8 for the next Air Force One Presidential aircraft, expected to be operational by 2020. \n\nOn July 12, 2016, Boeing announced that it had finalized terms of acquisition with Volga-Dnepr Group for 20 747-8 freighters, valued at $7.58 billion at list prices. Four aircraft were delivered beginning in 2012. Volga-Dnepr Group is the parent of three major Russian air-freight carriers - Volga-Dnepr Airlines, AirBridgeCargo Airlines and Atran Airlines. The new 747-8 freighters will replace AirBridgeCargo’s current 747-400 aircraft and expand the airline’s fleet and will be acquired through a mix of direct purchases and leasing over the next six years, Boeing said. \n\nOn 27 July 2016, Boeing released a regulatory filing discussing potential termination of 747 production due to insufficient demand and market for the aircraft. \n\nDesign\n\nThe Boeing 747 is a large, wide-body (two-aisle) airliner with four wing-mounted engines. The wings have a high sweep angle of 37.5 degrees for a fast, efficient cruiseSutter 2006, p. 93. of Mach 0.84 to 0.88, depending on the variant. The sweep also reduces the wingspan, allowing the 747 to use existing hangars. Seating capacity is more than 366 with a 3–4–3 seat arrangement (a cross section of 3 seats, an aisle, 4 seats, another aisle, and 3 seats) in economy class and a 2–3–2 arrangement in first class on the main deck. The upper deck has a 3–3 seat arrangement in economy class and a 2–2 arrangement in first class. \n\nRaised above the main deck, the cockpit creates a hump. The raised cockpit allows front loading of cargo on freight variants. The upper deck behind the cockpit provides space for a lounge or extra seating. The \"stretched upper deck\" became available as an option on the 747-100B variant and later as standard on the 747-300. The 747 cockpit roof section also has an escape hatch from which crew can exit in the event of an emergency if they cannot exit through the cabin.\n\nThe 747's maximum takeoff weight ranges from 735,000 pounds (333,400 kg) for the -100 to 970,000 lb (439,985 kg) for the -8. Its range has increased from 5,300 nautical miles (6,100 mi, 9,800 km) on the -100 to 8,000 nmi (9,200 mi, 14,815 km) on the -8I. \n\nThe 747 has redundant structures along with four redundant hydraulic systems and four main landing gears with four wheels each, which provide a good spread of support on the ground and safety in case of tire blow-outs. The main gear are redundant so that landing can be performed on two opposing landing gears if the others do not function properly.Sutter 2006, pp. 128–131. In addition, the 747 has split control surfaces and was designed with sophisticated triple-slotted flaps that minimize landing speeds and allow the 747 to use standard-length runways.Sutter 2006, pp. 121–122. For transportation of spare engines, 747s can accommodate a non-functioning fifth-pod engine under the port wing of the aircraft between the inner functioning engine and the fuselage. \n\nVariants\n\nThe 747-100 was the original variant launched in 1966. The 747-200 soon followed, with its launch in 1968. The 747-300 was launched in 1980 and was followed by the 747-400 in 1985. Ultimately, the 747-8 was announced in 2005. Several versions of each variant have been produced, and many of the early variants were in production simultaneously. The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) classifies variants using a shortened code formed by combining the model number and the variant designator (e.g. \"B741\" for all -100 models).[http://www.icao.int/publications/DOC8643/Pages/Search.aspx \"ICAO Document 8643.\"] International Civil Aviation Organization. Retrieved: April 13, 2013.\n\n747-100\n\nThe first 747-100s were built with six upper deck windows (three per side) to accommodate upstairs lounge areas. Later, as airlines began to use the upper deck for premium passenger seating instead of lounge space, Boeing offered a ten-window upper deck as an option. Some early -100s were retrofitted with the new configuration. The -100 was equipped with Pratt & Whitney JT9D-3A engines. No freighter version of this model was developed, but many 747-100s were converted into freighters. A total of 167 747-100s were built.\n\n747SR\n\nResponding to requests from Japanese airlines for a high-capacity aircraft to serve domestic routes between major cities, Boeing developed the 747SR as a short-range version of the 747-100 with lower fuel capacity and greater payload capability. With increased economy class seating, up to 498 passengers could be carried in early versions and up to 550 in later models. The 747SR had an economic design life objective of 52,000 flights during 20 years of operation, compared to 24,600 flights in 20 years for the standard 747. The initial 747SR model, the -100SR, had a strengthened body structure and landing gear to accommodate the added stress accumulated from a greater number of takeoffs and landings. Extra structural support was built into the wings, fuselage, and the landing gear along with a 20 percent reduction in fuel capacity. \n\nThe initial order for the -100SR — four aircraft for Japan Air Lines (JAL, later Japan Airlines) — was announced on October 30, 1972; rollout occurred on August 3, 1973, and the first flight took place on August 31, 1973. The type was certified by the FAA on September 26, 1973, with the first delivery on the same day. The -100SR entered service with JAL, the type's sole customer, on October 7, 1973, and typically operated flights within Japan.[http://www.boeing.com/commercial/747family/pf/pf_milestones.html \"747 Milestones.\"] The Boeing Company. Retrieved: December 17, 2007. Seven -100SRs were built between 1973 and 1975, each with a 520000 lb MTOW and Pratt & Whitney JT9D-7A engines derated to 43000 lbf of thrust.Bowers 1989, pp. 516–517.\n\nFollowing the -100SR, Boeing produced the -100BSR, a 747SR variant with increased takeoff weight capability. Debuting in 1978, the -100BSR also incorporated structural modifications for a high cycle-to-flying hour ratio; a related standard -100B model debuted in 1979. The -100BSR first flew on November 3, 1978, with first delivery to All Nippon Airways (ANA) on December 21, 1978. A total of twenty -100BSRs were produced for ANA and JAL.Airclaims Jet Programs 1995 The -100BSR had a 600,000 lb MTOW and was powered by the same JT9D-7A or General Electric CF6-45 engines used on the -100SR. ANA operated this variant on domestic Japanese routes with 455 or 456 seats until retiring its last aircraft in March 2006. \n\nIn 1986, two -100BSR SUD models, featuring the stretched upper deck (SUD) of the -300, were produced for JAL. The type's maiden flight occurred on February 26, 1986, with FAA certification and first delivery on March 24, 1986. JAL operated the -100BSR SUD with 563 seats on domestic routes until their retirement in the third quarter of 2006. While only two -100BSR SUDs were produced, in theory, standard -100Bs can be modified to the SUD certification. Overall, twenty-nine 747SRs were built, consisting of seven -100SRs, twenty -100BSRs, and two -100BSR SUDs.\n\n747-100B\n\nThe 747-100B model was developed from the -100SR, using its stronger airframe and landing gear design. The type had an increased fuel capacity of 48070 USgal, allowing for a 5000 nmi range with a typical 452-passenger payload, and an increased MTOW of 750000 lb was offered. The first -100B order, one aircraft for Iran Air, was announced on June 1, 1978. This aircraft first flew on June 20, 1979, received FAA certification on August 1, 1979, and was delivered the next day. Nine -100Bs were built, one for Iran Air and eight for Saudi Arabian Airlines. Unlike the original -100, the -100B was offered with Pratt & Whitney JT9D-7A, General Electric CF6-50, or Rolls-Royce RB211-524 engines. However, only RB211-524 (Saudia) and JT9D-7A (Iran Air) engines were ordered.Airclaims Jet Programs 1995, p. 111. The last 747-100B, EP-IAM was retired by Iran Air in 2014, the last commercial operator of the 747-100 and -100B. \n\n747SP\n\nThe development of the 747SP stemmed from a joint request between Pan American World Airways and Iran Air, who were looking for a high-capacity airliner with enough range to cover Pan Am's New York–Middle Eastern routes and Iran Air's planned Tehran–New York route. The Tehran–New York route, when launched, was the longest non-stop commercial flight in the world. The 747SP is 48 ft shorter than the 747-100. Fuselage sections were eliminated fore and aft of the wing, and the center section of the fuselage was redesigned to fit mating fuselage sections. The SP's flaps used a simplified single-slotted configuration. [http://www.747sp.com/story-b747sp/ \"The Story of the B747SP.\"] 747sp.com. Retrieved: December 15, 2007. The 747SP, compared to earlier variants, had a tapering of the aft upper fuselage into the empennage, a double-hinged rudder, and longer vertical and horizontal stabilizers. Power was provided by Pratt & Whitney JT9D-7(A/F/J/FW) or Rolls-Royce RB211-524 engines.\n\nThe 747SP was granted a supplemental certificate on February 4, 1976 and entered service with launch customers Pan Am and Iran Air that same year. The aircraft was chosen by airlines wishing to serve major airports with short runways. A total of 45 747SPs were built, with the 44th 747SP delivered on August 30, 1982. In 1987, Boeing re-opened the 747SP production line after five years to build one last 747SP for an order by the United Arab Emirates government. In addition to airline use, one 747SP was modified for the NASA/German Aerospace Center SOFIA experiment. Iran Air is the last civil operator of the type; its final 747-SP (EP-IAC) is to be retired in June 2016. \n\n747-200\n\nWhile the 747-100 powered by Pratt & Whitney JT9D-3A engines offered enough payload and range for US domestic operations, it was marginal for long international route sectors. The demand for longer range aircraft with increased payload quickly led to the improved -200, which featured more powerful engines, increased MTOW, and greater range than the -100. A few early -200s retained the three-window configuration of the -100 on the upper deck, but most were built with a ten-window configuration on each side. The 747-200 was produced in passenger (-200B), freighter (-200F), convertible (-200C), and combi (-200M) versions. \n\nThe 747-200B was the basic passenger version, with increased fuel capacity and more powerful engines; it entered service in February 1971. In its first three years of production, the -200 was equipped with Pratt & Whitney JT9D-7 engines (initially the only engine available). Range with a full passenger load started at over 5000 nmi and increased to 6000 nmi with later engines. Most -200Bs had an internally stretched upper deck, allowing for up to 16 passenger seats. The freighter model, the 747-200F, could be fitted with or without a side cargo door, and had a capacity of 105 tons (95.3 tonnes) and an MTOW of up to 833,000 lb (378,000 kg). It entered service in 1972 with Lufthansa. The convertible version, the 747-200C, could be converted between a passenger and a freighter or used in mixed configurations, and featured removable seats and a nose cargo door. The -200C could also be fitted with an optional side cargo door on the main deck. \n\nThe combi model, the 747-200M, could carry freight in the rear section of the main deck via a side cargo door. A removable partition on the main deck separated the cargo area at the rear from the passengers at the front. The -200M could carry up to 238 passengers in a three-class configuration with cargo carried on the main deck. The model was also known as the 747-200 Combi. As on the -100, a stretched upper deck (SUD) modification was later offered. A total of 10 converted 747-200s were operated by KLM. Union des Transports Aériens (UTA) also had two of these aircraft converted. \n\nAfter launching the -200 with Pratt & Whitney JT9D-7 engines, on August 1, 1972 Boeing announced that it had reached an agreement with General Electric to certify the 747 with CF6-50 series engines to increase the aircraft's market potential. Rolls-Royce followed 747 engine production with a launch order from British Airways for four aircraft. The option of RB211-524B engines was announced on June 17, 1975. The -200 was the first 747 to provide a choice of powerplant from the three major engine manufacturers. \n\nA total of 393 of the 747-200 versions had been built when production ended in 1991.[http://www.boeing.com/commercial/747family/background.html \"747 background.\"] The Boeing Company. Retrieved: December 13, 2007. Of these, 225 were -200B, 73 were -200F, 13 were -200C, 78 were -200M, and 4 were military. Many 747-200s remain in operation, although most large carriers have retired them from their fleets and sold them to smaller operators. Large carriers have sped up fleet retirement following the September 11 attacks and the subsequent drop in demand for air travel, scrapping some or turning others into freighters. \n\n747-300\n\nThe 747-300 features a 23 ft upper deck than the -200. The stretched upper deck has two emergency exit doors and is the most visible difference between the -300 and previous models. Before being made standard on the 747-300, the stretched upper deck was previously offered as a retrofit, and appeared on two Japanese 747-100SR aircraft.[http://www.airliners.net/info/stats.main?id99 \"Boeing 747-300.\"] airliners.net. The 747-300 introduced a new straight stairway to the upper deck, instead of a spiral staircase on earlier variants, which creates room above and below for more seats. Minor aerodynamic changes allowed the -300's cruise speed to reach Mach 0.85 compared with Mach 0.84 on the -200 and -100 models, while retaining the same takeoff weight. The -300 could be equipped with the same Pratt & Whitney and Rolls-Royce powerplants as on the -200, as well as updated General Electric CF6-80C2B1 engines.\n\nSwissair placed the first order for the 747-300 on June 11, 1980. The variant revived the 747-300 designation, which had been previously used on a design study that did not reach production. The 747-300 first flew on October 5, 1982, and the type's first delivery went to Swissair on March 23, 1983. Besides the passenger model, two other versions (-300M, -300SR) were produced. The 747-300M features cargo capacity on the rear portion of the main deck, similar to the -200M, but with the stretched upper deck it can carry more passengers. The 747-300SR, a short range, high-capacity domestic model, was produced for Japanese markets with a maximum seating for 584.[http://www.boeing.com/assets/pdf/commercial/airports/acaps/747_123sp.pdf \"Boeing 747-100/-200/-300/-SP airport report.\"] (pdf) The Boeing Company, May 2011. Retrieved: September 1, 2014. No production freighter version of the 747-300 was built, but Boeing began modifications of used passenger -300 models into freighters in 2000. \n\nA total of 81 747-300 series aircraft were delivered, 56 for passenger use, 21 -300M and 4 -300SR versions. In 1985, just two years after the -300 entered service, the type was superseded by the announcement of the more advanced 747-400. The last 747-300 was delivered in September 1990 to Sabena. While some -300 customers continued operating the type, several large carriers replaced their 747-300s with 747-400s. Air France, Air India, Pakistan International Airlines, and Qantas were some of the last major carriers to operate the 747-300. On December 29, 2008, Qantas flew its last scheduled 747-300 service, operating from Melbourne to Los Angeles via Auckland.[http://www.theage.com.au/travel/travel-news/qantass-final-boeing-747300-heads-for-graveyard-20090120-7lfi.html \"Qantas's final Boeing 747-300 heads for graveyard.\"] The Age. Retrieved: January 21, 2009. In July 2015, Pakistan International Airlines retired their final 747-300 after 30 years of service. \n\n747-400\n\nThe 747-400 is an improved model with increased range. It has wingtip extensions of 6 ft and winglets of 6 ft, which improve the type's fuel efficiency by four percent compared to previous 747 versions. The 747-400 introduced a new glass cockpit designed for a flight crew of two instead of three, with a reduction in the number of dials, gauges and knobs from 971 to 365 through the use of electronics. The type also features tail fuel tanks, revised engines, and a new interior. The longer range has been used by some airlines to bypass traditional fuel stops, such as Anchorage. Powerplants include the Pratt & Whitney PW4062, General Electric CF6-80C2, and Rolls-Royce RB211-524.\n\nThe was offered in passenger (-400), freighter (-400F), combi (-400M), domestic (-400D), extended range passenger (-400ER), and extended range freighter (-400ERF) versions. Passenger versions retain the same upper deck as the , while the freighter version does not have an extended upper deck. The 747-400D was built for short-range operations with maximum seating for 624. Winglets were not included, but they can be retrofitted.[http://www.boeing.com/assets/pdf/commercial/airports/acaps/747_4.pdf \"Boeing 747-400/-400ER airport report.\"] (pdf) The Boeing Company, May 2011. Retrieved: September 1, 2014. Cruising speed is up to Mach 0.855 on different versions of the 747-400.\n\nThe passenger version first entered service in February 1989 with launch customer Northwest Airlines on the Minneapolis to Phoenix route. The combi version entered service in September 1989 with KLM, while the freighter version entered service in November 1993 with Cargolux. The 747-400ERF entered service with Air France in October 2002, while the 747-400ER entered service with Qantas,[http://wayback.archive.org/web/20071012042115/http://www.boeing.com/commercial/747family/lr_back/index.html \"Boeing 747-400ER Family.\"] The Boeing Company. Retrieved: October 16, 2007. its sole customer, in November 2002. In January 2004, Boeing and Cathay Pacific launched the Boeing 747-400 Special Freighter program,[http://boeing.mediaroom.com/2004-01-07-Boeing-and-Cathay-Pacific-Airways-Launch-747-400-Special-Freighter \"Boeing and Cathay Pacific Airways Launch 747-400 Special Freighter.\"] The Boeing Company, January 7, 2004. Retrieved: July 18, 2015. later referred to as the Boeing Converted Freighter (BCF), to modify passenger 747-400s for cargo use. The first 747-400BCF was redelivered in December 2005.[http://boeing.mediaroom.com/2005-12-19-First-747-400-Boeing-Converted-Freighter-Redelivered-to-Cathay-Pacific \"First 747-400 Boeing Converted Freighter Redelivered to Cathay Pacific.\"] The Boeing Company, December 19, 2005. Retrieved: July 18, 2015.\n\nIn March 2007, Boeing announced that it had no plans to produce further passenger versions of the -400.Wallace, James. [http://www.seattlepi.com/default/article/747-400-passenger-jet-is-no-more-1231302.php \"747-400 passenger is no more.\"] Seattlepi.com, March 17, 2007. Retrieved June 7, 2011. However, orders for 36 -400F and -400ERF freighters were already in place at the time of the announcement. The last passenger version of the 747-400 was delivered in April 2005 to China Airlines. Some of the last built 747-400s were delivered with Dreamliner livery along with the modern Signature interior from the Boeing 777. A total of 694 of the 747-400 series aircraft were delivered. At various times, the largest 747-400 operator has included Singapore Airlines,[http://wayback.archive.org/web/19990209120436/http://www.boeing.com/news/releases/1995/news.release.951013-a.html \"Singapore Airlines Boeing 747-400 Fleet World's Largest.\"] The Boeing Company, October 13, 1994. Retrieved: December 14, 2007. Japan Airlines, and British Airways with 57 . \n\n747 LCF Dreamlifter\n\nThe 747-400 Dreamlifter[http://boeing.mediaroom.com/index.php?s\n43&item1080 \"Final Boeing 747 Dreamlifter Enters Service.\"] The Boeing Company. Retrieved: July 15, 2011. (originally called the 747 Large Cargo Freighter or LCF[http://wayback.archive.org/web/20071107065816/http://www.evergreenaviation.com/p_releases/072007.html \"Evergreen Aviation press releases.\"] Evergreen Aviation, July 20, 2007. Retrieved: December 17, 2007.) is a Boeing-designed modification of existing 747-400s to a larger configuration to ferry 787 Dreamliner sub-assemblies. Evergreen Aviation Technologies Corporation of Taiwan was contracted to complete modifications of 747-400s into Dreamlifters in Taoyuan. The aircraft flew for the first time on September 9, 2006 in a test flight.[http://wayback.archive.org/web/20061002173539/http://www.boeing.com/news/releases/2006/q3/060909a_nr.html \"Boeing 747 Large Cargo Freighter Completes First Flight.\"] The Boeing Company, September 9, 2006. Modification of four aircraft was completed by February 2010. The Dreamlifters have been placed into service transporting sub-assemblies for the 787 program to the Boeing plant in Everett, Washington, for final assembly. The aircraft is certified to carry only essential crew and not passengers. \n\n747-8\n\nBoeing announced a new 747 variant, the 747-8, on November 14, 2005. Referred to as the 747 Advanced prior to its launch, the 747-8 uses the same engine and cockpit technology as the 787, hence the use of the \"8\". The variant is designed to be quieter, more economical, and more environmentally friendly. The 747-8's fuselage is lengthened from 232 to 251 feet (70.8 to 76.4 m), marking the first stretch variant of the aircraft. Power is supplied by General Electric GEnx-2B67 engines.\n\nThe 747-8 Freighter, or 747-8F, is derived from the 747-400ERF. The variant has 16 percent more payload capacity than its predecessor, allowing it to carry seven more standard air cargo containers, with a maximum payload capacity of 154 tons (140 tonnes) of cargo. As on previous 747 freighters, the 747-8F features an overhead nose-door and a side-door on the main deck plus a side-door on the lower deck (\"belly\") to aid loading and unloading. The 747-8F made its maiden flight on February 8, 2010. The variant received its amended type certificate jointly from the FAA and the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) on August 19, 2011. The -8F was first delivered to Cargolux on October 12, 2011. \n\nThe passenger version, named 747-8 Intercontinental or 747-8I, is designed to carry up to 467 passengers in a 3-class configuration and fly more than 8000 nmi at Mach 0.855. As a derivative of the already common 747-400, the 747-8 has the economic benefit of similar training and interchangeable parts. The type's first test flight occurred on March 20, 2011. The 747-8 has surpassed the Airbus A340-600 as the world's longest airliner. The first -8I was delivered in May 2012 to Lufthansa. The 747-8 has received 125 total orders, including 74 for the -8F and 51 for the -8I .\n\nGovernment, military, and other variants\n\n* C-19 – The U.S. Air Force gave this designation to the 747-100s used by some U.S. airlines and modified for use in the Civil Reserve Airlift Fleet. \n* VC-25 – This aircraft is the U.S. Air Force very important person (VIP) version of the 747-200B. The U.S. Air Force operates two of them in VIP configuration as the VC-25A. Tail numbers 28000 and 29000 are popularly known as Air Force One, which is technically the air-traffic call sign for any United States Air Force aircraft carrying the U.S. President. Although based on the 747-200B design, they include several innovations introduced on the 747-400. Partially completed aircraft from Everett, Washington, were flown to Wichita, Kansas, for final outfitting.\n* E-4B – Formerly known as the National Emergency Airborne Command Post (referred to colloquially as \"Kneecap\"), this aircraft is now referred to as the National Airborne Operations Center (NAOC).\n\n* YAL-1 – This is the experimental Airborne Laser, a component of the National Missile Defense plan.\n* Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA) – Two 747s were modified to carry the Space Shuttle orbiter. The first was a 747-100 (N905NA), and the other was a 747-100SR (N911NA). The first SCA carried the prototype Enterprise during the Approach and Landing Tests in the late 1970s. The two SCA later carried all five operational Space Shuttle orbiters.\n* C-33 – This aircraft was a proposed U.S. military version of the 747-400 intended to augment the C-17 fleet. The plan was canceled in favor of additional C-17s.\n\n* KC-33A – A proposed 747 was also adapted as an aerial refueling tanker and was bid against the DC-10-30 during the 1970s Advanced Cargo Transport Aircraft (ACTA) program that produced the KC-10A Extender. Before the 1979 Iranian Revolution, Iran bought four 747-100 aircraft with air-refueling boom conversions to support its fleet of F-4 Phantoms.[http://wayback.archive.org/web/20050716004716/http://www.ausairpower.net/APA-2005-02.pdf \"KC-33A: Closing the Aerial Refuelling and Strategic Air Mobility Gaps (PDF).\"] Air Power Australia Analysis APA-2005-02, April 16, 2005. Retrieved: December 17, 2007. There is a report of using a KC-33A in H-3 airstrike during Iran–Iraq War. It is unknown whether these aircraft remain usable as tankers. Since then, other proposals have emerged for adaptation of later 747-400 aircraft for this role.\n* 747 CMCA – This \"Cruise Missile Carrier Aircraft\" variant was considered by the U.S. Air Force during the development of the B-1 Lancer strategic bomber. It would have been equipped with 50 to 100 AGM-86 ALCM cruise missiles on rotary launchers. This plan was abandoned in favor of more conventional strategic bombers. \n\n* 747 AAC – a Boeing study under contract from the USAF for an \"airborne aircraft carrier\" for up to 10 Boeing Model 985-121 \"microfighters\" with the ability to launch, retrieve, re-arm, and refuel. Boeing believed that the scheme would be able to deliver a flexible and fast, carrier platform with global reach, particularly where other bases were not available. Modified versions of the 747-200 and Lockheed C-5A were considered as the base aircraft. The concept, which included a complementary 747 AWACS version with two reconnaissance \"microfighters\", was considered technically feasible in 1973. \n* Evergreen 747 Supertanker – A Boeing 747-200 modified as an aerial application platform for fire fighting using 20000 USgal of firefighting chemicals. \n* Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) - A former Pan Am Boeing 747SP modified to carry a large infrared-sensitive telescope, in a joint venture of NASA and DLR. High altitudes are needed for infrared astronomy, so as to rise above infrared-absorbing water vapor in the atmosphere.\n* A number of other governments also use the 747 as a VIP transport, including Bahrain, Brunei, India, Iran, Japan, Kuwait, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates. Several Boeing 747-8s have been ordered by Boeing Business Jet for conversion to VIP transports for several unidentified customers. \n\nUndeveloped variants\n\nBoeing has studied a number of 747 variants that have not gone beyond the concept stage.\n\n747 trijet\n\nDuring the late 1960s and early 1970s, Boeing studied the development of a shorter 747 with three engines, to compete with the smaller L-1011 TriStar and DC-10. The 747 trijet would have had more payload, range, and passenger capacity than the L-1011 and DC-10. The center engine would have been fitted in the tail with an S-duct intake similar to the L-1011's. However, engineering studies showed that a total redesign of the 747 wing would be necessary. Maintaining the same 747 handling characteristics would be important to minimize pilot retraining. Boeing decided instead to pursue a shortened four-engine 747, resulting in the 747SP. \n\n747 ASB\n\nBoeing announced the 747 ASB (Advanced Short Body) in 1986 as a response to the Airbus A340 and the McDonnell Douglas MD-11. This aircraft design would have combined the advanced technology used on the 747-400 with the foreshortened 747SP fuselage. The aircraft was to carry 295 passengers a range of 8000 nmi. However, airlines were not interested in the project and it was canceled in 1988 in favor of the 777.\n\n747-500X, -600X, and -700X\n\nBoeing announced the 747-500X and -600X at the 1996 Farnborough Airshow. The proposed models would have combined the 747's fuselage with a new 251 ft (77 m) span wing derived from the 777. Other changes included adding more powerful engines and increasing the number of tires from two to four on the nose landing gear and from 16 to 20 on the main landing gear.Patterson, James W. [http://www.tc.faa.gov/its/worldpac/techrpt/ar97-26.pdf \"Impact of New Large Aircraft on Airport Design (PDF).\"] Federal Aviation Administration, March 1998. Retrieved: December 17, 2007.\n\nThe 747-500X concept featured an increased fuselage length of 18 ft (5.5 m) to 250 ft (76.2 m) long, and the aircraft was to carry 462 passengers over a range up to 8,700 nautical miles (10,000 mi, 16,100 km), with a gross weight of over 1.0 Mlb (450 tonnes). The 747-600X concept featured a greater stretch to 279 ft (85 m) with seating for 548 passengers, a range of up to 7,700 nmi (8,900 mi, 14,300 km), and a gross weight of 1.2 Mlb (540 tonnes). A third study concept, the 747-700X, would have combined the wing of the 747-600X with a widened fuselage, allowing it to carry 650 passengers over the same range as a 747-400. The cost of the changes from previous 747 models, in particular the new wing for the 747-500X and -600X, was estimated to be more than US$5 billion. Boeing was not able to attract enough interest to launch the aircraft.\n\n747X and 747X Stretch\n\nAs Airbus progressed with its A3XX study, Boeing offered a 747 derivative as an alternative in 2000; a more modest proposal than the previous -500X and -600X that retained the 747's overall wing design and add a segment at the root, increasing the span to 229 ft.[http://wayback.archive.org/web/20000302203732/http://www.boeing.com/news/releases/2000/news_release_000121a.html \"Boeing 747 Celebrates 30 Years In Service.\"] The Boeing Company, September 2, 1996. Retrieved: December 17, 2007. Power would have been supplied by either the Engine Alliance GP7172 or the Rolls-Royce Trent 600, which were also proposed for the 767-400ERX. A new flight deck based on the 777's would be used. The 747X aircraft was to carry 430 passengers over ranges of up to 8,700 nmi (10,000 mi, 16,100 km). The 747X Stretch would be extended to 263 ft long, allowing it to carry 500 passengers over ranges of up to 7,800 nmi (9,000 mi, 14,500 km). Both would feature an interior based on the 777. Freighter versions of the 747X and 747X Stretch were also studied. \n\nLike its predecessor, the 747X family was unable to garner enough interest to justify production, and it was shelved along with the 767-400ERX in March 2001, when Boeing announced the Sonic Cruiser concept. Though the 747X design was less costly than the 747-500X and -600X, it was criticized for not offering a sufficient advance from the existing 747-400. The 747X did not make it beyond the drawing board, but the 747-400X being developed concurrently moved into production to become the 747-400ER. \n\n747-400XQLR\n\nAfter the end of the 747X program, Boeing continued to study improvements that could be made to the 747. The 747-400XQLR (Quiet Long Range) was meant to have an increased range of 7,980 nmi (9,200 mi, 14,800 km), with improvements to boost efficiency and reduce noise.[http://wayback.archive.org/web/20020306000939/http://www.boeing.com/news/releases/2002/q1/nr_020225h.html \"Boeing Offers New 747-400X Quiet Longer Range Jetliner.\"] The Boeing Company, February 26, 2002. Retrieved: December 17, 2007. Improvements studied included raked wingtips similar to those used on the 767-400ER and a sawtooth engine nacelle for noise reduction. Although the 747-400XQLR did not move to production, many of its features were used for the 747 Advanced, which has now been launched as the 747-8.\n\nOperators\n\nOrders and deliveries\n\n* Boeing data through end of June 2016.[http://active.boeing.com/commercial/orders/index.cfm?contentdisplaystandardreport.cfm&RequestTimeout\n500&optReportTypeAnnOrd&pageid\nm15521 \"Recent Orders.\"] The Boeing Company, June 2016. Retrieved: July 22, 2016.[http://active.boeing.com/commercial/orders/index.cfm?content\nuserdefinedselection.cfm&pageid=m15527 \"Orders and Deliveries search page.\"] The Boeing Company, June 2016. Retrieved: July 22, 2016.\n\nModel summary\n\nAccidents and incidents\n\n, the 747 has been involved in 132 aviation occurrences, including 60 hull-loss accidents, resulting in 3,718 fatalities. The 747 has been in 32 hijackings, which caused 24 fatalities. This includes Pan Am Flight 73 where a Boeing 747-121 was hijacked by four terrorists and resulted in 20 deaths.\n\nFew crashes have been attributed to design flaws of the 747. The Tenerife airport disaster resulted from pilot error and communications failure, while the Japan Airlines Flight 123 and China Airlines Flight 611 crashes stemmed from improper aircraft repair. United Airlines Flight 811, which suffered an explosive decompression mid-flight on February 24, 1989, led the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) to issue a recommendation that 747-200 cargo doors similar to those on the Flight 811 aircraft be modified. Korean Air Lines Flight 007 was shot down by a Soviet fighter aircraft in 1983 after it had strayed into Soviet territory, causing U.S. President Ronald Reagan to authorize the then-strictly military global positioning system (GPS) for civilian use.[http://iipdigital.usembassy.gov/st/english/article/2006/02/20060203125928lcnirellep0.5061609.html#axzz3z8AmijAm \"United States Updates Global Positioning System Technology.\"] america.gov, February 3, 2006. Retrieved: January 9, 2012.\n\nAccidents due to design deficiencies included TWA Flight 800, where a 747-100 exploded in mid-air on July 17, 1996, probably due to sparking electricity wires inside the fuel tank; this finding led the FAA to propose a rule requiring installation of an inerting system in the center fuel tank of most large aircraft that was adopted in July 2008, after years of research into solutions. At the time, the new safety system was expected to cost US$100,000 to $450,000 per aircraft and weigh approximately 200 lb. El Al Flight 1862 crashed after the fuse pins for an engine broke off shortly after take-off due to metal fatigue. Instead of dropping away from the wing, the engine knocked off the adjacent engine and damaged the wing.\n\nAircraft on display\n\nAs increasing numbers of \"classic\" 747-100 and 747-200 series aircraft have been retired, some have found their way into museums or other uses. The City of Everett, the first 747 and prototype, is at the Museum of Flight, Seattle, Washington, USA where it is sometimes leased to Boeing for test purposes. \n\nOther 747s in museums include those at the Aviodrome, Lelystad, The Netherlands; the Qantas Founders Outback Museum, Longreach, Queensland, Australia; Rand Airport, Johannesburg, South Africa; Technikmuseum Speyer, Speyer, Germany; Musée de l'Air et de l'Espace, Paris, France; Tehran Aerospace Exhibition, Tehran, Iran; Jeongseok Aviation Center, Jeju, South Korea, Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum, McMinnville, Oregon, and the National Air and Space Museum, Washington, D.C. \n\nOther uses\n\nUpon its retirement from service, the 747 number two in the production line was dismantled and shipped to Hopyeong, Namyangju, Gyeonggi-do, South Korea where it was re-assembled, repainted in a livery similar to that of Air Force One and converted into a restaurant. Originally flown commercially by Pan Am as N747PA, Clipper Juan T. Trippe, and repaired for service following a tailstrike, it stayed with the airline until its bankruptcy. The restaurant closed by 2009, and the aircraft was scrapped in 2010. \n\nA former British Airways 747-200B, G-BDXJ, is parked at the Dunsfold Aerodrome in Surrey, England and has been used as a movie set for productions such as the 2006 James Bond film, Casino Royale. The plane also appears frequently in the BBC television series Top Gear, which is filmed at Dunsfold.\n\nThe Jumbohostel, using a converted 747-200, opened at Arlanda Airport, Stockholm on January 15, 2009.[http://news.bbc.co.uk/player/nol/newsid_7740000/newsid_7741700/7741777.stm?bw\nbb&mpwm&news\n1&bbcws=1 “Swedish Hotel Fashioned From An Old Jumbo Jet”] Tayfun King, Fast Track, BBC World News (November 23, 2008) \n\nThe wings of a 747 have been recycled as roofs of a house in Malibu, California. \n\nSpecifications\n\nSources: Boeing 747 specifications,[http://www.boeing.com/commercial/747family/specs.html \"747 specifications\"], The Boeing Company. Retrieved December 16, 2007. 747 airport planning report,[http://wayback.archive.org/web/20141024144002/http://www.boeing.com/boeing/commercial/airports/747.page \"747 Airplane Characteristics for Airport Planning.\"] The Boeing Company. Retrieved: December 15, 2007. 747-8 airport brochure, Lufthansa 747-8 data Being fact sheet \n* The 747 parasitic drag, CDP, is 0.022, and the wing area is 5500 sqft, so that f equals about 121 sqft. The parasitic drag is given by ½ f ρair v² in which f is the product of drag coefficient CDp and the wing area. \n\nNotable appearances in media\n\nFollowing its debut, the 747 rapidly achieved iconic status, appearing in numerous film productions such as the Airport series of disaster films, Air Force One, and Executive Decision. Appearing in over 300 film productions the 747 is one of the most widely depicted civilian aircraft and is considered by many as one of the most iconic in film history. The aircraft entered the cultural lexicon as the original Jumbo Jet, a term coined by the aviation media to describe its size, and was also nicknamed Queen of the Skies.", "Airbus SAS (,,,) is a division of the multinational Airbus Group SE that manufactures civil aircraft. It is based in Blagnac, France, a suburb of Toulouse, with production and manufacturing facilities mainly in France, Germany, Spain, China, United Kingdom and the United States. The company employs 73,958. \n\nAirbus began as a consortium of aerospace manufacturers, Airbus Industrie. Consolidation of European defence and aerospace companies in 1999 and 2000 allowed the establishment of a simplified joint-stock company in 2001, owned by the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company (EADS) (80%) and BAE Systems (20%). After a protracted sales process BAE sold its shareholding to EADS on 13 October 2006. \n\nAirbus employs around 73,000 people at sixteen sites in four countries: France, Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom. Final assembly production is based at Toulouse, France; Hamburg, Germany; Seville, Spain; and, since 2009 as a joint-venture, Tianjin, China. Airbus has subsidiaries in the United States, Japan and India.\n\nThe company produces and markets the first commercially viable digital fly-by-wire airliner, the Airbus A320, and the world's largest passenger airliner, the A380.\n\nHistory\n\nOrigins\n\nAirbus Industrie began as a consortium of European aviation firms formed to compete with American companies such as Boeing, McDonnell Douglas, and Lockheed. \n\nWhile many European aircraft were innovative, even the most successful had small production runs. In 1991, Jean Pierson, then CEO and Managing Director of Airbus Industrie, described a number of factors which explained the dominant position of American aircraft manufacturers: the land mass of the United States made air transport the favoured mode of travel; a 1942 Anglo-American agreement entrusted transport aircraft production to the US; and World War II had left America with \"a profitable, vigorous, powerful and structured aeronautical industry.\"\n\n In the mid-1960s, tentative negotiations commenced regarding a European collaborative approach. Individual aircraft companies had already envisioned such a requirement; in 1959 Hawker Siddeley had advertised an \"Airbus\" version of the Armstrong Whitworth AW.660 Argosy, which would \"be able to lift as many as 126 passengers on ultra short routes at a direct operating cost of 2d. per seat mile.\" However, European aircraft manufacturers were aware of the risks of such a development and began to accept, along with their governments, that collaboration was required to develop such an aircraft and to compete with the more powerful US manufacturers. At the 1965 Paris Air Show major European airlines informally discussed their requirements for a new \"airbus\" capable of transporting 100 or more passengers over short to medium distances at a low cost. The same year Hawker Siddeley (at the urging of the UK government) teamed with Breguet and Nord to study airbus designs. The Hawker Siddeley/Breguet/Nord group's HBN 100 became the basis for the continuation of the project. By 1966 the partners were Sud Aviation, later Aérospatiale (France), Arbeitsgemeinschaft Airbus, later Deutsche Airbus (Germany) and Hawker Siddeley (UK). A request for funding was made to the three governments in October 1966. On 25 July 1967 the three governments agreed to proceed with the proposal.\n\nIn the two years following this agreement, both the British and French governments expressed doubts about the project. The MoU had stated that 75 orders must be achieved by 31 July 1968. The French government threatened to withdraw from the project due to the concern over funding development of the Airbus A300, Concorde and the Dassault Mercure concurrently, but was persuaded otherwise. With concerns at proposal of the A300B proposal in December 1968, and fearing it would not recoup its investment due to lack of sales, the British government withdrew on 10 April 1969. Germany took this opportunity to increase its share of the project to 50%. Given the participation by Hawker Siddeley up to that point, France and Germany were reluctant to take over its wing design. Thus the British company was allowed to continue as a privileged subcontractor. Hawker Siddeley invested GB£35 million in tooling and, requiring more capital, received a GB£35 million loan from the German government.\n\nFormation of Airbus Industrie\n\nAirbus Industrie was formally established as a Groupement d'Intérêt Économique (Economic Interest Group or GIE) on 18 December 1970. It had been formed by a government initiative between France, Germany and the UK that originated in 1967. Its initial shareholders were the French company Aérospatiale and the German company Deutsche Airbus, each owning a 50% share. The name \"Airbus\" was taken from a non-proprietary term used by the airline industry in the 1960s to refer to a commercial aircraft of a certain size and range, for this term was acceptable to the French linguistically. Aérospatiale and Deutsche Airbus each took a 36.5% share of production work, Hawker Siddeley 20% and the Dutch company Fokker-VFW 7%. Each company would deliver its sections as fully equipped, ready-to-fly items. In October 1971 the Spanish company CASA acquired a 4.2% share of Airbus Industrie, with Aérospatiale and Deutsche Airbus reducing their stakes to 47.9%. In January 1979 British Aerospace, which had absorbed Hawker Siddeley in 1977, acquired a 20% share of Airbus Industrie. The majority shareholders reduced their shares to 37.9%, while CASA retained its 4.2%. \n\nDevelopment of the Airbus A300\n\nThe Airbus A300 was to be the first aircraft to be developed, manufactured and marketed by Airbus. By early 1967 the \"A300\" label began to be applied to a proposed 320 seat, twin engined airliner. Following the 1967 tri-government agreement, Roger Béteille was appointed technical director of the A300 development project. Béteille developed a division of labour which would be the basis of Airbus' production for years to come: France would manufacture the cockpit, flight control and the lower centre section of the fuselage; Hawker Siddeley, whose Trident technology had impressed him, was to manufacture the wings; Germany should make the forward and rear fuselage sections, as well as the upper centre section; the Dutch would make the flaps and spoilers; finally Spain (yet to become a full partner) would make the horizontal tailplane. On 26 September 1967 the German, French and British governments signed a Memorandum of Understanding in London which allowed continued development studies. This also confirmed Sud Aviation as the \"lead company\", that France and the UK would each have a 37.5% work share with Germany taking 25%, and that Rolls-Royce would manufacture the engines.\n\nIn the face of lukewarm support from airlines for a 300+ seat Airbus A300, the partners submitted the A250 proposal, later becoming the A300B, a 250-seat airliner powered by pre-existing engines. This dramatically reduced development costs, as the Rolls-Royce RB207 to be used in the A300 represented a large proportion of the costs. The RB207 had also suffered difficulties and delays, since Rolls-Royce was concentrating its efforts on the development of another jet engine, the RB211, for the Lockheed L-1011 and Rolls-Royce entering into administration due to bankruptcy in 1971. The A300B was smaller but lighter and more economical than its three-engined American rivals. \n\nIn 1972, the A300 made its maiden flight; its first production model, the A300B2, entered service in 1974. However, the launch of the A300 was largely overshadowed by the similarly timed supersonic aircraft Concorde. Initially the success of the consortium was poor, but orders for the aircraft picked up, due in part to the marketing skills used by Airbus CEO Bernard Lathière, targeting airlines in America and Asia. By 1979 the consortium had 256 orders for A300, and Airbus had launched a more advanced aircraft, the A310, in the previous year. It was the launch of the A320 in 1987 that guaranteed the status of Airbus as a major player in the aircraft market – the aircraft had over 400 orders before it first flew, compared to 15 for the A300 in 1972.\n\nTransition to Airbus SAS\n\nThe retention of production and engineering assets by the partner companies in effect made Airbus Industrie a sales and marketing company. This arrangement led to inefficiencies due to the inherent conflicts of interest that the four partner companies faced; they were both GIE shareholders of, and subcontractors to, the consortium. The companies collaborated on development of the Airbus range, but guarded the financial details of their own production activities and sought to maximise the transfer prices of their sub-assemblies. It was becoming clear that Airbus was no longer a temporary collaboration to produce a single plane as per its original mission statement, it had become a long term brand for the development of further aircraft. By the late 1980s work had begun on a pair of new medium-sized aircraft, the biggest to be produced at this point under the Airbus name, the Airbus A330 and the Airbus A340. \nIn the early 1990s the then Airbus CEO Jean Pierson argued that the GIE should be abandoned and Airbus established as a conventional company. However, the difficulties of integrating and valuing the assets of four companies, as well as legal issues, delayed the initiative. In December 1998, when it was reported that British Aerospace and DASA were close to merging, Aérospatiale paralysed negotiations on the Airbus conversion; the French company feared the combined BAe/DASA, which would own 57.9% of Airbus, would dominate the company and it insisted on a 50/50 split. However, the issue was resolved in January 1999 when BAe abandoned talks with DASA in favour of merging with Marconi Electronic Systems to become BAE Systems. Then in 2000 three of the four partner companies (DaimlerChrysler Aerospace, successor to Deutsche Airbus; Aérospatiale-Matra, successor to Sud-Aviation; and CASA) merged to form EADS, simplifying the process. EADS now owned Airbus France, Airbus Deutschland and Airbus España, and thus 80% of Airbus Industrie. BAE Systems and EADS transferred their production assets to the new company, Airbus SAS, in return for shareholdings in that company. \n\nDevelopment of the A380\n\nImageSize = width:275 height:210\nPlotArea = left:50 right:0 bottom:10 top:10\nDateFormat = yyyy\nPeriod = from:1991 till:2007\nTimeAxis = orientation:vertical\nScaleMajor = unit:year increment:1 start:1991\nScaleMinor = unit:year increment:5 start:1992\n\nPlotData=\n Color:yellow mark:(line,black) align:left fontsize:M\n shift:(0,-3) # shift text to right side of bar\n\n # there is no automatic collision detection, fontsize:XS\n # so shift texts up or down manually to avoid overlap shift:(25,-10)\n\n at:2007 shift:15,-6 text: Airbus delivers first A380-800\n at:2006 shift:15,-6 text: Certification and delays\n at:2005 shift:15,-6 text: Maiden flight\n at:2004 shift:15,-6 text: First engine delivered\n at:2002 shift:15,-6 text: Component-manufacturing starts\n at:2001 shift:15,-6 text: Airbus consortium is merged\n at:2000 shift:15,-6 text: Commercial launch of A3XX\n at:1996 shift:15,-6 text: Large Aircraft Division formed\n at:1993 shift:15,-6 text: Boeing cancels similar project\n at:1991 shift:15,-6 text: Market demand researched\n\nIn mid-1988 a group of Airbus engineers led by Jean Roeder began working in secret on the development of an ultra-high-capacity airliner (UHCA), both to complete its own range of products and to break the dominance that Boeing had enjoyed in this market segment since the early 1970s with its 747. The project was announced at the 1990 Farnborough Air Show, with the stated goal of 15% lower operating costs than the 747-400. Airbus organised four teams of designers, one from each of its partners (Aérospatiale, DaimlerChrysler Aerospace, British Aerospace, CASA) to propose new technologies for its future aircraft designs. In June 1994 Airbus began developing its own very large airliner, then designated as A3XX. Airbus considered several designs, including an odd side-by-side combination of two fuselages from the Airbus A340, which was Airbus's largest jet at the time. Airbus refined its design, targeting a 15% to 20% reduction in operating costs over the existing Boeing 747–400. The A3XX design converged on a double-decker layout that provided more passenger volume than a traditional single-deck design.\n\nFive A380s were built for testing and demonstration purposes. The first A380 was unveiled at a ceremony in Toulouse on 18 January 2005, and its maiden flight took place on 27 April 2005. After successfully landing three hours and 54 minutes later, chief test pilot Jacques Rosay said flying the A380 had been \"like handling a bicycle\". On 1 December 2005, the A380 achieved its maximum design speed of Mach 0.96. On 10 January 2006, the A380 made its first transatlantic flight to Medellín in Colombia. \n\nThe Airbus A380 was delayed in October 2006 due to the use of incompatible software used to design the aircraft. Primarily, the Toulouse assembly plant used the latest version 5 of CATIA (made by Dassault), while the design centre at the Hamburg factory were using the older and incompatible version 4. The result was that the 530 km of cables wiring throughout the aircraft had to be completely redesigned. Although no orders had been cancelled, Airbus still had to pay millions in late-delivery penalties.\n\nThe first aircraft delivered was to Singapore Airlines on 15 October 2007 and entered service on 25 October 2007 with an inaugural flight between Singapore and Sydney. Two months later Singapore Airlines CEO Chew Choong Seng said that the A380 was performing better than both the airline and Airbus had anticipated, burning 20% less fuel per passenger than the airline's existing 747-400 fleet. Emirates was the second airline to take delivery of the A380 on 28 July 2008 and started flights between Dubai and New York on 1 August 2008. Qantas followed on 19 September 2008, starting flights between Melbourne and Los Angeles on 20 October 2008. \n\nExpansion and sale of BAE stake\n\nIn 2003, Airbus and the Kaskol Group created an Airbus Engineering centre in Russia, which started with 30 engineers and since has emerged as a model of success for Airbus’ globalisation strategy. It was the first engineering facility to open in Europe outside the company’s home countries. Equipped with state-of-the-art communications equipment and linked with Airbus engineering sites in France and Germany, the facility performs extensive work in disciplines such as fuselage structure, stress, system installation and design. In 2011, the centre employs some 200 engineers who have completed over 30 large-scale projects for the A320, the A330/A340 and the A380 programmes. Russian engineers also performed more than half of all design work on the A330-200F freighter, with its activity related to fuselage structure design, floor grids installation and junctions design. The centre currently is involved in the A320neo Sharklets design development and numerous design works for the A350 XWB programme. \n\nOn 6 April 2006 BAE Systems planned to sell its 20% share in Airbus, then \"conservatively valued\" at €3.5 billion (US$4.17 billion). Analysts suggested the move to make partnerships with U.S. firms more feasible, in both financial and political terms. BAE originally sought to agree on a price with EADS through an informal process. Due to lengthy negotiations and disagreements over price, BAE exercised its put option which saw investment bank Rothschild appointed to give an independent valuation.\n\nIn June 2006 Airbus was embroiled in significant international controversy over an announcement of further delays in the delivery of its A380. Following the announcement the value of associated stock plunged by up to 25% in a matter of days, although it soon recovered afterwards. Allegations of insider trading on the part of Noël Forgeard, CEO of EADS, its majority corporate parent, promptly followed. The loss of associated value was of grave concern to BAE, press described a \"furious row\" between BAE and EADS, with BAE believing the announcement was designed to depress the value of its share. A French shareholder group filed a class action lawsuit against EADS for failing to inform investors of the financial implications of the A380 delays while airlines awaiting deliveries demanded compensation. As a result, EADS chief Noël Forgeard and Airbus CEO Gustav Humbert resigned on 2 July 2006. \n\nOn 2 July 2006 Rothschild valued BAE's stake at £1.9 billion (€2.75 billion), well below the expectation of BAE, analysts, and even EADS. On 5 July BAE appointed independent auditors to investigate how the value of its share of Airbus had fallen from the original estimates to the Rothschild valuation; however in September 2006 BAE agreed to the sale of its stake in Airbus to EADS for £1.87 billion (€2.75 billion, $3.53 billion), pending BAE shareholder approval. On 4 October shareholders voted in favour of the sale, leaving Airbus entirely owned by EADS.\n\n2007 restructuring\n\nOn 9 October 2006 Christian Streiff, Humbert's successor, resigned due to differences with parent company EADS over the amount of independence he would be granted in implementing his reorganisation plan for Airbus. He was succeeded by EADS co-CEO Louis Gallois, bringing Airbus under more direct control of its parent company.\n\nOn 28 February 2007, CEO Louis Gallois announced the company's restructuring plans. Entitled Power8, the plan would see 10,000 jobs cut over four years; 4,300 in France, 3,700 in Germany, 1,600 in the UK and 400 in Spain. 5,000 of the 10,000 would be at subcontractors. Plants at Saint Nazaire, Varel and Laupheim face sell off or closure, while Meaulte, Nordenham and Filton are \"open to investors\". As of 16 September 2008 the Laupheim plant has been sold to a Thales-Diehl consortium to form Diehl Aerospace and while the design activities at Filton have been retained, the manufacturing operations have been sold to British company GKN. The announcements resulted in Airbus unions in France and Germany threatening strike action. \n\n2011 A320neo record orders\n\nAt the 2011 Paris Air Show, Airbus received total orders valued at about $72.2 billion for 730 aircraft, representing a new record in the civil aviation industry. The A320neo (\"new engine option\") model, announced in December 2010, received 667 orders; this, together with previous orders, resulted in a total of 1029 orders within six months of launch date, creating another industry record. \n\nCorporate affairs\n\nThe subsidiary Airbus Middle East is headquartered in the Dubai Airport Free Zone. This subsidiary opened in 2006. \n\nThe subsidiary Airbus Japan K.K. (エアバス・ジャパン株式会社) is headquartered in the Roppongi Hills Mori Tower in Roppongi, Minato, Tokyo. \n\nCivilian products\n\nThe Airbus product line started with the A300, the world's first twin-aisle, twin-engined aircraft. A shorter, re-winged, re-engined variant of the A300 is known as the A310. Building on its success, Airbus launched the A320, particularly notable for being the first commercial jet to utilise a fly-by-wire control system. The A320 has been, and continues to be, a great commercial success. The A318 and A319 are shorter derivatives with some of the latter under construction for the corporate business jet market as Airbus Corporate Jets. A stretched version is known as the A321. The A320 family's primary competitor is the Boeing 737 family. \n\nThe longer-range widebody products, the twin-jet A330 and the four-engine A340, have efficient wings, enhanced by winglets. The Airbus A340-500 has an operating range of , the second longest range of any commercial jet after the Boeing 777-200LR (range of 17,446 km or 9,420 nautical miles). All Airbus aircraft developed since then have cockpit systems similar to the A320, making it easier to train crew. Production of the four-engine A340 was ended in 2011 due to lack of sales compared to its twin-engine counterparts, such as the Boeing 777.\n\nAirbus is studying a replacement for the A320 series, tentatively dubbed NSR, for \"New Short-Range aircraft\". Those studies indicated a maximum fuel efficiency gain of 9–10% for the NSR. Airbus however opted to enhance the existing A320 design using new winglets and working on aerodynamical improvements. This \"A320 Enhanced\" should have a fuel efficiency improvement of around 4–5%, shifting the launch of an A320 replacement to 2017–2018.\n\nOn 24 September 2009 the COO Fabrice Bregier stated to Le Figaro that the company would need from €800 million to €1 billion over six years to develop the new aircraft generation and preserve the company technological lead from new competitors like C919, scheduled to operate by 2015–2020. \n\nIn July 2007, Airbus delivered its last A300 to FedEx, marking the end of the A300/A310 production line. Airbus intends to relocate Toulouse A320 final assembly activity to Hamburg, and A350/A380 production in the opposite direction as part of its Power8 organisation plan begun under ex-CEO Christian Streiff. \n\nAirbus supplied replacement parts and service for Concorde until its retirement in 2003. \n\nThe Airbus Corporate Jets markets and modifies new aircraft for private and corporate customers. It has a model range that parallels the commercial aircraft offered by the company, ranging from the A318 Elite to the double-deck Airbus A380 Prestige. Following the entry of the 737 based Boeing Business Jet, Airbus joined the business jet market with the A319 Corporate Jet in 1997. Although the term Airbus Corporate jet was initially used only for the A319CJ, it is now often used for all models, including the VIP widebodies. As of December 2008, 121 corporate and private jets are operating, 164 aircraft have been ordered, including an A380 Prestige and 107 A320 family Corporate Jet. \n\nConsumer products\n\nIn June 2013, Airbus announced that it was developing a range of \"smart suitcases\" known as Bag2Go for air travellers, in conjunction with luggage-maker Rimowa and IT firm T-Systems. The cases feature a collection of built-in electronic gadgets which communicate with a smartphone app and with the IT systems of the airline, to assist the traveller and improve reliability and security of baggage handling. Gadgets include a weighing scale and a location tracker, using GPS for location-tracking, RFID for identification, and a SIM card for messaging. Since then, similar products, with more gadgets, have been announced by Delsey and Bluesmart.\n\nMilitary products\n\nIn the late 1990s Airbus became increasingly interested in developing and selling to the military aviation market. Expansion in the military aircraft market is desirable as it reduces Airbus' exposure to downturns in the civil aviation industry. It embarked on two main fields of development: aerial refuelling with the Airbus A310 MRTT (Multi-Role Tanker Transport) and the Airbus A330 MRTT, and tactical airlift with the A400M.\n\nIn January 1999 Airbus established a separate company, Airbus Military SAS, to undertake development and production of a turboprop-powered tactical transport aircraft, the Airbus Military A400M. The A400M is being developed by several NATO members, Belgium, France, Germany, Luxembourg, Spain, Turkey, and the UK, as an alternative to relying on foreign aircraft for tactical airlift capacity, such as the Ukrainian Antonov An-124 and the American C-130 Hercules. The A400M project has suffered several delays; Airbus has threatened to cancel the development unless it receives state subsidies. \n\nPakistan placed an order for the Airbus A310 MRTT in 2008, which will be a conversion of an existing airframe as the base model A310 is no longer in production. On 25 February 2008 Airbus won an order for three air refuelling MRTT aircraft, adapted from A330 passenger jets, from the United Arab Emirates. On 1 March 2008 a consortium of Airbus and Northrop Grumman had won a $35 billion contract to build the new in-flight refuelling aircraft KC-45A, a US built version of the MRTT, for the USAF. The decision drew a formal complaint from Boeing, and the KC-X contract was cancelled to begin bidding afresh. \n\nNew supersonic passenger plane\n\nIn September 2014, Aerion partnered with Airbus (mainly Airbus Defence) to collaborate on designing the Aerion AS2, a supersonic 11-seater private business jet, hoping for a market entry in 2021.Van Wagenen, Juliet. \"[http://www.aviationtoday.com/the-checklist/Airbus-and-Aerion-Collaborate-to-Develop-Supersonic-Business-Jet-High-Performance-Flight_83090.html Airbus and Aerion Collaborate to Develop Supersonic Business Jet, High-Performance Flight]\" Aviation Today, 22 September 2014. Accessed: 27 October 2014.\n\nOrders and deliveries\n\n* All models included.\n\nData as of end June 2016. \n\nCompetition with Boeing\n\nAirbus is in tight competition with Boeing every year for aircraft orders although Airbus has secured over 50% of aircraft orders in the decade since 2003.\n\nAirbus won a greater share of orders in 2003 and 2004. In 2005, Airbus achieved 1111 (1055 net) orders, compared to 1029 (net of 1002) for the same year at rival Boeing However, Boeing won 55% of 2005 orders proportioned by value; and in the following year Boeing won more orders by both measures. Airbus in 2006 achieved its second best year ever in its entire 35-year history in terms of the number of orders it received, 824, second only to the previous year. Airbus plans to increase production of A320 airliners to reach 40 per month by 2012, at a time when Boeing is increasing monthly 737 production from 31.5 to 35 per month. \n\nRegarding operational aircraft, there were 7,264 Airbus aircraft operational at April 2013. Although Airbus secured over 50% of aircraft orders in the decade since 2003, the number of Boeing aircraft still in operation at April 2013 still exceeded Airbus by 21% because Airbus made a late entry into the market, 1972 vs. 1958 for Boeing; this lead is diminishing as older aircraft are progressively retired.\n\nThough both manufacturers have a broad product range in various segments from single-aisle to wide-body, their aircraft do not always compete head-to-head. Instead they respond with models slightly smaller or bigger than the other in order to plug any holes in demand and achieve a better edge. The A380, for example, is designed to be larger than the 747. The A350XWB competes with the high end of the 787 and the low end of the 777. The A320 is bigger than the 737-700 but smaller than the 737–800. The A321 is bigger than the 737–900 but smaller than the previous 757-200. Airlines see this as a benefit since they get a more complete product range from 100 seats to 500 seats than if both companies offered identical aircraft.\n\nIn recent years the Boeing 777 has outsold its Airbus counterparts, which include the A340 family as well as the A330-300. The smaller A330-200 competes with the 767, outselling its Boeing counterpart in recent years. The A380 is anticipated to further reduce sales of the Boeing 747, gaining Airbus a share of the market in very large aircraft, though frequent delays in the A380 programme have caused several customers to consider the refreshed 747–8. Airbus has also proposed the A350 XWB to compete with the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, after being under great pressure from airlines to produce a competing model. \n\nAirbus will open a R&D center and venture capital fund in Silicon Valley. Airbus CEO Fabrice Bregier stated: \"What is the weakness of a big group like Airbus when we talk about innovation? We believe that we have better ideas than the rest of the world. We believe that we know because we control the technologies and platforms. The world has shown us in the car industry, the space industry and the hi-tech industry that this is not true. And we need to be open to others' ideas and others' innovations,\" \n\nAirbus Group CEO Tom Enders stated that \"The only way to do it for big companies is really to create spaces outside of the main business where we allow and where we incentivize experimentation... That is what we have started to do but there is no manual... It is a little bit of trial and error. We all feel challenged by what the Internet companies are doing.\" \n\nSubsidy conflicts\n\nBoeing has continually protested over \"launch aid\" and other forms of government aid to Airbus, while Airbus has argued that Boeing receives illegal subsidies through military and research contracts and tax breaks. \n\nIn July 2004 former Boeing CEO Harry Stonecipher accused Airbus of abusing a 1992 bilateral EU-US agreement providing for disciplines for large civil aircraft support from governments. Airbus is given reimbursable launch investment (RLI), called \"launch aid\" by the US, from European governments with the money being paid back with interest plus indefinite royalties, but only if the aircraft is a commercial success. Airbus contends that this system is fully compliant with the 1992 agreement and WTO rules. The agreement allows up to 33 per cent of the programme cost to be met through government loans which are to be fully repaid within 17 years with interest and royalties. These loans are held at a minimum interest rate equal to the cost of government borrowing plus 0.25%, which would be below market rates available to Airbus without government support. Airbus claims that since the signature of the EU-US agreement in 1992, it has repaid European governments more than U.S.$6.7 billion and that this is 40% more than it has received.\n\nAirbus argues that the military contracts awarded to Boeing, the second largest U.S. defence contractor, are in effect a form of subsidy, such as the controversy surrounding the Boeing KC-767 military contracting arrangements. The significant U.S. government support of technology development via NASA also provides significant support to Boeing, as do the large tax breaks offered to Boeing, which some people claim are in violation of the 1992 agreement and WTO rules. In its recent products such as the 787, Boeing has also been offered direct financial support from local and state governments. \n\nIn January 2005 the European Union and United States trade representatives, Peter Mandelson and Robert Zoellick respectively, agreed to talks aimed at resolving the increasing tensions. These talks were not successful with the dispute becoming more acrimonious rather than approaching a settlement. \n\nWTO ruled in August 2010 and in May 2011 that Airbus had received improper government subsidies through loans with below market rates from several European countries. In a separate ruling in February 2011, WTO found that Boeing had received local and federal aid in violation of WTO rules. \n\nInternational manufacturing presence\n\nAirbus has several final assembly lines for different models and markets. These are:\n* Toulouse, France (A320, A330 family, A350 family and A380)\n* Hamburg, Germany (A318, A319 and A321)\n* Seville, Spain (A400M)\n* Tianjin, China (A319 and A320).\n* Mobile, Alabama, USA (A319, A320 and A321)\n\nAirbus, however, has a number of other plants in different European locations, reflecting its foundation as a consortium. An original solution to the problem of moving aircraft parts between the different factories and the assembly plants is the use of the Airbus Beluga, a modified cargo aircraft capable of carrying entire sections of fuselage. This solution has also been investigated by Boeing, which retrofitted 4 747-400s to transport the components of the 787. An exception to this scheme is the A380, whose fuselage and wings are too large for sections to be carried by the Beluga. Large A380 parts are brought by ship to Bordeaux, and then transported to the Toulouse assembly plant by the Itinéraire à Grand Gabarit, a specially enlarged waterway and road route.\n\nAirbus opened an assembly plant in Tianjin, People's Republic of China for its A320 series airliners in 2009. Airbus started constructing a $350 million component manufacturing plant in Harbin, China in July 2009, which will employ 1,000 people. Scheduled to be operated by the end of 2010, the 30,000 square meter plant will manufacture composite parts and assemble composite work-packages for the A350 XWB, A320 families and future Airbus programmes. Harbin Aircraft Industry Group Corporation, Hafei Aviation Industry Company Ltd, AviChina Industry & Technology Company and other Chinese partners hold the 80% stake of the plant while Airbus control the remaining 20%. \n\nNorth America is an important region to Airbus in terms of both aircraft sales and suppliers. 2,000 of the total of approximately 5,300 Airbus jetliners sold by Airbus around the world, representing every aircraft in its product line from the 107-seat A318 to the 565-passenger A380, are ordered by North American customers. According to Airbus, US contractors, supporting an estimated 120,000 jobs, earned an estimated $5.5 billion (2003) worth of business. For example, one version of the A380 has 51% American content in terms of work share value. \n\nPlans for a Mobile, Alabama aircraft assembly plant were unveiled by Airbus CEO Fabrice Brégier from the Mobile Convention Centre on 2 July 2012. The plans include a $600 million factory at the Mobile Aeroplex at Brookley for the assembly of the A319, A320 and A321 aircraft. It could employ up to 1,000 full-time workers when operational. Construction began on 8 April 2013, and became operable by 2015, producing up to 50 aircraft per year by 2017. \n\n2016 deal with Iran\n\nIn January 2016 Airbus announced it has signed a tentative agreement with Iran to sell 118 Airbus aircraft along with a comprehensive civil aviation cooperation package to Iran. The agreement was part of the implementation of JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action). Boeing has also announced its will to sell 80 jets directly to Iran Air as part of a proposed deal worth up to $17.6bn. However, In early July 2016, US House of Representatives passed amendments that would block Department of Treasury funds from granting licenses for export or reexport of passenger commercial aircraft. Boeing reacted that if its deal with Iran is blocked by the US Congress, all other companies that supply to its rivals should be prohibited as well. Airbus, too, has said that it requires US's approval to export airliners to Iran, because parts of its aircraft are made in the US. \n\nEnvironmental record\n\nAirbus has committed to the \"Flightpath 2050\", an aviation industry plan to reduce noise, CO2, and NOx emissions. \n\nAirbus was the first aerospace business to become ISO 14001 certified, in January 2007; this is a broader certification covering the whole organisation, not just the aircraft it produces. \n\nBiofuel\n\nAirbus has joined Honeywell and JetBlue in an effort to reduce pollution and dependence on oil. They are trying to develop a biofuel that could be used by 2030. The companies propose supplying almost one third of the world's aeroplane fuel needs without affecting food resources. Algae is viewed as a possible alternative energy source because it absorbs carbon dioxide during its growth, and because its use will not affect food production. However, algae and other vegetation-based fuels are still just experiments, and fuel-bearing algae has been expensive to develop. Airbus recently operated the first alternative fuel flight on a mixture of 60% kerosene and 40% gas to liquids (GTL) fuel in one engine. It did not cut carbon emissions, but it was free of sulphur emissions. Alternative fuel was able to work properly in Airbus' aeroplane engine, demonstrating that alternative fuels should not require new aeroplane engines. This flight and the company's long term efforts are considered big strides towards environmentally friendly aeroplanes.\n\nExport credits\n\nAccording to Patrick Crawford of the UK Export Finance, \"Historically, the three European Export Credit Agencies that support Airbus have covered about 17% of that company's total sales. In 2009–10, reflecting the increased constraints on bank liquidity across the world, that proportion rose to 33%. ECGD guarantees represented by Airbus deliveries grew to 90% of the value of business underwritten and 83% of numbers of facilities. Nearly 50% of these Airbus deliveries were powered by UK aero-engines (supplied by either Rolls-Royce or IAE).\" \n\nAirbus aircraft numbering system\n\nThe Airbus numbering system is an alpha numeric model number followed by a dash and a three digit number. \n\nThe model number often takes the form of the letter \"A\" followed by a '3', a digit, then followed normally by a '0', for example A330. There are some exceptions such as: A318, A319, A321 and A400M. The succeeding three digit number represents the aircraft series, the engine manufacturer and engine version number respectively. To use an A320-200 with International Aero Engines (IAE) V2500-A1 engines as an example; The code is 2 for series 200, 3 for IAE and engine version 1, thus the aircraft number is A320-231.\n\nAn additional letter is sometimes used. These include, 'C' for a combi version (passenger/freighter), 'F' for a freighter model, 'R' for the long range model, and 'X' for the enhanced model.\n\nEngine codes" ] }

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{ "aliases": [ "787", "seven hundred and eighty-seven" ], "normalized_aliases": [ "seven hundred and eighty seven", "787" ], "matched_wiki_entity_name": "", "normalized_matched_wiki_entity_name": "", "normalized_value": "787", "type": "Numerical", "value": "787" }

{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe", "TagMe", "TagMe", "TagMe", "Search" ], "filename": [ "Count_Dracula.txt", "Vampire.txt", "Vampire_hunter.txt", "Dracula.txt", "Abraham_Van_Helsing.txt" ], "title": [ "Count Dracula", "Vampire", "Vampire hunter", "Dracula", "Abraham Van Helsing" ], "wiki_context": [ "Count Dracula is the title character and main antagonist of Bram Stoker's 1897 Gothic horror novel Dracula. He is considered to be both the prototypical and the archetypal vampire in subsequent works of fiction. He is also depicted in the novel to be the origin of werewolf legends. Some aspects of the character are believed to have been inspired by the 15th-century Wallachian Prince Vlad III the Impaler, who was also known as Dracula. Other character aspects have been added or altered in subsequent popular fictional works. The character has subsequently appeared frequently in popular culture, from films to animated media to breakfast cereals.\n\nStoker's creation\n\nBram Stoker's novel takes the form of an epistolary tale, in which Count Dracula's characteristics, powers, abilities and weaknesses are narrated by multiple narrators, from different perspectives. \n\nCount Dracula is an undead, centuries-old vampire, and a Transylvanian nobleman who claims to be a Székely descended from Attila the Hun. He inhabits a decaying castle in the Carpathian Mountains near the Borgo Pass. Unlike the vampires of Eastern European folklore, which are portrayed as repulsive, corpse-like creatures, Dracula exudes a veneer of aristocratic charm. In his conversations with Jonathan Harker, he reveals himself as deeply proud of his boyar heritage and nostalgic for the past, which he admits have become only a memory of heroism, honor and valor in modern times.\n\nEarly life\n\nDetails of his early life are obscure, but it is mentioned \"he was in life a most wonderful man. Soldier, statesman, and alchemist. Which latter was the highest de-velopment of the science knowledge of his time. He had a mighty brain, a learning beyond compare, and a heart that knew no fear and no remorse... there was no branch of knowledge of his time that he did not essay.\" In life, Dracula studied the black arts at the academy of Scholomance in the Carpathian Mountains, overlooking the town of Sibiu (also known as Hermannstadt) and has a deep knowledge of alchemy and magic. Taking up arms, as befitting his rank and status as a voivode, he led troops against the Turks across the Danube. According to his nemesis Abraham Van Helsing, \"He must indeed have been that Voivode Dracula who won his name against the Turk, over the great river on the very frontier of Turkey-land. If it be so, then was he no common man: for in that time, and for centuries after, he was spoken of as the cleverest and the most cunning, as well as the bravest of the sons of the land beyond the forest.\" Dead and buried in a great tomb in the chapel of his castle, Dracula returns from death as a vampire and lives for several centuries in his castle with three terrifyingly beautiful female vampires beside him. Whether they be his lovers, sisters, daughters, or vampires made by him is not made clear in the narrative.\n\nNarrative\n\nAs the novel begins in the late 19th century, Dracula acts on a long-contemplated plan for world domination, and infiltrates London to begin his reign of terror. He summons Jonathan Harker, a newly qualified English solicitor, to provide legal support for a real estate transaction overseen by Harker's employer. Dracula at first charms Harker with his cordiality and historical knowledge, and even rescues him from the clutches of the three female vampires in the castle. In truth, however, Dracula merely wishes to keep Harker alive long enough to complete the legal transaction and to learn as much as possible about England.\n\nDracula leaves his castle and boards a Russian ship, the Demeter, taking along with him 50 boxes of Transylvanian soil, which he needs in order to regain his strength and rest during daylight. During the voyage to Whitby, a coastal town in northern England, he sustains himself on the ship's crew members. Only one body is later found, that of the captain, who is found tied up to the ship's helm. The captain's log is recovered and tells of strange events that had taken place during the ship's journey. Dracula leaves the ship in the form of a dog.\n\nSoon the Count is menacing Harker's fiancée, Wilhelmina \"Mina\" Murray, and her friend, Lucy Westenra. There is also a notable link between Dracula and Renfield, a patient in an insane asylum overseen by John Seward who is compelled to consume insects, spiders, birds, and other creatures—in ascending order of size—in order to absorb their \"life force\". Renfield acts as a kind of sensor, reacting to Dracula's proximity and supplying clues accordingly. Dracula begins to visit Lucy's bed chamber on a nightly basis, draining her of blood while simultaneously infecting her with the curse of vampirism. Not knowing the cause for Lucy's deterioration, her three suitors - Seward, Arthur Holmwood and Quincey Morris - call upon Seward's mentor, the Dutch doctor Abraham Van Helsing. Van Helsing soon deduces her condition's supernatural origins, but does not speak out. Despite an attempt at keeping the vampire at bay with garlic, Dracula attacks Lucy's house one final time, killing her mother and transforming Lucy herself into one of the undead.\n\nHarker escapes Dracula's castle and returns to England, barely alive and deeply traumatized. On Seward's suggestion, Mina seeks Van Helsing's assistance in assessing Harker's health. She reads his journal and passes it along to Van Helsing. This unfolds the first clue to the identity of Lucy's assailant, which later prompts Mina to collect all of the events of Dracula's appearance in news articles, saved letters, newspaper clippings and the journals of each member of the group. This assists the group in investigating Dracula's movements and later discovering that Renfield's behavior is directly influenced by Dracula. They then discover that Dracula has purchased a residence just next door to Seward's. The group gathers intelligence to track the location of Dracula for the purpose of destroying him.\n\nAfter Lucy attacks several children, Van Helsing, Seward, Holmwood and Morris enter her crypt and kill her to save her soul. Later, Harker joins them and the party work to discover Dracula's intentions. Harker aids the party in tracking down the locations of the boxes to the various residences of Dracula and discovers that Dracula purchased multiple real estate properties 'over the counter' throughout the North, South, East and West sides of London under the alias 'Count De Ville'. Dracula's main plan was to move each of his 50 boxes of earth to his various properties in order to arrange multiple lairs throughout and around the perimeter of London. \n\nThe party pries open each of the graves, places wafers of Sacramental bread within each of them, and seals them shut. This deprives the Count of his ability to seek safety in those boxes. Dracula gains entry into Seward's residence by coercing an invitation out of Renfield. As he attempts to enter the room in which Harker and Mina are staying, Renfield tries to stop him; Dracula then mortally wounds him. With his dying breath, Renfield tells Seward and Van Helsing that Dracula is after Mina. Van Helsing and Seward discover Dracula biting Mina then forcing her to drink his blood. The group repel Dracula using crucifixes and sacramental bread, forcing Dracula to flee by turning into a dark vapor. The party continue to hunt Dracula to search for his remaining lairs. Although Dracula's 'baptism' of Mina grants him a telepathic link to her, it backfires when Van Helsing hypnotizes Mina and uses her supernatural link with Dracula to track him as he flees back to Transylvania.\n\nThe heroes follow Dracula back to Transylvania, and in a climactic battle with Dracula's gypsy bodyguards, finally destroy him. Despite the popular image of Dracula having a stake driven through his heart to kill him, Mina's narrative describes his throat being cut through by Harker's kukri and his heart pierced by Morris' Bowie knife (Mina Harker's Journal, 6 November, Dracula Chapter 27). His body then turns into dust, but not before Mina sees an expression of peace on his face.\n\nCharacteristics\n\nAlthough early in the novel Dracula dons a mask of cordiality, he often flies into fits of rage when his plans are frustrated. When the three vampire women who live in his castle attempt to seduce Jonathan Harker, Dracula physically assaults one and ferociously berates them for their insubordination. He then relents and talks to them more kindly, telling them that he does indeed love each of them.\n\nHe has an appreciation for ancient architecture, and when purchasing a home he prefers them to be aged, saying \"A new home would kill me\", and that to make a new home habitable to him would take a century. \n\nDracula is very proud of his warrior heritage, proclaiming his pride to Harker on how the Székely people are infused with the blood of heroes. He also expresses an interest in the history of the British Empire, speaking admiringly of its people. He has a somewhat primal and predatory worldview; he pities ordinary humans for their revulsion to their darker impulses. He is not without human emotions, however; he often says that he too can love. \n\nThough usually portrayed as having a strong Eastern European accent, the original novel only specifies that his spoken English is excellent, though strangely toned.\n\nHis appearance varies in age. He is described early in the novel as thin, with a long white mustache, pointed ears and sharp teeth. It is also noted later in the novel (Chapter 11 subsection \"The Escaped Wolf\") by a zookeeper who sees him that he has a hooked nose and a pointed beard with a streak of white in it. He is dressed all in black and has hair on his palms. Jonathan Harker described him as an old man, \"cruel looking\" and giving an effect of \"extraordinary pallor\". When angered, the Count showed his true bestial nature, his blue eyes flaming red.\n\nAs the novel progresses, Dracula is described as taking on a more and more youthful appearance. After Harker strikes him with a shovel, he is left with a scar on his forehead which he bears throughout the course of the novel.\n\nPowers and weaknesses\n\nCount Dracula is portrayed in the novel using many different supernatural abilities, and is believed to have gained his abilities through dealings with the Devil. Chapter 18 of the novel describes many of the abilities, limitations and weaknesses of Dracula and vampires in particular. Dracula has superhuman strength which, according to Van Helsing, is equivalent to that of 20 strong men. He does not cast a shadow or have a reflection from mirrors. He is immune to conventional means of attack; a sailor tries to stab him in the back with a knife, but the blade goes through his body as though it is air. Why Harker's Kukri knife and Morris' Bowie Knife are able to harm him later on is never explained. The Count can defy gravity to a certain extent and possesses superhuman agility, able to climb vertical surfaces upside down in a reptilian manner. He can travel onto \"unhallowed\" ground such as the graves of suicides and those of his victims. He has powerful hypnotic, telepathic and illusionary abilities. He also has the ability to \"within limitations\" vanish and reappear elsewhere at will. If he knows the path, he can come out from anything or into anything regardless of how close it is bound even if it is fused with fire. \n\nHe has amassed cunning and wisdom throughout centuries, and he is unable to die by the mere passing of time alone.\n\nHe can command animals such as rats, owls, bats, moths, foxes and wolves. However, his control over these animals is limited, as seen when the party first enters his house in London. Although Dracula is able to summon thousands of rats to swarm and attack the group, Seward summons a pack of hounds to devour the rats. The rats are so frightened of the dogs that they flee, and any control which Dracula had over them is gone. \n\nDracula can also manipulate the weather and, within his range, is able to direct the elements, such as storms, fog and mist.\n\nShapeshifting\n\nDracula can shapeshift at will, able to grow and become small, his featured forms in the novel being that of a bat, a wolf, a large dog and a fog or mist. When the moonlight is shining, he can travel as elemental dust within its rays. He is able to pass through tiny cracks or crevices while retaining his human form or in the form of a vapor; described by Van Helsing as the ability to slip through a hairbreadth space of a tomb door or coffin. This is also an ability used by his victim Lucy as a vampire. When the party breaks into her tomb, they find the coffin empty; her corpse is no longer located within. \n\nVampirism\n\nOne of Dracula's most mysterious powers is the ability to turn others into vampires by biting them. According to Van Helsing:\n\nThe vampire bite itself does not cause death. It is the method vampires use to drain blood of the victim and to increase their influence over them. This is described by Van Helsing:\n\nSome who are bitten by Dracula do not die, but instead become his undead servants:\n\nVan Helsing later describes the aftermath of a bitten victim when the vampire has been killed:\n\nAs Dracula slowly drains Lucy's blood, she dies from acute blood loss and later transforms into a vampire, despite the efforts of Seward and Van Helsing to provide her with blood transfusions. \n\nHe is aided by powers of necromancy and divination of the dead, that all who die by his hand may reanimate and do his bidding.\n\nBloodletting\n\nDracula requires no other sustenance but fresh human blood, which has the effect of rejuvenating him and allowing him to grow younger. His power is drawn from the blood of others, and he cannot survive without it. Although drinking blood can rejuvenate his youth and strength, it does not give him the ability to regenerate; months after being struck on the head by a shovel, he still bears a scar from the impact. \n\nDracula's preferred victims are women. Harker states that he believes Dracula has a state of fasting as well as a state of feeding. Dracula does state to Mina however that exerting his abilities caused a desire to feed. \n\nVampire's Baptism of Blood\n\nCount Dracula is depicted as the \"King Vampire\", and can control other vampires. To punish Mina and the party for their efforts against him, Dracula bites her on at least three occasions. He also forces her to drink his blood; this act curses her with the effects of vampirism and gives him a telepathic link to her thoughts. However, hypnotism was only able to be done before dawn. Van Helsing refers to the act of drinking blood by both the vampire and the victim \"the Vampire's Baptism of Blood\". \n\nThe effects changes Mina' physically and mentally over time. A few moments after Dracula attacks her, Van Helsing takes a wafer of sacramental bread and places it on her forehead to bless her; when the bread touches her skin, it burns her and leaves a scar on her forehead. Her teeth start growing longer but do not grow sharper. She begins to lose her appetite, feeling repulsed by normal food, begins to sleep more and more during the day; cannot wake unless at sunset and stops writing in her diary. When Van Helsing later crumbles the same bread in a circle around her, she is unable to cross or leave the circle, discovering a new form of protection. \n\nDracula's death can release the curse on any living victim of eventual transformation into vampire. However, Van Helsing reveals that were he to successfully escape, his continued existence would ensure that even if he did not victimize Mina further, she would transform into a vampire upon her eventual natural death.\n\nLimitations of his powers\n\nDracula is much less powerful in daylight and is only able to shift his form at dawn, noon, and dusk (he can shift his form freely at night or if he is at his grave). The sun is not fatal to him, though, as sunlight does not burn and destroy him upon contact, most of his abilities cease.\n\nHe is also limited in his ability to travel, as he can only cross running water at low or high tide. Due to this, he is unable to fly across a river in the form of a bat or mist or even by himself board a boat or step off a boat onto a dock unless he is physically carried over with assistance. He is also unable to enter a place unless invited to do so by someone of the household; once invited, he can enter and leave the premises at will.\n\nWeaknesses\n\nThirst\n\nDracula has a bloodlust which he is seemingly unable to control. At the sight of blood he becomes enveloped in a demoniac fury which is fueled by the need to feed. Other adaptations call this uncontrollable state 'the thirst'.\n\nReligious Symbolism\n\nThere are items which afflict him to the point he has no power and can even calm him from his insatiable appetite for blood. He is repulsed by garlic, as well as sacred items and symbols such as crucifixes, and sacramental bread.\n\nPlacing the branch of a wild rose upon the top of his coffin will render him unable to escape it; a sacred bullet fired into the coffin could kill him so that he remain True-Dead.\n\nMountain Ash is also described as a form of protection from a vampire although the effects are unknown. This was believed to be used as protection against evil spirits and witches during the Victorian era.\n\nDeath-Sleep\n\nThe state of rest to which vampires are prone to during times of day is described in the novel as a deathlike sleep where the vampire sleeps open-eyed, is unable to awaken or move, yet also may be unaware of any presence of individuals who may be trespassing. Dracula is portrayed as being active in daylight at least once in order to pursue a victim. Dracula also purchases many properties throughout London 'over the counter' which shows that he does have the ability to have some type of presence in daylight. \n\nHe requires Transylvanian soil to be nearby to him in a foreign land or to be entombed within his coffin within Transylvania in order to successfully rest; otherwise, he will be unable to recover his strength. This has forced him to transport many boxes of Transylvanian earth to each of his residences in London. It should be noted however that he is most powerful when he is within his Earth-Home, Coffin-Home, Hell-Home, or any place unhallowed. \n\nFurther, if Dracula or any vampire has had their fill in blood upon feeding, they will be caused to rest in this dead state even longer than usual. \n\nOther abilities\n\nWhile universally feared by the local people of Transylvania and even beyond, Dracula commands the loyalty of gypsies and a band of Slovaks who transport his boxes on their way to London and to serve as an armed convoy bringing his coffin back to his castle. The Slovaks and gypsies appear to know his true nature, for they laugh at Harker when he tries to communicate his plight, and betray Harker's attempt to send a letter through them by giving it to the Count.\n\nDracula seems to be able to hold influence over people with mental disorders, such as Renfield, who is never bitten but who worships Dracula, referring to him over the course of the novel as \"Master\" and \"Lord\". Dracula also afflicts Lucy with chronic sleepwalking, putting her into a trance-like state that allows them not only to submit to his will but also seek him and satisfy his need to feed.\n\nDracula's powers and weaknesses vary greatly in the many adaptations. Previous and subsequent vampires from different legends have had similar vampire characteristics.\n\nCharacter development subsequent to the novel\n\nDracula is one of the most famous characters in popular culture. He has been portrayed by more actors in more visual media adaptations of the novel than any other horror character.[http://www.guinnessattractions.com/worldrecords.aspx Guinness World Records Experience] Actors who have played him include Max Schreck, Béla Lugosi, John Carradine, Christopher Lee, Charles Macaulay, Francis Lederer, Denholm Elliott, Jack Palance, Louis Jourdan, Frank Langella, Klaus Kinski, Gary Oldman, Leslie Nielsen, George Hamilton, Keith-Lee Castle, Gerard Butler, Duncan Regehr, Richard Roxburgh, Marc Warren, Rutger Hauer, Stephen Billington, Thomas Kretschmann, Dominic Purcell, and Luke Evans. Lon Chaney Jr. played either Dracula or his progeny in the Universal film, \"Son of Dracula.\" Of all the foregoing, it is generally conceded that actor Bela Lugosi's stage and 1931 movie portrayal of Dracula has, in appearance, speech, public personality, mannerisms and dress, overshadowed Stoker's original conception of these character aspects.\n\nThe character is closely associated with the western cultural archetype of the vampire, and remains a popular Halloween costume.\n\nCount Dracula appears in Mad Monster Party? voiced by Allen Swift. This version is shown to be wearing a monocle. Count Dracula is among the monsters that Baron Boris von Frankenstein invites to the Isle of Evil in order to show off the secret of total destruction and announce his retirement from the Worldwide Organization of Monsters.\n\nIn Sesame Street, there is a character called Count von Count who was based on Bela Lugosi's interpretation of Count Dracula.\n\nCount Dracula appears in Mad Mad Mad Monsters (a \"prequel of sorts\" to Mad Monster Party?) voiced again by Allen Swift. He and his son are invited by Baron Henry von Frankenstein to attend the wedding of Frankenstein's Monster and its mate at the Transylvania Astoria Hotel.\n\nDracula is the primary antagonist of the Castlevania video game series and the main protagonist of the Lords of Shadow reboot series.\n\nIn 2003, Count Dracula, as portrayed by Lugosi in the 1931 film, was named as the 33rd greatest movie villain by the American Film Institute.\n\nDracula appears as the lead character of Dracula the Un-dead, a novel by Stoker's great-grand nephew Dacre presented as a sequel to the original. Set twenty-five years after the original novel, Dracula has gone to Paris as an actor with the name Vladimir Basarab. He appears to be an anti-hero as he tries to protect his and Mina's son Quincey Harker against another vampire Elizabeth Bathory. At the end of the novel he was able to kill Bathory but was wounded by her and falls down a cliff with Mina, presumably dying. Sometime later Quincey went on a ship to America, hoping for a better life. Unknown to him, boxes labeled as property of Vladimir Basarab are also loaded on board. The ocean liner is later revealed to be the RMS Titanic.\n\nModern and postmodern analyses of the character\n\nAlready in 1958, Cecil Kirtly proposed that Count Dracula shared his personal past with the historical Transylvanian-born Voivode Vlad III Dracula of Wallachia, also known as Vlad the Impaler or Vlad Țepeș. Following the publication of In Search of Dracula by Radu Florescu and Raymond McNally in 1972, this supposed connection attracted much popular attention.\n\nHistorically, the name \"Dracula\" is the given name of Vlad Ṭepeș' family, a name derived from a secret fraternal order of knights called the Order of the Dragon, founded by Sigismund of Luxembourg (king of Hungary and Bohemia, and Holy Roman Emperor) to uphold Christianity and defend the Empire against the Ottoman Turks. Vlad II Dracul, father of Vlad III, was admitted to the order around 1431 because of his bravery in fighting the Turks and was dubbed Dracul (Dragon) thus his son became Dracula (son of the dragon). From 1431 onward, Vlad II wore the emblem of the order and later, as ruler of Wallachia, his coinage bore the dragon symbol. \n\nStoker came across the name Dracula in his reading on Romanian history, and chose this to replace the name (Count Wampyr) that he had originally intended to use for his villain. However, some Dracula scholars, led by Elizabeth Miller, have questioned the depth of this connection as early as 1998. They argue that Stoker in fact knew little of the historic Vlad III except for the name \"Dracula\". While having a conversation with Jonathan Harker in Chapter 3, Dracula refers to his own background, and these speeches show elements which Stoker directly copied from Wilkinson's book. Stoker mentions the Voivode of the Dracula race who fought against the Turks after the defeat of Cossova, and was later betrayed by his brother, historical facts which unequivocally point to Vlad III, described as \"Voïvode Dracula\" by Wilkinson:\n\nThe Count's intended identity is later commented by Professor Van Helsing, referring to a letter from his friend Arminius:\n\nThis indeed encourages the reader to identify the Count with the Voivode Dracula first mentioned by him in Chapter 3, the one betrayed by his brother: Vlad III Dracula, betrayed by his brother Radu the Handsome, who had chosen the side of the Turks. But as noted by the Dutch author Hans Corneel de Roos, in Chapter 25, Van Helsing and Mina drop this rudimentary connection to Vlad III and instead describe the Count's personal past as that of \"that other of his race\" who lived \"in a later age\". By smoothly exchanging Vlad III for a nameless double, Stoker avoided that his main character could be unambiguously linked to a historical person traceable in any history book.\n\nSimilarly, the novelist did not want to disclose the precise site of the Count's residence, Castle Dracula. As confirmed by Stoker's own handwritten research notes, the novelist had a specific location for the Castle in mind while writing the narrative: an empty mountain top in the Transylvanian Kelemen Alps near the former border with Moldavia. Efforts to promote the Poenari Castle (ca. 200 km away from the novel's place of action near the Borgo Pass) as the \"real Castle Dracula\" have no basis in Stoker’s writing; Stoker did not know this building. Regarding the Bran Castle near Brașov, Stoker possibly saw an illustration of Castle Bran (Törzburg) in Charles Boner's book on Transylvania. Although Stoker may have been inspired by its romantic appearance, neither Boner, nor Mazuchelli nor Crosse (who also mention Terzburg or Törzburg) associate it with Vlad III; for the site of his fictitious Castle Dracula, Stoker preferred an empty mountain top.\n\nFurthermore, Stoker's detailed notes reveal that the novelist was very well aware of the ethnic and geo-political differences between the \"Roumanians\" or \"Wallachs\"/\"Wallachians\", descendants of the Dacians, and the Székelys or Szeklers, allies of the Magyars or Hungarians, whose interests were opposed to that of the Wallachians. In the novel's original typewritten manuscript, the Count speaks of throwing off the \"Austrian yoke\", which corresponds to the Szekler political point of view. This expression is crossed out, however, and replaced by \"Hungarian yoke\" (as appearing in the printed version), which matches the historical perspective of the Wallachians. This has been interpreted by some to mean that Stoker opted for the Wallachian, not the Szekler interpretation, thus lending more consistency to the Romanian identity of his Count: although not identical with Vlad III, the Vampire is portrayed as one of the \"Dracula race\". \n\nIt has been suggested by some that Stoker was influenced by the legend of Countess Elizabeth Báthory, who was born in the Kingdom of Hungary and accused of the murder and torture of 80 young women. \n\nScreen portrayals\n\nIn popular culture", "A vampire is a being from folklore who subsists by feeding on the life essence (generally in the form of blood) of the living. In European folklore, vampires were undead beings that often visited loved ones and caused mischief or deaths in the neighbourhoods they inhabited when they were alive. They wore shrouds and were often described as bloated and of ruddy or dark countenance, markedly different from today's gaunt, pale vampire which dates from the early 19th century.\n\nAlthough vampiric entities have been recorded in most cultures, the term vampire was not popularized in the west until the early 18th century, after an influx of vampire superstition into Western Europe from areas where vampire legends were frequent, such as the Balkans and Eastern Europe, although local variants were also known by different names, such as shtriga in Albania, vrykolakas in Greece and strigoi in Romania. This increased level of vampire superstition in Europe led to mass hysteria and in some cases resulted in corpses actually being staked and people being accused of vampirism.\n\nIn modern times, however, the vampire is generally held to be a fictitious entity, although belief in similar vampiric creatures such as the chupacabra still persists in some cultures. Early folk belief in vampires has sometimes been ascribed to the ignorance of the body's process of decomposition after death and how people in pre-industrial societies tried to rationalise this, creating the figure of the vampire to explain the mysteries of death. Porphyria was also linked with legends of vampirism in 1985 and received much media exposure, but has since been largely discredited.\n\nThe charismatic and sophisticated vampire of modern fiction was born in 1819 with the publication of The Vampyre by John Polidori; the story was highly successful and arguably the most influential vampire work of the early 19th century. However, it is Bram Stoker's 1897 novel Dracula which is remembered as the quintessential vampire novel and provided the basis of the modern vampire legend. The success of this book spawned a distinctive vampire genre, still popular in the 21st century, with books, films, and television shows. The vampire has since become a dominant figure in the horror genre.\n\nEtymology \n\nThe Oxford English Dictionary dates the first appearance of the English word vampire (as vampyre) in English from 1734, in a travelogue titled Travels of Three English Gentlemen published in The Harleian Miscellany in 1745. Vampires had already been discussed in French and German literature. After Austria gained control of northern Serbia and Oltenia with the Treaty of Passarowitz in 1718, officials noted the local practice of exhuming bodies and \"killing vampires\". These reports, prepared between 1725 and 1732, received widespread publicity.Barber, p. 5. The English term was derived (possibly via French vampyre) from the German Vampir, in turn derived in the early 18th century from the Serbian vampir (Cyrillic: вампир), when Arnold Paole, a purported vampire in Serbia was described during the time when Northern Serbia was part of the Austrian Empire.\n\nThe Serbian form has parallels in virtually all Slavic languages: Bulgarian and Macedonian вампир (vampir), Bosnian: lampir, Croatian vampir, Czech and Slovak upír, Polish wąpierz, and (perhaps East Slavic-influenced) upiór, Ukrainian упир (upyr), Russian упырь (upyr), Belarusian упыр (upyr), from Old East Slavic упирь (upir) (note that many of these languages have also borrowed forms such as \"vampir/wampir\" subsequently from the West; these are distinct from the original local words for the creature). The exact etymology is unclear. (\"Myths of the Peoples of the World\"). Upyr' Among the proposed proto-Slavic forms are *ǫpyrь and *ǫpirь.\n\nAnother, less widespread theory, is that the Slavic languages have borrowed the word from a Turkic term for \"witch\" (e.g., Tatar ubyr). Czech linguist Václav Machek proposes Slovak verb \"vrepiť sa\" (stick to, thrust into), or its hypothetical anagram \"vperiť sa\" (in Czech, archaic verb \"vpeřit\" means \"to thrust violently\") as an etymological background, and thus translates \"upír\" as \"someone who thrusts, bites\". An early use of the Old Russian word is in the anti-pagan treatise \"Word of Saint Grigoriy\" (Russian Слово святого Григория), dated variously to the 11th–13th centuries, where pagan worship of upyri is reported. \n\nFolk beliefs \n\nThe notion of vampirism has existed for millennia. Cultures such as the Mesopotamians, Hebrews, Ancient Greeks, and Romans had tales of demons and spirits which are considered precursors to modern vampires. However, despite the occurrence of vampire-like creatures in these ancient civilizations, the folklore for the entity we know today as the vampire originates almost exclusively from early-18th-century southeastern Europe, when verbal traditions of many ethnic groups of the region were recorded and published. In most cases, vampires are revenants of evil beings, suicide victims, or witches, but they can also be created by a malevolent spirit possessing a corpse or by being bitten by a vampire. Belief in such legends became so pervasive that in some areas it caused mass hysteria and even public executions of people believed to be vampires.\n\nDescription and common attributes \n\nIt is difficult to make a single, definitive description of the folkloric vampire, though there are several elements common to many European legends. Vampires were usually reported as bloated in appearance, and ruddy, purplish, or dark in colour; these characteristics were often attributed to the recent drinking of blood. Indeed, blood was often seen seeping from the mouth and nose when one was seen in its shroud or coffin and its left eye was often open. It would be clad in the linen shroud it was buried in, and its teeth, hair, and nails may have grown somewhat, though in general fangs were not a feature. Although vampires were generally described as undead, some folktales spoke of them as living beings. \n\nCreating vampires \n\nThe causes of vampiric generation were many and varied in original folklore. In Slavic and Chinese traditions, any corpse that was jumped over by an animal, particularly a dog or a cat, was feared to become one of the undead. A body with a wound that had not been treated with boiling water was also at risk. In Russian folklore, vampires were said to have once been witches or people who had rebelled against the Russian Orthodox Church while they were alive. \n\nCultural practices often arose that were intended to prevent a recently deceased loved one from turning into an undead revenant. Burying a corpse upside-down was widespread, as was placing earthly objects, such as scythes or sickles, near the grave to satisfy any demons entering the body or to appease the dead so that it would not wish to arise from its coffin. This method resembles the Ancient Greek practice of placing an obolus in the corpse's mouth to pay the toll to cross the River Styx in the underworld. It has been argued that instead, the coin was intended to ward off any evil spirits from entering the body, and this may have influenced later vampire folklore. This tradition persisted in modern Greek folklore about the vrykolakas, in which a wax cross and piece of pottery with the inscription \"Jesus Christ conquers\" were placed on the corpse to prevent the body from becoming a vampire. \n\nOther methods commonly practised in Europe included severing the tendons at the knees or placing poppy seeds, millet, or sand on the ground at the grave site of a presumed vampire; this was intended to keep the vampire occupied all night by counting the fallen grains, indicating an association of vampires with arithmomania. Similar Chinese narratives state that if a vampire-like being came across a sack of rice, it would have to count every grain; this is a theme encountered in myths from the Indian subcontinent, as well as in South American tales of witches and other sorts of evil or mischievous spirits or beings.\n\nIn Albanian folklore, the dhampir is the hybrid child of the karkanxholl (a werewolf-like creature with an iron mail shirt) or the lugat (a water-dwelling ghost or monster). The dhampir sprung of a karkanxholl has the unique ability to discern the karkanxholl; from this derives the expression the dhampir knows the lugat. The lugat cannot be seen, he can only be killed by the dhampir, who himself is usually the son of a lugat. In different regions, animals can be revenants as lugats; also, living people during their sleep. Dhampiraj is also an Albanian surname. \n\nIdentifying vampires \n\nMany elaborate rituals were used to identify a vampire. One method of finding a vampire's grave involved leading a virgin boy through a graveyard or church grounds on a virgin stallion—the horse would supposedly balk at the grave in question. Generally a black horse was required, though in Albania it should be white. Holes appearing in the earth over a grave were taken as a sign of vampirism. \n\nCorpses thought to be vampires were generally described as having a healthier appearance than expected, plump and showing little or no signs of decomposition. In some cases, when suspected graves were opened, villagers even described the corpse as having fresh blood from a victim all over its face. Evidence that a vampire was active in a given locality included death of cattle, sheep, relatives or neighbours. Folkloric vampires could also make their presence felt by engaging in minor poltergeist-like activity, such as hurling stones on roofs or moving household objects, and pressing on people in their sleep. \n\nProtection \n\nApotropaics \n\nApotropaics, items able to ward off revenants, are common in vampire folklore. Garlic is a common example, a branch of wild rose and hawthorn plant are said to harm vampires, and in Europe, sprinkling mustard seeds on the roof of a house was said to keep them away. Other apotropaics include sacred items, for example a crucifix, rosary, or holy water. Vampires are said to be unable to walk on consecrated ground, such as that of churches or temples, or cross running water. \n\nAlthough not traditionally regarded as an apotropaic, mirrors have been used to ward off vampires when placed, facing outwards, on a door (in some cultures, vampires do not have a reflection and sometimes do not cast a shadow, perhaps as a manifestation of the vampire's lack of a soul). This attribute, although not universal (the Greek vrykolakas/tympanios was capable of both reflection and shadow), was used by Bram Stoker in Dracula and has remained popular with subsequent authors and filmmakers. \n\nSome traditions also hold that a vampire cannot enter a house unless invited by the owner, although after the first invitation they can come and go as they please. Though folkloric vampires were believed to be more active at night, they were not generally considered vulnerable to sunlight.\n\nMethods of destruction \n\nMethods of destroying suspected vampires varied, with staking the most commonly cited method, particularly in southern Slavic cultures. Ash was the preferred wood in Russia and the Baltic states, or hawthorn in Serbia, with a record of oak in Silesia. Potential vampires were most often staked through the heart, though the mouth was targeted in Russia and northern Germany and the stomach in north-eastern Serbia. \n\nPiercing the skin of the chest was a way of \"deflating\" the bloated vampire. This is similar to the act of burying sharp objects, such as sickles, in with the corpse, so that they may penetrate the skin if the body bloats sufficiently while transforming into a revenant. In one striking example of the latter, the corpses of five people in a graveyard near the Polish village of Dravsko, dating from the 17th and 18th centuries, were buried with sickles placed around their necks or across their abdomens.\n\nDecapitation was the preferred method in German and western Slavic areas, with the head buried between the feet, behind the buttocks or away from the body. This act was seen as a way of hastening the departure of the soul, which in some cultures, was said to linger in the corpse. The vampire's head, body, or clothes could also be spiked and pinned to the earth to prevent rising. \n\nRomani people drove steel or iron needles into a corpse's heart and placed bits of steel in the mouth, over the eyes, ears and between the fingers at the time of burial. They also placed hawthorn in the corpse's sock or drove a hawthorn stake through the legs. In a 16th-century burial near Venice, a brick forced into the mouth of a female corpse has been interpreted as a vampire-slaying ritual by the archaeologists who discovered it in 2006. \n\nFurther measures included pouring boiling water over the grave or complete incineration of the body. In the Balkans, a vampire could also be killed by being shot or drowned, by repeating the funeral service, by sprinkling holy water on the body, or by exorcism. In Romania, garlic could be placed in the mouth, and as recently as the 19th century, the precaution of shooting a bullet through the coffin was taken. For resistant cases, the body was dismembered and the pieces burned, mixed with water, and administered to family members as a cure. In Saxon regions of Germany, a lemon was placed in the mouth of suspected vampires. \n\nIn Bulgaria, over 100 skeletons with metal objects, such as plough bits, embedded in the torso have been discovered. \n\nAncient beliefs \n\nTales of supernatural beings consuming the blood or flesh of the living have been found in nearly every culture around the world for many centuries. The term vampire did not exist in ancient times. Blood drinking and similar activities were attributed to demons or spirits who would eat flesh and drink blood; even the Devil was considered synonymous with the vampire. \n\nAlmost every nation has associated blood drinking with some kind of revenant or demon, or in some cases a deity. In India, for example, tales of vetālas, ghoul-like beings that inhabit corpses, have been compiled in the Baitāl Pacīsī; a prominent story in the Kathāsaritsāgara tells of King Vikramāditya and his nightly quests to capture an elusive one. Piśāca, the returned spirits of evil-doers or those who died insane, also bear vampiric attributes. \n\nThe Persians were one of the first civilizations to have tales of blood-drinking demons: creatures attempting to drink blood from men were depicted on excavated pottery shards. Ancient Babylonia and Assyria had tales of the mythical Lilitu, synonymous with and giving rise to Lilith (Hebrew לילית) and her daughters the Lilu from Hebrew demonology. Lilitu was considered a demon and was often depicted as subsisting on the blood of babies.Hurwitz, Lilith. And Estries, female shape changing, blood drinking demons, were said to roam the night among the population, seeking victims. According to Sefer Hasidim, Estries were creatures created in the twilight hours before God rested. An injured Estrie could be healed by eating bread and salt given her by her attacker.\n\nGreco-Roman mythology described the Empusae, the Lamia, and the striges. Over time the first two terms became general words to describe witches and demons respectively. Empusa was the daughter of the goddess Hecate and was described as a demonic, bronze-footed creature. She feasted on blood by transforming into a young woman and seduced men as they slept before drinking their blood. The Lamia preyed on young children in their beds at night, sucking their blood, as did the gelloudes or Gello. Like the Lamia, the striges feasted on children, but also preyed on adults. They were described as having the bodies of crows or birds in general, and were later incorporated into Roman mythology as strix, a kind of nocturnal bird that fed on human flesh and blood. \n\nIn Azerbaijanese mythology Xortdan is the troubled soul of the dead rising from the grave. Some Hortdan can be living people with certain magical properties. Some of the properties of the Hortdan include: the ability to transform into an animal, invisibility, and the propensity to drain the vitality of victims via blood loss.\n\nMedieval and later European folklore \n\nMany myths surrounding vampires originated during the medieval period. The 12th-century English historians and chroniclers Walter Map and William of Newburgh recorded accounts of revenants, though records in English legends of vampiric beings after this date are scant. The Old Norse draugr is another medieval example of an undead creature with similarities to vampires. \n\nVampires proper originate in folklore widely reported from Eastern Europe in the late 17th and 18th centuries. These tales formed the basis of the vampire legend that later entered Germany and England, where they were subsequently embellished and popularized. One of the earliest recordings of vampire activity came from the region of Istria in modern Croatia, in 1672. Local reports cited the local vampire Jure Grando of the village Khring near Tinjan as the cause of panic among the villagers. \n\nA former peasant, Jure died in 1656. However, local villagers claimed he returned from the dead and began drinking blood from the people and sexually harassing his widow. The village leader ordered a stake to be driven through his heart, but when the method failed to kill him, he was subsequently beheaded with better results. That was the first case in history that a real person had been described as a vampire.\n\nDuring the 18th century, there was a frenzy of vampire sightings in Eastern Europe, with frequent stakings and grave diggings to identify and kill the potential revenants. Even government officials engaged in the hunting and staking of vampires. Despite being called the Age of Enlightenment, during which most folkloric legends were quelled, the belief in vampires increased dramatically, resulting in a mass hysteria throughout most of Europe.\n\nThe panic began with an outbreak of alleged vampire attacks in East Prussia in 1721 and in the Habsburg Monarchy from 1725 to 1734, which spread to other localities. Two famous vampire cases, the first to be officially recorded, involved the corpses of Petar Blagojevich and Arnold Paole from Serbia. Blagojevich was reported to have died at the age of 62, but allegedly returned after his death asking his son for food. When the son refused, he was found dead the following day. Blagojevich supposedly returned and attacked some neighbours who died from loss of blood. \n\nIn the second case, Paole, an ex-soldier turned farmer who allegedly was attacked by a vampire years before, died while haying. After his death, people began to die in the surrounding area and it was widely believed that Paole had returned to prey on the neighbours. Another famous Serbian legend involving vampires concentrates around a certain Sava Savanović living in a watermill and killing and drinking blood from millers. The character was later used in a story written by Serbian writer Milovan Glišić and in the Yugoslav 1973 horror film Leptirica inspired by the story.\n\nThe two incidents were well-documented. Government officials examined the bodies, wrote case reports, and published books throughout Europe. The hysteria, commonly referred to as the \"18th-Century Vampire Controversy\", raged for a generation. The problem was exacerbated by rural epidemics of so-claimed vampire attacks, undoubtedly caused by the higher amount of superstition that was present in village communities, with locals digging up bodies and in some cases, staking them.\n\nDissertations on Vampirology\n\nFrom 1679, Philippe Rohr devotes an essay to the dead who chew their shrouds in their graves, subject resumed later by Otto in 1732, and then by Michael Ranft in 1734. The subject was based on the peculiar phenomenon that when digging up graves, it was discovered that some corpses had at some point either devoured the interior fabric of their coffin or their own limbs. This distinguishes the relationship between vampirism and nightmares which were believed that many cases of vampirism were simply illusions brought by the imagination. While in 1732 an anonymous writer calling itself \"the doctor Weimar\" discusses the non-putrefaction of these creatures, from a theological point of view. in 1733, Johann Christoph Harenberg wrote a general treatise on vampirism and the Marquis d'Argens Boyer cites local cases. Theologians and clergymen are also addressing the topic. \n\nDom Augustine Calmet, a French theologian and scholar, put together a comprehensive treatise in 1751 titled Treatise on the Apparitions of Spirits and on Vampires or Revenants which investigated the existence of vampires, demons, spectres and many other matters relating to the occult of his time. Calmet conducted extensive research and amassed reports of vampire incidents and extensively researched theological and mythological accounts as well. He had numerous readers, including both a critical Voltaire and supportive demonologists who interpreted the treatise as claiming that vampires existed. In his Philosophical Dictionary, Voltaire wrote: \n\nSome theological disputes arose. The non-decay of vampires' bodies could recall the incorruption of the bodies of the saints of the Catholic Church. A paragraph on vampires was included in the second edition (1749) of De servorum Dei beatificatione et sanctorum canonizatione, On the beatification of the servants of God and on canonization of the blessed, written by Prospero Lambertini (Pope Benedict XIV). In his opinion, while the incorruption of the bodies of saints was the effect of a divine intervention, all the phenomena attributed to vampires were purely natural or the fruit of \"imagination, terror and fear\". In other words, vampires did not exist \n\nThe controversy only ceased when Empress Maria Theresa of Austria sent her personal physician, Gerard van Swieten, to investigate the claims of vampiric entities. He concluded that vampires did not exist and the Empress passed laws prohibiting the opening of graves and desecration of bodies, sounding the end of the vampire epidemics. Despite this condemnation, the vampire lived on in artistic works and in local superstition. \n\nNon-European beliefs \n\nBeings having many of the attributes of European vampires appear in the folklore of Africa, Asia, North and South America, and India. Classified as vampires, all share the thirst for blood. \n\nAfrica \n\nVarious regions of Africa have folktales featuring beings with vampiric abilities: in West Africa the Ashanti people tell of the iron-toothed and tree-dwelling asanbosam, and the Ewe people of the adze, which can take the form of a firefly and hunts children. The eastern Cape region has the impundulu, which can take the form of a large taloned bird and can summon thunder and lightning, and the Betsileo people of Madagascar tell of the ramanga, an outlaw or living vampire who drinks the blood and eats the nail clippings of nobles. \n\nThe Americas \n\nThe Loogaroo is an example of how a vampire belief can result from a combination of beliefs, here a mixture of French and African Vodu or voodoo. The term Loogaroo possibly comes from the French loup-garou (meaning \"werewolf\") and is common in the culture of Mauritius. However, the stories of the Loogaroo are widespread through the Caribbean Islands and Louisiana in the United States. Similar female monsters are the Soucouyant of Trinidad, and the Tunda and Patasola of Colombian folklore, while the Mapuche of southern Chile have the bloodsucking snake known as the Peuchen. Aloe vera hung backwards behind or near a door was thought to ward off vampiric beings in South American superstition. Aztec mythology described tales of the Cihuateteo, skeletal-faced spirits of those who died in childbirth who stole children and entered into sexual liaisons with the living, driving them mad.\n\nDuring the late 18th and 19th centuries the belief in vampires was widespread in parts of New England, particularly in Rhode Island and Eastern Connecticut. There are many documented cases of families disinterring loved ones and removing their hearts in the belief that the deceased was a vampire who was responsible for sickness and death in the family, although the term \"vampire\" was never actually used to describe the deceased. The deadly disease tuberculosis, or \"consumption\" as it was known at the time, was believed to be caused by nightly visitations on the part of a dead family member who had died of consumption themselves. The most famous, and most recently recorded, case of suspected vampirism is that of nineteen-year-old Mercy Brown, who died in Exeter, Rhode Island in 1892. Her father, assisted by the family physician, removed her from her tomb two months after her death, cut out her heart and burned it to ashes. \n\nAsia \n\nRooted in older folklore, the modern belief in vampires spread throughout Asia with tales of ghoulish entities from the mainland, to vampiric beings from the islands of Southeast Asia.\n\nSouth Asia also developed other vampiric legends. The Bhūta or Prét is the soul of a man who died an untimely death. It wanders around animating dead bodies at night, attacking the living much like a ghoul. In northern India, there is the BrahmarākŞhasa, a vampire-like creature with a head encircled by intestines and a skull from which it drank blood. The figure of the Vetala who appears in South Asian legend and story may sometimes be rendered as \"Vampire\" (see the section on \"Ancient Beliefs\" above).\n\nAlthough vampires have appeared in Japanese cinema since the late 1950s, the folklore behind it is western in origin.Bunson, Vampire Encyclopedia, pp. 137–38. However, the Nukekubi is a being whose head and neck detach from its body to fly about seeking human prey at night. \n\nLegends of female vampire-like beings who can detach parts of their upper body also occur in the Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia. There are two main vampire-like creatures in the Philippines: the Tagalog Mandurugo (\"blood-sucker\") and the Visayan Manananggal (\"self-segmenter\"). The mandurugo is a variety of the aswang that takes the form of an attractive girl by day, and develops wings and a long, hollow, thread-like tongue by night. The tongue is used to suck up blood from a sleeping victim.\n\nThe manananggal is described as being an older, beautiful woman capable of severing its upper torso in order to fly into the night with huge bat-like wings and prey on unsuspecting, sleeping pregnant women in their homes. They use an elongated proboscis-like tongue to suck fetuses from these pregnant women. They also prefer to eat entrails (specifically the heart and the liver) and the phlegm of sick people. \n\nThe Malaysian Penanggalan may be either a beautiful old or young woman who obtained her beauty through the active use of black magic or other unnatural means, and is most commonly described in local folklore to be dark or demonic in nature. She is able to detach her fanged head which flies around in the night looking for blood, typically from pregnant women. Malaysians would hang jeruju (thistles) around the doors and windows of houses, hoping the Penanggalan would not enter for fear of catching its intestines on the thorns. \n\nThe Leyak is a similar being from Balinese folklore of Indonesia. A Kuntilanak or Matianak in Indonesia, or Pontianak or Langsuir in Malaysia, is a woman who died during childbirth and became undead, seeking revenge and terrorizing villages. She appeared as an attractive woman with long black hair that covered a hole in the back of her neck, with which she sucked the blood of children. Filling the hole with her hair would drive her off. Corpses had their mouths filled with glass beads, eggs under each armpit, and needles in their palms to prevent them from becoming langsuir. This description would also fit the Sundel Bolongs. \n\nJiangshi, sometimes called \"Chinese vampires\" by Westerners, are reanimated corpses that hop around, killing living creatures to absorb life essence (qì) from their victims. They are said to be created when a person's soul (魄 pò) fails to leave the deceased's body. However, some have disputed the comparison of jiang shi with vampires, as jiang shi are usually represented as mindless creatures with no independent thought. One unusual feature of this monster is its greenish-white furry skin, perhaps derived from fungus or mould growing on corpses. Jiangshi legends have inspired a genre of jiangshi films and literature in Hong Kong and East Asia. Films like Encounters of the Spooky Kind and Mr. Vampire were released during the jiangshi cinematic boom of the 1980s and 1990s. \n\nModern beliefs \n\nIn modern fiction, the vampire tends to be depicted as a suave, charismatic villain. Despite the general disbelief in vampiric entities, occasional sightings of vampires are reported. Indeed, vampire hunting societies still exist, although they are largely formed for social reasons. Allegations of vampire attacks swept through the African country of Malawi during late 2002 and early 2003, with mobs stoning one individual to death and attacking at least four others, including Governor Eric Chiwaya, based on the belief that the government was colluding with vampires. \n\nIn early 1970 local press spread rumours that a vampire haunted Highgate Cemetery in London. Amateur vampire hunters flocked in large numbers to the cemetery. Several books have been written about the case, notably by Sean Manchester, a local man who was among the first to suggest the existence of the \"Highgate Vampire\" and who later claimed to have exorcised and destroyed a whole nest of vampires in the area. In January 2005, rumours circulated that an attacker had bitten a number of people in Birmingham, England, fuelling concerns about a vampire roaming the streets. However, local police stated that no such crime had been reported and that the case appears to be an urban legend.\n\nIn 2006, a physics professor at the University of Central Florida wrote a paper arguing that it is mathematically impossible for vampires to exist, based on geometric progression. According to the paper, if the first vampire had appeared on 1 January 1600, and it fed once a month (which is less often than what is depicted in films and folklore), and every victim turned into a vampire, then within two and a half years the entire human population of the time would have become vampires. The paper made no attempt to address the credibility of the assumption that every vampire victim would turn into a vampire.\n\nIn one of the more notable cases of vampiric entities in the modern age, the chupacabra (\"goat-sucker\") of Puerto Rico and Mexico is said to be a creature that feeds upon the flesh or drinks the blood of domesticated animals, leading some to consider it a kind of vampire. The \"chupacabra hysteria\" was frequently associated with deep economic and political crises, particularly during the mid-1990s. \n\nIn Europe, where much of the vampire folklore originates, the vampire is usually considered a fictitious being, although many communities may have embraced the revenant for economic purposes. In some cases, especially in small localities, vampire superstition is still rampant and sightings or claims of vampire attacks occur frequently. In Romania during February 2004, several relatives of Toma Petre feared that he had become a vampire. They dug up his corpse, tore out his heart, burned it, and mixed the ashes with water in order to drink it. \n\nVampirism and the Vampire lifestyle also represent a relevant part of modern day's occultist movements. The mythos of the vampire, his magickal qualities, allure, and predatory archetype express a strong symbolism that can be used in ritual, energy work, and magick, and can even be adopted as a spiritual system. The vampire has been part of the occult society in Europe for centuries and has spread into the American sub-culture as well for more than a decade, being strongly influenced by and mixed with the neo gothic aesthetics. \n\nCollective noun \n\n'Coven' has been used as a collective noun for vampires, possibly based on the Wiccan usage. An alternative collective noun is a 'house' of vampires. David Malki, author of Wondermark, suggests in Wondermark No. 566 the use of the collective noun 'basement', as in \"A basement of vampires.\" \n\nOrigins of vampire beliefs \n\nCommentators have offered many theories for the origins of vampire beliefs, trying to explain the superstition – and sometimes mass hysteria – caused by vampires. Everything ranging from premature burial to the early ignorance of the body's decomposition cycle after death has been cited as the cause for the belief in vampires.\n\nPathology \n\nDecomposition \n\nPaul Barber in his book Vampires, Burial and Death has described that belief in vampires resulted from people of pre-industrial societies attempting to explain the natural, but to them inexplicable, process of death and decomposition. \n\nPeople sometimes suspected vampirism when a cadaver did not look as they thought a normal corpse should when disinterred. Rates of decomposition vary depending on temperature and soil composition, and many of the signs are little known. This has led vampire hunters to mistakenly conclude that a dead body had not decomposed at all, or, ironically, to interpret signs of decomposition as signs of continued life. \n\nCorpses swell as gases from decomposition accumulate in the torso and the increased pressure forces blood to ooze from the nose and mouth. This causes the body to look \"plump,\" \"well-fed,\" and \"ruddy\"—changes that are all the more striking if the person was pale or thin in life. In the Arnold Paole case, an old woman's exhumed corpse was judged by her neighbours to look more plump and healthy than she had ever looked in life. The exuding blood gave the impression that the corpse had recently been engaging in vampiric activity.\n\nDarkening of the skin is also caused by decomposition. The staking of a swollen, decomposing body could cause the body to bleed and force the accumulated gases to escape the body. This could produce a groan-like sound when the gases moved past the vocal cords, or a sound reminiscent of flatulence when they passed through the anus. The official reporting on the Petar Blagojevich case speaks of \"other wild signs which I pass by out of high respect\". \n\nAfter death, the skin and gums lose fluids and contract, exposing the roots of the hair, nails, and teeth, even teeth that were concealed in the jaw. This can produce the illusion that the hair, nails, and teeth have grown. At a certain stage, the nails fall off and the skin peels away, as reported in the Blagojevich case—the dermis and nail beds emerging underneath were interpreted as \"new skin\" and \"new nails\".\n\nPremature burial \n\nIt has also been hypothesized that vampire legends were influenced by individuals being buried alive because of shortcomings in the medical knowledge of the time. In some cases in which people reported sounds emanating from a specific coffin, it was later dug up and fingernail marks were discovered on the inside from the victim trying to escape. In other cases the person would hit their heads, noses or faces and it would appear that they had been \"feeding.\" A problem with this theory is the question of how people presumably buried alive managed to stay alive for any extended period without food, water or fresh air. An alternate explanation for noise is the bubbling of escaping gases from natural decomposition of bodies. Another likely cause of disordered tombs is grave robbing. \n\nContagion \n\nFolkloric vampirism has been associated with clusters of deaths from unidentifiable or mysterious illnesses, usually within the same family or the same small community. The epidemic allusion is obvious in the classical cases of Petar Blagojevich and Arnold Paole, and even more so in the case of Mercy Brown and in the vampire beliefs of New England generally, where a specific disease, tuberculosis, was associated with outbreaks of vampirism. As with the pneumonic form of bubonic plague, it was associated with breakdown of lung tissue which would cause blood to appear at the lips. \n\nPorphyria \n\nIn 1985 biochemist David Dolphin proposed a link between the rare blood disorder porphyria and vampire folklore. Noting that the condition is treated by intravenous haem, he suggested that the consumption of large amounts of blood may result in haem being transported somehow across the stomach wall and into the bloodstream. Thus vampires were merely sufferers of porphyria seeking to replace haem and alleviate their symptoms.Dolphin D (1985) \"Werewolves and Vampires,\" annual meeting of American Association for the Advancement of Science.\n\nThe theory has been rebuffed medically as suggestions that porphyria sufferers crave the haem in human blood, or that the consumption of blood might ease the symptoms of porphyria, are based on a misunderstanding of the disease. Furthermore, Dolphin was noted to have confused fictional (bloodsucking) vampires with those of folklore, many of whom were not noted to drink blood. Similarly, a parallel is made between sensitivity to sunlight by sufferers, yet this was associated with fictional and not folkloric vampires. In any case, Dolphin did not go on to publish his work more widely. Despite being dismissed by experts, the link gained media attention and entered popular modern folklore. \n\nRabies \n\nRabies has been linked with vampire folklore. Dr Juan Gómez-Alonso, a neurologist at Xeral Hospital in Vigo, Spain, examined this possibility in a report in Neurology. The susceptibility to garlic and light could be due to hypersensitivity, which is a symptom of rabies. The disease can also affect portions of the brain that could lead to disturbance of normal sleep patterns (thus becoming nocturnal) and hypersexuality. Legend once said a man was not rabid if he could look at his own reflection (an allusion to the legend that vampires have no reflection). Wolves and bats, which are often associated with vampires, can be carriers of rabies. The disease can also lead to a drive to bite others and to a bloody frothing at the mouth. \n\nPsychodynamic theories \n\nIn his 1931 treatise On the Nightmare, Welsh psychoanalyst Ernest Jones asserted that vampires are symbolic of several unconscious drives and defence mechanisms. Emotions such as love, guilt, and hate fuel the idea of the return of the dead to the grave. Desiring a reunion with loved ones, mourners may project the idea that the recently dead must in return yearn the same. From this arises the belief that folkloric vampires and revenants visit relatives, particularly their spouses, first. \n\nIn cases where there was unconscious guilt associated with the relationship, however, the wish for reunion may be subverted by anxiety. This may lead to repression, which Sigmund Freud had linked with the development of morbid dread. Jones surmised in this case the original wish of a (sexual) reunion may be drastically changed: desire is replaced by fear; love is replaced by sadism, and the object or loved one is replaced by an unknown entity. The sexual aspect may or may not be present. Some modern critics have proposed a simpler theory: People identify with immortal vampires because, by so doing, they overcome, or at least temporarily escape from, their fear of dying. \n\nThe innate sexuality of bloodsucking can be seen in its intrinsic connection with cannibalism and folkloric one with incubus-like behaviour. Many legends report various beings draining other fluids from victims, an unconscious association with semen being obvious. Finally Jones notes that when more normal aspects of sexuality are repressed, regressed forms may be expressed, in particular sadism; he felt that oral sadism is integral in vampiric behaviour. \n\nPolitical interpretations \n\nThe reinvention of the vampire myth in the modern era is not without political overtones. The aristocratic Count Dracula, alone in his castle apart from a few demented retainers, appearing only at night to feed on his peasantry, is symbolic of the parasitic Ancien regime. In his entry for \"Vampires\" in the Dictionnaire philosophique (1764), Voltaire notices how the end of the 18th century coincided with the decline of the folkloric belief in the existence of vampires but that now \"there were stock-jobbers, brokers, and men of business, who sucked the blood of the people in broad daylight; but they were not dead, though corrupted. These true suckers lived not in cemeteries, but in very agreeable palaces\". \n\nMarx defined capital as \"dead labour which, vampire-like, lives only by sucking living labour, and lives the more, the more labour it sucks\". Werner Herzog, in his Nosferatu the Vampyre, gives this political interpretation an extra ironic twist when protagonist Jonathon Harker, a middle-class solicitor, becomes the next vampire; in this way the capitalist bourgeois becomes the next parasitic class. \n\nPsychopathology \n\nA number of murderers have performed seemingly vampiric rituals upon their victims. Serial killers Peter Kürten and Richard Trenton Chase were both called \"vampires\" in the tabloids after they were discovered drinking the blood of the people they murdered. Similarly, in 1932, an unsolved murder case in Stockholm, Sweden was nicknamed the \"Vampire murder\", because of the circumstances of the victim's death. The late-16th-century Hungarian countess and mass murderer Elizabeth Báthory became particularly infamous in later centuries' works, which depicted her bathing in her victims' blood in order to retain beauty or youth. \n\nModern vampire subcultures \n\nVampire lifestyle is a term for a contemporary subculture of people, largely within the Goth subculture, who consume the blood of others as a pastime; drawing from the rich recent history of popular culture related to cult symbolism, horror films, the fiction of Anne Rice, and the styles of Victorian England. Active vampirism within the vampire subculture includes both blood-related vampirism, commonly referred to as sanguine vampirism, and psychic vampirism, or supposed feeding from pranic energy. \n\nVampire bats \n\nAlthough many cultures have stories about them, vampire bats have only recently become an integral part of the traditional vampire lore. Indeed, vampire bats were only integrated into vampire folklore when they were discovered on the South American mainland in the 16th century. Although there are no vampire bats in Europe, bats and owls have long been associated with the supernatural and omens, although mainly because of their nocturnal habits, and in modern English heraldic tradition, a bat means \"Awareness of the powers of darkness and chaos\". \n\nThe three species of actual vampire bats are all endemic to Latin America, and there is no evidence to suggest that they had any Old World relatives within human memory. It is therefore impossible that the folkloric vampire represents a distorted presentation or memory of the vampire bat. The bats were named after the folkloric vampire rather than vice versa; the Oxford English Dictionary records their folkloric use in English from 1734 and the zoological not until 1774. Although the vampire bat's bite is usually not harmful to a person, the bat has been known to actively feed on humans and large prey such as cattle and often leave the trademark, two-prong bite mark on its victim's skin.\n\nThe literary Dracula transforms into a bat several times in the novel, and vampire bats themselves are mentioned twice in it. The 1927 stage production of Dracula followed the novel in having Dracula turn into a bat, as did the film, where Béla Lugosi would transform into a bat. The bat transformation scene would again be used by Lon Chaney Jr. in 1943's Son of Dracula. \n\nIn modern fiction \n\nThe vampire is now a fixture in popular fiction. Such fiction began with 18th-century poetry and continued with 19th-century short stories, the first and most influential of which was John Polidori's The Vampyre (1819), featuring the vampire Lord Ruthven. Lord Ruthven's exploits were further explored in a series of vampire plays in which he was the anti-hero. The vampire theme continued in penny dreadful serial publications such as Varney the Vampire (1847) and culminated in the pre-eminent vampire novel of all time: Dracula by Bram Stoker, published in 1897. \n\nOver time, some attributes now regarded as integral became incorporated into the vampire's profile: fangs and vulnerability to sunlight appeared over the course of the 19th century, with Varney the Vampire and Count Dracula both bearing protruding teeth, and Murnau's Nosferatu (1922) fearing daylight. The cloak appeared in stage productions of the 1920s, with a high collar introduced by playwright Hamilton Deane to help Dracula 'vanish' on stage. Lord Ruthven and Varney were able to be healed by moonlight, although no account of this is known in traditional folklore. Implied though not often explicitly documented in folklore, immortality is one attribute which features heavily in vampire film and literature. Much is made of the price of eternal life, namely the incessant need for blood of former equals. \n\nLiterature \n\nThe vampire or revenant first appeared in poems such as The Vampire (1748) by Heinrich August Ossenfelder, Lenore (1773) by Gottfried August Bürger, Die Braut von Corinth (The Bride of Corinth) (1797) by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Robert Southey's Thalaba the Destroyer (1801), John Stagg's \"The Vampyre\" (1810), Percy Bysshe Shelley's \"The Spectral Horseman\" (1810) (\"Nor a yelling vampire reeking with gore\") and \"Ballad\" in St. Irvyne (1811) about a reanimated corpse, Sister Rosa, Samuel Taylor Coleridge's unfinished Christabel and Lord Byron's The Giaour. \n\nByron was also credited with the first prose fiction piece concerned with vampires: The Vampyre (1819). This was in reality authored by Byron's personal physician, John Polidori, who adapted an enigmatic fragmentary tale of his illustrious patient, \"Fragment of a Novel\" (1819), also known as \"The Burial: A Fragment\". Byron's own dominating personality, mediated by his lover Lady Caroline Lamb in her unflattering roman-a-clef, Glenarvon (a Gothic fantasia based on Byron's wild life), was used as a model for Polidori's undead protagonist Lord Ruthven. The Vampyre was highly successful and the most influential vampire work of the early 19th century. \n\nVarney the Vampire was a landmark popular mid-Victorian era gothic horror story by James Malcolm Rymer and Thomas Peckett Prest, which first appeared from 1845 to 1847 in a series of pamphlets generally referred to as penny dreadfuls because of their inexpensive price and typically gruesome contents. The story was published in book form in 1847 and runs to 868 double-columned pages. It has a distinctly suspenseful style, using vivid imagery to describe the horrifying exploits of Varney. Another important addition to the genre was Sheridan Le Fanu's lesbian vampire story Carmilla (1871). Like Varney before her, the vampire Carmilla is portrayed in a somewhat sympathetic light as the compulsion of her condition is highlighted. \n\nNo effort to depict vampires in popular fiction was as influential or as definitive as Bram Stoker's Dracula (1897). Its portrayal of vampirism as a disease of contagious demonic possession, with its undertones of sex, blood and death, struck a chord in Victorian Europe where tuberculosis and syphilis were common. The vampiric traits described in Stoker's work merged with and dominated folkloric tradition, eventually evolving into the modern fictional vampire.\n\nDrawing on past works such as The Vampyre and \"Carmilla\", Stoker began to research his new book in the late 19th century, reading works such as The Land Beyond the Forest (1888) by Emily Gerard and other books about Transylvania and vampires. In London, a colleague mentioned to him the story of Vlad Ţepeş, the \"real-life Dracula,\" and Stoker immediately incorporated this story into his book. The first chapter of the book was omitted when it was published in 1897, but it was released in 1914 as Dracula's Guest. \n\nThe latter part of the 20th century saw the rise of multi-volume vampire epics. The first of these was Gothic romance writer Marilyn Ross' Barnabas Collins series (1966–71), loosely based on the contemporary American TV series Dark Shadows. It also set the trend for seeing vampires as poetic tragic heroes rather than as the more traditional embodiment of evil. This formula was followed in novelist Anne Rice's highly popular and influential Vampire Chronicles (1976–2003). \n\nThe 21st century brought more examples of vampire fiction, such as J.R. Ward's Black Dagger Brotherhood series, and other highly popular vampire books which appeal to teenagers and young adults. Such vampiric paranormal romance novels and allied vampiric chick-lit and vampiric occult detective stories are a remarkably popular and ever-expanding contemporary publishing phenomenon. L.A. Banks' The Vampire Huntress Legend Series, Laurell K. Hamilton's erotic Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter series, and Kim Harrison's The Hollows series, portray the vampire in a variety of new perspectives, some of them unrelated to the original legends. Vampires in the Twilight series (2005–2008) by Stephenie Meyer ignore the effects of garlic and crosses, and are not harmed by sunlight (although it does reveal their supernatural nature). Richelle Mead further deviates from traditional vampires in her Vampire Academy series (2007–present), basing the novels on Romanian lore with two races of vampires, one good and one evil, as well as half-vampires. \n\nFilm and television \n\nConsidered one of the preeminent figures of the classic horror film, the vampire has proven to be a rich subject for the film and gaming industries. Dracula is a major character in more films than any other but Sherlock Holmes, and many early films were either based on the novel of Dracula or closely derived from it. These included the landmark 1922 German silent film Nosferatu, directed by F. W. Murnau and featuring the first film portrayal of Dracula—although names and characters were intended to mimic Draculas, Murnau could not obtain permission to do so from Stoker's widow, and had to alter many aspects of the film. In addition to this film was Universal's Dracula (1931), starring Béla Lugosi as the Count in what was the first talking film to portray Dracula. The decade saw several more vampire films, most notably Dracula's Daughter in 1936. \n\nThe legend of the vampire was cemented in the film industry when Dracula was reincarnated for a new generation with the celebrated Hammer Horror series of films, starring Christopher Lee as the Count. The successful 1958 Dracula starring Lee was followed by seven sequels. Lee returned as Dracula in all but two of these and became well known in the role. By the 1970s, vampires in films had diversified with works such as Count Yorga, Vampire (1970), an African Count in 1972's Blacula, the BBC's Count Dracula featuring French actor Louis Jourdan as Dracula and Frank Finlay as Abraham Van Helsing, and a Nosferatu-like vampire in 1979's Salem's Lot, and a remake of Nosferatu itself, titled Nosferatu the Vampyre with Klaus Kinski the same year. Several films featured female, often lesbian, vampire antagonists such as Hammer Horror's The Vampire Lovers (1970) based on Carmilla, though the plotlines still revolved around a central evil vampire character.\n\nThe pilot for the Dan Curtis 1972 television series Kolchak: The Night Stalker revolved around reporter Carl Kolchak hunting a vampire on the Las Vegas strip. Later films showed more diversity in plotline, with some focusing on the vampire-hunter, such as Blade in the Marvel Comics' Blade films and the film Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Buffy, released in 1992, foreshadowed a vampiric presence on television, with adaptation to a long-running hit TV series of the same name and its spin-off Angel. Still others showed the vampire as protagonist, such as 1983's The Hunger, 1994's Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles and its indirect sequel of sorts Queen of the Damned, and the 2007 series Moonlight. Bram Stoker's Dracula was a noteworthy 1992 film which became the then-highest grossing vampire film ever. \n\nThis increase of interest in vampiric plotlines led to the vampire being depicted in films such as Underworld and Van Helsing, and the Russian Night Watch and a TV miniseries remake of 'Salem's Lot, both from 2004. The series Blood Ties premiered on Lifetime Television in 2007, featuring a character portrayed as Henry Fitzroy, illegitimate son of Henry VIII of England turned vampire, in modern-day Toronto, with a female former Toronto detective in the starring role. A 2008 series from HBO, entitled True Blood, gives a Southern take to the vampire theme.\n\nIn 2008 the BBC Three series Being Human became popular in Britain. It featured an unconventional trio of a vampire, a werewolf and a ghost who are sharing a flat in Bristol. Another popular vampire-related show is CW's The Vampire Diaries. The continuing popularity of the vampire theme has been ascribed to a combination of two factors: the representation of sexuality and the perennial dread of mortality. \nAnother \"vampiric\" series that has come out between 2008 and 2012 is the Twilight Saga, a series of films based on the book series of the same name.\n\nIn quite another type of depiction, Count von Count, a harmless and friendly vampire parodying Bela Lugosi's depictions, is a major character on the children's television series Sesame Street. He teaches counting and simple arithmetic through his compulsion to count everything, a trait he shares with certain other vampires of folklore.\n\nThe 2005 CW series Supernatural has also depicted vampires. The main characters, Sam and Dean Winchester, along with other hunters, believe that the true way to kill a vampire is to decapitate the being.The show's vampires are shown in a rather negative light, though some are shown mercy after being found to not harm humans. \n\nGames \n\nThe role-playing game Vampire: the Masquerade has been influential upon modern vampire fiction and elements of its terminology, such as embrace and sire, appear in contemporary fiction. Popular video games about vampires include Castlevania, which is an extension of the original Bram Stoker Dracula novel, and Legacy of Kain. Vampires are also sporadically portrayed in other games, including The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, when a character can become afflicted with porphyric haemophilia. A different take on vampires is presented in Bethesda's other game Fallout 3 with \"The Family\". Members of the Family are afflicted with a manic desire to consume human flesh, but restrict themselves to drinking blood to avoid becoming complete monsters. \n\nNotes", "A vampire hunter or vampire slayer is a character in folklore and fiction who specializes in finding and destroying vampires, and sometimes other supernatural creatures. A vampire hunter is usually described as having extensive knowledge of vampires and other monstrous creatures, including their powers and weaknesses, and uses this knowledge to effectively combat them. In many works, vampire hunters are simply humans with more than average knowledge about the occult, while in others they are themselves supernatural beings, having superhuman abilities. A well known and influential vampire hunter is Professor Abraham Van Helsing, a character in Bram Stoker's 1897 horror novel, Dracula.\n\nVampire hunters in folklore\n\n\"Professional\" or semi-professional vampire hunters played some part in the vampire beliefs of the Balkans (especially in Bulgarian, Serbian, and Romani folk beliefs). In Bulgarian, the terms used to designate them included glog (lit. \"hawthorn\", the species of wood used for the stake), vampirdzhiya, vampirar, dzhadazhiya, svetocher.\n\nThey were usually either born on Saturday (then called Sabbatarians,. Cited in Bulgarian sâbotnichav,Димитрова, Иваничка. 1983. Българска народна митология. [http://umotvorenia.bgrod.org/index.php?optioncom_content&task\nview&id132&Itemid\n46 Online article (Bulgarian)] Greek sabbatianoí) or the offspring of a vampire and a woman (typically his widow), called a dhampir in Romani or a vampirović in Serbian. It was also believed that someone born on a Saturday could see a vampire when it was otherwise invisible (and sometimes other supernatural entities as well); similarly for the dhampir. In the case of the Sabbatarians, it was believed in some places that they needed to be fed meat from a sheep killed by a wolf (Bulgarian vâlkoedene); this would enable them not to fear the things that only they were able to see. In Croatian and Slovenian legends, the villages had their own vampire hunters that were called kresniks, whose spirits were able to turn into animals at night to fight off the vampire or kudlak.\n\n Петровић, Сретен. 2000. Основи демонологије. In: Систем српске митологије. Просвета, Ниш 2000. [http://svevlad.org.rs/knjige_files/petrovic_mitologija.html#vampir Online (Serbian)]\n\nVampire hunters in fiction\n\nThe vampire hunter has found new popularity in modern fiction and popular culture.\n\nThe most widely known example of a vampire hunter is Abraham Van Helsing of the novel Dracula and in other works of fiction adapting or modifying that work. Other more recent figures include Buffy \"the Vampire Slayer\" Summers from the television show and film of the same name. Buffy's spin-off series Angel is also focused on a vampire hunter, the titular star, Angel \"the World's Champion,\" a vampire himself, is often portrayed battling vampires. Vampire hunters have also appeared in video games, such as BloodRayne.\n\nAs well as being knowledgeable about vampire lore, vampire hunters in fiction are often armed with an eclectic mix of items and weapons which are designed to take maximum advantage of the monster's traditional weaknesses. These have included firearms with silver ammunition, appropriate religious symbols, crossbows that fire all wood bolts and even waterguns filled with blessed holy water in the movies The Lost Boys and From Dusk Till Dawn.\n\nThe organizational strength of depicted vampire hunters can vary wildly. Most hunter characters are in small groups working alone and in secret. By contrast, the Hellsing Organization in the anime television series, Hellsing is a British government paramilitary strike force with access to troops, heavy combat vehicles and weapons and even allied vampires.\n\nWhile predominantly depicted as human, examples of other types of vampire hunters also exist. Dhampiric figures, having a mix of human and vampire blood, are a popular form. Alucard from the Castlevania series, and the eponymous hero of the Blade series of comic books, movies, television series, and anime, are both examples of dhampir vampire-hunters. Even rarer are vampire hunters that are vampires themselves. Two examples of this type can be found in Morbius from Ultimate Spider-Man, and Zero Kiryuu in the manga and anime series Vampire Knight.\n\nThe image of the vampire hunter is often a mysterious and dramatic avenging hero, an eccentric extremist, a Mad scientist or sometimes a mix of both. A hunter may be a heroic figure, a villain (from the perspective of the vampire), a lonesome avenger, or sometimes, although not usually, a bounty hunter-style character, hunting Vampires for profit. Vampire hunters have also popularly been depicted as hunting various creatures such as werewolves, demons, and other forms of undead as well. Others have been depicted as mages and cyborgs. Vampire hunters are often associated with and/or members of the clergy, holy orders, or other religious organizations which may be dedicated to fighting vampires, demons, and other supernatural forces. Vampire hunting as a family tradition or birthright is a popular use of the archetype in fiction, such as the Belmont family from the Castlevania series. Some Hunters devote their entire lives to the eradication of vampires, for others it is just a strange hobby.\n\nOf course with the job for human hunter, comes the risk of getting bitten and turned into vampires themselves. More often than not fellow hunters usually do mercy killing to prevent them from becoming monsters, though in some fiction it may be possible for a hunter to purify and/or cure themselves (and/or others) of vampirism, especially if the person in question was recently turned into a vampire. Another common trope is hunters being forced to slay their loved ones and/or allies who have been turned into vampires. Alternatively, after becoming a vampire, sometimes hunters will continue to fight and hunt vampires using their newly acquired vampire powers/abilities (sometimes being hunted by their former allies and other human vampire hunters). In addition to human hunters, dhampirs, and vampires that hunt other vampires, it is not uncommon for vampire hunters to be other supernatural creatures such as werewolves or witches. Additionally, some human hunters may possess divine/holy powers, superhuman, and/or other supernatural abilities that they can use both to fight and protect themselves from vampires and other supernatural entities they hunt. Some hunters may even resort to using dark powers/weapons (usually dark magic and/or demonic in nature). Some human hunters may even be tempted to become vampires themselves in order to obtain their powers and immortality, either to continue hunting them, due to fear of their own mortality, and/or simply a lust for power.\n\nList of vampire hunters in fiction\n\n* Abraham Lincoln from the novel Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter by Seth Grahame-Smith and the film Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. \n* Abraham Van Helsing, Quincey Morris, Jonathan Harker, Mina Harker, Dr. John Seward, and Arthur Holmwood from the novel, Dracula, and some of its adaptations and spin-offs.\n* Vampire Hunter D, a half human, half vampire, vampire hunter from the novels, manga and anime Vampire Hunter, Vampire Hunter D, Vampire Hunter D+, and Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust. He is defined as a solo man who professionally hunts vampires during the year 12,090, a time in which all demonic and mythological terrors run rampant and control the wastelands.\n* Castlevania:\n** Alucard (Adrian Farenheits Țepeș) the son of Dracula, one of the protagonists of the Castlevania series. Due to his human mother, Lisa, Alucard is a dhampir, a half-human, half-vampire.\n** The Belmont Clan and the Morris family from the Castlevania series of video games. Almost all the main characters of Castlevania could be called vampire hunters.\n* Castlevania: Lords of Shadow\n** Gabriel Belmont/Dracula an 11th-century holy knight who fights as a member of the Brotherhood of Light. He is manipulated by Lord of the Necromancers, Zobek (the Lord of Shadows series incarnation of Death) to kill his beloved wife and sent on a quest to defeat the other two Lords of Shadow, the Lord of Werewolves, Cornell and Vampire Queen, Carmilla in order to collect the pieces of the God Mask which Zobek claims. It is eventually revealed that Zobek was in turn manipulated by the fallen angel Satan who Gabriel manages to defeat. However Gabriel discovers the God Mask cannot bring Marie back and that it only allows him to see through God's eyes. While trying to stop a powerful ancient demon known as The Forgotten One he is forced to become a vampire in order to enter its prison and eventually takes the demon's power for himself, becoming the immortal Lord of Vampires, Dracula. Surviving to modern times, he is forced to team up with Zobek in order to stop Satan and his acolytes from seek revenge on them both and seeks to end his immortality. However it is later revealed that Dracula and his son Alucard conspired to eliminate both Zobek and Satan, and in the process redeems himself. \n** Trevor Belmont/Alucard Gabriel and his wife Marie Belmont's son who's existence was kept from his father by the Brotherhood of Light as they were aware that Gabriel would eventually become the vampire, Dracula. As an adult, Trevor was told the truth of his heritage and Gabriel's role as his mother's murderer. Trevor becomes determined to slay the monster his father has become and faces Dracula in his castle. However he is fatally wounded during their encounter and discovering the truth of his father's past, pity's Dracula revealing his parentage to Gabriel. A horrified Gabriel use his blood in an attempt to revive Trevor and seeks vengeance upon the Brotherhood for its deception. Believing his son to be dead, he places his son in a coffin on the site of their battle. Years later Trevor awakes as the vampire, Alucard and aids his adult son, Simon Belmont in defeating Dracula. After Dracula's defeat, Alucard seeks to find a way to free his father from his cursed existence and as well as aiding his father in defeating his old enemies Zobek and Satan. Unlike in original Castlevania series, Alucard is a full vampire instead of a Dhampir.\n*Lucy Coe, a popular character on General Hospital since 1986, was revealed to be descended from a long line of vampire slayers on the spinoff Port Charles. This included her undead cousin 'Rafe Kovich'. All supernatural elements were never mentioned on the mother series until 2013. While originally explaining that the supernatural events on the spinoff were all in Lucy's mind, it has since been strongly implied that they did indeed occur but were erased from the town's collective memory.\n* John Constantine, a magician, con man, and occult detective who occasionally fights vampires in stories from the Hellblazer and I...Vampire.\n* Hellsing:\n** Alucard (Dracula backwards) is a vampire from the Hellsing Organization, who, along with his master Integra Hellsing; servant/daughter/offspring, Seras Victoria; (retired) old friend, Walter C. Dornez; and Wild Geese captain, Pip Bernadotte hunt other vampires.\n** Alexander Anderson works for the Vatican's secret Iscariot Organization (Section XIII), who act like the Hellsing Organization, but are more fundamental, and serve to fight for Catholicism, as opposed to Hellsing protecting the Protestantism. Iscariot is more radical and fundamental exterminating any humans who ally themselves with the undead. Other members include their leader, Bishop (later Archbishop) Enrico Maxwell,his adviser Renaldo and other assassins, Heinkel Wolfe and Yumie Takagi.\n* Django from the Boktai game series is a Vampire Hunter who seeks revenge over Count of Groundsoaking Blood (known as Count Hakushaku in Japan) for killing his father, Red Ringo. The sequel series of Boktai, Lunar Knights, known in Japan as Bokura no Taiyou DS: Django & Sabata (ボクらの太陽DS: Django & Sabata lit. \"Our Sun DS: Django & Sabata\"), also feature another vampire hunter named Lucian, known as Sabata in the Japanese release, who seeks revenge upon Duke Dumas for kidnapping and killing his beloved Ellen.\n* Nick, Sean, and Megan from the film The Forsaken race against time to hunt down one of the first Vampires in existence.\n* Dr. Hesselius, from J. Sheridan Le Fanu collection of supernatural tales In a Glass Darkly.\n* Buffy the Vampire Slayer:\n** Buffy Summers, Slayers and other characters from the Buffy the Vampire Slayer film, TV series and comics.\n** Angel from the Buffy the Vampire Slayer spinoff show Angel, the only vampire with a soul, until the vampire Spike gains a soul and joins the rest of the cast in vampire hunting.\n* Marley Davidson from the comic book series Marley Davidson, an exorcist and monster hunter.\n* Father Callahan from the Stephen King novels 'Salem's Lot and the Dark Tower series.\n* Solomon Kane, a character appearing in many works by Robert E. Howard.\n* Blade:\n** Blade, a vampire hunter featured by Marvel Comics and a trilogy of films of the same name, as well a television series and an anime. In his original comic appearances, Blade is a highly skilled human with immunity to vampirism. In later appearances as well as in the films, he is a dhampir, a half-vampire.\n** Abraham Whistler, Abigail Whistler and Hannibal King from the third film of the Blade series, Blade: Trinity. Hannibal takes the form of an ex-vampire who was subsequently cured of his affliction and took up hunting out of a desire for revenge.\n* Karl Vincent. Karl Vincent is the chief protagonist from the novel Last Rites: The Return of Sebastian Vasilis and is featured in the comic book Karl Vincent: Vampire Hunter. \n* The Sinclair Family from the anime version of Karin is sworn to hunt down the vampires of the Marker Clan.\n* The Sarafan knights from the Legacy of Kain series of video games. Also, the non-Sarafan vampire slayers, from the first game in the series (Blood Omen 1).\n* Donovan Baine, of the Darkstalkers series of video games and animated series, also a dhampir.\n* Rayne from the video game series and movies BloodRayne is a vampire hunter and also a dhampir. Also, most of the Spookhouse members, from Nocturne (BloodRayne is a spin-off of Nocturne).\n* Jack Crow, and his \"Team Crow\" from the book Vampire$ by John Steakly, later adapted by John Carpenter for his movie Vampires.\n* Derek Bliss, from the movie Vampires: Los Muertos, also presented by John Carpenter as a pseudo sequel to the first movie.\n* Anita Blake from Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter series of novels.\n* Gabriel Van Helsing from the movie Van Helsing. Van Helsing is a member of a large organization called the Knights of the Holy Order who protect mankind from an evil they 'have no idea even exists'.\n* Edgar Frog, Alan Frog, and Sam Emerson from The Lost Boys movie.\n* Harry Keogh and others with E-Branch in Brian Lumley's Necroscope series.\n* Victoria Gardella from the The Gardella Vampire Chronicles series of historical novels beginning with The Rest Falls Away.\n* Steve \"Leopard\" Leonard, from the Cirque Du Freak books by Darren Shan.\n* Captain Kronos, Vampire Hunter, from the 1974 film of the same name.\n* Peter Vincent and Charley Brewster from the film Fright Night and its sequel Fright Night Part II.\n* Hoss Delgado of The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy is a spectral exterminator who claims to have confronted vampires, among other paranormal entities.\n* Dr. Von Goosewing, an inept German goose that claims to be an expert, \"greatest wampire hunter in ze vorld\" in the Cosgrove Hall show Count Duckula.\n* Carlisle Cullen, in the novel Twilight by Stephenie Meyer, Carlisle hunted vampires with his father, a local priest, before becoming one himself.\n* Rashel Jordan, from the book The Chosen in the Night World series by L.J. Smith. Rashel killed her first vampire when she was 9, some years after the same vampire killed her mother and aunt. She later falls in love with a vampire.\n* Magiere and Leesil, the former a dhampir and the latter half-elven hunt vampires with fey-dog, Chap. From Dhampir by Barb and J.C. Hendee.\n* Adrian Kane, a vampire hunter trying to find the vampire who has his brother's soul from Teresa Medeiros's After Midnight.\n* Robert Neville in Richard Matheson's novel I Am Legend, kills vampires while they sleep during the day.\n* Gregory Salazar in Vampire Lesbians of Sodom, a play by Charles Busch. Salazar disguises himself in drag as a gossip columnist to get close to the two titular vampires who are 1930s movie stars.\n* Mercedes \"Mercy\" Thompson, a character created by Patricia Briggs, a Native American coyote shape-shifter who can see ghosts and is a Volkswagen mechanic of Tri-cities, WA. Slew two vampires in the book, Blood Bound the second book of the Mercy Thompson novels. Additionally she killed two rogue werewolves in the first book in the series Moon Called, a human rapist in Iron Kissed (third in the series), and another vampire in the fourth book Bone Crossed.\n* Kuroe Kurose from the manga Blood Alone. He is immune to vampire's hypnosis.\n* Michael Colefield and the covert paramilitary forces of Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith from the 1998 British television serial Ultraviolet.\n* Jesus Christ, as depicted in the Canadian cult film Jesus Christ Vampire Hunter.\n* Touga Yagari and Zero Kiryu from the manga and anime Vampire Knight.\n* Damali Richards and The Guardians Team from the Leslie Esdaile Banks books The Vampire Huntress Legend Series.\n* Christiano Pena from the Brazilian soap-opera Os Mutantes - Caminhos do Coração. He is a mutant with vast psychokinetic abilities such telekinesis, pyrokinesis, hydrokinesis and atmokinesis, and he is fanatical vampire slayer. He desires to destroy the series' one protagonist, the benevelont female vampire Natália.\n* Saya, a dhampir from the Blood: The Last Vampire films.\n* Special Deputy Jameson Arkeley, A Special Deputy U.S. Marshal tasked with hunting down the last remaining vampires in David Wellington's Thirteen Bullets.\n* In Tsukihime, Arcueid is a True Ancestor, a variation of a vampire, tasked with eliminating Dead Apostles, another variation of vampires. Ciel is a member of the Burial Agency, an organization within the Vatican, that specializes in hunting vampires and other supernatural beings.\n* Joss Mcmillian, became a vampire slayer after his sister was killed by one. From the Chronicles of Vladimir Tod by Heather Brewer.\n* The Soldiers of the Sun, a militia run by the Fellowship of the Sun, a Christian anti-vampire group from the television series True Blood. Members include Jason Stackhouse and Luke McDonald.\n* Sam and Dean Winchester, from the US drama and horror television series Supernatural. The two brothers were trained by their father to be destroyers of malicious supernatural creatures, some of which happen to be vampires. Episodes containing vampire and/or vampire-like creatures include Bloody Mary, Scarecrow, Dead Man's Blood, Blood Lust, Fresh Blood, A Very Supernatural Christmas, Monster Movie, and When the Levee Breaks.\n* Sonja Blue from Nancy A. Collins's novel Sunglasses After Dark and its sequels is an almost-vampire who hunts other vampires, along with other supernatural monsters.\n* \"Mister\" from the film Stake Land.\n* Harry Dresden from Jim Butcher's Dresden Files series, has on several occasions encountered and killed Vampires.\n*In the video game The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim – Dawnguard, the player is introduced to a group of vampire hunters called the Dawnguard.\n* The Vampire Diaries- Jeremy Gilbert comes from a line of Vampire Hunters and takes up his birthright after becoming a member of The Five, an elite group of Vampire Hunters. He stakes the original vampire, Kol, in an attempt to discover the cure for vampirism (revealed on his Hunter Mark after killing vampires.) Alaric Saltzman is another prominent vampire hunter who is eventually killed after becoming an Original himself. There are many more, these two being the main hunter characters.\n* Professor Timothy Eliot Stokes from the 1960s gothic television series Dark Shadows is an erudite scholar and professor of the occult. He battles a variety of supernatural beings over the course of the series, and is often instrumental in helping to resolve supernatural happenings at Collinwood. Stokes is the principal vampire hunter in the film House of Dark Shadows. \n* Carl Kolchak - as seen in the 1970s TV movie and television series Kolchak: The Night Stalker - Newspaper reporter Carl Kolchak has been described as \"the everyman's Van Helsing.\" In his first outing, he tracks down and hunts the vampire Janos Skorzeny. Throughout the series, Kolchak investigates sundry cases, often dealing with supernatural creatures in the process.\n* Night World - In the tome 5, Rachel is a vampire hunter, along with some of her friends, as they track down Quinn, a vampire that sells humans. In the tome 7, Jez, half-human half-vampire, becomes a vampire hunter, when she remembers her mother is a human.\n* Eric Van Helsing, his son Jonathan, and his wife Mina, from the British teenage horror television series Young Dracula. Eric Van Helsing is a certified, but incompetent Vampire Slayer who spends the majority of the series exposing and killing the Dracula family. His son initially does not believe in vampires, but later discovers the truth and joins his father. After Eric's death, his wife Mina becomes the main Vampire Slayer in the series.\n\nVampire hunters in games\n\nHunter: The Vigil is a tabletop roleplaying game in which players control characters who hunt monsters, including vampires.\n\nThere is a vampire-hunter board game from Milton Bradley called Vampire Hunter. \n\nThe Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim – Dawnguard's main quest features a faction of vampire hunters called the Dawnguard who attempt to stop a powerful vampire clan. The player may choose to join them, or alternatively to side with the vampires.\n\nOther\n\nOne person claiming to be a modern vampire hunter is Seán Manchester of Highgate Vampire fame.", "Dracula is an 1897 Gothic horror novel by Irish author Bram Stoker, famous for introducing the character of the vampire Count Dracula. \n\nThe novel tells the story of Dracula's attempt to move from Transylvania to England so that he may find new blood and spread the undead curse, and of the battle between Dracula and a small group of men and women led by Professor Abraham Van Helsing.\n\nDracula has been assigned to many literary genres including vampire literature, horror fiction, the gothic novel, and invasion literature. Stoker did not invent the vampire but he defined its modern form, and the novel has spawned numerous theatrical, film, and television interpretations.\n\nPlot summary\n\nThe story is told in epistolary format, as a series of letters, diary entries, and ships' log entries, whose narrators are the novel's protagonists, and occasionally supplemented with newspaper clippings relating events not directly witnessed. The events portrayed in the novel take place chronologically and largely in England and Transylvania during the 1890s and all transpire within the same year between the 3rd of May and the 6th of November. A short note is located at the end of the final chapter written 7 years after the events outlined in the novel.\n\nThe tale begins with Jonathan Harker, a newly qualified English solicitor, visiting Count Dracula in the Carpathian Mountains on the border of Transylvania, Bukovina, and Moldavia, to provide legal support for a real estate transaction overseen by Harker's employer. At first enticed by Dracula's gracious manners, Harker soon realizes that he is Dracula's prisoner. Wandering the Count's castle against Dracula's admonition, Harker encounters three female vampires, called \"the sisters\", from whom he is rescued by Dracula. After the preparations are made, Dracula leaves Transylvania and abandons Harker to the sisters. Harker barely escapes from the castle with his life.\n\nNot long afterward, a Russian ship, the Demeter, having weighed anchor at Varna, runs aground on the shores of Whitby. The captain's log narrates the gradual disappearance of the entire crew, until the captain alone remained, himself bound to the helm to maintain course. An animal resembling \"a large dog\" is seen leaping ashore. The ship's cargo is described as silver sand and 50 boxes of \"mould\", or earth, from Transylvania. It is later learned that Dracula successfully purchased multiple estates under the alias 'Count De Ville' throughout London and devised to distribute the 50 boxes to each of them utilizing transportation services as well as moving them himself. He does this to secure for himself \"lairs\" and the 50 boxes of earth would be used as his graves which would grant safety and rest during times of feeding and replenishing his strength.\n\nSoon Dracula is indirectly shown to be stalking Lucy Westenra, who happens to live in Whitby. As time passes she begins to suffer from episodes of sleepwalking and dementia. Lucy receives three marriage proposals from Dr. John Seward, Quincey Morris, and Arthur Holmwood (the son of Lord Godalming who later obtains the title himself ). Lucy accepts Holmwood's proposal while turning down Seward and Morris, but all remain friends. Dracula communicates with Seward's patient Renfield, an insane man who wishes to consume insects, spiders, birds, and rats to absorb their \"life force\". Renfield is able to detect Dracula's presence and supplies clues accordingly.\n\nWhen Lucy begins to waste away suspiciously, Seward invites his old teacher, Abraham Van Helsing, who immediately determines the true cause of Lucy's condition. He refuses to disclose it but diagnoses her with acute blood-loss. Helsing prescribes numerous blood transfusions to which Dr. Seward, Helsing, Quincey and Arthur all contribute over time. Helsing also prescribes flowers to be placed throughout her room and weaves a necklace of withered Garlic Blossoms for her to wear as well. She however continues to waste away - appearing to lose blood every night. While both doctors are absent, Lucy and her mother are attacked by a wolf; Mrs. Westenra, who has a heart condition, dies of fright. Van Helsing attempts to protect her with garlic but fate thwarts him each night, whether Lucy's mother removes the garlic from her room, or Lucy herself does so in her restless sleep. The doctors have found two small puncture marks about her neck, which Dr. Seward is at a loss to understand. Helsing then places a crucifix around her neck, but soon after she is discovered dead with the crucifix missing. Helsing discovers that one of the nurses stole it the night before.\n\nFollowing Lucy's death, the newspapers report children being stalked in the night by a \"bloofer lady\" (i.e., \"beautiful lady\"). Van Helsing, knowing Lucy has become a vampire, confides in Seward, Lord Godalming, and Morris. The suitors and Van Helsing track her down and, after a confrontation with her, stake her heart, behead her, and fill her mouth with garlic. Around the same time, Jonathan Harker arrives from Budapest, where Mina marries him after his escape, and he and Mina join the campaign against Dracula.\n\nThe vampire hunters stay at Dr. Seward's residence, holding nightly meetings and providing reports based on each of their various tasks. Mina discovers that each of their journals and letters collectively contain clues to which they can track him down. She tasks herself with collecting them, researching newspaper clippings, fitting the most relevant entries into chronological order and typing out copies to distribute to each of the party which they are to study. Jonathan Harker tracks down the shipments of boxed graves and the estates which Dracula has purchased in order to store them. Van Helsing conducts research along with Dr. Seward to analyze the behavior of their patient Renfield who they learn is directly influenced by Dracula. They also research historical events, folklore, and superstitions from various cultures to understand Dracula's powers and weaknesses. Van Helsing also establishes a criminal profile on Dracula in order to better understand his actions and predict his movements. Arthur Holmwood's fortune assists in funding the entire operation and expenses. As they learn the various properties Dracula had purchased, the male protagonists team up to raid each property and are several times confronted by Dracula. As they discover each of the boxed graves scattered throughout London, they pry them open to place and seal wafers of sacramental bread within. This act renders the boxes of earth completely useless to Dracula as he is unable to open, enter or further transport them.\n\nAfter Dracula learns of the group's plot against him, he attacks Mina on three occasions, and feeds Mina his own blood to control her. This curses Mina with vampirism and changes her but does not completely turn her into a vampire. Van Helsing attempts to bless Mina through prayer and by placing a wafer of sacrament against her forehead, although it burns her upon contact leaving a wretched scar. Under this curse, Mina oscillates from consciousness to a semi-trance during which she perceives Dracula's surroundings and actions. Van Helsing is able to use hypnotism at the hour of dawn and put her into this trance to further track his movements. Mina, afraid of Dracula's link with her, urges the team not to tell her their plans out of fear that Dracula will be listening. After the protagonists discover and sterilize 49 boxes found throughout his lairs in London, they learn that Dracula has fled with the missing 50th box back to his castle in Transylvania. They pursue him under the guidance of Mina. They split up into teams once they reach Europe; Van Helsing and Mina team up to locate the castle of Dracula while the others attempt to ambush the boat Dracula is using to reach his home. Van Helsing raids the castle and destroys the vampire \"sisters\". Upon discovering Dracula being transported by Gypsies, Harker shears Dracula through the throat with a kukri while the mortally wounded Quincey stabs the Count in the heart with a Bowie knife. Dracula crumbles to dust, and Mina is freed from her curse of vampirism.\n\nThe book closes with a note left by Jonathan Harker seven years after the events of the novel, detailing his married life with Mina and the birth of their son, whom they name after all four members of the party, but address as \"Quincey\". Quincey is depicted sitting on the knee of Van Helsing as they recount their adventure.\n\n\"Dracula's Guest\"\n\nThe short story \"Dracula's Guest\" was posthumously published in 1914, two years after Stoker's death. It was, according to most contemporary critics, the deleted first (or second) chapter from the original manuscript and the one which gave the volume its name, but which the original publishers deemed unnecessary to the overall story.\n\n\"Dracula's Guest\" follows an unnamed Englishman traveller as he wanders around Munich before leaving for Transylvania. It is Walpurgis Night and the young Englishman foolishly leaves his hotel, in spite of the coachman's warnings, and wanders through a dense forest alone. Along the way, he feels that he is being watched by a tall and thin stranger (possibly Count Dracula).\n\nThe short story climaxes in an old graveyard, where the Englishman encounters a sleeping female vampire called Countess Dolingen in a marble tomb with a large iron stake driven into it. This malevolent and beautiful vampire awakens from her marble bier to conjure a snowstorm before being struck by lightning and returning to her eternal prison. However, the Englishman's troubles are not quite over, as he is dragged away by an unseen force and rendered unconscious. He awakens to find a \"gigantic\" wolf lying on his chest and licking at his throat; however, the wolf merely keeps him warm and protects him until help arrives.\n\nWhen the Englishman is finally taken back to his hotel, a telegram awaits him from his expectant host Dracula, with a warning about \"dangers from snow and wolves and night\".\n\nDeleted ending \n\nA small section was removed from the original final chapter, in which Dracula's castle falls apart as he dies, hiding the fact that vampires were ever there. \n\nCharacters\n\n* Jonathan Harker: A solicitor sent to do business with Count Dracula; Mina's fiancé and prisoner in Dracula's castle. \n* Count Dracula: A Transylvanian noble who has purchased a house in London.\n* Wilhelmina \"Mina\" Harker (née Murray): A schoolteacher and Jonathan Harker's fiancée. \n* Lucy Westenra: A 19-year-old aristocrat; Mina's best friend; Arthur's fiancée and Dracula's first victim. \n* Arthur Holmwood: Lucy's suitor and later fiancé. \n* John Seward: A doctor; one of Lucy's suitors and a former student of Van Helsing.\n* Abraham Van Helsing: A Dutch doctor, lawyer and professor; John Seward's teacher. \n* Quincey Morris: An American cowboy and explorer; and one of Lucy's suitors.\n* Renfield: A patient at Seward's insane asylum who has come under the influence of Dracula.\n* \"Weird Sisters\": Three siren-like vampire women who serve Dracula. In some of the plays, films etc. that came after the novel they are referred to as the Brides of Dracula.\n\nBackground\n\nBetween 1879 and 1898, Stoker was a business manager for the world-famous Lyceum Theatre in London, where he supplemented his income by writing a large number of sensational novels, his most famous being the vampire tale Dracula published on 26 May 1897. Parts of it are set around the town of Whitby, where he spent summer holidays.\n\nThroughout the 1880s and 1890s, authors such as H. Rider Haggard, Rudyard Kipling, Robert Louis Stevenson, Arthur Conan Doyle, and H. G. Wells wrote many tales in which fantastic creatures threatened the British Empire. Invasion literature was at a peak, and Stoker's formula was very familiar by 1897 to readers of fantastic adventure stories, of an invasion of England by continental European influences. Victorian readers enjoyed Dracula as a good adventure story like many others, but it did not reach its iconic legendary status until later in the 20th century when film versions began to appear. \n \n\nBefore writing Dracula, Stoker spent seven years researching European folklore and stories of vampires, being most influenced by Emily Gerard's 1885 essay \"Transylvania Superstitions\". Later he also claimed that he had a nightmare, caused by eating too much crab meat covered with mayonnaise sauce, about a \"vampire king\" rising from his grave.\n\nDespite being the most widely known vampire novel, Dracula was not the first. It was preceded and partly inspired by Sheridan Le Fanu's 1871 Carmilla, about a lesbian vampire who preys on a lonely young woman, and by Varney the Vampire, a lengthy penny dreadful serial from the mid-Victorian period by James Malcolm Rymer. John Polidori created the image of a vampire portrayed as an aristocratic man, like the character of Dracula, in his tale \"The Vampyre\" (1819). (He wrote Vampyre during a summer which he spent with Frankenstein creator Mary Shelley, her husband poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, and Lord Byron in 1816.)\n\nThe Lyceum Theatre where Stoker worked between 1878 and 1898 was headed by actor-manager Henry Irving, who was Stoker's real-life inspiration for Dracula's mannerisms and who Stoker hoped would play Dracula in a stage version. Irving never did agree to do a stage version, but Dracula's dramatic sweeping gestures and gentlemanly mannerisms drew their living embodiment from Irving.\n\nThe Dead Un-Dead was one of Stoker's original titles for Dracula, and the manuscript was entitled simply The Un-Dead up until a few weeks before publication. Stoker's notes for Dracula show that the name of the count was originally \"Count Wampyr\", but Stoker became intrigued by the name \"Dracula\" while doing research, after reading William Wilkinson's book An Account of the Principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia with Political Observations Relative to Them (London 1820), which he found in the Whitby Library and consulted a number of times during visits to Whitby in the 1890s. The name Dracula was the patronym (Drăculea) of the descendants of Vlad II of Wallachia, who took the name \"Dracul\" after being invested in the Order of the Dragon in 1431. In the Romanian language, the word dracul (Romanian drac \"dragon\" + -ul \"the\") can mean either \"the dragon\" or, especially in the present day, \"the devil\". \n\nDracula was copyrighted in the United States in 1899 with the publication by Doubleday & McClure of New York. But when Universal Studios purchased the rights, it came to light that Bram Stoker had not complied with a portion of US copyright law, placing the novel into the public domain. In the United Kingdom and other countries following the Berne Convention on copyrights, the novel was under copyright until April 1962, fifty years after Stoker's death. \n\nF. W. Murnau's unauthorized film adaptation Nosferatu was released in 1922, and the popularity of the novel increased considerably, owing to the controversy caused when Stoker's widow tried to have the film removed from public circulation. Florence Stoker sued the film company and won; however, the company was bankrupt, and Stoker only recovered her legal fees and an order by the court for all copies of the film to be destroyed. Some copies survived and found their way into theatres. Eventually, Florence Stoker simply gave up the fight against public displays of the film.\n\nReaction and scholarly criticism\n\nDracula was not an immediate bestseller when it was first published in 1897, although reviewers were unstinting in their praise. The contemporary Daily Mail ranked Stoker's powers above those of Mary Shelley and Edgar Allan Poe, as well as Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights. \n\nAccording to literary historians Nina Auerbach and David J. Skal in the Norton Critical Edition, the novel has become more significant for modern readers than it was for Victorian readers, most of whom enjoyed it just as a good adventure story. It reached its broad, iconic, legendary, classic status only later in the 20th century when the movie versions appeared. A. Asbjørn Jøn has also noted that Dracula has had a significant impact on the image of the vampire in popular culture, folklore, and legend. \n\nIt did not make much money for Stoker. The last year of his life, he was so poor that he had to petition for a compassionate grant from the Royal Literary Fund, and his widow was forced to sell his notes and outlines of the novel at a Sotheby's auction in 1913, where they were purchased for a little over 2 pounds. But then F. W. Murnau's unauthorized adaptation of the story was released in theatres in 1922 in the form of Nosferatu. Stoker's widow took affront and, during the legal battle that followed, the novel's popularity started to grow.\n\nNosferatu was followed by a highly successful stage adaptation, touring the UK for three years before arriving in the US where Stoker's creation caught Hollywood's attention and, after the American 1931 movie version was released, the book has never been out of print. \n\nHowever, some Victorian fans were ahead of the time, describing it as \"the sensation of the season\" and \"the most blood-curdling novel of the paralysed century\". Sherlock Holmes author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote to Stoker in a letter, \"I write to tell you how very much I have enjoyed reading Dracula. I think it is the very best story of diablerie which I have read for many years.\" The Daily Mail review of 1 June 1897 proclaimed it a classic of Gothic horror, \"In seeking a parallel to this weird, powerful, and horrorful story our mind reverts to such tales as The Mysteries of Udolpho, Frankenstein, The Fall of the House of Usher ... but Dracula is even more appalling in its gloomy fascination than any one of these.\" \n\nSimilarly good reviews appeared when the book was published in the U.S. in 1899. The first American edition was published by Doubleday & McClure in New York.\n\nIn the last several decades, literary and cultural scholars have offered diverse analyses of Stoker's novel and the character of Count Dracula. C.F. Bentley reads Dracula as an embodiment of the Freudian id. Carol A. Senf reads the novel as a response to the powerful New Woman, while Christopher Craft sees Dracula as embodying latent homosexuality. Stephen D. Arata interprets the events of the novel as anxiety over colonialism and racial mixing, and Talia Schaffer construes the novel as an indictment of Oscar Wilde. Franco Moretti reads Dracula as a figure of monopoly capitalism, though Hollis Robbins suggests that Dracula's inability to participate in social conventions and to forge business partnerships undermines his power. Richard Noll reads Dracula within the context of 19th century alienism (psychiatry) and asylum medicine. D. Bruno Starrs understands the novel to be a pro-Catholic pamphlet promoting proselytization. \n\nHistorical and geographical references\n\nDracula is a work of fiction, but it does contain some historical references—though it is a matter of conjecture and debate as to how much historical connection was deliberate on Stoker's part.\n\nPopular attention was drawn to the supposed connections between the historical Transylvanian-born Vlad III Dracula of Wallachia and Bram Stoker's fictional Dracula, following the publication of In Search of Dracula by Radu Florescu and Raymond McNally in 1972. During his main reign (1456–1462), \"Vlad the Impaler\" is said to have killed from 40,000 to 100,000 European civilians (political rivals, criminals, and anyone that he considered \"useless to humanity\"), mainly by impaling. The sources depicting these events are records by Saxon settlers in neighbouring Transylvania who had frequent clashes with Vlad III. Vlad III is revered as a folk hero by Romanians for driving off the invading Ottoman Turks, of whom his impaled victims are said to have included as many as 100,000.\n\nHistorically, the name \"Dracula\" is derived from a Chivalric order called the Order of the Dragon, founded by Sigismund of Luxembourg (then king of Hungary) to uphold Christianity and defend the Empire against the Ottoman Turks. Vlad II Dracul, father of Vlad III, was admitted to the order around 1431, after which Vlad II wore the emblem of the order and later, as ruler of Wallachia, his coinage bore the dragon symbol, from which the name \"Dracula\" is derived. People of Wallachia only knew voievod (king) Vlad III as Vlad Țepeș (the Impaler). The name \"Dracula\" became popular in Romania after publication of Stoker's book. Contrary to popular belief, the name Dracula does not translate to \"son of the devil\" in Romanian, which would be \"pui de drac\".\n\nStoker came across the name Dracula in his reading on Romanian history, and chose this to replace the name (Count Wampyr) originally intended for his villain. Some Dracula scholars led by Elizabeth Miller argue that Stoker knew little of the historic Vlad III except for the name \"Dracula\", whereas Stoker mentions the Dracula who fought against the Turks and was later betrayed by his brother, historical facts in the novel which unequivocally point to Vlad III:\n\nThe Count's identity is later speculated on by Professor Van Helsing:\n\nMany of Stoker's biographers and literary critics have found strong similarities to the earlier Irish writer Sheridan Le Fanu's classic of the vampire genre Carmilla. In writing Dracula, Stoker may also have drawn on stories about the sídhe, some of which feature blood-drinking women. The folkloric figure of Abhartach has also been suggested as a source.\n\nIn 1983, McNally additionally suggested that Stoker was influenced by the history of Hungarian Countess Elizabeth Bathory, who tortured and killed between 36 and 700 young women. It was later commonly believed that she committed these crimes to bathe in their blood, believing that this preserved her youth. \n\nIn her book The Essential Dracula, Clare Haword-Maden suggested that the castle of Count Dracula was inspired by Slains Castle, at which Bram Stoker was a guest of the 19th Earl of Erroll. According to Miller, he first visited Cruden Bay in 1893, three years after work had begun on Dracula. Haining and Tremaine maintain that, during this visit, Stoker was especially impressed by Slains Castle's interior and the surrounding landscape. Miller and Leatherdale question the stringency of this connection. \n\nPossibly, Stoker was not inspired by a real edifice at all, but by Jules Verne's novel The Carpathian Castle (1892) or Anne Radcliffe's The Mysteries of Udolpho (1794). A third possibility is that he copied information about a castle at Vécs from one of his sources on Transylvania, the book by Major E.C. Johnson. A further option is that Stoker saw an illustration of Castle Bran (Törzburg) in the book on Transylvania by Charles Boner, or read about it in the books by Mazuchelli or Crosse. \n\nMany of the scenes in Whitby and London are based on real places that Stoker frequently visited, although he distorts the geography for the sake of the story in some cases. One scholar has suggested that Stoker chose Whitby as the site of Dracula's first appearance in England because of the Synod of Whitby, given the novel's preoccupation with timekeeping and calendar disputes.\n\nDaniel Farson, Leonard Wolf, and Peter Haining have suggested that Stoker received much historical information from Ármin Vámbéry, a Hungarian professor whom he met at least twice. Miller argues, \"there is nothing to indicate that the conversation included Vlad, vampires, or even Transylvania\", and \"furthermore, there is no record of any other correspondence between Stoker and Vámbéry, nor is Vámbéry mentioned in Stoker's notes for Dracula.\" \n\nAdaptations\n\nThe story of Dracula has been the basis for numerous films and plays. Stoker himself wrote the first theatrical adaptation, which was presented at the Lyceum Theatre under the title Dracula, or The Undead shortly before the novel's publication and performed only once. The first motion picture to feature Dracula was Dracula's Death, produced in Hungary in 1921. The now-lost film, however, was not an adaptation of Stoker's novel, but featured an original story. The following year, German director F. W. Murnau directed Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens. Prana Film, the production company, had been unable to obtain permission to adapt the story from Bram's widow Florence Stoker, so screenwriter Henrik Galeen was told to alter numerous details to avoid legal trouble. Galeen transplanted the action of the story from 1890s England to 1830s Germany and reworked several characters, dropping some (such as Lucy and all three of her suitors), and renaming others (Dracula became Orlok, Jonathan Harker became Thomas Hutter, Mina became Ellen, and so on). This attempt failed to avoid prosecution, however; Florence Stoker sued Prana Film, and all prints of the film were ordered destroyed. The film did survive the court-ordered purge, and subsequent rereleases have typically undone some of the changes, most notably restoring the original character names (a practice also followed by Werner Herzog in his 1979 remake of Murnau's film Nosferatu the Vampyre).\n\nFollowing Nosferatu, Florence Stoker licensed the story to playwright Hamilton Deane, whose 1924 stage play adaptation toured England for several years before settling down in London. In 1927, American stage producer Horace Liveright hired John L. Balderston to revise Deane's script in advance of its American premiere. Balderston significantly compressed the story, most notably consolidating or removing several characters. The Deane play and its Balderston revisions introduced an expanded role and history for Renfield, who now replaced Jonathan Harker as Dracula's solicitor in the first part of the story; combined Mina Harker and Lucy Westenra into a single character (named Lucy); and omitted both Arthur Holmwood and Quincey Morris entirely. When the play premiered in New York, it was with Bela Lugosi in the title role, and with Edward van Sloan as Abraham Van Helsing, roles which both actors (as well as Herbert Bunston as Dr. Seward) reprised for the English-language version of the 1931 Universal Studios film production. The 1931 film was one of the most commercially successful adaptations of the story to date; it and the Deane/Balderston play that preceded it set the standard for film and television adaptations of the story, with the alterations to the novel becoming standard for later adaptations for decades to come. Universal Studios continued to feature the character of Dracula in many of their horror films from the 1930s and 1940s.\n\nIn 1958, Hammer Film Productions followed the success of its The Curse of Frankenstein from the previous year with Dracula, released in the United States as The Horror of Dracula, directed by Terence Fisher. Fisher's production featured Christopher Lee as Dracula and Peter Cushing as Van Helsing, but it diverged considerably from both the original novel and from the Deane/Balderston adaptation. It was an international hit for Hammer Film, however, and both Lee and Cushing reprised their roles multiple times over the next decade and a half, concluding with The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires (with Cushing but not Lee) in 1974. Christopher Lee also took on the role of Dracula in Count Dracula, a 1970 Spanish-Italian-German coproduction notable for its adherence to the plot of the original novel. (For instance, it was the first film version of the story to include the character of Quincey Morris.) Playing the part of Renfield in that version was Klaus Kinski, who later played Dracula himself in 1979's Nosferatu the Vampyre.\n\nIn 1977, the BBC made Count Dracula, a 155-minute adaptation for television starring Louis Jourdan. Later popular film adaptations include John Badham's 1979 Dracula, starring Frank Langella and inspired by the 1977 Broadway revival of the Deane/Hamilton play, and Francis Ford Coppola's Bram Stoker's Dracula, starring Gary Oldman. The character of Count Dracula has remained popular over the years, and many films have used the character as a villain, while others have named him in their titles, including Dracula's Daughter and The Brides of Dracula. As of 2009, an estimated 217 films feature Dracula in a major role, a number second only to Sherlock Holmes (223 films). A large number of these appearances are not adaptations of Stoker's novel, but merely feature the character in an unrelated story.", "Professor Abraham Van Helsing is a character from the 1897 Gothic horror novel Dracula. Van Helsing is an aged Dutch doctor with a wide range of interests and accomplishments, partly attested by the string of letters that follows his name: \"MD, D.Ph., D.Litt., etc, etc,\" indicating a wealth of experience, education and expertise. The character is best known throughout his many adaptations as a vampire hunter, monster hunter, and the archenemy of Count Dracula.\n\nDracula\n\nIn the novel, Van Helsing is called in by his former student, Dr. John Seward, to assist with the mysterious illness of Lucy Westenra. Van Helsing's friendship with Seward is based in part upon an unknown prior event in which Van Helsing suffered a grievous wound, and Seward saved his life by sucking out the gangrene. It is Van Helsing who first realizes that Lucy is the victim of a vampire, and he guides Dr. Seward and his friends in their efforts to save Lucy.\n\nAccording to Leonard Wolf's annotations to the novel, Van Helsing had a son who died. Van Helsing says that his son, had he lived, would have had a similar appearance to another character, Arthur Holmwood. Consequently, Van Helsing developed a particular fondness for Holmwood. Van Helsing's wife went insane after their son's death, but as a Catholic, he refuses to divorce her (\"with my poor wife dead to me, but alive by Church's law, though no wits, all gone, even I, who am faithful husband to this now-no-wife\"). \n\nVan Helsing is one of the few characters in the novel who is fully physically described in one place. In chapter 14, Mina describes him as:\n\nVan Helsing's personality is described by John Seward, his former student, thus:\n\nIn the novel Van Helsing is described with what is apparently a thick foreign accent, in that his English is broken, and he uses German phrases like, \"Mein Gott\" (My God).\n\nAdaptations of the novel have tended to play up Van Helsing's role as the vampire professional-expert, sometimes to the extent that it is depicted as his major occupation. The novel, however, gives no support for such interpretations. Dr. Seward requests Van Helsing's assistance simply because Lucy's affliction has him baffled and Van Helsing \"knows as much about obscure diseases as any one in the world\". Indeed, Van Helsing takes too much time (weeks and months) to recognise Lucy's illness, and seems to have no practical knowledge about vampires. Until her funeral, he tells no one his theory of Lucy's death.\n\nNarrative\n\nCount Dracula, having acquired ownership of England's Carfax estate through solicitor Jonathan Harker, moved to the estate and began menacing England. His victims included Lucy Westenra, who is on holiday in Whitby. The aristocratic girl has suitors such as John Seward, Arthur Holmwood, and Quincey Morris, and has a best friend in Mina Murray, Jonathan Harker's fiancée. Seward, who worked as a doctor in an insane asylum – where one of the patients, the incurably mad Renfield, has a psychic connection to Dracula – contacts Van Helsing about Lucy Westenra's peculiar condition. Van Helsing, recognizing marks upon her neck, eventually deduces that she has been losing blood from a vampire bite. He administers blood transfusion multiple times to try to save her. Van Helsing, Seward and even Arthur all donate their blood to her but each night he realizes that she continues to lose blood. He prescribes her garlic and makes a necklace of garlic flowers for her then proceeds to hang garlic about the room. He also gave her a crucifix to wear around her neck as well. Lucy's demise were brought by her own mother who cleared the room of garlic and opened the window to give her fresh air; a home servant had stolen the gold crucifix from Lucy as well. Lucy dies and after the funeral returns as a vampire seeking out children. Eventually, Van Helsing and a heartbroken Arthur free the undead Lucy from her vampiric curse with Quincy Morris and Dr. Seward as these knew the ordeal. After Arthur uses a hammer to drive the stake through the heart, Van Helsing operates on Lucy by detaching her head then places garlic in her mouth.\n\nMina Harker becomes increasingly worried about her husband's brain fever asking Dr. Seward for assistance to which Van Helsing is referred. Unable to make sense of Johnathon Harker's journal, Mina gives it to Helsing to review. When Harker learns that his experiences in Transylvania were real, his health returns and both he and Mina assist join their friends at Seward's residence. Mina then discovers that each of the character's journals, diaries, letters and collection of news papers further provide intelligence on Dracula's movements. She types out copies and provides them to each of the other party members including Van Helsing. From the copies of text Mina prepared, they learn that that Dracula's residence in Carfax was right nearby Sewards; It is under Helsing's research of ancient folklore, superstitions and historical references to which the party learns of Dracula's weaknesses and strengths. Seward and Helsing also write to an acquaintance from their university to aid in further research into Dracula's past. Staying at Seward's residence to better plan strategies in their efforts to deal with Dracula, they have frequent meetings and each member is assigned duties. It is later that a bat was seen at the window outside of one of these meetings as well.\n\nAs Van Helsing and the party investigate the location of Dracula in efforts to destroy and stop him from spreading any further evil, they have their first enounter as a group with Dracula at the residence in Carfax. They eventually discover that Dracula has been purchasing multiple properties throughout and around the perimeter of London; planning to transport each of his 50 boxes of Transylvanian earth to them; learning the boxes are used as graves and each property would be used as his lairs. As they discover each of his lairs and track down the location of the boxes of earth, they place sacramental bread within them to \"sterilize\" them. This repels Dracula from being able to use or transport them further. Dracula learns that the group are plotting against him and entices Renfield to invite him in to Dr. Seward's residence. After hearing a loud noise coming from Renfield's room, Dr Seward and Helsing enter to find him critically injured on the floor with a broken back and severe damages to his head and limbs. Helsing operates on his head to keep him alive long enough for Renfield to tell them his testimony. Learning from this that Dracula went to see Mina, the group goes into Mina's room to see Harker in a hypnotic state, and Dracula giving Mina the 'Vampire's Baptism of Blood', cursing her and the group for plotting against him. When Van Helsing and the party hold out their sacred items to repel Dracula away, causing him to become a vapor and flee into a different room. Dracula then destroys all their copies of text which Mina had produced except one that was hidden and then breaks Renfield' neck before leaving the residence.\n\nHelsing places a wafer of sacramental bread upon the forehead of Mina to bless her but it burns her flesh as it touches her, leaving a scar. Mina, feeling that she is now connected with Dracula, asks Van Helsing to hypnotize her before Dawn as that would be the only time she feels could freely speak. Van Helsing learns that through conducting hypnotism on Mina that she has a telepathic link with Dracula; could tell everything he hears and feels and use this gift to track his movements in the future. Mina also agrees that none of the group should tell her any plans they have in the future for fear that Dracula could easily read her thoughts and counter their plans. As the group continues to search for each of the boxes and residences of Dracula throughout London they have encounters with Dracula and continue to sterilize his graves. They manage to find each of his residences and locate all of his boxes except for one; learning that the final grave is located on a boat, Van Helsing determines that Dracula is fleeing back to his Castle. \n\nWhen the party pursues Dracula back to Transylvania, they split up into separate groups of two. While Mina and Van Helsing team up to travel straight to Dracula's castle, the others attempt to track down and ambush the boat on which Dracula is a passenger. Van Helsing continues to hypnotize Mina but his ability to have influence over her diminishes each day. He notices Mina's behavior beginning to change as she starts sleeping more during the day, losing her appetite for food, and ceasing to write in her journal. One night he crumbles sacramental bread in a circle around her and asks her to come sit by him. As she was unable to, he learned that this could be a way to protect their camp from any vampires in the area. Later, he sees the Brides of Dracula approach his camp but they too are unable to cross into the circle of bread. Failing at their attempts to lure Helsing and Mina out of the circle, they flee just before sunrise back to Dracula's Castle. Helsing binds Mina at a small cave to keep her from danger as he goes into Dracula's Castle to kill any vampires he finds.\n\nAs Helsing runs throughout the castle searching its various rooms, he finds Dracula's empty tomb as well as the three female vampires he saw earlier. He begins to do his operation on the first vampire but finds himself entranced by her beauty and unable to bring himself to harm her. In his feelings of enchantment he even contemplates love for her. He is however broken out of this enchantment when he hears a 'soul wail' from Mina, awakening him. he proceeds to strike stakes into their hearts and sever their heads, one by one.\n\nUpon the arrival of Van Helsing back to Mina's location from the Castle, they see the rest of their group as they chase a group of gypsies down Borgo Pass and corner them. Armed with knives and firearms they overtake the gypsies and open the final casket box of Dracula; Jonathan Harker brings his Kukri down on Dracula's throat as the bowie knife of Quincey Morris simultaneously impales Dracula's heart in the final moments of daylight. At this very moment, Dracula's body then crumbles to dust. After the struggle, Quincy is seen fatally wounded from the struggle.\n\n6 years later, Van Helsing takes a grandfatherly role in regard to the young Quincey Harker, Jonathan and Mina's son.\n\nEquipment\n\nVan Helsing is seen utilizing many tools to aid him and his party in fending off Dracula, warding off vampires and in general defeating the undead: \n* Skeleton Keys used for lock picking to open the doors to many of Dracula's lairs located throughout London\n* Wreath of withered Garlic Blossoms\n* Silver Crucifix\n* Sacred Wafer brought from Amsterdam contained in an envelope or crushed and sprinkled around him in a circle as a protective barrier\n* Electric Lamps which could be attached or secured against the chest\n* Revolver and knife for use against enemies weaker than Dracula \n* The branch of a wild rose could be placed on top of a coffin containing a vampire; immobilizing it \n* Mountain Ash used to repel the undead\n* Wooden stake and hammer to pierce a vampire's heart \n* Golden crucifix necklace, given to Lucy.\n\nFilm adaptations\n\nNosferatu, a Symphony of Horror was the first film version of Dracula. Although it followed the same basic plot as the novel, names were changed: Van Helsing is Professor Bulwer and appears only in a few scenes. Unlike the book, he is a friend of Thomas Hutter (the film's version of Jonathan Harker) before he meets Count Orlok (a renamed Count Dracula) and never meets the vampire face to face.\n\nPeter Cushing's character in the Hammer movies does not have the first name \"Abraham\" as his case reads J. van Helsing, as seen in The Brides of Dracula. In the series of Hammer Dracula films set in the 1970s, Dracula battles Lorrimar van Helsing, a grandson of the original vampire hunter, who appears as Lawrence van Helsing in the prologue to Dracula AD 1972. In The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires Cushing plays the original Van Helsing from the Hammer series.\n\nAnthony Hopkins portrays Van Helsing in Bram Stoker's Dracula in 1992. Already implied to be an experienced vampire hunter. He often comes across as insane, casually discussing how to kill the un-dead despite the brutal methods involved, as well as his ruthless methods when dispatching Dracula's brides, but he nevertheless leads the group to victory over Dracula's forces.\n\nChristopher Plummer portrayed Professor Abraham Van Helsing in Dracula 2000 (he had previously appeared as a vampire hunter, Professor Paris Catalano, in Vampire in Venice). After defeating Count Dracula (Gerard Butler), van Helsing finds that the vampire lord cannot die in the conventional means of destroying a vampire and he only succeeded in paralysing him in a deathlike state. Knowing that Dracula would inevitably rise again, Van Helsing imprisoned the vampire beneath his Carfax Abbey estate, using leeches to dilute Dracula's blood and transfuse it into himself as a means of preserving his own life until he can find a means of destroying Dracula. This has the unintentional side-effect of creating a link between Dracula and van Helsing's daughter. When Dracula escapes after his coffin is stolen, van Helsing's daughter and his assistant are able to use this connection to deduce Dracula's true identity and defeat him after the elder van Helsing's death.\n\nHugh Jackman played Gabriel Van Helsing, the eponymous hero of Van Helsing (2004), loosely based on Bram Stoker's character. Having been found on the steps of a church seven years ago with total amnesia, Gabriel hunts monsters for a secret organization made up of the world's religions (known as the Knights of the Holy Order) to rid the world of evil \"that the rest of mankind has no idea exists\", although he is the most wanted man in Europe for his conspicuous actions. In the movie he is sent to Transylvania to kill Count Dracula. When he arrives, Dracula tells Gabriel that they have already met and have quite a history together, with Dracula revealing over the course of the film that Van Helsing was the one who originally murdered him, as well as claiming ownership of a distinctive ring that Van Helsing has worn as long as he can remember. It is implied that Gabriel is actually the angel Gabriel, with vague references to Dracula's murderer as the \"Left Hand of God\".\n\nNotable actors to have portrayed Van Helsing in film adaptations of Dracula include:\n* John Gottowt (as Professor Bulwer) in Nosferatu (1922)\n* Edward Van Sloan in Dracula (1931) and Dracula's Daughter (1936)\n* Eduardo Arozamena in Dracula (1931, Spanish version)\n* Peter Cushing in the Hammer Films Dracula series (1958–1974)\n* Herbert Lom in Count Dracula (1970)\n* Ota Sklencka in Hrabe Drakula (1971)\n* Nigel Davenport in Bram Stoker's Dracula (1973)\n* Frank Finlay in the BBC adaptation Count Dracula (1977)\n* Laurence Olivier in Dracula (1979)\n* Walter Ladengast in Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979)\n* Jack Gwillim in The Monster Squad (1987)\n* Anthony Hopkins in Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992)\n* Peter Fonda in Nadja (1994)\n* Mel Brooks in the parody Dracula: Dead and Loving It (1995)\n* Christopher Plummer in Dracula 2000 (2000)\n* Giancarlo Giannini (as Enrico Valenzi) in Dracula (2002)\n* David Moroni in Dracula: Pages from a Virgin's Diary (2002)\n* Hugh Jackman (as Gabriel Van Helsing) in Van Helsing (2004) and Van Helsing: The London Assignment (2004)\n* Casper Van Dien in Dracula 3000 (2004)\n* David Suchet in Dracula (2006)\n* David Carradine in The Last Sect (2006)\n* Wallace Shawn in Vamps (2012)\n* Rutger Hauer in Dracula 3D (2012)\n* Thomas Kretschmann in Dracula (2013)\n* David Warner in Penny Dreadful (2014)\n\nAppearances in other media\n\nNovels\n\n*In the 2009 Dacre Stoker novel Dracula the Un-dead, van Helsing is now a 75-year-old man with heart problems, having apparently been disgraced in the medical profession for deaths caused by improper blood transfusions (Although he defends his reputation by arguing that nobody knew about blood types until much later); he was also briefly a suspect in the Jack the Ripper murders due to his knowledge of anatomy and reputation for mutilating corpses for unspecified reasons. He later becomes a vampire himself after a battle with Dracula.\n*In Kim Newman's series Anno Dracula, van Helsing has failed to kill Dracula. As a result, the vampire lord has conquered the United Kingdom after marrying Queen Victoria and becoming her Prince Consort. Van Helsing, meanwhile, was killed at the hands of Dracula, and his head is displayed at Buckingham Palace.\n*P. N. Elrod's novel Quincey Morris, Vampire takes up the story almost immediately after the conclusion of Bram Stoker's Dracula, but in this story (which shows vampires in a more sympathetic light) van Helsing is unyielding and unwavering in his beliefs and hatred of vampires to the point where he eventually alienates his former friends and allies.\n*The comic novel Dracula's Diary by Michael Geare and Michael Corby (ISBN 978-0825301438) completely re-tells the Stoker novel, with the young Count Dracula (who has been learning to act like a true British gentleman) becoming a secret agent for Her Majesty's government and van Helsing an enemy agent for a foreign power who is continually thwarted by Dracula.\n*In The Dracula Tape (1975) by Fred Saberhagen, a psychotic, fanatical, bumbling van Helsing opposes the urbane, if ruthless, Dracula.\n*In Fangland by John Marks, the re-imagined van Helsing is split into two separate characters, namely Clementine Spence and Austen Trotta.\n*He also appears in the Department 19 series by Will Hill.\n\nComics\n\nAbraham van Helsing was also portrayed in the The Tomb of Dracula Marvel Comics series, which was based on the characters of Bram Stoker's novel.\n\nIn the Marvel Comics miniseries X-Men: Apocalypse vs. Dracula, van Helsing joins forces with the immortal mutant Apocalypse and his worshipers, Clan Akkaba, in order to destroy Dracula, their common enemy. It is noted that van Helsing had encountered Apocalypse before and previously believed him a vampire.\n\nIn the Italian comic book Martin Mystère and the spin-off series Storie di Altrove/Stories from Elsewhere Van Helsing's name is Richard. He was originally a knight in the service of the Holy Roman Emperors but he was captured in 1475 by the undead warriors of the Order of the Dragon and turned into a vampire by the Wallachian Prince Vlad Dracula. Four centuries later, Van Helsing killed Dracula, and later came to London to solve the case of Jack the Ripper, eventually discovering that the murderers were mentally controlled by demons from another world. In 1902 he worked together with the resurrected Dracula to prevent the assassination of King Edward VII. He also met Sherlock Holmes, Dr. Watson, and Mycroft Holmes.\n\nIn the comic series Victorian Undead: Sherlock Holmes vs Dracula the detective Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson are engaged by a maritime insurance company to investigate the deaths of the crew of the schooner the Demeter and cross paths with the characters who are searching for Dracula.\n\nMedia involving descendants of van Helsing\n\nThere have been numerous works of fiction depicting descendants of van Helsing carrying on the family tradition.\n\nFilms\n\n*Hammer Films' Dracula series features a whole dynasty of van Helsings: Peter Cushing played J. van Helsing (equivalent to Abraham) in Horror of Dracula (1958) and The Brides of Dracula (1960), set in the 1880s. Cushing also played Lawrence van Helsing in the opening segment of Dracula AD 1972 (1972) and Lawrence's grandson Lorrimar in Dracula AD 1972 and The Satanic Rites of Dracula (1974). Another Lawrence van Helsing, played by Cushing, appeared in The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires (1974), set in the early 1900s, alongside his son Leyland, played by Robin Stewart. Lorrimar's granddaughter Jessica appears in Dracula AD 1972 (played by Stephanie Beacham) and The Satanic Rites of Dracula (played by Joanna Lumley).\n*In the 1979 film Love at First Bite, is a comedic parody in which Dracula falls in love, and Jeffrey Rosenberg, grandson of Fritz Van Helsing, tries to kill him.\n*In the 1989 film Sundown: The Vampire in Retreat, Bruce Campbell plays Robert Van Helsing, grandson of an earlier Van Helsing.\n* In the 2000 film Dracula 2000, Christopher Plummer plays Matthew van Helsing (in fact, the original Abraham Van Helsing posing as his own descendant), and Justine Waddell plays his daughter, Mary.\n* In the 2000 Disney channel movie Mom's Got a Date with a Vampire, Malachi Van Helsing is hunting the vampire Dimitri, who is preying on the mother of the main characters.\n* The 2004 direct-to-video film Dracula 3000 features Captain Abraham van Helsing (played by Casper Van Dien), a descendent of the original van Helsing and the captain of a spacefaring salvage ship.\n* The 2004 direct-to-video film The Adventures of Young Van Helsing depicts Abraham van Helsing's great-grandson Michael (Keith Jordan) saving the world from Simon Magus.\n* The 2004 film starring Hugh Jackman Van Helsing\n* The 2006 film Bram Stoker's Dracula's Curse features a character named Jacob van Helsing (Rhett Giles), who is inferred to be a descendant of the original van Helsing, although this is never actually stated outright.\n* The 2009 film Stan Helsing is a comedic film revolving around satirizing the van Helsing descendant of the 2004 feature film.\n* In the 2012 TV film, Scooby-Doo! Music of the Vampire, a book writer named Vincent van Helsing is the great great grandson of Abraham van Helsing.\n\nTelevision\n\n*The 1990 series Dracula: The Series had Bernard Behrens as Gustav Helsing. He was looking after his two nephews, Christopher Townsend and Max Townsend. They fought Dracula, who in the contemporary world, had taken on the name of Alexander Lucard. In this version Gustav Helsing's son, Klaus Helsing (Geraint Wyn Davies), had been turned into a vampire by Alexander Lucard (Dracula).\n* The 2006 CBBC series, Young Dracula, featured Mr. Eric van Helsing – presumably the descendant of his more famous predecessor, though with none of his competence – trying to exterminate Count Dracula and his children, who had been chased out of Transylvania by an angry mob and were now living in rural Wales. Eric lives in a travel trailer with his son Jonathan. There are also references made to previous van Helsing vampire slayers.\n*The 2009 ITV series Demons follows Abraham's great grandson Luke Rutherford (Christian Cooke).\n*In the 2014 Showtime series Penny Dreadful, Van Helsing is a hematologist consulted by Victor Frankenstein. He eventually admits he has known about vampires for some time and offers to give Frankenstein some much-needed instruction in the area.\n*Syfy is developing a Van Helsing 13-episodic television series with Neil LaBute as creator. \n\nBooks and stories\n\n* The short story Abraham's Boys by Joe Hill is about the retired Abraham van Helsing and his two sons, and how he passes along his knowledge to them. The story is included in the anthology The many faces of van Helsing.\n* According to The Vampire Hunter's Handbook, Abraham was not the first van Helsing to encounter vampires. The book is supposedly written by Raphael van Helsing in the 18th century. It has also been prequeled by The Demon Hunter's Handbook by Abelard van Helsing (16th century) and The Dragon Hunter's Handbook by Adelia Vin Helsin (14th century). The supposed writers refer to each other (in the cases where it makes sense) and other van Helsings.\n* Similar to the above-mentioned handbooks is Vampyre: The Terrifying Lost Journal which is written by Mary-Jane Knight but credited to dr Cornelius van Helsing. The book implies that Cornelius is the brother of Abraham.\n* Young Dracula by Michael Lawrence mentions a farmer named Dweeb van Helsing.\n* In Den hemliga boken and sequels by Jesper Tillberg and Peter Bergting, the main character is Abraham's great grandson Lennart van Helsing (not to be confused with Lennart Hellsing).\n\nComics\n\n* The comic book series The Tomb of Dracula featured Rachel van Helsing, granddaughter of Abraham, as a major member of the principal hunters. Minor characters were Abraham's wife Elizabeth and his brother Boris.\n* In the manga and anime, Hellsing, modern day descendant Integra Hellsing leads a British government strike force against supernatural menaces. The story also includes her father, Arthur and uncle Richard. It later turns out that the protagonist Alucard is in fact Dracula, and became a servant to the Helsing family after being defeated by Integra's grandfather, Abraham van Helsing.\n* The DC comic Night Force features Abraham's granddaughter Vanessa van Helsing.\n* Sword of Dracula is a comic book with Veronica \"Ronnie\" van Helsing.\n* Helsing is a Caliber Comics title about a Samantha Helsing and a John van Helsing.\n* The Vampirella comic books feature father-son vampire hunters Conrad and Adam van Helsing.\n\nGames\n\n* The 2013 game, The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing, focuses on the trials of young van Helsing, son of the legendary vampire hunter Abraham van Helsing.\n* Van Helsing was adapted as a character in MechQuest, where he plays a professional mech vampire hunter. He is portrayed as having a brother, another hunter, who looks identical to him and eventually replaces him." ] }

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{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe", "TagMe" ], "filename": [ "Ralph_Wilson_Stadium.txt", "NFL_on_CBS.txt" ], "title": [ "Ralph Wilson Stadium", "NFL on CBS" ], "wiki_context": [ "Ralph Wilson Stadium, originally Rich Stadium and also known as \"The Ralph\", is a stadium in Orchard Park, New York, a suburb south of Buffalo. Opened in 1973, it is the home of the Buffalo Bills of the National Football League (NFL). The stadium was renamed in 1998 for team founder and then-owner Ralph Wilson (1918–2014).\n\nHistory\n\nFinding a new place to call home\n\nAn original franchise of the American Football League in 1960, the Buffalo Bills played their first thirteen seasons at War Memorial Stadium, a multi-use WPA project stadium that opened in 1938, located on Buffalo's East Side. While suitable for AFL play in the 1960s, the \"Rockpile\" (as the stadium came to be nicknamed), was in disrepair and, with a capacity of under 47,000, undersized for a National Football League team. The league mandate instituted after the NFL-AFL merger of 1970 dictated a minimum of 50,000 seats.\n\nIn early 1971, owner Ralph Wilson was exploring options to relocate the team, possibly to Seattle, with other cities such as Memphis and Tampa soon expressing interest as well. The potential loss of the team hastened the stadium project and Rich Stadium opened in 1973. The location and construction of the stadium in Erie County were the source of years of litigation, which ended with a financial settlement for a developer who had planned to erect a domed stadium in Lancaster. However, plans changed because it was not wanted to be close to Lancaster High School. The stadium was ultimately built by Frank Schoenle and his construction company. Stadium bonds were approved by the county legislature in September 1971.\n\nNaming rights\n\nRich Products, a Buffalo-based food products company, signed a 25-year, $1.5 million deal ($60,000 per year), by which the venue would be called \"Rich Stadium\"; one of the earliest examples of the sale of naming rights in North American sports. (The name was somewhat of a compromise, after Bills owner and founder Ralph Wilson rejected the name Rich wanted to use, \"Coffee Rich Park.\") By a vote of 16 to 4, the county legislature approved the name in November 1972, despite a matching offer from Wilson to name it \"Buffalo Bills Stadium.\"\n\nWhen the Bills organization regularly referred to the stadium without the \"Rich\" name, Rich Products brought a $7.5 million lawsuit against the team in 1976. After the original deal expired after a quarter century in 1998, the stadium was renamed in honor of Wilson. Rich Products balked at paying a greatly increased rights fee, which would have brought the price up to par with other NFL stadiums.\n\nStadium records and facts\n\nThe first NFL playoff game at the stadium came in the 1988 season, a 17–10 Bills victory over the Houston Oilers on January 1, 1989. The Bills won every ensuing playoff game at the stadium until they were defeated in 1996 by the Jacksonville Jaguars on December 28.\n\nFrom Ralph Wilson Stadium's opening until the end of the 2015 NFL season, the Bills have defeated each of the 31 other teams there at least once and are unbeaten there against the following teams: Arizona Cardinals (3-0), Baltimore Ravens (2-0), Green Bay Packers (6-0), and Tampa Bay Buccaneers (1-0).\n\nDesign and renovation\n\nThe stadium is open-air, with a capacity of 71,870. The stadium has never had a natural grass surface; AstroTurf was installed in the stadium upon its opening in 1973. The first renovation occurred in 1984 when the stadium's capacity was increased to 80,290 with the addition of 16 executive suites. Eight years later in 1992, 24 more executive suites were added. In 1994, major renovations were made to the stadium including the addition of the Red Zone and Goal Line clubs that are enclosed in glass and have 500 seats. These renovations also added 14 executive suites. A massive $9.1 million (inflation adjusted) Sony JumboTron video scoreboard was a major update in 1994 and was the largest in the U.S. at the time. In 1998, $57 million were spent to refit the stadium with larger seats and more luxury and club seating as a part of the Bills lease renewal with Erie County, New York. This caused the seating capacity to be reduced to just under 74,000. In the 2003 offseason, the original style turf was replaced with a newer AstroTurf product, AstroTurf GameDay Grass (also known as AstroPlay). The lease agreement also stipulated Erie County would continue to upgrade the stadium; in the summer of 2007, a new High Definition Mitsubishi LED board measuring was installed and replaced the 13-year-old Sony Jumbotron. Over 1,000 ft of Mitsubishi Diamond Vision LED Ribbon Boards were also installed in the interior during that renovation. The total cost for the 2007 project was $5.2 million, In 2011, the Bills changed their turf to a new product, A-Turf Titan, produced by a Western New York company. As of the 2011 season, Buffalo is the only NFL stadium using the A-Turf Titan product. On December 21, 2012, the lease negotiations between the Bills, Erie County, and the state of New York ended with the Bills signing a ten-year lease to stay in Buffalo until 2023. The agreement includes $130 million in improvements to Ralph Wilson Stadium. Renovations included new larger entrance gates, larger HD sponsor boards added to each side of the video scoreboard, two new 33.6 ft by 59.84 ft high definition video boards, larger LED sponsor board added on the tunnel end of the stadium, expanded concessions, new team store, and redesign of areas and lots just outside the entrance gates.\n\nBuffalo, by virtue of its position downwind of Lake Erie, is one of the nation's windiest cities, and as a result, Ralph Wilson Stadium often is a difficult stadium for kickers, with swirling winds that change direction rapidly. This is exacerbated by the stadium's design. The field is 50 ft below ground level, while the top of the upper deck stands only 60 feet above ground. The open end lies parallel to the direction of the prevailing winds, so when the winds come in, they immediately drop down into the bowl, causing the stadium's signature wind patterns.\n\nSeating capacity\n\n* 80,020 (1972–1983) \n* 80,290 (1984–1994) \n* 80,024 (1995–1998) \n* 75,339 (1999–2000) \n* 73,967 (2001–2007) \n* 73,079 (2008–2013) \n* 71,857 (2014) \n* 71,870 (2015–present)\n\nOther uses\n\nOther sporting events\n\nThe size of the field at Ralph Wilson Stadium is specifically designed for National Football League dimensions and sightlines, making it extremely difficult for other outdoor sporting events such as soccer, baseball, track and field, or rugby to be held there. None of any significance have ever been held at the stadium.\n\nSyracuse University played several home games at the stadium in 1979. Syracuse was left without an on-campus home for one season between the demolition of Archbold Stadium and the construction of the Carrier Dome.\n \nOn January 1, 2008, the Buffalo Sabres hosted the Pittsburgh Penguins in the first NHL Winter Classic. The Penguins won 2–1 in a shootout in front of 71,217. Ice hockey is expected to return to the stadium for the 2018 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships. \n\nThe stadium annually hosts the region's Section VI and Monsignor Martin Athletic Association high school football playoffs. The stadium rarely hosts college football games; the stadium hosted a Black Friday contest between the UB Bulls and the Bowling Green Falcons in 2013, but before that, the last college football game at the stadium had been in 1979, when the Syracuse Orange football team used the stadium as a temporary venue while the Carrier Dome was under construction. \n\nThe opening ceremony of the 1993 Summer Universiade was held at the stadium. \n\nAdjacent to the stadium is 1,800-seat West-Herr Field, the home field for Erie Community College's football team.\n\nOn July 14, 1984, the stadium hosted a one-time-only supercross motorcycle racing event.\n\nConcerts\n\nNearly 30 concerts have been held at the stadium starting in 1974 with Eric Clapton and The Band through 2001. \n\nSeveral bands have played the stadium multiple times, including The Rolling Stones, who played there in 1975, 1978, 1981, 1997, and 2015. The Grateful Dead played the stadium a few times in the 80's and early 90's with their July 4, 1989 Truckin' Up to Buffalo performance being documented on CD/DVD. The Who, Dave Matthews Band, and The Jackson Five have all played at the stadium multiple times as well.\n\nDouble and multi-billed concerts have also been scheduled at the stadium. The stadium held The Monsters of Rock Festival, featuring Van Halen, Scorpions, Dokken, Metallica and Kingdom Come, on June 19, 1988. Metallica and Guns N' Roses brought the Guns N' Roses/Metallica Stadium Tour to the stadium on July 25, 1992, with Faith No More as their opening act.\n\nThere were notable large concerts that were scheduled to take place at the stadium but were later canceled. Led Zeppelin was set to perform at the stadium on their 1977 North American Tour. The concert was one of the seven remaining concerts on the tour that were canceled due to the death of lead singer Robert Plant's son. A Bruce Springsteen concert, that was originally scheduled at the stadium in 2003 was moved to the smaller Darien Lake Performing Arts Center due to low ticket sales.\n\nConcert appearances began to wane in the 1990s at the stadium. The last concerts held at the stadium were in June 2001. These two concerts were 'N Sync, who performed at the stadium on June 1, and The Dave Matthews Band, who performed 10 days later. The end of concerts at the stadium was due to a combination of a declining number of stadium rock acts, population decline, and the availability of other, more intimate, venues in Western New York such as Artpark in Lewiston, New York, Darien Lake Performing Arts Center in Corfu, New York, the Thursday at the Square series among others, Seneca Niagara Casino, and the First Niagara Center, which opened in 1996, replacing Buffalo Memorial Auditorium in downtown Buffalo.\n\nThe Rolling Stones performed at the stadium on July 11, 2015 as part of the band's Zip Code Tour. It is the first concert at the stadium since 2001.\n\nInternational pop act One Direction brought their 2015 On the Road Again Tour to Ralph Wilson Stadium on September 3, 2015, which meant that concerts would return to the stadium for the first time in 14 years. \n\nNon-sporting or music events\n\nThe stadium has also hosted the Drum Corps International championships three times.\n\nFuture\n\nAlthough new stadium ideas had been proposed before the death of Ralph Wilson, with the new ownership of Terry and Kim Pegula, the prospect of a new stadium has been raised again. During his press conference to acquire the team, Terry Pegula stated, \"we will gradually proceed to plan and design a stadium for the Buffalo Bills.\" \n\nAlleged curse\n\nSince the Bills moved from War Memorial Stadium into their current home, it has been noted that the team has not won a championship since, and has had frequent periods of heartbreak. In addition, the stadium is exceptionally windy. People have owed this to the fact that the stadium is built just yards away from a family cemetery as part of territory once owned by the Sheldon Family. A plaque just outside the stadium at gates 6-7 graces the cemetery and also notes that the stadium was built on the site of an ancient Indian village. \n\nPhoto gallery\n\nFile:Bills.jpg|Home Bills game in 2006\nFile:Buffalopats.jpg|Buffalo Bills vs Patriots 10/22/06 Orchard Park, New York\nFile:Ralph Wilson Stadium.jpg|Bills vs Patriots in 2006\nFile:BillsFieldhouseattheRalph.jpg|The field house is home to off-season OTAs and weekly practice\nFile:RalphWilsoninterior.jpg|Interior concourse\nFile:RalphwithBuffaloskylineindistance.jpg|Buffalo's downtown skyline as seen from upper deck during dusk.\nFile:Buffalobills stadeorchardparc.png|Ralph Wilson Stadium from above.", "The NFL on CBS is the branding used for broadcasts of National Football League (NFL) games that are produced by CBS Sports, the sports division of the CBS television network in the United States. The network has aired NFL game telecasts since 1956 (with exception of a hiatus from 1994 to 1997). Since 2014, CBS has also broadcast Thursday Night Football games during the first half of the NFL season, through a production partnership with the NFL Network.\n\nHistory\n\nCBS' coverage began on September 30, 1956 (the first regular season broadcast was a game between the visiting Washington Redskins against the Pittsburgh Steelers), before the 1970 AFL-NFL merger. Prior to 1968, CBS had an assigned crew for each NFL team. As a result, CBS became the first network to broadcast some NFL regular season games to selected television markets across the country. From 1970 until the end of the 1993 season, when Fox won the broadcast television contract to that particular conference, CBS aired NFL games from the National Football Conference. Since 1975, game coverage has been preceded by pre-game show The NFL Today, which features game previews, extensive analysis and interviews.\n\n1950s\n\nCBS's first attempts to broadcast the NFL on television were notable for there being no broadcasting contract with the league as a whole. Instead, CBS had to strike deals with individual teams to broadcast games into the teams' own markets, many of which were inherited from the defunct DuMont Television Network. Often the games would be broadcast with \"split audio\" – that is, a game between two franchises would have the same picture in both teams' \"networks\" (the visiting team's home city and affiliates of the home team's \"network\" beyond a 75-mile radius of the home team's television market). Each team's \"network\" had different announcers (usually those working in their home markets).\n\nThe New York Giants in particular were carried on the DuMont network, then CBS (airing locally on WCBS-TV, channel 2) in the early days of the NFL of the league's television broadcasts, when home games were blacked out within a 75-mile radius of New York City. Chris Schenkel was their play-by-play announcer in that early era when each team was assigned its own network voice on its regional telecasts. At the time, there were few if any true national telecasts until the NFL championship game, which was carried by NBC. Schenkel was joined by Jim McKay, later Johnny Lujack through the 1950s and the early 1960s. As Giants players retired to the broadcast booth in the early and 1960s, first Pat Summerall, then Frank Gifford took the color analyst slot next to Schenkel. As the 1970 merger of the NFL and AFL approached, CBS moved to a more generic announcer approach while Schenkel left to join ABC Sports.\n\nFrom 1956 to 1959, the Baltimore Colts, Pittsburgh Steelers and Philadelphia Eagles only had their away games telecast on CBS. When these three played at home, there was no need for the usage of split audio. Instead, the away team's telecasts were produced in a simple singular audio-video feed. In 1959, 1960 and 1961, NBC had the rights to televise Colts and Steelers home games. While the game broadcasts were blacked out (as per NFL policy) in those cities, they were available to other NBC-affiliated stations.\n\nThe Chicago Bears and Chicago Cardinals only produced home telecasts for their vast network. Because of this, if the Bears played the Colts in Baltimore or the Cardinals visited Forbes Field to play the Steelers during this period, it was likely that the games were not televised by CBS (although from 1959 to 1961, they might have been shown by NBC). Meanwhile, the Cleveland Browns had their own network, part of Sports Network Incorporated (SNI) and Carling Beer.\n\n1960s\n\nIn 1961, then-CBS affiliate WISN-TV (channel 12, now an ABC affiliate) in Milwaukee opted not to carry that year's annual telecast of The Wizard of Oz, running a Green Bay Packers football game instead. In contrast to the infamous Heidi telecast in 1968, the popularity of The Wizard of Oz as an annual television event at that time was such that the station ran the movie locally at a later date. On September 17, 1961, CBS Sports broadcast the first remote 15-minute pre-game show, the first of its kind on network sports television; Pro Football Kickoff originated from NFL stadiums around the country with a comprehensive look at all the day's games.\n\nIn 1962, the NFL followed the American Football League's (AFL) suit with its own revenue sharing plan after CBS agreed to telecast all regular season games for an annual fee of US$4.65 million. CBS also acquired the rights to the championship games for 1964 and 1965 for $1.8 million per game, on April 17, 1964.\n\nCBS executive vice president James T. Aubrey, Jr., who on May 9, 1963, warned the network's affiliates the high cost of rights for professional sports could price them off television, nevertheless in January 1964 agreed to pay $28.2 million to air National Football League games for two years, spanning 17 games each season. In an interview with The New York Times, Aubrey said regarding the package, \"We know how much these games mean to the viewing audience, our affiliated stations, and the nation's advertisers\". Along with obtaining the aforementioned rights to the NFL Championship Game, in April 1964, he agreed to extend the deal for another year for a total of $31.8 million. \n\nOn November 24, just two days after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, the NFL played its normal schedule of games. Commissioner Pete Rozelle said about playing the games: \"It has been traditional in sports for athletes to perform in times of great personal tragedy. Football was Mr. Kennedy's game. He thrived on competition.\" No NFL games were telecast, since on the afternoon of the 22nd, just after the president had been pronounced dead, CBS President Frank Stanton ordered that all regular programming be pre-empted until after Kennedy was buried at his funeral procession. Normal programming, including the NFL, was replaced by non-stop news coverage, broadcast without commercials.\n\nIn 1964, CBS experimented with a \"half-and-half\" format for their announcers. The first half of each telecast would be called by the home teams' commentators while the second half would be done by the visitors' commentators (this practice would later be revived decades later by the NFL Network when replaying preseason games that were broadcast by local stations as opposed to a national network). Also in 1964, CBS ditched the concept of using pooled video and split audio feeds. In 1962 and 1963, CBS would provide separate audio for a telecast (for instance, if the Green Bay Packers hosted the Chicago Bears, the telecast would have the same video, Chicago area viewers watching on WBBM-TV would hear Red Grange and George Connor call the action; meanwhile, viewers in Milwaukee and other parts of Wisconsin (Green Bay itself was blacked out) would hear Ray Scott and Tony Canadeo describe the game). Ray Scott was not a fan of the separate audio concept and temporarily left CBS for a job calling a regional slate of college football games for NBC. Ultimately, CBS dumped the four-man crew and resumed the 1962–63 method for the great majority of games in 1965, 1966 and 1967.\n\nOn November 25, 1965 (Thanksgiving Day), CBS featured the first-ever color broadcast of a regular-season NFL game, the traditional Thanksgiving Day game at Detroit. It was only the second time that the network's first color mobile unit had been used (it had been used a month earlier to cover the attempted launch of an Atlas-Agena, which was to have been the rendezvous target for the Gemini 6 space mission). Only a handful of games during the rest of the season were shown in color, along with the NFL Western Conference Playoff, the NFL Championship Game, the Playoff Bowl and the Pro Bowl. In 1966, most of the network's NFL games were broadcast in color, and by 1968, all of the network's NFL telecasts were in color.\n\nOn December 29, 1965, CBS acquired the rights to the NFL regular season games in 1966 and 1967, with an option to extend the contract through 1968, for $18.8 million per year (in sharp contrast to the $14.1 million per year it paid for the rights in 1964). On February 14, 1966, the rights to the 1966 and 1967 NFL Championship Games (the Ice Bowl) were sold to CBS for $2 million per game. 1967 also marked the last year that CBS had separate commentator crews for each team for about 90% to 95% of their NFL games.\n\nThe first ever AFL-NFL World Championship Game was played on January 15, 1967. Because CBS held the rights to nationally televise NFL games and NBC had the rights to broadcast AFL games, it was decided by the newly merged league to have both of them cover that first game. Ray Scott, Jack Whitaker, Frank Gifford and Pat Summerall called the game for CBS. 39.9 million viewers would watch Bart Starr's performance in the game that earned him the MVP trophy. NBC did have some problems. The network did not return from a commercial break during halftime in time for the start of the second half; therefore, the first kickoff was stopped by the game's officials and was redone once NBC was back on the air. NBC was also forced to broadcast the game over CBS' feed and cameras (CBS received prerogative to use its feed and camera angles since the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum was home to the NFL's Rams). In other words, NBC's crew had little to no control over how the game was shot. The next three AFL-NFL World Championship Games, later renamed the Super Bowl, were then divided by the two networks: CBS televised Super Bowls II and IV while NBC covered Super Bowl III.\n\nWhen CBS decided to abandon its practice of using dedicated announcing crews for particular teams in 1968, the network instituted a semi-merit system in its place, with certain crews (such as Ray Scott and Paul Christman or Jack Buck and Pat Summerall) being assigned to each week's most prominent games regardless of the participating teams.\n\nOn December 22, 1968, CBS interrupted coverage of a Western Conference championship game between the Minnesota Vikings and Baltimore Colts in order to show a broadcast from inside the Apollo 8 spacecraft, headed towards the moon (the first manned space mission to orbit the moon, and a major step towards the lunar landing the following July). The interruption began approximately three minutes before halftime of the game, and lasted 17 minutes. CBS showed highlights of the missed action (in which neither team scored) when the network returned to football coverage; nonetheless, the network received approximately 3,000 complaints after the game.\n\nIn the 1960s and early 1970s, CBS used a marching band-like composition titled \"Confidence\" (taken from Leon Carr's score from the 1964 off-Broadway musical The Secret Life of Walter Mitty) as the theme for their NFL broadcasts.\n\nMonday night games on CBS\n\nDuring the early 1960s, NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle envisioned the possibility of playing at least one game weekly during prime time for a greater television audience. An early bid by ABC in 1964 to have the league play a weekly game on Friday nights was abandoned, with critics charging that such telecasts would damage the attendance at high school games. Undaunted, Rozelle decided to experiment with the concept of playing on Monday night, scheduling the Green Bay Packers and Detroit Lions for a game on September 28, 1964. While the game was not televised, it drew a sellout crowd of 59,203 spectators to Tiger Stadium, the largest crowd ever to watch a professional football game in Detroit up to that point.\n\nTwo years later, Rozelle would build on this success as the NFL began a four-year experiment of playing on Monday night, scheduling one game in prime time on CBS during the 1966 and 1967 seasons, and two contests during each of the next two years. NBC followed suit in 1968 and 1969 with games involving AFL teams.\n\nDuring subsequent negotiations on a television contract that would begin in 1970, Rozelle concentrated on signing a weekly Monday night deal with one of the three major networks. After sensing reluctance from both NBC and CBS in disturbing their regular programming schedules, Rozelle spoke with ABC.\n\nDespite the network's status as the lowest-rated network, ABC was also reluctant to enter the risky venture. Only after the independent Hughes Sports Network, an entity bankrolled by reclusive businessman Howard Hughes showed interest, did ABC sign a contract for the scheduled games. Speculation was that had Rozelle signed with Hughes, many ABC affiliates would have pre-empted the network's Monday lineup in favor of the games, severely damaging potential ratings. There was even talk that one or two ABC owned-and-operated stations would have ditched the network feed to carry the games.\n\n1970s\n\nWhen the AFL and the NFL officially merged in 1970, the combined league divided its teams into the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). It was then decided (officially announced on January 26, 1970) that CBS would televise all NFC teams (including playoff games) while NBC would carry games from all AFC teams. For interconference games, CBS would broadcast them if the visiting team was from the NFC and NBC would carry them when the visitors were from the AFC. This was in line with the NFL television blackout rules of the time, meaning that every televised game of a local NFL team would be on the same channel (at the time, home games were banned from local television regardless of sell-out status, while road games are required to be aired in the teams' primary media markets, and select neighboring markets as well, even if it is not the most popular team in the market). The two networks also divided up broadcast rights to the Super Bowl on a yearly rotation.\n\nBy 1971, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) introduced the Prime Time Access Rule, which freed local network affiliates in the top 50 markets (in practice, the entire network) to take a half-hour of prime time from the networks on Mondays through Saturdays and one full hour on Sundays. Because nearly all affiliates found production costs for the FCC's intended goal of increased public affairs programming very high and the ratings (and by association, advertising revenues) low, making it mostly unprofitable, the FCC created an exception for network-authored news and public affairs. After a six-month hiatus in late 1971, CBS would find a prime place for 60 Minutes in a portion of that displaced time, 6:00 to 7:00 p.m. (Eastern; 5:00 to 6:00 Central Time) on Sundays, in January 1972. This proved somewhat less than satisfactory, however, because in order to accommodate CBS' telecasts of late afternoon National Football League games, 60 Minutes went on hiatus during the fall from 1972 to 1975 (and the summer of 1972). This took place because football telecasts were protected contractually from interruptions in the wake of the infamous \"Heidi Game\" incident on NBC in November 1968.\n\nDue largely to CBS' live broadcast of NFL games, as well as other sports events aired by the network that run past their scheduled end time, 60 Minutes sometimes does not start until after 7:00 p.m. Eastern Time, with the program starting right after the conclusion of game coverage (however, on the West Coast, because the actual end of the live games is much earlier in the afternoon in comparison to the Eastern and Central Time Zones, 60 Minutes is always able to start at its normal 7:00 p.m. Pacific start time, leaving affiliates free to broadcast local newscasts, the CBS Evening News, and other local or syndicated programming leading up to 60 Minutes). The program's success has also led CBS Sports to schedule events leading into 60 Minutes and the rest of the network's primetime lineup, causing (again, except on the West Coast) the pre-emptions of the Sunday editions of the CBS Evening News and affiliates' local newscasts.\n\nOn January 16, 1972, the Dallas Cowboys defeated the Miami Dolphins 24–3 in Super Bowl VI in New Orleans. The CBS telecast had an estimated household viewership of 27,450,000 homes, the highest-rated single-day telecast ever at the time. Although Tulane Stadium was sold out for the game, unconditional blackout rules in the NFL prohibited the live telecast from being shown in the New Orleans market. This would be the last Super Bowl to be blacked out in the television market in which the game was played. The following year, the NFL allowed Super Bowl VII to be televised live in the host city (Los Angeles) when all tickets were sold. In 1973, the NFL changed its blackout policy to allow games to be broadcast in the home team's market if tickets are sold out 72 hours in advance (all Super Bowls since the second have sold out, as it is the main event on the NFL schedule, and there is high demand for Super Bowl tickets).\n\nOn November 4, 1973, local San Francisco CBS affiliate KPIX (now an owned-and-operated station of the network) experimented with a \"simulcast\" in which the station kept switching back and forth between the network's broadcasts of a San Francisco 49ers game (against the Detroit Lions) and an Oakland Raiders game (against the New York Giants) that were being played at the same time, with frequent cuts to studio host Barry Tompkins. The station received many complaints from viewers, however, and the experiment was not repeated. This resulted in the NFL instituting new rules for markets that had two teams, which basically state that teams televised in two markets must play their games at different times in the day or week, and one of the teams must be on the road (for example an NFL schedule for a given week in markets with two team franchises might look like this: Oakland at Kansas City, 1:00 p.m.; New York Giants at Philadelphia, 1:00 p.m.; San Diego at San Francisco, 4:15 p.m.; and New England at New York Jets, 8:00 p.m.).\n\nDuring the October 13, 1974, New Orleans Saints–Denver Broncos game, the broadcasting duo of play-by-play announcer Don Criqui and color commentator Irv Cross was supplemented by the contributions of the first woman ever on an NFL telecast, Jane Chastain. While providing limited commentary, Chastain was used on an irregular basis over the rest of the season.\n\nCBS' 1976 telecast of Super Bowl X between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Dallas Cowboys was viewed by an estimated 80 million people, the largest television audience in history at the time. CBS' telecast featured play-by-play announcer Pat Summerall (calling his first Super Bowl in that role) and color commentator Tom Brookshier. Towards the end of the game, Hank Stram took over for Brookshier, who had left the booth to head down to the locker room area to conduct the postgame interviews with the winning team.\n\nBy 1975, CBS used several themes (technically, CBS had different opening songs and graphics per crew) to open their broadcasts, ranging from David Shire's \"Manhattan Skyline\" from the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack to \"Fly, Robin, Fly\" by the Silver Convention.\n\nOn October 12, 1976, Commissioner Pete Rozelle negotiated contracts with the three television networks to televise all NFL regular-season and postseason games, as well as selected preseason games, for four years beginning with the 1978 season. ABC was awarded yearly rights to 16 Monday night games, four prime time games, the AFC-NFC Pro Bowl, and the Hall of Fame Games. CBS received the rights to all NFC regular season and postseason games (except those in the ABC package) and to Super Bowls XIV and XVI. NBC received the rights to all AFC regular season and postseason games (except those in the ABC package) and to Super Bowls XIII and XV. Industry sources considered it the largest single television package ever negotiated.\n\nAt the height of the disco fad, from 1977 to 1979, CBS used Meco's “Star Wars Theme/Cantina Band,” a disco arrangement of John Williams's theme from Star Wars, as a musical theme.\n\nOn January 15, 1978, the Dallas Cowboys defeated the Denver Broncos in Super Bowl XII in front of the largest audience ever to watch a sporting event. CBS scored a 47.2/67 national household rating/share, the highest-rated Super Bowl to date.\n\nThe NFL Today debuts\n\nIn 1975, CBS debuted The NFL Today, a pre-game show originally hosted by journalist Brent Musburger and former NFL player Irv Cross, with former Miss America Phyllis George serving as one of the reporters. Jimmy Snyder, nicknamed \"The Greek\", joined the program in 1976. Snyder was dismissed by CBS Sports at the end of the 1987 season, one day after making comments about racial differences among NFL players on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day in January 1988. Phyllis George was replaced by Jayne Kennedy (who was crowned Miss Ohio USA in 1970) for the 1978 season, only for Kennedy to depart at the end of the following season. George would return in 1980 and stay on through the 1983 season; she was replaced by Charlsie Cantey. In 1979, the first year that the Sports Emmy Awards were awarded to sportscasts, The NFL Today was among the recipients.\n\n1980s\n\nIn 1980, CBS, with a record bid of US$12 million, was awarded the national radio rights to broadcast 26 NFL regular season games, including Monday Night Football, and all ten postseason games through the 1983 season. Starting with the 1980 season, CBS frequently used the beginning guitar riff of Heart's \"Crazy on You\" for commercial break tosses. Television ratings for season and playoff broadcasts in 1980 were the second-best in NFL history, trailing only the combined ratings of the 1976 season. All three networks posted gains, and NBC's 15.0 rating was its best ever. CBS and ABC had also experienced their best NFL ratings since 1977, with 15.3 and 20.8 ratings, respectively. CBS Radio reported a record audience of 7 million listeners for Monday night and special games.\n\nIn 1981, ABC and CBS set all-time ratings highs, with ABC finishing the season with a 21.7 rating and CBS with a 17.5 rating; NBC was down slightly to 13.9. On October 18, 1981, Game 5 of the National League Championship Series between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Montreal Expos, which was supposed to be televised on NBC that Sunday afternoon, was postponed due to snow. The cancellation of that game allowed CBS to achieve record breaking television viewership levels for a regular-season professional football broadcast. It was rated as the most watched afternoon of regular-season NFL football broadcasts on a single network in television history.\n\nIn 1981, CBS introduced a new opening theme for the NFL games, a peppy, fanfare-styled theme that remained in use through the 1985 season. The patriotic-style opening title sequence showed the Stars and Stripes of the U.S. flag morphing into the words \"National Football League.\" For the network's coverage of Super Bowl XVI at the end of that season, CBS' theme music eventually became the theme for CBS Sports Saturday/Sunday. The music itself, could be considered a hybrid of the theme used for The NFL Today at the time and the original theme for its college basketball broadcast; CBS would use this particular theme again at least for the NFC Championship Game at the end of the 1982 season.\n\nGoing into the 1981 NFL season, CBS Sports executives decided that John Madden, who had joined the network in 1979 and had worked with Frank Glieber and Gary Bender (Pat Summerall and Madden were first teamed on a November 25, 1979 broadcast of a Minnesota Vikings–Tampa Bay Buccaneers game ) in his first two years, was going to be their star NFL color commentator – however, they had trouble figuring out who was going to be his play-by-play partner. At the time CBS had reshuffled their #1 team lineup as Summerall's longtime broadcast partner Tom Brookshier was moved into a play-by-play role, and it was not immediately clear if Summerall was going to keep his position or if #2 play-by-play man Vin Scully, whose contract was nearing expiration, was going to be promoted to take over. CBS elected to give both Summerall and Scully chances to work with Madden. Scully worked with Madden for four games in September while Summerall was busy covering the U.S. Open tennis tournament for CBS. Summerall then worked with Madden for four October games as Scully called Major League Baseball's National League Championship Series and World Series for the Los Angeles Dodgers Radio Network and CBS Radio respectively.\n\nAfter the eighth week of the NFL season, CBS Sports executives decided that the laconic, baritone-voiced Summerall's style was more in tune with the lively, verbose Madden than the elegant, poetic Scully. As a consolation prize, CBS Sports gave Scully the \"B\" team assignment and the right to call the NFC Championship Game telecast with Hank Stram. Meanwhile, Pat Summerall called that game on CBS Radio with Jack Buck while John Madden prepared to do the Super Bowl XVI with Summerall in Pontiac, Michigan. Vin Scully reportedly was not happy about the demotion as well as (in his eyes) having his intelligence be insulted (at least, according to CBS Sports producer Terry O'Neil in the book The Game Behind the Game ). As a result, Scully bolted to NBC (where he started a seven-year run as their lead Major League Baseball announcer) as soon as his contract with CBS was up.\n\nOn January 24, 1982, CBS Sports' broadcast of Super Bowl XVI – in which the San Francisco 49ers (led by quarterback Joe Montana) defeated the Cincinnati Bengals, 26–21 – became the highest rated Super Bowl of all time, with a 49.1 rating/73 share. Summerall and Madden called their first Super Bowl together as they went on to become one of the most popular NFL announcing teams ever. During the Super Bowl XVI telecast, the telestrator made its major network debut, which the network introduced as the \"CBS Chalkboard\" during their sports coverage. Madden utilized the device effectively to diagram football plays on-air to viewers. The telestrator is generally credited with popularizing the use of \"telestration\" during sports commentary.\n\nIn 1982, the NFL signed a five-year contract with the three television networks (ABC, CBS and NBC) to televise all NFL regular season and postseason games starting with the 1982 season. By this particular time, CBS decided that that instead of using the regular CBS Sports typeface of that period (a variant of Franklin Gothic), that it would instead use the Serifa typeface that began to be used a few months earlier on CBS News programs for their title graphics and lower-thirds. During the 1982 season, the NFL allowed CBS to rebroadcast Super Bowl XVI during the first Sunday of the strike. CBS also rebroadcast their most recent Super Bowl (XXI) telecast during the 1987 strike. Also during the 1982 strike, CBS' NCAA football contract required the network to show four Division III games; the network initially intended to show those games on Saturday afternoons, with the broadcasts being received only in markets that were interested in carrying them. However, with no NFL games to show on October 3, 1982 (on what would have been Week 5 of the NFL season) due to the strike, CBS decided to show all of its NCAA Division III games on a single Sunday afternoon in front of a mass audience. CBS also used their regular NFL crews (Pat Summerall and John Madden at Wittenberg–Baldwin-Wallace, Tom Brookshier and Wayne Walker at West Georgia–Millsaps, Tim Ryan and Johnny Morris at Wisconsin–Oshkosh – Wisconsin–Stout, and Dick Stockton and Roger Staubach at San Diego–Occidental) and aired The NFL Today instead of using their regular college football broadcasters.\n\nIn May 1985, shortly after calling after working the 17th hole at the Masters and calling Game 1 of the NBA Playoff series between Portland Trail Blazers and Los Angeles Lakers, play-by-play announcer Frank Glieber died of a heart attack. Tom Brookshier, who previously served as Summerall's color commentator prior to Madden, replaced Glieber in the NFL on CBS broadcast booth. For the 1985 season, the NFL showed a ratings increase on all three networks for the season, with viewership of CBS' telecasts increasing by 10%, NBC telecasts by 4%, and ABC telecasts by 16%.\n\nBeginning in Week 4 of the 1986 season, CBS adapted a theme for its game broadcast, an intense, kinetic, synthesizer-laced theme that has affectionately been referred to as \"Pots and Pans\" (because of the background notes that often resembled the banging of those particular cooking objects). In 1989, the \"Pots and Pans\" theme was revamped to give it a more smooth, electronic style. This theme was also known for integrating the play-by-play announcer's voice-over introduction into the theme, it integrated three voice-over segments, one for the visiting team, home team and game storyline to set the latter element into the broadcast; this practice was common with CBS Sports' themes of the 1980s.\n\nCBS' broadcast of Super Bowl XXI (at the end of the 1986 season) was the first NFL game to be broadcast in Dolby Surround sound and in stereo. The postgame show was supposed to feature the song \"One Shining Moment,\" but due to the extended length of the postgame interviews, CBS did not play it. The lyrics to the song, which is now played at the end of the network's NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship coverage, were ultimately changed from \"the ball is kicked\" to \"the ball is tipped\". CBS also debuted the theme music (composed by Lloyd Landesman) that ultimately became the theme used for CBS' college football coverage (which was also the case for the theme CBS used from 1984 to 1986 after debuting it for Super Bowl XVIII) for the 1987 season (this theme was actually loosely based on the Pots and Pans theme).\n\nAt the NFL's annual meeting in Maui, Hawaii on March 15, 1987, Commissioner Pete Rozelle and Broadcast Committee Chairman Art Modell announced new three-year television contracts with ABC, CBS, and NBC, effective with the 1987 season. Beginning in 1987, CBS started broadcasting NFL games in stereo. On December 8, 1987, Cathy Barreto became the first woman to direct an NFL game at the network television level for the Minnesota Vikings-Detroit Lions telecast. On April 18, 1989, the NFL and CBS Radio jointly announced agreement extending CBS' radio broadcast rights to an annual 40-game package through the 1994 season.\n\nFor the Thanksgiving game broadcasts on November 23, 1989, John Madden awarded the first \"Turkey Leg Award,\" for the annual game's most valuable player. Reggie White of the Philadelphia Eagles was the first recipient of the honor for his part in what would become known as Bounty Bowl I. The gesture was seen mostly as a humorous gimmick relating to Madden's famous multi-legged turkeys served on Thanksgiving. Since then, however, the award has gained subtle notoriety, and currently, each year an MVP has been chosen for both the CBS and Fox games. When CBS returned to the NFL in 1998, the network introduced their own award, the \"All-Iron Award.\"\n\n1990s\n\nFor CBS' coverage of Super Bowl XXIV at the end of the 1989 season, CBS introduced a brand new theme for its NFL broadcasts, using a considerably more traditional and standard (but still peppy and bombastic) theme than the one used the previous four seasons; the theme was used until the 1991 NFC Championship Game.\n\nOn March 12, 1990, at the NFL's annual meeting in Orlando, Florida, the league ratified new four-year television agreements with existing partners ABC, CBS and NBC, as well as newly struck cable agreements with ESPN and TNT, to take effect with the 1990–1993 seasons. The contracts involving the four networks totaled US$3.6 billion, the largest in television history.\n\nOn September 9, 1990, The NFL Today overhauled its talent lineup, consisting of Greg Gumbel, Terry Bradshaw, Pat O'Brien and Lesley Visser. Gumbel and Bradshaw replaced Brent Musburger, who was fired by CBS on April 1, 1990, and Irv Cross, who was demoted to the position of game analyst. During the 1990 season, Pat Summerall was hospitalized after vomiting on a plane during a flight after a Bears–Redskins game, and was out for a considerable amount of time. While Verne Lundquist replaced Summerall on games with Madden, Jack Buck (who was at CBS during the time as the network's lead Major League Baseball announcer) was added as a regular NFL broadcaster to fill-in.\n\nAt Super Bowl XXVI, Lesley Visser became the first female sportscaster to preside over the Vince Lombardi Trophy presentation ceremony. The network's telecast of Super Bowl XXVI on January 26, 1992 was seen by more than 123 million viewers nationally, second only to the 127 million that viewed Super Bowl XX. The ongoing 1990 television contract gave CBS rights to Super Bowl XXVI instead of Super Bowl XXVII, which was in the network's rotation of the champion game. The NFL swapped the years in which CBS and NBC held rights to the Super Bowl in an effort to give CBS enough lead-in programming for the upcoming 1992 Winter Olympics that were set to begin two weeks later. For this game, CBS debuted a new network-wide red, white and blue graphics package as well as a new theme song (composed by Frankie Vinci) for its NFL coverage that replaced the one CBS debuted for their coverage of Super Bowl XXIV two years earlier. The package lasted until the end of 1995, after which CBS discarded it in favor of an orange and yellow color scheme for its sports graphics. The new music lasted until CBS lost the NFL rights at the end of the 1993 season, but continued to be used by CBS Radio until 2002. Several remixed versions of the 1993 theme were used upon the return of the NFL to CBS until the end of the 2002 season, when CBS replaced its entire NFL music package with one composed by E.S. Posthumus.\n\nIn September 1993, The NFL Today celebrated its 19th season as a half-hour pre-game show. It held the distinction of being the highest-rated program in its time slot for 18 years, longer than any other program on television.\n\nLosing the NFL to Fox (1994–1997)\n\nThe steady downturn in programming fortunes that CBS experienced during the tenure of network president Laurence Tisch would precipitate in 1993. As the television contracts for both NFL conferences and for the Sunday and Monday prime time football packages came up for renewal, Fox – which made a failed attempt at acquiring the Monday Night Football package six years earlier – made an aggressive move to acquire the league television rights. Knowing that it would likely need to bid considerably more than the incumbent networks to acquire a piece of the package, Fox placed a then-record bid of US$1.58 billion for the four-year contract for the broadcast rights to the National Football Conference, significantly exceeding CBS' bid of $290 million for each year of the contract. The NFC was considered the more desirable conference at the time due to its presence in most of the largest U.S. markets, such as New York City, Chicago and Philadelphia.\n\nThe NFL accepted Fox's bid on December 18, 1993, giving that network rights to televise NFC regular season and playoff games effective with the 1994 season, as well as the exclusive U.S. television rights to Super Bowl XXXI (held in 1997) under the initial contract. This stripped CBS of National Football League telecasts following the 1993 season after 38 years, resulting in CBS not broadcasting any NFL games for the next four years. The Fox Broadcasting Company had only debuted seven years earlier and did not have an existing sports division; however it began building its own coverage by hiring many former CBS personalities (such as Pat Summerall, John Madden, James Brown, Terry Bradshaw, Dick Stockton and Matt Millen), management and production personnel.\n\nCBS televised its last game as the rights holder of the National Football Conference package on January 23, 1994 when the Dallas Cowboys defeated the San Francisco 49ers in the NFC Championship Game, 38–21. Before signing off one last time, CBS aired a photo montage of their most memorable moments during their 38 years of covering the NFL set to the song \"After the Sunrise\" by Yanni.\n\nThe acquisition of NFL rights by Fox made that network a major player in American television by giving it many new viewers (and affiliates) and a platform to advertise its other programs. In the meantime, CBS lost several affiliates, and ratings for its other programming languished. On May 23, 1994, News Corporation, then parent of Fox, struck an alliance with New World Communications, by now a key ownership group with several VHF affiliates of the three established major networks – most of which were CBS affiliates, almost all of which were located in NFC markets – and wary of a CBS without football. Through the deal, in which Fox purchased a 20% interest in New World, the company signed an agreement to affiliate the majority of its stations (including those that New World was in the process of acquiring from Argyle Communications and Citicasters) with Fox; twelve of New World's stations began switching their affiliations to Fox beginning in September 1994 and continuing through September 1996. \n\nTo this day, CBS admits that it has never fully recovered from the loss of key affiliates through the New World-Fox deal. It took a particularly severe hit in Atlanta, Detroit and Milwaukee, as the network found itself on the verge of having to import the signals of nearby affiliates via cable and satellite after being turned down for affiliation deals by other major network stations in those markets. Ultimately, the network was relegated to UHF stations with marginal signals in certain areas within their markets (because of satellite television, the NFL Sunday Ticket in local markets, and rules of the time, satellite subscribers were required to use antennas to pick up local affiliates). CBS purchased one of these stations, WWJ-TV (channel 62), only days before its longtime Detroit affiliate, WJBK (channel 2), was set to switch to Fox. The ratings impact in these three markets was significant; the former CBS affiliates were all considered to be ratings contenders, especially during the NFL season. With CBS ending up on UHF stations that had virtually no significant history as a former Fox or first-tier independent station (or former Big Three affiliate for that matter), ratings for CBS programming in these markets declined significantly. In Milwaukee, for instance, WITI (channel 6)'s switch from CBS to Fox resulted in several of CBS' remaining sports properties, most notably the Daytona 500, not being available to cable subscribers for much of 1995 until Weigel Broadcasting signed carriage agreements with providers to add new CBS station WDJT-TV (channel 58).\n\nCBS apparently underestimated the value of its rights with respect to its advertising revenues and to its promotional opportunities for other network programs. The vast resources of Fox founder Rupert Murdoch allowed that network to grow quickly, primarily to the detriment of CBS. The loss of the NFL came in part because CBS Sports suddenly went into cost-cutting mode in the wake of its money-bleeding, $1 billion deal with Major League Baseball (1990–1993). The network had already developed a stodgy and overly budgeted image under Laurence Tisch, who had become chief executive officer of CBS in 1985. Tisch was already notorious for having made deep cuts at the network's news division and for selling off major portions of the company (such as the 1988 sale of its Columbia Records division to Sony). When CBS lost the NFL to Fox, the \"Tiffany Network\" struggled to compete in the ratings with a slate of programming whose audiences skewed older than programs broadcast by the other networks, even though the network still finished ahead of Fox, whose programming at the time of the NFL deal was almost exclusively limited to primetime and children's programming. One of the few bright spots in terms of ratings and audience demographics for CBS in the Tisch era, the Late Show with David Letterman (which often dominated The Tonight Show with Jay Leno in its first two years) saw its ratings decline in large part due to the affiliation switches, at times even finishing third behind Nightline on ABC. \n\nAttempts at replacement programming\n\nThe replacement programming on Sunday afternoons in the fall of 1994 and 1995 involved mostly a package of encore made-for-TV movies, which were targeted towards women in an attempt to counterprogram NBC and Fox. However, they made very little headway (with some affiliates forgoing the movie package altogether and instead airing either, local and/or religious programs and infomercials) and by 1996, CBS picked up additional NASCAR Winston Cup, Busch Series and Craftsman Truck races in order to compete in some form.\n\nOne of the often cited reasons for the Canadian Football League's failed American experiment, and part of the reason why the CFL fell behind the NFL in terms of quality players, was the state of the league's American television contract. The league, which had held a U.S. network television contract in the 1950s and again briefly in 1982, was then being carried on ESPN2, at the time a nascent channel devoted to extreme sports that was not nearly as widely available as its parent network and only carried a limited number of the league's games (with ESPN itself airing some games to fill in airtime available due to the 1994 Major League Baseball strike, as well as the Grey Cup on tape delay). It was not until after the 1995 season that the CFL, mainly through the action of its American franchises, approached CBS to see if it could get coverage. However, by the time negotiations started, the CFL had decided to fold or relocate all of its American franchises, and the negotiations with CBS accordingly fell through. It would not be until several years later that the CFL reached a television contract in the United States, on a much smaller network (America One). Then in 1996, CBS added college football games featuring the Southeastern and Big East conferences on Saturday afternoons. It was the beginning of a rebuilding process that would eventually lead to the return of the NFL to the network.\n\nThe NFL returns\n\nIn November 1996, Sean McManus was named President of CBS Sports, and would lead CBS' efforts in re-acquiring broadcast rights to the NFL. On January 12, 1998, CBS agreed to a contract with the NFL to broadcast American Football Conference games effective with the 1998 season (taking over the rights from NBC), paying $4 billion over eight years ($500 million per season). The last year NBC had rights to the AFC saw the Denver Broncos, an original AFL team, defeat the Green Bay Packers in Super Bowl XXXII, which aired on NBC and ended a 13-year drought against the NFC in the Super Bowl. Around the time CBS took over the rights to the AFC saw the trend of the 1980s and 1990s reverse, in that the AFC became the dominant conference over the NFC (1998 also saw the Broncos win the Super Bowl). The New England Patriots dynasty in the 2000s in the only AFC-only top-ten market also contributed to the ratings surge. In fact, the primary stations for both the Broncos and Patriots are the same – KCNC-TV in Denver, and WBZ-TV in Boston, prior to the two stations switching to CBS in 1995 through the network's affiliation deal with Westinghouse – as when NBC carried the AFC (KUSA and WHDH-TV carried those teams' games from 1995 to 1998).\n\nIn addition, the current AFC deal also saw CBS indirectly acquire rights to air games played by the Pittsburgh Steelers, which air locally on KDKA-TV (which was a CBS O&O by the time NFL rights were re-acquired and has long been one of CBS's strongest stations) and often get the highest television ratings for an NFL franchise due to the team's rabid fanbase on a national level. Coincidentally, before the AFL-NFL merger (when the Steelers went to the AFC voluntarily to balance out the number of teams between conferences), Steelers road games had aired on KDKA-TV as part of the network's deal to air NFL games, while home games could not be televised at all during this period, even if they did sell out tickets.\n\nAfter acquiring the new package, CBS Sports then named former NFL Today host Greg Gumbel, as their lead play-by-play announcer (Gumbel had moved to NBC Sports, where he worked from 1994 to 1998 after CBS lost the NFL to Fox). Phil Simms (who at the time, was at NBC as part of the lead announcing team alongside Dick Enberg and Paul Maguire) was hired as the lead color commentator. On September 6, 1998, after 1,687 days since the last broadcast of The NFL Today, host Jim Nantz welcomed back viewers to CBS for its coverage of the National Football League.\n\nGiven the challenge of making its coverage of the American Football Conference different from that of NBC, CBS passed over longtime NBC veterans Charlie Jones and Bob Trumpy in favor of newcomers such as Ian Eagle and Steve Tasker. According to CBS Sports executive producer Terry Ewert, \"We wanted to forge our own way and go in a different direction. We wanted to make decisions on a new way of looking at things.\" In one stark difference from NBC, CBS used a score and clock graphic for its NFL games that was constant during the game broadcasts outside of break tosses, a la the FoxBox. CBS' contribution was dubbed the EyeBox.\n\nOn November 8, 1998, CBS televised the first NFL game to be broadcast in high-definition, between the New York Jets and Buffalo Bills at Giants Stadium. It was also the first time two Heisman Trophy winning quarterbacks started against each other in the NFL (Vinny Testaverde for the Jets and Doug Flutie for the Bills).\n\n2000s\n\nOn January 28, 2001, CBS Sports, Core Digital and Princeton Video Image introduced state-of-the-art, three-dimensional replay technology called \"EyeVision\" for its coverage of Super Bowl XXXV in Tampa (at Raymond James Stadium). The game, CBS Sports' first Super Bowl broadcast since 1992, drew 131.2 million viewers for the Baltimore Ravens win over the New York Giants. As a result, Super Bowl XXXV was the most watched television program that year. Play-by-play announcer Greg Gumbel became the first African-American announcer to call a major sports championship; he was joined in the broadcast booth with Phil Simms. Both of the Ravens' Super Bowl championships to date have been on CBS; the CBS-owned station in Baltimore, WJZ-TV, had been, as an ABC affiliate, one of the strongest TV stations for ABC Monday Night Football for most of the 1980s and early 1990s, due to Baltimore's previous NFL team, the Colts' move to Indianapolis.\n\nThe 2001-02 NFL playoffs marked the first time that the league scheduled prime time playoff games for the first two rounds, in an attempt to attract more viewers. Saturday wild card and divisional playoff games were moved from 12:30 and 4:00 p.m. Eastern Time to 4:30 and 8:00 p.m., respectively. As a result, the league abandoned its practice of scheduling playoff games held mainly in colder, northern regions for daylight hours only; any stadium, regardless of evening January temperatures, could host prime time playoff games.\n\nIn 2004, Jim Nantz and Greg Gumbel swapped roles on the network's NFL broadcasts. Nantz took Gumbel's place as the lead play-by-play announcer while Gumbel took Nantz's spot as the host of The NFL Today.\n\nThe next group of broadcast contracts, which began with the 2006–07 season, resulted in a sizeable increase in total rights fees. Both Fox and CBS renewed their Sunday afternoon broadcast packages through 2011, in both cases with modest increases. On February 6, 2006, CBS Sports announced the return of James Brown, who left CBS eleven years earlier to become studio host of Fox NFL Sunday, to the network as the host of The NFL Today. Greg Gumbel moved back to play-by-play, teaming with Dan Dierdorf. CBS decided to not feature sideline reports for the 2006 regular season. However, the network did use Lesley Visser, Sam Ryan, Solomon Wilcots and Steve Tasker to report from the sidelines and around the stadium for its telecast of Super Bowl XLI.\n\nIn 2006, CBS' coverage of the AFC Championship Game earned a 28.1 rating, which topped the season premiere of American Idol on Fox. Its Super Bowl XLI broadcast drew the third largest television audience in history, finishing behind only its broadcast of the M*A*S*H finale (\"Goodbye, Farewell and Amen\") in 1983 and NBC's broadcast of Super Bowl XXX (Dallas and Pittsburgh) from 1996. Super Bowl XLI was the second most watched Super Bowl broadcast of all-time, averaging 93.1 million viewers. \n\nFor the 2007 season, CBS announced the advent of \"CBS Eye-lert,\" a service that allows viewers to be notified via e-mail and text message when the start time of a program will be delayed. The \"Eye-lert\" was eventually extended on-air to a banner graphic that appears during the prime time lineup within sports broadcasts and segments of delayed regularly scheduled evening programs.\n\nHDTV coverage\n\nAs late as 2006, CBS aired only three of its NFL games in high-definition each week, the same number of games it had aired for the past few seasons. The other networks that held rights to broadcast NFL games – NBC, NFL Network and ESPN – broadcast all of their games in high definition, and Fox broadcast up to six in HD. Because of this, some fans accused CBS of being \"cheap.\" Beginning with the 2007 season, CBS began airing five of the Sunday games in high definition television on doubleheader weeks, and six on singleheader weeks. \n\nFormer CBS Sports Executive Vice President Tony Petitti (who left CBS in April 2008 to become the head of the MLB Network) claimed the network would probably air all of its NFL games in high definition by 2009. When asked about the move, Petitti commented that CBS was focused on building a new studio for The NFL Today pre-game show. However, another CBS executive had previously indicated that, because CBS was an \"early adopter\" with its first HD game in 1998, it is already \"at capacity\" and would have to replace newly purchased equipment in its network center with even more expensive equipment. However, CBS did carry its entire slate of games in 2009 in HD, though a few non-essential camera positions for some games (mainly used only in analysis situations) continued to be shot in 4:3 SD.\n\nBeginning with the 2013 season, CBS Sports switched to a 16:9 full widescreen presentation, which began requiring the use of the #10 Active Format Description tag to present the games in a letterboxed widescreen format for viewers watching on cable television through 4:3 television sets.\n\n2010s\n\nWith an average U.S. audience of 106.5 million viewers, Super Bowl XLIV on CBS was, at the time, the most-watched Super Bowl telecast in the championship game's history as well as the most-watched program of any kind in American television history, beating the record previously set 27 years earlier by the final episode of M*A*S*H, which was watched by 105.97 million viewers. The game telecast drew an overnight national Nielsen rating of 46.4 with a 68 share, the highest for a Super Bowl since Super Bowl XX in 1986; and drew a 56.3 rating in New Orleans and a 54.2 rating in Indianapolis, first and fourth respectively among local markets. Super Bowl XLV surpassed the record a year later and was itself topped by Super Bowl XLVI in 2012. \n\nOn November 28, 2010, CBS broadcast its 5,000th NFL game. The game in question involved the Miami Dolphins visiting the Oakland Raiders, with Gus Johnson and Steve Tasker calling play-by-play.\n\nOn December 14, 2011, the NFL, along with Fox, NBC and CBS, announced a nine-year extension of the league's rights deal with all three networks to the end of the 2022 season. The extended contract includes the continued rotation of the Super Bowl yearly among the three networks, meaning CBS would air Super Bowls XLVII (2013), 50 (2016), LIII (2019), and LVI (2022). \n\nFor the 2012 NFL season, CBS began providing Spanish play-by-play commentary of all game broadcasts via a secondary audio program feed. Also in 2012, to further prevent issues surrounding late games from delaying primetime programming on the east coast (also influenced by other recent changes slowing the pace of games, such as video reviews and the kickoff for late games being moved from 4:15 to 4:25 p.m. Eastern Time), CBS began to move the start of its primetime schedule to 7:30 p.m. on weeks that the network carries a 4:25 p.m. game.\n\nSuper Bowl XLVII was broadcast for free on the internet on the host network's website, in this case CBSSports.com. CBS charged an average of $4 million for a 30-second commercial during the game, the highest rate for any Super Bowl. According to Nielsen, Super Bowl XLVII was watched by an estimated average total audience of 108.69 million U.S. viewers, with a record 164.1 million tuning into at least six minutes of the game. \n\nThe late-afternoon regional games held on December 1, 2013 (Denver-Kansas City and Cincinnati-San Diego) drew a 16.7 household rating, a 29 share, and 28.106 million viewers from 4:25 to 7:47 p.m. Eastern Time. \n\n2014–present: Thursday night games\n\nIn January 2014, reports surfaced that the NFL was shopping a selection of up to eight games from its Thursday Night Football package to other broadcasters, including the league's existing broadcast partners, along with Turner Sports. While the league was seeking either a cable or broadcast outlet, they were strongly considering the latter.\n\nOn February 5, 2014, it was announced that CBS would air eight, early-season Thursday night games during the 2014 NFL season in simulcast with NFL Network, with the remainder airing on NFL Network exclusively. CBS's team of Jim Nantz and Phil Simms handled commentary for all of the games, and CBS Sports produces all of the games in the package, including those on NFL Network, which will be produced in the manner of CBS telecasts. As a part of the contract, CBS was also allowed to broadcast a Saturday game in Week 16 for the first time since 2005.\n\nOn January 18, 2015, the NFL announced that CBS and the NFL Network would again partner, with the same broadcast schedule, during the 2015 NFL season. The contract is again only for one year, while CBS's Sunday contract is 12 years long. CBS also partnered with Yahoo Sports during the 2015 season, with Yahoo live streaming a CBS-produced game around the globe. The game was not available on CBS except in the local markets of the teams (Jacksonville and Buffalo).\n\nMarket coverage and television policies\n\nAs with Fox's coverage, the network's stations are divided into different groups based on the most popular or closest team to that market or, if that does not apply, based on the allure of a particular game. Each football game is rated as an \"A\", \"B\" or \"C\" game, with \"A\" games likely being televised nationally and \"C\" games airing only in the home television markets of the two participating teams. Significantly more behind-the-scenes resources are dedicated to \"A\" game coverage.\n\nUnder NFL broadcasting rules, CBS must televise all regional games in the home market of the visiting team (and, if tickets are sold out, the city where the game is being played), in its entirety, regardless if the game has a close outcome or is a blowout. However, if the game is a blowout, the network is allowed to switch to a game with a more competitive outcome in a market that is within the 75-mile blackout radius without it being the home market of origin. If a local game is blacked out, the local CBS affiliate is not allowed to show any other football game during the scheduled time of one being played by the home team (as an example, if the Kansas City Chiefs are losing to the Houston Texans by over 20 points in the fourth quarter, most of the CBS stations carrying that game can be switched to another game; however, the stations in the markets whose local teams are playing – Houston television station KHOU and Kansas City affiliate KCTV – must carry the Kansas City-Houston game to its conclusion).\n\nFrom 1970 to 1993, CBS exclusively covered games involving only NFC opponents and interconference games in which the road team was a member of the NFC. From 1998 to 2013, CBS exclusively broadcast AFC-only games and interconference games featuring an AFC road team. With the 2014 season, while AFC-only games still form the bulk of CBS's coverage, the network now shows a limited slate of games involving two NFC opponents (mostly on Thursdays), and interconference games in which the road team is an NFC franchise (all on Sundays). However, it is forced to give up several AFC games to Fox, though not as many games as CBS takes from Fox (due to CBS's status as a holder of multiple television contracts). \n\nFor the past few decades, the NFL has always allowed CBS to be the \"singleheader\" network during the week it televises the Men's U.S. Open Tennis final at 4:05 p.m. Eastern Time around the country (CBS has said that it could not justify putting the Men's U.S. Open Final on Sunday night in terms of ratings; the women's final, broadcast on a Saturday night, often outrates the men's final by a considerable margin, except when at least one American plays in the men's final). However, due to weather delays occurring yearly since 2009, this ended up being the slot for the women's final on Sunday afternoons until CBS lost the U.S. Open rights to ESPN after the 2014 tournament.\n\nLocal preseason television coverage\n\nSince CBS re-obtained the NFL broadcast rights in 1998, a number of the network's local stations have televised preseason football games, mostly including the network's graphics and production that viewers would normally see during regular season national/regional broadcasts.\n\nA number of NFL teams and their broadcasting departments have teamed up with CBS Sports to produce games; , these teams include the San Diego Chargers (originating stations KCBS-TV in Los Angeles and KFMB-TV in San Diego), New York Jets (WCBS-TV in New York City) and Green Bay Packers (WGBA-TV in Green Bay and co-flagship WTMJ-TV in Milwaukee; since former CBS O&O WFRV-TV in Green Bay lost the local rights to the preseason games, Packers coverage on WGBA and WTMJ currently uses NBC's graphics package as both are affiliates of that network, although the telecasts continue to use a CBS technical and announcing team).\n\nHowever, there are some that used a few, but not all, elements of the NFL on CBS production presentations, and they are mostly in-house productions between the teams and their individual flagship station; these include the Pittsburgh Steelers (KDKA-TV), Miami Dolphins (WFOR-TV), San Francisco 49ers (KPIX and KOVR in Sacramento), Dallas Cowboys (KTVT), Cincinnati Bengals (WKRC-TV), Kansas City Chiefs (KCTV), New England Patriots (WBZ-TV), Atlanta Falcons (WGCL-TV) and the Jacksonville Jaguars (WJAX-TV). CBS O&O WWJ-TV in Detroit was the Detroit Lions' flagship station from 2008 to 2010 and used most of their graphics and music. In addition to WWJ, of the stations mentioned, WCBS; KCBS; KDKA; WFOR; KTVT; KPIX; KOVR and WBZ are all currently owned by CBS Corporation.\n\nOn-air staff\n\nAlphabetical list of past and present commentators\n\nNFL on CBS commentator pairings\n\nDigital on-screen graphics\n\n1992–1993\n\nCBS Sports debuted on-screen graphics (as opposed to simple text) for its event telecasts in 1991. These graphics used a small score graphic that contained the score and game clock, which was removed during plays. The graphics were gray, beveled edged rectangles, with logos shown in a beveled edged square.\n\n1998–2000\n\nFrom 1998 to 2000, the scoring bug had a half-capsule shape where the score was displayed in white text on a blue background (that contained the CBS eye), below the quarter and time in black text on a white background. The down and distance would pop out from the bottom of the bug in a white box when necessary; it would spin around to show the number of timeouts left. The standard graphics were blue, and individual team graphics were colored according to the team.\n\n2001\n\nStarting in Super Bowl XXXV, the bug took on a more rectangular shape, with the score and quarter/time positions flipped. The scores were now displayed in white text against an orange background, and the quarter and time beneath them in a white text on a blue background. The down and distance and ball location popped out in two separate boxes underneath the main bug. The team-specific colors for graphics were dropped, and would not be used again by CBS until 2013.\n\n2002–2005\n\nIn 2002, a new bug with more of a horizontal orientation was introduced. The CBS Sports logo that previously adorned the top of the bug was replaced with the CBS \"eye\" logo in blue and white. The bug was divided into two rectangles, the left one housing the time and quarter and the right the teams and scores, all in white text on blue. As in years past, the down and distance were contained in a pop-out box, also in the blue and white scheme.\n\nIn 2002, the graphics package itself remained the same as in 2000 and 2001. However, the look was updated in 2003 to more closely match the design of the score box. In 2004 and 2005, the top two games each week were presented in high definition. These HD broadcasts used a score box optimized for the 16:9 frame, the first time that a U.S. network had used graphics optimized for high definition.\n\nIn Week 3 of the 2004 season, CBS unveiled a constant scoring update bar on the bottom of the screen (the first of its kind). This was initially called \"Game Trax,\" and complimented \"Stat Trax,\" unveiled the year before which was the first system to show player statistics updates popping out of the score display after a play (now standard on all networks).\n\n2006–2008\n\nThe 2006 season introduced a new graphics package for The NFL on CBS, including a new logo (which also formed the base of SEC college football and NCAA college basketball logos) and new NFL Today studio set, as part of a network-wide overhaul of the graphics package. The digital on-screen graphics were also changed, with red and a light shade of blue introduced from the new logo. A more complex scoring bug included the new NFL on CBS logo and six circle segments stacked in columns of two emanating from the logo. The first two featured the quarter and time, the next two the team abbreviations (all in white text on the darker blue) and the last two each team's respective scores in black text on a white background. The entire bug was trimmed in the red and lighter blue; the down and distance pop-out changed to a half-ellipse shape.\n\nWhen a team scores a touchdown, the columns that emanate from the logo collapse into the logo. The logo then quickly spins around to show the scoring team's logo, a full bar the shape of the combined boxes quickly protruding showing the word \"TOUCHDOWN\", with the bug sparkling. After about three or four seconds of this graphic showing, the aforementioned animation takes place once more, this time with the bug returning to normal. In all instances of points scored, the changed score flashes a few times to indicate a change in score, with a touchdown score changing after the \"TOUCHDOWN\" graphic is shown. Notably, this score box was not optimized for high definition as the previous package was, even on HD games.\n\n2009–2013\n\nIn 2009, the score bug was changed to a top-screen banner, although the graphics package used from 2006 remains the same. This bug featured, horizontally left-to-right, the CBS \"eye\" logo, the down and distance against a white background, each team's logo, initials and points, and then the quarter and remaining time. When the down and distance was not displayed, that and the CBS \"eye\" logo were replaced by a blue and red \"NFL on CBS\" logo. When there was a penalty, the word \"FLAG\" replaced the down and distance on a yellow background, with the penalty description dropping down from below the team's initials; when there is an official review, the down and distance would be replaced by \"OFFICIAL REVIEW\" on a red background. For challenges, a drop-down below the teams initials with a dark red background shows with the word \"CHALLENGE.\" The play clock would flash red when it hit the 5-second mark and stays red until the play clock is reset. When a team scored a touchdown, the entire bar would change, displaying the scoring team's logo on the left and the team's main color as the background, with the word \"TOUCHDOWN\" with the letter spacing widening for a few moments before returning to normal. After such, the team's score will be highlighted their color, and the previous score will be replaced by the new score (this also happens when the team's PAT or 2-point conversion is ruled to be good). After this occurs, stats of players involved immediately appear in the bottom of the banner.\n\nA small white indicator showed on the top of the bar, on top of whatever team currently had possession of the ball. At times, at the bottom of the bar, various player statistics (such as quarterback ratings), game stats (such as drive summaries), and situational issues in the game (such as amount of timeouts remaining), would pop open for a few moments whenever it is needed. For Week 3 of the 2009 season, the possession indicator was changed to a small dot next to the team's logo due to the addition of timeout indicators across the top.\n\nBeginning with the NCAA football season in September 2011, college football broadcasts on CBS and the CBS Sports Network began using a scoring bug mirroring this one. CBS Sports Network's United Football League coverage in 2012 also used the same graphics package.\n\n2013–2015\n\nCBS debuted a new graphics package starting with the network's coverage of Super Bowl XLVII; the package was used for all CBS game telecasts beginning with the 2013 season. Originally optimized for a 4:3 display, the elements are now optimized for the 16:9 format as a result of the network's incorporation of the AFD #10 broadcast tag.\n\nThe lower third graphics adopt the column layout for player info graphics used by all other sports broadcasters, except for Fox. The portion containing the player's name is stacked on the left, with the team's primary color in the background of the name panel. Other statistics are shown on a gray background on panels to the right. The score banner is gray with team abbreviations listed over their primary color and next to their logo. For Sunday game broadcasts, the NFL on CBS logo is placed on the left; the \"NFL\" portion disappears and is replaced by the down and distance, \"Flag\", or \"Official Review\". Also for the Sunday broadcasts, challenges and statistics drop down from the bar. The only scoring play which used an animation is a touchdown, which involves the team logo and the word \"Touchdown\" appearing in place of the banner. Timeout indicators are located above the team abbreviations for Sunday broadcasts, and a possession indicator is located to the right of the abbreviation.\n\nSince the network began airing the evening games in 2014, Thursday Night Football games use a package with the usual CBS curved-edged graphics, however incorporating a generic \"TNF\" logo in lower thirds instead of the CBS logo because of the fact that Thursday broadcasts also air on the NFL Network. A \"TNF\" text logo is also used in the border of full screen graphics where the \"NFL on CBS\" text is usually seen. The score bar is located on the bottom of the screen instead of the top, with the \"NFL on CBS\" text replaced by a \"CBS TNF\" mark, and the \"TNF\" portion disappearing to show down and distance. The usual play clock location is instead home to an NFL Network logo, with the play clock moved next to the game clock for Thursdays only. Any information that drops down from the bar on Sundays instead pops up from the bar on the Thursday broadcasts, with timeout indicators flipped to the bottom.\n\nFor the game live-streamed on Yahoo in 2015, all silver \"CBS\" marks in the graphics package were replaced by purple \"Yahoo\" logos. The game used the top-screen version of the scoring banner.\n\n2016–present\n\nBeginning with the network's February 7, 2016 broadcast of Super Bowl 50, CBS Sports debuted a new logo along with a new on-air graphics package that is optimized for the 16:9 format. The new graphics will be rolled out on all of CBS Sports' other properties (including the network's joint production of NCAA March Madness with Turner Sports) in the coming months.\n\nThe score bar is now located at the bottom of the screen for all broadcasts, no matter what day they take place on. The CBS eye logo is at the far left. If there is no down and distance displayed, the word \"NFL\" accompanies the logo. It is expected that \"TNF\" will replace \"NFL\" for Thursday games as in the previous package. The down-and-distance display, which was previously shown on the left side of the bar, is now shown on the right side of the bar. When it appears, the \"NFL\" on the other side of the bar disappears. Possession of the ball is indicated by the background color in the down-and-distance display. The play clock is now located to the right of the game clock. The timeout indicators, which are now shown as white dash marks, are located below the team's abbreviation, both placed against the team's main color. The team logo is to the left of the abbreviation. The score is in a darker shade of the team's color to the right. Whenever a team scores a touchdown, the graphic displays the team's watermark, followed by \"TOUCHDOWN\" before the graphic returns to normal.\n\nMusic\n\nNielsen ratings\n\nThe Sunday afternoon, October 14, 2007 game between the New England Patriots and Dallas Cowboys on CBS, was viewed by 29.1 million people, making it the most-watched NFL Sunday game since the Dallas Cowboys–San Francisco 49ers game on November 10, 1996 on Fox (29.7 million viewers), according to Nielsen Media Research data. The game was also the most-watched television program for the week of October 8–14, drawing nine million viewers more than the CBS crime drama CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (19.8 million viewers), and was the most-watched program of the season.\n\nThe November 4, 2007, broadcast of a game between the New England Patriots and Indianapolis Colts drew a 20.1 rating and 33.8 million viewers for CBS.\n\nDuring the 17-week 2008 season (September 4–December 28, 2008), CBS' regular-season game telecasts were watched by an estimated cumulative audience of 150.9 million viewers, 14% higher than NBC's 132.4 million viewers, 3% higher than Fox's 146.9 million viewers, and 52% higher than ESPN's 99.4 million. The cumulative audience is based on the total amount of viewers (persons 2+) who watched at least six minutes of NFL game coverage since the start of the 2008 regular season.\n\nFor the 2009 season, the network's regular-season telecasts averaged 19.509 million viewers (counting only seven airings during the season by Nielsen). For the first thirteen weeks of the 2013 season, the CBS game telecasts averaged 26.5 million viewers." ] }

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{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe" ], "filename": [ "Nobel_Prize.txt" ], "title": [ "Nobel Prize" ], "wiki_context": [ "The Nobel Prize (,; Swedish definite form, singular: Nobelpriset; ) is a set of annual international awards bestowed in a number of categories by Swedish and Norwegian committees in recognition of academic, cultural and/or scientific advances.\n\nThe will of the Swedish inventor Alfred Nobel established the prizes in 1895. The prizes in Chemistry, Literature, Peace, Physics, and Physiology or Medicine were first awarded in 1901. The related Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences was established by Sweden's central bank in 1968. Medals made before 1980 were struck in 23 carat gold, and later from 18 carat green gold plated with a 24 carat gold coating. Between 1901 and 2015, the Nobel Prizes and the Prize in Economic Sciences were awarded 573 times to 900 people and organizations. With some receiving the Nobel Prize more than once, this makes a total of 870 individuals (822 men and 48 women) and 23 organizations.\n\nThe prize ceremonies take place annually in Stockholm, Sweden, except for the peace prize which is held in Oslo, Norway and each recipient, or laureate, receives a gold medal, a diploma and a sum of money that has been decided by the Nobel Foundation. (, each prize was worth SEK8 million or about , €0.93 million or £0.6 million.) The Nobel Prize is widely regarded as the most prestigious award available in the fields of literature, medicine, physics, chemistry, peace, and economics. \n\nThe Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awards the Nobel Prize in Physics, the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, and the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences; the Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet awards the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine; the Swedish Academy grants the Nobel Prize in Literature; and the Nobel Peace Prize is awarded not by a Swedish organisation but by the Norwegian Nobel Committee.\n\nThe prize is not awarded posthumously; however, if a person is awarded a prize and dies before receiving it, the prize may still be presented. Though the average number of laureates per prize increased substantially during the 20th century, a prize may not be shared among more than three people. \n\nHistory\n\nAlfred Nobel () was born on 21 October 1833 in Stockholm, Sweden, into a family of engineers. He was a chemist, engineer, and inventor. In 1894, Nobel purchased the Bofors iron and steel mill, which he made into a major armaments manufacturer. Nobel also invented ballistite. This invention was a precursor to many smokeless military explosives, especially the British smokeless powder cordite. As a consequence of his patent claims, Nobel was eventually involved in a patent infringement lawsuit over cordite. Nobel amassed a fortune during his lifetime, with most of his wealth from his 355 inventions, of which dynamite is the most famous. \n\nIn 1888, Nobel was astonished to read his own obituary, titled The merchant of death is dead, in a French newspaper. As it was Alfred's brother Ludvig who had died, the obituary was eight years premature. The article disconcerted Nobel and made him apprehensive about how he would be remembered. This inspired him to change his will. On 10 December 1896, Alfred Nobel died in his villa in San Remo, Italy, from a cerebral haemorrhage. He was 63 years old. \n\nNobel wrote several wills during his lifetime. He composed the last over a year before he died, signing it at the Swedish–Norwegian Club in Paris on 27 November 1895. To widespread astonishment, Nobel's last will specified that his fortune be used to create a series of prizes for those who confer the \"greatest benefit on mankind\" in physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature, and peace.[http://www.nobelprize.org/alfred_nobel/will/will-full.html Full text of Alfred Nobel´s Will] Nobel bequeathed 94% of his total assets, 31 million SEK (c. US$186 million, €150 million in 2008), to establish the five Nobel Prizes. \nBecause of scepticism surrounding the will, it was not until 26 April 1897 that it was approved by the Storting in Norway. The executors of Nobel's will, Ragnar Sohlman and Rudolf Lilljequist, formed the Nobel Foundation to take care of Nobel's fortune and organise the award of prizes. \n\nNobel's instructions named a Norwegian Nobel Committee to award the Peace Prize, the members of whom were appointed shortly after the will was approved in April 1897. Soon thereafter, the other prize-awarding organisations were designated or established. These were Karolinska Institutet on 7 June, the Swedish Academy on 9 June, and the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences on 11 June. The Nobel Foundation reached an agreement on guidelines for how the prizes should be awarded; and, in 1900, the Nobel Foundation's newly created statutes were promulgated by King Oscar II. In 1905, the personal union between Sweden and Norway was dissolved.\n\nNobel Foundation\n\nThe Nobel Foundation was founded as a private organisation on 29 June 1900. Its function is to manage the finances and administration of the Nobel Prizes. In accordance with Nobel's will, the primary task of the Foundation is to manage the fortune Nobel left. Robert and Ludwig Nobel were involved in the oil business in Azerbaijan and, according to Swedish historian E. Bargengren, who accessed the Nobel family archives, it was this \"decision to allow withdrawal of Alfred's money from Baku that became the decisive factor that enabled the Nobel Prizes to be established\". Another important task of the Nobel Foundation is to market the prizes internationally and to oversee informal administration related to the prizes. The Foundation is not involved in the process of selecting the Nobel laureates. In many ways, the Nobel Foundation is similar to an investment company, in that it invests Nobel's money to create a solid funding base for the prizes and the administrative activities. The Nobel Foundation is exempt from all taxes in Sweden (since 1946) and from investment taxes in the United States (since 1953). Since the 1980s, the Foundation's investments have become more profitable and as of 31 December 2007, the assets controlled by the Nobel Foundation amounted to 3.628 billion Swedish kronor (c. US$560 million). \n\nAccording to the statutes, the Foundation consists of a board of five Swedish or Norwegian citizens, with its seat in Stockholm. The Chairman of the Board is appointed by the Swedish King in Council, with the other four members appointed by the trustees of the prize-awarding institutions. An Executive Director is chosen from among the board members, a Deputy Director is appointed by the King in Council, and two deputies are appointed by the trustees. However, since 1995, all the members of the board have been chosen by the trustees, and the Executive Director and the Deputy Director appointed by the board itself. As well as the board, the Nobel Foundation is made up of the prize-awarding institutions (the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, the Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institute, the Swedish Academy, and the Norwegian Nobel Committee), the trustees of these institutions, and auditors.\n\nFirst prizes\n\nOnce the Nobel Foundation and its guidelines were in place, the Nobel Committees began collecting nominations for the inaugural prizes. Subsequently they sent a list of preliminary candidates to the prize-awarding institutions.\n\nThe Nobel Committee's Physics Prize shortlist cited Wilhelm Röntgen's discovery of X-rays and Philipp Lenard's work on cathode rays. The Academy of Sciences selected Röntgen for the prize. In the last decades of the 19th century, many chemists had made significant contributions. Thus, with the Chemistry Prize, the Academy \"was chiefly faced with merely deciding the order in which these scientists should be awarded the prize.\" The Academy received 20 nominations, eleven of them for Jacobus van't Hoff. Van't Hoff was awarded the prize for his contributions in chemical thermodynamics. \n\nThe Swedish Academy chose the poet Sully Prudhomme for the first Nobel Prize in Literature. A group including 42 Swedish writers, artists and literary critics protested against this decision, having expected Leo Tolstoy to be awarded. Some, including Burton Feldman, have criticised this prize because they consider Prudhomme a mediocre poet. Feldman's explanation is that most of the Academy members preferred Victorian literature and thus selected a Victorian poet. The first Physiology or Medicine Prize went to the German physiologist and microbiologist Emil von Behring. During the 1890s, von Behring developed an antitoxin to treat diphtheria, which until then was causing thousands of deaths each year. \n\nThe first Nobel Peace Prize went to the Swiss Jean Henri Dunant for his role in founding the International Red Cross Movement and initiating the Geneva Convention, and jointly given to French pacifist Frédéric Passy, founder of the Peace League and active with Dunant in the Alliance for Order and Civilization.\n\nSecond World War\n\nIn 1938 and 1939, Adolf Hitler's Third Reich forbade three laureates from Germany (Richard Kuhn, Adolf Friedrich Johann Butenandt, and Gerhard Domagk) from accepting their prizes. Each man was later able to receive the diploma and medal. Even though Sweden was officially neutral during the Second World War, the prizes were awarded irregularly. In 1939, the Peace Prize was not awarded. No prize was awarded in any category from 1940–42, due to the occupation of Norway by Germany. In the subsequent year, all prizes were awarded except those for literature and peace. \n\nDuring the occupation of Norway, three members of the Norwegian Nobel Committee fled into exile. The remaining members escaped persecution from the Germans when the Nobel Foundation stated that the Committee building in Oslo was Swedish property. Thus it was a safe haven from the German military, which was not at war with Sweden. These members kept the work of the Committee going, but did not award any prizes. In 1944, the Nobel Foundation, together with the three members in exile, made sure that nominations were submitted for the Peace Prize and that the prize could be awarded once again.\n\nPrize in Economic Sciences\n\nIn 1968, Sveriges Riksbank celebrated its 300th anniversary by donating a large sum of money to the Nobel Foundation to be used to set up a prize in honor of Nobel. The following year, the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences was awarded for the first time. The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences became responsible for selecting laureates. The first laureates for the Economics Prize were Jan Tinbergen and Ragnar Frisch \"for having developed and applied dynamic models for the analysis of economic processes.\" Although not a Nobel Prize, it is intimately identified with the other awards; the laureates are announced with the Nobel Prize recipients, and the Prize in Economic Sciences is presented at the Swedish Nobel Prize Award Ceremony. The Board of the Nobel Foundation decided that after this addition, it would allow no further new prizes. \n\nAward process\n\nThe award process is similar for all of the Nobel Prizes; the main difference is in who can make nominations for each of them. \n\nNominations\n\nNomination forms are sent by the Nobel Committee to about 3,000 individuals, usually in September the year before the prizes are awarded. These individuals are generally prominent academics working in a relevant area. Regarding the Peace Prize, inquiries are also sent to governments, former Peace Prize laureates and current or former members of the Norwegian Nobel Committee. The deadline for the return of the nomination forms is 31 January of the year of the award. The Nobel Committee nominates about 300 potential laureates from these forms and additional names. The nominees are not publicly named, nor are they told that they are being considered for the prize. All nomination records for a prize are sealed for 50 years from the awarding of the prize.\n\nSelection\n\nThe Nobel Committee then prepares a report reflecting the advice of experts in the relevant fields. This, along with the list of preliminary candidates, is submitted to the prize-awarding institutions. The institutions meet to choose the laureate or laureates in each field by a majority vote. Their decision, which cannot be appealed, is announced immediately after the vote. A maximum of three laureates and two different works may be selected per award. Except for the Peace Prize, which can be awarded to institutions, the awards can only be given to individuals. If the Peace Prize is not awarded, the money is split among the scientific prizes. This has happened 19 times so far.\n\nPosthumous nominations\n\nAlthough posthumous nominations are not presently permitted, individuals who died in the months between their nomination and the decision of the prize committee were originally eligible to receive the prize. This has occurred twice: the 1931 Literature Prize awarded to Erik Axel Karlfeldt, and the 1961 Peace Prize awarded to UN Secretary General Dag Hammarskjöld. Since 1974, laureates must be thought alive at the time of the October announcement. There has been one laureate, William Vickrey, who in 1996 died after the prize (in Economics) was announced but before it could be presented. On 3 October 2011, the laureates for the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine were announced; however, the committee was not aware that one of the laureates, Ralph M. Steinman, had died three days earlier. The committee was debating about Steinman's prize, since the rule is that the prize is not awarded posthumously. The committee later decided that as the decision to award Steinman the prize \"was made in good faith\", it would remain unchanged. \n\nRecognition time lag\n\nNobel's will provided for prizes to be awarded in recognition of discoveries made \"during the preceding year\". Early on, the awards usually recognised recent discoveries. However, some of these early discoveries were later discredited. For example, Johannes Fibiger was awarded the 1926 Prize for Physiology or Medicine for his purported discovery of a parasite that caused cancer. To avoid repeating this embarrassment, the awards increasingly recognised scientific discoveries that had withstood the test of time. According to Ralf Pettersson, former chairman of the Nobel Prize Committee for Physiology or Medicine, \"the criterion 'the previous year' is interpreted by the Nobel Assembly as the year when the full impact of the discovery has become evident.\"\n\nThe interval between the award and the accomplishment it recognises varies from discipline to discipline. The Literature Prize is typically awarded to recognise a cumulative lifetime body of work rather than a single achievement. The Peace Prize can also be awarded for a lifetime body of work. For example, 2008 laureate Martti Ahtisaari was awarded for his work to resolve international conflicts. However, they can also be awarded for specific recent events. For instance, Kofi Annan was awarded the 2001 Peace Prize just four years after becoming the Secretary-General of the United Nations. Similarly Yasser Arafat, Yitzhak Rabin, and Shimon Peres received the 1994 award, about a year after they successfully concluded the Oslo Accords. \n\nAlthough Nobel's will stated that prizes should be awarded for contributions made \"during the preceding year\", awards for physics, chemistry, and medicine are typically awarded once the achievement has been widely accepted. Sometimes, this takes decades – for example, Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar shared the 1983 Physics Prize for his 1930s work on stellar structure and evolution. Not all scientists live long enough for their work to be recognised. Some discoveries can never be considered for a prize if their impact is realised after the discoverers have died. \n\nAward ceremonies\n\nExcept for the Peace Prize, the Nobel Prizes are presented in Stockholm, Sweden, at the annual Prize Award Ceremony on 10 December, the anniversary of Nobel's death. The recipients' lectures are normally held in the days prior to the award ceremony. The Peace Prize and its recipients' lectures are presented at the annual Prize Award Ceremony in Oslo, Norway, usually on 10 December. The award ceremonies and the associated banquets are typically major international events. The Prizes awarded in Sweden's ceremonies' are held at the Stockholm Concert Hall, with the Nobel banquet following immediately at Stockholm City Hall. The Nobel Peace Prize ceremony has been held at the Norwegian Nobel Institute (1905–1946), at the auditorium of the University of Oslo (1947–1989) and at Oslo City Hall (1990–present). \n\nThe highlight of the Nobel Prize Award Ceremony in Stockholm occurs when each Nobel laureate steps forward to receive the prize from the hands of the King of Sweden. In Oslo, the Chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee presents the Nobel Peace Prize in the presence of the King of Norway. At first King Oscar II did not approve of awarding grand prizes to foreigners. It is said that his mind changed once his attention had been drawn to the publicity value of the prizes for Sweden. \n\nNobel Banquet\n\nAfter the award ceremony in Sweden, a banquet is held in the Blue Hall at the Stockholm City Hall, which is attended by the Swedish Royal Family and around 1,300 guests.\n\nThe Nobel Peace Prize banquet is held in Norway at the Oslo Grand Hotel after the award ceremony. Apart from the laureate, guests include the President of the Storting, the Prime Minister, and, since 2006, the King and Queen of Norway. In total, about 250 guests attend.\n\nNobel lecture\n\nAccording to the statutes of the Nobel Foundation, each laureate is required to give a public lecture on a subject related to the topic of their prize. The Nobel lecture as a rhetorical genre took decades to reach its current format. These lectures normally occur during Nobel Week (the week leading up to the award ceremony and banquet, which begins with the laureates arriving in Stockholm and normally ends with the Nobel banquet), but this is not mandatory. The laureate is only obliged to give the lecture within six months of receiving the prize. Some have happened even later. For example, U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt received the Peace Prize in 1906 but gave his lecture in 1910, after his term in office. The lectures are organized by the same association which selected the laureates. \n\nPrizes\n\nMedals\n\nIt was announced on 30 May 2012 that the Nobel Foundation had awarded the contract for the production of the five (Swedish) Nobel Prize medals to Svenska Medalj AB. Formerly, the Nobel Prize medals were minted by Myntverket (the Swedish Mint) from 1902 to 2010. Myntverket, Sweden's oldest company, ceased operations in 2011 after 1,017 years. In 2011, the Mint of Norway, located in Kongsberg, made the medals. The Nobel Prize medals are registered trademarks of the Nobel Foundation. Each medal features an image of Alfred Nobel in left profile on the obverse. The medals for physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, and literature have identical obverses, showing the image of Alfred Nobel and the years of his birth and death. Nobel's portrait also appears on the obverse of the Peace Prize medal and the medal for the Economics Prize, but with a slightly different design. For instance, the laureate's name is engraved on the rim of the Economics medal. The image on the reverse of a medal varies according to the institution awarding the prize. The reverse sides of the medals for chemistry and physics share the same design.[http://osulibrary.oregonstate.edu/specialcollections/coll/pauling/bond/pictures/nobel-chemistry-medal.html \"Nobel Prize for Chemistry. Front and back images of the medal. 1954\"], \"Source: Photo by Eric Arnold. Ava Helen and Linus Pauling Papers. Honors and Awards, 1954h2.1\", \"All Documents and Media: Pictures and Illustrations\", Linus Pauling and The Nature of the Chemical Bond: A Documentary History, the Valley Library, Oregon State University. Retrieved 7 December 2007.\n\nAll medals made before 1980 were struck in 23 carat gold. Since then, they have been struck in 18 carat green gold plated with 24 carat gold. The weight of each medal varies with the value of gold, but averages about 175 g for each medal. The diameter is 66 mm and the thickness varies between and . Because of the high value of their gold content and tendency to be on public display, Nobel medals are subject to medal theft. During World War II, the medals of German scientists Max von Laue and James Franck were sent to Copenhagen for safekeeping. When Germany invaded Denmark, chemist George de Hevesy dissolved them in aqua regia (nitro-hydrochloric acid), to prevent confiscation by Nazi Germany and to prevent legal problems for the holders. After the war, the gold was recovered from solution, and the medals re-cast. \n\nDiplomas\n\nNobel laureates receive a diploma directly from the hands of the King of Sweden or, in the case of the peace prize, the Chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee. Each diploma is uniquely designed by the prize-awarding institutions for the laureates that receive them. The diploma contains a picture and text in Swedish which states the name of the laureate and normally a citation of why they received the prize. None of the Nobel Peace Prize laureates has ever had a citation on their diplomas. \n\nAward money\n\nThe laureates are given a sum of money when they receive their prizes, in the form of a document confirming the amount awarded. The amount of prize money depends upon how much money the Nobel Foundation can award each year. The purse has increased since the 1980s, when the prize money was 880 000 SEK (c. 2.6 million SEK, US$350 000 or €295,000 today) per prize. In 2009, the monetary award was 10 million SEK (US$1.4 million, €950,000). In June 2012, it was lowered to 8 million SEK. If there are two laureates in a particular category, the award grant is divided equally between the recipients. If there are three, the awarding committee has the option of dividing the grant equally, or awarding one-half to one recipient and one-quarter to each of the others. It is common for recipients to donate prize money to benefit scientific, cultural, or humanitarian causes. \n\nControversies and criticisms\n\nControversial recipients\n\nAmong other criticisms, the Nobel Committees have been accused of having a political agenda, and of omitting more deserving candidates. They have also been accused of Eurocentrism, especially for the Literature Prize. \n\n;Peace Prize\n\nAmong the most criticised Nobel Peace Prizes was the one awarded to Henry Kissinger and Lê Đức Thọ. This led to the resignation of two Norwegian Nobel Committee members. Lê Đức Thọ declined the prize. Kissinger and Thọ were awarded the prize for negotiating a ceasefire between North Vietnam and the United States in January 1973. However, when the award was announced, both sides were still engaging in hostilities. Many critics were of the opinion that Kissinger was not a peace-maker but the opposite, responsible for widening the war. \n\nYasser Arafat, Shimon Peres, and Yitzhak Rabin received the Peace Prize in 1994 for their efforts in making peace between Israel and Palestine. Immediately after the award was announced, one of the five Norwegian Nobel Committee members denounced Arafat as a terrorist and resigned. Additional misgivings about Arafat were widely expressed in various newspapers. \n\nAnother controversial Peace Prize was that awarded to Barack Obama in 2009. Nominations had closed only eleven days after Obama took office as President, but the actual evaluation occurred over the next eight months. Obama himself stated that he did not feel deserving of the award, or worthy of the company it would place him in. Past Peace Prize laureates were divided, some saying that Obama deserved the award, and others saying he had not secured the achievements to yet merit such an accolade. Obama's award, along with the previous Peace Prizes for Jimmy Carter and Al Gore, also prompted accusations of a left-wing bias. \n\n;Literature Prize\n\nThe award of the 2004 Literature Prize to Elfriede Jelinek drew a protest from a member of the Swedish Academy, Knut Ahnlund. Ahnlund resigned, alleging that the selection of Jelinek had caused \"irreparable damage to all progressive forces, it has also confused the general view of literature as an art.\" He alleged that Jelinek's works were \"a mass of text shovelled together without artistic structure.\" The 2009 Literature Prize to Herta Müller also generated criticism. According to The Washington Post many US literary critics and professors were ignorant of her work. This made those critics feel the prizes were too Eurocentric. \n\n;Science prizes\n\nIn 1949, the neurologist António Egas Moniz received the Physiology or Medicine Prize for his development of the prefrontal leucotomy. The previous year Dr. Walter Freeman had developed a version of the procedure which was faster and easier to carry out. Due in part to the publicity surrounding the original procedure, Freeman's procedure was prescribed without due consideration or regard for modern medical ethics. Endorsed by such influential publications as The New England Journal of Medicine, leucotomy or \"lobotomy\" became so popular that about 5,000 lobotomies were performed in the United States in the three years immediately following Moniz's receipt of the Prize. \n\nOverlooked achievements\n\nThe Norwegian Nobel Committee confirmed that Mahatma Gandhi was nominated for the Peace Prize in 1937–39, 1947, and a few days before he was assassinated in January 1948. Later, members of the Norwegian Nobel Committee expressed regret that he was not given the prize. Geir Lundestad, Secretary of Norwegian Nobel Committee in 2006 said, \"The greatest omission in our 106 year history is undoubtedly that Mahatma Gandhi never received the Nobel Peace prize. Gandhi could do without the Nobel Peace prize. Whether Nobel committee can do without Gandhi is the question\". In 1948, the year of Gandhi's death, the Nobel Committee declined to award a prize on the grounds that \"there was no suitable living candidate\" that year. Later, when the Dalai Lama was awarded the Peace Prize in 1989, the chairman of the committee said that this was \"in part a tribute to the memory of Mahatma Gandhi.\" Other high profile individuals with widely recognised contributions to peace have been missed out. Foreign Policy lists Eleanor Roosevelt, Václav Havel, Ken Saro-Wiwa, Sari Nusseibeh and Corazon Aquino as people who \"never won the prize, but should have.\". The physicist Arnold Sommerfeld was nominated 81 times but an award was never made. \n\nIn 1965, UN Secretary General U Thant was informed by the Norwegian Permananent Representative to the UN that he would be awarded that year's prize and asked whether or not he would accept. He consulted staff and later replied that he would. At the same time, Chairman Gunnar Jahn of the Nobel Peace prize committee, lobbied heavily against giving U Thant the prize and the prize was at the last minute awarded to UNICEF. The rest of the committee all wanted the prize to go to U Thant, for his work in defusing the Cuban Missile Crisis, ending the war in the Congo, and his ongoing work to mediate an end to the Vietnam War. The disagreement lasted three years and in 1966 and 1967 no prize was given, with Gunnar Jahn effectively vetoing an award to U Thant. \n\nThe Literature Prize also has controversial omissions. Adam Kirsch has suggested that many notable writers have missed out on the award for political or extra-literary reasons. The heavy focus on European and Swedish authors has been a subject of criticism. The Eurocentric nature of the award was acknowledged by Peter Englund, the 2009 Permanent Secretary of the Swedish Academy, as a problem with the award and was attributed to the tendency for the academy to relate more to European authors. This tendency towards European authors still leaves a number of European writers on a list of notable writers that have been overlooked for the Literature Prize, including Europe's Leo Tolstoy, Anton Chekhov, J. R. R. Tolkien, Émile Zola, Marcel Proust, Vladimir Nabokov, James Joyce, August Strindberg, Simon Vestdijk, the New World's Jorge Luis Borges, Ezra Pound, John Updike, Arthur Miller, Mark Twain, and Africa's Chinua Achebe. \n\nThe strict rule against awarding a prize to more than three people is also controversial. When a prize is awarded to recognize an achievement by a team of more than three collaborators, one or more will miss out. For example, in 2002, the prize was awarded to Koichi Tanaka and John Fenn for the development of mass spectrometry in protein chemistry, an award that did not recognize the achievements of Franz Hillenkamp and Michael Karas of the Institute for Physical and Theoretical Chemistry at the University of Frankfurt. According to one of the nominees for the prize in physics, the three person limit deprived him and two other members of his team of the honor in 2013: the team of Carl Hagen, Gerald Guralnik, and Tom Kibble published a paper in 1964 that gave answers to how the Cosmos began, but did not share the 2013 Physics Prize awarded to Peter Higgs and François Englert, who had also published papers in 1964 concerning the subject. All five physicists arrived at the same conclusion, albeit from different angles. Hagen contends that an equitable solution is to either abandon the three limit restriction, or expand the time period of recognition for a given achievement to two years. \n\nSimilarly, the prohibition of posthumous awards fails to recognise achievements by an individual or collaborator who dies before the prize is awarded. In 1962, Francis Crick, James D. Watson, and Maurice Wilkins were awarded the Physiology or Medicine Prize for discovering the structure of DNA. Rosalind Franklin, a key contributor in that discovery, died of ovarian cancer four years earlier. The Economics Prize was not awarded to Fischer Black, who died in 1995, when his co-author Myron Scholes received the honor in 1997 for their landmark work on option pricing along with Robert C. Merton, another pioneer in the development of valuation of stock options. In the announcement of the award that year, the Nobel committee prominently mentioned Black's key role.\n\nPolitical subterfuge may also deny proper recognition. Lise Meitner and Fritz Strassmann, who co-discovered nuclear fission along with Otto Hahn, may have been denied a share of Hahn's 1944 Nobel Chemistry Award due to having fled Germany when the Nazis came to power. The Meitner and Strassmann roles in the research was not fully recognized until years later, when they joined Hahn in receiving the 1966 Enrico Fermi Award.\n\nEmphasis on discoveries over inventions\n\nAlfred Nobel left his fortune to finance annual prizes to be awarded \"to those who, during the preceding year, shall have conferred the greatest benefit on mankind.\" He stated that the Nobel Prizes in Physics should be given \"to the person who shall have made the most important 'discovery' or 'invention' within the field of physics.\" Nobel did not emphasise discoveries, but they have historically been held in higher respect by the Nobel Prize Committee than inventions: 77% of the Physics Prizes have been given to discoveries, compared with only 23% to inventions. Christoph Bartneck and Matthias Rauterberg, in papers published in Nature and Technoetic Arts, have argued this emphasis on discoveries has moved the Nobel Prize away from its original intention of rewarding the greatest contribution to society. \n\nSpecially distinguished laureates\n\nMultiple laureates\n\nFour people have received two Nobel Prizes. Marie Curie received the Physics Prize in 1903 for her work on radioactivity and the Chemistry Prize in 1911 for the isolation of pure radium, making her the only person to win a Nobel Prize in two different sciences. Linus Pauling won the 1954 Chemistry Prize for his research into the chemical bond and its application to the structure of complex substances. Pauling also won the Peace Prize in 1962 for his activism against nuclear weapons, making him the only laureate of two unshared prizes. John Bardeen received the Physics Prize twice: in 1956 for the invention of the transistor and in 1972 for the theory of superconductivity. Frederick Sanger received the prize twice in Chemistry: in 1958 for determining the structure of the insulin molecule and in 1980 for inventing a method of determining base sequences in DNA. \n\nTwo organisations have received the Peace Prize multiple times. The International Committee of the Red Cross received it three times: in 1917 and 1944 for its work during the world wars; and in 1963 during the year of its centenary. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has won the Peace Prize twice for assisting refugees: in 1954 and 1981. \n\nFamily laureates\n\nThe Curie family has received the most prizes, with four prizes won by five individual laureates. Marie Curie received the prizes in Physics (in 1903) and Chemistry (in 1911). Her husband, Pierre Curie, shared the 1903 Physics prize with her. Their daughter, Irène Joliot-Curie, received the Chemistry Prize in 1935 together with her husband Frédéric Joliot-Curie. In addition, the husband of Marie Curie's second daughter, Henry Labouisse, was the director of UNICEF when it won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1965. \n\nAlthough no family matches the Curie family's record, there have been several with two laureates. The husband-and-wife team of Gerty Cori and Carl Ferdinand Cori shared the 1947 Prize in Physiology or Medicine as did the husband-and-wife team of May-Britt Moser and Edvard Moser in 2014 (along with John O'Keefe). J. J. Thomson was awarded the Physics Prize in 1906 for showing that electrons are particles. His son, George Paget Thomson, received the same prize in 1937 for showing that they also have the properties of waves. William Henry Bragg and his son, William Lawrence Bragg, shared the Physics Prize in 1915 for inventing the X-ray spectrometer. Niels Bohr won the Physics prize in 1922, as did his son, Aage Bohr, in 1975. Manne Siegbahn, who received the Physics Prize in 1924, was the father of Kai Siegbahn, who received the Physics Prize in 1981. Hans von Euler-Chelpin, who received the Chemistry Prize in 1929, was the father of Ulf von Euler, who was awarded the Physiology or Medicine Prize in 1970. C.V. Raman won the Physics Prize in 1930 and was the uncle of Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, who won the same prize in 1983. Arthur Kornberg received the Physiology or Medicine Prize in 1959. Kornberg's son, Roger later received the Chemistry Prize in 2006. Jan Tinbergen, who won the first Economics Prize in 1969, was the brother of Nikolaas Tinbergen, who received the 1973 Physiology or Medicine Prize. Alva Myrdal, Peace Prize laureate in 1982, was the wife of Gunnar Myrdal who was awarded the Economics Prize in 1974. Economics laureates Paul Samuelson and Kenneth Arrow were brothers-in-law.\n\nCultural impact\n\nBeing a symbol of scientific or literary achievement that's recognisable worldwide, the Nobel Prize is often depicted in fiction. This includes films like The Prize and Nobel Son about fictional Nobel laureates as well as fictionalized accounts of stories surrounding real prizes such as Nobel Chor, a film based on the unsolved theft of Rabindranath Tagore's prize. \n\nRefusals and constraints\n\nTwo laureates have voluntarily declined the Nobel Prize. In 1964, Jean-Paul Sartre was awarded the Literature Prize but refused, stating, \"A writer must refuse to allow himself to be transformed into an institution, even if it takes place in the most honourable form.\" The other is Lê Đức Thọ, chosen for the 1973 Peace Prize for his role in the Paris Peace Accords. He declined, stating that there was no actual peace in Vietnam. \n\nDuring the Third Reich, Adolf Hitler hindered Richard Kuhn, Adolf Butenandt, and Gerhard Domagk from accepting their prizes. All of them were awarded their diplomas and gold medals after World War II. In 1958, Boris Pasternak declined his prize for literature due to fear of what the Soviet Union government might do if he travelled to Stockholm to accept his prize. In return, the Swedish Academy refused his refusal, saying \"this refusal, of course, in no way alters the validity of the award.\" The Academy announced with regret that the presentation of the Literature Prize could not take place that year, holding it until 1989 when Pasternak's son accepted the prize on his behalf. Aung San Suu Kyi was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991, but her children accepted the prize because she had been placed under house arrest in Burma; Suu Kyi delivered her speech two decades later, in 2012. Liu Xiaobo was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2010 while he and his wife were under house arrest in China as political prisoners.\n\nLegacy\n\nThe memorial symbol \"Planet of Alfred Nobel\" was opened in Dnipropetrovsk University of Economics and Law in 2008. On the globe, there are 802 Nobel laureates' reliefs made of a composite alloy obtained when disposing of military strategic missiles." ] }

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{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe" ], "filename": [ "How_the_Grinch_Stole_Christmas!.txt" ], "title": [ "How the Grinch Stole Christmas!" ], "wiki_context": [ "How the Grinch Stole Christmas! is a children's story by Theodor \"Dr. Seuss\" Geisel written in rhymed verse with illustrations by the author. It follows the Grinch, a grouchy, solitary creature who attempts to put an end to Christmas by stealing Christmas-themed items from the homes of the nearby town Whoville on Christmas Eve. Despite his efforts, Whoville's inhabitants still celebrate the holiday, so the Grinch returns everything that he stole and is the guest of honor at the Whos' Christmas dinner.\n\nThe story was published as a book by Random House in 1957, and at approximately the same time in an issue of Redbook. The book criticizes the commercialization of Christmas. Based on a 2007 online poll, the National Education Association named it one of its \"Teachers' Top 100 Books for Children\". In 2012 it was ranked number 61 among the \"Top 100 Picture Books\" in a survey published by School Library Journal – the fourth of five Dr. Seuss books on the list.\n\nThe book was adapted as a Christmas special twice, a 1966 animated TV movie starring Boris Karloff as both the narrator and the voice of the Grinch and a 2000 live-action feature film starring Jim Carrey.\n\nPlot\n\nThe Grinch is a bitter, grouchy, cave-dwelling green monster with a heart \"two sizes too small\" who lives on snowy Mount Crumpit, a steep high mountain just north of Whoville, home of the merry and warm-hearted Whos. His only companion is his unloved, but loyal dog, Max. From his cave, the Grinch can hear the noisy Christmas festivities that take place in Whoville. Annoyed, he decides to stop Christmas from coming by stealing their presents, trees, and food for their Christmas feast. He crudely disguises himself as Santa Claus, and forces Max, disguised as a reindeer, to drag a sleigh to Whoville. Once there, the Grinch slides down the chimney and steals all of the Whos' Christmas presents, the Christmas tree, and the log for their fire. He is briefly interrupted in his burglary by Cindy Lou, a little Who girl, but concocts a crafty lie to effect his escape from her home.\n\nThe Grinch then takes his sleigh to the top of Mount Crumpit, and prepares to dump all of the presents into the abyss. As dawn breaks, he expects to hear the Whos' bitter and sorrowful cries, but is confused to hear them singing a joyous Christmas song instead. He puzzles for a moment until it dawns on him that \"maybe Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more\" than just presents and feasting. The Grinch's shrunken heart suddenly grows three sizes larger. The reformed Grinch returns all of the Whos' presents and trimmings and is warmly invited to the Whos' feast, where he has the honor of carving the Roast Beast.\n\nCreation and publication\n\nDr. Seuss began work on How the Grinch Stole Christmas around the beginning of 1957. He had recently completed The Cat in the Hat and was in the midst of founding Beginner Books with Phyllis and Bennett Cerf and his wife, Helen Palmer Geisel. Helen, who had ongoing medical problems and had suffered a small stroke in April 1957, nevertheless acted as an unofficial editor, as she had with previous Dr. Seuss books. Geisel wrote the book quickly and was mostly finished with it within a few weeks. Biographers Judith and Neil Morgan wrote, \"It was the easiest book of his career to write, except for its conclusion.\" According to Geisel, \"I got hung up getting the Grinch out of the mess. I got into a situation where I sounded like a second-rate preacher or some biblical truisim... Finally in desperation... without making any statement whatever, I showed the Grinch and the Whos together at the table, and made a pun of the Grinch carving the 'roast beast.' ... I had gone through thousands of religious choices, and then after three months it came out like that.\" By mid-May 1957, the book was finished and in the mail to the Random House offices in New York. In June, the Geisels took a month-long vacation to Hawaii, where he checked and returned the book's galley proof.\n\nThe book debuted in December 1957, in both a book version published by Random House and in an issue of Redbook magazine. Geisel dedicated the book to Theodor \"Teddy\" Owens, the one-year-old son of his niece, Peggy Owens.\n\nReception\n\nM.S. Libby, writing in the New York Herald Tribune, compared the book favorably to Dr. Seuss's earlier works: \"His peculiar and original genius in line and word is always the same, yet, so rich are the variations he plays on his themes, always fresh and amusing.\" Kirkus Reviews wrote, \"Youngsters will be in transports over the goofy gaiety of Dr. Seuss's first book about a villain.\" The reviewer called the Grinch \"easily the best Christmas-cad since Scrooge.\" Ellen Lewis Buell, in her review in The New York Times, praised the book's handling of its moral, as well as its illustrations and verse. She wrote, \"Even if you prefer Dr. Seuss in a purely antic mood, you must admit that if there's a moral to be pointed out, no one can do it more gaily. The reader is swept along by the ebullient rhymes and the weirdly zany pictures until he is limp with relief when the Grinch reforms and, like the latter, mellow with good feelings.\" The review for The Saturday Review of Literature stated: \"The inimitable Dr. Seuss has brought off a fresh triumph in his new picture book... The verse is as lively and the pages are as bright and colorful as anyone could wish.\" The reviewer suggested that parents and older siblings reading the book to young children would also enjoy its moral and humor. Charlotte Jackson of the San Francisco Chronicle called the book \"wonderful fantasy, in the true Dr. Seuss manner, with pictures in the Christmas colors.\"\n\nAnalysis\n\nSome writers, including Dr. Seuss himself, have made a connection between the Grinch and Dr. Seuss. In the story, the Grinch laments that he has had to put up with the Whos' celebration of Christmas for 53 years. As both Thomas Fensch and Charles Cohen note, Dr. Seuss was 53 when he wrote and published the book. Dr. Seuss himself asserted the connection in an article in the December 1957 edition of Redbook: \"I was brushing my teeth on the morning of the 26th of last December when I noticed a very Grinch-ish countenance in the mirror. It was Seuss! So I wrote about my sour friend, the Grinch, to see if I could rediscover something about Christmas that obviously I'd lost.\" as quoted in Cohen 2004, p. 330 Seuss's step-daughter, Lark Dimond-Cates, stated in a speech in 2003, \"I always thought the Cat... was Ted on his good days, and the Grinch was Ted on his bad days.\" Cohen notes that Seuss drove a car with a license plate that read \"GRINCH\".\n\nThomas Fensch notes that the Grinch is the first adult and the first villain to be a main character in a Dr. Seuss book.\n\nAdaptations\n\n* Chuck Jones famously adapted the story as an animated special in 1966, featuring narration by Boris Karloff, who also provided the Grinch's voice, and songs with lyrics written by Geisel himself, set to music composed by Albert Hague, many of which were sung by Thurl Ravenscroft.\n* In 1975, Zero Mostel narrated an LP record of the story.\n* In 1992, Random House Home Video released an updated animated version of the book narrated by Walter Matthau.\n* The book was translated into Latin as Quomodo Invidiosulus Nomine Grinchus Christi Natalem Abrogaverit: How the Grinch Stole Christmas in Latin by Jennifer Morrish Tunberg with the assistance of Terence O. Tunberg. The translation was published in October 1998 by Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers Inc. \n* A musical stage version was produced by the Old Globe Theatre, San Diego, in 1998. It also was produced on Broadway and a limited-engagement US tour in 2008. The North American Tour began in the fall of 2010 and has subsequently toured every fall since. It will begin its 6th tour in October 2015. \n* An audiobook of the book read by Rik Mayall was released in 1999.\n* The book was adapted into a 2000 live-action film, directed by Ron Howard starring Jim Carrey as the Grinch. \n*The book was adapted into a 13-minute song, performed by the Boston Pops Orchestra, arranged by Danny Troob, and featuring bassist Reid Burton and actor Will LeBow narrating it on the Boston Pops's 2013 CD, \"A Boston Pops Christmas---Live from Symphony Hall with Keith Lockhart\".\n* The Grinch character was reprised in Seuss's Halloween Is Grinch Night and The Grinch Grinches the Cat in the Hat and he and Max also appear in the children's show, The Wubbulous World of Dr. Seuss.\n*In 2009, an interactive e-book version was released for the iPhone. \n* Illumination Entertainment is developing a 3D animated feature film, titled How the Grinch Stole Christmas with Peter Candeland and Yarrow Cheney set to direct it and Benedict Cumberbatch voicing the character. It was originally scheduled to be released on November 10, 2017, but in June 2016, it was pushed back to November 9, 2018. \n\nNotes\n\nSources\n\n* \n* \n* \n* \n* \n*" ] }

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{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe", "TagMe" ], "filename": [ "Misogyny.txt", "Misandry.txt" ], "title": [ "Misogyny", "Misandry" ], "wiki_context": [ "Misogyny is the hatred of, contempt for, or prejudice against women or girls. Misogyny can be manifested in numerous ways, including social exclusion, sex discrimination, hostility, androcentrism, patriarchy, and male privilege ideas, belittling of women, violence against women, and sexual objectification of women. Misogyny can be found occasionally within ancient texts relating to various mythologies. In addition, various influential Western philosophers and thinkers have been described as misogynistic. In 2012 the Macquarie Dictionary (which documents Australian English and New Zealand English) expanded the definition to include not only hatred of women but also \"entrenched prejudices against women\".\n\nDefinitions \n\nAccording to sociologist Allan G. Johnson, \"misogyny is a cultural attitude of hatred for females because they are female.\" Johnson argues that:\n\nSociologist Michael Flood, at the University of Wollongong, defines misogyny as the hatred of women, and notes:\n\nDictionaries define misogyny as \"hatred of women\" and as \"hatred, dislike, or mistrust of women\". In 2012, primarily in response to events occurring in the Australian Parliament, the Macquarie Dictionary (which documents Australian English and New Zealand English) expanded the definition to include not only hatred of women but also \"entrenched prejudices against women\". The counterpart of misogyny is misandry, the hatred or dislike of men; the antonym of misogyny is philogyny, the love or fondness of women.\n\nHistorical usage \n\nClassical Greece \n\nIn his book City of Sokrates: An Introduction to Classical Athens, J.W. Roberts argues that older than tragedy and comedy was a misogynistic tradition in Greek literature, reaching back at least as far as Hesiod. \n\nThe word Misogyny had a different meaning in ancient Greece, since they applied the pejorative \"woman hater\" expression mostly to gay men. \n\nMisogyny comes into English from the ancient Greek word misogunia (), which survives in two passages. \n\nThe earlier, longer, and more complete passage comes from a moral tract known as On Marriage (c. 150 BC) by the stoic philosopher Antipater of Tarsus. Antipater argues that marriage is the foundation of the state, and considers it to be based on divine (polytheistic) decree. Antipater uses misogunia to describe Euripides' usual writing—tēn misogunian en tō graphein (τὴν μισογυνίαν ἐν τῷ γράφειν \"the misogyny in the writing\"). However, he mentions this by way of contrast. He goes on to quote Euripides at some length, writing in praise of wives. Antipater does not tell us what it is about Euripides' writing that he believes is misogynistic, he simply expresses his belief that even a man thought to hate women (namely Euripides) praises wives, so concluding his argument for the importance of marriage. He says, \"This thing is truly heroic.\"\n\nEuripides' reputation as a misogynist is also evidenced in another source; in Deipnosophistae (Banquet of the Learned), Athenaeus has one of the diners quoting Hieronymus of Cardia, who confirms that the view was widespread, while offering Sophocles' comment on the matter:\n\nDespite Euripides' reputation, Antipater is not the only writer to see appreciation of women in his writing. Katherine Henderson and Barbara McManus state that he \"showed more empathy for women than any other ancient writer\", citing \"relatively modern critics\" to support their claim. \n\nThe other surviving use of the original Greek word is by Chrysippus, in a fragment from On affections, quoted by Galen in Hippocrates on Affections. Here, misogyny is the first in a short list of three \"disaffections\"—women (misogunian), wine (misoinian, μισοινίαν) and humanity (misanthrōpian, μισανθρωπίαν). Chrysippus' point is more abstract than Antipater's, and Galen quotes the passage as an example of an opinion contrary to his own. What is clear, however, is that he groups hatred of women with hatred of humanity generally, and even hatred of wine. \"It was the prevailing medical opinion of his day that wine strengthens body and soul alike.\"Teun L. Tieleman, [https://books.google.com/books?id\nBBiw96gj8gkC&printsecfrontcover&dq\nchrysippus+on+affections&sig=6f6Y84rR_VZzorWxiGfFMYViuvM Chrysippus' on Affections:] Reconstruction and Interpretations, (Leiden: Brill Publishers, 2003), p. 162. ISBN 90-04-12998-7 So Chrysippus, like his fellow stoic Antipater, views misogyny negatively, as a disease; a dislike of something that is good. It is this issue of conflicted or alternating emotions that was philosophically contentious to the ancient writers. Ricardo Salles suggests that the general stoic view was that \"[a] man may not only alternate between philogyny and misogyny, philanthropy and misanthropy, but be prompted to each by the other.\" \n\nAristotle has also been accused of being a misogynist; he has written that women were inferior to men. According to Cynthia Freeland (1994):\n\nIn the Routledge philosophy guidebook to Plato and the Republic, Nickolas Pappas describes the \"problem of misogyny\" and states:\n\nMisogynist is also found in the Greek—misogunēs ()—in Deipnosophistae (above) and in Plutarch's Parallel Lives, where it is used as the title of Heracles in the history of Phocion. It was the title of a play by Menander, which we know of from book seven (concerning Alexandria) of Strabo's 17 volume Geography, and quotations of Menander by Clement of Alexandria and Stobaeus that relate to marriage. Menander also wrote a play called Misoumenos (Μισούμενος) or The Man (She) Hated. Another Greek play with a similar name, Misogunos (Μισόγυνος) or Woman-hater, is reported by Marcus Tullius Cicero (in Latin) and attributed to the poet Marcus Atilius. \n\nCicero reports that Greek philosophers considered misogyny to be caused by gynophobia, a fear of women. \n\nThe more common form of this general word for woman hating is misogunaios ().\n* There are also some persons easily sated with their connection with the same woman, being at once both mad for women and women haters. — Philo, Of Special Laws, 1st Century. \n* Allied with Venus in honourable positions Saturn makes his subjects haters of women, lovers of antiquity, solitary, unpleasant to meet, unambitious, hating the beautiful, … — Ptolemy, \"Quality of the Soul\", Tetrabiblos, 2nd century. \n* I will prove to you that this wonderful teacher, this woman-hater, is not satisfied with ordinary enjoyments during the night. — Alciphron, \"Thais to Euthydemus\", 2nd century. \n\nThe word is also found in Vettius Valens' Anthology and Damascius' Principles. \n\nIn summary, Greek literature considered misogyny to be a disease—an anti-social condition—in that it ran contrary to their perceptions of the value of women as wives and of the family as the foundation of society. These points are widely noted in the secondary literature.\n\nReligion \n\nAncient Greek \n\nIn Misogyny: The World's Oldest Prejudice, Jack Holland argues that there is evidence of misogyny in the mythology of the ancient world. In Greek mythology according to Hesiod, the human race had already experienced a peaceful, autonomous existence as a companion to the gods before the creation of women. When Prometheus decides to steal the secret of fire from the gods, Zeus becomes infuriated and decides to punish humankind with an \"evil thing for their delight\". This \"evil thing\" is Pandora, the first woman, who carried a jar (usually described—incorrectly—as a box) which she was told to never open. Epimetheus (the brother of Prometheus) is overwhelmed by her beauty, disregards Prometheus' warnings about her, and marries her. Pandora cannot resist peeking into the jar, and by opening it she unleashes into the world all evil; labour, sickness, old age, and death. \n\nBuddhism \n\nIn his book The Power of Denial: Buddhism, Purity, and Gender, professor Bernard Faure of Columbia University argued generally that \"Buddhism is paradoxically neither as sexist nor as egalitarian as is usually thought.\" He remarked, \"Many feminist scholars have emphasized the misogynistic (or at least androcentric) nature of Buddhism\" and stated that Buddhism morally exalts its male monks while the mothers and wives of the monks also have important roles. Additionally, he wrote:\n\nChristianity \n\nDifferences in tradition and interpretations of scripture have caused sects of Christianity to differ in their beliefs with regard their treatment of women.\n\nIn The Troublesome Helpmate, Katharine M. Rogers argues that Christianity is misogynistic, and she lists what she says are specific examples of misogyny in the Pauline epistles. She states:\n\nIn K. K. Ruthven's Feminist Literary Studies: An Introduction, Ruthven makes reference to Rogers' book and argues that the \"legacy of Christian misogyny was consolidated by the so-called 'Fathers' of the Church, like Tertullian, who thought a woman was not only 'the gateway of the devil' but also 'a temple built over a sewer'.\" \n\nHowever, some other scholars have argued that Christianity does not include misogynistic principles, or at least that a proper interpretation of Christianity would not include misogynistic principles. David M. Scholer, a biblical scholar at Fuller Theological Seminary, stated that the verse Galatians 3:28 (\"There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus\") is \"the fundamental Pauline theological basis for the inclusion of women and men as equal and mutual partners in all of the ministries of the church.\" In his book Equality in Christ? Galatians 3.28 and the Gender Dispute, Richard Hove argues that—while Galatians 3:28 does mean that one's sex does not affect salvation—\"there remains a pattern in which the wife is to emulate the church's submission to Christ () and the husband is to emulate Christ's love for the church.\" \n\nIn Christian Men Who Hate Women, clinical psychologist Margaret J. Rinck has written that Christian social culture often allows a misogynist \"misuse of the biblical ideal of submission\". However, she argues that this a distortion of the \"healthy relationship of mutual submission\" which is actually specified in Christian doctrine, where \"[l]ove is based on a deep, mutual respect as the guiding principle behind all decisions, actions, and plans\". Similarly, Catholic scholar Christopher West argues that \"male domination violates God's plan and is the specific result of sin\". \n\nIslam \n\nThe fourth chapter (or sura) of the Quran is called \"Women\" (An-Nisa). The 34th verse is a key verse in feminist criticism of Islam. \nThe verse reads: \"Men are the maintainers of women because Allah has made some of them to excel others and because they spend out of their property; the good women are therefore obedient, guarding the unseen as Allah has guarded; and (as to) those on whose part you fear desertion, admonish them, and leave them alone in the sleeping-places and beat them; then if they obey you, do not seek a way against them; surely Allah is High, Great.\"\n\nIn his book Popular Islam and Misogyny: A Case Study of Bangladesh, Taj Hashmi discusses misogyny in relation to Muslim culture (and to Bangladesh in particular), writing:\n\nIn his book No god but God, University of Southern California professor Reza Aslan wrote that \"misogynistic interpretation\" has been persistently attached to An-Nisa, 34 because commentary on the Quran \"has been the exclusive domain of Muslim men\".\n\nSikhism \n\nScholars William M. Reynolds and Julie A. Webber have written that Guru Nanak, the founder of the Sikh faith tradition, was a \"fighter for women's rights\" that was \"in no way misogynistic\" in contrast to some of his contemporaries. \n\nScientology \n\nIn his book Scientology: A New Slant on Life, L. Ron Hubbard wrote the following passage:\n\nIn the same book, he also wrote:\n\nThese passages, along with other ones of a similar nature from Hubbard, have been criticised by Alan Scherstuhl of The Village Voice as expressions of hatred towards women. However, Baylor University professor J. Gordon Melton has written that Hubbard later disregarded and abrogated much of his earlier views about women, which Melton views as merely echoes of common prejudices at the time. Melton has also stated that the Church of Scientology welcomes both genders equally at all levels—from leadership positions to auditing and so on—since Scientologists view people as spiritual beings. \n\nPhilosophers and thinkers (17th to 20th century) \n\nNumerous influential Western philosophers have been accused of being misogynistic, including Aristotle, René Descartes, Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, David Hume, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, G. W. F. Hegel, Arthur Schopenhauer, Friedrich Nietzsche, Charles Darwin, Sigmund Freud, Otto Weininger, Oswald Spengler, and John Lucas.\n\nAristotle \n\nAristotle believed women were inferior and described them as \"deformed males\". In his work Politics, he states \n\nas regards the sexes, the male is by nature superior and the female inferior, the male ruler and the female subject 4 (1254b13-14).\n\nAnother example is Cynthia's catalog where Cynthia states \"Aristotle says that the courage of a man lies in commanding, a woman's lies in obeying; that 'matter yearns for form, as the female for the male and the ugly for the beautiful'; that women have fewer teeth than men; that a female is an incomplete male or 'as it were, a deformity'. Aristotle believed that men and women naturally differed both physically and mentally. He claimed that women are \"more mischievous, less simple, more impulsive ... more compassionate[,] ... more easily moved to tears[,] ... more jealous, more querulous, more apt to scold and to strike[,] ... more prone to despondency and less hopeful[,] ... more void of shame or self-respect, more false of speech, more deceptive, of more retentive memory [and] ... also more wakeful; more shrinking [and] more difficult to rouse to action\" than men. \n\nJean-Jacques Rousseau \n\nJean-Jacques Rousseau is well known for his views against equal rights for women for example in his treatise Emile, he writes: \"Always justify the burdens you impose upon girls but impose them anyway... . They must be thwarted from an early age... . They must be exercised to constraint, so that it costs them nothing to stifle all their fantasies to submit them to the will of others.\" Other quotes consist of \"closed up in their houses\", \"must receive the decisions of fathers and husbands like that of the church\". \n\nCharles Darwin \n\nCharles Darwin wrote on the subject female inferiority through the lens of human evolution. He noted in his book The Descent of Men: \"young of both sexes resembled the adult female in most species\" which he extrapolated and further reasoned \"males were more evolutionarily advanced than females\". Darwin believed all savages, children and women had smaller brains and therefore led more by instinct and less by reason. Such quickly ideas spread to other scientists such as Professor Carl Vogt of natural sciences at the University of Geneva who argued \"the child, the female, and the senile white\" had the mental traits of a\"grown up Negro\", that the female is similar in intellectual capacity and personality traits to both infants and the \"lower\" races\" such as blacks while drawing conclusion that women are closely related to lower animals than men and \"hence we should discover a greater apelike resemblance if we were to take a female as our standard\". Darwin's beliefs about women were also reflective of his attitudes towards women in general for example his views towards marriage as a young man in which he was quoted \"\"how should I manage all my business if obligated to go everyday walking with my wife – Ehau! \" and that being married was... \"worse than being a Negro\" . Or in other instances his concern of his son marrying a woman named Martineau about which he wrote \"... he shall be not much better than her \"nigger.\" Imagine poor Erasmus a nigger to so philosophical and energetic a lady ... Martineau had just returned from a whirlwind tour of America, and was full of married women's property rights ... Perfect equality of rights is part of her doctrine...We must pray for our poor \"nigger.\"\n\nArthur Schopenhauer \n\nArthur Schopenhauer has been noted as a misogynist by many such as the philosopher, critic, and author Tom Grimwood. In a 2008 article Grimwood wrote published in the philosophical journal of Kritique, Grimwood argues that Schopenhauer's misogynistic works have largely escaped attention despite being more noticeable than those of other philosophers such as Nietzsche. For example, he noted Schopenhauer's works where the latter had argued women only have \"meagre\" reason comparable that of \"the animal\" \"who lives in the present\". Other works he noted consisted of Schopenhauer's argument that women's only role in nature is to further the species through childbirth and hence is equipped with the power to seduce and \"capture\" men. He goes on to state that women's cheerfulness is chaotic and disruptive which is why it is crucial to exercise obedience to those with rationality. For her to function beyond her rational subjugator is a threat against men as well as other women, he notes. Schopenhauer also thought women's cheerfulness is an expression of her lack of morality and incapability to understand abstract or objective meaning such as art. This is followed up by his quote \"“have never been able to produce a single, really great, genuine and original achievement in the fine arts, or bring to anywhere into the world a work of permanent value.” Arthur Schopenhauer also blamed women for the fall of King Louis XIII and triggering the French Revolution, in which he was later quoted as saying:\n\n\"At all events, a false position of the female sex, such as has its most acute symptom in our lady-business, is a fundamental defect of the state of society. Proceeding from the heart of this, it is bound to spread its noxious influence to all parts.\"\n\nSchopenhauer has also been accused of misogyny for his essay \"On Women\" (Über die Weiber), in which he expressed his opposition to what he called \"Teutonico-Christian stupidity\" on female affairs. He argued that women are \"by nature meant to obey\" as they are \"childish, frivolous, and short sighted\". He claimed that no woman had ever produced great art or \"any work of permanent value\". He also argued that women did not possess any real beauty: \n\nNietzsche \n\nIn Beyond Good and Evil, Friedrich Nietzsche stated that stricter controls on women was a condition of \"every elevation of culture\". In his Thus Spoke Zarathustra, he has a female character say \"You are going to women? Do not forget the whip!\" In Twilight of the Idols, Nietzsche writes \"Women are considered profound. Why? Because we never fathom their depths. But women aren't even shallow.\" There is controversy over the questions of whether or not this amounts to misogyny, whether his polemic against women is meant to be taken literally, and the exact nature of his opinions of women. \n\nHegel \n\nHegel's view of women has been said to be misogynistic. Passages from Hegel's Elements of the Philosophy of Right are frequently used to illustrate Hegel's supposed misogyny: \n\nInternet misogyny \n\nMisogynistic rhetoric is prevalent online and has grown rhetorically more aggressive. The public debate over gender-based attacks has increased significantly, leading to calls for policy interventions and better responses by social networks like Facebook and Twitter. \n\nHowever, a 2016 study conducted by the think tank Demos concluded that 50% of all misogynistic tweets on Twitter come from women themselves. \n\nMost targets are women who are visible in the public sphere, women who speak out about the threats they receive, and women who are perceived to be associated with feminism or feminist gains. Authors of misogynistic messages are usually anonymous or otherwise difficult to identify. Their rhetoric involves misogynistic epithets and graphic and sexualized imagery, centers on the women's physical appearance, and prescribes sexual violence as a corrective for the targeted women. Examples of famous women who spoke out about misogynistic attacks are Anita Sarkeesian, Laurie Penny, Caroline Criado-Perez, Stella Creasy, and Lindy West.\n\nThe insults and threats directed at different women tend to be very similar. Sady Doyle who has been the target of online threats noted the \"overwhelmingly impersonal, repetitive, stereotyped quality\" of the abuse, the fact that \"all of us are being called the same things, in the same tone.\"\n\nEvolutionary theory \n\nA 2015 study published in the journal PLOS ONE by researchers Michael M. Kasomovic and Jefferey S. Kuznekoff found that male status mediates sexist behavior towards women. The study found that women tend to experience hostile and sexist behavior in a male dominated field by lower status men. Since male dominated groups tend to be organized in hierarchies, the entry of women re-arranges the hierarchy in their favor by attracting the attention of higher status men. This enables women automatic higher status over lower rank men, which is responded by lower status men using sexist hostility in order to control for status loss. This study was one of the first notable evidence of inter-gender competition and has evolutionary implications for the origin of sexism.\n\nFeminist theory \n\nSubscribers to one model say that some misogyny results from the Madonna–whore complex, which is the inability to see women as anything other than \"mothers\" or \"whores\"; people with this complex place each encountered woman into one of these categories. Another variant model alleges that one cause of misogyny is some men thinking in terms of a virgin/whore dichotomy, which results in them considering as \"whores\" any women who do not adhere to an Abrahamic standard of moral purity. \n\nFeminist theorist Marilyn Frye says that misogyny is, at its root, phallogocentric and homoerotic. In The Politics of Reality, Frye says that there is a misogynistic character to C. S. Lewis' fiction and Christian apologetics, and argues that such misogyny privileges the masculine as a subject of erotic attention. She compares Lewis' ideal of gender relations to underground male prostitution rings, contending that they share the quality of men seeking to dominate subjects seen as less likely to take on submissive roles by a patriarchal society, but do so as a theatrical mockery of women. \n\nIn the late 20th century, second-wave feminist theorists argued that misogyny is both a cause and a result of patriarchal social structures. \n\nSociologist Michael Flood has argued that \"misandry lacks the systemic, transhistoric, institutionalized, and legislated antipathy of misogyny.\" \n\nCriticism of the concept \n\nCamille Paglia, a self-described \"dissident feminist\" who has often been at odds with other academic feminists, argues that there are serious flaws in the Marxism-inspired interpretation of misogyny that is prevalent in second-wave feminism. In contrast, Paglia argues that a close reading of historical texts reveals that men do not hate women but fear them. Christian Groes-Green has argued that misogyny must be seen in relation to its opposite which he terms philogyny. Criticizing R.W. Connell's theory of hegemonic masculinities he shows how philogynous masculinities play out among youth in Maputo, Mozambique.", "Misandry, from the Greek misos (μῖσος, \"hatred\") and anēr, andros (ἀνήρ, gen. ἀνδρός; \"man\") is the hatred or dislike of men or boys. Misandry can manifest in numerous ways, including sexual discrimination, denigration of men, violence against men, or sexual objectification of men. The word \"misandrist\" was first used in 1871.\n\nOrigins\n\nMisandry is parallel in form to 'misogyny'. The term \"misandrist\" was first used in The Spectator magazine in April 1871. It appeared in Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (11th ed.) in 1952. Translation of the French \"Misandrie\" to the German \"Männerhaß\" (Hatred of Men) is recorded in 1803. Misandry is formed from the Greek misos (μῖσος, \"hatred\") and anēr, andros (ἀνήρ, gen. ἀνδρός; \"man\"). \n\nMale disposability\n\nActivist Warren Farrell has written of his views on how men are uniquely marginalized in what he calls their \"disposability\", the manner in which the most dangerous occupations, notably soldiering and mining, were historically performed exclusively by men and remain so today. In his book, The Myth of Male Power, Farrell argues that patriarchal societies do not make rules to benefit men at the expense of women. Farrell contends that nothing is more telling about who has benefited from \"men's rules\" than life expectancy, which is lower in males, and suicide rates, which are higher in males. \n\nReligious Studies professors Paul Nathanson and Katherine Young made similar comparisons in their 2001 three-book series Beyond the Fall of Man, which refers to misandry as a \"form of prejudice and discrimination that has become institutionalized in North American society\", writing, \"The same problem that long prevented mutual respect between Jews and Christians, the teaching of contempt, now prevents mutual respect between men and women.\"\n\nRadical feminism\n\nAcademic Alice Echols, in her 1989 book Daring To Be Bad: Radical Feminism in America, 1967–1975, argued that radical feminist Valerie Solanas, best known for her attempted murder of Andy Warhol in 1968, displayed an extreme level of misandry compared to other radical feminists of the time in her tract, The SCUM Manifesto. Echols stated,\n\nAndrea Dworkin criticized the biological determinist strand in radical feminism that, in 1977, she found \"with increasing frequency in feminist circles\" which echoed the views of Valerie Solanas that males are biologically inferior to women and violent by nature, requiring a gendercide to allow for the emergence of a \"new Übermensch Womon\". \n\nThe author bell hooks (pen name of Gloria Jean Watkins) has discussed the issue of \"man hating\" during the early period of women's liberation as a reaction to patriarchal oppression and women who have had bad experiences with men in non-feminist social movements. She has also criticized separatist strands of feminism as \"reactionary\" for promoting the notion that men are inherently immoral, inferior and unable to help end sexist oppression or benefit from feminism. In Feminism is For Everybody, hooks laments the fact that feminists who critiqued anti-male bias in the early women's movement never gained mainstream media attention and that \"our theoretical work critiquing the demonization of men as the enemy did not change the perspective of women who were anti-male.\" hooks has theorized previously that this demonization led to an unnecessary rift between the men's movement and the women's movement. \n\nAlthough bell hooks doesn't name individual separatist theorists, Mary Daly's utopian vision of a world in which men and heterosexual women have been eliminated is an extreme example of this tendency. Daly argued that sexual equality between men and women was not possible and that women, due to their superior capacities, should rule men. Yet later, in an interview, Daly argued \"If life is to survive on this planet, there must be a decontamination of the Earth. I think this will be accompanied by an evolutionary process that will result in a drastic reduction of the population of males.\" \n\nPaul Nathanson and Katherine K. Young argued that \"ideological feminism\" as opposed to \"egalitarian feminism\" has imposed misandry on culture. Their 2001 book, Spreading Misandry, analyzed \"pop cultural artifacts and productions from the 1990s\" from movies to greeting cards for what they considered to be pervasive messages of hatred toward men. Legalizing Misandry (2005), the second in the series, gave similar attention to laws in North America.\n\nWendy McElroy, an individualist feminist, wrote in 2001 that some feminists \"have redefined the view of the movement of the opposite sex\" as \"a hot anger toward men [that] seems to have turned into a cold hatred.\" She argued it was a misandrist position to consider men, as a class, to be irreformable or rapists.\n\nBarbara Kay, a Canadian journalist, has been critical of feminist Mary Koss's discussion of rape culture, describing the notion that \"rape represents an extreme behavior but one that is on a continuum with normal male behavior within the culture\" as \"remarkably misandric\". \n\nResearch with references to the origins of misandry\n\nIn a study of 488 college students regarding ambivalent sexism towards men, researchers found that women who did not identify as feminists were more likely to be hostile towards men than self-identified feminists, but also more likely to hold benevolent views towards men. \n\nIn a study of 503 self-identified heterosexual females, social psychologists found an association between insecure attachment styles and women's hostile sexism towards men. \n\nCriticism of the use of the term\n\nIn his 1997 book The Gender Knot: Unraveling our Patriarchal Legacy, sociologist Allan G. Johnson stated that accusations of man-hating have been used to put down feminists and shift attention onto men in a way that reinforces male-centered culture. Johnson said that comparisons between misogyny and misandry are misguided because mainstream culture offers no comparable anti-male ideology. He says in his book that accusations of misandry work to discredit feminism because \"people often confuse men as individuals with men as a dominant and privileged category of people\". He wrote that given the \"reality of women's oppression, male privilege, and men's enforcement of both, it's hardly surprising that every woman should have moments where she resents or even hates 'men'\".\n\nIn the 2007 book International Encyclopedia of Men and Masculinities, Marc A. Ouellette contrasted misandry with misogyny, arguing that \"misandry lacks the systemic, transhistoric, institutionalized, and legislated antipathy of misogyny\", though he acknowledged the possibility of specific \"racialized\" misandries and the existence of a \"misandric impulse\" in popular culture and literature. Anthropologist David D. Gilmore argues that while misogyny is a \"near-universal phenomenon\" there is no male equivalent to misogyny. Gilmore also states that misandry refers \"not to the hatred of men as men, but to the hatred of men's traditional male role\" and a \"culture of machismo\". Therefore, he argues, misandry is \"different from the intensely ad feminam aspect of misogyny that targets women no matter what they believe or do\".\n\nIn literature\n\nAncient Greek literature\n\nClassics professor Froma Zeitlin of Princeton University discussed misandry in her article titled \"Patterns of Gender in Aeschylean Drama: Seven against Thebes and the Danaid Trilogy\". She writes:\n\nShakespeare \n\nLiterary critic Harold Bloom argued that even though the word misandry is relatively unheard of in literature it is not hard to find implicit, even explicit, misandry. In reference to the works of Shakespeare Bloom argued \"I cannot think of one instance of misogyny whereas I would argue that misandry is a strong element. Shakespeare makes perfectly clear that women in general have to marry down and that men are narcissistic and not to be trusted and so forth. On the whole, he gives us a darker vision of human males than human females.\" \n\nCharles Dickens \n\nIn Dickens' Great Expectations, the character Miss Havisham is a caricature of a misandrist. Miss Havisham was jilted on her wedding day, and is consumed with rage about this event, and unable to move on in life. She plots and successfully executes what she thinks of as a \"revenge\" against the male gender, in the person of the protagonist, Pip. However, she then realises that she has only caused Pip, who is blameless, to suffer in turn what she suffered – a broken heart – and repents and begs Pip's forgiveness.\n\nModern literature \n\nCritic of mainstream feminism Christina Hoff Sommers has described Eve Ensler's play The Vagina Monologues as misandric in that \"there are no admirable males ... the play presents a rogues’ gallery of male brutes, sadists, child-molesters, genital mutilators, gang rapists and hateful little boys\" which she finds out of step with the reality that \"most men are not brutes. They are not oppressors\". \n\nJulie M. Thompson, a feminist author, connects misandry with envy of men, in particular \"penis envy\", a term coined by Sigmund Freud in 1908, in his theory of female sexual development. Nancy Kang has discussed \"the misandric impulse\" in relation to the works of Toni Morrison. \n\nIn his book, Gender and Judaism: The Transformation of Tradition, Harry Brod, a Professor of Philosophy and Humanities in the Department of Philosophy and Religion at the University of Northern Iowa, writes:" ] }

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{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe", "TagMe" ], "filename": [ "Mayflower.txt", "Massachusetts.txt" ], "title": [ "Mayflower", "Massachusetts" ], "wiki_context": [ "The Mayflower was the ship that transported the first English Separatists, known today as the Pilgrims, from Plymouth to the New World in 1620. There were 102 passengers, and the crew is estimated to have been about 30, but the exact number is unknown. This voyage has become an iconic story in some of the earliest annals of American history, with its story of death and of survival in the harsh New England winter environment. The culmination of the voyage in the signing of the Mayflower Compact was an event which established a rudimentary form of democracy, with each member contributing to the welfare of the community. \n\nMayflower structure and layout \n\nThe Pilgrim ship Mayflower was a typical English merchant ship of the early 17th century – square-rigged and beak-bowed, with high, castle-like structures fore and aft that served to protect the ship's crew and the main deck from the elements. But having on her stern such structures as the 30-foot high, square aft-castle made the Mayflower extremely difficult to sail against the wind and unable to sail well against the North Atlantic's prevailing Westerlies, especially in the Fall and Winter of 1620, which was the direct cause of the ship's voyage from England to America taking more than two months. The Mayflowers return trip to London in April–May 1621 took less than half that time, with the same strong winds following. \n\nBy 1620, the Mayflower was an aging ship, nearing the end of the usual working life of an English merchant ship in that era, some 15 years. No dimensions of her hull can be stated exactly, since this was many years before such measurements were standardized. Probably Mayflower measured about 100 feet in length from the forward end at the beak of her prow to the tip of her stern superstructure aft. She was about 25 feet at her widest point, with about 12 feet of keel below the waterline. William Bradford estimated that Mayflower had a cargo volume of 180 tons, but he was not a mariner. What is known on the basis of surviving records from that time is that she could certainly accommodate 180 casks of wine in her cargo hold. The casks were great barrels that each held hundreds of gallons of claret wine.\n\nThis was a ship that traditionally was heavily armed while on trading routes around Europe, due to the possibility of encountering pirates and privateers of all types. And with its armament, the ship and crew could easily be conscripted by the English monarch at any time in case of conflict with other nations. \n\nGeneral layout\n\nThe general layout of the ship was as follows:\n* Three masts – mizzen (aft), main (midship), and fore, and also a spritsail in the bow area. \n* Three primary levels – main deck, gun deck, and cargo hold.\n\n;Main deck\nAft on the main deck in the stern was the cabin for Master Christopher Jones, measuring about ten by seven feet. Forward of that was the steerage room, which housed a whipstaff (tiller extension) for sailing control – not a wheel, as in later ships. Also here was the ship's compass and probably also berths for the ship's officers. Forward of the steerage room was the capstan – a vertical axle used to pull in ropes or cables. Far forward on the main deck, just aft of the bow, was the forecastle space where the ship's cook prepared meals for the crew; it may also have been where the ship's sailors slept.\n\nThe poop deck was above the cabin of Master Jones, on the ship's highest level above the stern on the aft castle. The poop house was on this deck, which may have been for passengers' use either for sleeping or cargo. On normal merchant ships, this space was probably a chart room or a cabin for the master's mates. \n\n;Gun deck\nThe gun deck was where the passengers resided during the voyage, in a space measuring about 50 feet by 25 feet with a five-foot overhead (ceiling). But it was also a dangerous place in conflict, as it had port and starboard gun ports from which cannon could be run out to fire on the enemy. The gun room was in the stern area of the gun deck, to which passengers had no access due to it being the storage space for powder and ammunition for the ship's cannons, and any other guns or weapons belonging to the ship. The gun room might also house a pair of 'stern chasers', small cannons used to fire out the stern of the ship. Forward on the gun deck in the bow area was a windlass – equipment similar in function to the capstan in steerage – which was used to raise and lower the ship's main anchor. There were no stairs for the passengers on the gun deck to go up through the gratings to the main deck. To get up to the main deck, passengers were required to climb a wooden or rope ladder.\n\nThere was no facility for a latrine or privy on the Mayflower, and ship's crew had to fend for themselves in that regard. Gun deck passengers most likely used a bucket-turned-chamber pot affixed to the deck or bulkhead to keep it from being jostled at sea. \n\n;Gun deck armament\nThe largest gun was a minion cannon which was brass, weighed about 1,200 pounds, and could shoot a 3.5 pound cannonball almost a mile. The Mayflower also had on board a saker cannon of about 800 pounds, and two base cannons that weighed about 200 pounds which shot a 3 to 5 ounce ball. She carried at least ten pieces of ordnance on the port and starboard sides of her gun deck – seven cannons for long range purposes and three smaller guns often fired from the stern at close quarters that were filled with musket balls. Later at New Plymouth, Mayflower Master Jones unloaded four of the pieces to help fortify the colony against invaders, and would not have done so unless he was comfortable with the armament that he still had on board.\n\n;Cargo hold\nBelow the gun deck was the cargo hold where the passengers kept most of their food stores and other supplies. Other items included most of their clothing and bedding. The hold also stored the passengers' personal weapons and military equipment – armor, muskets, gunpowder, and shot, as well as swords and bandoliers; also all the tools that the Pilgrims would need, as well as all the equipment and utensils needed to prepare meals in the New World. It is also known that some Pilgrims (such as Allerton and Mullins and possibly others) loaded trade goods on board, with these also most likely being stored in the cargo hold.\n\nEarly history \n\nWhen and where the Mayflower of the Pilgrim voyage of 1620 was built is not known, but it is likely that she was launched at Harwich in the county of Essex, England, and although later known \"of London\", she was designated as \"of Harwich\" in the Port Books of 1609–11. Harwich was the birthplace of Mayflower master Christopher Jones about 1570. \n\nSince Captain Jones became master 11 years prior to the Mayflower Pilgrims' voyage, the ship had sailed cross-Channel taking English woolens to France and bringing French wine to London. In addition to wine and wool, Jones had transported hats, hemp, Spanish salt, hops and vinegar to Norway and may have taken the Mayflower whaling in the North Atlantic in the Greenland area. She had traveled to Mediterranean ports, being then owned by Christopher Nichols, Robert Child, Thomas Short, and Christopher Jones, the ship's master. In 1620 Jones and Robert Child still owned their quarter shares in the ship, and it was from them that Thomas Weston chartered her in the summer of 1620 to undertake the Pilgrim voyage. Weston had a significant role in the Mayflower voyage due to his membership of the Company of Merchant Adventurers, and he eventually traveled to the Plymouth Colony himself. \n\nFrom the Port Books of England in the reign of James I (1603–1625), there were 26 vessels bearing the same name as the Pilgrim ship, and the reason for this popularity of the name has never been found. \n\nOne particular Mayflower that has caused historical confusion is a Mayflower erroneously identified as the Mayflower of the 1620 Pilgrims. This ship was partly owned by John Vassall and was outfitted for Queen Elizabeth in 1588, during the time of the Spanish Armada, a war for which Vassall outfitted several ships. However, there are no records of Vassall's Mayflower after 1594. \n\nFrom records of the time, and to avoid confusion with the many other Mayflower ships, the identity of Captain Jones's Mayflower is based on her home port, her tonnage (est. 180–200 tons), and the master's name in 1620.\n\nRecords dating from August 1609 first note Christopher Jones as master and part owner of the Mayflower, when his ship was chartered for a voyage from London to Trondheim in Norway and back to London. Due to bad weather, on her return, the ship lost an anchor and made short delivery of her cargo of herrings. Litigation resulted, and this was still proceeding in 1612.\n\nIn a document of January 1611, Christopher Jones is described as being \"of Harwich\", and his ship is called the Mayflower of Harwich (in the county of Essex). Records of Jones's ship Mayflower show the ship was twice on the Thames at London in 1613 – once in July and again in October and November.\n\nRecords of 1616 again state that Jones's ship was on the Thames, carrying a cargo of wine, which suggests the ship had recently been on a voyage to France, Spain, Portugal, the Canaries, or some other wine-producing land.\n\nAfter 1616, there is no further record which specifically relates to Jones's Mayflower until 1624. This is unusual for a ship trading to London, as it would not usually disappear for such a long time from the records. And no Admiralty court document relating to the pilgrim fathers' voyage of 1620 can be found, although the unusual way in which the transfer of the pilgrims from Leyden to New England was arranged may account for this. Or some of the records of the period may have been lost.\n\nVoyage\n\nThe Mayflower embarked about 65 passengers in London at its homeport in the Rotherhithe district on the Thames about the middle of July in 1620. She then proceeded down the Thames into the English Channel and then on to the south coast to anchor at Southampton Water. There the Mayflower waited for seven days for a rendezvous on July 22 with the Speedwell, coming with Leiden church members from Delfshaven in Holland.\n\nAbout August 5, the two ships set sail. The unseaworthy Speedwell sprang a leak shortly after and the ships put into Dartmouth for repairs. After the repairs, a new start was made. They were more than 200 miles beyond Land's End at the southwestern tip of England when Speedwell sprang another leak. Since it was now early September, they had no choice but to abandon the Speedwell and make a determination on her passengers. This was a dire event, as the ship had wasted vital funds and was considered very important to the future success of their settlement in America. Soon after the Mayflower continued on her voyage to America, Speedwell was sold, refitted, and, according to Bradford, \"made many voyages…to the great profit of her owners.\" Bradford later assumed that the Speedwell master Mr. Reynolds's \"cunning and deceit\" (in causing what may have been 'man-made' leaks in the ship) had been motivated by a fear of starving to death in America. \n\nIn addition to the 102 passengers, the officers and crew consisted of about 25–30 persons, bringing the total persons on board the Mayflower to approximately 130. \n\nIn early September, western gales begin to make the North Atlantic a dangerous place for sailing. The Mayflower's provisions, already quite low when departing Southampton, became much less by delays of more than of a month, and the passengers, having been aboard ship for all this time, were quite worn out by then and in no condition for a very taxing lengthy Atlantic journey cooped up in cramped spaces in a small ship. But on September 6, 1620, the Mayflower sailed from Plymouth with what Bradford called \"a prosperous wind\". \n\nTraditionally, the last port in England for the Mayflower was Plymouth; however, there is continued controversy that the ship had to stop at Newlyn in Cornwall on the Land's End peninsula before sailing west. It was believed that the water picked up at Plymouth had caused fever and cholera in the city, so Newlyn provided fresh water to the ship. Newlyn has a plaque to this effect on the side of a building on its quay. It was erected in remembrance of Plymouth historian Bill Best Harris, whose research is believed to have uncovered this little-known detail about the voyage. \n\nAboard the Mayflower were many stores that supplied the pilgrims with the essentials needed for their journey and future lives. It is assumed that among these stores, they would have carried tools and weapons, including cannon, shot, and gunpowder; as well as some live animals, including dogs, sheep, goats, and poultry. Horses and cattle would come later. The Mayflower would also carry two boats: a long boat and a \"shallop\", a 21-foot boat powered by oars or sails. She also carried 12 artillery pieces (eight minions and four sakers), as the Pilgrims feared they might need to defend themselves against enemy European forces, as well as the Natives.Hodgson, Godfrey. A Great and Godly Adventure. Public Affairs: New York, 2006\n\nThe passage was a miserable one, with huge waves constantly crashing against the ship's topside deck until a key structural support timber fractured. The passengers, who had already suffered agonizing delays, shortages of food and of other supplies, now were called upon to provide assistance to the ship's carpenter in repairing the fractured main support beam. This was repaired with the use of a metal mechanical device called a jackscrew, which had been loaded on board to help in the construction of settler homes and now was used to secure the beam to keep it from cracking further, making the ship seaworthy enough. \n\nThe crew of the Mayflower had some devices to assist them en route such as a compass for navigation as well as a log and line system to measure speed in nautical miles per hour or \"knots\". Time was measured with an ancient method – an hour glass.\n\nThere were two deaths, but this was only a precursor of what happened after their arrival in Cape Cod, where almost half the company would die in the first winter. \n\nOn November 9, 1620, they sighted land, which was present-day Cape Cod. After several days of trying to sail south to their planned destination of the Colony of Virginia where they had already obtained permission from the Company of Merchant Adventurers to settle, strong winter seas forced them to return to the harbor at Cape Cod hook, well north of the intended area, where they anchored on November 11. To establish legal order and to quell increasing strife within the ranks, the settlers wrote and signed the Mayflower Compact after the ship dropped anchor at Cape Cod, in what is now Provincetown Harbor. \n\nOn Monday, November 27, an exploring expedition was launched under the direction of Capt. Christopher Jones to search for a suitable settlement site. As master of the Mayflower, Jones was not required to assist in the search, but he apparently thought it in his best interest to assist the search expedition. There were 34 persons in the open shallop – 24 passengers and 10 sailors. They were obviously not prepared for the bitter winter weather they encountered on their reconnoiter, the Mayflower passengers not being accustomed to winter weather much colder than back home. Due to the bad weather encountered on the expedition, they were forced to spend the night ashore ill-clad in below-freezing temperatures with wet shoes and stockings that became frozen. Bradford wrote \"(s)ome of our people that are dead took the original of their death here\". \n\nThe settlers explored the snow-covered area and discovered an empty native village, now known as Corn Hill in Truro. The curious settlers dug up some artificially made mounds, some of which stored corn, while others were burial sites. Nathaniel Philbrick claims that the settlers stole the corn and looted and desecrated the graves, sparking friction with the locals. Philbrick goes on to say that, as they moved down the coast to what is now Eastham, they explored the area of Cape Cod for several weeks, looting and stealing native stores as they went. He then writes about how they decided to relocate to Plymouth after a difficult encounter with the local native, the Nausets, at First Encounter Beach, in December 1620.\n\nHowever, Bradford's History of Plymouth Plantation records that they took \"some\" of the corn to show the others back at the boat, leaving the rest. Then later they took what they needed from another store of grain, paying the locals back in six months, and it was gladly received.\n\nAlso there was found more of their corn and of their beans of various colors; the corn and beans they brought away, purposing to give them full satisfaction when they should meet with any of them as, about some six months afterward they did, to their good content. \n\nDuring the winter, the passengers remained on board the Mayflower, suffering an outbreak of a contagious disease described as a mixture of scurvy, pneumonia and tuberculosis. When it ended, there were only 53 passengers, just over half, still alive. Likewise, half of the crew died as well. In the spring, they built huts ashore, and on March 21, 1621, the surviving passengers disembarked from the Mayflower.\n\nDue to the fear of Indian attack, in late February 1621 the settlers decided to mount \"our great ordnances\" on the hill overlooking the settlement. Christopher Jones supervised the transportation of the \"great guns\" – about six iron cannons that ranged between four and eight feet in length and weighed almost half a ton.\nThe cannon were able to hurl iron balls 3 ½ inches in diameter as far as 1,700 yards. This action made what was no more than a ramshackle village almost into a well-defended fortress. \n\nJones had originally planned to return to England as soon as the Pilgrims found a settlement site. But after his crew members began to be ravaged by the same diseases that were felling the Pilgrims, he realized he had to remain in Plymouth Harbor \"till he saw his men began to recover.\" The Mayflower lay in New Plymouth harbor through the winter of 1620–1. On April 5, 1621 the Mayflower, her empty hold ballasted with stones from the Plymouth Harbor shore, set sail for England. As with the Pilgrims, her sailors had been decimated by disease. Jones had lost his boatswain, his gunner, three quartermasters, the cook, and more than a dozen sailors. The Mayflower made excellent time on her voyage back to England. The westerlies that had buffeted her coming out pushed her along going home and she arrived at the home port of Rotherhithe in London on May 6, 1621, – less than half the time it had taken her to sail to America.\" \n\nJones died after coming back from a voyage to France on March 5, 1622, at about age 52. It is suggested that his journey to the New World may have taken its toll on him. For the next two years, the Mayflower lay at her berth in Rotherhithe, not far from the grave of Captain Jones at St. Mary's church there. By 1624, the Mayflower was no longer useful as a ship and although her subsequent fate is unknown, she was probably broken up about that time. The Mayflower was the final casualty of a voyage that had cost her master, Christopher Jones, everything he could give. \n\nPassengers\n\nSome families traveled together, while some men came alone, leaving families in England and Leiden. Two wives on board were pregnant – Elizabeth Hopkins gave birth to a son Oceanus while at sea and Susanna White gave birth to a son Peregrine in late November while the ship was anchored in Cape Cod Harbor. He is historically recognized as the first European child born in the New England area. One child died during the voyage, and there was one stillbirth during the construction of the colony.\n\nMany of the passengers were Separatists, fleeing persistent religious persecution, but some were hired hands, servants, or farmers recruited by London merchants, all originally destined for the Colony of Virginia. Four of this latter group of passengers were small children given into the care of Mayflower pilgrims as indentured servants. The Virginia Company began the transportation of children in 1618. \nUntil relatively recently, the children were thought to be orphans, foundlings or involuntary child labor. At that time, children were routinely rounded up from the streets of London or taken from poor families receiving church relief to be used as laborers in the colonies. Any legal objections to the involuntary transportation of the children were over-ridden by the Privy Council. In 1959 it was conclusively shown \nthat the four More children were sent to America because they were deemed illegitimate, and a source of later historical controversy in England. Three of the four children died in the first winter in the New World, but the survivor, Richard More, lived to be approximately 81, dying in Salem, probably in 1695 or 1696. \n\nThe passengers mostly slept and lived in the low-ceilinged great cabins. These cabins were thin-walled and extremely cramped. The cabin area was 25 feet by 15 at its largest, and on the main deck, which was 75 by 20 at the most. Below decks, any person over five feet tall would be unable to stand up straight. The maximum possible space for each person would have been slightly less than the size of a standard single bed.Caffrey, Kate. The Mayflower. New York: Stein and Day, 1974\nThe Mayflower passengers were the earliest permanent European settlers in New England, referring to themselves as \"First Comers\". They lived in the perilous times of what was called \"The Ancient Beginnings\" of the New World adventure. \n\nPassengers would pass the time by reading by candlelight or playing cards and games like Nine Men's Morris. Meals on board were cooked by the firebox, which was an iron tray with sand in it on which a fire was built. This was risky because it was kept in the waist of the ship. Passengers made their own meals from rations that were issued daily and food was cooked for a group at a time.\n\nUpon arrival late in the year, the harsh climate and scarcity of fresh food caused many more deaths. Due to the delay in departure, provisions were short. Living in these extremely close and crowded quarters, several passengers experienced scurvy, a disease caused by a lack of the essential nutrient vitamin C. There was no way to store fruits or vegetables without their becoming rotten, so many passengers did not receive enough nutrients in their diets. Passengers with scurvy experienced symptoms such as rotten teeth, which would fall out; bleeding gums, and stinking breath. \n\nPassengers consumed large amounts of alcohol such as beer with meals which was known to be safer than water, which often came from polluted sources causing diseases. All food and drink was stored in barrels known as \"hogsheads\".\n\nWilliam Mullins took 126 pairs of shoes and 13 pairs of boots. These clothes included: oiled leather and canvas suits, stuff gowns and leather and stuff breeches, shirts, jerkins, doublets, neckcloths, hats and caps, hose, stockings, belts, piece goods, and haberdasherie. At his death, Mullins estate consisting of extensive footwear and other items of clothing made his daughter Priscilla and her husband John Alden quite prosperous. \n\nNo cattle or beasts of draft or burden were brought on the journey, but there were pigs, goats, and poultry. Some passengers brought family pets such as cats and birds. Peter Browne took his large bitch mastiff and John Goodman brought along his spaniel.\n\nMayflower officers, crew and others \n\nPer author Charles Banks, the officers and crew of the Mayflower consisted of a captain, four mates, four quartermasters, surgeon, carpenter, cooper, cooks, boatswains, gunners and about 36 men before the mast, making a total of about 50. The entire crew stayed with the Mayflower in Plymouth through the winter of 1620–1621. During that time, about half of the crew died. The crewmen that survived returned on the Mayflower which sailed for London on April 5, 1621. \n\nCrew members per various sources\n\nBanks also states the crew totaled 36 men before the mast and 14 officers, making a total of 50. Author Nathaniel Philbrick estimates between 20 and 30 sailors in her crew whose names are unknown. Author Nick Bunker states that Mayflower had a crew that was at least 17 in number and possibly as many as 30. Author Caleb Johnson states that the ship carried a crew of about 30 men, but the exact number is unknown. \n\nOfficers and crew\n\n* Captain – Christopher Jones. About age 50, of Harwich, a seaport in Essex, England, which was also the port of his ship Mayflower. He and his ship were veterans of the European cargo business, often carrying wine to England, but neither had ever crossed the Atlantic. By June 1620, he and the Mayflower had been hired for the Pilgrims voyage by their business agents in London, Thomas Weston of the Merchant Adventurers and Robert Cushman. \n* Masters Mate – John Clark (Clarke), Pilot. By age 45 in 1620, Clark already had greater adventures than most other mariners of that dangerous era. His piloting career began in England about 1609. In early 1611 he was pilot of a 300-ton ship on his first New World voyage with a three-ship convoy sailing from London to the new settlement of Jamestown in Virginia. Two other ships were in that convoy; altogether the three ships brought 300 new settlers to Jamestown, going first to the Caribbean islands of Dominica and Nevis. While in Jamestown, Clark piloted ships in the area carrying various stores. During that time he was taken prisoner in a confrontation with the Spanish and taken to Havana and held for two years then transferred to Spain where he was in custody for five years. In 1616 he was finally freed in a prisoner exchange with England. In 1618 he was back in Jamestown as pilot of the ship Falcon. Shortly after his return to England, he was hired as pilot for the Mayflower in 1620. \n* Masters Mate – Robert Coppin, Pilot. Prior New World experience. An early investor in the Virginia Company being named in the Second Virginia Charter of 1609. Possibly from Harwich in Essex, the hometown of Captain Jones. Previously hunted whales in Newfoundland and sailed coast of New England. \n* Masters Mate – Andrew Williamson\n* Masters Mate – John Parker\n* Surgeon – Doctor Giles Heale. The surgeon on board the Mayflower was never mentioned by Bradford but his identify was well established. He was essential in providing comfort to all who died or were made ill that first winter and was a witness to the death of William Mullins. He was a young man from Drury Lane in the parish of St. Giles in the Field, London, who had just completed, in the previous year, his apprenticeship with the Barber-Surgeons. On February 21, 1621, he was a witness to the death-bed will of William Mullins. He survived the first winter, returned to London on the Mayflower in April 1621, where began his medical practice working as a surgeon until his death in 1653. \n* Cooper – John Alden. A 21-year-old from Harwich in Essex and a distant relative of Captain Jones. Hired on apparently while the Mayflower was anchored at Southampton Waters. He was responsible for maintaining the ship's barrels, known as hogsheads. The hogsheads were critical to the passengers survival and held the only source of food and drink while at sea, and tending them was a job which required a crew members attention. Bradford noted that Alden was \"left to his own liking to go or stay\" in Plymouth rather than return with the ship to England. He decided to remain. \n* Quartermaster – (names unknown) – 4 men. These men were in charge of maintaining the ship's cargo hold as well as the crew's hours for standing watch. Some of the \"before the mast\" crewmen may also have been in this section. These quartermasters were also responsible for fishing and maintain all fishing supplies as well as harpoons. The names of the quartermasters are unknown but it is known that three of the four men died the first winter.\n* Cook – (name unknown). He was responsible for preparing the crews meals and maintaining all food supplies and the cook room which was typically located in the ship's forecastle (front end). The unnamed cook died the first winter. \n* Master Gunner – (name unknown). In charge of the ship's cannons and for maintaining the ship's guns, ammunition and powder. Some of those \"before the mast\" were likely in his charge. Although unknown by name, he is recorded as going on an exploration on December 6, 1620. He was remembered as being \"sick unto death and so remained all that day, and the next night\". He died later that winter. \n* Boatswain – (name unknown). He was the person in charge of the ships rigging and sails as well as ship's anchors. He was also in charge of the ship's longboat. The majority of the crew members \"before the mast\" were most likely under his supervision working the sails and rigging. The operation of the ship's shallop, a light open boat with oars or sails, was also probably under his control (see seaman Thomas English). William Bradford's comment about the boatswain: \"..the boatswain…was a proud young man, who would often curse and scoff at the passengers, but when he grew weak they had compassion on him and helped him.\" But despite such assistance, the unnamed boatswain died the first winter.\n* Carpenter – (name unknown). He was responsible for making sure the hull was well-caulked and the masts were in good order. He was the person responsible for maintaining all areas of the ship in good condition and being a general repairman. He also maintained the tools and all necessary items to perform his carpentry tasks. The name of the Mayflower carpenter is unknown, but his tasks were quite important to the safety and seaworthiness of the ship. \n* Swabber – (various crewmen). Lowliest position on the ship and responsible for cleaning (or \"swabbing\") the decks. The swabber usually had an assistant who was responsible for cleaning the ships beakhead (extreme front-end), which was also the crew's toilet. In the tradition of the sea, each Monday a crew member was appointed the \"liar\" or swabber assistant. This person was the first person caught telling a lie the previous week wherein the crew would harass him around the main mast with calls of \"liar, liar.\"\n\nKnown Mayflower seamen\n\n* John Allerton – A Mayflower seaman who was hired by the company as labor to help in the Colony during the first year. Then to return to Leiden to help other church members seeking to travel to America. He signed the Mayflower Compact. He was a seaman on ship's shallop with Thomas English on exploration of December 6, 1620. Died sometime before the Mayflower returned to England in April 1621. \n* ____ Ely – A Mayflower seaman, who was contracted to stay for a year, which he did. He returned to England with fellow crewman William Trevor on the Fortune in December 1621. Genealogist Dr. Jeremy Bangs believes his name was either John or Christopher Ely, or Ellis, who are documented in Leiden, Holland. \n* Thomas English – A Mayflower seaman who was hired to be the master of the shallop (see Boatswain) and to be part of the company. He signed the Mayflower Compact. Seaman on ship's shallop with John Allerton on exploration of December 6, 1620. Died sometime before the departure of the Mayflower for England in April 1621. He appeared in Leiden records as \"Thomas England\". \n* William Trevore (Trevor) – A Mayflower seaman who was hired to remain in Plymouth for one year. One reason for his hiring was his prior New World experience. He was one of those seaman to crew the shallop used in coastal trading. He returned to England with _____ Ely and others on the Fortune in December 1621. In 1623 Robert Cushman noted that Trevor reported to the Adventurers about what he saw in the New World. He did at some time return as master of a ship and was recorded living in Massachusetts Bay Colony in April 1650. \n\nUnidentified passenger\n\n* \"Master\" Leaver – Another passenger not mentioned by Bradford is a person called \"Master\" Leaver. He was named in Mourt's Relation, London 1622, under a date of January 12, 1621 as a leader of an expedition to rescue Pilgrims lost in the forest for several days while searching for housing-roof thatch. It is unknown in what capacity he came to the Mayflower and his given name is unknown. The title of \"Master\" indicates he was a person of some authority and prominence in the company. He may have been a principal officer of the Mayflower and since no more is known of him he may have returned to England on the Mayflower's April 1621 voyage or died of the illnesses that affected so many that first winter. \n\nLater history \n\nOn May 4, 1624, two years after Captain Jones' death in 1622, an application was made to the Admiralty court for an appraisal of the Mayflower by three of her owners including Jones' widow, Mrs. Josian (Joan) Jones. This appraisal probably was made to determine the valuation of the ship for the purpose of settling the estate of its late master. The appraisal was made by four mariners and shipwrights of Rotherhithe, home and burial place of Captain Jones, where the Mayflower was apparently then lying in the Thames at London. The appraisement is extant and provides information on ship's gear on board at that time as well as equipment such as muskets and other arms. The ship may have been laid up since Jones' death and allowed to get out of repair, as that is what the appraisal indicates. \n\nWhat finally became of the Mayflower is an unsettled issue. Per Banks, an English historian of the Pilgrim ship, claims that this historic ship was finally broken up, with her timbers used in the construction of a barn at Jordans village in Buckinghamshire. At the present time, within the grounds of Old Jordan in South Buckinghamshire is what tradition calls the Mayflower Barn. In 1624 Thomas Russell supposedly added to part of a farmhouse already there with timbers from a ship, believed to be from the Pilgrim ship Mayflower, bought from a shipbreaker's yard in Rotherhithe. The well-preserved structure is a present-day tourist attraction, receiving visitors each year from all over the world and particularly from America.\n\nSecond Mayflower\n\nAnother ship called the Mayflower made a voyage from London to Plymouth Colony in 1629 carrying 35 passengers, many from the Pilgrim congregation in Leiden that organized the first voyage. This was not the same ship that made the original voyage with the first settlers. This voyage began in May and reached Plymouth in August. This ship also made the crossing from England to America in 1630, 1633, 1634, and 1639. It attempted the trip again in 1641, departing London in October of that year under master John Cole, with 140 passengers bound for Virginia. It never arrived. On October 18, 1642 a deposition was made in England regarding the loss. \n\nPlace in history \n\nThe Pilgrim ship Mayflower has a famous place in American history as a symbol of early European colonization of the future United States. \n\nThe main record for the voyage of the Mayflower and the disposition of the Plymouth Colony comes from the letters and journal of William Bradford, who was a guiding force and later the governor of the colony.", "Massachusetts ; officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is the most populous state in the New England part of the northeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the east, the states of Connecticut and Rhode Island to the south, New Hampshire and Vermont to the north, and New York to the west. The capital of Massachusetts and the most populous city in New England is Boston. Over 80% of Massachusetts' population lives in the Greater Boston metro area, a region influential upon American history, academia, and industry. Originally dependent on agriculture, fishing and trade, Massachusetts was transformed into a manufacturing center during the Industrial Revolution. During the 20th century, Massachusetts' economy shifted from manufacturing to services. Modern Massachusetts is a global leader in biotechnology, engineering, higher education, finance, and maritime trade. \n\nPlymouth was the site of the first colony in New England, founded in 1620 by the Pilgrims, passengers of the Mayflower. In 1692, the town of Salem and surrounding areas experienced one of America's most infamous cases of mass hysteria, the Salem witch trials. In 1777, General Henry Knox founded the Springfield Armory, which during the Industrial Revolution catalyzed numerous important technological advances, including interchangeable parts. In 1786, Shays' Rebellion, a populist revolt led by disaffected Revolutionary War veterans, influenced the United States Constitutional Convention. In the 18th century, the Protestant First Great Awakening, which swept the Atlantic world, originated from the pulpit of Northampton preacher Jonathan Edwards. In the late 18th century, Boston became known as the \"Cradle of Liberty\" for the agitation there that led to the American Revolution.\n\nThe entire Commonwealth of Massachusetts has played a powerful commercial and cultural role in the history of the United States. Before the American Civil War, Massachusetts was a center for the abolitionist, temperance, and transcendentalist movements. In the late 19th century, the sports of basketball and volleyball were invented in the western Massachusetts cities of Springfield and Holyoke, respectively. In 2004, Massachusetts became the first U.S. state to legally recognize same-sex marriage as a result of the decision of the state's Supreme Judicial Court. Many prominent American political dynasties have hailed from the state, including the Adams and Kennedy families. Harvard University in Cambridge is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States, with the largest financial endowment of any university, and whose Law School has spawned a contemporaneous majority of United States Supreme Court Justices. Both Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, also in Cambridge, have been ranked among the most highly regarded academic institutions in the world.[https://www.timeshighereducation.com/world-university-rankings/2016/reputation-ranking#!/page/0/length/25/sort_by/rank_label/sort_order/asc/cols/rank_only] Accessed May 8, 2016.\n\nEtymology\n\n The Massachusetts Bay Colony was named after the indigenous population, the Massachusett, whose name can be segmented as mass-adchu-s-et, where mass- is \"large\", -adchu- is \"hill\", -s- is a diminutive suffix meaning \"small\", and -et is a locative suffix, identifying it as a place. It has been translated as \"near the great hill\", \"by the blue hills\", \"at the little big hill\", or \"at the range of hills\", referring to the Blue Hills, or in particular the Great Blue Hill which is located on the boundary of Milton and Canton. Alternatively, Massachusett has been represented as Moswetuset, from the name of the Moswetuset Hummock (meaning \"hill shaped like an arrowhead\") in Quincy where Plymouth Colony commander Miles Standish and Squanto, Native American, met Chief Chickatawbut in 1621. \n\nThe official name of the state is the \"Commonwealth of Massachusetts\". Colloquially, it is often referred to simply as \"the Commonwealth\". While this designation is part of the state's official name, it has no practical implications. Massachusetts has the same position and powers within the United States as other states. \n\nHistory\n\nPre-Colonization\n\nMassachusetts was originally inhabited by tribes of the Algonquian language family such as the Wampanoag, Narragansett, Nipmuc, Pocomtuc, Mahican, and Massachusett. While cultivation of crops like squash and corn supplemented their diets, these tribes were generally dependent on hunting, gathering and fishing for most of their food supply. Villages consisted of lodges called wigwams as well as long houses, and tribes were led by male or female elders known as sachems.\n\nColonial period\n\nIn the early 1600s, after contact had been made with Europeans, large numbers of the indigenous people in the northeast of what is now the United States were killed by virgin soil epidemics such as smallpox, measles, influenza, and perhaps leptospirosis. Between 1617 and 1619, smallpox killed approximately 90% of the Massachusetts Bay Native Americans.\n\nThe first English settlers in Massachusetts, the Pilgrims, arrived via the Mayflower at Plymouth in 1620, and developed friendly relations with the native Wampanoag people. This was the second successful permanent English colony in the part of North America that later became the United States, after the Jamestown Colony. The Pilgrims were soon followed by other Puritans, who established the Massachusetts Bay Colony at present-day Boston in 1630.\n\nThe Puritans, who believed the Church of England needed to be purified and experienced harassment from English authority because of their beliefs, came to Massachusetts with the goal of establishing an ideal religious society. Unlike the Plymouth colony, the bay colony was founded under a royal charter in 1629. Both religious dissent and expansionism resulted in several new colonies being founded shortly after Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay elsewhere in New England. The Massachusetts Bay banished dissenters such as Anne Hutchinson and Roger Williams due to religious and political disagreements. In 1636, Williams founded the colony of Rhode Island and Hutchinson joined him there several years later. Religious intolerance continued. Among those who objected to this later in the century were the English Quaker preachers Alice and Thomas Curwen, who were publicly flogged and imprisoned in Boston in 1676. \n\nIn 1641, Massachusetts expanded inland significantly, acquiring the Connecticut River Valley settlement of Springfield, which had recently disputed with, and defected from its original administrators, the Connecticut Colony. This established Massachusetts' southern border in the west, though surveying problems resulted in disputed territory until 1803–04. \n\nIn 1691, the colonies of Massachusetts Bay and Plymouth were united (along with present-day Maine, which had previously been divided between Massachusetts and New York) into the Province of Massachusetts Bay. Shortly after the arrival of the new province's first governor, Sir William Phips, the Salem witch trials took place, where a number of men and women were hanged for alleged witchcraft.\n\nThe most destructive earthquake yet known in New England occurred in 1755, causing considerable damage across Massachusetts. \n\nThe Revolutionary War\n\nMassachusetts was a center of the movement for independence from Great Britain; colonists in Massachusetts had long uneasy relations with the British monarchy, including open rebellion under the Dominion of New England in the 1680s. Protests against British attempts to tax the colonies after the French and Indian War ended in 1763 led to the Boston Massacre in 1770, and the 1773 Boston Tea Party escalated tensions. In 1774, the Intolerable Acts targeted Massachusetts with punishments for the Boston Tea Party and further decreased local autonomy, increasing local dissent. Anti-Parliamentary activity by men such as Samuel Adams and John Hancock, followed by reprisals by the British government, were a primary reason for the unity of the Thirteen Colonies and the outbreak of the American Revolution in 1775.\n\nThe Battles of Lexington and Concord initiated the American Revolutionary War and were fought in the eponymous Massachusetts towns. Future President George Washington took over what would become the Continental Army after the battle. His first victory was the Siege of Boston in the winter of 1775–76, after which the British were forced to evacuate the city. The event is still celebrated in Suffolk County as Evacuation Day. On the coast, Salem, Massachusetts, became a center for privateering. Although the documentation is incomplete, about 1,700 Letters of Marque, issued on a per-voyage basis, were granted during the American Revolution. Nearly 800 vessels were commissioned as privateers and are credited with capturing or destroying about 600 British ships. \n\nFederal period\n\nBostonian John Adams, known as the \"Atlas of Independence\", was an important figure in both the struggle for independence as well as the formation of the new United States. Adams was highly involved in the push for separation from Britain and the writing of the Massachusetts Constitution in 1780 which, in the Elizabeth Freeman and Quock Walker cases, effectively made Massachusetts the first state to have a constitution that declared universal rights and, as interpreted by Supreme Judicial Court Chief Justice William Cushing, abolished slavery. David McCullough points out that an equally important feature was its placing for the first time the courts as a co-equal branch separate from the executive. The Constitution of the Vermont Republic, adopted in 1777, represented the first partial ban on slavery. Vermont became a state in 1791, but did not fully ban slavery until 1858 with the Vermont Personal Liberty Law. The Pennsylvania Gradual Abolition Act of 1780 made Pennsylvania the first state to abolish slavery by statute. Later, Adams was active in early American foreign affairs and succeeded Washington as the second United States President. His son John Quincy Adams, also from Massachusetts, would go on to become the sixth United States President.\n\nFrom 1786 to 1787, an armed uprising, known as Shays' Rebellion led by Revolutionary War veteran Daniel Shays wrought havoc throughout Massachusetts, and ultimately attempted to seize the U.S. Federal Armory at Springfield. The rebellion was one of the major factors in the decision to draft a stronger national constitution to replace the Articles of Confederation. On February 6, 1788, Massachusetts became the sixth state to ratify the United States Constitution. \n\n19th century\n\nIn 1820, Maine separated from Massachusetts and entered the Union as the 23rd state as a result of the ratification of the Missouri Compromise. \n\nDuring the 19th century, Massachusetts became a national leader in the American Industrial Revolution, with factories around cities such as Lowell and Boston producing textiles and shoes, and factories around Springfield producing tools, paper, and textiles. The economy transformed from one based primarily on agriculture to an industrial one, initially making use of water-power and later the steam engine to power factories. Canals and railroads were used for transporting raw materials and finished goods. At first, the new industries drew labor from Yankees on nearby subsistence farms, and later relied upon immigrant labor from Europe and Canada.\n\nIn the years leading up to the Civil War, Massachusetts was a center of progressivism and abolitionist activity. Horace Mann made the state's school system a national model. Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson made major contributions to American philosophy. Members of the transcendentalist movement emphasized the importance of the natural world and emotion to humanity.\n\nAlthough significant opposition to abolitionism existed early on in Massachusetts, resulting in anti-abolitionist riots between 1835 and 1837, opposition to slavery gradually increased throughout the next few decades. Abolitionists John Brown and Sojourner Truth lived in Springfield and Northampton, respectively, while Frederick Douglass lived in Boston. The works of such abolitionists contributed to Massachusetts' actions during the Civil War. Massachusetts was the first state to recruit, train, and arm a Black regiment with White officers, the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry. In 1852, Massachusetts became the first state to pass compulsory school attendance laws.\n\n20th century\n\nWith the exodus of several manufacturing companies, the area's industrial economy began to decline during the early 20th century. By the 1920s competition from the South and Midwest, followed by the Great Depression, led to the collapse of the three main industries in Massachusetts: textiles, shoemaking, and precision mechanics. This decline would continue into the later half of the century; between 1950 and 1979, the number of Massachusetts residents involved in textile manufacturing declined from 264,000 to 63,000. The 1969 closure of the Springfield Armory, in particular, spurred an exodus of high-paying jobs from Western Massachusetts, which suffered greatly as it de-industrialized during the last 40 years of the 20th century. \n\nMassachusetts manufactured 3.4 percent of total United States military armaments produced during World War II, ranking tenth among the 48 states. In Eastern Massachusetts, following World War II, the economy was transformed from one based on heavy industry into a service based economy. Government contracts, private investment, and research facilities led to a new and improved industrial climate, with reduced unemployment and increased per capita income. Suburbanization flourished, and by the 1970s, the Route 128 corridor was dotted with high-technology companies who recruited graduates of the area's many elite institutions of higher education.\n\nThe Kennedy family was prominent in Massachusetts politics in the 20th century. Children of businessman and ambassador Joseph P. Kennedy Sr. included John F. Kennedy, who was a senator and US president before his assassination in 1963, Robert F. Kennedy, who was a senator, US attorney general and presidential candidate before his assassination in 1968, Ted Kennedy, a senator from 1962 until his death in 2009, and Eunice Kennedy Shriver, a co-founder of the Special Olympics. In 1966 Massachusetts became the first state to popularly elect an African American to the US senate with Edward Brooke. George H. W. Bush, 41st President of the United States (1989–1993) was born in Milton, Massachusetts in 1924. \n\nIn 1987, the state received federal funding for the Central Artery/Tunnel Project. Commonly known as \"the Big Dig\", it was, at the time, the biggest federal highway project ever approved.Grunwald, Michael. Dig the Big Dig [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/04/AR2006080401755.html] The Washington Post. August 6, 2006. . Retrieved May 31, 2010. The project included making the Central Artery a tunnel under downtown Boston, in addition to the re-routing of several other major highways. Often controversial, with numerous claims of graft and mismanagement, and with its initial price tag of $2.5 billion increasing to a final tally of over $15 billion, the Big Dig has nonetheless changed the face of Downtown Boston. It has connected areas that were once divided by elevated highway, (much of the raised old Central Artery was replaced with the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway) and improved traffic conditions along a number of routes. Additionally, Massachusetts has had a diplomatic relationship with the Japanese prefecture of Hokkaido since 1988. \n\n21st century\n\nOn May 17, 2004, Massachusetts became the first state in the U.S. to legalize same-sex marriage after a Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruling in November 2003 determined that the exclusion of same-sex couples from the right to a civil marriage was unconstitutional. This decision was eventually superseded by the U.S. Supreme Court's affirmation of same-sex marriage in the United States in 2015.\n\nGeography\n\nMassachusetts is the 7th smallest state in the United States. It is located in the New England region of the northeastern United States, and has an area of 10555 sqmi, 25.7% of which is water. Several large bays distinctly shape its coast. Boston is the largest city, at the inmost point of Massachusetts Bay, and the mouth of the Charles River.\n\nDespite its small size, Massachusetts features numerous topographically distinctive regions. The large coastal plain of the Atlantic Ocean in the eastern section of the state contains Greater Boston, along with most of the state's population, as well as the distinctive Cape Cod peninsula. To the west lies the hilly, rural region of Central Massachusetts, and beyond that, the Connecticut River Valley. Along the western border of Western Massachusetts lies the highest elevated part of the state, the Berkshire Mountains range.\n\nThe U.S. National Park Service administers a number of natural and historical sites in Massachusetts. Along with twelve national historic sites, areas, and corridors, the National Park Service also manages the Cape Cod National Seashore and the Boston Harbor Islands National Recreation Area. In addition, the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation maintains a number of parks, trails, and beaches throughout Massachusetts. \n\nEcology\n\nThe primary biome of inland Massachusetts is temperate deciduous forest. \nAlthough much of Massachusetts had been cleared for agriculture, leaving only traces of old growth forest in isolated pockets, secondary growth has regenerated in many rural areas as farms have been abandoned. Currently, forests cover around 62% of Massachusetts. The areas most affected by human development include the Greater Boston area in the east and the Springfield metropolitan area in the west, although the latter includes agricultural areas throughout the Connecticut River Valley. There are currently 219 endangered species in Massachusetts. \n\nA number of species are doing well in the increasingly urbanized Massachusetts. Peregrine falcons utilize office towers in larger cities as nesting areas, and the population of coyotes, whose diet may include garbage and roadkill, has been increasing in recent decades. White-tailed deer, raccoons, wild turkeys and eastern gray squirrels are also found throughout Massachusetts. In more rural areas in the western part of Massachusetts, larger mammals such as moose and black bears have returned, largely due to reforestation following the regional decline in agriculture. \n\nMassachusetts is located along the Atlantic Flyway, a major route for migratory waterfowl along the eastern coast. Lakes in central Massachusetts provide habitat for many species of fish and waterfowl, but some species such as the common loon are becoming rare. A significant population of long-tailed ducks winter off Nantucket. Small offshore islands and beaches are home to roseate terns and are important breeding areas for the locally threatened piping plover. Protected areas such as the Monomoy National Wildlife Refuge provide critical breeding habitat for shorebirds and a variety of marine wildlife including a large population of gray seals.\n\nFreshwater fish species in Massachusetts include bass, carp, catfish, and trout, while saltwater species such as Atlantic cod, haddock and American lobster populate offshore waters. Other marine species include Harbor seals, the endangered North Atlantic right whales, as well as humpback whales, fin whales, minke whales and Atlantic white-sided dolphins.\n\nClimate\n\nMassachusetts has a transitional climate between the humid continental and humid subtropical climate regimes. The warm to hot summers render the oceanic climate rare in this transition, only applying to exposed coastal areas such as on the peninsula of Barnstable County. The climate of Boston is quite representative for the commonwealth, characterized by summer highs of around 81 F and winter highs of 35 F and is quite wet. Frosts are frequent all winter, even in coastal areas due to prevailing inland winds.\n\nDemographics\n\nThe United States Census Bureau estimated that the population of Massachusetts was 6,794,422 on July 1, 2015, a 3.77% increase since the 2010 United States Census.\n\nAs of 2014, Massachusetts was estimated to be the third most densely populated U.S. state, with 839.4 people per square mile, behind New Jersey and Rhode Island. In 2014, Massachusetts had 1,011,811 foreign-born residents or 15% of the population.\n\nMost Bay State residents live within the Boston Metropolitan Area, also known as Greater Boston, which includes Boston and its proximate surroundings but also extending to Greater Lowell and to Worcester. The Springfield Metropolitan Area is also a major center of population. Geographically, the center of population of Massachusetts is located in the town of Natick. \n\nLike the rest of the northeastern United States, the population of Massachusetts has continued to grow in the past few decades. Massachusetts is the fastest growing state in New England and the 25th fastest growing state in the United States. Population growth was largely due to a relatively high quality of life and a large higher education system in the state.\n\nForeign immigration is also a factor in the state's population growth, causing the state's population to continue to grow as of the 2010 Census (particularly in Massachusetts gateway cities where costs of living are lower). 40% of foreign immigrants were from Central or South America, according to a 2005 Census Bureau study, with many of the remainder from Asia. Many residents who have settled in Greater Springfield claim Puerto Rican descent. Many areas of Massachusetts showed relatively stable population trends between 2000 and 2010. Exurban Boston and coastal areas grew the most rapidly, while Berkshire County in far Western Massachusetts and Barnstable County on Cape Cod were the only counties to lose population as of the 2010 Census.\n\nBy gender, 48.4% were male and 51.6% were female in 2014. In terms of age, 79.2% were over 18 years old and 14.8% were over 65 years old.\n\nRace and ancestry\n\nAs of 2014, in terms of race and ethnicity, Massachusetts was 83.2% White (73.7% Non-Hispanic White), 8.8% Black or African American, 0.5% American Indian and Alaska Native, 6.3% Asian American, \n\nThe state's most populous ethnic group, non-Hispanic white, has declined from 95.4% in 1970 to 73.7% in 2014. As of 2011, non-Hispanic whites were involved in 63.6% of all the births, while 36.4% of the population of Massachusetts younger than age 1 were minorities (meaning that they had at least one parent who was not non-Hispanic white). \n\nAs late as 1795, the population of Massachusetts was nearly 95% of English ancestry. During the early and mid 19th century, immigrant groups began arriving to Massachusetts in large numbers; first from Ireland in the 1840s; today the Irish and part-Irish are the largest ancestry group in the state at nearly 25% of the total population. Others arrived later from Quebec as well as places in Europe such as Italy, Portugal and Poland. In the early 20th century, a number of African Americans migrated to Massachusetts, although in somewhat fewer numbers than many other Northern states. Later in the 20th century, immigration from Latin America increased considerably. Over 156,000 Chinese Americans made their home in Massachusetts in 2014, and Boston hosts a growing Chinatown accommodating heavily traveled Chinese-owned bus lines to and from Chinatown, Manhattan in New York City. Massachusetts also has large Puerto Rican, Dominican, Haitian, Cape Verdean and Brazilian populations. Boston's South End and Jamaica Plain are both gay villages, as is nearby Provincetown, Massachusetts on Cape Cod.\n\nMassachusetts has a relatively large population of Irish descent (22.5% of the population) and also significant populations of Italians (13.5%), and English (11.4%), and French (8%). Lowell is home to the second-largest Cambodian (Khmer) community of the nation. There are also several populations of Native Americans in Massachusetts, the Wampanoag tribe maintains reservations at Aquinnah on Martha's Vineyard and at Mashpee on Cape Cod, while the Nipmuck maintain two state-recognized reservations in the central part of the state, including one at Grafton. \n\nMassachusetts has avoided many forms of racial strife seen elsewhere in the US, but examples such as the successful electoral showings of the nativist (mainly anti-Catholic) Know Nothings in the 1850s, the controversial Sacco and Vanzetti executions in the 1920s, and Boston's opposition to desegregation busing in the 1970s show that the ethnic history of Massachusetts was not completely harmonious.\n\nLanguages\n\nThe most common varieties of American English spoken in Massachusetts, other than General American English, are the cot-caught distinct, rhotic, western Massachusetts dialect and the cot-caught merged, non-rhotic, eastern Massachusetts dialect (popularly known as a \"Boston accent\"). \n\nAs of 2010, 78.93% (4,823,127) of Massachusetts residents age 5 and older spoke English at home as a primary language, while 7.50% (458,256) spoke Spanish, 2.97% (181,437) Portuguese, 1.59% (96,690) Chinese (which includes Cantonese and Mandarin), 1.11% (67,788) French, 0.89% (54,456) French Creole, 0.72% (43,798) Italian, 0.62% (37,865) Russian, and Vietnamese was spoken as a main language by 0.58% (35,283) of the population over the age of five. In total, 21.07% (1,287,419) of Massachusetts' population age 5 and older spoke a mother language other than English. \n\nReligion\n\nMassachusetts was founded and settled by the Puritans in 1620 and most people in Massachusetts today remain Christians. The descendants of the Puritans belong to many different churches; in the direct line of inheritance are the various Congregational churches, United Church of Christ and the congregations of Unitarian Universalist Association. The headquarters of the Unitarian Universalist Association, long located on Beacon Hill, is now located in South Boston. \n\nToday, Protestants make up 21% of the state's population and Christians make up 57% of the population. Roman Catholics make up 34% and now predominate because of massive immigration from primarily Catholic countries and regions – chiefly Ireland, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Quebec, and Latin America. Both Protestant and Roman Catholic communities have been in decline for some time now, due to the rise of irreligion in New England, the most irreligious region of the U.S., along with the Western United States. A significant Jewish population immigrated to the Boston and Springfield areas between 1880 and 1920. Jews currently make up 3% of the population. Mary Baker Eddy made the Boston Mother Church of Christian Science the world headquarters. Buddhists, Pagans, Hindus, Seventh-day Adventists, Muslims, and Mormons also can be found. Kripalu Center in Stockbridge, the Shaolin Meditation Temple in Springfield, and the Insight Meditation Center in Barre are examples of non-Abrahamic religious centers in Massachusetts. According to 2010 data from The Association of Religion Data Archives (ARDA) the largest single denominations are the Roman Catholic Church with 2,940,199 adherents; the United Church of Christ with 86,639 adherents; and the Episcopal Church with 81,999 adherents. 32% of the population identifies as having no religion. \n\nEconomy\n\nThe United States Bureau of Economic Analysis estimates that the Massachusetts gross state product in 2013 was US$446 billion. The per capita personal income in 2012 was $53,221, making it the third highest state in the nation. Thirteen Fortune 500 companies are located in Massachusetts, the largest of which are the Liberty Mutual Insurance Group of Boston and MassMutual Financial Services of Springfield. CNBC's list of \"Top States for Business for 2014\" has recognized Massachusetts as the 25th best state in the nation for business. According to a 2013 study by Phoenix Marketing International, Massachusetts had the sixth-largest number of millionaires per capita in the United States, with a ratio of 6.73 percent. Boston-Logan International Airport is the busiest airport in New England, serving 33.4 million total passengers in 2015, and witnessing rapid growth in international air traffic since 2010.[https://www.massport.com/media/378708/1215-avstats-airport-traffic-summary.pdf] Accessed May 8, 2016.\n\nSectors vital to the Massachusetts economy include higher education, biotechnology, information technology, finance, health care, tourism, and defense. The Route 128 corridor and Greater Boston continue to be a major center for venture capital investment, and high technology remains an important sector. In recent years tourism has played an ever-important role in the state's economy, with Boston and Cape Cod being the leading destinations. Other popular tourist destinations include Salem, Plymouth, and the Berkshires. Massachusetts is the sixth most popular tourist destination for foreign travelers. \n\nAs of 2012, there were 7,755 farms in Massachusetts encompassing a total of , averaging apiece. Particular agricultural products of note include green house products making up more than one third of the states agricultural output, cranberries, sweet corn and apples are also large sectors of production. Massachusetts is the second-largest cranberry-producing state in the union after Wisconsin. \n\nTaxation\n\nDepending on how it is calculated, state and local tax burden in Massachusetts has been estimated among U.S. states and Washington D.C. as 21st highest (11.44% or $6,163 per year for a household with nationwide median income) or 25th highest overall with below-average corporate taxes (39th highest), above-average personal income taxes, (13th highest), above-average sales tax (18th) highest, and below-average property taxes (46th highest). In the 1970s, the Commonwealth ranked as a relatively high-tax state, gaining the pejorative nickname Taxachusetts. This was followed by a round of tax limitations during the 1980s - a conservative period in American politics - including Proposition 2½. \n\nAs of January 1, 2016, Massachusetts has a flat-rate personal income tax of 5.1%, after a 2002 voter referendum to eventually lower the rate to 5.0% as amended by the legislature. There is a tax exemption for income below a threshold that varies from year to year. The corporate income tax rate is 8.8%, and the short-term capital gains tax rate is 12%. An unusual provision allows filers to voluntarily pay at the pre-referendum 5.85% income tax rate, which is done by between one and two thousand taxpayers per year. \n\nThe state imposes a 6.25% sales tax on retail sales of tangible personal property—except for groceries, clothing (up to $175.00), and periodicals. The sales tax is charged on clothing that costs more than $175.00, for the amount exceeding $175.00. Massachusetts also charges a use tax when goods are bought from other states and the vendor does not remit Massachusetts sales tax; taxpayers report and pay this on their income tax forms or dedicated forms, though there are \"safe harbor\" amounts that can be paid without tallying up actual purchases (except for purchases over $1000). There is no inheritance tax and limited Massachusetts estate tax related to federal estate tax collection.\n\nEnergy\n\nMassachusetts' electricity generation market was made competitive in 1998, enabling retail customers to change suppliers without changing utility companies. In 2012, Massachusetts consumed 1374.4 trillion BTU, making it the fifth lowest state in terms of consumption of energy per capita, and 63% of that energy came from natural gas. In 2014 and 2015, Massachusetts was ranked as the most energy efficient state the United States while Boston is the most efficient city, but it had the third highest electricity prices of any state.\n\nTransportation\n\nMassachusetts has 10 regional metropolitan planning organizations and three non-metropolitan planning organizations covering the remainder of the state; statewide planning is handled by the Massachusetts Department of Transportation.\n\nRail service\n\nAmtrak operates inter-city rail, including the high-speed Acela service to cities such as Providence, New Haven, New York City, and Washington, DC from South Station. From North Station the Amtrak Downeaster serves Portland, Maine and Brunswick, Maine. \n\nRegional services\n\nThe Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA), also known as \"The T\", operates public transportation in the form of subway, bus, and ferry systems in the Metro Boston area. It also operates longer distance commuter rail services throughout the larger Greater Boston area, including service to Worcester, Lowell, and Plymouth. As of the summer of 2013 the Cape Cod Regional Transit Authority in collaboration with the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority and the Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT) is operating the CapeFLYER providing passenger rail service between Boston and Cape Cod. \n\nFifteen other regional transit authorities provide public transportation in the form of bus services in their local communities. Two heritage railways are also in operation: the Cape Cod Central Railroad and the Berkshire Scenic Railway. \n\nAs of 2015, a number of freight railroads were operating in Massachusetts, with CSX being the largest carrier. Massachusetts has a total of 892 mi of freight trackage in operation. The Woods Hole, Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket Steamship Authority regulates freight and passenger ferry service to the islands of Massachusetts including Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket. \n\nAir service\n\nThe major airport in the state is Boston-Logan International Airport. The airport served 33.5 million passengers in 2015, up from 31.6 million in 2014, and is used by around 40 airlines with a total of 103 gates. Logan International Airport has service to numerous cities throughout the United States, as well as international service to Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean, Europe, and Asia. Logan, Hanscom Field in Bedford, and Worcester Regional Airport are operated by Massport, an independent state transportation agency. Massachusetts has approximately 42 public-use airfields, and over 200 private landing spots. Some airports receive funding from the Aeronautics Division of the Massachusetts Department of Transportation and the Federal Aviation Administration; the FAA is also the primary regulator of Massachusetts air travel. \n\nRoads\n\nThere are a total of 31300 mi of interstates and other highways in Massachusetts. Interstate 90 (I-90, also known as the Massachusetts Turnpike), is the longest interstate in Massachusetts. The route travels 136 mi generally west to east from the New York state line near the town of West Stockbridge and passes just north of Springfield, just south of Worcester and through Framingham before terminating near Logan International Airport in Boston. Other major interstates include I-91, which travels generally north and south along the Connecticut River, I-93, which travels north and south through central Boston, then passes Methuen before entering New Hampshire. I-95, which follows most of the US Atlantic coastline, connects Providence, Rhode Island with Greater Boston, forming a loop around the more urbanized areas (for some distance concurrent with Route 128) before continuing north along the coast.\n\nI-495 forms a wide loop around the outer edge of Greater Boston. Other major interstates in Massachusetts include I-291, I-391, I-84, I-195, I-395, I-290, and I-190. Major non-interstate highways in Massachusetts include U.S. Routes 1, 3, 6, and 20, and state routes 2, 3, 9, 24, and 128. A great majority of interstates in Massachusetts were constructed during the mid 20th century, and at times were controversial, particularly the routing of I-95 through central Boston. Opposition to continued construction grew, and in 1970 Governor Francis W. Sargent issued a general prohibition on most further freeway construction within the I-95/Route 128 loop in the Boston area. A massive undertaking to bring I-93 underground in downtown Boston, called the Big Dig, brought the city's highway system under public scrutiny for its high cost and construction quality.\n\nGovernment and politics\n\nMassachusetts has a long political history; earlier political structures included the Mayflower Compact of 1620, the separate Massachusetts Bay and Plymouth colonies, and the combined colonial Province of Massachusetts. The Massachusetts Constitution was ratified in 1780 while the Revolutionary War was in progress, four years after the Articles of Confederation was drafted, and eight years before the present United States Constitution was ratified on June 21, 1788. Drafted by John Adams, the Massachusetts Constitution is currently the oldest functioning written constitution in continuous effect in the world. \n\nMassachusetts politics since the second half of the 20th century have generally been dominated by the Democratic Party, and the state has a reputation for being the most liberal state in the country. In 1974, Elaine Noble became the first openly lesbian or gay candidate elected to a state legislature in US history. The state housed the first openly gay member of the United States House of Representatives, Gerry Studds, in 1972 and in 2004, Massachusetts became the first state to allow same-sex marriage.\n\nGovernment\n\nThe Government of Massachusetts is divided into three branches: Executive, Legislative, and Judicial. The governor of Massachusetts heads the executive branch; duties of the governor include signing or vetoing legislation, filling judicial and agency appointments, granting pardons, preparing an annual budget, and commanding the Massachusetts National Guard. Massachusetts governors, unlike those of most other states, are addressed as His/Her Excellency. The current governor is Charlie Baker, a Republican from Swampscott. The executive branch also includes the Executive Council, which is made up of eight elected councilors and the Lieutenant Governor seat, which is currently occupied by Karyn Polito.\n\nAbilities of the Council include confirming gubernatorial appointments and certifying elections. The Massachusetts House of Representatives and Massachusetts Senate comprise the legislature of Massachusetts, known as the Massachusetts General Court. The House consists of 160 members while the Senate has 40 members. Leaders of the House and Senate are chosen by the members of those bodies; the leader of the House is known as the Speaker while the leader of the Senate is known as the President. Each branch consists of several committees. Members of both bodies are elected to two-year terms. \n\nThe Judicial branch is headed by the Supreme Judicial Court, which serves over a number of lower courts. The Supreme Judicial Court is made up of a chief justice and six associate justices. Judicial appointments are made by the governor and confirmed by the executive council.\n\nThe Congressional delegation from Massachusetts is entirely Democratic. Currently, the US senators are Democrats Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey. The members of the state's delegation to the US House of Representatives are Richard Neal, Jim McGovern, Niki Tsongas, Joseph Kennedy III, Katherine Clark, Seth Moulton, Mike Capuano, Stephen Lynch, and Bill Keating. \n\nFederal court cases are heard in the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts, and appeals are heard by the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit. In U.S. presidential elections since 2012, Massachusetts has been allotted 11 votes in the electoral college, out of a total of 538. Like most states, Massachusetts's electoral votes are granted in a winner-take-all system. \n\nPolitics\n\nThroughout the mid 20th century, Massachusetts has gradually shifted from a Republican-leaning state to one largely dominated by Democrats; the 1952 victory of John F. Kennedy over incumbent Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr. is seen as a watershed moment in this transformation. His younger brother Edward M. Kennedy held that seat until his death from a brain tumor in 2009. Massachusetts has since gained a reputation as being a politically liberal state and is often used as an archetype of modern liberalism, hence the usage of the phrase \"Massachusetts liberal\". \n\nMassachusetts routinely votes for the Democratic Party, with the core concentrations in the Boston metro area, the Cape and Islands, and Western Massachusetts outside Hampden County. Pockets of Republican strength are in the central areas along the I-495 crescent, Hampden County, and communities on the south and north shores, but the state as a whole has not given its Electoral College votes to a Republican in a presidential election since Ronald Reagan carried it in 1984. Additionally, Massachusetts provided Reagan with his smallest margins of victory in both the 1980 and 1984 elections. \n\nAs of the 2014 election, the Democratic Party holds a significant major over the Republican party. Only 35 of the 160 seats in the state house and 6 of the 40 seats in the state senate belong to the Republican Party. \n\nAlthough Republicans held the governor's office continuously from 1991 to 2007 and from 2015 onwards, they have been among the most moderate Republican leaders in the nation. In the 2004 election, the state gave Massachusetts senator John Kerry 61.9% of the vote, his best showing in any state. In 2008, President Barack Obama carried the state with 61.8% of the vote. In the 2010 special election for the U.S. Senate, Republican Scott Brown defeated Democrat Martha Coakley by a 52% to 47% margin only to lose the seat in the 2012 Senate election to Elizabeth Warren, the first female senator to represent Massachusetts. \n\nA number of contemporary national political issues have been influenced by events in Massachusetts, such as the decision in 2003 by the state Supreme Judicial Court allowing same-sex marriage and a 2006 bill which mandated health insurance for all Bay Staters. In 2008, Massachusetts voters passed an initiative decriminalizing possession of small amounts of marijuana. Voters in Massachusetts also approved a ballot measure in 2012 that legalized the medical use of marijuana. \n\nCities, towns, and counties\n\nThere are 50 cities and 301 towns in Massachusetts, grouped into 14 counties. The fourteen counties, moving roughly from west to east, are Berkshire, Franklin, Hampshire, Hampden, Worcester, Middlesex, Essex, Suffolk, Norfolk, Bristol, Plymouth, Barnstable, Dukes, and Nantucket. Eleven communities which call themselves \"towns\" are, by law, cities since they have traded the town meeting form of government for a mayor-council or manager-council form. \n\nBoston is the state capital and largest city in Massachusetts. The population of the city proper is 645,966, and Greater Boston, with a population of 4,628,910, is the 10th largest metropolitan area in the nation. Other cities with a population over 100,000 include Worcester, Springfield, Lowell, and Cambridge. Plymouth is the largest municipality in the state by land area.\n\nMassachusetts, along with the five other New England states, features the local governmental structure known as the New England town. In this structure, incorporated towns—as opposed to townships or counties—hold many of the responsibilities and powers of local government. Most of the county governments were abolished by the state of Massachusetts beginning in 1997 including Middlesex County, the largest county in the state by population. The voters of these now defunct counties elect only Sheriffs and Registers of Deeds, who are part of the state government. Other counties have been reorganized, and a few still retain county councils. \n\nEducation\n\nMassachusetts was the first state in North America to require municipalities to appoint a teacher or establish a grammar school with the passage of the Massachusetts Education Law of 1647, and 19th century reforms pushed by Horace Mann laid much of the groundwork for contemporary universal public education which was established in 1852. Massachusetts is home to the oldest school in continuous existence in North America (The Roxbury Latin School, founded in 1645), as well as the country's oldest public elementary school (The Mather School, founded in 1639), its oldest high school (Boston Latin School, founded in 1635), its oldest continuously operating boarding school (The Governor's Academy, founded in 1763), its oldest college (Harvard University, founded in 1636), and its oldest women's college (Mount Holyoke College, founded in 1837). \n\nMassachusetts' per-student public expenditure for elementary and secondary schools was eighth in the nation in 2012, at $14,844. In 2013, Massachusetts scored highest of all the states in math and third highest in reading on the National Assessment of Educational Progress. \n\nMassachusetts is home to 121 institutions of higher education. Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, both located in Cambridge, consistently rank among the world's best universities. In addition to Harvard and MIT, several other Massachusetts universities currently rank in the top 50 at the national level in the widely cited rankings of U.S. News and World Report: Tufts University (#27), Boston College (#30), Brandeis University (#34), Boston University (#41) and Northeastern University (#47). Massachusetts is also home to three of the top five U.S. News and World Report's best Liberal Arts Colleges: Williams College (#1), Amherst College (#2), and Wellesley College (#4). The public University of Massachusetts (nicknamed UMass) features five campuses in the state, with its flagship campus in Amherst that enrolls over 25,000 students. \n\nArts, culture, and recreation\n\nMassachusetts has contributed to American arts and culture. Drawing from its Native American and Yankee roots, along with later immigrant groups, Massachusetts has produced a number of writers, artists, and musicians. A number of major museums and important historical sites are also located there, and events and festivals throughout the year celebrate the state's history and heritage. \n\nMassachusetts was an early center of the Transcendentalist movement, which emphasized intuition, emotion, human individuality and a deeper connection with nature. Ralph Waldo Emerson, who was born in Boston but spent much of his later life in Concord, largely created the philosophy with his 1836 work Nature, and continued to be a key figure in the movement for the remainder of his life. Emerson's friend, Henry David Thoreau, who was also involved in Transcendentalism, recorded his year spent alone in a small cabin at nearby Walden Pond in the 1854 work Walden; or, Life in the Woods. \n\nOther famous authors and poets born or strongly associated with Massachusetts include Nathaniel Hawthorne, John Updike, Emily Dickinson, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, E.E. Cummings, Sylvia Plath, H.P. Lovecraft, and Theodor Seuss Geisel, better known as \"Dr. Seuss\". Famous painters from Massachusetts include Winslow Homer and Norman Rockwell; many of the latter's works are on display at the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge. \n\nMassachusetts is also an important center for the performing arts. Both the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Boston Pops Orchestra are based in Massachusetts. Other orchestras in Massachusetts include the Cape Cod Symphony Orchestra in Barnstable and the Springfield Symphony Orchestra. Tanglewood, in western Massachusetts, is a music venue that is home to both the Tanglewood Music Festival and Tanglewood Jazz Festival, as well as the summer host for the Boston Symphony Orchestra. \n\nOther performing arts and theater organizations in Massachusetts include the Boston Ballet, the Boston Lyric Opera, and the Lenox-based Shakespeare & Company. In addition to classical and folk music, Massachusetts has produced musicians and bands spanning a number of contemporary genres, such as the classic rock band Aerosmith, the proto-punk band The Modern Lovers, the new wave band The Cars, and the alternative rock band Pixies. Film events in the state include the Boston Film Festival, the Boston International Film Festival, and a number of smaller film festivals in various cities throughout Massachusetts. \n\nMassachusetts is home to a large number of museums and historical sites. The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, and the DeCordova contemporary art and sculpture museum in Lincoln are all located within Massachusetts, and the Maria Mitchell Association in Nantucket includes several observatories, museums, and an aquarium. Historically themed museums and sites such as the Springfield Armory National Historic Site in Springfield, Boston's Freedom Trail and nearby Minute Man National Historical Park, both of which preserve a number of sites important during the American Revolution, the Lowell National Historical Park, which focuses on some of the earliest mills and canals of the industrial revolution in the US, the Black Heritage Trail in Boston, which includes important African-American and abolitionist sites in Boston, and the New Bedford Whaling National Historical Park all showcase various periods of Massachusetts's history.\n\nPlimoth Plantation and Old Sturbridge Village are two open-air or \"living\" museums in Massachusetts, recreating life as it was in the 17th and early 19th centuries, respectively. \n\nBoston's annual St. Patrick's Day parade and \"Harborfest\", a week-long Fourth of July celebration featuring a fireworks display and concert by the Boston Pops as well as a turnaround cruise in Boston Harbor by the USS Constitution, are popular events. The New England Summer Nationals, an auto show in Worcester, draws tens of thousands of attendees every year. The Boston Marathon is also a popular event in the state drawing more than 30,000 runners and tens of thousands of spectators annually. \n\nLong-distance hiking trails in Massachusetts include the Appalachian Trail, the New England National Scenic Trail, the Metacomet-Monadnock Trail, the Midstate Trail, and the Bay Circuit Trail. Other outdoor recreational activities in Massachusetts include sailing and yachting, freshwater and deep-sea fishing, whale watching, downhill and cross-country skiing, and hunting. \n\nMedia\n\nThere are two major television media markets located in Massachusetts. The Boston/Manchester market is the fifth largest in the United States. The other market surrounds the Springfield area. WGBH-TV in Boston is a major public television station and produces national programs such as Nova, Frontline, and American Experience. \n\nThe Boston Globe, Boston Herald, Springfield Republican, and the Worcester Telegram & Gazette are Massachusetts's largest daily newspapers. In addition, there are many community dailies and weeklies. There are a number of major AM and FM stations which serve Massachusetts, along with many more regional and community-based stations. Some colleges and universities also operate campus television and radio stations, and print their own newspapers. \n\nHealth\n\nMassachusetts generally ranks highly among states in most health and disease prevention categories. In 2014, the United Health Foundation ranked the state as third healthiest overall. Massachusetts has the most doctors per 100,000 residents, the second-lowest infant mortality rate, and the lowest percentage of uninsured residents (for both children as well as the total population). According to Businessweek, commonwealth residents have an average life expectancy of 78.4 years, the fifth longest in the country. 37.2% of the population is overweight and 21.7% is obese, and Massachusetts ranks sixth highest in the percentage of residents who are considered neither obese nor overweight (41.1%). Massachusetts also ranks above average in the prevalence of binge drinking, which is the 20th highest in the country. \n\nThe nation's first Marine Hospital was erected by federal order in Boston in 1799. There are currently a total of 143 hospitals in the state. According to 2015 rankings by US News & World Report, Massachusetts General Hospital the hospital ranked in the top three in two specialties. Massachusetts General was founded in 1811 and serves as the largest teaching hospital for nearby Harvard University. \n\nThe state of Massachusetts is a center for medical education and research including Harvard's Brigham and Women's Hospital, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute as well as the New England Baptist Hospital, Tufts Medical Center, and Boston Medical Center which is the primary teaching hospital for Boston University. The University of Massachusetts Medical School is located in Worcester. The Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences has two of its three campuses in Boston and Worcester. \n\nSports\n\nMassachusetts is home to five major league professional sports teams: seventeen-time NBA Champions Boston Celtics, eight-time World Series winners Boston Red Sox, six-time Stanley Cup winners Boston Bruins, and four-time Super Bowl winners New England Patriots. The New England Revolution is the Major League Soccer team for Massachusetts and the Boston Cannons are the Major League Lacrosse team. The Boston Breakers are the Women's Professional Soccer in Massachusetts. Massachusetts is also the home of the Cape Cod Baseball League.\n\nIn the late 19th century, the Olympic sports of basketball and volleyball were invented in the Western Massachusetts cities of Springfield and Holyoke, respectively. The Basketball Hall of Fame, is a major tourist destination in the City of Springfield and the Volleyball Hall of Fame is located in Holyoke. The American Hockey League (AHL), the NHL's development league, is headquartered in Springfield. \n\nSeveral universities in Massachusetts are notable for their collegiate athletics. Boston College fields teams in the nationally televised Atlantic Coast Conference, while Harvard University competes in the famed Ivy League. Boston University, Northeastern University, College of the Holy Cross, UMass Lowell, and UMass Amherst also participate in Division I athletics. Many other Massachusetts colleges compete in lower divisions such as Division III, where MIT, Tufts University, Amherst College, Williams College, and others field competitive teams.\n\nMassachusetts is also the home of rowing events such as the Eastern Sprints on Lake Quinsigamond and the Head of the Charles Regatta. A number of major golf events have taken place in Massachusetts, including nine U.S. Opens and two Ryder Cups. \n\nMassachusetts has produced several successful Olympians including Butch Johnson, Todd Richards, Albina Osipowich, and Susan Rojcewicz." ] }

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{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe", "TagMe" ], "filename": [ "Transformers.txt", "Autobot.txt" ], "title": [ "Transformers", "Autobot" ], "wiki_context": [ "is a media franchise produced by American toy company Hasbro and Japanese toy company Takara Tomy. Initially a line of transforming toys rebranded from Takara's Diaclone and Microman toylines, the franchise began in 1984 with the Transformers toy line, and centers on factions of transforming alien robots (often the Autobots and the Decepticons) in an endless struggle for dominance or eventual peace. In its decades-long history, the franchise has expanded to encompass comic books, animation, video games and films.\n\nThe term \"Generation 1\" covers both the animated television series The Transformers and the comic book series of the same name, which are further divided into Japanese and British spin-offs, respectively. Sequels followed, such as the Generation 2 comic book and Beast Wars TV series, which became its own mini-universe. Generation 1 characters underwent two reboots with Dreamwave in 2001 and IDW Publishing in 2005, also as a remastered series. There have been other incarnations of the story based on different toy lines during and after the 20th-Century. The first was the Robots in Disguise series, followed by three shows (Armada, Energon, and Cybertron) that constitute a single universe called the \"Unicron Trilogy\". A live-action film was also released in 2007, with a sequel in 2009, a second sequel in 2011, and a third in 2014. again distinct from previous incarnations, while the Transformers: Animated series merged concepts from the G1 story-arc, the 2007 live-action film and the \"Unicron Trilogy\". Transformers: Prime previously aired on The Hub.\n\nAlthough initially a separate and competing franchise started in 1983, Tonka's Gobots became the intellectual property of Hasbro after their buyout of Tonka in 1991. Subsequently, the universe depicted in the animated series Challenge of the GoBots and follow-up film GoBots: Battle of the Rock Lords was retroactively established as an alternate universe within the Transformers franchise. \n\nTransformers: Generation 1 (1984–1993)\n\nGeneration One is a retroactive term for the Transformers characters that appeared between 1984 and 1993. The Transformers began with the 1980s Japanese toy lines Microman and Diaclone. The former utilized varying humanoid-type figures while the latter presented robots able to transform into everyday vehicles, electronic items or weapons. Hasbro, fresh from the success of the G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero toyline, which used the Microman technology to great success, bought the Diaclone toys, and partnered with Takara. Jim Shooter and Dennis O'Neil were hired by Hasbro to create the backstory; O'Neil also created the name \"Optimus Prime.\" Afterwards, Bob Budiansky created most of the Transformers characters, giving names and personalities to many unnamed Diaclone figures. \n\nThe primary concept of Generation One is that the heroic Optimus Prime, the villainous Megatron, and their finest soldiers crash land on pre-historic Earth in the Ark and the Nemesis before awakening in 1985, Cybertron hurtling through the Neutral zone as an effect of the war. The Marvel comic was originally part of the main Marvel Universe, with appearances from Spider-Man and Nick Fury, plus some cameos, as well as a visit to the Savage Land. \n\nThe Transformers TV series began around the same time. Produced by Sunbow Productions and Marvel Productions, later Hasbro Productions, from the start it contradicted Budiansky's backstories. The TV series shows the Autobots looking for new energy sources, and crash landing as the Decepticons attack. Marvel interpreted the Autobots as destroying a rogue asteroid approaching Cybertron. Shockwave is loyal to Megatron in the TV series, keeping Cybertron in a stalemate during his absence, but in the comic book he attempts to take command of the Decepticons. The TV series would also differ wildly from the origins Budiansky had created for the Dinobots, the Decepticon turned Autobot Jetfire (known as Skyfire on TV ), the Constructicons (who combine to form Devastator), and Omega Supreme. The Marvel comic establishes early on that Prime wields the Creation Matrix, which gives life to machines. In the second season, the two-part episode The Key to Vector Sigma introduced the ancient Vector Sigma computer, which served the same original purpose as the Creation Matrix (giving life to Transformers), and its guardian Alpha Trion.\n\nIn 1986, the cartoon became the film The Transformers: The Movie, which is set in the year 2005. It introduced the Matrix as the \"Autobot Matrix of Leadership\", as a fatally wounded Prime gives it to Ultra Magnus; however, as Prime dies he drops the matrix, which is then caught by Hot Rod who subsequently becomes Rodimus Prime later on in the film. Unicron, a transformer who devours planets, fears its power and recreates a heavily damaged Megatron as Galvatron, as well as Bombshell or Skywarp becoming Cyclonus, Thundercracker becoming Scourge and two other Insecticons becoming Scourge's huntsmen, the Sweeps. Eventually, Rodimus Prime takes out the Matrix and destroys Unicron. In the United Kingdom, the weekly comic book interspliced original material to keep up with U.S. reprints, and The Movie provided much new material. Writer Simon Furman proceeded to expand the continuity with movie spin-offs involving the time travelling Galvatron. The Movie also featured guest voices from Leonard Nimoy as Galvatron, Scatman Crothers as Jazz, Casey Kasem as Cliffjumper, Orson Welles as Unicron and Eric Idle as the leader of the Junkions (Wreck-Gar, though unnamed in the movie). The Transformers theme tune for the film was performed by Lion with \"Weird Al\" Yankovic adding a song to the soundtrack.\n\nThe third season followed up The Movie, with the revelation of the Quintessons having used Cybertron as a factory. Their robots rebel, and in time the workers become the Autobots and the soldiers become the Decepticons. (Note: This appears to contradict background presented in the first two seasons of the series.) It is the Autobots who develop transformation. Due to popular demand, Optimus Prime is resurrected at the conclusion of the third season, and the series ended with a three-episode story arc. However, the Japanese broadcast of the series was supplemented with a newly produced OVA, Scramble City, before creating entirely new series to continue the storyline, ignoring the 1987 end of the American series. The extended Japanese run consisted of The Headmasters, Super-God Masterforce, Victory and Zone, then in illustrated magazine form as Battlestars: Return of Convoy and Operation: Combination. Just as the TV series was wrapping up, Marvel continued to expand its continuity. It followed The Movies example by killing Prime and Megatron, albeit in the present day. Dinobot leader Grimlock takes over as Autobot leader. There was a G.I. Joe crossover and the limited series The Transformers: Headmasters, which further expanded the scope to the planet Nebulon. It led on to the main title resurrecting Prime as a Powermaster. \n\nIn the United Kingdom, the mythology continued to grow. Primus was introduced as the creator of the Transformers, to serve his material body that is planet Cybertron and fight his nemesis Unicron. Female Autobot Arcee also appeared, despite the comic book stating the Transformers had no concept of gender, with her backstory of being built by the Autobots to quell human accusations of sexism. Soundwave, Megatron's second-in-command, also broke the fourth wall in the letters page, criticising the cartoon continuity as an inaccurate representation of history. The UK also had a crossover in Action Force, the UK counterpart to G.I. Joe. The comic book featured a resurrected Megatron, whom Furman retconned to be a clone when he took over the U.S. comic book, which depicted Megatron as still dead. The U.S. comic would last for 80 issues until 1991, and the UK comic lasted 332 issues and several annuals, until it was replaced as Dreamwave Productions, later in the 20th-Century.\n\nIn 2009, Shout! Factory released the entire G1 series in a 16-DVD box set called the Matrix of Leadership Edition. They also released the same content as individual seasons.\n\nTransformers: Generation 2 (1993–1995)\n\nIt was five issues of the G.I. Joe comic in 1993 that would springboard a return for Marvel's Transformers, with the new twelve-issue series Transformers: Generation 2, to market a new toy line.\n\nThis story revealed that the Transformers originally breed asexually, though it is stopped by Primus as it produced the evil Swarm. A new empire, neither Autobot nor Decepticon, is bringing it back, however. Though the year-long arc wrapped itself up with an alliance between Optimus Prime and Megatron, the final panel introduced the Liege Maximo, ancestor of the Decepticons. This minor cliffhanger was not resolved until 2001 and 2002's Transforce convention when writer Simon Furman concluded his story in the exclusive novella Alignment. \n\nBeast Wars and Beast Machines (1996–2000)\n\nThe story focused on a small group of Maximals (the new Autobots), led by Optimus Primal, and Predacons, led by Megatron, 300 years after the \"Great War\". After a dangerous pursuit through transwarp space, both the Maximal and Predacon factions end up crash landing on a primitive, uncivilized planet similar to Earth, but with two moons and a dangerous level of Energon (which is later revealed to be prehistoric Earth with an artificial second moon, taking place sometime during the 4 million year period in which the Autobots and Decepticons were in suspended animation from the first episode of the original Transformers cartoon), which forces them to take organic beast forms in order to function without going into stasis lock. After writing this first episode, Bob Forward and Larry DiTillio learned of the G1 Transformers, and began to use elements of it as a historical backstory to their scripts, establishing Beast Wars as a part of the Generation 1 universe through numerous callbacks to both the cartoon and Marvel comic. By the end of the first season, the second moon and the Energon are revealed to have been constructed by a mysterious alien race known as the Vok.\n\nThe destruction of the second moon releases mysterious energies that make some of the characters \"transmetal\" and the planet is revealed to be prehistoric Earth, leading to the discovery of the Ark. Megatron attempts to kill the original Optimus Prime, but at the beginning of the third season, Primal manages to preserve his spark. In the two-season follow-up series, Beast Machines, Cybertron is revealed to have organic origins, which Megatron attempts to stamp out.\n\nAfter the first season of Beast Wars (comprising 26 episodes) aired in Japan, the Japanese were faced with a problem. The second Canadian season was only 13 episodes long, not enough to warrant airing on Japanese TV. While they waited for the third Canadian season to be completed (thereby making 26 episodes in total when added to season 2), they produced two exclusive cel-animated series of their own, Beast Wars II (also called Beast Wars Second) and Beast Wars Neo, to fill in the gap. Dreamwave retroactively revealed Beast Wars to be the future of their G1 universe, and the 2006 IDW comic book Beast Wars: The Gathering eventually confirmed the Japanese series to be canon within a story set during Season 3. \n\nBeast Wars contained elements from both the G1 cartoon series and comics. Attributes taken from the cartoon include Transformers that were female, the appearance of Starscream (who mentions being killed off by Galvatron in, The Transformers: The Movie), and appearances of the Plasma Energy Chamber and Key to Vector Sigma. The naming of the Transformer ship, the \"Ark\" (and reference to 1984, the year the Transformers on board were revived) and the character, Ravage being shown as intelligent, and Cybertron having an organic core were elements taken from the comics.\n\nIn 2011, Shout! Factory released the complete series of Beast Wars on DVD.\n\nDreamwave Productions (2001–2005)\n\nIn 2001, Dreamwave Productions began a new universe of annual comics adapted from Marvel, but also included elements of the animated. The Dreamwave stories followed the concept of the Autobots defeating the Decepticons on Earth, but their 1997 return journey to Cybertron on the Ark II is destroyed by Shockwave, now ruler of the planet. The story follows on from there, and was told in two six-issue limited series, then a ten-issue ongoing series. The series also added extra complexities such as not all Transformers believing in the existence of Primus, corruption in the Cybertronian government that first lead Megatron to begin his war and Earth having an unknown relevance to Cybertron. \n\nThree Transformers: The War Within limited series were also published. These are set at the beginning of the Great War, and identify Prime as once being a clerk named Optronix. Beast Wars was also retroactively stated as the future of this continuity, with the profile series More than Meets the Eye showing the Predacon Megatron looking at historical files detailing Dreamwave's characters and taking his name from the original Megatron. In 2004, this real life universe also inspired three novels and a Dorling Kindersley guide, which focused on Dreamwave as the \"true\" continuity when discussing in-universe elements of the characters. In a new twist, Primus and Unicron are siblings, formerly a being known as The One. Transformers: Micromasters, set after the Arks disappearance, was also published. The real life universe was disrupted when Dreamwave went bankrupt in 2005. This left the Generation One story hanging and the third volume of The War Within half finished. Plans for a comic book set between Beast Wars and Beast Machines were also left unrealized. \n\nG.I. Joe crossovers (2003-present)\n\nThroughout the years, the G1 characters have also starred in crossovers with fellow Hasbro property G.I. Joe, but whereas those crossovers published by Marvel were in continuity with their larger storyline, those released by Dreamwave and G.I. Joe publisher Devil's Due Publishing occupy their own separate real life universes. In Devil's Due, the terrorist organization Cobra is responsible for finding and reactivating the Transformers. Dreamwave's version reimagines the familiar G1 and G.I. Joe characters in a World War II setting, and a second limited series was released set in the present day, though Dreamwave's bankruptcy meant it was cancelled after a single issue. Devil's Due had Cobra re-engineer the Transformers to turn into familiar Cobra vehicles, and released further mini-series that sent the characters travelling through time, battling Serpentor and being faced with the combined menace of Cobra-La and Unicron. During this time, Cobra teams up with the Decepticons. IDW Publishing has expressed interest in their own crossover. \n\nIDW publishing (2005-present)\n\nThe following year, IDW Publishing rebooted the G1 series from scratch within various limited series and one shots. This allowed long-time writer of Marvel and Dreamwave comics, Simon Furman to create his own universe without continuity hindrance, similar to Ultimate Marvel. This new continuity originally consisted of a comic book series titled The Transformers with a companion series known as The Transformers: Spotlight. The main series was broken up into several story arcs. Eventually, with IDW Publishing displeased with the format, the series was given two soft reboots. The first one sped up the story, while the second ditched the mini series format as well as the Spotlight series. Finally, the series was broken into three, becoming The Transformers: More Than Meets The Eyes, The Transformers: Robots in Disguise (now simply The Transformers) and The returning The Transformers - Spotlight.\n\nAlternative stories\n\nIn January 2006, the Hasbro Transformers Collectors' Club comic wrote a story based on the Transformers Classics toy line, set in the Marvel Comics universe, but excluding the Generation 2 comic. Fifteen years after Megatron crash lands in the Ark with Ratchet, the war continues with the characters in their Classics bodies. \n\nIDW Publishing introduced The Transformers: Evolutions in 2006, a collection of mini-series that re-imagine and reinterpret the G1 characters in various ways. To date, only one miniseries has been published, Hearts of Steel, placing the characters in an Industrial Revolution-era setting. The series was delayed as Hasbro did not want to confuse newcomers with too many fictional universes before the release of the live-action film. \n\nHowever, IDW and the original publisher Marvel Comics announced a crossover storyline with the Avengers to coincide with the film New Avengers/Transformers. The story is set on the borders of Symkaria and Latveria, and its fictional universe is set between the first two New Avengers storylines, as well in between the Infiltration and Escalation phase of IDW's The Transformers. IDW editor-in-chief, Chris Ryall hinted at elements of it being carried over into the main continuities, and that a sequel is possible. \n\nRobots in Disguise (2000–2001 / 2002)\n\nFirst broadcast in Japan in 2000, Robots in Disguise was a single animated series consisting of thirty-nine episodes. It was exported to other countries in subsequent years. In this continuity, Megatron recreates the Decepticons as a subfaction of the Predacons on Earth, a potential reference to the return to the vehicle-based characters following the previous dominance of the animal-based characters of the Beast eras. It is a stand-alone universe with no ties to any other Transformers fiction, though some of the characters from Robots in Disguise did eventually make appearances in Transformers: Universe, including Optimus Prime, Ultra Magnus, Side Burn and Prowl.\n\nThe show was heavily censored in the U.S. due to its content of buildings being destroyed and terrorism references after the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Centers. The show was eventually banned from cable TV networks in the U.S.\n\nThe Unicron Trilogy (2001 / 2002–2006)\n\nThese three lines, with 1990s style, launched in 2002, preceded from 2001, and dubbed the \"Unicron Trilogy\" by Transformers designer Aaron Archer, are co-productions between Takara and (lesser extent) Hasbro, simultaneously released in both countries, each lasting 52 episodes. Armada followed the Autobots and Decepticons discovering the powerful Mini-Cons on Earth, which are revealed by the end to be weapons of Unicron. Energon, set ten years later, followed the Autobots and the Omnicons in their fight to stop the Decepticons and the Terrorcons from resurrecting Unicron with energon.\n\nIn Japan, the series Transformers: Cybertron showed no ties to the previous two series, telling its own story. This caused continuity problems when Hasbro sold Cybertron as a follow-up to Armada/Energon. The writers attempted to change certain plot elements from the Japanese version to remedy this, although this largely added up to nothing more than references to Unicron, Primus, Primes and Minicons.\n\nJust as Marvel produced a companion comic to Generation One, Dreamwave Productions published the comic Transformers Armada set in a different continuity to the cartoon. At #19, it became Transformers Energon. Dreamwave went bankrupt and ceased all publications before the storyline could be completed at #30. However, the Transformers Fan Club published a few stories set in the Cybertron era. \n\nTransformers: Universe (2003–present)\n\nThe storyline of Transformers: Universe, mainly set following Beast Machines, sees characters from many assorted alternate continuities, including existing and new ones, encountering each other. The story was told in an unfinished comic book exclusive to the Official Transformers Collectors' Convention.\n\nLive-action film franchise (2007–present)\n\nIn 2007, Michael Bay directed a live-action film based on Transformers, with Steven Spielberg serving as executive producer. It stars Shia LaBeouf, Josh Duhamel, Megan Fox, and Tyrese Gibson in the lead human cast while voice actors Peter Cullen and Hugo Weaving voice Optimus Prime and Megatron, respectively. Transformers received mixed to positive reviews and was a box office success. It is the forty-fifth highest-grossing film and the fifth highest-grossing film of 2007, grossing approximately $709 million worldwide. The film won four awards from the Visual Effects Society and was nominated for three Academy Awards, for Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing, and Best Visual Effects. The performance of Shia Labeouf was praised by Empire, and Peter Cullen's reprisal of Optimus Prime from the 1980s was well received by fans. A sequel, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, was released on June 24, 2009. Despite mostly negative reviews, it was a commercial success and grossed more than its predecessor. A third film, Transformers: Dark of the Moon, was released on June 29, 2011, in 3-D and went on to gross over $1 billion, despite receiving mixed reviews. A fourth film, Transformers: Age of Extinction, was released on June 27, 2014, which also grossed over $1 billion, though it got mixed to negative reviews. A fifth film, tentatively titled Transformers 5, is scheduled for a Summer 2017 release. \n\nTransformers: Animated (2007–2009 / 2010)\n\nThe Cartoon Network–produced Transformers Animated is a cartoon that aired in early 2008. Originally scheduled for late after 2007 under the title of Transformers: Heroes, Transformers Animated is set in 2050 Detroit (after crash landing 50 years earlier), when robots and humans live side-by-side. The Autobots come to Earth and assume superhero roles, battling evil humans with the Decepticons having a smaller role until Megatron resurfaces. Main characters include Autobots Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, Bulkhead, Prowl, and Ratchet; Decepticons Megatron, Starscream, Blitzwing, Lugnut, and Blackarachnia; and humans Professor Sumdac and Sari Sumdac. Several characters that were in the original Transformers cartoon and 1986 animated movie, as well as characters only seen in comics and such, make special appearances and cameos throughout the show.\n\nHunt for the Decepticons (2010)\n\nIn 2010, Hasbro released a toy line expansion to the film universe. This line is simply branded as Transformers and contains a promotion called \"Hunt for the Decepticons\". The promotion consists of a code number which collectors use to access online games on Transformers.com. The toy line consists of redecos and remolds of existing movie characters, as well as new versions of characters from Generation 1 and Generation 2.\n\nHighlights in this toy line include the Leader Class Starscream, Battle Ops Bumblebee and all-new more movie accurate redesigns of the Voyager Class Optimus Prime and Deluxe Class Bumblebee.\n\nCyber Missions webisodes\n\nTransformers: Prime/War for Cybertron (2010)/Fall of Cybertron (2012)\n\nThe video game War for Cybertron was released in 2010 and is said to be set in the same universe as the Transformers: Prime cartoon. War for Cybertron toys were released as the first wave of the Generations line, and the Prime toys were first released as a series of First Edition toys and are currently released under the Prime: Robots in Disguise line. The game has also inspired a book called Transformers: Exodus and its sequel titled Transformers: Exiles, the first of which consists of events leading up to the beginning of the game & the latter containing the events leading up to Generation 1. Hasbro and the California-based online game Roblox have also arranged an event promoting the cartoon. \n\nOfficial Convention and Collector's Club releases\n\nAn officially-recognized fan convention (usually called BotCon) has been held nearly every year since 1994. The first few conventions were organized by individual fans, but a fan-made company named 3H Enterprises (later changed to 3H Productions) secured the license to BotCon from 1997-2002. The license was secured by a new organization named Fun Publications in 2005, who have held it ever since.\n\nBecause the conventions are officially sanctioned by Hasbro, presenters have been able to produce official, limited-run toys, fiction, and other merchandise for sale at BotCon. The BotCon toys have grown dramatically over the years. In 1994, a single figure was provided for attendees. In 2010, fifteen different figures were available through a collection of box sets, souvenir packages, and customization classes.\n\nFictional contributions have also increased over the years. Prior to 2005, most conventions released a single comic, often accompanying the toys released that year. Since Fun Publications assumed the license, however, the annual BotCon comic has been supplemented by on-line text stories available exclusively at the official club website, and a bi-monthly magazine sent out to members with a six-page comic in each issue. Grouped under the umbrella term \"Transformers: Timelines\", Fun Publications fiction deals with a variety of existing Transformers franchises, including Generation 1, Beast Wars and Cybertron, as well as new universes created specifically by Fun Publications such as TransTech and Shattered Glass.", "Autobots are a faction of sentient robots from the planet Cybertron led by Optimus Prime, and the main protagonists in the fictional universe of the Transformers, a collection of various toys, cartoons, movies, graphic novels, and paperback books first introduced in 1984. The \"Heroic Autobots\" are opposed by the Evil Decepticons. Both Autobots and Decepticons are humanoid robots that can transform into machines, vehicles and other familiar mechanical objects. Autobot typically transform into regular cars, trucks, or other road vehicles (automobiles) but some few are aircraft, military vehicles, communication devices, weapons, and even robotic animals. These Autobots are often grouped into special \"teams\" which have the suffix \"-bot\" at the end, such as in Dinobot (Decepticon groups' names end in \"-con\").\n\nIn Japan, the Autobots are called except in the film series, Transformers Animated, and Transformers: Prime, where they are referred to as . In Italy, they are called \"Autorobots\". The Autobot insignia is also sometimes referred to as an \"Autobrand\" in issue #14 of the Marvel Comics series. The descendants of the Autobots, the Maximals from Transformers: Beast Wars are also known as Cybertrons in Japan.\n\nIn the Michael Bay live action films as well as in the CGI-animated series Transformers: Prime, the title Autobots is explained to be the short version of the title Autonomous Robotic Organisms.\n\nTransformers: Generation 1\n\nIn all Transformers stories, the Autobots and their adversaries, the Decepticons, originated on the planet Cybertron. The planet is almost always depicted as a purely metallic body. The capital of Cybertron is Iacon. In later issues of the Marvel comic line, Cybertron is shown to have weather, such as rain. \n\nMembers\n\nIn most North American continuities, the Autobot commander is usually Optimus Prime. The Japanese Continuity, however, is more diverse; after Optimus Prime (in G1), the succession of commanders include Rodimus Prime, Fortress Maximus, God Ginrai (whose U.S. counterpart is Powermaster Optimus Prime), Victory Saber, and Dai Atlas. Many of these leaders use the title of Prime, a direct linguistic descendant of Primus. It identifies the one Autobot Commander that is entrusted with the Creation Matrix, also known as the Autobot Matrix of Leadership. The Matrix is said to choose its own holder and when it is taken by a new leader (at the old leader's death), it transforms him into a larger, more powerful, wiser Autobot commander. Holders of the Matrix become one with the Matrix, such that when the holder dies, his Spark — the Transformer life-force — is absorbed into the Matrix. Holders of the Matrix, from the beginning of time (as per the Marvel continuity), are Primus, Prima, Prime Nova, Sentinel Prime, Optimus Prime, Ultra Magnus, Rodimus Prime, Fortress Maximus, Ginrai, Star Saber, Dai Atlas, Optimal Optimus, Big Convoy, Vector Prime, and \nMegatronus Prime/The Fallen. For a brief time, the Decepticon Thunderwing held the matrix, but when Optimus Prime reclaimed it, Thunderwing's presence was purged from the Matrix.\n\nHasbro toyline\n\nHasbro launched the Transformers toy line with ten different Autobot characters, all of whom transformed into automobiles, while the ten distinct Decepticons, (seven packages as three came two to a box/pack) were weapons, aircraft and communications equipment. Many of the Transformers were based on Takara designs. Optimus Prime was among the first Transformers released from Hasbro in 1984. The character listing/mini-poster that came inside Transformer packaging identified him as \"Autobot Commander\", as contrasted with Megatron's title of \"Decepticon Leader\". The Generation 2 toyline featured a character named \"Autobot\" who transforms from a human wristwatch/\"time machine\" to a humanoid robot. Autobot originated in the 1983 Microman Micro Change line as MC-06 Watch Robo, where he was available in four different colors. In 1993, he was released directly by Takara in North America as part of Transformers: Generation 2, alongside Scorpia and the wristwatches of Superion, Galvatron, and Ultra Magnus.\n\nMarvel Comics\n\nBoth Autobots and Decepticons were created by Primus. In most continuities this is still the case. Though Marvel's original series gave no purpose other than benevolent self-image creation for Transformers, some continuities add/modify that the Transformers were created to defend the universe. Each of the various later Transformers comic incarnations had differing origin stories, generally based on fictions provided in the 1980s comic and cartoon series.\n\nThe Autobot leader, Optimus Prime first appeared in issue #1 of Marvel's 4-issue limited series in September 1984, which was extended into the main series. This comic series started with the history of the Autobots and Deceptions on Cybertron, two once peaceful factions that eventually came to war due to Megatron's desire for conquest. In the first few pages of this issue readers were introduced to Optimus Prime, stated as being from \"Iacon\", greatest of the city-states of Cybertron. He was described as \"a leader to inspire the Autobots in their hour of deadliest peril, of all the Autobots, only he, wise and powerful beyond understanding, was able to fully unite the scattered warriors into a fully effective fighting force\". His strength was also described in greater detail where it stated \"using his ability to transform into a combat vehicle, Optimus possessed a firepower potential that none but Megatron could match.\"\n\nThe war between the Autobots and Deceptions soon caused Cyberton to break away from its orbit and drift off into space, and the war was listed as raging on for over one thousand years. Eventually Optimus would lead a large team of Autobots on a space mission to clear asteroids that threatened to destroy Cybertron on its new course through space. But once they succeeded in this effort, a surprise attack by the Deceptions led their spacecraft (the Ark) to crash land on Earth, where it would reside for four million years in a dormant volcano. Eventually when the volcano erupted, it set off a chain of events that would revive the Autobots and Deceptions who had all been deactivated in the crash. Through the comic's 80-issue run, Optimus Prime would be killed off and resurrected several times. During his absences, other Autobot officers took on the mantle of leadership within the Earth-bound Autobots. They included Prowl, Grimlock, Fortress Maximus, and others. In a future timeline (one that, per events in the \"present\", can no longer come to pass), the Autobots are commanded by Rodimus Prime.\n\nThe UK office of Marvel published comics much more often, usually weekly compared to monthly for the US comic. To accomplish this, the UK comics had additional storylines that were never included in US continuity (and are debated as to their canon-authenticity). In the UK series, much more is learned about Autobot commander Rodimus Prime, whereas in the US continuity, he is only briefly seen, most probably dead, as a prisoner of Galvatron.\n\nAnimated series\n\nIn the original U.S. cartoon line, Autobots were the descendants of a line of robots created as consumer goods by the Quintessons on the planet Cybertron. Their bodies were forged by the Plasma Energy Chamber and given intelligence by the mega-computer Vector Sigma in order for the work to be carried out. Eventually, they developed sentience and rebelled against their creators. However, A-3, the resistance leader was displaced from time by Quintessons from the future in order to stop the insurgency. The resistance had help from future Autobots (whose transformation technology frightened them) and A-3 returned to turn the tide by activating his coda-remote which deactivated the Quintessons' Dark Guardian Robots. With the Quintessons cast off and forgotten, Cybertron was at peace. The consumer goods and military hardware bots renamed themselves as Autobots and Decepticons. However, the Decepticons wanted war. No match for the superior firepower and battle prowess of the Decepticons, the Autobots developed transformation technology (possibly with the help of the Dark Guardians) to win the war, bringing about the Golden Age of Cybertron. Eventually, the Decepticons also developed transformation and began the third Cybertronian War. They would have succeeded in completing their conquest had not more time-displaced Autobots blown up an energy warehouse and brought its workers to A-3, now renamed Alpha Trion, as the new defenders of Cybertron. For five million years, the Cybertronians warred over the remaining energy that was left. With this crisis, the Autobots, headed by Optimus Prime, made an expedition to find new energy sources. But the Decepticons intercepted them, causing the Autobot ship Ark to crash-land on Earth. During the next four million years the Beast Wars occur on Earth.\n\nFour million years later in 1984, the volcano that the Ark was wedged in erupted, jarring the Arks main computer Teletraan I back online. Through use of Spy Satellites, Teletraan created new alternate forms for the Transformers out of earth vehicles (Like F-15 Eagles for Starscream and a Semi-trailer truck for Optimus Prime). The Decepticons were revived first and then the Autobots due to Starscream's carelessness. The Autobots made an alliance with the local humans, thus beginning the Great War. After waging the war for 21 years, the Autobots created Autobot City as their main base of operations while the Decepticons got complete control of Cybertron. In 2005, the Decepticons launched an attack on the city, resulting in the death of Optimus Prime. Optimus managed to pass the Matrix of Leadership to Ultra Magnus before his death. The city then received messages from the bases on Cybertron's moons being devoured by the transformer demi-god Unicron. After another Decepticon attack, the Autobots were scattered to two planets, Junk and Quintessa. Forming new allies on those planets, the Autobots headed for Cybertron. A young Autobot named Hot Rod used the recovered Matrix of Leadership from Galvatron (formerly Megatron) to destroy Unicron and became Rodimus Prime. With the Decepticons in disarray, the Autobots reclaimed Cybertron, bringing about a new age of peace and prosperity. In 2006, the Great War still raged. But both sides rediscovered the existence of the Quintessons. After numerous battles, the Hate Plague was unleashed. Rodimus ordered the uninfected Autobots to search for a Quintesson to revive Optimus Prime. An uninfected Quintesson was found and forced to restore Optimus Prime to life. Optimus would then recover the Matrix by defeating an infected Rodimus Prime, and cure the galaxy of the plague.\n\nAfter one year of peace, Galvatron gained access to the Plasma Energy Chamber. He planned to move Cybertron to Earth and use the Chamber's energies to overload the sun. However, all this was planned by Vector Sigma who wanted to restore Cybertron's Golden Age. Thanks to Spike Witwicky and the allied-Nebulons, Cybertron regained its golden hue. Optimus knew that there will always be Decepticons and the Autobots will always stop them. Each of the various later Transformers cartoon incarnations had differing origin stories, generally based on fictions provided in the 1984 cartoon (and occasionally comic) series. The one exception was Beast Wars, by which time most Autobots had been retrofitted into Maximals. This CG series and its sequel Beast Machines used the G1 cartoon as a historical base.\n\nDreamwave Productions\n\nAfter Autobot leader Optimus Prime and Decepticon leader Megatron disappeared in a Space Bridge accident several million years ago, the Autobots and Decepticons split up into several factions. One of those who broke away was Ratbat, who quickly took the opportunity to form his own power base. Gathering loyalist followers and setting up their HQ in the Polyhex region of Cybertron the Ultracons quickly came into conflict with the Autobot splinter faction The Wreckers. However, Ratbat added a secret weapon to his ranks – the combiner team the Constructicons, in flagrant defiance of treaties banning their use in the civil war as both Autobots and Decepticons splintered.\n\nIDW Publishing\n\nDuring the Golden Age of Cybertron, Nova Prime wishes to expand the influence of Cybertronians throughout the galaxy. His Chief Theoretical Strategist Jhiaxus experiments with six volunteers to combine them into a superior being, but the experiment fails, resulting in Monstructor. At some point he also experiments with gender in Transformers, creating Arcee, who grows deranged with hatred for her creator due to this. Sometime later, the Ark-1 is launched into space under the auspice of exploration, but in reality an attempt to expand Cybertron's influence. The crew includes Nova Prime and Galvatron. When passing through a black hole, the ship enters a \"Dead Universe\", altering the crew, and is presumed lost. With Nova Prime and Jhiaxus gone, Omega Supreme imprisons Monstructor.\n\nLater, hard times follow, with the Autobots becoming a corrupt galactic police force. While shutting down an Energon-mining operation, they incite a riot by beating an outspoken miner to death. The riot is extinguished, resulting in the miners either dead or imprisoned. A surviving miner, Megatron, manages to take over a prison shuttle and hide it in Kaon, the seediest city on Cybertron. Megatron makes a name for himself in the underground gladiatorial matches, learning to enjoy the kill. He recruits the Seekers, Soundwave, and the future Cassetticons to perform acts of terrorism throughout Cybertron. Megatron rallies a large group of gladiators and proposes for them to unite under the same badge, but they are caught and arrested by Sentinel Prime's police force. However, this is part of Megatron's plan, as Starscream kills the Autobot Senate. Megatron kills Sentinel Prime, and the newly forged Decepticons take over the city-state of Kaon, heralding the beginning of the war. The populace at large is distracted by mass sports race games, with racers like the arrogant but talented Blurr becoming celebrities. Early on during the war, both Autobot and Decepticon try to recruit Blurr to their cause, with a young Optimus talking Blurr into saving the life of Zeta Prime from Starscream's assassination squad. A rookie Tracks is saved from the elite Predacons by special ops soldier Jazz. In later years, Tracks passes on the story of the lone Autobot to boost morale in times of crisis. \n\nAround this time, a third group of Cybertronians form who are opposed to the war and both sides of it. They leave Cybertron and are never seen again. The war eventually devastates the planet, and a Decepticon scientist named Thunderwing suggests to graft Transformers with protective organic shells, which Megatron rejects. Thunderwing experiments on himself, becoming a beast who devastates Cybertron. The Decepticons recover more quickly and stage a new offensive against the Autobots, who suffer the loss of the charismatic Blaster, the voice of the Autobot resistance: he is shot and set adrift in space by a traitor. \n\nWith their home world dead, the Transformers continue their war on other planets. The Decepticons escalate tensions on planets by replacing important people with loyal clones called facsimiles, allowing the worlds to destroy themselves before they move in for the energy resources, and send Sixshot to finish off the planets. Nonetheless, the two sides agree to the Tyrest Accord, in which they will not supply weapons to less advanced cultures. Scorponok violates this treaty on Nebulos, creating \"transformable men\" with the help of Mo Zarak's corporation, but an attack by Ultra Magnus forces him to flee. Badly damaged with only his decapitated head remaining, he arrives on Earth at some point and establishes the Machination, an organization dedicated to acquiring Transformer technology for their own ends. \n\nBeast Era\n\nThe Autobot race eventually evolve in to the Maximals, who, like their predecessors, are generally depicted as respecting all life and following a path of peace before war. They follow the tenets of the Pax Cybertronia. The Maximals are opposed by the Predacons. The Maximals are descendants of the Autobots. The Maximals and Predacons are much smaller than their Autobot and Decepticon ancestors, standing at roughly human size, rather than twenty or more feet tall. The storyline reason for the change in size was that their smaller forms were more energy-efficient. In the series, the maximals use the activation code \"maximize\" to transform, and have forms of seemingly peaceful creatures.\n\nToys\n\n* Generation 2 Watch Autobot (1993)\nAutobot transforms from a boxy silver chrome robot to a boxy functional digital watch that attaches to a plastic wristband.\n\nTransformers: Robots in Disguise\n\nIn Transformers: Robots in Disguise, the Autobots are the main race on Cybertron, and their enemies are the Predacons. The Autobots fought in the Cybertronian Civil Wars, presumably against the Predacons. Vector Sigma, the Allspark, chooses which Autobot is to be granted the Matrix and thus the position of commander-in-chief.\n\nThe Autobots were already on Earth when the Predacons arrived, having taken the form of Earth vehicles to work as camouflage and established a Global space bridge network and a central base monitoring the entire planet.\n\nIn their disguises, the Autobots integrated themselves into human society; Team Bullet Train worked as actual trains, X-Brawn was owned as a car by Kelly, and Optimus Prime was working for a fire department. This continued after they went public; both Prowl and Tow-Line, for example, were shown enforcing human laws in an apparently official capacity, suggesting the Autobots had official ties to human authorities.\n\nIt is known that Optimus fought the Predacons on other worlds, presumably using the same tactics as on Earth.\n\nUnicron Trilogy\n\nThe Autobots would then appear in Transformers: Armada, Transformers: Energon, and Transformers: Cybertron.\n\nTransformers: Armada\n\nOriginally, the Autobots were not a faction, but the name of a peacekeeping organization; under the command of Optimus Prime, they defended Cyber City. Their headquarters was adorned with the motto \"Truth – Justice – Freedom\". They were unable to stop the Mini-Con-powered Decepticons from taking Cyber City, and for a million years they were reduced to a rebel organization desperately trying & failing to protect Cybertron. The reactivation of the Mini-Cons on Earth gave the Autobots an opportunity to gain Mini-Con power of their own, but eventually the Decepticons were beaten not by them, but due to the attack of Unicron.\n\nThroughout the Unicron Trilogy, the Autobots switched motives after each major conflict. At first, they were attempting to liberate smaller robots, called Mini-Cons, from the tyrannical control of Megatron, who saw them as tools to be used and disposed of when no longer needed. The Autobots followed the Mini-Cons' ship to Earth, where they crashed and eventually continued their battle against the Decepticons.\n\nThese two sides would unite to fight the Chaos Bringer, Unicron, when he threatened to devour Cybertron. With Megatron sacrificing himself to save the rest of the Universe, Unicron shut down and was destroyed. The remaining Transformers united as the Autobots, following Megatron's order to assist them in rebuilding Cybertron.\n\nTransformers: Energon\n\nMegatron's final orders to his troops still stood: work with the Autobots. The Decepticons maintained a degree of autonomy, still wearing the faction sigil and often taking military/defensive positions in the growing number of energon-mining colonies, but they were ultimately answerable to Optimus Prime and the Autobots. There were, of course, dissenters, most of whom were captured and imprisoned. For a decade, Autobot and Decepticon worked side-by-side in a somewhat stable truce.\n\nBoth sides found themselves the target of attacks from Unicron again; hordes of Terrorcon drones, sent by Alpha Quintesson to steal energon ore with which to revive the now-shattered husk of Unicron. What the alien did not count on was that Megatron's spark had survived within the remains, and was siphoning energon from Unicron's body. Soon the Decepticon leader had revived himself in a new form, driven off Alpha Quintesson, and, along with an elite cadre of soldiers and a seemingly inexhaustible supply of mindless Terrorcon drones, begun his new plans for conquest.\n\nWhen news of Megatron's return reached Cybertron, hundreds of Decepticons rose up and rebelled, eager to get back to conquering. But having been joined to Unicron for so long apparently had given Megatron a taste of godhood; he had no more interest in amassing a galaxy-spanning army of troops. Countless Decepticons died in the resulting battles, with Megatron more than willing to sacrifice them without a thought to attain ultimate power for himself. As the \"Powerlinx Battles\" – as they came to be called – came to their climax, Megatron found that his actions and thoughts were being influenced and controlled by the dark spark of Unicron. Unwilling to let Unicron stand in his way, Megatron ultimately sacrificed himself (again) and seemingly destroyed Unicron's spark by plunging himself into a newly formed energon sun created by Primus.\n\nTransformers: Cybertron\n\nAnother ten years after Energon, the energon sun created by Primus was gone, collapsed into the \"Unicron Singularity\", a giant black hole threatening to devour all of existence. In death, Unicron's power to destroy his only opposition – Primus – was greater than ever. The Autobots searched for a method of destroying the Black Hole and found a single answer; the Omega Lock, a powerful artifact linked to the Spark of Primus. With it, the Universe could be saved... or destroyed. Seeing an opportunity to rebuild existence in his own image, Megatron sought out the Omega Lock and the Cyber Planet Keys.\n\nAs the two sides battled for the Keys, the Autobots would eventually find all four and use them to revive Primus, but in doing so caused a massive earthquake that began shattering the planet around them.\n\nPrimus was emerging from Cybertron, awakened from the body he sculpted into a world for his creation. When informed of Unicron's destruction, he was infuriated to find that the universe was out of balance because of a severe lack of evil. Starscream attacked Primus's weakened form, due to the smaller robot stealing a piece of his spark and becoming an even equally huge monster, but was quickly dispatched by his creator. Defeated, Starscream flew off, leaving the Autobots to seal the Black Hole. Once this was accomplished, Galvatron attempted an escape from his fire dimension, but by combining Vector Prime's sword with the Omega Lock, the portal was sealed, and the Autobots returned home in peace.\n\nThe remaining Decepticons joined the Autobots, save for four who left Earth to start the New Decepticon Army. Their ship made it to Mars before crashing.\n\nLive-action films\n\nIn the 2007 Transformers live-action movie, Optimus Prime is the Autobot commander. His appearance is somewhat different from his original form, although he is still recognizable to many fans. In the movie his team of Autobots on Earth consists of only four members: Bumblebee, Ratchet, Ironhide and Jazz. What is also duly noted is that the Autobots faces actually resemble the Autobot insignia, the same for the Decepticons. Later, Arcee, Skids, Mudflap, Sideswipe, Jolt, Que/Wheeljack, Dino/Mirage, the Wreckers, Hound, Drift, Crosshairs, and Dinobots come to Earth.\n\nTransformers (2007 film)\n\nIn the live-action film \"Transformers\", the Autobots arrived on Earth to find the All Spark in an effort to restore a destroyed Cybertron. The beginning of the movie, narrated by Optimus Prime, indicates that all life on Cybertron came from \"the Cube\". In the beginning, Optimus Prime and Megatron ruled Cybertron together. However, Megatron soon began to desire the power of the AllSpark. To counter Megatron, Optimus formed the Autobots, a group of civilian Transformers sworn to protect the AllSpark. Throughout the evolution of the Transformers, wars brought on the demise of their planet. Although the Autobots initially make a poor first impression with the authorities, the U.S. government is eventually convinced by Sam Witwicky that they are allies against the true threat of the Decepticons and cooperate to help them in the battle to keep the AllSpark away from the enemy. During the battle, all Decepticons are destroyed, except for Starscream, Barricade, and Scorponok, but the Autobots lost their one-member, Jazz. Optimus Prime decides to make Earth as their new home.\n\nTransformers: Revenge of the Fallen\n\nIn Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, all surviving Autobots from the previous film, as well as newer arrivals, serve as part of a classified task force called NEST (Non-biological Extraterrestrial Species Treaty), which is dedicated to hunting and destroying Decepticons around the world. In this organization, Major William Lennox and Optimus Prime share field command of the human military personnel and the Autobot members respectively. The only exception to this assignment is Bumblebee, who stays with the Witwicky family as their bodyguard.\n\nAlthough NEST has a productive history dealing with the Decepticons, a successful mission in Shanghai, which caused excessive collateral damage, drew criticism from the team's government superior National Security Advisor Galloway. He further suggests that since the primary Decepticon goal, gaining the remaining portions of the All Spark, is likely out of reach, the Autobots should leave the planet to draw their war with their enemy away. This conclusion is completely discredited when the Decepticons reappear in force to both steal that item and successfully revive Megatron. Furthermore, their execution of their superior's (the Fallen) plan to destroy the Sun reveals that numerous Decepticons are present on Earth, which more than justifies the Autobots' participation in national defense affairs. According to related materials, Bumblebee remains responsible for the Witwickys' security. Arcee, a Ducati motorcycle, amongst other Autobots make their live-action debut. A massive battle takes place in which Optimus Prime, killed by Megatron in an earlier battle, is revived by Sam and many Decepticons are killed, including Devastator, Scorponok, and the Fallen but Megatron and Starscream escape, albeit with Megatron severely injured and the Decepticon spymaster Soundwave also survives, having never participated in the battle.\n\nThe word \"Autobot\", according to Ratchet, is an abbreviation of the phrase Autonomous robotic organisms, making it seem like Autobot is likely the Transformers species name in this continuity (the irony being that the term robot is derived from the Czech word \"robota\" for \"work\" and thus expresses the opposite of autonomy).\n\nTransformers: Dark of the Moon\n\nIn Transformers: Dark of the Moon the Autobots, now consisting of Bumblebee (Sam's guardian), Que/Wheeljack, Sideswipe, Dino/Mirage, Ironhide, Optimus, Ratchet, and the Wreckers investigate alien activity around the world and have set up Energon Detectors in all the major cities in order to detect Decepticon activity. Apparently the Autobots haven't had any contact with the Decepticons since Egypt, or at least any major contact, but this changes when they travel to Chernobyl to investigate alien activity there and find an engine part from the Ark and are attacked by Shockwave and his Driller. The Autobots travel to the Moon after learning of the Ark and Sentinel Prime being there. After Sam Witwicky uncovers the Decepticons plot to use Sentinel, the Autobots are attacked by the Dreads before they are killed by Dino, Bumblebee, Ironhide, and Sideswipe. Sentinel reveals that he had been working with the Decepticons all along, murders Ironhide, assumes de facto control of the Decepticions, and issues an ultimatum to force the Autobots off Earth in the Xantium where they are apparently killed by Starscream. He and the Decepticons then seize and occupy Chicago in a brutal assault that ravages the city and leaves many of its residents dead. The Autobots survive, secretly make their way to Chicago and link up with a team led by Sam and Robert Epps. The Autobots battle an army of Decepticons and Decepticon ships to reach Sentinel and stop his plan to bring Cybertron to Earth and manage to eliminate most of the army including Laserbeak, the Driller, Starscream, Soundwave, Shockwave, and Barricade with the humans help, although Que is killed in the process. Optimus confronts Sentinel after shooting down the Control Pillar and stopping the Space Bridge temporarily. The Autobots and humans outmatch Sentinel who flees before engaging Optimus one on one, while Sam kills his human aide Dylan Gould who reactivates the pillars, allowing Ratchet and Bumblebee to destroy it. Deactivating the Space Bridge has the side-effect of destroying Cybertron however, but the Decepticons plot is foiled. Optimus is nearly killed by Sentinel, but Megatron attacks Sentinel after being shown by Carly Spencer that Sentinel had replaced him as the Decepticon's leader. Megatron slyly offers Optimus a truce, but Optimus sees it as a ruse for Megatron to merely resume control of the Decepticons and regroup his forces instead of a genuine offer leading to the end of the war. He thus attacks and kills Megatron. Severely weakened by Megatron's attack, Sentinel pleads with Optimus for mercy and tries to justify his actions and betrayal of everything the Autobots stand for. Optimus outright rejects his pleas and executes him for his crimes. The Autobots score a major victory as much of the Decepticon army on Earth is decimated (there are still scattered Decepticons around the globe) and their entire command structure has been killed, but they also lose Cybertron and must accept Earth as their new home.\n\nTransformers: Age of Extinction\n\nIn Transformers: Age of Extinction, five years have passed since the Battle of Chicago. The U.S. government has discontinued joint combat operations with the Autobots and branded Transformers in general as dangerous. An elite CIA unit called \"Cemetery Wind\" is formed by ruthless anti-Transformer extremist Harold Attinger with the intent of hunting down all remaining Decepticons. However unbeknownst to the U.S. President and Congress, they secretly exterminate any Autobots and Decepticons alike with the aid of Lockdown, a Cybertronian bounty hunter. Meanwhile, using data obtained from destroyed Transformers, business tycoon Joshua Joyce and his technology firm Kinetic Solutions Incorporated (KSI) have perfected \"Transformium\", the molecularly unstable metal that is the lifeblood of Transformers. Joshua's prized creation is Galvatron, a prototype Transformer soldier created from the data inside Megatron's severed head with the aid of a captured Brains.\n\nIn rural Texas, struggling robotics inventor Cade Yeager and his friend Lucas Flannery purchase an old semi-truck in hopes of stripping it down and selling the parts to get Cade's daughter Tessa into college. Cade discovers that the truck is an injured Optimus Prime, and it is not long before Lockdown and Cemetery Wind operatives led by agent James Savoy storm into the Yeagers' farm and threaten them. Optimus comes out of hiding to fend off the operatives while Cade, Tessa, and Lucas are rescued by Tessa's boyfriend Shane Dyson, an Irish rally racer. They lose the operatives in a lengthy chase in Paris, Texas, but Lucas is killed by Lockdown's grenade during their escape. Using a drone he took during the raid, Cade discovers that the operatives and KSI are working together. Optimus rallies the remaining Autobots – Bumblebee, Hound, Drift and Crosshairs – and travel with their new human allies to infiltrate KSI headquarters in Chicago. There, Cade, Shane and Bumblebee discover the firm's reverse engineering of Transformer technology. Upon discovering that Ratchet has been slain and his head is being melted down, Optimus and the Autobots storm into the headquarters to destroy the laboratory and rescue Brains, but Joshua convinces them that their actions are futile and they are no longer relevant to this planet.\n\nAs the Autobots leave the premises, Attinger convinces Joshua to activate KSI's prototype Transformer soldiers Galvatron and Stinger to chase the Autobots. Optimus and Galvatron engage in a grueling battle where Optimus realizes that Galvatron is a rebuilt Megatron. Suddenly, Optimus is blasted from behind by Lockdown, and in the midst of the chaos, he and Tessa are captured and taken into Lockdown's ship. Aboard the ship, Lockdown explains to Optimus that the Transformers were built by a mysterious alien race known as the \"Creators\", which hired him to capture the Autobot leader for an unknown reason. As a reward for Optimus' capture, Attinger's operatives are given the \"Seed\", a bomb that cyberforms any wide area of land if it explodes. Cade, Shane and the Autobots storm into the ship to rescue Optimus and Tessa; while Bumblebee, Crosshairs, and the humans escape and crash into downtown Chicago, the other Autobots detached the rear section of the ship before it leaves into space. Joshua and his business partners Su Yueming and Darcy retreat to Beijing, where Attinger hands Joshua the Seed in exchange for a stake in KSI control. The Autobots and their human allies follow them to prevent them from detonating the Seed.\n\nAt KSI's factory in China, Galvatron suddenly activates on his own and infects all of KSI's fifty prototype Transformer soldiers and turning them into new Decepticons. Realizing the folly of his creations, Joshua betrays Attinger before he, Su, and Darcy take the Seed to Hong Kong and deliver it to the Autobots. There, the Autobots struggle to protect Joshua and the Seed from Galvatron and his forces, who shoot down the Autobots' ship. Cade then kills Savoy during a fight in an apartment building. Outnumbered and outmatched, Optimus Prime releases a group of legendary knights (Dinobots) and leads them into the city and destroy Galvatron's army. Lockdown returns to Earth and uses his ship's magnetic weapon to pull anything metal into his ship, in an effort to recapture Optimus. Optimus destroys the weapon and engages in battle with Lockdown before killing Attinger to save Cade from being executed. Lockdown grabs Optimus's sword and impales him, but the combined efforts of Bumblebee, Cade, Tessa, and Shane distract the bounty hunter before Optimus stabs him in the chest and slices his head in half, avenging Ratchet, Leadfoot and presumably the other Autobots. Galvatron retreats, vowing to meet Optimus another day and declares he was reborn. With Lockdown, Attinger and his right-hand man Savoy dead and Cemetery Wind dissolved and branded as terrorist organization, Optimus sets the Dinobots free and request his fellow Autobots to protect the Yeager family before flying into space with the Seed, sending a message to the Creators to leave Earth alone, because he is coming for them.\n\nTransformers: Animated\n\nNot much has been revealed about the Autobots in Transformers Animated continuity. What is known is that they were in a war with the Decepticons prior to the series and won, but according to Ratchet, they only won because of three things: the Autobot-exclusive Space Bridge technology, Project Omega, and by sending the AllSpark into space to keep the Decepticons from getting it. This isn't the first continuity where the war with Decepticons was already over, but it is the first where Optimus Prime isn't the supreme Autobot leader. Instead, he just commands a space bridge repair crew. Ultra Magnus is the Autobot Supreme Commander. Also, a single Autobot is typically considerably weaker than a single Decepticon. In fact, a team of Autobots is often weaker than a single Decepticon, to the point that a single Decepticon can trash the Autobots several times over, and even win, in some episodes. Unlike other continuities, the Autobots here aren't 100% good, and are slightly oppressive. Two examples: Wasp was portrayed as very arrogant, and Sentinel Prime was portrayed as hating organic life in a way almost as bad as the Decepticons.\n\nTransformers: Timelines\n\nA series of stories printed by Fun Publications, set in a variety of continuities, the Autobots of alternate worlds can vary greatly from the classic Autobot image. In the Transtech storyline, the Autobots and Decepticons are merely political factions on a Cybertron which never broke out into war. Lines between good and evil are more blurred.\n\nIn the Shattered Glass storyline, a group of Autobots, led by Optimus Prime, are the mirror images of the personalities of most Autobots. In this world the Autobot logo is purple, and worn by evil Transformers who seek to destroy the universe, and are opposed to the heroic Decepticons.\n\nTransformers: Aligned\n\n \nA group of Autobots (referred to as Team Prime) appear in the 2010 computer animated series Transformers: Prime, led by Optimus Prime, \n\nTransformers: War for Cybertron\n\nThe video game Transformers: War for Cybertron give a backstory to the Autobots days on Cybertron. The Autobots were led by Zeta Prime at the beginning of the game. Megatron betrays the Autobots and creates a splinter faction known as the Decepticons. Zeta is killed by Megatron, and the role of leadership is passed down to Optimus Prime. When Megatron corrupts the Core of Cybertron with Dark Energon, Optimus gets the Matrix of Leadership from Cybertron's core while trying to save it. Optimus finds out he's too late and the Autobots are forced to leave Cybertron. In the sequel game, Transformers: Fall of Cybertron, the Autobots and Decepticons leave Cybertron and go into a space bridge, which explodes, leaving everyone's fate's unknown.\n\nTransformers: Prime The Game\n\nSet within an alternate timeline that parallels the show's second season, the Autobots (Team Prime) appear in Transformers: Prime The Game. Optimus Prime, Arcee, Bulkhead, Bumblebee, Ratchet, Jack, Miko and Raf embark on a journey to defeat the villainous Megatron and the Decepticons in his plan to use his secret new weapon. The Decepticons intercept a mysterious meteor approaching the Earth, and the Autobots arrive to try and thwart the Decepticons' plans.\n\nA massive eruption of power during the battle on the meteor breaks out, and the Autobots become separated from Jack, Miko and Raf, who are monitoring them at base. Unknown to the Autobots and their human friends, the Decepticons have uncoved Thunderwing, an ancient power that they will use to try to take over the Earth. Over the course of the game they will be different locations as well as different battles along the way. Some may include having to rescue the kids from the dreaded Decepticons. Others may involve having to find pieces of the great and powerful Thunderwing. Eventually though the main rivals of the characters are defeated including Airachnid, Knock Out, Dreadwing, Starscream, and Soundwave by Arcee, Bulkhead, Bumblebee, Ratchet, and Optimus but Thunderwing is revived by the very end of the chapters. In the end the kids are rescued and a final stand off with Megatron occurs leading to the battle with Thunderwing to determine the fate of earth itself.\n\nTransformers: Prime\n\nIn Transformers: Prime, with Cybertron dead, the Autobots scattered across the universe. A group landed on Earth consisting of Optimus Prime, Ratchet, Bumblebee, and Bulkhead and which Arcee and Cliffjumper join later. This small team of Autobots led by Optimus is rechristened Team Prime. By the time of the first episode has been three years since the Decepticons last attacked Earth and the Autobots still await their return. Starscream kills Cliffjumper. After the death of Cliffjumper, the Autobots fight to protect the Earth from the Decepticons and befriend three young humans and the returned Megatron who has been missing for three Earth years. Megatron plans to use Dark Energon to raise an undead army of Cybertronians and defeat the Autobots. The Autobots destroy his space bridge and Megatron is believed killed in the process. Starscream becomes the new Decepticon leader.\n\nAfter Megatron's apparent death, new Decepticon leader Starscream does not stray from Megatron's path and recruits several new Decepticons. Starscream attempts many missions to destroy the Autobots and find their headquarters, while keeping a shard of the \"last\" remaining Dark Energon that he took out of Megatron's chest. In the episode \"Out of His Head\", Megatron returns after an incident where he Takes control of Bumblebee's mind. Megatron then reclaims leadership of the Decepticons, keeping a strict eye on Starscream. After Starscream uses Megatron's share of Dark Energon, he tries to find more to once again bring back his \"un-dead army\". At the end of the episode \"Partners\", Starscream became an independent and hasn't been seen or heard from ever since.\n\nDuring the final four episodes of the season, the Autobots unwillingly team up with Megatron to battle a legendary threat to Earth's existence, Unicron. To defeat Unicron, Optimus uses the Matrix of Leadership. With this sacrifice, he not only loses the Wisdom of the Primes but also his memories of the war and his comrades, and joins Megatron as a Decepticon under his old name, Orion Pax. Orion is tricked by Megatron into decoding relics. The Autobots regain Optimus's memories and save their leader. But the Decepticons continue to look for relics. After a four-part relic hunt, Bulkhead is injured. But regains his strength later. Smokescreen later lands on Earth and joins Team Prime in \"New Recruit\".\n\nOptimus briefly wields the Star Saber, before Megatron breaks it with his Dark Star Saber, and Optimus then decodes the final four relics, the Omega Keys, to regenerate Cybertron. The Autobots got the first key, Knockout got the second, and Starscream got the third. The fourth and final one was inside Smokescreen the whole time. After the Decepticons kidnap him, Knock Out uses the phase shifter to get it out of him. After finding out the purpose of the keys, by using a cortical psychic patch on Smokescreen. When Megatron leaves Knock Out alone with him, Smokescreen and Knock Out fight over the phase shifter. He sticks Knock Out in a wall and leaves him there. He takes the one the Decepticons had and his and escaped the ship, starting a free fall battle. After, he went back to the base. Starscream them went to steal the three the Autobots had. Starscream, now with all four, uses them as a peace offering to rejoin the Decepticons.\n\nDreadwing, angry that Megatron allowed Starscrean to rejoin the Decepticons, gives Optimus the Forge of Solus Prime, and attempts to kill Starscream but is killed in the process, by Megatron. Knockout and Starscream use the keys and find out the location of the Omega Lock, Optimus already knew its location and turns the Goundbridge into a spacebridge, and reforges the Star saber. They go to Cybertron, fighting off the Decepticons with relics, take back to keys and kill all the Vehicons. They go to the Omega Lock. Sadly, it's a victory short lived, as the Decepticon force them to give them back the keys, or they will expose Jack, Miko, and Raf to Cybertron's toxic atmosphere. The Autobots give them the keys, with Megatron uses to rebuild the Hall of Records, then he opens a space bridge, and tries to terraform Earth into a new planet called New Kaon. Optimus takes his Star Saber and cuts off Megatron's arm and destroys the Omega Lock, leaving Cybertron in its liveless state forever. They retreat back to Earth, only to find that Jasper, Nevada has now been changed into a giant fortress. The Nemesis lands there, and Optimus discovers they found their base. Vehicons start attacking the base. Wheeljack and Agent Fowler try and hold off the new Vehicons. Optimus has Team Prime split up to different parts of the country. Ratchet was last asking Optimus where he would go, Optimus said he would stay behind and destroy the groundbridge, so that the Decepticons would not find them. Outside, Wheeljack's Jackhammer is shot down by Starscream. The Decepticons blew up the base with Optimus inside. Agent Fowler and June Darby watch in horror. Megatron and Starscream go the remains of the base. Laughing about their victory, as the screen pans over to see Optimus's arm sticking out of the rubble.\n\nOptimus survived the explosion-barely-due to the efforts of Smokescreen, who disobeyed orders and returned to base, rescuing him and taking him to safety. The various other Autobots, scattered across North America, were reassembled due in part to the arrival of Ultra Magnus, who detected the Omega Lock's energy beam and followed it to Earth. Under Magnus's leadership, Wheeljack and the other members of Team Prime attacked Darkmount, the Decepticon stronghold, but were quickly subdued. However, they were rescued by the return of Optimus, who had been healed of his injuries and upgraded into a new, more powerful form by the Forge of Solus Prime, which was drained in the process. Destroying Darkmount, the Autobots set up a new base at a military base in Nevada where Agent Fowler keeps his office. Shortly thereafter, they learned of a Decepticon effort to clone an army of Predacons to destroy them, and endeavored to prevent the success of this project.\n\nThe Autobots suffer a series of losses when the Decepticons successfully acquire a large number of Predacon fossils, intending to clone an army to conquer humanity. However, after a devastating experiment gone wrong costs the Decepticons a majority of their forces, Megatron manipulates the Autobots to wipe out the project, leaving Predaking as the sole surviving Predacon. The Decepticons refocus their efforts to rebuild the Omega Lock aboard the Nemesis with the reluctant aid of Ratchet and his Synthetic Energon. In a final battle, the Autobots capture the warship, kill Megatron, and scatter the surviving Decepticon forces. After using the Omega Lock to revive Cybertron, the Autobots bid farewell to their human friends as they leave to rebuild their home.\n\nThe series ended with the TV movie Transformers Prime Beast Hunters: Predacons Rising, which aired on October 4, 2013. The Autobots return to Cybertron, having successfully made it habitable with the rebuilt Omega Lock. Optimus Prime and Wheeljack travel into deep space to find the AllSpark, the legendary source of all life on Cybertron, which is needed to allow the creation of new Cybertronian life. The mind of Unicron is re-awakened by Cybertron's restoration, and taking control of Megatron's corpse he flies to Cybertron, planning to destroy it once and for all. Elsewhere, Shockwave and Starscream continue to clone the fossilized remains of Predacons, creating new Predacons Darksteel and Skylynx. When Unicron returns to Cybertron and raises an army of Terrorcons from Predacon remains, the Autobots, Decepticons, and Predacons must join forces to defeat him and save their home world. Optimus is able to seal away Unicron, but at the cost of his own life as he is forced to merge himself with Primus. Freed from Unicron's oppression, Megatron disbands the Decepticons and leaves Cybertron.\n\nTransformers: Rescue Bots\n\nThe heroic faction in Transformers: Rescue Bots is referred to as the Rescue Bots. One last team of Rescue Bots called Rescue Force Sigma-17 survived the Great War on Cybertron and eventually landed on Earth. Heatwave, Chase, Boulder, and Blades were traveling as protoforms in stasis aboard their spacecraft when their ship's computer intercepted a general communication from Optimus Prime intended for all Autobots. Cybertron had fallen, but the Autobots still stood, and any scattered Autobots were given a priority prime order to rendezvous on Earth. Their ship's computer automatically responded by traveling to Earth and awakening Rescue Force Sigma-17. Optimus Prime was there to greet them and give them the news that they were the only known Rescue Force still active, that Cybertron Headquarters was no longer in operation, and Autobots lived on Earth now instead of Cybertron. After deliberating on the matter, Optimus Prime gave the team their new orders. Rather than fighting Decepticons, they were to covertly live with a human family to learn from them and keep the planet safe. Heatwave resisted the idea, so Optimus Prime appointed him team leader of the Rescue Bots.\n\nTransformers: Robots in Disguise\n\nIn the sequel series to Transformers: Prime, Bumblebee leads a new team of Autobots consisting of Sideswipe, Strongarm, Grimlock, and Fixit on Earth against a group of escaped Decepticon prisoners led by the charismatic Steeljaw. Along the way, Bumblebee slowly learns to replace Optimus Prime as a leader while his team meets several new allies including human Denny Clay, his son Russell, and Autobots Jazz, Drift, his Mini-Con pupils Jetstorm and Slipstream, and Windblade. Meanwhile, in limbo, Optimus Prime spends time training under the original Thirteen Primes in preparation for the return of an ancient enemy. This ancient enemy turns out to be Megatronus/The Fallen, who uses Steeljaw and his pack to transport him to Earth. Optimus convinces the Primes to send him back to Earth and is given a new upgrade in the process. With help from Optimus, Drift, Jetstorm, Slipstream, and Windblade, Bumblebee and his team manage to defeat Megatronus. \n\nIn season two, the team splits up. While Bumblebee, Grimlock, Fixit, and Strongarm stay behind to deal with Steeljaw as he reforms his pack with a few new members, Optimus, Sideswipe, Windblade, Drift, Slipstream, and Jetstorm deal with the appearances of several Decepticons around the globe. In the season finale, the two team reunite as Ratchet returns with a new Mini-Con partner, Undertone. The Autobots then infiltrate the Decepticon's base, a section of the prison ship Steeljaw and the others escaped from, and manage to defeat the Decepticons using a stasis bomb. In the aftermath, Optimus, Windblade, Ratchet, and Undertone return to Cybertron with the Decepticon prisoners, including Steeljaw, and the rest of Bumblebee's team decides to establish a new, permanent Autobot base on Earth." ] }

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{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe", "TagMe" ], "filename": [ "President_of_the_United_States.txt", "Medal_of_Honor.txt" ], "title": [ "President of the United States", "Medal of Honor" ], "wiki_context": [ "The President of the United States of America (POTUS) is the elected head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces.\n\nThe President of the United States is considered one of the world's most powerful people, leading the world's only contemporary superpower. The role includes being the commander-in-chief of the world's most expensive military with the largest nuclear arsenal and leading the nation with the largest economy by real and nominal GDP. The office of the president holds significant hard and soft power both in the United States and abroad.\n\nArticle II of the U.S. Constitution vests the executive power of the United States in the president. The power includes execution of federal law, alongside the responsibility of appointing federal executive, diplomatic, regulatory and judicial officers, and concluding treaties with foreign powers with the advice and consent of the Senate. The president is further empowered to grant federal pardons and reprieves, and to convene and adjourn either or both houses of Congress under extraordinary circumstances. The president is largely responsible for dictating the legislative agenda of the party to which the president is enrolled. The president also directs the foreign and domestic policy of the United States. Since the founding of the United States, the power of the president and the federal government has grown substantially. \n\nThe president is indirectly elected by the people through the Electoral College to a four-year term, and is one of only two nationally elected federal officers, the other being the Vice President of the United States. The Twenty-second Amendment, adopted in 1951, prohibits anyone from ever being elected to the presidency for a third full term. It also prohibits a person from being elected to the presidency more than once if that person previously had served as president, or acting president, for more than two years of another person's term as president. In all, 43 individuals have served 44 presidencies (counting Cleveland's two non-consecutive terms separately) spanning 56 full four-year terms. On January 20, 2009, Barack Obama became the 44th and current president. On November 6, 2012, he was re-elected and is currently serving the 57th term. The next presidential election is scheduled to take place on November 8, 2016; on January 20, 2017, the newly elected president will take office.\n\nOrigin\n\nIn 1776, the Thirteen Colonies, acting through the Second Continental Congress, declared political independence from Great Britain during the American Revolution. The new states, though independent of each other as nation states, recognized the necessity of closely coordinating their efforts against the British. Desiring to avoid anything that remotely resembled a monarchy, Congress negotiated the Articles of Confederation to establish a weak alliance between the states. As a central authority, Congress under the Articles was without any legislative power; it could make its own resolutions, determinations, and regulations, but not any laws, nor any taxes or local commercial regulations enforceable upon citizens. This institutional design reflected the conception of how Americans believed the deposed British system of Crown and Parliament ought to have functioned with respect to the royal dominion: a superintending body for matters that concerned the entire empire. Out from under any monarchy, the states assigned some formerly royal prerogatives (e.g., making war, receiving ambassadors, etc.) to Congress, while severally lodging the rest within their own respective state governments. Only after all the states agreed to a resolution settling competing western land claims did the Articles take effect on March 1, 1781, when Maryland became the final state to ratify them.\n\nIn 1783, the Treaty of Paris secured independence for each of the former colonies. With peace at hand, the states each turned toward their own internal affairs. By 1786, Americans found their continental borders besieged and weak, their respective economies in crises as neighboring states agitated trade rivalries with one another, witnessed their hard currency pouring into foreign markets to pay for imports, their Mediterranean commerce preyed upon by North African pirates, and their foreign-financed Revolutionary War debts unpaid and accruing interest. Civil and political unrest loomed.\n\nFollowing the successful resolution of commercial and fishing disputes between Virginia and Maryland at the Mount Vernon Conference in 1785, Virginia called for a trade conference between all the states, set for September 1786 in Annapolis, Maryland, with an aim toward resolving further-reaching interstate commercial antagonisms. When the convention failed for lack of attendance due to suspicions among most of the other states, the Annapolis delegates called for a convention to offer revisions to the Articles, to be held the next spring in Philadelphia. Prospects for the next convention appeared bleak until James Madison and Edmund Randolph succeeded in securing George Washington's attendance to Philadelphia as a delegate for Virginia.\n\nWhen the Constitutional Convention convened in May 1787, the 12 state delegations in attendance (Rhode Island did not send delegates) brought with them an accumulated experience over a diverse set of institutional arrangements between legislative and executive branches from within their respective state governments. Most states maintained a weak executive without veto or appointment powers, elected annually by the legislature to a single term only, sharing power with an executive council, and countered by a strong legislature. New York offered the greatest exception, having a strong, unitary governor with veto and appointment power elected to a three-year term, and eligible for reelection to an indefinite number of terms thereafter. It was through the closed-door negotiations at Philadelphia that the presidency framed in the U.S. Constitution emerged.\n\nPowers and duties\n\nArticle I legislative role\n\nThe first power the Constitution confers upon the president is the veto. The Presentment Clause requires any bill passed by Congress to be presented to the president before it can become law. Once the legislation has been presented, the president has three options:\n# Sign the legislation; the bill then becomes law.\n# Veto the legislation and return it to Congress, expressing any objections; the bill does not become law, unless each house of Congress votes to override the veto by a two-thirds vote.\n# Take no action. In this instance, the president neither signs nor vetoes the legislation. After 10 days, not counting Sundays, two possible outcomes emerge:\n#* If Congress is still convened, the bill becomes law.\n#* If Congress has adjourned, thus preventing the return of the legislation, the bill does not become law. This latter outcome is known as the pocket veto.\n\nIn 1996, Congress attempted to enhance the president's veto power with the Line Item Veto Act. The legislation empowered the president to sign any spending bill into law while simultaneously striking certain spending items within the bill, particularly any new spending, any amount of discretionary spending, or any new limited tax benefit. Congress could then repass that particular item. If the president then vetoed the new legislation, Congress could override the veto by its ordinary means, a two-thirds vote in both houses. In Clinton v. City of New York, , the U.S. Supreme Court ruled such a legislative alteration of the veto power to be unconstitutional.\n\nArticle II executive powers\n\nWar and foreign affairs powers\n\nPerhaps the most important of all presidential powers is the command of the United States Armed Forces as its commander-in-chief. While the power to declare war is constitutionally vested in Congress, the president has ultimate responsibility for direction and disposition of the military. The present-day operational command of the Armed Forces (belonging to the Department of Defense) is normally exercised through the Secretary of Defense, with assistance of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, to the Combatant Commands, as outlined in the presidentially approved Unified Command Plan (UCP). The framers of the Constitution took care to limit the president's powers regarding the military; Alexander Hamilton explains this in Federalist No. 69: Congress, pursuant to the War Powers Resolution, must authorize any troop deployments longer than 60 days, although that process relies on triggering mechanisms that have never been employed, rendering it ineffectual. Additionally, Congress provides a check to presidential military power through its control over military spending and regulation. While historically presidents initiated the process for going to war, critics have charged that there have been several conflicts in which presidents did not get official declarations, including Theodore Roosevelt's military move into Panama in 1903, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and the invasions of Grenada in 1983 and Panama in 1990.\n\nAlong with the armed forces, the president also directs U.S. foreign policy. Through the Department of State and the Department of Defense, the president is responsible for the protection of Americans abroad and of foreign nationals in the United States. The president decides whether to recognize new nations and new governments, and negotiates treaties with other nations, which become binding on the United States when approved by two-thirds vote of the Senate.\n\nAlthough not constitutionally provided, presidents also sometimes employ \"executive agreements\" in foreign relations. These agreements frequently regard administrative policy choices germane to executive power; for example, the extent to which either country presents an armed presence in a given area, how each country will enforce copyright treaties, or how each country will process foreign mail. However, the 20th century witnessed a vast expansion of the use of executive agreements, and critics have challenged the extent of that use as supplanting the treaty process and removing constitutionally prescribed checks and balances over the executive in foreign relations. Supporters counter that the agreements offer a pragmatic solution when the need for swift, secret, and/or concerted action arises.\n\nAdministrative powers\n\nThe president is the head of the executive branch of the federal government and is constitutionally obligated to \"take care that the laws be faithfully executed.\" The executive branch has over four million employees, including members of the military. \n\nPresidents make numerous executive branch appointments: an incoming president may make up to 6,000 before taking office and 8,000 more while serving. Ambassadors, members of the Cabinet, and other federal officers, are all appointed by a president with the \"advice and consent\" of a majority of the Senate. When the Senate is in recess for at least ten days, the president may make recess appointments. Recess appointments are temporary and expire at the end of the next session of the Senate.\n\nThe power of a president to fire executive officials has long been a contentious political issue. Generally, a president may remove purely executive officials at will. However, Congress can curtail and constrain a president's authority to fire commissioners of independent regulatory agencies and certain inferior executive officers by statute. \n\nThe president additionally possesses the ability to direct much of the executive branch through executive orders that are grounded in federal law or constitutionally granted executive power. Executive orders are reviewable by federal courts and can be superseded by federal legislation.\n\nTo manage the growing federal bureaucracy, Presidents have gradually surrounded themselves with many layers of staff, who were eventually organized into the Executive Office of the President of the United States. Within the Executive Office, the President's innermost layer of aides (and their assistants) are located in the White House Office.\n\nJuridical powers\n\nThe president also has the power to nominate federal judges, including members of the United States courts of appeals and the Supreme Court of the United States. However, these nominations do require Senate confirmation. Securing Senate approval can provide a major obstacle for presidents who wish to orient the federal judiciary toward a particular ideological stance. When nominating judges to U.S. district courts, presidents often respect the long-standing tradition of Senatorial courtesy. Presidents may also grant pardons and reprieves, as is often done just before the end of a presidential term, not without controversy.\n\nHistorically, two doctrines concerning executive power have developed that enable the president to exercise executive power with a degree of autonomy. The first is executive privilege, which allows the president to withhold from disclosure any communications made directly to the president in the performance of executive duties. George Washington first claimed privilege when Congress requested to see Chief Justice John Jay's notes from an unpopular treaty negotiation with Great Britain. While not enshrined in the Constitution, or any other law, Washington's action created the precedent for the privilege. When Richard Nixon tried to use executive privilege as a reason for not turning over subpoenaed evidence to Congress during the Watergate scandal, the Supreme Court ruled in United States v. Nixon, , that executive privilege did not apply in cases where a president was attempting to avoid criminal prosecution. When President Bill Clinton attempted to use executive privilege regarding the Lewinsky scandal, the Supreme Court ruled in Clinton v. Jones, , that the privilege also could not be used in civil suits. These cases established the legal precedent that executive privilege is valid, although the exact extent of the privilege has yet to be clearly defined. Additionally, federal courts have allowed this privilege to radiate outward and protect other executive branch employees, but have weakened that protection for those executive branch communications that do not involve the president. \n\nThe state secrets privilege allows the president and the executive branch to withhold information or documents from discovery in legal proceedings if such release would harm national security. Precedent for the privilege arose early in the 19th century when Thomas Jefferson refused to release military documents in the treason trial of Aaron Burr and again in Totten v. United States , when the Supreme Court dismissed a case brought by a former Union spy. However, the privilege was not formally recognized by the U.S. Supreme Court until United States v. Reynolds , where it was held to be a common law evidentiary privilege. Before the September 11 attacks, use of the privilege had been rare, but increasing in frequency. Since 2001, the government has asserted the privilege in more cases and at earlier stages of the litigation, thus in some instances causing dismissal of the suits before reaching the merits of the claims, as in the Ninth Circuit's ruling in Mohamed v. Jeppesen Dataplan, Inc. Critics of the privilege claim its use has become a tool for the government to cover up illegal or embarrassing government actions. \n\nLegislative facilitator\n\nThe Constitution's Ineligibility Clause prevents the President (and all other executive officers) from simultaneously being a member of Congress. Therefore, the president cannot directly introduce legislative proposals for consideration in Congress. However, the president can take an indirect role in shaping legislation, especially if the president's political party has a majority in one or both houses of Congress. For example, the president or other officials of the executive branch may draft legislation and then ask senators or representatives to introduce these drafts into Congress. The president can further influence the legislative branch through constitutionally mandated, periodic reports to Congress. These reports may be either written or oral, but today are given as the State of the Union address, which often outlines the president's legislative proposals for the coming year. Additionally, the president may attempt to have Congress alter proposed legislation by threatening to veto that legislation unless requested changes are made.\n\nIn the 20th century critics began charging that too many legislative and budgetary powers have slid into the hands of presidents that should belong to Congress. As the head of the executive branch, presidents control a vast array of agencies that can issue regulations with little oversight from Congress. One critic charged that presidents could appoint a \"virtual army of 'czars' – each wholly unaccountable to Congress yet tasked with spearheading major policy efforts for the White House.\" Presidents have been criticized for making signing statements when signing congressional legislation about how they understand a bill or plan to execute it. This practice has been criticized by the American Bar Association as unconstitutional. Conservative commentator George Will wrote of an \"increasingly swollen executive branch\" and \"the eclipse of Congress.\"\n\nAccording to Article II, Section 3, Clause 2 of the Constitution, the president may convene either or both houses of Congress. If both houses cannot agree on a date of adjournment, the president may appoint a date for Congress to adjourn.\n\nCeremonial roles\n\nAs head of state, the president can fulfill traditions established by previous presidents. William Howard Taft started the tradition of throwing out the ceremonial first pitch in 1910 at Griffith Stadium, Washington, D.C., on the Washington Senators' Opening Day. Every president since Taft, except for Jimmy Carter, threw out at least one ceremonial first ball or pitch for Opening Day, the All-Star Game, or the World Series, usually with much fanfare. \n\nThe President of the United States has served as the honorary president of the Boy Scouts of America since the founding of the organization. \n\nOther presidential traditions are associated with American holidays. Rutherford B. Hayes began in 1878 the first White House egg rolling for local children. Beginning in 1947 during the Harry S. Truman administration, every Thanksgiving the president is presented with a live domestic turkey during the annual national thanksgiving turkey presentation held at the White House. Since 1989, when the custom of \"pardoning\" the turkey was formalized by George H. W. Bush, the turkey has been taken to a farm where it will live out the rest of its natural life. \n\nPresidential traditions also involve the president's role as head of government. Many outgoing presidents since James Buchanan traditionally give advice to their successor during the presidential transition. Ronald Reagan and his successors have also left a private message on the desk of the Oval Office on Inauguration Day for the incoming president. \n\nDuring a state visit by a foreign head of state, the president typically hosts a State Arrival Ceremony held on the South Lawn, a custom begun by John F. Kennedy in 1961. This is followed by a state dinner given by the president which is held in the State Dining Room later in the evening. \n\nThe modern presidency holds the president as one of the nation's premier celebrities. Some argue that images of the presidency have a tendency to be manipulated by administration public relations officials as well as by presidents themselves. One critic described the presidency as \"propagandized leadership\" which has a \"mesmerizing power surrounding the office.\" Administration public relations managers staged carefully crafted photo-ops of smiling presidents with smiling crowds for television cameras. One critic wrote the image of John F. Kennedy was described as carefully framed \"in rich detail\" which \"drew on the power of myth\" regarding the incident of PT 109 and wrote that Kennedy understood how to use images to further his presidential ambitions. As a result, some political commentators have opined that American voters have unrealistic expectations of presidents: voters expect a president to \"drive the economy, vanquish enemies, lead the free world, comfort tornado victims, heal the national soul and protect borrowers from hidden credit-card fees.\"\n\nCritics of presidency's evolution\n\nMost of the nation's Founding Fathers expected the Congress, which was the first branch of government described in the Constitution, to be the dominant branch of government; they did not expect a strong executive. However, presidential power has shifted over time, which has resulted in claims that the modern presidency has become too powerful, unchecked, unbalanced, and \"monarchist\" in nature. Critic Dana D. Nelson believes presidents over the past thirty years have worked towards \"undivided presidential control of the executive branch and its agencies.\" She criticizes proponents of the unitary executive for expanding \"the many existing uncheckable executive powers – such as executive orders, decrees, memorandums, proclamations, national security directives and legislative signing statements – that already allow presidents to enact a good deal of foreign and domestic policy without aid, interference or consent from Congress.\" Activist Bill Wilson opined that the expanded presidency was \"the greatest threat ever to individual freedom and democratic rule.\"\n\nSelection process\n\nEligibility\n\nArticle II, Section 1, Clause 5 of the Constitution sets the following qualifications for holding the presidency:\n* be a natural-born citizen of the United States;Foreign-born American citizens who met the age and residency requirements at the time the Constitution was adopted were also eligible for the presidency. However, this allowance has since become obsolete.\n* be at least thirty-five years old;\n* be a resident in the United States for at least fourteen years.\n\nThe Twelfth Amendment precludes anyone ineligible to being the president from becoming the vice president.\n\nA person who meets the above qualifications is still disqualified from holding the office of president under any of the following conditions:\n* Under the Twenty-second Amendment, no person can be elected president more than twice. The amendment also specifies that if any eligible person serves as president or acting president for more than two years of a term for which some other eligible person was elected president, the former can only be elected president once. Scholars disagree over whether a person precluded by the Twenty-second Amendment to being elected president is also precluded to being vice president. \n* Under Article I, Section 3, Clause 7, upon conviction in impeachment cases, the Senate has the option of disqualifying convicted individuals from holding federal office, including that of president. \n* Under Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment, no person who swore an oath to support the Constitution, and later rebelled against the United States, can become president. However, this disqualification can be lifted by a two-thirds vote of each house of Congress.\n\nCampaigns and nomination\n\nThe modern presidential campaign begins before the primary elections, which the two major political parties use to clear the field of candidates before their national nominating conventions, where the most successful candidate is made the party's nominee for president. Typically, the party's presidential candidate chooses a vice presidential nominee, and this choice is rubber-stamped by the convention. The most common previous profession by U.S. presidents is lawyer. \n\nNominees participate in nationally televised debates, and while the debates are usually restricted to the Democratic and Republican nominees, third party candidates may be invited, such as Ross Perot in the 1992 debates. Nominees campaign across the country to explain their views, convince voters and solicit contributions. Much of the modern electoral process is concerned with winning swing states through frequent visits and mass media advertising drives.\n\nElection and oath\n\nThe president is elected indirectly. A number of electors, collectively known as the Electoral College, officially select the president. On Election Day, voters in each of the states and the District of Columbia cast ballots for these electors. Each state is allocated a number of electors, equal to the size of its delegation in both Houses of Congress combined. Generally, the ticket that wins the most votes in a state wins all of that state's electoral votes and thus has its slate of electors chosen to vote in the Electoral College.\n\nThe winning slate of electors meet at its state's capital on the first Monday after the second Wednesday in December, about six weeks after the election, to vote. They then send a record of that vote to Congress. The vote of the electors is opened by the sitting vice president—acting in that role's capacity as President of the Senate—and read aloud to a joint session of the incoming Congress, which was elected at the same time as the president.\n\nPursuant to the Twentieth Amendment, the president's term of office begins at noon on January 20 of the year following the election. This date, known as Inauguration Day, marks the beginning of the four-year terms of both the president and the vice president. Before executing the powers of the office, a president is constitutionally required to take the presidential oath:\n\nAlthough not required, presidents have traditionally palmed a Bible while swearing the oath and have added, \"So help me God!\" to the end of the oath. Further, although the oath may be administered by any person authorized by law to administer oaths, presidents are traditionally sworn in by the Chief Justice of the United States.\n\nTenure and term limits\n\nThe term of office for president and vice president is four years. George Washington, the first president, set an unofficial precedent of serving only two terms, which subsequent presidents followed until 1940. Before Franklin D. Roosevelt, attempts at a third term were encouraged by supporters of Ulysses S. Grant and Theodore Roosevelt; neither of these attempts succeeded. In 1940, Franklin D. Roosevelt declined to seek a third term, but allowed his political party to \"draft\" him as its presidential candidate and was subsequently elected to a third term. In 1941, the United States entered World War II, leading voters to elect Roosevelt to a fourth term in 1944. But Roosevelt died only 82 days after taking office for the fourth term on 12 April 1945.\n\nAfter the war, and in response to Roosevelt being elected to third and fourth terms, the Twenty-second Amendment was adopted. The amendment bars anyone from being elected president more than twice, or once if that person served more than half of another president's term. Harry S. Truman, president when this amendment was adopted, was exempted from its limitations and briefly sought a third (a second full) term before withdrawing from the 1952 election.\n\nSince the amendment's adoption, four presidents have served two full terms: Dwight D. Eisenhower, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush. Barack Obama has been elected to a second term, and will complete his term on 20 January 2017, if he does not die or resign before that date. Jimmy Carter and George H. W. Bush sought a second term, but were defeated. Richard Nixon was elected to a second term, but resigned before completing it. Lyndon B. Johnson was the only president under the amendment to be eligible to serve more than two terms in total, having served for only fourteen months following John F. Kennedy's assassination. However, Johnson withdrew from the 1968 Democratic Primary, surprising many Americans. Gerald Ford sought a full term, after serving out the last two years and five months of Nixon's second term, but was not elected.\n\nVacancy or disability\n\nVacancies in the office of President may arise under several possible circumstances: death, resignation and removal from office.\n\nArticle II, Section 4 of the Constitution allows the House of Representatives to impeach high federal officials, including the president, for \"treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors.\" Article I, Section 3, Clause 6 gives the Senate the power to remove impeached officials from office, given a two-thirds vote to convict. The House has thus far impeached two presidents: Andrew Johnson in 1868 and Bill Clinton in 1998. Neither was subsequently convicted by the Senate; however, Johnson was acquitted by just one vote.\n\nUnder Section 3 of the Twenty-fifth Amendment, the president may transfer the presidential powers and duties to the vice president, who then becomes acting president, by transmitting a statement to the Speaker of the House and the President pro tempore of the Senate stating the reasons for the transfer. The president resumes the discharge of the presidential powers and duties upon transmitting, to those two officials, a written declaration stating that resumption. This transfer of power may occur for any reason the president considers appropriate; in 2002 and again in 2007, President George W. Bush briefly transferred presidential authority to Vice President Dick Cheney. In both cases, this was done to accommodate a medical procedure which required Bush to be sedated; both times, Bush returned to duty later the same day. \n\nUnder Section 4 of the Twenty-fifth Amendment, the vice president, in conjunction with a majority of the Cabinet, may transfer the presidential powers and duties from the president to the vice president by transmitting a written declaration to the Speaker of the House and the president pro tempore of the Senate that the president is unable to discharge the presidential powers and duties. If this occurs, then the vice president will assume the presidential powers and duties as acting president; however, the president can declare that no such inability exists and resume the discharge of the presidential powers and duties. If the vice president and Cabinet contest this claim, it is up to Congress, which must meet within two days if not already in session, to decide the merit of the claim.\n\nThe United States Constitution mentions the resignation of the president, but does not regulate its form or the conditions for its validity. Pursuant to federal law, the only valid evidence of the president's resignation is a written instrument to that effect, signed by the president and delivered to the office of the Secretary of State. This has only occurred once, when Richard Nixon delivered a letter to Henry Kissinger to that effect.\n\nSection 1 of the Twenty-fifth Amendment states that the vice president becomes president upon the removal from office, death or resignation of the preceding president. The Presidential Succession Act of 1947 provides that if the offices of President and Vice President are each either vacant or are held by a disabled person, the next officer in the presidential line of succession, the Speaker of the House, becomes acting president. The line then extends to the President pro tempore of the Senate, followed by every member of the Cabinet. These persons must fulfill all eligibility requirements of the office of President to be eligible to become acting president; ineligible individuals are skipped. There has never been a special election for the office of President.\n\nCompensation\n\nSince 2001, the president has earned a $400,000 annual salary, along with a $50,000 annual expense account, a $100,000 nontaxable travel account, and $19,000 for entertainment. The most recent raise in salary was approved by Congress and President Bill Clinton in 1999 and went into effect in 2001.\n\nThe White House in Washington, D.C., serves as the official place of residence for the president. As well as access to the White House staff, facilities available to the president include medical care, recreation, housekeeping, and security services. The government pays for state dinners and other official functions, but the president pays for personal, family and guest dry cleaning and food; the high food bill often amazes new residents. Naval Support Facility Thurmont, popularly known as Camp David, is a mountain-based military camp in Frederick County, Maryland, used as a country retreat and for high alert protection of the president and guests. Blair House, located next to the Eisenhower Executive Office Building at the White House Complex and Lafayette Park, is a complex of four connected townhouses exceeding 70000 sqft of floor space which serves as the president's official guest house and as a secondary residence for the president if needed. \n\nFor ground travel, the president uses the presidential state car, which is an armored limousine built on a heavily modified Cadillac-based chassis.[http://www.secretservice.gov/press/GPA02-09_Limo.pdf New Presidential Limousine enters Secret Service Fleet] U.S. Secret Service Press Release (January 14, 2009) Retrieved on January 20, 2009. One of two identical Boeing VC-25 aircraft, which are extensively modified versions of Boeing 747-200B airliners, serve as long distance travel for the president and are referred to as Air Force One while the president is on board (although any U.S. Air Force aircraft the President is aboard is designated as \"Air Force One\" for the duration of the flight). In-country trips are typically handled with just one of the two planes while overseas trips are handled with both, one primary and one backup. Any civilian aircraft the President is aboard is designated Executive One for the flight. The president also has access to a fleet of thirty-five U.S. Marine Corps helicopters of varying models, designated Marine One when the president is aboard any particular one in the fleet. Flights are typically handled with as many as five helicopters all flying together and frequently swapping positions as to disguise which helicopter the President is actually aboard to any would-be threats.\n\nThe U.S. Secret Service is charged with protecting the sitting president and the first family. As part of their protection, presidents, first ladies, their children and other immediate family members, and other prominent persons and locations are assigned Secret Service codenames. The use of such names was originally for security purposes and dates to a time when sensitive electronic communications were not routinely encrypted; today, the names simply serve for purposes of brevity, clarity, and tradition. \n\nFile:White House lawn (1).tif|The White House\n\nFile:Camp David 1959.jpg|Camp David\nFile:Blair House daylight.jpg|Blair House\nFile:GPA02-09 US SecretService press release 2009 Limousine Page 3 Image.jpg|State car\nFile:Air Force One over Mt. Rushmore.jpg|Air Force One\nFile:Marine One (1970).jpg|Marine One\n\nPost-presidency\n\nBeginning in 1959, all living former presidents were granted a pension, an office, and a staff. The pension has increased numerous times with Congressional approval. Retired presidents now receive a pension based on the salary of the current administration's cabinet secretaries, which was $199,700 each year in 2012. Former presidents who served in Congress may also collect congressional pensions. The Former Presidents Act, as amended, also provides former presidents with travel funds and franking privileges. Prior to 1997, all former presidents, their spouses, and their children until age 16 were protected by the Secret Service until the president's death. In 1997, Congress passed legislation limiting secret service protection to no more than 10 years from the date a president leaves office. On January 10, 2013, President Obama signed legislation reinstating lifetime secret service protection for him, George W. Bush, and all subsequent presidents. A spouse who remarries is no longer eligible for secret service protection.\n\nSome presidents have had significant careers after leaving office. Prominent examples include William Howard Taft's tenure as Chief Justice of the United States and Herbert Hoover's work on government reorganization after World War II. Grover Cleveland, whose bid for reelection failed in 1888, was elected president again four years later in 1892. Two former presidents served in Congress after leaving the White House: John Quincy Adams was elected to the House of Representatives, serving there for seventeen years, and Andrew Johnson returned to the Senate in 1875. John Tyler served in the provisional Congress of the Confederate States during the Civil War and was elected to the Confederate House of Representatives, but died before that body first met.\n\nPresidents may use their predecessors as emissaries to deliver private messages to other nations or as official representatives of the United States to state funerals and other important foreign events. Richard Nixon made multiple foreign trips to countries including China and Russia and was lauded as an elder statesman. Jimmy Carter has become a global human rights campaigner, international arbiter, and election monitor, as well as a recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. Bill Clinton has also worked as an informal ambassador, most recently in the negotiations that led to the release of two American journalists, Laura Ling and Euna Lee, from North Korea. Clinton has also been active politically since his presidential term ended, working with his wife Hillary on her 2008 and 2016 presidential bids and President Obama on his reelection campaign.\n\nFile:Carter 2k14.tif|Jimmy Carter39th (1977–81)\nFile:President George H. W.tif|George H. W. Bush41st (1989–93)\nFile:Clinton 2k15.tif|Bill Clinton42nd (1993–2001)\nFile:Bush 2k14.tif|George W. Bush43rd (2001–09)\n\nPresidential libraries\n\nSince Herbert Hoover, each president has created a repository known as a presidential library for preserving and making available his papers, records and other documents and materials. Completed libraries are deeded to and maintained by the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA); the initial funding for building and equipping each library must come from private, non-federal sources. There are currently thirteen presidential libraries in the NARA system. There are also presidential libraries maintained by state governments and private foundations and Universities of Higher Education, such as the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum, which is run by the State of Illinois, the George H.W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum, which is run by Texas A&M University and the Lyndon Baines Johnson Presidential Library and Museum, which is run by the University of Texas at Austin.\n\nAs many presidents live for many years after leaving office, several of them have personally overseen the building and opening of their own presidential libraries, some even making arrangements for their own burial at the site. Several presidential libraries therefore contain the graves of the president they document, such as the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum in Yorba Linda, California and the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California. The graves are viewable by the general public visiting these libraries.\n\nTimeline of Presidents", "The Medal of Honor is the United States of America's highest military honor, awarded for personal acts of valor above and beyond the call of duty. The medal is awarded by the President of the United States in the name of the U.S. Congress to U.S. military personnel only. There are three versions of the medal, one for the Army, one for the Navy, and one for the Air Force. Personnel of the Marine Corps and Coast Guard receive the Navy version.\n\nThe Medal of Honor was created as a Navy version in 1861 named the \"Medal of Valor\", and an Army version of the medal named the \"Medal of Honor\" was established in 1862 to give recognition to men who distinguished themselves \"conspicuously by gallantry and intrepidity\" in combat with an enemy of the United States. Because the medal is presented \"in the name of Congress\", it is often referred to as the \"Congressional Medal of Honor\". However, the official name is the \"Medal of Honor\", which began with the U.S. Army's version.DoD Award Manual, Nov. 23, 2010, 1348. 33, P. 31, 8. c. (1) (a)The Congressional Medal of Honor Society is so designated because that was the name it was given in an act of Congress that was signed into law by U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower on August 5, 1958, as Title 36, Chapter 33 of the U.S. Code (see ). The law authorizing the society has since been transferred to Title 36, Chapter 405 of the U.S. Code. [http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/html/uscode36/usc_sup_01_36_06_II_08_B_10_405.html ] Within United States Code the medal is referred to as the \"Medal of Honor\", and less frequently as \"Congressional Medal of Honor\".\n\nThe Medal of Honor is usually presented by the President in a formal ceremony at the White House, intended to represent the gratitude of the American people, with posthumous presentations made to the primary next of kin. According to the Medal of Honor Historical Society of the United States, there have been 3,515 Medals of Honor awarded to the nation's soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines, and Coast Guardsmen since the decoration's creation, with just less than half of them awarded for actions during the four years of the American Civil War.\n\nIn 1990, Congress designated March 25 annually as \"National Medal of Honor Day\". Due to its prestige and status, the Medal of Honor is afforded special protection under U.S. law against any unauthorized adornment, sale, or manufacture, which includes any associated ribbon or badge. \n\nHistory\n\n1780: The Fidelity Medallion was a small medal worn on a chain around the neck, similar to a religious medal, that was awarded only to three militiamen from New York state, for the capture of John André, a British officer and spy connected directly to General Benedict Arnold (American and British general-1780) during the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783). The capture saved the fort of West Point from the British Army.\n\n1782: Badge of Military Merit: The first formal system for rewarding acts of individual gallantry by American soldiers was established by George Washington when he issued a field order on August 7, 1782, for a Badge of Military Merit to recognize those members of the Continental Army who performed \"any singular meritorious action\". This decoration is America's first combat decoration and was preceded only by the Fidelity Medallion, the Congressional medal for Henry Lee awarded in September 1779 in recognition of his attack on the British at Paulus Hook, the Congressional medal for General Horatio Gates awarded in November 1777 in recognition of his victory over the British at Saratoga, and the Congressional medal for George Washington awarded in March 1776. Although the Badge of Military Merit fell into disuse after the American Revolutionary War, the concept of a military award for individual gallantry by members of the U.S. Armed Forces had been established.\n\n1847: Certificate of Merit: After the outbreak of the Mexican-American War (1846–1848) a Certificate of Merit (Meritorious Service Citation Certificate) was established by Act of Congress on March 3, 1847 \"to any private soldier who had distinguished himself by gallantry performed in the presence of the enemy\". 539 Certificates were approved for this period. The certificate was discontinued and reintroduced in 1876 effective from June 22, 1874 to February 10, 1892 when it was awarded for extraordinary gallantry by private soldiers in the presence of the enemy. From February 11, 1892 through July 9, 1918 (Certificate of Merit disestablished) it could be awarded to members of the Army for distinguished service in combat or noncombat; from January 11, 1905 through July 9, 1918 the certificate was granted medal status as the Certificate of Merit Medal \n(first awarded to a soldier who was awarded the Certificate of Merit for combat action on August 13, 1898). This medal was later replaced by the Army Distinguished Service Medal which was established on January 2, 1918 (the Navy Distinguished Service Medal was established in 1919). Those Army members who held the Distinguished Service Medal in place of the Certificate of Merit could apply for the Army Distinguished Service Cross (established 1918) effective March 5, 1934.\n\nMedal of Valor \n\nThere were no military awards or medals at the beginning of the Civil War (1861–1865) except for the Certificate of Merit which was awarded for the Mexican-American War. In the fall of 1861, a proposal for a battlefield decoration for valor was submitted to Winfield Scott, the general-in-chief of the army, by Lt. Colonel Edward D. Townsend, an assistant adjutant at the War Department and Scott's chief of staff. Scott however, was strictly against medals being awarded which was the European tradition. After Scott retired in October 1861, the Secretary of the Navy, Gideon Welles, adopted the idea of a decoration to recognize and honor distinguished naval service. On December 9, U.S. Senator (Iowa) James W. Grimes, Chairman on the Committee on Naval Affairs, proposed Public Resolution Number 82 (Bill 82: 37th Congress, Second Session, 12 Stat. 329) \"to promote the efficiency of the Navy\" which included a provision for a Navy Medal of Valor which was signed into law by President Abraham Lincoln on December 21, 1861 (Medal of Honor had been established for the Navy), \"to be bestowed upon such petty officers, seamen, landsmen, and marines as shall most distinguish themselves by their gallantry and other seamen-like qualities during the present war.\" Secretary Wells directed the Philadelphia Mint to design the new military decoration. On May 15, 1862, the United States Navy Department ordered 175 medals ($1.85 each) with the words \"Personal Valor\" on the back from the U.S. Mint in Philadelphia. \n\nMedal of Honor \n\nSenator Henry Wilson, the chairman of the Senate Committee on Military Affairs, introduced a resolution on February 15, 1862 for an Army Medal of Honor. The resolution (37th Congress, Second Session, 12 Stat. 623) was approved by Congress and signed into law on July 12, 1862 (\"Medals of Honor\" were established for enlisted men of the Army). This measure provided for awarding a medal of honor \"to such non-commissioned officers and privates as shall most distinguish themselves by their gallantry in action and other soldier-like qualities during the present insurrection.\" During the war, Townsend would have some medals delivered to some recipients with a letter requesting acknowledgement of the \"Medal of Honor\". The letter written and signed by Townsend on behalf of the Secretary of War, stated that the resolution was \"to provide for the presentation of medals of honor to the enlisted men of the army and volunteer forces who have distinguished or may distinguish themselves in battle during the present rebellion.\" By mid-November the War Department contracted with Philadelphia silversmith William Wilson and Son, who had been responsible for the Navy design, to prepare 2,000 Army medals ($2.00 each) to be cast at the mint. The Army version had \"The Congress to\" written on the back of the medal. Both versions were made of copper and coated with bronze, which \"gave them a reddish tint\". \n\n1863: Congress made the Medal of Honor a permanent decoration. On March 3, Medals of Honor were authorized for officers of the Army (37th Congress, Third Session, 12 Stat. 751). The Secretary of War first presented the Medal of Honor to six Union Army volunteers on March 25, 1863 in his office. \n\n1890: On April 23, the Medal of Honor Legion is established in Washington, D.C. \n\n1896: The ribbon of the Army version Medal of Honor was redesigned with all stripes being vertical. \n\n1904: The planchet of the Army version of the Medal of Honor was redesigned by General George Lewis Gillespie. The purpose of the redesign was to help distinguish the Medal of Honor from other medals, including a medal issued by the Grand Army of the Republic. \n\n1915: On March 3, Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard officers became eligible for the Medal of Honor.\n \n\n1963: A separate Coast Guard medal was authorized in 1963, but not yet designed or awarded.\n\n1965: A separate design for a version of the medal for the U.S. Air Force was created in 1956, authorized in 1960, and officially adopted on April 14, 1965. Previously, members of the U.S. Army Air Corps, U.S. Army Air Forces, and the U.S. Air Force received the Army version of the medal. \n\nAppearance\n\nThere are three versions of the Medal of Honor, one for each of the military departments of the Department of Defense: Army, Navy, and Air Force. Members of the Marine Corps and Coast Guard are eligible to receive the Navy version. Each is constructed differently and the components are made from gilding metals and red brass alloys with some gold plating, enamel, and bronze pieces. The United States Congress considered a bill in 2004 which would require the Medal of Honor to be made with 90% gold, the same composition as the lesser-known Congressional Gold Medal, but the measure was dropped.\n\nArmy Medal of Honor\n\nThe Army version is described by the Institute of Heraldry as \"a gold five pointed star, each point tipped with trefoils, wide, surrounded by a green laurel wreath and suspended from a gold bar inscribed VALOR, surmounted by an eagle. In the center of the star, Minerva's head surrounded by the words UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. On each ray of the star is a green oak leaf. On the reverse is a bar engraved THE CONGRESS TO with a space for engraving the name of the recipient.\" The pendant and suspension bar are made of gilding metal, with the eye, jump rings, and suspension ring made of red brass. The finish on the pendant and suspension bar is hard enameled, gold plated, and rose gold plated, with polished highlights.\n\nNavy, Marine, and Coast Guard Medal of Honor\n\nThe Navy version is described as \"a five-pointed bronze star, tipped with trefoils containing a crown of laurel and oak. In the center is Minerva, personifying the United States, standing with left hand resting on fasces and right hand holding a shield blazoned with the shield from the coat of arms of the United States. She repulses Discord, represented by snakes. The medal is suspended from the flukes of an anchor.\" It is made of solid red brass, oxidized and buffed. \n\nAir Force Medal of Honor\n\nThe Air Force version is described as \"within a wreath of green laurel, a gold five-pointed star, one point down, tipped with trefoils and each point containing a crown of laurel and oak on a green background. Centered on the star, an annulet of 34 stars is a representation of the head of the Statue of Liberty. The star is suspended from a bar inscribed with the word VALOR above an adaptation of the thunderbolt from the Air Force Coat of Arms.\" The pendant is made of gilding metal. The connecting bar, hinge, and pin are made of bronze. The finish on the pendant and suspension bar is hard enameled, gold plated, and rose gold plated, with buffed relief.\n\nNeck ribbon, service ribbon, lapel button, and \"V\" device \n\nSince 1944, the Medal of Honor has been attached to a light blue colored moiré silk Neck ribbon that is in width and in length. The center of the ribbon displays thirteen white stars in the form of three chevron. Both the top and middle chevrons are made up of 5 stars, with the bottom chevron made of 3 stars. The Medal of Honor is one of only two United States military awards suspended from a neck ribbon. The other, the Commander's Degree of the Legion of Merit, and is usually awarded to individuals serving foreign governments. \n\nOn May 2, 1896, Congress authorized a \"ribbon to be worn with the medal and [a] rosette or knot to be worn in lieu of the medal.\" The service ribbon is light blue with five white stars in the form of an \"M\". It is placed first in the top position in the order of precedence and is worn for situations other than full-dress military uniform. The lapel button is a , six-sided light blue bowknot rosette with thirteen white stars and may be worn on appropriate civilian clothing on the left lapel.\n\nIn 2011, Department of Defense instructions were amended to read \"for each succeeding act that would otherwise justify award of the Medal of Honor, the individual receiving the subsequent award is authorized to wear an additional Medal of Honor ribbon and/or a 'V' device on the Medal of Honor suspension ribbon\" (the \"V\" device is a high bronze miniature letter \"V\" with serifs that denotes valor). The Medal of Honor was the only decoration authorized the use of the \"V\" device to designate subsequent awards in such fashion. Nineteen individuals, all now deceased, were double Medal of Honor recipients. This was discontinued in July 2014, and changed to read \"A separate MOH is presented to an individual for each succeeding act that justified award.\" As of 2014, no devices are authorized for the Medal of Honor.\n\nHistorical versions\n\nThe Medal of Honor has evolved in appearance over time. The upside-down star design of the Navy version's pendant adopted in early 1862 has not changed since its inception. The Army 1862 version followed and was identical to the Navy version except an eagle perched atop cannons was used instead of an anchor to connect the pendant to the suspension ribbon. In 1896, the Army version changed the ribbon's design and colors due to misuse and imitation by nonmilitary organizations. In 1904, the Army \"Gillespie\" version introduced a smaller redesigned star and the ribbon was changed to the light blue pattern with white stars seen today. In 1913, the Navy version adopted the same ribbon pattern.\n\nAfter World War I, the Navy decided to separate the Medal of Honor into two versions, one for combat and one for non-combat. The original upside-down star was designated as the non-combat version and a new pattern of the medal pendant, in cross form, was designed by the Tiffany Company in 1919. It was to be presented to a sailor or Marine who \"in action involving actual conflict with the enemy, distinguish[es] himself conspicuously by gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty\" Despite the \"actual conflict\" guidelines—the Tiffany Cross was awarded to Navy CDR (later RADM) Richard E. Byrd and Floyd Bennett for arctic exploration. The Tiffany Cross itself was not popular. In 1942, the Navy returned to using only the original 1862 inverted 5-point star design, and ceased issuing the award for non-combat action. \n\nIn 1944, the suspension ribbons for both the Army and Navy version were replaced with the now familiar neck ribbon. When the Air Force version was designed in 1956, it incorporated similar elements and design from the Army version. It used a larger star with the Statue of Liberty image in place of Minerva on the medal and changed the connecting device from an eagle to an heraldic thunderbolt flanked with wings as found on the service seal. \n\nFile:US-MOH-1862.png|1862–95 Army version\nFile:US-MOH-1896.png|1896–1903 Army version\nFile:US-MOH-1904.png|1904–44 Army version\nFile:Army Medal of Honor.jpg|Post 1944 Army version\n\nFile:US Navy Medal of Honor (1862 original).png|1862–1912 Navy version\nFile:US Navy Medal of Honor (1913 to 1942).png|1913–42 Navy version\nFile:Tiffany Cross Medal of Honor.jpg|1919–42 Navy \"Tiffany Cross\" version\nFile:NavyMedalofHonor.jpg|Post 1942 Navy version\n\nFlag\n\nOn October 23, 2002, was enacted, modifying , authorizing a Medal of Honor flag to be presented to recipients of the decoration. \n\nThe flag was based on a concept by retired Army Special Forces First Sergeant Bill Kendall of Jefferson, Iowa, who designed a flag to honor Medal of Honor recipient Captain Darrell Lindsey, a B-26 pilot from Jefferson who was killed in World War II. Kendall's design of a light blue field emblazoned with 13 white five-pointed stars was nearly identical to that of Sarah LeClerc's of the Institute of Heraldry. LeClerc's design, ultimately accepted as the official flag, does not include the words \"Medal of Honor\" and is fringed in gold. The color of the field and the 13 white stars, arranged in the form of a three bar chevron, consisting of two chevrons of five stars and one chevron of three stars, emulate the suspension ribbon of the Medal of Honor. The flag has no set proportions. \n\n* The first Medal of Honor recipient to receive the official Medal of Honor flag was Sergeant First Class Paul R. Smith. The Medal of Honor with the flag was presented by President George W. Bush to his family during a ceremony at the White House on April 4, 2005. \n\nA special Medal of Honor Flag presentation ceremony was held for over 60 living Medal of Honor recipients on board the on September 30, 2006. \n\nPresenting\n\nThere are two distinct protocols for awarding the Medal of Honor. The first and most common is nomination and approval through the chain of command of the service member. The second method is nomination by a member of the U.S. Congress, generally at the request of a constituent. In both cases, if the proposal is outside the time limits for the recommendation, approval to waive the time limit requires a special Act of Congress. The Medal of Honor is presented by the President on behalf of, and in the name of, the Congress. Since 1980, nearly all Medal of Honor recipients or in the case of posthumous awards, the next of kin have been personally decorated by the Commander-in-Chief. Since 1941, more than half of the Medals of Honor have been awarded posthumously. \n\nEvolution of criteria\n\n* 1800s: Several months after President Abraham Lincoln signed Public Resolution 82 into law on December 21, 1861 for a Navy medal of honor, a similar resolution was passed in July 1862 for an Army version of the medal. Six Union Army soldiers who hijacked a Confederate locomotive named The General in 1862, were the first Medal of Honor recipients; James J. Andrews, a civilian, led the raid. He was caught and hanged as a Union spy, but was a civilian and not eligible to receive the medal. Many Medals of Honor awarded in the 19th century were associated with \"saving the flag\" (and country), not just for patriotic reasons, but because the U.S. flag was a primary means of battlefield communication at the time. Because no other military decoration was authorized during the Civil War, some seemingly less exceptional and notable actions were recognized by a Medal of Honor during that conflict.\n* 1900s: Early in the twentieth century, the Navy awarded many Medals of Honor for peacetime bravery. For instance, in 1901, John Henry Helms aboard the was awarded the medal for saving the ship's cook from drowning. Seven sailors aboard the were awarded the medal after the ship's boiler exploded on January 25, 1904. Richard Byrd and Floyd Bennett were awarded the medal—combat (\"Tiffany\") version despite the existence then of a non-combat form of the Navy medal—for the 1926 flight they claim reached the North Pole. And Admiral Thomas J. Ryan was awarded the medal for saving a woman from the burning Grand Hotel in Yokohama, Japan, following the 1923 Great Kantō earthquake. Between 1919 and 1942, the Navy issued two separate versions of the Medal of Honor, one for acts related to combat and one for non-combat bravery. The criteria for the award tightened during World War I for the Army version of the Medal of Honor, while the Navy version retained a non-combat provision until 1963. In an Act of Congress of July 9, 1918, the War Department version of the medal required that the recipient \"distinguish himself conspicuously by gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty\", and also required that the act of valor be performed \"in action involving actual conflict with an enemy\". This was in reaction to the results of the Army Medal of Honor Review Board, which struck 911 medals from the Medal of Honor Roll in February 1917 for lack of basic prerequisites. These included the members of the 27th Maine erroneously awarded the medal for reenlisting to guard the capital during the Civil War, 29 members of Abraham Lincoln's funeral detail, and six civilians, including Buffalo Bill Cody and Mary Edwards Walker (though the latter's was restored posthumously in 1977). \n* World War II: Starting in 1942, the Medal would only be awarded for action in combat, although the Navy version of the Medal of Honor technically allowed non-combat awards until 1963. Official accounts vary, but generally, the Medal of Honor for combat was known as the \"Tiffany Cross\", after the company that designed the medal. The Tiffany Cross was first awarded in 1919, but was unpopular partly because of its design. The Tiffany Cross Medal of Honor was awarded at least three times for non-combat. By a special authorized Act of Congress, the medal was presented to Byrd and Bennett (see above). In 1942, the United States Navy reverted to a single Medal of Honor, although the statute still contained a loophole allowing the award for both \"action involving actual conflict with the enemy\" or \"in the line of his profession\". Arising from these criteria, approximately 60 percent of the medals earned during and after World War II have been awarded posthumously. \n* Public Law 88-77, July 25, 1963: The requirements for the Medal of Honor were standardized among all the services, requiring that a recipient had \"distinguished himself conspicuously by gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty.\" Thus, the act removed the loophole allowing non-combat awards to Navy personnel. The act also clarified that the act of valor must occur during one of three circumstances: \n# While engaged in action against an enemy of the United States\n# While engaged in military operations involving conflict with an opposing foreign force.\n# While serving with friendly foreign forces engaged in an armed conflict against an opposing armed force in which the United States is not a belligerent party. \n\nCongress drew the three permutations of combat from President Kennedy's executive order of April 25, 1962, which previously added the same criteria to the Purple Heart. On August 24, Kennedy added similar criteria for the Bronze Star Medal. The amendment was necessary because Cold War armed conflicts did not qualify for consideration under previous statutes such as the 1918 Army Medal of Honor Statute that required valor \"in action involving actual conflict with an enemy\", since the United States has not formally declared war since World War II as a result of the provisions of the United Nations Charter. According to congressional testimony by the Army's Deputy Chief of Staff for Personnel, the services were seeking authority to award the Medal of Honor and other valor awards retroactive to July 1, 1958, in areas such as Berlin, Lebanon, Quemoy and Matsu Islands, Taiwan Straits, Congo, Laos, Vietnam, and Cuba.\n\nAuthority and privileges\n\nThe four specific authorizing statutes amended July 25, 1963:\n* Army: \n* Navy and Marine Corps: \n* Air Force: \n* Coast Guard: A version is authorized but it has never been awarded.\n\nThe President may award, and present in the name of Congress, a medal of honor of appropriate design, with ribbons and appurtenances, to a person who while a member of the Army (naval service; Navy and Marine Corps) (Air Force) (Coast Guard), distinguished himself conspicuously by gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty. \n\nPrivileges and courtesies\n\nThe Medal of Honor confers special privileges on its recipients. By law, recipients have several benefits: \n\n* Each Medal of Honor recipient may have his or her name entered on the Medal of Honor Roll (). \n* Each person whose name is placed on the Medal of Honor Roll is certified to the United States Department of Veterans Affairs as being entitled to receive a monthly pension above and beyond any military pensions or other benefits for which they may be eligible. The pension is subject to cost-of-living increases; as of December 1, 2012, it is $1,259 a month. \n* Enlisted recipients of the Medal of Honor are entitled to a supplemental uniform allowance. \n* Recipients receive special entitlements to air transportation under the provisions of DOD Regulation 4515.13-R. This benefit allows the recipient to travel as he or she deems fit across geographical locations, and allows the recipient's dependents to travel either Overseas-Overseas, Overseas-Continental US, or Continental US-Overseas when accompanied by the recipient. \n* Special identification cards and commissary and exchange privileges are provided for Medal of Honor recipients and their eligible dependents.\n* Recipients are granted eligibility for interment at Arlington National Cemetery, if not otherwise eligible. \n* Fully qualified children of recipients are eligible for admission to the United States military academies without regard to the nomination and quota requirements. \n* Recipients receive a 10 percent increase in retired pay. \n* Those awarded the medal after October 23, 2002, receive a Medal of Honor Flag. The law specified that all 103 living prior recipients as of that date would receive a flag. \n* Recipients receive an invitation to all future presidential inaugurations and inaugural balls. \n* As with all medals, retired personnel may wear the Medal of Honor on \"appropriate\" civilian clothing. Regulations specify that recipients of the Medal of Honor are allowed to wear the uniform \"at their pleasure\" with standard restrictions on political, commercial, or extremist purposes (other former members of the armed forces may do so only at certain ceremonial occasions). \n* Most states (40) offer a special license plate for certain types of vehicles to recipients at little or no cost to the recipient. The states that do not offer Medal of Honor specific license plate offer special license plates for veterans for which recipients may be eligible.\n\nSaluting\n\n* Although not required by law or military regulation, members of the uniformed services are encouraged to render salutes to recipients of the Medal of Honor as a matter of respect and courtesy regardless of rank or status, whether or not they are in uniform. This is one of the few instances where a living member of the military will receive salutes from members of a higher rank.\n\nLegal protection\n\n* 1904: The Army redesigned its Medal of Honor. To prevent the making of copies of the medal, Brigadier General George Gillespie, Jr., a Medal of Honor recipient from the Civil War, applied for and obtained a patent for the new design. General Gillespie received the patent on November 22, 1904, and he transferred it the following month to the Secretary of War at the time, William Howard Taft.\n* 1923: Congress enacted a statute (the year before the 20-year term of the patent would expire)—which would later be codified at 18 U.S.C. §704—prohibiting the unauthorized wearing, manufacturing, or sale of military medals or decorations. In 1994, Congress amended the statute to permit an enhanced penalty if the offense involved the Medal of Honor. \n* 2005: Congress enacted the Stolen Valor Act of 2005. (Section 1 of the Act provided that the law could be cited as the \"Stolen Valor Act of 2005\", but the bill received final passage and was signed into law in 2006. ) The law amended 18 U.S.C. § 704 to make it a federal criminal offense for a person to deliberately state falsely that he or she had been awarded a military decoration, service medal, or badge. The law also permitted an enhanced penalty for someone who falsely claimed to have been awarded the Medal of Honor.\n* June 28, 2012: In the case of United States v. Alvarez, the Supreme Court of the United States held that the Stolen Valor Act of 2005's criminalization of the making of false claims of having been awarded a military medal, decoration, or badge was an unconstitutional violation of the First Amendment's guarantee of free speech. The case involved an elected official in California, Xavier Alvarez, who had falsely stated at a public meeting that he had been awarded the Medal of Honor, even though he had never served in any branch of the armed forces. \n\nThe Supreme Court's decision did not specifically address the constitutionality of the older portion of the statute which prohibits the unauthorized wearing, manufacturing, or sale of military medals or decorations. Under the law, the unauthorized wearing, manufacturing, or sale of the Medal of Honor is punishable by a fine of up to $100,000 and imprisonment of up to one year. \n\n* June 3, 2013: President Barack Obama signs into law a revised version of the Stolen Valor Act, making it a federal offense for someone to pass themselves off as awardees of medals for valor in order to receive benefits or other privileges (such as grants, educational benefits, housing, etc.) that are set aside for veterans and other service members. \n\nA number of veteran support organizations and private companies devote themselves to exposing those who falsely claim to have received the Medal of Honor. \n\nEnforcement\n\n* 1996: HLI Lordship Industries Inc., a former Medal of Honor contractor, was fined for selling 300 medals for US $75 each. \n* 1996: Fort Lauderdale, Florida, resident Jackie Stern was convicted of wearing a Medal of Honor to which he was not entitled. A federal judge sentenced him to serve one year of probation and to write a letter of apology to each of the then-living 171 recipients of the medal. His letter was published in the local newspaper. \n* 2003: Edward Fedora and Gisela Fedora were charged with violating , Unlawful Sale of a Medal of Honor, for selling medals awarded to U.S. Navy Sailor Robert Blume (for action in the Spanish–American War) and to U.S. Army First Sergeant George Washington Roosevelt (for action in the Civil War) to an FBI agent. Edward Fedora pleaded guilty and was sentenced to prison. \n\nDuplicate medals\n\nMedal of Honor recipients may apply in writing to the headquarters of the service branch of the medal awarded for a replacement or display Medal of Honor, ribbon, and appurtenance (Medal of Honor flag) without charge. Primary next of kin may also do the same and have any questions answered in regard to the Medal of Honor that was awarded. \n\nRecipients\n\nThe Medal of Honor has been awarded to 3,496 different persons. Of the 19 men that have been awarded the Medal of Honor twice, 14 received two separate medals for two separate actions, while five received both the Navy and Army Medals of Honor for the same action. As of June 2011, since the beginning of World War II, 851 Medals of Honor have been awarded, 523 (61.45%) posthumously. One has been awarded to a woman: Mary Edwards Walker.\n\n* The first Medals of Honor (Army) were awarded by and presented to six \"Andrews Raiders\" on March 25, 1863, by Secretary of War Edwin Stanton, in his office in the War Department. Private Jacob Parrott, a Union Army volunteer from Ohio, became the first recipient of the medal, awarded for his volunteering for and participation in a raid on a Confederate train in Big Shanty, Georgia on April 12, 1862 during the American Civil War. The six decorated raiders met privately afterward with President Lincoln in his office, in the White House. \n* The first Medal of Honor (Navy) was awarded by Secretary of War Stanton to 41 sailors on April 4, 1863 (17 for action during the Battle of Forts Jackson and St. Philip).\n* The first Marine awarded the Medal of Honor (Navy) was John F. Mackie on July 10, 1863, for his rifle action aboard the on May 15, 1862.\n* The only Coast Guardsman to be awarded the Medal of Honor (Navy, posthumous) was Signalman First Class Douglas Munro on May 27, 1943, for evacuating 500 Marines under fire on September 27, 1942 during the Battle of Guadalcanal. Munro was a Canadian-born, naturalized U.S. citizen. \n* The only woman awarded the Medal of Honor (Army) is Mary Edwards Walker, who was a civilian Union Army surgeon during the American Civil War. She received the award in 1865 for the First Battle of Bull Run (July 21, 1861) and a series of battles to the Battle of Atlanta in Sept. 1864 ...\"for usual medal of honor meritorious services.\" \nThe 1917 Medal of Honor Board deleted 911 awards, but only 910 names from the Army Medal of Honor Roll, including awards to Dr. Mary Edwards Walker, William F. \"Buffalo Bill\" Cody and the first of two awards issued February 10, 1887, to George W. Midil, who retained his award issued October 25, 1893. None of the 910 \"deleted\" recipients were ordered to return their medals, although on the question of whether the recipients could continue to wear their medals, the Judge Advocate General advised the Medal of Honor Board the Army was not obligated to police the matter. Walker continued to wear her medal until her death. President Jimmy Carter formally restored her medal posthumously in 1977.\n\n* 61 Canadians who served in the United States Armed Forces, mostly during the American Civil War. Since 1900, four Canadians have received the medal. The only Canadian-born, naturalized U.S. citizen to receive the medal for heroism during the Vietnam War was Peter C. Lemon. \n\nWhile the governing statute for the Army Medal of Honor (), beginning in 1918, explicitly stated that a recipient must be \"an officer or enlisted man of the Army\", \"distinguish himself conspicuously by gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty\", and perform an act of valor \"in action involving actual conflict with an enemy\", exceptions have been made:\n\n* Charles Lindbergh, 1927, civilian pilot, and U.S. Army Air Corps reserve officer. Lindbergh's medal was authorized by a special act of Congress that directly contradicted the July 1918 act of Congress that required that all Army recipients be \"in action involving actual conflict with an enemy\". The award was based on the previous acts authorizing the Navy medal to Byrd and Bennett (see above). Some congressmen objected to Lindbergh's award because it contradicted the 1918 statute, but Representative Snell reportedly quelled this dissent by explaining that \"it was and it wasn't the Congressional Medal of Honor which Lindbergh would receive under his bill; that the Lindbergh medal would be entirely distinct from the valor award for war service.\" \n* Major General (Retired) Adolphus Greely was awarded the medal in 1935, on his 91st birthday, \"for his life of splendid public service\". The result of a special act of Congress similar to Lindbergh's, Greely's medal citation did not reference any acts of valor. \n* Foreign unknown recipients include the British Unknown Warrior, the French Unknown Soldier, the Romanian Unknown Soldier, the Italian Unknown Soldier, and the Belgian Unknown Soldier. \n* U.S. unknown recipients include the Unknowns of World War I, World War II, Korea, and Vietnam. The Vietnam Unknown was later identified as Air Force 1st Lt. Michael J. Blassie through the use of DNA identification. Blassie's family asked for his Medal of Honor, but the Department of Defense denied the request in 1998. According to Undersecretary of Defense Rudy de Leon, the medal was awarded symbolically to all Vietnam unknowns, not to Blassie specifically. \n\nDouble recipients\n\nNineteen men have been awarded the Medal of Honor twice. The first two-time Medal of Honor recipient was Thomas Custer (brother of George Armstrong Custer) for two separate actions that took place several days apart during the American Civil War. \n\nFive \"double recipients\" were awarded both the Army and Navy Medal of Honor for the same action; all five of these occurrences took place during World War I. Since February 1919, no single individual can be awarded more than one Medal of Honor for the same action, although a member of one branch of the armed forces can receive the Medal of Honor from another branch if the actions for which it was awarded occurred under the authority of the second branch. \n\nTo date, the maximum number of Medals of Honor earned by any service member has been two. The last individual to be awarded two Medals of Honor was John J. Kelly in 1918; the last individual to receive two Medals of Honor for two different actions was Smedley Butler, in 1914 and 1915.\n\n § Rank refers to rank held at time of Medal of Honor action.\n\nRelated recipients\n\nArthur MacArthur, Jr. and Douglas MacArthur are the first father and son to be awarded the Medal of Honor. The only other such pairing is Theodore Roosevelt (awarded in 2001) and Theodore Roosevelt, Jr.\n\nFive pairs of brothers have received the Medal of Honor:\n* John and William Black, in the American Civil War. The Blacks are the first brothers to be so honored.\n* Charles and Henry Capehart, in the American Civil War, the latter for saving a drowning man while under fire.\n* Antoine and Julien Gaujot. The Gaujots also have the unique distinction of receiving their medals for actions in separate conflicts, Antoine in the Philippine–American War and Julien when he crossed the border to rescue Mexicans and Americans in a Mexican Revolution skirmish.\n* Harry and Willard Miller, during the same naval action in the Spanish–American War.\n* Allen and James Thompson, in the same American Civil War action.\nAnother notable pair of related recipients are Admiral Frank Friday Fletcher (rear admiral at the time of award) and his nephew, Admiral Frank Jack Fletcher (lieutenant at the time of award), both awarded for actions during the United States occupation of Veracruz.\n\nBelated recognition\n\nSince 1979, 85 belated Medal of Honor decorations were presented to recognize actions from the Civil War to the Vietnam War. In addition, five recipients who names were not included on the Army Medal of Honor Roll in 1917 had their awards restored. \n \nA 1993 study commissioned by the U.S. Army investigated \"racial disparity\" in the awarding of medals. At the time, no Medals of Honor had been awarded to American soldiers of African descent who served in World War II. After an exhaustive review, the study recommended that ten Distinguished Service Cross recipients be awarded the Medal of Honor. On January 13, 1997, President Bill Clinton presented the Medal of Honor to seven of these World War II veterans, six of them posthumously and one to former Second Lieutenant Vernon Baker.\n\nIn 1998, a similar study of Asian Americans resulted in President Bill Clinton presenting 22 Medals of Honor in 2000. Twenty of these medals went to American soldiers of Japanese descent of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team (442nd RCT) that served in the European Theater of Operations during World War II. One of these Medal of Honor recipients was Senator Daniel Inouye, a former U.S. Army officer in the 442nd RCT.\n\nIn 2005, President George W. Bush presented the Medal of Honor to Tibor Rubin, a Hungarian-born American Jew who was a Holocaust survivor of World War II and enlisted U.S. infantryman and prisoner of war in the Korean War, whom many believed to have been overlooked because of his religion.\n\nOn April 11, 2013, President Obama presented the Medal of Honor posthumously to Army chaplain Captain Emil Kapaun for his actions as a prisoner of war during the Korean war. This follows other awards to Army Sergeant Leslie H. Sabo, Jr. for conspicuous gallantry in action on May 10, 1970, near Se San, Cambodia, during the Vietnam War and to Army Private First Class Henry Svehla and Army Private First Class Anthony T. Kahoʻohanohano for their heroic actions during the Korean War. \n\nAs a result of a Congressionally mandated review to ensure brave acts were not overlooked due to prejudice or discrimination, on March 18, 2014 President Obama upgraded Distinguished Service Crosses to Medals of Honor for 24 Hispanic, Jewish, and African American individuals—the \"Valor 24\"—for their actions in World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War. Three were still living at the time of the ceremony.• • List with basic details is at U.S. Army's [http://www.army.mil/medalofhonor/valor24/recipients/ List of Recipients].\n\n27th Maine and other revoked awardings\n\nDuring the Civil War, Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton promised a Medal of Honor to every man in the 27th Maine Volunteer Infantry Regiment who extended his enlistment beyond the agreed-upon date. The Battle of Gettysburg was imminent, and 311 men of the regiment volunteered to serve until the battle was resolved. The remaining men returned to Maine, but with the Union victory at Gettysburg the 311 volunteers soon followed. The volunteers arrived back in Maine in time to be discharged with the men who had earlier returned. Since there seemed to be no official list of the 311 volunteers, the War Department exacerbated the situation by forwarding 864 medals to the commanding officer of the regiment. The commanding officer only issued the medals to the volunteers who stayed behind and retained the others on the grounds that, if he returned the remainder to the War Department, the War Department would try to reissue the medals. \n\nIn 1916, a board of five Army generals on the retired list convened under act of law to review every Army Medal of Honor awarded. The board was to report on any Medals of Honor awarded or issued for any cause other than distinguished service. The commission, led by Nelson A. Miles, identified 911 awards for causes other than distinguished service. This included the 864 medals awarded to members of the 27th Maine regiment; 29 servicemen who served as Abraham Lincoln's funeral guard; six civilians, including Mary Edwards Walker and Buffalo Bill Cody; and 12 others. Walker's medal was restored by President Jimmy Carter in 1977. Cody and four other civilian scouts who rendered distinguished service in action, and who were therefore considered by the board to have fully earned their medals, had theirs restored in 1989. The report was endorsed by the Judge Advocate General, who also advised that the War Department should not seek the return of the revoked medals from the recipients identified by the board. In the case of recipients who continued to wear the medal, the War Department was advised to take no action to enforce the statute. \n\nNomination under current consideration \n\nDavid Dunnels White's nomination is under consideration for the capture of Confederate Major General G. W. Custis Lee, eldest son of General Robert E. Lee, at the Battle of Sailors Creek, Virginia, on April 6, 1865.\n\nSimilar American decorations\n\nThe following decorations, in one degree or another, bear similar names to the Medal of Honor, but are entirely separate awards with different criteria for issuance:\n\n* Cardenas Medal of Honor: decoration of the United States Revenue Cutter Service, which was later merged into the United States Coast Guard\n* Chaplain's Medal for Heroism: awarded posthumously for a single action to four recipients\n* Congressional Gold Medal: the highest civilian honor bestowed by the United States (along with the Presidential Medal of Freedom)\n* Congressional Space Medal of Honor: intended for issuance to astronauts, but despite its name, it is not equal to the Medal of Honor\n* Presidential Medal of Freedom: the highest civilian honor bestowed by the United States (along with the Congressional Gold Medal)\n* Several United States law enforcement decorations bear the name \"Medal of Honor\". The Public Safety Officer Medal of Valor, established by Congress in 2001 and stated to be \"the highest National award for valor by a public safety officer\", is also awarded by the President of the United States." ] }

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{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe", "TagMe", "Search" ], "filename": [ "Mark_Felt.txt", "Watergate_scandal.txt", "Richard_Nixon.txt" ], "title": [ "Mark Felt", "Watergate scandal", "Richard Nixon" ], "wiki_context": [ "William Mark Felt, Sr. (August 17, 1913 – December 18, 2008) was a Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) special agent who retired as the Bureau's Deputy Director in 1973. After keeping secret for 30 years his involvement with reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, Felt admitted to being the Watergate scandal's whistleblower, \"Deep Throat,\" on May 31, 2005.\n\nFelt worked in several FBI field offices prior to his promotion to the Bureau's headquarters in Washington, D.C. During the early investigation of the Watergate scandal (1972–1974), and shortly after the death of longtime FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover on May 2, 1972, Felt was the Bureau's Associate Director, the second-ranking post in the FBI. While serving as Associate Director, Felt provided the Washington Post with critical information that eventually led to the resignation of President Richard M. Nixon in 1974. In 1980, Felt was convicted of violating the civil rights of people thought to be associated with members of the Weather Underground Organization, by ordering FBI agents to search their homes as part of an attempt to prevent bombings. He was ordered to pay a fine, but was pardoned by President Ronald Reagan during his appeal. In 2006, he published an update of his 1979 autobiography, The FBI Pyramid. His last book, written with John O'Connor, is titled A G-Man's Life. On June 14, 2012, the FBI released Felt's personnel file at the agency, covering the period from 1941 to 1978. It also released files pertaining to an extortion threat made against Felt in 1956. \n\nFamily and early career\n\nBorn on August 17, 1913, in Twin Falls, Idaho, Felt was the son of carpenter and building contractor Mark Earl Felt and his wife, the former Rose R. Dygert. His paternal grandfather was a Free Will Baptist minister.[http://www.wargs.com/other/felt.html wargs.com] His maternal grandparents were born in Canada and Scotland; through his maternal grandfather, Felt was a relative of Revolutionary War general Nicholas Herkimer. After graduating from Twin Falls High School in 1931, he attended the University of Idaho in Moscow, and was a member and president of the Gamma Gamma chapter of the Beta Theta Pi fraternity. He received a BA in 1935.\n\nFelt went to Washington, D.C., to work in the office of Democratic U.S. Senator James P. Pope. In 1938, Felt married Audrey Robinson of Gooding, whom he had known when they were undergraduates at UI. She had come to Washington to work at the Bureau of Internal Revenue, and they were wed by the chaplain of the United States House of Representatives, the Rev. Sheara Montgomery. Audrey, who died in 1984, and Felt had two children, Joan and Mark.\n\nFelt stayed on with Pope's successor in the Senate, David Worth Clark (D-Idaho). Felt attended The George Washington University Law School at night, earning his law degree in 1940, and was admitted to the District of Columbia bar in 1941.\n\nUpon graduation, Felt took a position at the Federal Trade Commission, but did not enjoy the work. His workload was very light. He was assigned a case to investigate whether a toilet paper brand called \"Red Cross\" was misleading consumers into thinking it was endorsed by the American Red Cross. Felt wrote in his memoir:\nMy research, which required days of travel and hundreds of interviews, produced two definite conclusions:\n1. Most people did use toilet tissue.\n2. Most people did not appreciate being asked about it.\nThat was when I started looking for other employment.\n\nHe applied for a job with the FBI in November 1941 and was accepted. His first day at the Bureau was January 26, 1942.\n\nEarly FBI years\n\nFBI Director J. Edgar Hoover often moved Bureau agents around so they would have wide experience. Felt observed that Hoover \"wanted every agent to get into any field office at any time. Since he [Hoover] had never been transferred and did not have a family, he had no idea of the financial and personal hardship involved.\"\n\nAfter completing sixteen weeks of training at the FBI Academy at Quantico, Virginia, and FBI Headquarters in Washington, DC., Felt was first assigned to Texas, working in the field offices in Houston and San Antonio, spending three months in each. He then returned to FBI Headquarters, and was assigned to the Espionage Section of the Domestic Intelligence Division, tracking down spies and saboteurs during World War II, where he worked on the Major Case Desk. His most notable work there was on the \"Peasant\" case. Helmut Goldschmidt, operating under the codename \"Peasant\", was a German agent in custody in England. Under Felt's direction, his German masters were informed \"Peasant\" had made his way to the United States, and were fed disinformation on Allied plans.\n\nThe Espionage Section was abolished in May 1945 after V-E Day. After the war, Felt was sent again to a field office, first to Seattle, Washington. After two years of general work, he spent two years as a firearms instructor and was promoted from agent to supervisor. Upon passage of the Atomic Energy Act and the creation of the United States Atomic Energy Commission, the Seattle office became responsible for completing background checks of workers at the Hanford plutonium plant near Richland, Washington. Felt oversaw these checks. In 1954, Felt returned briefly to Washington as an inspector's aide. Two months later, he was sent to New Orleans, Louisiana, as assistant special agent in charge of the field office. When he was transferred to Los Angeles, California, fifteen months later, he held the same rank there.\n\nInvestigates organized crime\n\nIn 1956, Felt was transferred to Salt Lake City, Utah, and promoted to Special Agent in Charge. The Salt Lake Office included Nevada within its purview, and while there, Felt oversaw some of the Bureau's earliest investigations into Organized Crime with the Mob's operations in the Reno and Las Vegas casinos. (It was Hoover's, and therefore the Bureau's official position at the time, that there was no such thing as the Mob.) In February 1958, he went to Kansas City, Missouri, in his memoir dubbed \"the Siberia of field offices\", where he oversaw additional investigations of organized crime. By this time, Hoover was compelled to change his mind about the existence of organized crime, in the wake of the famous Apalachin, New York, conclave of underworld bosses in November 1957.\n\nClimbing the ladder\n\nFelt returned to Washington, D.C., in September 1962. As assistant to the bureau's assistant director in charge of the Training Division, Felt helped oversee the FBI Academy. In November 1964, he became Assistant Director of the Bureau, as Chief Inspector of the Bureau and Head of the Inspection Division. This division oversaw compliance with Bureau regulations and conducted internal investigations.\n\nOn July 1, 1971, Felt was promoted by Hoover to Deputy Associate Director, assisting Associate Director Clyde Tolson. Hoover's right-hand man for decades, Tolson was in failing health and no longer able to attend to his duties. Richard Gid Powers wrote that Hoover installed Felt to rein in William C. Sullivan's domestic spying operations, as Sullivan had been engaged in secret unofficial work for the White House. In his memoir, Felt quoted Hoover as having said, \"I need someone who can control Sullivan. I think you know he has been getting out of hand.\" In his book, The Bureau, Ronald Kessler said that Felt \"managed to please Hoover by being tactful with him and tough on agents.\" Curt Gentry called Felt \"the director's latest fair-haired boy\", but had \"no inherent power\" in his new post, the real number three being John P. Mohr.\n\nWeather Underground investigations\n\nAmong the criminal groups that the FBI investigated in the early 1970s was the Weather Underground. The case ended up being dismissed because of illegal activities by the FBI, including wiretaps, break-ins and mail interceptions. The lead federal prosecutor on the case, William C. Ibershof, claims that Mark Felt and Attorney General John N. Mitchell initiated these illegal activities that tainted the investigation. \n\nAfter Hoover's death\n\nHoover died in his sleep and was found on the morning of May 2, 1972. Tolson was nominally in charge until the next day when Nixon appointed L. Patrick Gray III as Acting FBI Director. Tolson submitted his resignation, which Gray accepted. Felt then took Tolson's post as Associate Director, the number-two job in the Bureau. Felt served as an honorary pallbearer at Hoover's funeral.\nOn the day of Hoover's death, Hoover's secretary for five decades, Helen Gandy, began destroying his files. She turned over twelve boxes of the \"Official/Confidential\" files to Felt on May 4, 1972. This consisted of 167 files and 17,750 pages, many of them containing derogatory information. Felt stored them in his office, and Gray told the press that afternoon that \"there are no dossiers or secret files. There are just general files and I took steps to preserve their integrity.\" Felt earlier that day had told Gray, \"Mr. Gray, the Bureau doesn't have any secret files\", and later accompanied Gray to Hoover's office. They found Gandy boxing up papers. Felt said Gray \"looked casually at an open file drawer and approved her work\", though Gray would later deny he looked at anything. Gandy retained Hoover's \"Personal File\" and destroyed it. When Felt was called to testify in 1975 by the U.S. House about the destruction of Hoover's papers, he said, \"There's no serious problems if we lose some papers. I don't see anything wrong and I still don't.\" At the same hearing, Gandy claimed that she had destroyed Hoover's personal files only after receiving Gray's approval. In a letter submitted to the committee in rebuttal of Gandy's testimony, Gray vehemently denied ever giving such permission. Both Gandy's testimony and Gray's letter were included in the committee's final report.\n\nIn his memoir, Felt expressed mixed feelings about Gray. While noting Gray did work hard, Felt was critical of how often he was away from FBI headquarters. Gray lived in Stonington, Connecticut, and commuted to Washington. He also visited all of the Bureau's field offices except Honolulu. His frequent absences led to the nickname \"Three-Day Gray\". These absences, combined with Gray's hospitalization and recuperation from November 20, 1972, to January 2, 1973, meant that Felt was effectively in charge for much of his final year at the Bureau. Bob Woodward wrote \"Gray got to be director of the FBI and Felt did the work.\" Felt wrote in his memoir:\nThe record amply demonstrates that President Nixon made Pat Gray the Acting Director of the FBI because he wanted a politician in J. Edgar Hoover's position who would convert the Bureau into an adjunct of the White House machine.\n\nGray's defenders would later argue that Gray simply practiced a management style that was different from that of Hoover. Gray's program of field office visits was something that Hoover had not done since his early years as director, and some felt this did much to raise the morale of the agents working in those field offices. Furthermore, Gray's leadership style seemed to mirror what he had learned in the US Navy, in which the executive officer concentrates on the basic operation of the ship, while the captain concentrates on its position and heading. Felt believed Gray's methods were an unnecessary distraction and showed a lack of leadership. He was sure he was not the only one of the FBI leaders who disapproved of Gray's methods, particularly among those who had served under Hoover.\n\nWatergate\n\nAs Associate Director, Felt saw everything compiled on Watergate before it went to Gray. The Agent in Charge, Charles Nuzum, sent his findings to Investigative Division Head Robert Gebhardt, who then passed the information on to Felt. From the day of the break-in, June 17, 1972, until the FBI investigation was mostly completed in June 1973, Felt was the key control point for FBI information. He had been among the first to learn of the investigation, being informed the morning of June 17. Ronald Kessler, who spoke to former Bureau agents, reported that throughout the investigation, they \"were amazed to see material in Woodward and Bernstein's stories lifted almost verbatim from their reports of interviews a few days or weeks earlier.\"\n\nContact with Woodward\n\nBob Woodward first describes his source nicknamed Deep Throat in All the President's Men as a \"source in the Executive Branch who had access to information at CRP (the Committee to Re-elect the President, Nixon's 1972 campaign organization), as well as at the White House.\" The book also calls Deep Throat an \"incurable gossip\" who was \"in a unique position to observe the Executive Branch\", a man \"whose fight had been worn out in too many battles\". Woodward had known the source before Watergate and had discussed politics and government with him.\n\nIn 2005, Woodward wrote that he first met Felt at the White House in 1969 or 1970 when Woodward was an aide to Admiral Thomas Hinman Moorer, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and was delivering papers to the White House Situation Room. In his book The Secret Man, Woodward described Felt as a \"tall man with perfectly combed gray hair ... distinguished looking\" with a \"studied air of confidence, even what might be called a command presence\". They stayed in touch and spoke on the telephone several times. When Woodward started working at the Washington Post, he phoned Felt on several occasions to ask for information for articles in the paper. Felt's information, taken on a promise that Woodward would never reveal its origin, was a source for a few stories, notably for an article on May 18, 1972, about Arthur H. Bremer, who shot George C. Wallace. When the Watergate story broke, Woodward called on his friend. Felt advised Woodward on June 19 that E. Howard Hunt was involved; the telephone number of his White House office had been listed in the address book of one of the burglars. Initially, Woodward's source was known at the Post as \"My Friend\", but was tagged \"Deep Throat\" by Post editor Howard Simons, after the film Deep Throat. Woodward has written that the idea for the nickname first came to Simons because Felt had been providing the information on a deep background basis.\n\nWhen Felt's name was revealed, it was noted that \"My Friend\" has the same initial letters as \"Mark Felt\". Woodward has said this was a coincidence, but in looking back at some of his notes, interviews with Felt during the earliest days of the story were marked with \"M.F.\"\n\nCode for contacting Woodward\n\nWoodward claimed that when he wanted to meet Deep Throat, he would move a flowerpot with a red flag on the balcony of his apartment, number 617, at the Webster House at 1718 P Street, Northwest, and on occasion when Deep Throat wanted a meeting, he would circle the page number on page twenty of Woodward's copy of The New York Times and draw clock hands to signal the hour. Adrian Havill questioned these claims in his 1993 biography of Woodward and Bernstein, stating Woodward's balcony faced an interior courtyard and was not visible from the street, but Woodward responded that it has been bricked in since he lived there. Havill also claimed that copies of The Times were not delivered marked by apartment, but Woodward and a former neighbor disputed this claim. Woodward has stated:\n\nHow [Felt] could have made a daily observation of my balcony is still a mystery to me. At the time, the back of my building was not enclosed so anyone could have driven in the back alley to observe my balcony. In addition, my balcony and the back of the apartment complex faced onto a courtyard or back area that was shared with a number of other apartment or office buildings in the area. My balcony could have been seen from dozens of apartments or offices.\n\nThere were several embassies in the area. The Iraqi embassy was down the street, and I thought it possible that the FBI had surveillance or listening posts nearby. Could Felt have had the counterintelligence agents regularly report on the status of my flag and flowerpot? That seems unlikely, but not impossible.\n\nHaldeman informs Nixon that Felt was leaking information\n\nDays after the break-in, Nixon and White House chief of staff H. R. Haldeman talked about putting pressure on the FBI to slow down the investigation. The FBI had been called in by the District of Columbia police because the burglars had been found with wiretapping equipment, and wiretapping is a crime investigated by the FBI. Haldeman told President Nixon on June 23, 1972, that Felt would \"want to cooperate because he's ambitious.\"\n\nDespite initial suspicions that other agents, including Angelo Lano, had been speaking to the Post, in a taped conversation on October 19, 1972, Haldeman told the president that he had sources, which he declined to name, confirming Felt was speaking to the press.\nYou can't say anything about this because it will screw up our source and there's a real concern. Mitchell is the only one who knows about this and he feels strongly that we better not do anything because ... if we move on him, he'll go out and unload everything. He knows everything that's to be known in the FBI. He has access to absolutely everything.\nHaldeman also reported that he had spoken to White House counsel John W. Dean about punishing Felt, but Dean said Felt had committed no crime and could not be prosecuted.\n\nWhen Acting FBI Director Gray returned from his sick leave in January 1973, he confronted Felt about being the source for Woodward and Bernstein. Gray said he had defended Felt to Attorney General Richard G. Kleindienst: \"You know, Mark, Dick Kleindienst told me I ought to get rid of you. He says White House staff members are concerned that you are the FBI source of leaks to Woodward and Bernstein\", to which Felt replied, \"Pat, I haven't leaked anything to anybody.\" Gray told Felt,\nI told Kleindienst that you've worked with me in a very competent manner and I'm convinced that you are completely loyal. I told him I was not going to move you out. Kleindienst told me, \"Pat, I love you for that.\"\n\nNixon passes over Felt again\n\nOn February 17, 1973, Nixon nominated Gray as Hoover's permanent replacement as Director. Until then, Gray had been in limbo as Acting Director. In another taped conversation on February 28, Nixon spoke to Dean about Felt's acting as an informant, and mentioned that he had never met him. Gray was forced to resign on April 27, after it was revealed Gray had destroyed a file that had been in the White House safe of E. Howard Hunt. Gray told his superiors that Felt should be named as his successor.\n\nThe day Gray resigned, Kleindienst spoke to Nixon, urging him to appoint Felt as Gray's replacement, but Nixon instead appointed William Ruckelshaus. Stanley Kutler reported that Nixon said, \"I don't want him. I can't have him. I just talked to Bill Ruckelshaus and Bill is a Mr. Clean and I want a fellow in there that is not part of the old guard and that is not part of that infighting in there.\" On another White House tape, from May 11, 1973, Nixon and White House Chief of Staff, Alexander M. Haig, spoke of Felt leaking material to The New York Times. Nixon said, \"he's a bad guy, you see,\" and that William Sullivan had told him Felt's ambition was to be Director of the Bureau.\n\nFelt called his relationship with Ruckelshaus \"stormy.\" In his memoir, Felt describes Ruckelshaus as a \"security guard sent to see that the FBI did nothing which would displease Mr. Nixon.\" Felt retired from the Bureau on June 22, 1973, ending a thirty-one year career.\n\nTrial and conviction\n\nIn the early 1970s, Felt oversaw operation COINTELPRO during a controversial period in the FBI's history. The FBI was pursuing leftist groups such as the Weather Underground who had planted bombs at the Capitol, the Pentagon, and the State Department. Felt, along with Edward S. Miller, authorized FBI agents to break into homes secretly in 1972 and 1973, without a search warrant, on nine separate occasions. These kinds of FBI operations were known as \"black bag jobs.\" The break-ins occurred at five addresses in New York and New Jersey, at the homes of relatives and acquaintances of Weather Underground members, and did not lead to the capture of any fugitives. The use of \"black bag jobs\" by the FBI was declared unconstitutional by the United States Supreme Court in the Plamondon case, 407 U.S. 297 (1972).\n\nAfter revelation by the Church Committee of the FBI's illegal activities, many agents were investigated. Felt in 1976 publicly stated he had ordered break-ins and that individual agents were merely obeying orders and should not be punished for it. Felt also stated Gray also authorized the break-ins, but Gray denied this. Felt said on the CBS television program Face the Nation he would probably be a \"scapegoat\" for the Bureau's work. \"I think this is justified and I'd do it again tomorrow,\" he said on the program. While admitting the break-ins were \"extralegal\", he justified it as protecting the \"greater good.\" Felt said:\nTo not take action against these people and know of a bombing in advance would simply be to stick your fingers in your ears and protect your eardrums when the explosion went off and then start the investigation.\n\nThe Attorney General in the Carter administration, Griffin B. Bell, investigated, and on April 10, 1978, a federal grand jury charged Felt, Miller, and Gray with conspiracy to violate the constitutional rights of American citizens by searching their homes without warrants. Gray's case did not go to trial and was dropped by the government for lack of evidence on December 11, 1980. Felt told Ronald Kessler:\n\nI was shocked that I was indicted. You would be too, if you did what you thought was in the best interests of the country and someone on technical grounds indicted you. \n\nThe indictment charged violations of Title 18, Section 241 of the United States Code. The indictment charged Felt and the others:\n\"Did unlawfully, willfully, and knowingly combine, conspire, confederate, and agree together and with each other to injure and oppress citizens of the United States who were relatives and acquaintances of the Weatherman fugitives, in the free exercise and enjoyments of certain rights and privileges secured to them by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America.\"\n\nFelt, Gray, and Miller were arraigned in Washington, DC on April 20. Seven hundred current and former FBI agents were outside the courthouse applauding the \"Washington Three\", as Felt referred to himself and his colleagues in his memoir.\n\nFelt and Miller attempted to plea bargain with the government, willing to agree to a misdemeanor guilty plea to conducting searches without warrants — a violation of  — but the government rejected the offer in 1979. After eight postponements, the case against Felt and Miller went to trial in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia on September 18, 1980. On October 29, former President Richard M. Nixon appeared as a rebuttal witness for the defense, and testified that Presidents since Franklin D. Roosevelt had authorized the Bureau to engage in break-ins while conducting foreign intelligence and counterespionage investigations. It was Nixon's first courtroom appearance since his resignation in 1974. Nixon also contributed money to Felt's defense fund, since Felt's legal expenses were running over $600,000 by then. Also testifying were former Attorneys General Herbert Brownell, Jr., Nicholas deB. Katzenbach, Ramsey Clark, John N. Mitchell, and Richard G. Kleindienst, all of whom said warrantless searches in national security matters were commonplace and understood not to be illegal, but Mitchell and Kleindienst denied they had authorized any of the break-ins at issue in the trial. (The Bureau used a national security justification for the searches because it alleged the Weather Underground was in the employ of Cuba.)\n\nThe jury returned guilty verdicts on November 6, 1980. Although the charge carried a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison, Felt was fined $5,000 and Miller was fined $3,500. Writing in The New York Times a week after the conviction, Roy Cohn claimed that Felt and Miller were being used as scapegoats by the Carter administration and it was an unfair prosecution. Cohn wrote it was the \"final dirty trick\" and that there had been no \"personal motive\" to their actions. The New York Times saluted the convictions, saying it showed \"the case has established that zeal is no excuse for violating the Constitution.\"\n\nFelt and Miller appealed the verdict.\n\nPardon\n\nIn a phone call on January 30, 1981, Edwin Meese encouraged President Ronald Reagan to issue a pardon, and, after further encouragement from Felt's former colleagues, President Reagan pardoned Felt. The pardon was signed on March 26, but was not announced to the public until April 15, 1981. (The delay was partly because Reagan was shot on March 30.) In the pardon, Reagan wrote:\n\nDuring their long careers, Mark Felt and Edward Miller served the Federal Bureau of Investigation and our nation with great distinction. To punish them further — after 3 years of criminal prosecution proceedings — would not serve the ends of justice.\n\nTheir convictions in the U.S. District Court, on appeal at the time I signed the pardons, grew out of their good-faith belief that their actions were necessary to preserve the security interests of our country. The record demonstrates that they acted not with criminal intent, but in the belief that they had grants of authority reaching to the highest levels of government.\n\nNixon sent Felt and Miller bottles of champagne with the note \"Justice ultimately prevails.\" The New York Times disapproved, saying that America \"deserved better than a gratuitous revision of the record by the President.\" Felt and Miller said they would seek repayment of their legal fees from the government.\n\nThe prosecutor at the trial, John W. Nields Jr., said, \"I would warrant that whoever is responsible for the pardons did not read the record of the trial and did not know the facts of the case.\" Nields also complained that the White House did not consult with the prosecutors in the case, which was the usual practice when a pardon was under consideration.\n\nFelt reacted by saying, \"I feel very excited and just so pleased that I can hardly contain myself. I am most grateful to the President. I don't know how I'm ever going to be able to thank him. It's just like having a heavy burden lifted off your back. This case has been dragging on for five years.\" Miller told a press conference the day of the announcement, \"I certainly owe the Gipper one.\" Their attorney, Thomas Kennelly, said, \"We thank God and we thank President Reagan that these two good men have been vindicated at last.\" Carter Attorney General Griffin Bell said he did not object to the pardons, as the convictions showed that behavior such as Felt and Miller's was no longer tolerated.\n\nDespite their pardons, Felt and Miller won permission from the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to appeal the conviction so as to remove it from their record and to prevent it from being used in civil suits by the victims of the break-ins they ordered. Ultimately, Felt's law license was returned by the court in 1982, which cited Reagan's pardon. In June 1982, Felt and Miller testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee's security and terrorism subcommittee that the restrictions placed on the FBI by Attorney General Edward H. Levi were threatening the country's safety.\n\nLater years\n\nFelt published his memoir The FBI Pyramid: From the Inside in 1979. It was co-written with Hoover biographer Ralph de Toledano, though the latter's name appears only in the copyright notice. Toledano in 2005 wrote that the volume was \"largely written by me since his original manuscript read like The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table.\" Toledano said:\nFelt swore to me that he was not Deep Throat, that he had never leaked information to the Woodward-Bernstein team or anyone else. The book was published and bombed.\n\nLibrary Journal wrote in its review that \"at one time Felt was assumed to be Watergate's 'Deep Throat'; in this interesting but hardly sensational memoir, he makes it clear that that honor, if honor it be, lies elsewhere.\" The memoir was a strong defense of Hoover and his tenure as Director and condemned the reaction to criticisms of the Bureau made in the 1970s by the Church Committee and civil libertarians. He also denounced the treatment of Bureau agents as criminals and said the Freedom of Information Act and Privacy Act of 1974 only served to interfere with government work and helped criminals. (The flavor of his criticisms is apparent with the very first words of the book: \"The Bill of Rights is not a suicide pact\", Justice Robert H. Jackson's comment in his dissent to Terminiello v. City of Chicago, 337 U.S. 1 (1949)). The New York Times Book Review was highly critical of the book, saying Felt \"seeks to perpetuate a view of Hoover and the FBI that is no longer seriously peddled even on the backs of cereal boxes\" and contains \"a disturbing number of factual errors\", sentiments echoed by Curt Gentry who said Felt was \"the keeper of the Hoover flame.\"\n\nIn 1990, Felt moved to Santa Rosa, California, from Alexandria, Virginia, his home since the 1970s. In 1992, he bought a house in Santa Rosa and after that lived with his daughter Joan Felt. He suffered a stroke before 1999, reported Ronald Kessler in his book The Bureau. According to Kessler's book, in the summer of 1999, Woodward showed up unexpectedly at the home of Felt's daughter and took him to lunch. Joan Felt, who was taking care of him at her home, told Kessler her father greeted Woodward like an old friend, and their mysterious meeting appeared to be more of a celebration than an interview.\n\n\"Woodward just showed up at the door and said he was in the area,\" Joan Felt was quoted as saying in Kessler's book, which was published in 2002. \"He came in a white limousine, which parked at a schoolyard about ten blocks away. He walked to the house. He asked if it was okay to have a martini with my father at lunch, and I said it would be fine.\"\n\nAfter Woodward left the house to get the limousine, which was parked almost three-quarters of a mile east at Comstock Junior High School, Joan Felt caught up with him to give him further instructions about what her father could eat for lunch. They walked together to the limo, and Joan Felt rode back with Woodward to pick up her father.\n\nKessler said in his book that the measures Woodward took to conceal his meeting with Felt lent \"credence\" to the notion that Felt was Deep Throat. After Woodward confirmed that Felt was Deep Throat, the New York Post said on June 3, 2005, \"There are plenty of people claiming they knew Deep Throat was actually former FBI man Mark Felt ... On May 3, 2002, PAGE SIX reported that Ronald Kessler, author of The Bureau: The Secret History of the FBI, says that all the evidence points to former top FBI official W. Mark Felt.\"\n\nDeep Throat speculation\n\nThe identity of Deep Throat was debated for more than three decades, and Felt was frequently mentioned as a possibility. An October 1990 Washingtonian magazine article about \"Washington secrets\" listed the 15 most prominent Deep Throat candidates, and Felt's name was among them.\n\nJack Limpert published evidence as early as 1974 that Felt was the informant. On June 25 of that year, a few weeks after All the President's Men was published, The Wall Street Journal ran an editorial, \"If You Drink Scotch, Smoke, Read, Maybe You're Deep Throat.\" It began \"W. Mark Felt says he isn't now, nor has he ever been Deep Throat.\" The Journal quoted Felt saying the character was a \"composite\" and \"I'm just not that kind of person.\" In 1975, George V. Higgins wrote: \"Mark Felt knows more reporters than most reporters do, and there are some who think he had a Washington Post alias borrowed from a dirty movie.\" During a grand jury investigation in 1976, Felt was called to testify and the prosecutor, Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights J. Stanley Pottinger, discovered that Felt was \"Deep Throat\", but the secrecy of the proceedings preserved the secrecy of Felt's alter ego from the public.\n\nIn 1992, James Mann, who had been a reporter at The Washington Post in 1972 and worked with Woodward, wrote a piece for The Atlantic Monthly saying the source had to have been within the FBI. While he mentioned Felt as a possibility, he said he could not be certain it was him.\n\nAlexander P. Butterfield, the White House aide best known for revealing the existence of Nixon's taping system, told The Hartford Courant in 1995, \"I think it was a guy named Mark Felt.\" In July 1999, Felt was identified as Deep Throat by The Hartford Courant, citing Chase Culeman-Beckman, a nineteen-year-old from Port Chester, New York. Culeman-Beckman said Jacob Bernstein, the son of Carl Bernstein and Nora Ephron, had told him the name at summer camp in 1988, and that Jacob claimed he had been told by his father. Felt denied the identification to the Courant saying \"No, it's not me. I would have done better. I would have been more effective. Deep Throat didn't exactly bring the White House crashing down, did he?\" Bernstein said his son didn't know. \"Bob and I have been wise enough never to tell our wives, and we've certainly never told our children.\" (Bernstein reiterated on June 2, 2005, on the Today Show that his wife had never known.)\n\nLeonard Garment, President Nixon's former law partner who became White House counsel after John W. Dean's resignation, ruled Felt out as Deep Throat in his 2000 book In Search of Deep Throat. Garment wrote:\nThe Felt theory was a strong one ... Felt had a personal motive for acting. After the death of J. Edgar Hoover ... Felt thought he was a leading candidate to succeed Hoover ... The characteristics were a good fit. The trouble with Felt's candidacy was that Deep Throat in All the President's Men simply did not sound to me like a career FBI man.\n\nGarment said the information leaked to Woodward was inside White House information Felt would not have had access to. \"Felt did not fit.\" (Once the secret was revealed, it was noted Felt did have access to such information because the Bureau's agents were interviewing high White House officials.)\n\nIn 2002, the San Francisco Chronicle profiled Felt. Noting his denial in The FBI Pyramid, the paper wrote:\nCuriously, his son — American Airlines pilot Mark Felt — now says that shouldn't be read as a definitive denial, and that he plans to answer the question once-and-for-all in a second memoir. The excerpt of the working draft obtained by the Chronicle has Felt still denying he's Throat but providing a rationale for why Throat did the right thing.\n\nIn February 2005, reports surfaced that Woodward had prepared Deep Throat's obituary because he was near death. Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist was battling cancer at the time (he would die in September 2005), and the rumors led to speculation that Rehnquist might have been Deep Throat. Rehnquist was a Justice Department official early in the Nixon administration and was an associate justice of the Supreme Court at the time Deep Throat was active.\n\nDeep Throat revealed\n\nVanity Fair magazine revealed Felt was Deep Throat on May 31, 2005 when it published an article (eventually appearing in the July issue of the magazine) on its website by John D. O'Connor, an attorney acting on Felt's behalf, in which Felt said, \"I'm the guy they used to call Deep Throat.\" After the Vanity Fair story broke, Benjamin C. Bradlee, the Editor of the Washington Post during Watergate, confirmed that Felt was Deep Throat. According to the Vanity Fair article, Felt was persuaded to come out by his family, who wanted to capitalize on the book deals and other lucrative opportunities that Felt would inevitably be offered in order, at least in part, to pay off his grandchildren's education. \n\nPublic response varied widely. Felt's family called him an \"American hero\", suggesting that he leaked information for moral or patriotic reasons. G. Gordon Liddy, who was convicted of burglary in the Watergate scandal, said Felt should have gone to the grand jury rather than leak. Some critics doubted Felt's story on the grounds that his mental state was foggy since the stroke he had had several years earlier. Soon afterwards, however, Woodward and Bernstein both confirmed that Felt was in fact Deep Throat.\n\nNixon's Chief Counsel Charles Colson, who served prison time for his actions in the Nixon White House, said Felt had violated \"his oath to keep this nation's secrets\", but a Los Angeles Times editorial argued that this argument was specious, \"as if there's no difference between nuclear strategy and rounding up hush money to silence your hired burglars.\" Ralph de Toledano, who co-wrote Felt's 1979 memoir, said Mark Felt Jr. had approached him in 2004 to buy Toledano's half of the copyright. Toledano agreed to sell but was never paid and attempted to rescind the deal, threatening legal action. A few days before the Vanity Fair article was released, Toledano finally received a check. He later said:\n\nI had been gloriously and illegally deceived, and Deep Throat was, in characteristic style, back in business — which given his history of betrayal, was par for the course.\n\nSpeculation about Felt's motives at the time of the scandal has varied widely as well. Some suggested it was revenge for Nixon's choosing Gray over Felt to replace Hoover as FBI Director. Others suggest Felt acted out of institutional loyalty to the FBI. Political scientist George Friedman argued that: \"The Washington Post created a morality play about an out-of-control government brought to heel by two young, enterprising journalists and a courageous newspaper. That simply wasn't what happened. Instead, it was about the FBI using The Washington Post to leak information to destroy the president, and The Washington Post willingly serving as the conduit for that information while withholding an essential dimension of the story by concealing Deep Throat's identity.\" \n\nPublishers were interested in signing Felt to a book deal after the revelation. Weeks after the Vanity Fair article was released, PublicAffairs Books, whose CEO was a Washington Post reporter and editor during the Watergate era, announced that it signed a deal with Felt. The new book was to include material from his 1979 memoir with an update. The new volume was scheduled for publication in the spring of 2006. Felt sold the movie rights to his story to Universal Pictures for development by Tom Hanks's production company, Playtone. The book and movie deals were valued at US $1 million.\n\nIn the summer of 2005, Woodward published his account of his contacts with Felt, The Secret Man: The Story of Watergate's Deep Throat (ISBN 0-7432-8715-0).\n\nDeath\n\nFelt died at home in his sleep on December 18, 2008. According to his daughter, he had been feeling fine, but after a big breakfast, he remarked that he was tired and went back to bed. He was 95 years old. His death was attributed to heart failure.", "Watergate was a major political scandal that occurred in the United States in the 1970s, following a break-in at the Democratic National Committee (DNC) headquarters at the Watergate office complex in Washington, D.C. and President Richard Nixon's administration's attempted cover-up of its involvement. When the conspiracy was discovered and investigated by the U.S. Congress, the Nixon administration's resistance to its probes led to a constitutional crisis. \n\nThe term Watergate has come to encompass an array of clandestine and often illegal activities undertaken by members of the Nixon administration. Those activities included such \"dirty tricks\" as bugging the offices of political opponents and people of whom Nixon or his officials were suspicious. Nixon and his close aides ordered harassment of activist groups and political figures, using the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).\n\nThe scandal led to the discovery of multiple abuses of power by the Nixon administration, articles of impeachment, and the resignation of Nixon as President of the United States on August 9, 1974. The scandal also resulted in the indictment of 69 people, with trials or pleas resulting in 25 being found guilty and incarcerated, many of whom were Nixon's top administration officials.\n\nThe affair began with the arrest of five men for breaking and entering into the DNC headquarters at the Watergate complex on Saturday, June 17, 1972. The FBI investigated and discovered a connection between cash found on the burglars and a slush fund used by the Committee for the Re-Election of the President (CREEP), the official organization of Nixon's campaign. In July 1973, evidence mounted against the President's staff, including testimony provided by former staff members in an investigation conducted by the Senate Watergate Committee. The investigation revealed that President Nixon had a tape-recording system in his offices and that he had recorded many conversations. \n\nAfter a protracted series of bitter court battles, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously ruled that the president was obligated to release the tapes to government investigators, and he eventually complied. These audio recordings implicated the president, revealing he had attempted to cover up activities that took place after the break-in and to use federal officials to deflect the investigation. \nFacing near-certain impeachment in the House of Representatives and equally certain conviction by the Senate, Nixon resigned the presidency on August 9, 1974. On September 8, 1974, his successor, Gerald Ford, pardoned him.\n\nThe name \"Watergate\" and the suffix \"-gate\" have since become synonymous with political scandals in the United States and elsewhere. \n\nWiretapping of the Democratic Party's headquarters \n\nIn January 1972, G. Gordon Liddy, general counsel to the Committee for the Re-Election of the President (CREEP), presented a campaign intelligence plan to CREEP's Acting Chairman Jeb Stuart Magruder, Attorney General John Mitchell, and Presidential Counsel John Dean, that involved extensive illegal activities against the Democratic Party. According to Dean, this marked \"the opening scene of the worst political scandal of the twentieth century and the beginning of the end of the Nixon presidency.\" \n\nMitchell viewed the plan as unrealistic. Two months later, he was alleged to have approved a reduced version of the plan, to include burgling the Democratic National Committee's (DNC) headquarters at the Watergate Complex in Washington, D.C.—ostensibly to photograph campaign documents and install listening devices in telephones. Liddy was nominally in charge of the operation, but has since insisted that he was duped by Dean and at least two of his subordinates. These included former CIA officers E. Howard Hunt and James McCord, then-CREEP Security Coordinator (John Mitchell had by then resigned as Attorney General to become chairman of the CREEP).[http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/longterm/watergate/stories/mitchobit.htm Lawrence Meyer, \"John N. Mitchell, Principal in Watergate, Dies at 75\"], The Washington Post, November 10, 1988\n\nIn May, McCord assigned former FBI agent Alfred C. Baldwin III to carry out the wiretapping and monitor the telephone conversations afterward.[http://spartacus-educational.com/JFKbaldwinA.htm Alfred C. Baldwin] Spartacus Educational. Retrieved May 17, 2015 McCord testified that he selected Baldwin's name from a registry published by the Society of Former Special Agents of the FBI to work for the Committee to Re-elect the President. Baldwin first served as bodyguard to Martha Mitchell, the wife of John Mitchell, who was living in Washington. Baldwin accompanied Martha Mitchell to Chicago. Martha did not like Baldwin and described him as the \"gauchest character I've ever met.\" The Committee replaced Baldwin with another security man.\n\nOn May 11, McCord arranged for Baldwin, whom investigative reporter Jim Hougan described as \"somehow special and perhaps well known to McCord,\" to stay at the Howard Johnson's motel across the street from the Watergate complex. The room 419 was booked in the name of McCord’s company. At behest of G. Gordon Liddy and E. Howard Hunt, McCord and his team of burglars prepared for their first Watergate break-in, which began on May 28.\n\nTwo phones inside the offices of the DNC headquarters were said to have been wiretapped. One was the phone of Robert Spencer Oliver, who at the time was working as the executive director of the Association of State Democratic Chairmen, and the other was the phone of DNC secretary Larry O'Brien. The FBI found no evidence that O'Brien's phone was bugged. However, it was determined that an effective listening device had been installed in Oliver's phone.\n\nDespite the success in installing the listening devices, the Committee agents soon determined that they needed to be repaired. They planned a second \"burglary\" in order to take care of this.\n\nShortly after midnight on June 17, 1972, Frank Wills, a security guard at the Watergate Complex, noticed tape covering the latches on some of the doors in the complex leading from the underground parking garage to several offices (allowing the doors to close but remain unlocked). He removed the tape, and thought nothing of it. He returned an hour later and, having discovered that someone had retaped the locks, Wills called the police. Five men were discovered inside the DNC office and arrested. They were Virgilio González, Bernard Barker, James McCord, Eugenio Martínez, and Frank Sturgis, who were charged with attempted burglary and attempted interception of telephone and other communications. On September 15, a grand jury indicted them, as well as Hunt and Liddy, for conspiracy, burglary, and violation of federal wiretapping laws. The five burglars who broke into the office were tried by a jury, Judge John Sirica officiating, and were convicted on January 30, 1973. \n\nCover-up and its unraveling \n\nInitial cover-up \n\nWithin hours of the burglars' arrest, the FBI discovered the name of E. Howard Hunt in the address books of Barker and Martínez. Nixon administration officials were concerned because Hunt and Liddy were also involved in a separate secret activity known as the White House Plumbers, which was set up to stop security \"leaks\" and to investigate other sensitive security matters. Dean would later testify he was ordered by top Nixon aide John Ehrlichman to \"deep six\" the contents of Howard Hunt's White House safe. Ehrlichman subsequently denied that. In the end, the evidence from Hunt's safe was destroyed (in separate operations) by Dean and the FBI's Acting Director, L. Patrick Gray.\n\nNixon's own reaction to the break-in, at least initially, was one of skepticism. Watergate prosecutor James Neal was sure Nixon had not known in advance of the break-in. As evidence, he cited a June 23 taped conversation between the President and his Chief of Staff, H. R. Haldeman, in which Nixon asked, \"Who was the asshole who ordered it?\" But Nixon subsequently ordered Haldeman to have the CIA block the FBI's investigation into the source of the funding for the burglary.\n\nA few days later, Nixon's Press Secretary, Ron Ziegler, described the event as \"a third-rate burglary attempt.\" On August 29, at a news conference, President Nixon stated Dean had conducted a thorough investigation of the matter, when in fact Dean had not conducted any investigation at all. Nixon also said, \"I can say categorically that... no one in the White House staff, no one in this Administration, presently employed, was involved in this very bizarre incident.\" On September 15, Nixon congratulated Dean, saying, \"The way you've handled it, it seems to me, has been very skillful, because you—putting your fingers in the dikes every time that leaks have sprung here and sprung there.\"\n\nMoney trail \n\nOn June 19, 1972, the press reported that one of the Watergate burglars was a Republican Party security aide. Former Attorney General John Mitchell, who at the time was the head of the Nixon re-election campaign (CRP), denied any involvement with the Watergate break-in or knowledge of the five burglars. On August 1, a $25,000 cashier's check earmarked for the Nixon re-election campaign was found in the bank account of one of the Watergate burglars. Further investigation by the FBI would reveal the team had thousands of dollars more to support their travel and expenses in the months leading up to their arrests. Examination of their funds showed a link to the finance committee of CRP.\n\nSeveral donations (totaling $86,000) were made by individuals who thought they were making private donations by certified and cashier's checks for the President's re-election. Investigators' examination of the bank records of a Miami company run by Watergate burglar Barker revealed an account controlled by him personally had deposited a check and then transferred it (through the Federal Reserve Check Clearing System).\n\nThe banks that had originated the checks were keen to ensure the depository institution used by Barker had acted properly in ensuring the checks had been received and endorsed by the check's payee, before its acceptance for deposit in Bernard Barker's account. Only in this way would the issuing banks not be held liable for the unauthorized and improper release of funds from their customers' accounts.\n\nThe investigation by the FBI, which cleared Barker's bank of fiduciary malfeasance, led to the direct implication of members of the CRP, to whom the checks had been delivered. Those individuals were the Committee bookkeeper and its treasurer, Hugh Sloan.\n\nAs a private organization, the Committee followed normal business practice in allowing only duly authorized individual(s) to accept and endorse checks on behalf of the Committee. No financial institution could accept or process a check on behalf of the Committee unless a duly authorized individual endorsed it. The checks deposited into Barker's bank account were endorsed by Committee treasurer Hugh Sloan, who was authorized by the Finance Committee. However, once Sloan had endorsed a check made payable to the Committee, he had a legal and fiduciary responsibility to see that the check was deposited only into the accounts named on the check. Sloan failed to do that. When confronted with the potential charge of federal bank fraud, he revealed that Committee deputy director Jeb Magruder and finance director Maurice Stans had directed him to give the money to G. Gordon Liddy.\n\nLiddy, in turn, gave the money to Barker, and attempted to hide its origin. Barker tried to disguise the funds by depositing them into accounts in banks outside of the United States. What Barker, Liddy, and Sloan did not know was that the complete record of all such transactions were held for roughly six months. Barker's use of foreign banks in April and May 1972, to deposit checks and withdraw the funds via cashier's checks and money orders, resulted in the banks keeping the entire transaction records until October and November 1972.\n\nAll five Watergate burglars were directly or indirectly tied to the 1972 CRP, thus causing Judge Sirica to suspect a conspiracy involving higher-echelon government officials. \n\nOn September 29, 1972, the press reported that John Mitchell, while serving as Attorney General, controlled a secret Republican fund used to finance intelligence-gathering against the Democrats. On October 10, the FBI reported the Watergate break-in was part of a massive campaign of political spying and sabotage on behalf of the Nixon re-election committee. Despite these revelations, Nixon's campaign was never seriously jeopardized; on November 7, the President was re-elected in one of the biggest landslides in American political history.\n\nRole of the media \n\nThe connection between the break-in and the re-election committee was highlighted by media coverage—in particular, investigative coverage by The Washington Post, Time, and The New York Times. The coverage dramatically increased publicity and consequent political repercussions. Relying heavily upon anonymous sources, Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein uncovered information suggesting that knowledge of the break-in, and attempts to cover it up, led deeply into the upper reaches of the Justice Department, FBI, CIA, and the White House. Woodward and Bernstein interviewed Judy Hoback Miller, the bookkeeper for Nixon, who revealed to them information about the mishandling of funds and records being destroyed. \n\nChief among the Post's anonymous sources was an individual whom Woodward and Bernstein had nicknamed Deep Throat; 33 years later, in 2005, the informant was identified as William Mark Felt, Sr., deputy director of the FBI during that period of the 1970s, something Woodward later confirmed. Felt met secretly with Woodward several times, telling him of Howard Hunt's involvement with the Watergate break-in, and that the White House staff regarded the stakes in Watergate extremely high. Felt warned Woodward that the FBI wanted to know where he and other reporters were getting their information, as they were uncovering a wider web of crimes than the FBI first disclosed. All of the secret meetings between Woodward and \"Deep Throat\" (W. Mark Felt) took place at an underground parking garage somewhere in Rosslyn over a period from June 1972 to January 1973. Prior to resigning from the FBI on June 22, 1973, Felt also anonymously planted leaks about Watergate to Time magazine, the Washington Daily News and other publications.[http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/02/14/v-fullstory/2639954/the-profound-lies-of-deep-throat.html \"The profound lies of Deep Throat\"], The Miami Herald, February 14, 2012 \n\nDuring this early period, most of the media failed to grasp the full implications of the scandal, and concentrated reporting on other topics related to the 1972 presidential election. After the reporting that one of the convicted burglars wrote to Judge Sirica alleging a high-level cover-up, the media shifted its focus. Time magazine described Nixon as undergoing \"daily hell and very little trust.\" The distrust between the press and the Nixon administration was mutual and greater than usual due to lingering dissatisfaction with events from the Vietnam War. At the same time, public distrust of the media was polled at more than 40%.\n\nNixon and top administration officials discussed using government agencies to \"get\" (or retaliate against) those they perceived as hostile media organizations. The discussions had precedent. At the request of Nixon's White House in 1969, the FBI tapped the phones of five reporters. In 1971, the White House requested an audit of the tax return of the editor of Newsday, after he wrote a series of articles about the financial dealings of Charles Rebozo, a friend of Nixon. \n\nThe Administration and its supporters accused the media of making \"wild accusations,\" putting too much emphasis on the story, and of having a liberal bias against the Administration. Nixon said in a May 1974 interview with supporter Baruch Korff that if he had followed the liberal policies that he thought the media preferred, \"Watergate would have been a blip.\" The media noted that most of the reporting turned out to be accurate; the competitive nature of the media guaranteed widespread coverage of the far-reaching political scandal. Applications to journalism schools reached an all-time high in 1974.\n\nScandal Escalates \n\nRather than ending with the conviction and sentencing to prison of the five Watergate burglars on January 30, 1973, the investigation into the break-in and the Nixon Administration's involvement grew broader. Nixon's conversations in late March and all of April 1973 revealed that not only did he know he needed to remove Haldeman, Ehrlichman, and Dean to gain distance from them, but he had to do so in a way that was least likely to incriminate him and his presidency. Nixon created a new conspiracy—to effect a cover-up of the cover-up—which began in late March 1973 and became fully formed in May and June 1973, operating until his presidency ended on August 9, 1974. On March 23, 1973, Judge Sirica read the court a letter from Watergate burglar James McCord, who alleged that perjury had been committed in the Watergate trial, and defendants had been pressured to remain silent. Trying to make them talk, Sirica gave Hunt and two burglars provisional sentences of up to 40 years.\n\nOn March 28, on Nixon's orders, aide John Ehrlichman told Attorney General Richard Kleindienst that nobody in the White House had prior knowledge of the burglary. On April 13, Magruder told U.S. attorneys that he had perjured himself during the burglars' trial, and implicated John Dean and John Mitchell.\n\nJohn Dean believed that he, Mitchell, Ehrlichman and Haldeman could go to the prosecutors, tell the truth, and save the presidency. Dean wanted to protect the presidency and have his four closest men take the fall for telling the truth. During the critical meeting with Dean and Nixon on April 15, 1973, Dean was totally unaware of the president's depth of knowledge and involvement in the Watergate cover-up. It was during this meeting that Dean felt that he was being recorded. He wondered if this was due to the way Nixon was speaking, as if he were trying to prod attendees; recollections of earlier conversations about fundraising. Dean mentioned this observation while testifying to the Senate Committee on Watergate, exposing the thread of what were taped conversations that would unravel the fabric of Watergate. \n\nTwo days later, Dean told Nixon that he had been cooperating with the U.S. attorneys. On that same day, U.S. attorneys told Nixon that Haldeman, Ehrlichman, Dean and other White House officials were implicated in the cover-up. \n\nOn April 30, Nixon asked for the resignation of Haldeman and Ehrlichman, two of his most influential aides. They were later both indicted, convicted, and ultimately sentenced to prison. He asked for the resignation of Attorney General Kleindienst, to ensure no one could claim that his innocent friendship with Haldeman and Ehrlichman could be construed as a conflict. He fired White House Counsel John Dean, who went on to testify before the Senate Watergate Committee and said that he believed and suspected the conversations in the Oval Office were being taped. This information became the bombshell that helped force Richard Nixon to resign rather than be impeached. \n\nWriting from prison for New West and New York magazines in 1977, Ehrlichman claimed Nixon had offered him a large sum of money, which he declined. \n\nThe President announced the resignations in an address to the American people:\n\nOn the same day, Nixon appointed a new attorney general, Elliot Richardson, and gave him authority to designate a special counsel for the Watergate investigation who would be independent of the regular Justice Department hierarchy. In May 1973, Richardson named Archibald Cox to the position.\n\nSenate Watergate hearings and revelation of the Watergate tapes \n\nOn February 7, 1973, the United States Senate voted 77–0 to approve Senate Resolution and establish a select committee to investigate Watergate, with Sam Ervin named chairman the next day.[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,942983-1,00.html \"WATERGATE RETROSPECTIVE: THE DECLINE AND FALL\"], Time, August 19, 1974 The hearings held by the Senate committee, in which Dean and other former administration officials testified, were broadcast from May 17 to August 7, 1973. The three major networks of the time agreed to take turns covering the hearings live, each network thus maintaining coverage of the hearings every third day, starting with ABC on May 17 and ending with NBC on August 7. An estimated 85% of Americans with television sets tuned into at least one portion of the hearings. \n\nOn Friday, July 13, 1973, during a preliminary interview, deputy minority counsel Donald Sanders asked White House assistant Alexander Butterfield if there was any type of recording system in the White House. \nButterfield said he was reluctant to answer, but finally stated there was a new system in the White House that automatically recorded everything in the Oval Office, the Cabinet Room and others, as well as Nixon's private office in the Old Executive Office Building.\n\nOn Monday, July 16, 1973, in front of a live, televised audience, chief minority counsel Fred Thompson asked Butterfield whether he was \"aware of the installation of any listening devices in the Oval Office of the President.\" Butterfield's revelation of the taping system transformed the Watergate investigation. Cox immediately subpoenaed the tapes, as did the Senate, but Nixon refused to release them, citing his executive privilege as president, and ordered Cox to drop his subpoena. Cox refused. \n\n\"Saturday Night Massacre\" \n\nOn October 20, 1973, after Cox refused to drop the subpoena, Nixon commanded Attorney General Elliot Richardson, and then Richardson's deputy, William Ruckelshaus, to fire the special prosecutor. Richardson and Ruckelshaus both refused to fire Cox and resigned in protest. Nixon's search for someone in the Justice Department willing to fire Cox ended with the Solicitor General Robert Bork. Though Bork claims to believe Nixon's order was valid and appropriate, he considered resigning to avoid being \"perceived as a man who did the President's bidding to save my job.\" Bork carried out the presidential order and dismissed the special prosecutor.\n\nThese actions met considerable public criticism. Responding to the allegations of possible wrongdoing, in front of 400 Associated Press managing editors on November 17, 1973, Nixon stated emphatically, \"I'm not a crook.\" He needed to allow Bork to appoint a new special prosecutor; Bork chose Leon Jaworski to continue the investigation.\n\nLegal action against Nixon Administration members \n\nOn March 1, 1974, a grand jury in Washington, D.C., indicted several former aides of President Nixon, who became known as the \"Watergate Seven\": Haldeman, Ehrlichman, Mitchell, Charles Colson, Gordon C. Strachan, Robert Mardian and Kenneth Parkinson, for conspiring to hinder the Watergate investigation. The grand jury secretly named President Nixon as an unindicted co-conspirator. The special prosecutor dissuaded them from an indictment of Nixon, arguing that a President can only be indicted after he leaves office. John Dean, Jeb Stuart Magruder, and other figures had already pleaded guilty. On April 5, 1974, Dwight Chapin, the former Nixon appointments secretary, was convicted of lying to the grand jury. Two days later, the same grand jury indicted Ed Reinecke, the Republican lieutenant governor of California, on three charges of perjury before the Senate committee.\n\nRelease of the transcripts \n\nThe Nixon administration struggled to decide what materials to release. All parties involved agreed that all pertinent information should be released. Whether to release unedited profanity and vulgarity divided his advisers. His legal team favored releasing the tapes unedited, while Press Secretary Ron Ziegler preferred using an edited version where \"expletive deleted\" would replace the raw material. After several weeks of debate, they decided to release an edited version. Nixon announced the release of the transcripts in a speech to the nation on April 29, 1974. Nixon noted that any audio pertinent to national security information could be redacted from the released tapes. \n\nInitially, Nixon gained a positive reaction for his speech. As people read the transcripts over the next couple of weeks, however, former supporters among the public, media and political community called for Nixon's resignation or impeachment. Vice President Gerald Ford said, \"While it may be easy to delete characterization from the printed page, we cannot delete characterization from people's minds with a wave of the hand.\" The Senate Republican Leader Hugh Scott said the transcripts revealed a \"deplorable, disgusting, shabby, and immoral\" performance on the part of the President and his former aides. The House Republican Leader John Jacob Rhodes agreed with Scott, and Rhodes recommended that if Nixon's position continued to deteriorate, he \"ought to consider resigning as a possible option.\" \n\nThe editors of The Chicago Tribune, a newspaper that had supported Nixon, wrote, \"He is humorless to the point of being inhumane. He is devious. He is vacillating. He is profane. He is willing to be led. He displays dismaying gaps in knowledge. He is suspicious of his staff. His loyalty is minimal.\" The Providence Journal wrote, \"Reading the transcripts is an emetic experience; one comes away feeling unclean.\" This newspaper continued, that, while the transcripts may not have revealed an indictable offense, they showed Nixon contemptuous of the United States, its institutions, and its people. According to Time magazine, the Republican Party leaders in the Western United States felt that while there remained a significant number of Nixon loyalists in the party, the majority believed that Nixon should step down as quickly as possible. They were disturbed by the bad language and the coarse, vindictive tone of the conversations in the transcripts. \n\nSupreme Court \n\nThe issue of access to the tapes went to the US Supreme Court. On July 24, 1974, in United States v. Nixon, the Court, which did not include the recused Justice William Rehnquist (who had recently been appointed by Nixon and had served as Assistant Attorney General of the Office of Legal Counsel in the Nixon Justice Department), ruled unanimously that claims of executive privilege over the tapes were void. They ordered the president to release them to the special prosecutor. On July 30, 1974, President Nixon complied with the order and released the subpoenaed tapes for the public.\n\nRelease of the tapes \n\nThe tapes revealed several crucial conversations that took place between the President and his counsel, John Dean, on March 21, 1973. In this conversation, Dean summarized many aspects of the Watergate case, and focused on the subsequent cover-up, describing it as a \"cancer on the presidency.\" The burglary team was being paid hush money for their silence and Dean stated: \"That's the most troublesome post-thing, because Bob [Haldeman] is involved in that; John [Ehrlichman] is involved in that; I am involved in that; Mitchell is involved in that. And that's an obstruction of justice.\" Dean continued, stating that Howard Hunt was blackmailing the White House, demanding money immediately; President Nixon replied that the blackmail money should be paid: \"…just looking at the immediate problem, don't you have to have – handle Hunt's financial situation damn soon? […] you've got to keep the cap on the bottle that much, in order to have any options.\" \n\nAt the time of the initial congressional impeachment, it was not known if Nixon had known and approved of the payments to the Watergate defendants earlier than this conversation. Nixon's conversation with Haldeman on August 1, 1972, is one of several that establishes he did. Nixon states: \"Well…they have to be paid. That's all there is to that. They have to be paid.\" During the congressional debate on impeachment, some believed that impeachment required a criminally indictable offense. President Nixon's agreement to make the blackmail payments was regarded as an affirmative act to obstruct justice. \n\nOn December 7, 1973, investigators found that an 18½ minute portion of one recorded tape had been erased. Rose Mary Woods, Nixon's longtime personal secretary, said she had accidentally erased the tape by pushing the wrong pedal on her tape player when answering the phone. The press ran photos of the set-up, showing that it was unlikely for Woods to answer the phone while keeping her foot on the pedal. Later forensic analysis in 2003 determined that the tape had been erased in several segments – at least five, and perhaps as many as nine. \n\nFinal investigations and resignation \n\nNixon's position was becoming increasingly precarious. On February 6, 1974, the House of Representatives approved giving the Judiciary Committee authority to investigate impeachment of the President. On July 27, 1974, the House Judiciary Committee voted 27–11 to recommend the first article of impeachment against the president: obstruction of justice. The House recommended the second article, abuse of power, on July 29, 1974. The next day, on July 30, 1974, the House recommended the third article: contempt of Congress. On August 20, 1974, the House authorized the printing of the Committee report H. Rept. 93-1305, which included the text of the resolution impeaching President Nixon and set forth articles of impeachment against him. \n\n\"Smoking Gun\" tape \n\nOn August 5, 1974, the White House released a previously unknown audio tape from June 23, 1972. Recorded only a few days after the break-in, it documented the initial stages of the cover-up: it revealed Nixon, Swingle, and Haldeman meeting in the Oval Office and formulating a plan to block investigations by having the CIA falsely claim to the FBI that national security was involved.\n\nHaldeman introduced the topic as follows:\n…the Democratic break-in thing, we're back to the–in the, the problem area because the FBI is not under control, because Gray doesn't exactly know how to control them, and they have… their investigation is now leading into some productive areas […] and it goes in some directions we don't want it to go.\n\nAfter explaining how the money from CRP was traced to the burglars, Haldeman explained to Nixon the cover-up plan: \"the way to handle this now is for us to have Walters [CIA] call Pat Gray [FBI] and just say, 'Stay the hell out of this …this is ah, business here we don't want you to go any further on it.\n\nPresident Nixon approved the plan, and after he was given more information about the involvement of his campaign in the break-in, he told Haldeman: \"All right, fine, I understand it all. We won't second-guess Mitchell and the rest.\" Returning to the use of the CIA to obstruct the FBI, he instructed Haldeman: \"You call them in. Good. Good deal. Play it tough. That's the way they play it and that's the way we are going to play it.\" \n\nNixon denied that this constituted an obstruction of justice, as his instructions ultimately resulted in the CIA truthfully reporting to the FBI that there were no national security issues. Nixon urged the FBI to press forward with the investigation when they expressed concern about interference. \n\nBefore the release of this tape, President Nixon had denied any involvement in the scandal. He claimed that there were no political motivations in his instructions to the CIA, and claimed he had no knowledge before March 21, 1973, of involvement by senior campaign officials such as John Mitchell. The contents of this tape persuaded Nixon's own lawyers, Fred Buzhardt and James St. Clair, that, \"The tape proved that the President had lied to the nation, to his closest aides, and to his own lawyers - for more than two years.\" The tape, which was referred to as a \"smoking gun\" by Barber Conable, proved that Nixon had been involved in the cover-up from the beginning.\n\nIn the week before Nixon's resignation, Ehrlichman and Haldeman tried unsuccessfully to get Nixon to grant them pardons—which he had promised them before their April 1973 resignations. \n\nResignation \n\nThe release of the \"smoking gun\" tape destroyed Nixon politically. The ten congressmen who had voted against all three articles of impeachment in the House Judiciary Committee announced they would all support impeachment when the vote was taken in the full House.\n\nOn the night of August 7, 1974, Senators Barry Goldwater and Hugh Scott and Congressman John Jacob Rhodes met with Nixon in the Oval Office and told him that his support in Congress had all but disappeared. Rhodes told Nixon that he would face certain impeachment when the articles came up for vote in the full House. Goldwater and Scott told the president that there were enough votes in the Senate to convict him, and that no more than 15 Senators were willing to vote for acquittal.\n\nRealizing that he had no chance of staying in office, Nixon decided to resign. In a nationally televised address from the Oval Office on the evening of August 8, 1974, the president said, in part:\n\nThe morning that his resignation took effect, the President, with Mrs. Nixon and their family, said farewell to the White House staff in the East Room. A helicopter carried them from the White House to Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland. Nixon later wrote that he thought, \"As the helicopter moved on to Andrews, I found myself thinking not of the past, but of the future. What could I do now?\" At Andrews, he and his family boarded Air Force One to El Toro Marine Corps Air Station in California, and then were transported to his home in San Clemente.\n\nPresident Ford's pardon of Nixon \n\nWith President Nixon's resignation, Congress dropped its impeachment proceedings. Criminal prosecution was still a possibility both on the federal and state level. Nixon was succeeded by Vice President Gerald Ford as President, who on September 8, 1974, issued a full and unconditional pardon of Nixon, immunizing him from prosecution for any crimes he had \"committed or may have committed or taken part in\" as president. In a televised broadcast to the nation, Ford explained that he felt the pardon was in the best interest of the country. He said that the Nixon family's situation \"is an American tragedy in which we all have played a part. It could go on and on and on, or someone must write the end to it. I have concluded that only I can do that, and if I can, I must.\" \n\nNixon proclaimed his innocence until his death in 1994. In his official response to the pardon, he said that he \"...was wrong in not acting more decisively and more forthrightly in dealing with Watergate, particularly when it reached the stage of judicial proceedings and grew from a political scandal into a national tragedy.\" \n\nSome commentators have argued that pardoning Nixon contributed to President Ford's loss of the presidential election of 1976. Allegations of a secret deal made with Ford, promising a pardon in return for Nixon's resignation, led Ford to testify before the House Judiciary Committee on October 17, 1974. \n\nIn his autobiography A Time to Heal, Ford wrote about a meeting he had with Nixon's Chief of Staff, Alexander Haig. Haig was explaining what he and Nixon's staff thought were Nixon's only options. He could try to ride out the impeachment and fight against conviction in the Senate all the way, or he could resign. His options for resigning were to delay his resignation until further along in the impeachment process, to try and settle for a censure vote in Congress, or to pardon himself and then resign. Haig told Ford that some of Nixon's staff suggested that Nixon could agree to resign in return for an agreement that Ford would pardon him.\n\nAftermath \n\nFinal legal actions and effect on the law profession \n\nCharles Colson pleaded guilty to charges concerning the Daniel Ellsberg case; in exchange, the indictment against him for covering up the activities of the Committee to Re-elect the President was dropped, as it was against Strachan. The remaining five members of the Watergate Seven indicted in March went on trial in October 1974. On January 1, 1975, all but Parkinson were found guilty. In 1976, the U.S. Court of Appeals ordered a new trial for Mardian; subsequently, all charges against him were dropped.\n\nHaldeman, Ehrlichman, and Mitchell exhausted their appeals in 1977. Ehrlichman entered prison in 1976, followed by the other two in 1977. Since Nixon and many senior officials involved in Watergate were lawyers, the scandal severely tarnished the public image of the legal profession. \n\nThe Watergate scandal resulted in 69 government officials being charged and 48 being found guilty, including:\n#John N. Mitchell, Attorney General of the United States who resigned to become Director of Committee to Re-elect the President, convicted of perjury about his involvment in the Watergate break-in. Served 19 months of a one- to four-year sentence.\n#Richard Kleindienst, Attorney General, convicted of \"refusing to answer questions\" (contempt of court); given one month in jail. \n#Jeb Stuart Magruder, Deputy Director of Committee to Re-elect the President, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to the burglary, and was sentenced to 10 months to four years in prison, of which he served 7 months before being paroled. \n#Frederick C. LaRue, Advisor to John Mitchell, convicted of obstruction of justice. He served four and a half months.\n#H. R. Haldeman, Chief of Staff for Nixon, convicted of conspiracy to the burglary, obstruction of justice, and perjury. Served 18 months in prison. \n#John Ehrlichman, Counsel to Nixon, convicted of conspiracy to the burglary, obstruction of justice, and perjury. Served 18 months in prison. \n#Egil Krogh, aide to John Ehrlichman, sentenced to six months.\n#John W. Dean III, counsel to Nixon, convicted of obstruction of justice, later reduced to felony offenses and sentenced to time already served, which totaled 4 months.\n#Dwight L. Chapin, deputy assistant to Nixon, convicted of perjury.\n#Herbert W. Kalmbach, personal attorney to Nixon, convicted of illegal campaigning.\n#Charles W. Colson, special counsel to Nixon, convicted of obstruction of justice. Served 7 months in Federal Maxwell Prison.\n#Herbert L. Porter, aide to the Committee to Re-elect the President. Convicted of perjury.\n... and the actual Watergate \"Burglary\" team:\n#G. Gordon Liddy, Special Investigations Group, convicted of masterminding the burglary, original sentence of up to 20 years in prison. Served 4½ years in federal prison.\n#E. Howard Hunt, Security consultant, convicted of masterminding and overseeing the burglary, original sentence of up to 35 years in prison. Served 33 months in prison. \n#James W. McCord Jr., convicted of six charges of burglary, conspiracy and wiretapping. Served 2 months in prison.\n#Virgilio Gonzalez, convicted of burglary, original sentence of up to 40 years in prison. Served 13 months in prison.\n#Bernard Barker, convicted of burglary, original sentence of up to 40 years in prison. Served 18 months in prison. \n#Eugenio Martinez, convicted of burglary, original sentence of up to 40 years in prison. Served 15 months in prison.\n#Frank Sturgis, convicted of burglary, original sentence of up to 40 years in prison. Served 10 months in prison.\n\nTo defuse public demand for direct federal regulation of lawyers (as opposed to leaving it in the hands of state bar associations or courts), the American Bar Association (ABA) launched two major reforms. First, the ABA decided that its existing Model Code of Professional Responsibility (promulgated 1969) was a failure. In 1983 it replaced it with the Model Rules of Professional Conduct. The MRPC have been adopted in part or in whole by 49 states (and is being considered by the last one, California). Its preamble contains an emphatic reminder that the legal profession can remain self-governing only if lawyers behave properly. Second, the ABA promulgated a requirement that law students at ABA-approved law schools take a course in professional responsibility (which means they must study the MRPC). The requirement remains in effect.\n\nOn June 24 and 25, 1975, Nixon gave secret testimony to a grand jury. According to news reports at the time, Nixon answered questions about the 18½-minute tape gap, altering White House tape transcripts turned over to the House Judiciary Committee, using the Internal Revenue Service to harass political enemies, and a $100,000 contribution from billionaire Howard Hughes. Aided by the Public Citizen Litigation Group, the historian Stanley Kutler, who has written several books about Nixon and Watergate and had successfully sued for the 1996 public release of the Nixon White House tapes, sued for release of the transcripts of the Nixon grand jury testimony.\n\nOn July 29, 2011, U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth granted Kutler's request, saying historical interests trumped privacy, especially considering that Nixon and other key figures were deceased, and most of the surviving figures had testified under oath, have been written about, or were interviewed. The transcripts were not immediately released pending the government's decision on whether to appeal.[http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/07/29/us-nixon-watergate-idUSTRE76S4ZH20110729 \"Nixon's secret Watergate testimony ordered released\"], Reuters, July 29, 2011 They were released in their entirety on November 10, 2011, although the names of people still alive were redacted. \n\nTexas A&M University–Central Texas professor Luke Nichter wrote the chief judge of the federal court in Washington to release hundreds of pages of sealed records of the Watergate Seven. In June 2012 the U.S. Department of Justice wrote the court that it would not object to their release with some exceptions. On November 2, 2012, Watergate trial records for G. Gordon Liddy and James McCord were ordered unsealed by Federal Judge Royce Lamberth. \n\nPolitical and cultural reverberations \n\nAccording to Thomas J. Johnson, a professor of journalism at University of Texas at Austin, Secretary of State Henry Kissinger predicted during Nixon's final days that history would remember Nixon as a great president and that Watergate would be relegated to a \"minor footnote.\" \n\nWhen Congress investigated the scope of the president's legal powers, it belatedly found that consecutive presidential administrations had declared the United States to be in a continuous open-ended state of emergency since 1950. Congress enacted the National Emergencies Act in 1976 to regulate such declarations. The Watergate scandal left such an impression on the national and international consciousness that many scandals since then have been labeled with the suffix \"-gate\".\n\nDisgust with the revelations about Watergate, the Republican Party, and Nixon strongly affected results of the November 1974 Senate and House elections, which took place three months after Nixon's resignation. The Democrats gained five seats in the Senate and forty-nine in the House (the newcomers were nicknamed \"Watergate Babies\"). Congress passed legislation that changed campaign financing, to amend the Freedom of Information Act, as well as to require financial disclosures by key government officials (via the Ethics in Government Act). Other types of disclosures, such as releasing recent income tax forms, became expected albeit not legally required. Presidents since Franklin D. Roosevelt had recorded many of their conversations but the practice purportedly ended after Watergate.\n\nFord's pardon of Nixon played a major role in his defeat in the 1976 presidential election against Jimmy Carter.\n\nIn 1977, Nixon arranged an interview with British journalist David Frost in the hopes of improving his legacy. Based on a previous interview in 1968, he believed that Frost would be an easy interviewer and was taken aback by Frost's incisive questions. The interview displayed the entire scandal to the American people, and Nixon formally apologized, but his legacy remained tarnished. \n\nIn the aftermath of Watergate, \"follow the money\" became part of the American lexicon and is widely believed to have been uttered by Mark Felt to Woodward and Bernstein. The phrase was never used in the 1974 book All The President's Men and did not become associated with it until the movie of the same name was released in 1976. \n\nPurpose of the break-in \n\nDespite the enormous impact of the Watergate scandal, the purpose of the break-in of the DNC offices has never been conclusively established. Records from the United States v. Liddy trial, made public in 2013, showed that four of the five burglars testified that they were told the campaign operation hoped to find evidence that linked Cuban funding to Democratic campaigns. The longtime hypothesis suggests that the target of the break-in was the offices of Larry O'Brien, the DNC Chairman. However, O'Brien's name was not on Alfred C. Baldwin III's list of targets that was released in 2013. Among those listed were senior DNC official R. Spencer Oliver, Oliver's secretary Ida \"Maxine\" Wells, co-worker Robert Allen and secretary Barbara Kennedy.\n\nBased on these revelations, Texas A&M history professor Luke Nichter, who had successfully petitioned for the release of the information, argued that Woodward and Bernstein were incorrect in concluding, based largely on Watergate burglar James McCord's word, that the purpose of the break-in was to bug O'Brien's phone to gather political and financial intelligence on the Democrats. Instead, Nichter sided with late journalist J. Anthony Lukas of the New York Times, who had concluded that the committee was seeking to find evidence linking the Democrats to prostitution, as Oliver's office had frequently been used to arrange such meetings. However, Nichter acknowledged that Woodward and Bernstein's theory of O'Brien as the target could not be debunked unless information was released about what Baldwin heard in his bugging of conversations.\n\nIn 1968, O'Brien was appointed by Vice President Hubert Humphrey to serve as the national director of Humphrey's presidential campaign and, separately, by Howard Hughes to serve as Hughes' public-policy lobbyist in Washington. O'Brien was elected national chairman of the DNC in 1968 and 1970. In late 1971, the president's brother, Donald Nixon, was collecting intelligence for his brother at the time and asked John H. Meier, an adviser to Howard Hughes, about O'Brien. In 1956, Donald Nixon had borrowed $205,000 from Howard Hughes and had never repaid the loan. The loan's existence surfaced during the 1960 presidential election campaign, embarrassing Richard Nixon and becoming a political liability. According to author Donald M. Bartlett, Richard Nixon would do whatever was necessary to prevent another family embarrassment. From 1968 to 1970, Hughes withdrew nearly half a million dollars from the Texas National Bank of Commerce for contributions to both Democrats and Republicans, including presidential candidates Humphrey and Nixon. Hughes wanted Donald Nixon and Meier involved but Nixon opposed this. \n\nMeier told Donald that he was sure the Democrats would win the election because they had considerable information on Richard Nixon's illicit dealings with Hughes that had never been released, and that it resided with Larry O'Brien. O'Brien, who had received $25,000 from Hughes, did not have any documents but Meier claims to have wanted Richard Nixon to think that he did. It is conjecture that Donald told his brother that Meier had given the Democrats all the damaging Hughes information and that O'Brien had the proof. According to Fred Emery, O'Brien had been a lobbyist for Hughes in a Democrat-controlled Congress, and the possibility of his finding out about Hughes' illegal contributions to the Nixon campaign was too much of a danger for Nixon to ignore. \n\nJames F. Neal, who prosecuted the Watergate 7, did not believe Nixon had ordered the break-in because of Nixon's surprised reaction when he was told about it. He cited the June 23, 1972 conversation when Nixon asked Haldeman, \"Who was the asshole that did it?\" \n\nReactions\n\nNation-states \n\n – In July 1975, according to then-Prime Minister Kukrit Pramoj of Thailand, Chairman Mao Zedong called the Watergate scandal \"the result of 'too much freedom of political expression in the U.S.'\" Mao called it \"an indication of American isolationism, which he saw as 'disastrous' for Europe.\" He further said, \"Do Americans really want to go isolationist? ... In the two world wars, the Americans came [in] very late, but all the same, they did come in. They haven't been isolationist in practice.\" \n\n – Then-leader Fidel Castro said in his December 1974 interview that, of the crimes committed by the Cuban exiles, like killings, attacks on Cuban ports, and spying, the Watergate burglaries and wiretappings were \"probably the least of [them].\" \n\n – Then-Shah of Iran Mohammad Reza Pahlavi told the press, \"I want to say quite emphatically that everything that would weaken or jeopardize the President's power to make decisions in split seconds would represent grave danger for the whole world.\"\n\n – In August 1973, then-Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka said that the scandal had \"no cancelling influence on U.S. leadership in the world.\" Tanaka further said, \"The pivotal role of the United States has not changed, so this internal affair will not be permitted to have an effect.\" In March 1975, Tanaka's successor, Takeo Miki, said at a convention of the Liberal Democratic Party, \"At the time of the Watergate issue in America, I was deeply moved by the scene in the House Judiciary Committee, where each member of the committee expressed his own or her own heart based upon the spirit of the American Constitution. It was this attitude, I think, that rescued American democracy.\" \n\n – An unnamed senior official of Foreign Affairs Ministry accused President Nixon of lacking interest in Africa and its politics and then said, \"American President is so enmeshed in domestic problems created by Watergate that foreign policy seems suddenly to have taken a .\"\n\n – Then-Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew said in August 1973, \"As one surprising revelation follows another at the Senate hearings on Watergate, it becomes increasingly clear that Washington, [D.C.], today is in no position to offer the moral or strong political and economic leadership for which its friends and allies are yearning.\" Moreover, Lee said that the scandal may have led the United States to lessen its interests and commitments in world affairs, to weaken its ability to enforce the Paris Peace Accords on Vietnam, and to not react to violations of the Accords. Lee said further that the United States \"makes the future of this peace in Indonesia an extremely bleak one with grave consequence for the contiguous states.\" Lee then blamed the scandal for economic inflation in Singapore because the Singapore dollar was pegged to the United States dollar at the time, assuming the U.S. dollar was stronger than the British pound sterling. \n\n – In the press conference of May 1973, General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev told Secretary of State Henry Kissinger how the United States handled the scandal was different from how the Communist Party of the Soviet Union had operated. There, without any opposition party back then, members of the Party had been wiretapped for any possible wrongdoing. In June 1973, when Brezhnev arrived in the United States to have a one-week meeting with President Nixon, Brezhnev told the press, \"I do not intent to refer to that matter—[the Watergate]. It would be completely indecent for me to refer to it. [...] My attitude toward Mr. Nixon is of very great respect.\" When one reporter suggested that President Nixon and his position with Brezhnev were \"weakened\" by the scandal, Brezhnev replied, \"It does not enter my mind to think whether Mr. Nixon has lost or gained any influence because of the affair.\" Then he said further that he had respected Nixon because of Nixon's \"realistic and constructive approach to Soviet Union–United States relations [...] passing from an era of confrontation to an era of negotiations between nations.\" \n\n – Talks between Nixon and Prime Minister Edward Heath may have been bugged. Heath did not publicly display his anger, with aides saying that he was unconcerned about having been bugged at the White House. According to officials, Heath commonly had notes taken of his public discussions with Nixon so a recording would not have bothered him. However, officials privately said that if private talks with Nixon were bugged, then Heath would be outraged. Even so, Heath privately was outraged over being taped without his prior knowledge. \n\n – In May 1975, after the fall of Saigon ended the Vietnam War, Secretary of State Henry Kissinger said if the scandal had not caused Nixon to resign, and the Congress did not override Nixon's veto of the War Powers Resolution, North Vietnam would not have captured South Vietnam. \n\nOthers \n\nIn January 1975, publisher of The Sacramento Union John P. McGoff said that the media overemphasized the scandal, although \"an important issue,\" overshadowing more serious topics, like declining economy and the energy crisis.", "Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913 – April 22, 1994) was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974 when he became the only U.S. president to resign the office. Nixon had previously served as a U.S. Representative and Senator from California and as the 36th Vice President of the United States from 1953 to 1961.\n\nNixon was born in Yorba Linda, California. After completing his undergraduate studies at Whittier College, he graduated from Duke University School of Law in 1937 and returned to California to practice law. He and his wife, Pat Nixon, moved to Washington in 1942 to work for the federal government. He subsequently served on active duty in the U.S. Navy Reserve during World War II. Nixon was elected to the House of Representatives in 1946 and to the Senate in 1950. His pursuit of the Hiss Case established his reputation as a leading anti-communist, and elevated him to national prominence. He was the running mate of Dwight D. Eisenhower, the Republican Party presidential nominee in the 1952 election. Nixon served for eight years as vice president. He waged an unsuccessful presidential campaign in 1960, narrowly losing to John F. Kennedy, and lost a race for Governor of California to Pat Brown in 1962. In 1968 he ran again for the presidency and was elected when he defeated Hubert Humphrey.\n\nNixon ended American involvement in the war in Vietnam in 1973 and brought the American POWs home. At the same time, he ended military draft. Nixon's visit to the People's Republic of China in 1972 opened diplomatic relations between the two nations, and he initiated détente and the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty with the Soviet Union the same year. His administration generally transferred power from Washington to the states. He imposed wage and price controls for a period of ninety days, enforced desegregation of Southern schools and established the Environmental Protection Agency. Nixon also presided over the Apollo 11 moon landing, which signaled the end of the moon race. He was reelected by one of the largest landslides in U.S. history in 1972, when he defeated George McGovern.\n\nThe year 1973 saw an Arab oil embargo, gasoline rationing, and a continuing series of revelations about the Watergate scandal. The scandal escalated, costing Nixon much of his political support, and on August 9, 1974, he resigned in the face of almost certain impeachment and removal from office. After his resignation, he was issued a pardon by his successor, Gerald Ford. In retirement, Nixon's work writing several books and undertaking of many foreign trips helped to rehabilitate his image. He suffered a debilitating stroke on April 18, 1994, and died four days later at the age of 81. \n\nEarly life \n\nRichard Milhous Nixon was born on January 9, 1913 in Yorba Linda, California, in a house his father built. He was the son of Hannah (Milhous) Nixon and Francis A. Nixon. His mother was a Quaker and his father converted from Methodism to the Quaker faith; Nixon's upbringing was marked by evangelical Quaker observances of the time, such as refraining from alcohol, dancing, and swearing. Nixon had four brothers: Harold (1909–33), Donald (1914–87), Arthur (1918–25), and Edward (born 1930). Four of the five Nixon boys were named after kings who had ruled in historical or legendary England; Richard, for example, was named after Richard the Lionheart. \n\nNixon's early life was marked by hardship, and he later quoted a saying of Eisenhower to describe his boyhood: \"We were poor, but the glory of it was we didn't know it\". The Nixon family ranch failed in 1922, and the family moved to Whittier, California. In an area with many Quakers, Frank Nixon opened a grocery store and gas station. Richard's younger brother Arthur died in 1925 after a short illness. At the age of twelve, Richard was found to have a spot on his lung and, with a family history of tuberculosis, he was forbidden to play sports. Eventually, the spot was found to be scar tissue from an early bout of pneumonia.\n\nPrimary and secondary education \n\nYoung Richard attended East Whittier Elementary School, where he was president of his eighth-grade class. His parents believed that attendance at Whittier High School had caused Richard's older brother Harold to live a dissolute lifestyle before the older boy fell ill of tuberculosis (he died of the disease in 1933). Instead, they sent Richard to the larger Fullerton Union High School. He had to ride a school bus for an hour each way during his freshman year and he received excellent grades. Later, he lived with an aunt in Fullerton during the week. He played junior varsity football, and seldom missed a practice, even though he was rarely used in games. He had greater success as a debater, winning a number of championships and taking his only formal tutelage in public speaking from Fullerton's Head of English, H. Lynn Sheller. Nixon later remembered Sheller's words, \"Remember, speaking is conversation ... don't shout at people. Talk to them. Converse with them.\" Nixon stated that he tried to use the conversational tone as much as possible.\n\nHis parents permitted Richard to transfer to Whittier High School for his junior year, beginning in September 1928. At Whittier High, Nixon suffered his first electoral defeat, for student body president. He generally rose at 4 a.m., to drive the family truck into Los Angeles and purchase vegetables at the market. He then drove to the store to wash and display them, before going to school. Harold had been diagnosed with tuberculosis the previous year; when their mother took him to Arizona in the hopes of improving his health, the demands on Richard increased, causing him to give up football. Nevertheless, Richard graduated from Whittier High third in his class of 207 students.\n\nCollegiate and law school education \n\nNixon was offered a tuition grant to attend Harvard University, but Harold's continued illness and the need for their mother to care for him meant Richard was needed at the store. He remained in his hometown and attended Whittier College, his expenses there covered by a bequest from his maternal grandfather. Nixon played for the basketball team; he also tried out for football, but lacked the size to play. He remained on the team as a substitute, and was noted for his enthusiasm. Instead of fraternities and sororities, Whittier had literary societies. Nixon was snubbed by the only one for men, the Franklins; many members of the Franklins were from prominent families but Nixon was not. He responded by helping to found a new society, the Orthogonian Society. In addition to the society, schoolwork, and work at the store, Nixon found time for a large number of extracurricular activities, becoming a champion debater and gaining a reputation as a hard worker. In 1933, he became engaged to Ola Florence Welch, daughter of the Whittier police chief. The two broke up in 1935.\n\nAfter his graduation from Whittier in 1934, Nixon received a full scholarship to attend Duke University School of Law. The school was new and sought to attract top students by offering scholarships. It paid high salaries to its professors, many of whom had national or international reputations. The number of scholarships was greatly reduced for second- and third-year students, forcing recipients into intense competition. Nixon not only kept his scholarship but was elected president of the Duke Bar Association, inducted into the Order of the Coif, and graduated third in his class in June 1937.\n\nEarly career and marriage \n\nAfter graduating from Duke, Nixon initially hoped to join the Federal Bureau of Investigation. He received no response to his letter of application and learned years later that he had been hired, but his appointment had been canceled at the last minute due to budget cuts. Instead, he returned to California and was admitted to the bar in 1937. He began practicing with the law firm Wingert and Bewley in Whittier, working on commercial litigation for local petroleum companies and other corporate matters, as well as on wills. In later years, Nixon proudly stated that he was the only modern president to have previously worked as a practicing attorney. Nixon was reluctant to work on divorce cases, disliking frank sexual talk from women. In 1938, he opened up his own branch of Wingert and Bewley in La Habra, California, and became a full partner in the firm the following year.\n\nIn January 1938, Nixon was cast in the Whittier Community Players production of The Dark Tower. There he played opposite a high school teacher named Thelma \"Pat\" Ryan. Nixon described it in his memoirs as \"a case of love at first sight\"—for Nixon only, as Pat Ryan turned down the young lawyer several times before agreeing to date him. Once they began their courtship, Ryan was reluctant to marry Nixon; they dated for two years before she assented to his proposal. They wed at a small ceremony on June 21, 1940. After a honeymoon in Mexico, the Nixons began their married life in Whittier. They had two daughters, Tricia (born 1946) and Julie (born 1948).\n\nWorld War II \n\nIn January 1942, the couple moved to Washington, D.C., where Nixon took a job at the Office of Price Administration. In his political campaigns, Nixon would suggest that this was his response to Pearl Harbor, but he had sought the position throughout the latter part of 1941. Both Nixon and his wife believed he was limiting his prospects by remaining in Whittier. He was assigned to the tire rationing division, where he was tasked with replying to correspondence. He did not enjoy the role, and four months later, applied to join the United States Navy. As a birthright Quaker, he could have claimed exemption from the draft; he might also have been deferred because he worked in government service. But instead of exploiting his circumstance, Nixon opted to enlist in the Navy. His application to enlist was successful, and was appointed a lieutenant junior grade in the U.S Naval Reserve (U.S. Navy Reserve) on June 15, 1942. \n\nIn October 1942, he was assigned as aide to the commander of the Naval Air Station Ottumwa in Iowa until May 1943. On October 1, 1943, Nixon was promoted to lieutenant. Seeking more excitement, he requested sea duty and was reassigned as the naval passenger control officer for the South Pacific Combat Air Transport Command, supporting the logistics of operations in the South West Pacific theater; he was the Officer in Charge of the Combat Air Transport Command at Guadalcanal in the Solomons and in March 1944 at Green Island (Nissan island) just north of Bougainville. His unit prepared manifests and flight plans for C-47 operations and supervised the loading and unloading of the cargo aircraft. For this service, he received a Navy Letter of Commendation (awarded a Navy Commendation Ribbon which was later updated to the Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal) from his commanding officer for \"meritorious and efficient performance of duty as Officer in Charge of the South Pacific Combat Air Transport Command\". \nUpon his return to the U.S., Nixon was appointed the administrative officer of the Alameda Naval Air Station in California. In January 1945, he was transferred to the Bureau of Aeronautics office in Philadelphia to help negotiate the termination of war contracts, and received his second letter of commendation, from the Secretary of the Navy for \"meritorious service, tireless effort, and devotion to duty\". Later, Nixon was transferred to other offices to work on contracts and finally to Baltimore. On October 3, 1945, he was promoted to lieutenant commander. On March 10, 1946, he was relieved of active duty. He resigned his commission on New Year's Day 1946. On June 1, 1953, he was promoted to commander. He retired in the U.S. Naval Reserve on June 6, 1966.\n\nRising politician \n\nCongressional career \n\nIn 1945, Republicans in California's 12th congressional district, frustrated by their inability to defeat Democratic Congressman Jerry Voorhis, sought a consensus candidate who would run a strong campaign against him. They formed a \"Committee of 100\" to decide on a candidate, hoping to avoid internal dissensions which had led to Voorhis victories. After the committee failed to attract higher-profile candidates, Herman Perry, Whittier's Bank of America branch manager, suggested Nixon, a family friend with whom he had served on the Whittier College Board of Trustees before the war. Perry wrote to Nixon in Baltimore. After a night of excited talk between the Nixons, the naval officer responded to Perry with enthusiasm. Nixon flew to California and was selected by the committee. When he left the Navy at the start of 1946, Nixon and his wife returned to Whittier, where Nixon began a year of intensive campaigning. He contended that Voorhis had been ineffective as a congressman and suggested that Voorhis's endorsement by a group linked to communists meant that Voorhis must have radical views. Nixon won the election, receiving 65,586 votes to Voorhis' 49,994.\n\nIn Congress, Nixon supported the Taft–Hartley Act of 1947, a federal law that monitors the activities and power of labor unions, and served on the Education and Labor Committee. He was part of the Herter Committee, which went to Europe to report on the need for U.S. foreign aid. Nixon was the youngest member of the committee, and the only Westerner. Advocacy by Herter Committee members, including Nixon, led to congressional passage of the Marshall Plan.\n\nNixon first gained national attention in 1948 when his investigation, as a member of the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), broke the Alger Hiss spy case. While many doubted Whittaker Chambers' allegations that Hiss, a former State Department official, had been a Soviet spy, Nixon believed them to be true and pressed for the committee to continue its investigation. Under suit for defamation filed by Hiss, Chambers produced documents corroborating his allegations. These included paper and microfilm copies that Chambers turned over to House investigators after having hidden them overnight in a field; they became known as the \"Pumpkin Papers\". Hiss was convicted of perjury in 1950 for denying under oath he had passed documents to Chambers. In 1948, Nixon successfully cross-filed as a candidate in his district, winning both major party primaries, and was comfortably reelected.\n\nIn 1949, Nixon began to consider running for the United States Senate against the Democratic incumbent, Sheridan Downey, and entered the race in November of that year. Downey, faced with a bitter primary battle with Representative Helen Gahagan Douglas, announced his retirement in March 1950. Nixon and Douglas won the primary elections and engaged in a contentious campaign in which the ongoing Korean War was a major issue. Nixon tried to focus attention on Douglas' liberal voting record. As part of that effort, a \"Pink Sheet\" was distributed by the Nixon campaign suggesting that, as Douglas' voting record was similar to that of New York Congressman Vito Marcantonio (believed by some to be a communist), their political views must be nearly identical. Nixon won the election by almost twenty percentage points. During this campaign, Nixon was first called \"Tricky Dick\" by his opponents for his campaign tactics.\n\nIn the Senate, Nixon took a prominent position in opposing global communism, traveling frequently and speaking out against the threat. He maintained friendly relations with his fellow anti-communist, the controversial Wisconsin senator, Joseph McCarthy, but was careful to keep some distance between himself and McCarthy's allegations. Nixon also criticized President Harry S. Truman's handling of the Korean War. He supported statehood for Alaska and Hawaii, voted in favor of civil rights for minorities, and supported federal disaster relief for India and Yugoslavia. He voted against price controls and other monetary restrictions, benefits for illegal immigrants, and public power.\n\nVice Presidency \n\nGeneral Dwight D. Eisenhower was nominated for president by the Republicans in 1952. He had no strong preference for a vice presidential candidate, and Republican officeholders and party officials met in a \"smoke-filled room\" and recommended Nixon to the general, who agreed to the senator's selection. Nixon's youth (he was then 39), stance against communism, and political base in California—one of the largest states—were all seen as vote-winners by the leaders. Among the candidates considered along with Nixon were Ohio Senator Robert A. Taft, New Jersey Governor Alfred Driscoll and Illinois Senator Everett Dirksen. On the campaign trail, Eisenhower spoke to his plans for the country, leaving the negative campaigning to his running mate.\n\nIn mid-September, the Republican ticket faced a major crisis. The media reported that Nixon had a political fund, maintained by his backers, which reimbursed him for political expenses. Such a fund was not illegal, but it exposed Nixon to allegations of possible conflict of interest. With pressure building for Eisenhower to demand Nixon's resignation from the ticket, the senator went on television to deliver an address to the nation on September 23, 1952. The address, later termed the Checkers speech, was heard by about 60 million Americans—including the largest television audience up to that point. Nixon emotionally defended himself, stating that the fund was not secret, nor had donors received special favors. He painted himself as a man of modest means (his wife had no mink coat; instead she wore a \"respectable Republican cloth coat\") and a patriot. The speech would be remembered for the gift which Nixon had received, but which he would not give back: \"a little cocker spaniel dog … sent all the way from Texas. And our little girl—Tricia, the 6-year-old—named it Checkers.\" The speech was a masterpiece and prompted a huge public outpouring of support for Nixon. Eisenhower decided to retain him on the ticket, which proved victorious in the November election.\n\nEisenhower gave Nixon responsibilities during his term as vice president—more than any previous vice president. Nixon attended Cabinet and National Security Council meetings and chaired them when Eisenhower was absent. A 1953 tour of the Far East succeeded in increasing local goodwill toward the United States and prompted Nixon to appreciate the potential of the region as an industrial center. He visited Saigon and Hanoi in French Indochina. On his return to the United States at the end of 1953, Nixon increased the amount of time he devoted to foreign relations.\n\nBiographer Irwin Gellman, who chronicled Nixon's congressional years, said of his vice presidency:\n\nDespite intense campaigning by Nixon, who reprised his strong attacks on the Democrats, the Republicans lost control of both houses of Congress in the 1954 elections. These losses caused Nixon to contemplate leaving politics once he had served out his term. On September 24, 1955, President Eisenhower suffered a heart attack; his condition was initially believed to be life-threatening. Eisenhower was unable to perform his duties for six weeks. The 25th Amendment to the United States Constitution had not yet been proposed, and the Vice President had no formal power to act. Nonetheless, Nixon acted in Eisenhower's stead during this period, presiding over Cabinet meetings and ensuring that aides and Cabinet officers did not seek power. According to Nixon biographer Stephen Ambrose, Nixon had \"earned the high praise he received for his conduct during the crisis ... he made no attempt to seize power\".\n\nHis spirits buoyed, Nixon sought a second term, but some of Eisenhower's aides aimed to displace him. In a December 1955 meeting, Eisenhower proposed that Nixon not run for reelection in order to give him administrative experience before a 1960 presidential run and instead become a Cabinet officer in a second Eisenhower administration. Nixon, however, believed such an action would destroy his political career. When Eisenhower announced his reelection bid in February 1956, he hedged on the choice of his running mate, stating that it was improper to address that question until he had been renominated. Although no Republican was opposing Eisenhower, Nixon received a substantial number of write-in votes against the President in the 1956 New Hampshire primary election. In late April, the President announced that Nixon would again be his running mate. Eisenhower and Nixon were reelected by a comfortable margin in the November 1956 election.\n\nIn the spring of 1957, Nixon undertook another major foreign trip, this time to Africa. On his return, he helped shepherd the Civil Rights Act of 1957 through Congress. The bill was weakened in the Senate, and civil rights leaders were divided over whether Eisenhower should sign it. Nixon advised the President to sign the bill, which he did. Eisenhower suffered a mild stroke in November 1957, and Nixon gave a press conference, assuring the nation that the Cabinet was functioning well as a team during Eisenhower's brief illness.\n\nOn April 27, 1958, Richard and Pat Nixon embarked on a goodwill tour of South America. In Montevideo, Uruguay, Nixon made an impromptu visit to a college campus, where he fielded questions from students on U.S. foreign policy. The trip was uneventful until the Nixon party reached Lima, Peru, where he was met with student demonstrations. Nixon went to the campus, got out of his car to confront the students, and stayed until forced back into the car by a volley of thrown objects. At his hotel, Nixon faced another mob, and one demonstrator spat on him. In Caracas, Venezuela, Nixon and his wife were spat on by anti-American demonstrators and their limousine was attacked by a pipe-wielding mob. According to Ambrose, Nixon's courageous conduct \"caused even some of his bitterest enemies to give him some grudging respect\".\n\nIn July 1959, President Eisenhower sent Nixon to the Soviet Union for the opening of the American National Exhibition in Moscow. On July 24, while touring the exhibits with Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev, the two stopped at a model of an American kitchen and engaged in an impromptu exchange about the merits of capitalism versus communism that became known as the \"Kitchen Debate\".\n\n1960 and 1962 elections; wilderness years \n\nIn 1960, Nixon launched his first campaign for President of the United States. He faced little opposition in the Republican primaries and chose former Massachusetts Senator Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. as his running mate. His Democratic opponent was John F. Kennedy, and the race remained close for the duration. Nixon campaigned on his experience, but Kennedy called for new blood and claimed the Eisenhower–Nixon administration had allowed the Soviet Union to overtake the U.S. in ballistic missiles (the \"missile gap\"). A new political medium was introduced in the campaign: televised presidential debates. In the first of four such debates, Nixon appeared pale, with a five o'clock shadow, in contrast to the photogenic Kennedy. Nixon's performance in the debate was perceived to be mediocre in the visual medium of television, though many people listening on the radio thought that Nixon had won. Nixon lost the election narrowly, with Kennedy ahead by only 120,000 votes (0.2 percent) in the popular vote.\n\nThere were charges of vote fraud in Texas and Illinois, both states won by Kennedy; Nixon refused to consider contesting the election, feeling a lengthy controversy would diminish the United States in the eyes of the world, and the uncertainty would hurt U.S. interests. At the end of his term of office as vice president in January 1961, Nixon and his family returned to California, where he practiced law and wrote a bestselling book, Six Crises, which included coverage of the Hiss case, Eisenhower's heart attack, and the Fund Crisis, which had been resolved by the Checkers speech.\n\nLocal and national Republican leaders encouraged Nixon to challenge incumbent Pat Brown for Governor of California in the 1962 election. Despite initial reluctance, Nixon entered the race. The campaign was clouded by public suspicion that Nixon viewed the office as a stepping-stone for another presidential run, some opposition from the far-right of the party, and his own lack of interest in being California's governor. Nixon hoped that a successful run would confirm him in his status as the nation's leading active Republican politician, and ensure he remained a major player in national politics. Instead, he lost to Brown by more than five percentage points, and the defeat was widely believed to be the end of his political career. In an impromptu concession speech the morning after the election, Nixon blamed the media for favoring his opponent, saying, \"You won't have Nixon to kick around anymore because, gentlemen, this is my last press conference\". The California defeat was highlighted in the November 11, 1962, episode of ABC's Howard K. Smith: News and Comment entitled \"The Political Obituary of Richard M. Nixon\". Alger Hiss appeared on the program, and many members of the public complained that it was unseemly to allow a convicted felon air time to attack a former vice president. The furor drove Smith and his program from the air, and public sympathy for Nixon grew.\n\nThe Nixon family traveled to Europe in 1963, where Nixon gave press conferences and met with leaders of the countries he visited. The family moved to New York City, where Nixon became a senior partner in the leading law firm Nixon, Mudge, Rose, Guthrie & Alexander. Nixon had pledged, when announcing his California campaign, not to run for president in 1964; even if he had not, he believed it would be difficult to defeat Kennedy, or after his assassination, Kennedy's successor, Lyndon Johnson. In 1964, he supported Arizona Senator Barry Goldwater for the Republican nomination for president; when Goldwater was successful in gaining the nomination, Nixon was selected to introduce the candidate to the convention. Although he thought Goldwater unlikely to win, Nixon campaigned for him loyally. The election was a disaster for the Republicans; Goldwater's landslide loss to Johnson was matched by heavy losses for the party in Congress and among state governors.\n\nNixon was one of the few leading Republicans not blamed for the disastrous results, and he sought to build on that in the 1966 congressional elections. He campaigned for many Republicans seeking to regain seats lost in the Johnson landslide and received credit for helping the Republicans make major gains in the midterm election.\n\n1968 presidential election \n\nAt the end of 1967, Nixon told his family he planned to run for president a second time. Although Pat Nixon did not always enjoy public life (for example, she had been embarrassed by the need to reveal how little the family owned in the Checkers speech), she was supportive of her husband's ambitions. Nixon believed that with the Democrats torn over the issue of the Vietnam War, a Republican had a good chance of winning, although he expected the election to be as close as in 1960.\n\nOne of the most tumultuous primary election seasons ever began as the Tet Offensive was launched, followed by the withdrawal of President Johnson as a candidate after doing unexpectedly poorly in the New Hampshire primary; it concluded with the assassination of one of the Democratic candidates, Senator Robert F. Kennedy, just moments after his victory in the California primary. On the Republican side, Nixon's main opposition was Michigan Governor George Romney, though New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller and California Governor Ronald Reagan each hoped to be nominated in a brokered convention. Nixon secured the nomination on the first ballot. He selected Maryland Governor Spiro Agnew as his running mate, a choice which Nixon believed would unite the party, appealing to both Northern moderates and Southerners disaffected with the Democrats.\n\nNixon's Democratic opponent in the general election was Vice President Hubert Humphrey, who was nominated at a convention marked by violent protests. Throughout the campaign, Nixon portrayed himself as a figure of stability during a period of national unrest and upheaval. He appealed to what he later called the \"silent majority\" of socially conservative Americans who disliked the hippie counterculture and the anti-war demonstrators. Agnew became an increasingly vocal critic of these groups, solidifying Nixon's position with the right.\n\nNixon waged a prominent television advertising campaign, meeting with supporters in front of cameras. He stressed that the crime rate was too high, and attacked what he perceived as a surrender by the Democrats of the United States' nuclear superiority. Nixon promised \"peace with honor\" in the Vietnam War and proclaimed that \"new leadership will end the war and win the peace in the Pacific\". He did not release specifics of how he hoped to end the war, resulting in media intimations that he must have a \"secret plan\". His slogan of \"Nixon's the One\" proved to be effective.\n\nJohnson's negotiators hoped to reach a truce in Vietnam prior to the election. Nixon received astute analysis on the talks from Henry Kissinger, then a consultant to U.S. negotiator Averell Harriman, and his campaign was in regular contact with Anna Chennault in Saigon. She advised South Vietnamese president Thieu not to go to Paris to join the talks, hinting that Nixon would give him a better deal if elected. Johnson was aware of what was going on, as he had both Chennault and the South Vietnamese ambassador to Washington bugged, and was enraged by what he considered an attempt by Nixon to undermine U.S. foreign policy. On October 31, with no agreement, Johnson announced a unilateral halt to the bombing, and that peace negotiations would start in Paris on November 6, the day after Election Day. On November 2, after speaking with Chennault again, Thieu stated he would not go to Paris. Johnson telephoned Nixon, who denied any involvement; the President did not believe him. Johnson felt he could not publicly mention Chennault's involvement, which had been obtained by wiretapping, but told Humphrey, who chose not to use the information.\n\nIn a three-way race between Nixon, Humphrey, and independent candidate former Alabama Governor George Wallace, Nixon defeated Humphrey by nearly 500,000 votes (seven-tenths of a percentage point), with 301 electoral votes to 191 for Humphrey and 46 for Wallace. In his victory speech, Nixon pledged that his administration would try to bring the divided nation together. Nixon said: \"I have received a very gracious message from the Vice President, congratulating me for winning the election. I congratulated him for his gallant and courageous fight against great odds. I also told him that I know exactly how he felt. I know how it feels to lose a close one.\"\n\nPresidency (1969–74) \n\nNixon was inaugurated as president on January 20, 1969, sworn in by his onetime political rival, Chief Justice Earl Warren. Pat Nixon held the family Bibles open at Isaiah 2:4, which reads, \"They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks.\" In his inaugural address, which received almost uniformly positive reviews, Nixon remarked that \"the greatest honor history can bestow is the title of peacemaker\"—a phrase that would later be placed on his gravestone. He spoke about turning partisan politics into a new age of unity:\n\nForeign policy \n\nChina \n\nNixon laid the groundwork for his overture to China even before he became president, writing in Foreign Affairs a year before his election: \"There is no place on this small planet for a billion of its potentially most able people to live in angry isolation.\" Assisting him in this venture was his National Security Advisor and future Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger, with whom the President worked closely, bypassing Cabinet officials. With relations between the Soviet Union and China at a nadir—border clashes between the two took place during Nixon's first year in office—Nixon sent private word to the Chinese that he desired closer relations. A breakthrough came in early 1971, when Chairman Mao invited a team of American table tennis players to visit China and play against top Chinese players. Nixon followed up by sending Kissinger to China for clandestine meetings with Chinese officials. On July 15, 1971, it was simultaneously announced by Beijing and by Nixon (on television and radio) that the President would visit China the following February. The announcements astounded the world. The secrecy allowed both sets of leaders time to prepare the political climate in their countries for the contact.\n\nIn February 1972, Nixon and his wife traveled to China. Kissinger briefed Nixon for over 40 hours in preparation. Upon touching down, the President and First Lady emerged from Air Force One and greeted Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai. Nixon made a point of shaking Zhou's hand, something which then-Secretary of State John Foster Dulles had refused to do in 1954 when the two met in Geneva. Over 100 television journalists accompanied the president. On Nixon's orders, television was strongly favored over printed publications, as Nixon felt that the medium would capture the visit much better than print. It also gave him the opportunity to snub the print journalists he despised.\n\nNixon and Kissinger met for an hour with Mao and Zhou at Mao's official private residence, where they discussed a range of issues. Mao later told his doctor that he had been impressed by Nixon, whom he considered forthright, unlike the leftists and the Soviets. He said he was suspicious of Kissinger, though the National Security Advisor referred to their meeting as his \"encounter with history\". A formal banquet welcoming the presidential party was given that evening in the Great Hall of the People. The following day, Nixon met with Zhou; the joint communique following this meeting recognized Taiwan as a part of China, and looked forward to a peaceful solution to the problem of reunification. When not in meetings, Nixon toured architectural wonders including the Forbidden City, Ming Tombs, and the Great Wall. Americans received their first glimpse into Chinese life through the cameras which accompanied Pat Nixon, who toured the city of Beijing and visited communes, schools, factories, and hospitals.\n\nThe visit ushered in a new era of Sino-American relations. Fearing the possibility of a Sino-American alliance, the Soviet Union yielded to pressure for détente with the United States.\n\nVietnam War \n\nWhen Nixon took office, about 300 American soldiers were dying each week in Vietnam, and the war was broadly unpopular in the United States, with violent protests against the war ongoing. The Johnson administration had agreed to suspend bombing in exchange for negotiations without preconditions, but this agreement never fully took force. According to Walter Isaacson, soon after taking office, Nixon had concluded that the Vietnam War could not be won and he was determined to end the war quickly. Conversely, Black argues that Nixon sincerely believed he could intimidate North Vietnam through the \"Madman theory\". Nixon sought some arrangement which would permit American forces to withdraw, while leaving South Vietnam secure against attack.\n\nNixon approved a secret bombing campaign of North Vietnamese and allied Khmer Rouge positions in Cambodia in March 1969 (code-named Operation Menu), a policy begun under Johnson. These operations resulted in heavy bombing of Cambodia; by one measurement more bombs were dropped over Cambodia under Johnson and Nixon than the Allies dropped during World War II. In mid-1969, Nixon began efforts to negotiate peace with the North Vietnamese, sending a personal letter to North Vietnamese leaders, and peace talks began in Paris. Initial talks, however, did not result in an agreement. In May 1969 he publicly proposed to withdraw all American troops from South Vietnam provided North Vietnam also did so and for South Vietnam to hold internationally supervised elections with Viet Cong participation. \n\nIn July 1969, Nixon visited South Vietnam, where he met with his U.S. military commanders and President Nguyễn Văn Thiệu. Amid protests at home demanding an immediate pullout, he implemented a strategy of replacing American troops with Vietnamese troops, known as \"Vietnamization\". He soon instituted phased U.S. troop withdrawals but authorized incursions into Laos, in part to interrupt the Ho Chi Minh trail, used to supply North Vietnamese forces, that passed through Laos and Cambodia. Nixon announced the ground invasion of Cambodia to the American public on April 30, 1970. His responses to protesters included an impromptu, early morning meeting with them at the Lincoln Memorial on May 9, 1970. Documents uncovered from the Soviet archives after 1991 reveal that the North Vietnamese attempt to overrun Cambodia in 1970 was launched at the explicit request of the Khmer Rouge and negotiated by Pol Pot's then-second-in-command, Nuon Chea. Nixon's campaign promise to curb the war, contrasted with the escalated bombing, led to claims that Nixon had a \"credibility gap\" on the issue.\n\nIn 1971, excerpts from the \"Pentagon Papers\", which had been leaked by Daniel Ellsberg, were published by The New York Times and The Washington Post. When news of the leak first appeared, Nixon was inclined to do nothing; the Papers, a history of United States' involvement in Vietnam, mostly concerned the lies of prior administrations and contained few real revelations. He was persuaded by Kissinger that the papers were more harmful than they appeared, and the President tried to prevent publication. The Supreme Court eventually ruled for the newspapers.\n\nAs U.S. troop withdrawals continued, conscription was reduced and in 1973 ended; the armed forces became all-volunteer. After years of fighting, the Paris Peace Accords were signed at the beginning of 1973. The agreement implemented a cease fire and allowed for the withdrawal of remaining American troops; however, it did not require the 160,000 North Vietnam Army regulars located in the South to withdraw. Once American combat support ended, there was a brief truce, before fighting broke out again, this time without American combat involvement. North Vietnam conquered South Vietnam in 1975.\n\nLatin American policy \n\nNixon had been a firm supporter of Kennedy in the 1961 Bay of Pigs Invasion and 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis; on taking office he stepped up covert operations against Cuba and its president, Fidel Castro. He maintained close relations with the Cuban-American exile community through his friend, Bebe Rebozo, who often suggested ways of irritating Castro. These activities concerned the Soviets and Cubans, who feared Nixon might attack Cuba and break the understanding between Kennedy and Khrushchev which had ended the missile crisis. In August 1970, the Soviets asked Nixon to reaffirm the understanding; despite his hard line against Castro, Nixon agreed. The process had not yet been completed when the Soviets began expanding their base at the Cuban port of Cienfuegos in October 1970. A minor confrontation ensued, which was concluded with an understanding that the Soviets would not use Cienfuegos for submarines bearing ballistic missiles. The final round of diplomatic notes, reaffirming the 1962 accord, were exchanged in November.\n\nThe election of Marxist candidate Salvador Allende as President of Chile in September 1970 spurred Nixon and Kissinger to pursue a vigorous campaign of covert resistance to Allende, first designed to convince the Chilean congress to confirm Jorge Alessandri as the winner of the election and then messages to military officers in support of a coup. Other support included strikes organized against Allende and funding for Allende opponents. It was even alleged that \"Nixon personally authorized\" $700,000 in covert funds to print anti-Allende messages in a prominent Chilean newspaper. Following an extended period of social, political, and economic unrest, General Augusto Pinochet assumed power in a violent coup d'état on September 11, 1973; among the dead was Allende.\n\nSoviet Union \n\nNixon used the improving international environment to address the topic of nuclear peace. Following the announcement of his visit to China, the Nixon administration concluded negotiations for him to visit the Soviet Union. The President and First Lady arrived in Moscow on May 22, 1972 and met with Leonid Brezhnev, the General Secretary of the Communist Party; Alexei Kosygin, the Chairman of the Council of Ministers; and Nikolai Podgorny, the head of state, among other leading Soviet officials.\n\nNixon engaged in intense negotiations with Brezhnev. Out of the summit came agreements for increased trade and two landmark arms control treaties: SALT I, the first comprehensive limitation pact signed by the two superpowers, and the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, which banned the development of systems designed to intercept incoming missiles. Nixon and Brezhnev proclaimed a new era of \"peaceful coexistence\". A banquet was held that evening at the Kremlin.\n\nSeeking to foster better relations with the United States, both China and the Soviet Union cut back on their diplomatic support for North Vietnam and advised Hanoi to come to terms militarily. Nixon later described his strategy:\n\nHaving made considerable progress over the previous two years in U.S.-Soviet relations, Nixon embarked on a second trip to the Soviet Union in 1974. He arrived in Moscow on June 27 to a welcome ceremony, cheering crowds, and a state dinner at the Grand Kremlin Palace that evening. Nixon and Brezhnev met in Yalta, where they discussed a proposed mutual defense pact, détente, and MIRVs. While he considered proposing a comprehensive test-ban treaty, Nixon felt he would not have time as president to complete it. There were no significant breakthroughs in these negotiations.\n\nMiddle Eastern policy \n\nAs part of the Nixon Doctrine that the U.S. would avoid direct combat assistance to allies where possible, instead giving them assistance to defend themselves, the U.S. greatly increased arms sales to the Middle East—particularly Israel, Iran and Saudi Arabia—during the Nixon administration. The Nixon administration strongly supported Israel, an American ally in the Middle East, but the support was not unconditional. Nixon believed that Israel should make peace with its Arab neighbors and that the United States should encourage it. The president believed that—except during the Suez Crisis—the U.S. had failed to intervene with Israel, and should use the leverage of the large U.S. military aid to Israel to urge the parties to the negotiating table. However, the Arab-Israeli conflict was not a major focus of Nixon's attention during his first term—for one thing, he felt that no matter what he did, American Jews would oppose his reelection.\n\nOn October 6, 1973, an Arab coalition led by Egypt and Syria, supported with tons of arms and materiel by the Soviet Union, attacked Israel in what was known as the Yom Kippur War. Israel suffered heavy losses and Nixon ordered an airlift to resupply Israeli losses, cutting through inter-departmental squabbles and bureaucracy and taking personal responsibility for any response by Arab nations. More than a week later, by the time the U.S. and Soviet Union began negotiating a truce, Israel had penetrated deep into enemy territory. The truce negotiations rapidly escalated into a superpower crisis; when Israel gained the upper-hand, Egyptian President Sadat requested a joint U.S.-USSR peacekeeping mission, which the U.S. refused. When Soviet Premier Brezhnev threatened to unilaterally enforce any peacekeeping mission militarily, Nixon ordered the U.S. military to DEFCON3, placing all U.S. military personnel and bases on alert for nuclear war. This was the closest that the world had come to nuclear war since the Cuban Missile Crisis. Brezhnev backed down as a result of Nixon's actions.\n\nBecause Israel's victory was largely due to U.S. support, the Arab OPEC nations retaliated by refusing to sell crude oil to the U.S., resulting in the 1973 oil crisis. The embargo caused gasoline shortages and rationing in the United States in late 1973, and was eventually ended by the oil-producing nations as peace in the Middle East took hold.\n\nAfter the war, and under Nixon's presidency, the U.S. reestablished relations with Egypt for the first time since 1967. Nixon used the Middle East crisis to restart the stalled Middle East Peace Negotiations; he wrote in a confidential memo to Kissinger on October 20:\nI believe that, beyond a doubt, we are now facing the best opportunity we have had in 15 years to build a lasting peace in the Middle East. I am convinced history will hold us responsible if we let this opportunity slip by... I now consider a permanent Middle East settlement to be the most important final goal to which we must devote ourselves. \n\nNixon made one of his final international visits as president to the Middle East in June 1974, and became the first President to visit Israel.\n\nDomestic policy \n\nEconomy \n\nAt the time Nixon took office in 1969, inflation was at 4.7 percent—its highest rate since the Korean War. The Great Society had been enacted under Johnson, which, together with the Vietnam War costs, was causing large budget deficits. Unemployment was low, but interest rates were at their highest in a century. Nixon's major economic goal was to reduce inflation; the most obvious means of doing so was to end the war. This could not be accomplished overnight, and the U.S. economy continued to struggle through 1970, contributing to a lackluster Republican performance in the midterm congressional elections (Democrats controlled both Houses of Congress throughout Nixon's presidency). According to political economist Nigel Bowles in his 2011 study of Nixon's economic record, the new president did little to alter Johnson's policies through the first year of his presidency.\n\nNixon was far more interested in foreign affairs than domestic policies, but believed that voters tend to focus on their own financial condition, and that economic conditions were a threat to his reelection. As part of his \"New Federalism\" views, he proposed grants to the states, but these proposals were for the most part lost in the congressional budget process. However, Nixon gained political credit for advocating them. In 1970, Congress had granted the President the power to impose wage and price freezes, though the Democratic majorities, knowing Nixon had opposed such controls through his career, did not expect Nixon to actually use the authority. With inflation unresolved by August 1971, and an election year looming, Nixon convened a summit of his economic advisers at Camp David. He then announced temporary wage and price controls, allowed the dollar to float against other currencies, and ended the convertibility of the dollar into gold. Bowles points out, \n\nby identifying himself with a policy whose purpose was inflation's defeat, Nixon made it difficult for Democratic opponents ... to criticize him. His opponents could offer no alternative policy that was either plausible or believable since the one they favored was one they had designed but which the president had appropriated for himself.\n\nNixon's policies dampened inflation through 1972, although their aftereffects contributed to inflation during his second term and into the Ford administration.\n\nAfter he won reelection, Nixon found inflation returning. He reimposed price controls in June 1973. The price controls became unpopular with the public and businesspeople, who saw powerful labor unions as preferable to the price board bureaucracy. The controls produced food shortages, as meat disappeared from grocery stores and farmers drowned chickens rather than sell them at a loss. Despite the failure to control inflation, controls were slowly ended, and on April 30, 1974, their statutory authorization lapsed.\n\nGovernmental initiatives and organization \n\nNixon advocated a \"New Federalism\", which would devolve power to state and local elected officials, though Congress was hostile to these ideas and enacted few of them. He eliminated the Cabinet-level United States Post Office Department, which in 1971 became the government-run United States Postal Service.\n\nNixon was a late convert to the conservation movement. Environmental policy had not been a significant issue in the 1968 election; the candidates were rarely asked for their views on the subject. He saw that the first Earth Day in April 1970 presaged a wave of voter interest on the subject, and sought to use that to his benefit; in June he announced the formation of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Nixon broke new ground by discussing environment policy in his State of the Union speech; other initiatives supported by Nixon included the Clean Air Act of 1970 and Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA); the National Environmental Policy Act required environmental impact statements for many Federal projects. Nixon vetoed the Clean Water Act of 1972—objecting not to the policy goals of the legislation but to the amount of money to be spent on them, which he deemed excessive. After Congress overrode his veto, Nixon impounded the funds he deemed unjustifiable.\n\nIn 1971, Nixon proposed health insurance reform—a private health insurance employer mandate, federalization of Medicaid for poor families with dependent minor children, and support for health maintenance organizations (HMOs). A limited HMO bill was enacted in 1973. In 1974, Nixon proposed more comprehensive health insurance reform—a private health insurance employer mandate and replacement of Medicaid by state-run health insurance plans available to all, with income-based premiums and cost sharing.\n\nConcerned about the prevalence of drug use both domestically and among American soldiers in Vietnam, Nixon called for a War on Drugs, pledging to cut off sources of supply abroad, and to increase funds for education and for rehabilitation facilities.\n\nAs one policy initiative, Nixon called for more money for sickle-cell research, treatment, and education in February 1971 and signed the National Sickle Cell Anemia Control Act on May 16, 1972. While Nixon called for increased spending on such high-profile items as sickle-cell disease and for a War on Cancer, at the same time he sought to reduce overall spending at the National Institutes of Health.\n\nCivil rights \n\nThe Nixon presidency witnessed the first large-scale integration of public schools in the South. Nixon sought a middle way between the segregationist Wallace and liberal Democrats, whose support of integration was alienating some Southern whites. Hopeful of doing well in the South in 1972, he sought to dispose of desegregation as a political issue before then. Soon after his inauguration, he appointed Vice President Agnew to lead a task force, which worked with local leaders—both white and black—to determine how to integrate local schools. Agnew had little interest in the work, and most of it was done by Labor Secretary George Shultz. Federal aid was available, and a meeting with President Nixon was a possible reward for compliant committees. By September 1970, less than ten percent of black children were attending segregated schools. By 1971, however, tensions over desegregation surfaced in Northern cities, with angry protests over the busing of children to schools outside their neighborhood to achieve racial balance. Nixon opposed busing personally but enforced court orders requiring its use.\n\nIn addition to desegregating public schools, Nixon implemented the Philadelphia Plan in 1970—the first significant federal affirmative action program. He also endorsed the Equal Rights Amendment after it passed both houses of Congress in 1972 and went to the states for ratification. Nixon had campaigned as an ERA supporter in 1968, though feminists criticized him for doing little to help the ERA or their cause after his election. Nevertheless, he appointed more women to administration positions than Lyndon Johnson had.\n\nSpace policy \n\nAfter a nearly decade-long national effort, the United States won the race to land astronauts on the Moon on July 20, 1969, with the flight of Apollo 11. Nixon spoke with Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin during their moonwalk. He called the conversation \"the most historic phone call ever made from the White House\".\n\nNixon, however, was unwilling to keep funding for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) at the high level seen through the 1960s as NASA prepared to send men to the Moon. NASA Administrator Thomas O. Paine drew up ambitious plans for the establishment of a permanent base on the Moon by the end of the 1970s and the launch of a manned expedition to Mars as early as 1981. Nixon, however, rejected both proposals due to the expense. Nixon also canceled the Air Force Manned Orbital Laboratory program in 1969, because unmanned spy satellites were shown to be a more cost-effective way to achieve the same reconnaissance objective.\n\nOn March 7, 1970, Nixon announced the end of the Kennedy-Johnson era's massive efforts in the space race, stating \"We must think of [space activities] as part of a continuing process... and not as a series of separate leaps, each requiring a massive concentration of energy. Space expenditures must take their proper place within a rigorous system of national priorities... What we do in space from here on in must become a normal and regular part of our national life and must therefore be planned in conjunction with all of the other undertakings which are important to us.\" He then cancelled the last three planned Apollo lunar missions to place Skylab in orbit more efficiently and free money up for the design and construction of the Space Shuttle. \n\nOn May 24, 1972, Nixon approved a five-year cooperative program between NASA and the Soviet space program, culminating in the 1975 joint mission of an American Apollo and Soviet Soyuz spacecraft linking in space.\n\nReelection, Watergate scandal, and resignation \n\n1972 presidential campaign \n\nNixon believed his rise to power had peaked at a moment of political realignment. The Democratic \"Solid South\" had long been a source of frustration to Republican ambitions. Goldwater had won several Southern states by opposing the Civil Rights Act of 1964 but had alienated more moderate Southerners. Nixon's efforts to gain Southern support in 1968 were diluted by Wallace's candidacy. Through his first term, he pursued a Southern Strategy with policies, such as his desegregation plans, that would be broadly acceptable among Southern whites, encouraging them to realign with the Republicans in the aftermath of the Civil Rights era. He nominated two Southern conservatives, Clement Haynsworth and G. Harrold Carswell to the Supreme Court, but neither was confirmed by the Senate.\n\nNixon entered his name on the New Hampshire primary ballot on January 5, 1972, effectively announcing his candidacy for reelection. Virtually assured the Republican nomination, the President had initially expected his Democratic opponent to be Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy (brother of the late president), but he was largely removed from contention after the 1969 Chappaquiddick incident. Instead, Maine Senator Edmund Muskie became the front runner, with South Dakota Senator George McGovern in a close second place.\n\nOn June 10, McGovern won the California primary and secured the Democratic nomination. The following month, Nixon was renominated at the 1972 Republican National Convention. He dismissed the Democratic platform as cowardly and divisive. McGovern intended to sharply reduce defense spending and supported amnesty for draft evaders as well as abortion rights. With some of his supporters believed to be in favor of drug legalization, McGovern was perceived as standing for \"amnesty, abortion and acid\". McGovern was also damaged by his vacillating support for his original running mate, Missouri Senator Thomas Eagleton, dumped from the ticket following revelations that he had received treatment for depression. Nixon was ahead in most polls for the entire election cycle, and was reelected on November 7, 1972 in one of the largest landslide election victories in American history. He defeated McGovern with over 60 percent of the popular vote, losing only in Massachusetts and the District of Columbia.\n\nWatergate \n\nThe term Watergate has come to encompass an array of clandestine and often illegal activities undertaken by members of the Nixon administration. Those activities included \"dirty tricks,\" or bugging the offices of political opponents and the harassment of activist groups and political figures. The activities were brought to light after five men were caught breaking into Democratic party headquarters at the Watergate complex in Washington, D.C. on June 17, 1972. The Washington Post picked up on the story; reporters Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward relied on an informant known as \"Deep Throat\"—later revealed to be Mark Felt, associate director at the FBI—to link the men to the Nixon administration. Nixon downplayed the scandal as mere politics, calling news articles biased and misleading. A series of revelations made it clear that the Committee to Re-elect President Nixon, and later the White House, was involved in attempts to sabotage the Democrats. Senior aides such as White House Counsel John Dean faced prosecution; in total 48 officials were convicted of wrongdoing.\n\nIn July 1973, White House aide Alexander Butterfield testified under oath to Congress that Nixon had a secret taping system that recorded his conversations and phone calls in the Oval Office. These tapes were subpoenaed by Watergate Special Counsel Archibald Cox; Nixon provided transcripts of the conversations but not the actual tapes, citing executive privilege. With the White House and Cox at loggerheads, Nixon had Cox fired in October in the \"Saturday Night Massacre\"; he was replaced by Leon Jaworski. In November, Nixon's lawyers revealed that an audio tape of conversations, held in the White House on June 20, 1972, featured an 18½ minute gap. Rose Mary Woods, the President's personal secretary, claimed responsibility for the gap, alleging that she had accidentally wiped the section while transcribing the tape, though her tale was widely mocked. The gap, while not conclusive proof of wrongdoing by the President, cast doubt on Nixon's statement that he had been unaware of the cover-up.\n\nThough Nixon lost much popular support, even from his own party, he rejected accusations of wrongdoing and vowed to stay in office. He insisted that he had made mistakes, but had no prior knowledge of the burglary, did not break any laws, and did not learn of the cover-up until early 1973. On October 10, 1973, Vice President Agnew resigned —unrelated to Watergate— and was convicted on charges of bribery, tax evasion and money laundering during his tenure as Governor of Maryland. Nixon chose Gerald Ford, Minority Leader of the House of Representatives, to replace Agnew.\n\nOn November 17, 1973, during a televised question and answer session with the press, Nixon said, \"People have got to know whether or not their President is a crook. Well, I'm not a crook. I've earned everything I've got.\"\n\nThe legal battle over the tapes continued through early 1974, and in April 1974 Nixon announced the release of 1,200 pages of transcripts of White House conversations between him and his aides. The House Judiciary Committee opened impeachment hearings against the President on May 9, 1974, which were televised on the major TV networks. These hearings culminated in votes for impeachment. On July 24, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously that the full tapes, not just selected transcripts, must be released.\n\nThe scandal grew to involve a slew of additional allegations against the President, ranging from the improper use of government agencies to accepting gifts in office and his personal finances and taxes; Nixon repeatedly stated his willingness to pay any outstanding taxes due, and paid $465,000 in back taxes in 1974.\n\nEven with support diminished by the continuing series of revelations, Nixon hoped to fight the charges. However, one of the new tapes, recorded soon after the break-in, demonstrated that Nixon had been told of the White House connection to the Watergate burglaries soon after they took place, and had approved plans to thwart the investigation. In a statement accompanying the release of what became known as the \"Smoking Gun Tape\" on August 5, 1974, Nixon accepted blame for misleading the country about when he had been told of White House involvement, stating that he had a lapse of memory. He met with Republican congressional leaders soon after, and was told he faced certain impeachment in the House and had, at most, only 15 votes in his favor in the Senate— far fewer than the 34 he needed to avoid removal from office.\n\nResignation \n\nIn light of his loss of political support and the near-certainty of impeachment, Nixon resigned the office of the presidency on August 9, 1974, after addressing the nation on television the previous evening. The resignation speech was delivered from the Oval Office and was carried live on radio and television. Nixon stated that he was resigning for the good of the country and asked the nation to support the new president, Gerald Ford. Nixon went on to review the accomplishments of his presidency, especially in foreign policy. He defended his record as president, quoting from Theodore Roosevelt's 1910 speech Citizenship in a Republic:\n\nNixon's speech received generally favorable initial responses from network commentators, with only Roger Mudd of CBS stating that Nixon had not admitted wrongdoing. It was termed \"a masterpiece\" by Conrad Black, one of his biographers. Black opined that \"What was intended to be an unprecedented humiliation for any American president, Nixon converted into a virtual parliamentary acknowledgement of almost blameless insufficiency of legislative support to continue. He left while devoting half his address to a recitation of his accomplishments in office.\"\n\nLater years and death \n\nPardon and illness \n\nFollowing his resignation, the Nixons flew to their home La Casa Pacifica in San Clemente, California. According to his biographer, Aitken, after his resignation, \"Nixon was a soul in torment\". Congress had funded Nixon's transition costs, including some salary expenses, though reducing the appropriation from $850,000 to $200,000. With some of his staff still with him, Nixon was at his desk by 7 a.m.—with little to do. His former press secretary, Ron Ziegler, sat with him alone for hours each day.\n\nNixon's resignation had not put an end to the desire among many to see him punished. The Ford White House considered a pardon of Nixon, though it would be unpopular in the country. Nixon, contacted by Ford emissaries, was initially reluctant to accept the pardon, but then agreed to do so. Ford, however, insisted on a statement of contrition; Nixon felt he had not committed any crimes and should not have to issue such a document. Ford eventually agreed, and on September 8, 1974, he granted Nixon a \"full, free, and absolute pardon\", which ended any possibility of an indictment. Nixon then released a statement:\n\nIn October 1974, Nixon fell ill with phlebitis, the inflammation of the walls of a vein. Told by his doctors that he could either be operated on or die, a reluctant Nixon chose surgery, and President Ford visited him in the hospital. Nixon was under subpoena for the trial of three of his former aides—Dean, Haldeman, and John Ehrlichman—and The Washington Post, disbelieving his illness, printed a cartoon showing Nixon with a cast on the \"wrong foot\". Judge John Sirica excused Nixon's presence despite the defendants' objections. Congress instructed Ford to retain Nixon's presidential papers—beginning a three-decade legal battle over the documents that was eventually won by the former president and his estate. Nixon was in the hospital when the 1974 midterm elections were held, and Watergate and the pardon were contributing factors to the Republican loss of 43 seats in the House and three in the Senate.\n\nReturn to public life \n\nIn December 1974, Nixon began planning his comeback despite the considerable ill-will against him in the country. He wrote in his diary, referring to himself and Pat,\n\nBy early 1975, Nixon's health was improving. He maintained an office in a Coast Guard station 300 yards from his home, at first taking a golf cart and later walking the route each day; he mainly worked on his memoirs. He had hoped to wait before writing his memoirs; the fact that his assets were being eaten away by expenses and lawyer fees compelled him to begin work quickly. He was handicapped in this work by the end of his transition allowance in February, which compelled him to part with many of his staff, including Ziegler. In August of that year, he met with British talk-show host and producer David Frost, who paid him $600,000 for a series of sit-down interviews, filmed and aired in 1977. They began on the topic of foreign policy, recounting the leaders he had known, but the most remembered section of the interviews was that on Watergate. Nixon admitted that he had \"let down the country\" and that \"I brought myself down. I gave them a sword and they stuck it in. And they twisted it with relish. And, I guess, if I'd been in their position, I'd have done the same thing.\" The interviews garnered 45–50 million viewers—becoming the most-watched program of their kind in television history.\n\nThe interviews helped improve Nixon's financial position—at one point in early 1975 he had only $500 in the bank—as did the sale of his Key Biscayne property to a trust set up by wealthy Nixon friends such as Bebe Rebozo. In February 1976, Nixon visited China at the personal invitation of Mao. Nixon had wanted to return to China, but chose to wait until after Ford's own visit in 1975. Nixon remained neutral in the close 1976 primary battle between Ford and Reagan. Ford won, but was defeated by Georgia Governor Jimmy Carter in the general election. The Carter administration had little use for Nixon and blocked his planned trip to Australia, causing the government of Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser to withhold its official invitation.\n\nIn 1976, Nixon was disbarred in the state of New York for obstruction of justice in the Watergate affair. Nixon chose not to present any defense. \nIn early 1978, Nixon went to the United Kingdom. He was shunned by American diplomats and by most ministers of the James Callaghan government. He was welcomed, however, by the Leader of the Opposition, Margaret Thatcher, as well as by former prime ministers Lord Home and Sir Harold Wilson. Two other former prime ministers, Harold Macmillan and Edward Heath declined to meet him. Nixon addressed the Oxford Union regarding Watergate:\n\nAuthor and elder statesman \n\nIn 1978, Nixon published his memoirs, RN: The Memoirs of Richard Nixon, the first of ten books he was to author in his retirement. The book was a bestseller and attracted a generally positive critical response. Nixon journeyed to the White House in 1979, invited by Carter for the state dinner for Chinese Vice Premier Deng Xiaoping. Carter had not wanted to invite Nixon, but Deng had stated he would visit Nixon in California if the former president was not invited. Nixon had a private meeting with Deng and visited Beijing again in mid-1979.\n\nOn August 10, 1979, the Nixons purchased a New York City townhouse at 817 Fifth Avenue after being rejected by two Manhattan co-ops. When the former Shah of Iran died in Egypt in July 1980, Nixon defied the State Department, which intended to send no U.S. representative, by attending the funeral. Though Nixon had no official credentials, as a former president he was seen as the American presence at its former ally's funeral. Nixon supported Ronald Reagan for president in 1980, making television appearances portraying himself as, in biographer Stephen Ambrose's words, \"the senior statesman above the fray\". He wrote guest articles for many publications both during the campaign and after Reagan's victory. After eighteen months in the New York City townhouse, Nixon and his wife moved in 1981 to Saddle River, New Jersey.\n\nThroughout the 1980s, Nixon maintained an ambitious schedule of speaking engagements and writing, traveled, and met with many foreign leaders, especially those of Third World countries. He joined former Presidents Ford and Carter as representatives of the United States at the funeral of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat. On a trip to the Middle East, Nixon made his views known regarding Saudi Arabia and Libya, which attracted significant U.S. media attention; The Washington Post ran stories on Nixon's \"rehabilitation\". Nixon journeyed to the Soviet Union in 1986 and on his return sent President Reagan a lengthy memorandum containing foreign policy suggestions and his personal impressions of Mikhail Gorbachev. Following this trip, Nixon was ranked in a Gallup poll as one of the ten most admired men in the world.\n\nIn 1986, Nixon addressed a convention of newspaper publishers, impressing his audience with his tour d'horizon of the world. At the time, political pundit Elizabeth Drew wrote, \"Even when he was wrong, Nixon still showed that he knew a great deal and had a capacious memory, as well as the capacity to speak with apparent authority, enough to impress people who had little regard for him in earlier times.\" Newsweek ran a story on \"Nixon's comeback\" with the headline \"He's back\".\n\nOn July 19, 1990, the Richard Nixon Library and Birthplace in Yorba Linda, California opened as a private institution with the Nixons in attendance. They were joined by a large crowd of people, including Presidents Ford, Reagan, and George H. W. Bush, as well as their wives, Betty, Nancy, and Barbara. In January 1991, the former president founded the Nixon Center (today the Center for the National Interest), a Washington policy think tank and conference center.\n\nPat Nixon died on June 22, 1993, of emphysema and lung cancer. Her funeral services were held on the grounds of the Richard Nixon Library and Birthplace. Former President Nixon was distraught throughout the interment and delivered a moving tribute to her inside the library building.\n\nDeath and funeral \n\nNixon suffered a severe stroke on April 18, 1994, while preparing to eat dinner in his Park Ridge, New Jersey home. A blood clot resulting from the atrial fibrillation he had suffered for many years had formed in his upper heart, broken off, and traveled to his brain. He was taken to New York Hospital–Cornell Medical Center in Manhattan, initially alert but unable to speak or to move his right arm or leg. Damage to the brain caused swelling (cerebral edema), and Nixon slipped into a deep coma. He died at 9:08 p.m. on April 22, 1994, with his daughters at his bedside. He was 81 years old.\n\nNixon's funeral took place on April 27, 1994 in Yorba Linda, California. Eulogists at the Nixon Library ceremony included President Bill Clinton, former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, Senate Minority Leader Bob Dole, California Governor Pete Wilson, and the Reverend Billy Graham. Also in attendance were former Presidents Ford, Carter, Reagan, George H. W. Bush, and their wives.\n\nRichard Nixon is buried beside his wife Pat on the grounds of the Nixon Library. He was survived by his two daughters, Tricia and Julie, and four grandchildren. In keeping with his wishes, his funeral was not a full state funeral, though his body did lie in repose in the Nixon Library lobby from April 26 to the morning of the funeral service. Mourners waited in line for up to eight hours in chilly, wet weather to pay their respects. At its peak, the line to pass by Nixon's casket was three miles long with an estimated 42,000 people waiting to pay their respects.\n\nJohn F. Stacks of Time magazine said of Nixon shortly after his death,\nAn outsize energy and determination drove him on to recover and rebuild after every self-created disaster that he faced. To reclaim a respected place in American public life after his resignation, he kept traveling and thinking and talking to the world's leaders ... and by the time Bill Clinton came to the White House [in 1993], Nixon had virtually cemented his role as an elder statesman. Clinton, whose wife served on the staff of the committee that voted to impeach Nixon, met openly with him and regularly sought his advice. \nTom Wicker of The New York Times noted that Nixon had been equalled only by Franklin Roosevelt in being five times nominated on a major party ticket and, quoting Nixon's 1962 farewell speech, wrote,\nRichard Nixon's jowly, beard-shadowed face, the ski-jump nose and the widow's peak, the arms upstretched in the V-sign, had been so often pictured and caricatured, his presence had become such a familiar one in the land, he had been so often in the heat of controversy, that it was hard to realize the nation really would not 'have Nixon to kick around anymore'.\nAmbrose said of the reaction to Nixon's death, \"To everyone's amazement, except his, he's our beloved elder statesman.\"\n\nUpon Nixon's death, almost all of the news coverage mentioned Watergate, but for the most part, the coverage was favorable to the former president. The Dallas Morning News stated, \"History ultimately should show that despite his flaws, he was one of our most farsighted chief executives.\" This offended some; columnist Russell Baker complained of \"a group conspiracy to grant him absolution\". Cartoonist Jeff Koterba of the Omaha World-Herald depicted History before a blank canvas, his subject Nixon, as America looks on eagerly. The artist urges his audience to sit down; the work will take some time to complete, as \"this portrait is a little more complicated than most\".\n\nLegacy \n\nHistorian and political scientist James MacGregor Burns observed of Nixon, \"How can one evaluate such an idiosyncratic president, so brilliant and so morally lacking?\" Nixon's biographers disagree on how he will be perceived by history. According to Ambrose, \"Nixon wanted to be judged by what he accomplished. What he will be remembered for is the nightmare he put the country through in his second term and for his resignation.\" Irwin Gellman, who chronicled Nixon's congressional career, suggests that \"he was remarkable among his congressional peers, a success story in a troubled era, one who steered a sensible anti-Communist course against the excess of McCarthy\". Aitken feels that \"Nixon, both as a man and as a statesman, has been excessively maligned for his faults and inadequately recognised for his virtues. Yet even in a spirit of historical revisionism, no simple verdict is possible.\"\n\nNixon's Southern Strategy is credited by some historians as causing the South to become a Republican stronghold, though others deem economic factors more important to the change. Throughout his career, he was instrumental in moving his party away from the control of isolationists, and as a congressman was a persuasive advocate of containing Soviet communism. According to his biographer, Herbert Parmet, \"Nixon's role was to steer the Republican party along a middle course, somewhere between the competitive impulses of the Rockefellers, the Goldwaters, and the Reagans.\"\n\nNixon is given credit for his stance on domestic affairs, which resulted in the passage and enforcement of environmental and regulatory legislation. Historian Paul Charles Milazzo in his 2011 paper on Nixon and the environment, points to Nixon's creation of the EPA and his enforcement of legislation such as the 1973 Endangered Species Act, stating that \"though unsought and unacknowledged, Richard Nixon's environmental legacy is secure.\"\n\nNixon saw his policies regarding Vietnam, China, and the Soviets as key to his place in history. George McGovern, Nixon's onetime opponent, commented in 1983, \"President Nixon probably had a more practical approach to the two superpowers, China and the Soviet Union, than any other president since World War II ... With the exception of his inexcusable continuation of the war in Vietnam, Nixon really will get high marks in history.\" Political scientist Jussi M. Hanhimäki disagrees, saying Nixon's diplomacy was merely a continuation of the Cold War policy of containment, using diplomatic rather than military means. Historian Christopher Andrew concludes that \"Nixon was a great statesman on the world stage as well as a shabby practitioner of electoral politics in the domestic arena. While the criminal farce of Watergate was in the making, Nixon's inspirational statesmanship was establishing new working relationships with both Communist China and the Soviet Union.\"\n\nHistorian Keith W. Olson has written that Nixon left a negative legacy: fundamental mistrust of government with its roots in Vietnam and Watergate. During the impeachment of Bill Clinton in 1998, both sides tried to use Nixon and Watergate to their advantage: Republicans suggested that Clinton's misconduct had been comparable to Nixon's, while Democrats contended that Nixon's actions had been far more serious than those of the incumbent. Another legacy, for a time, was a decrease in the power of the presidency as Congress passed restrictive legislation in the wake of Watergate. Olson suggests that grants of power to George W. Bush in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks restored the president's power.\n\nPersonality and public image \n\nNixon's career was frequently dogged by his persona and the public's perception of it. Editorial cartoonists and comedians often exaggerated his appearance and mannerisms, to the point where the line between the human and the caricature became increasingly blurred. He was often portrayed with unshaven jowls, slumped shoulders, and a furrowed, sweaty brow.\n\nNixon had a complex personality, both very secretive and awkward, yet strikingly reflective about himself. He was inclined to distance himself from people and was formal in all aspects, wearing a coat and tie even when home alone. Nixon biographer Conrad Black described him as being \"driven\" though also \"uneasy with himself in some ways\". According to Black, Nixon\nthought that he was doomed to be traduced, double-crossed, unjustly harassed, misunderstood, underappreciated, and subjected to the trials of Job, but that by the application of his mighty will, tenacity, and diligence, he would ultimately prevail.\nBiographer Elizabeth Drew summarized Nixon as a \"smart, talented man, but most peculiar and haunted of presidents\". In his account of the Nixon presidency, author Richard Reeves described Nixon as \"a strange man of uncomfortable shyness, who functioned best alone with his thoughts\". Nixon's presidency was doomed by his personality, Reeves argues:\nHe assumed the worst in people and he brought out the worst in them ... He clung to the idea of being 'tough'. He thought that was what had brought him to the edge of greatness. But that was what betrayed him. He could not open himself to other men and he could not open himself to greatness.\n\nNixon believed that putting distance between himself and other people was necessary for him as he advanced in his political career and became president. Even Bebe Rebozo, by some accounts his closest friend, did not call him by his first name. Nixon stated of this,\nEven with close friends, I don't believe in letting your hair down, confiding this and that and the other thing—saying, 'Gee, I couldn't sleep' ... I believe you should keep your troubles to yourself. That's just the way I am. Some people are different. Some people think it's good therapy to sit with a close friend and, you know, just spill your guts ... [and] reveal their inner psyche—whether they were breast-fed or bottle-fed. Not me. No way. When told that most Americans, even at the end of his career, did not feel they knew him, Nixon replied, \"Yeah, it's true. And it's not necessary for them to know.\"" ] }

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{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe" ], "filename": [ "South_Park.txt" ], "title": [ "South Park" ], "wiki_context": [ "South Park is an American adult animated sitcom created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone for the Comedy Central television network. The show revolves around four boys—Stan Marsh, Kyle Broflovski, Eric Cartman, and Kenny McCormick—and their bizarre adventures in and around the titular Colorado town. Much like The Simpsons, South Park uses a very large ensemble cast of recurring characters. Intended for mature audiences, the show has become infamous for its crude language and dark, surreal humor that satirizes a wide range of topics.\n\nParker and Stone developed the show from two animated shorts they created in 1992 and 1995. The latter became one of the first Internet viral videos, which ultimately led to its production as a series. South Park debuted in August 1997 with great success, consistently earning the highest ratings of any basic cable program. Subsequent ratings have varied but it remains one of Comedy Central's highest rated shows, and is slated to air through at least 2019. \n\nThe pilot episode was produced using cutout animation. All subsequent episodes are created with software that emulates the cutout technique. Parker and Stone perform most of the voice acting. Since 2000, each episode is typically written and produced during the week preceding its broadcast, with Parker serving as the primary writer and director. There have been a total of episodes over the course of the show's 19 seasons. Season 20 will premiere on September 14, 2016. \n\nSouth Park has received numerous accolades, including five Primetime Emmy Awards, a Peabody Award, and numerous inclusions in various publications' lists of greatest television shows. The show's popularity resulted in a feature-length theatrical film, South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut which was released in June 1999, less than two years after the show's premiere, and became a commercial and critical success. In 2013, TV Guide ranked South Park the tenth Greatest TV Cartoon of All Time. \n\nPremise\n\nSetting and characters\n\nThe show follows the exploits of four boys, Stan Marsh, Kyle Broflovski, Eric Cartman and Kenny McCormick. The boys live in the fictional small town of South Park, located within the real life South Park basin in the Rocky Mountains of central Colorado. The town is also home to an assortment of frequent characters such as students, families, elementary school staff, and other various residents, who tend to regard South Park as a bland and quiet place to live. Prominent settings on the show include the local elementary school, bus stop, various neighborhoods and the surrounding snowy landscape, actual Colorado landmarks, and the shops and businesses along the town's main street, all of which are based on the appearance of similar locations in the town of Fairplay, Colorado.\n\nStan is portrayed as the everyman of the group, as the show's official website describes him as an \"average, American 4th grader\". Kyle is the lone Jew among the group, and his portrayal in this role is often dealt with satirically. Stan is modeled after Parker, while Kyle is modeled after Stone. Stan and Kyle are best friends, and their friendship, which is intended to reflect the real life friendship between Parker and Stone, is a common topic throughout the series. Eric Cartman (usually referred to by his surname only) is a loud, obnoxious, manipulative, racist and obese literal psychopath. He is often portrayed as an antagonist whose anti-Semitic attitude has resulted in an ever-progressing rivalry with Kyle, although the deeper reason for the antagonistic relationship is the strong clash between Kyle's strong morality, and Cartman's complete lack of such. Kenny, who comes from a poor family, wears his parka hood so tightly that it covers most of his face and muffles his speech. During the show's first five seasons, Kenny would die in nearly every episode before returning in the next with little or no definitive explanation given. He was written out of the show's sixth season in 2002, re-appearing in the season finale. Since then, the practice of killing Kenny has been seldom used by the show's creators. During the show's first 58 episodes, the boys were in the third grade. In the season four episode \"4th Grade\" (2000), they entered the fourth grade, where they have remained ever since. \n\nPlots are often set in motion by events, ranging from the fairly typical to the supernatural and extraordinary, which frequently happen in the town. The boys often act as the voice of reason when these events cause panic or incongruous behavior among the adult populace, who are customarily depicted as irrational, gullible, and prone to vociferation. The boys are also frequently confused by the contradictory and hypocritical behavior of their parents and other adults, and often perceive them as having distorted views on morality and society. \n\nThemes and style\n\nEach episode opens with a tongue-in-cheek disclaimer: \"All characters and events in this show—even those based on real people—are entirely fictional. All celebrity voices are impersonated.....poorly. The following program contains coarse language and due to its content it should not be viewed by anyone.\" \n\nSouth Park was the first weekly program to be assigned the TV-MA rating, and is generally intended for adult audiences. The boys and most other child characters use strong profanity, with only the most taboo words being bleeped by censors during a typical broadcast. The use of such language serves as a means for Parker and Stone to display how they claim young boys really talk when they are alone. \n\nSouth Park commonly makes use of carnivalesque and absurdist techniques, numerous running gags, violence, sexual content, offhand pop-cultural references, and satirical portrayal of celebrities.\n\nEarly episodes tended to be shock value-oriented and featured more slapstick-style humor. While social satire had been used on the show occasionally earlier on, it became more prevalent as the series progressed, with the show retaining some of its focus on the boys' fondness of scatological humor in an attempt to remind adult viewers \"what it was like to be eight years old.\" Parker and Stone also began further developing other characters by giving them larger roles in certain storylines, and began writing plots as parables based on religion, politics, and numerous other topics. This provided the opportunity for the show to spoof both extreme sides of contentious issues, while lampooning both liberal and conservative points of view. Parker and Stone describe themselves as \"equal opportunity offenders\", whose main agenda is to \"be funny\" and \"make people laugh\", while stating that no particular topic or group of people be spared the expense of being subject to mockery and satire. \n\nParker and Stone insist that the show is still more about \"kids being kids\" and \"what it's like to be in [elementary school] in America\", stating that the introduction of a more satirical element to the series was the result of the two adding more of a \"moral center\" to the show so that it would rely less on simply being crude and shocking in an attempt to maintain an audience. While profane, and with a tendency to sometimes be cynical, Parker notes that there is still an \"underlying sweetness\" aspect to the child characters, and Time described the boys as \"sometimes cruel but with a core of innocence.\" Usually, the boys and/or other characters ponder over what has transpired during an episode and convey the important lesson taken from it with a short monologue. During earlier seasons, this speech would commonly begin with a variation of the phrase \"You know, I've learned something today...\". \n\nOrigins and creation\n\nSoon after meeting in film class at the University of Colorado in 1992, Parker and Stone created an animated short entitled The Spirit of Christmas. The film was created by animating construction paper cutouts with stop motion, and features prototypes of the main characters of South Park, including a character resembling Cartman but named \"Kenny\", an unnamed character resembling what is today Kenny, and two near-identical unnamed characters who resemble Stan and Kyle. Brian Graden, Fox network executive and mutual friend, commissioned Parker and Stone to create a second short film as a video Christmas card. Created in 1995, the second The Spirit of Christmas short resembled the style of the later series more closely. To differentiate between the two homonymous shorts, the first short is often referred to as Jesus vs. Frosty, and the second short as Jesus vs. Santa. Graden sent copies of the video to several of his friends, and from there it was copied and distributed, including on the internet, where it became one of the first viral videos. \n\nAs Jesus vs. Santa became more popular, Parker and Stone began talks of developing the short into a television series. Fox refused to pick up the series, not wanting to air a show that included the character Mr. Hankey, a talking piece of feces. The two then entered negotiations with both MTV and Comedy Central. Parker preferred the show be produced by Comedy Central, fearing that MTV would turn it into a kids show. When Comedy Central executive Doug Herzog watched the short, he commissioned for it to be developed into a series. \n\nParker and Stone assembled a small staff and spent three months creating the pilot episode \"Cartman Gets an Anal Probe\". South Park was in danger of being canceled before it even aired when the show fared poorly with test audiences, particularly with women. However, the shorts were still gaining more popularity over the Internet, and Comedy Central agreed to order a run of six episodes. South Park debuted with \"Cartman Gets an Anal Probe\" on August 13, 1997. \n\nProduction\n\nExcept for the pilot episode, which was produced using cutout animation, all episodes of South Park are created with the use of software. As opposed to the pilot, which took three months to complete, and other animated sitcoms, which are traditionally hand-drawn by companies in South Korea in a process that takes roughly eight-to-nine months, individual episodes of South Park take significantly less time to produce. Using computers as an animation method, the show's production staff were able to generate an episode in about three weeks during the first seasons. Now, with a staff of about 70 people, episodes are typically completed in one week, with some in as little as three to four days. Nearly the entire production of an episode is accomplished within one set of offices, which were originally at a complex in Westwood, Los Angeles, California, and are now part of South Park Studios in Culver City, California. Parker and Stone have been the show's executive producers throughout its entire history, while Anne Garefino has served as South Park's co-executive producer since the latter part of the first season. 20th Century Fox Senior Production Executive Debbie Liebling also served as an executive producer during the show's first five seasons, coordinating the show's production efforts between South Park Studios and Comedy Central's headquarters in New York City. \n\nScripts are not written before a season begins. Production of an episode begins on a Thursday, with the show's writing consultants brainstorming with Parker and Stone. Former staff writers include Pam Brady, who has since written scripts for the films Hot Rod and Hamlet 2, and Nancy Pimental, who served as co-host of Win Ben Stein's Money and wrote the film The Sweetest Thing after her tenure with the show during its first three seasons. Television producer and writer Norman Lear, an idol of both Parker and Stone, served as a guest writing consultant for the season seven (2003) episodes \"Cancelled\" and \"I'm a Little Bit Country\". During the 12th and 13th seasons, Saturday Night Live actor and writer Bill Hader served as a creative consultant and co-producer. \n\nAfter exchanging ideas, Parker will write a script, and from there the entire team of animators, editors, technicians, and sound engineers will each typically work 100–120 hours in the ensuing week. Since the show's fourth season (2000), Parker has assumed most of the show's directorial duties, while Stone relinquished his share of the directing to focus on handling the coordination and business aspects of the production. On Wednesday, a completed episode is sent to Comedy Central's headquarters via satellite uplink, sometimes in just a few hours before its air time of 10 PM Eastern Time. \n\nParker and Stone state that subjecting themselves to a one-week deadline creates more spontaneity amongst themselves in the creative process, which they feel results in a funnier show. The schedule also allows South Park to both stay more topical and respond more quickly to specific current events than other satiric animated shows. One of the earliest examples of this was in the season four (2000) episode \"Quintuplets 2000\", which references the United States Border Patrol's raid of a house during the Elián González affair, an event which occurred only four days before the episode originally aired. The season nine (2005) episode \"Best Friends Forever\" references the Terri Schiavo case, and originally aired in the midst of the controversy and less than 12 hours before she died. A scene in the season seven (2003) finale \"It's Christmas in Canada\" references the discovery of dictator Saddam Hussein in a \"spider hole\" and his subsequent capture, which happened a mere three days prior to the episode airing. The season 12 (2008) episode \"About Last Night...\" revolves around Barack Obama's victory in the 2008 presidential election, and aired less than 24 hours after Obama was declared the winner, using segments of dialogue from Obama's real victory speech. \n\nOn October 16, 2013, the show failed to meet their production deadline for the first time ever, after a power outage on October 15 at the production studio prevented the episode, season 17's \"Goth Kids 3: Dawn of the Posers\", from being finished in time. The episode was rescheduled to air a week later on October 23, 2013. In July 2015, South Park was renewed through 2019; extending the show through season 23 with 304 episodes overall. \n\nAnimation\n\nThe show's style of animation is inspired by the paper cut-out cartoons made by Terry Gilliam for Monty Python's Flying Circus, of which Parker and Stone have been lifelong fans. Construction paper and traditional stop motion cutout animation techniques were used in the original animated shorts and in the pilot episode. Subsequent episodes have been produced by computer animation, providing a similar look to the originals while requiring a fraction of the time to produce. Before computer artists begin animating an episode, a series of animatics drawn in Toon Boom are provided by the show's storyboard artists. \n\nThe characters and objects are composed of simple geometrical shapes and primary colors. Most child characters are the same size and shape, and are distinguished by their clothing and headwear. Characters are mostly presented two-dimensionally and from only one angle. Their movements are animated in an intentionally jerky fashion, as they are purposely not offered the same free range of motion associated with hand-drawn characters. Occasionally, some non-fictional characters are depicted with photographic cutouts of their actual head and face in lieu of a face reminiscent of the show's traditional style. Canadians on the show are often portrayed in an even more minimalist fashion; they have simple beady eyes, and the top halves of their heads simply flap up and down when the characters speak.\n\nWhen the show began using computers, the cardboard cutouts were scanned and re-drawn with CorelDRAW, then imported into PowerAnimator, which was used with SGI workstations to animate the characters. The workstations were linked to a 54-processor render farm that could render 10 to 15 shots an hour. Beginning with season five, the animators began using Maya instead of PowerAnimator. The studio now runs a 120-processor render farm that can produce 30 or more shots an hour.\n\nPowerAnimator and Maya are high-end programs mainly used for 3D computer graphics, while co-producer and former animation director Eric Stough notes that PowerAnimator was initially chosen because its features helped animators retain the show's \"homemade\" look. PowerAnimator was also used for making some of the show's visual effects, which are now created using Motion, a newer graphics program created by Apple, Inc. for their Mac OS X operating system. The show's visual quality has improved in recent seasons, though several other techniques are used to intentionally preserve the cheap cutout animation look. \n\nA few episodes feature sections of live-action footage, while others have incorporated other styles of animation. Portions of the season eight (2004) premiere \"Good Times with Weapons\" are done in anime style, while the season 10 episode \"Make Love, Not Warcraft\" is done partly in machinima. The season 12 episode \"Major Boobage\", a homage to the 1981 animated film Heavy Metal, implements scenes accomplished with rotoscoping. \n\nVoice cast\n\nParker and Stone voice most of the male South Park characters. Mary Kay Bergman voiced the majority of the female characters until her suicide on November 11, 1999. Mona Marshall and Eliza Schneider succeeded Bergman, with Schneider leaving the show after its seventh season (2003). She was replaced by April Stewart, who, along with Marshall, continues to voice most of the female characters. Bergman was originally listed in the credits under the alias Shannen Cassidy to protect her reputation as the voice of several Disney and other kid-friendly characters. Stewart was originally credited under the name Gracie Lazar, while Schneider was sometimes credited under her rock opera performance pseudonym Blue Girl. \n\nOther voice actors and members of South Park's production staff have voiced minor characters for various episodes, while a few staff members voice recurring characters; supervising producer Jennifer Howell voices student Bebe Stevens, co-producer and storyboard artist Adrien Beard voices the school's only black student, Token Black, writing consultant Vernon Chatman voices an anthropomorphic towel named Towelie, and production supervisor John Hansen voices Mr. Slave, the former gay lover of Mr. Garrison. Throughout the show's run, the voices for toddler and kindergarten characters have been provided by various small children of the show's production staff. \n\nWhen voicing child characters, the voice actors speak within their normal vocal range while adding a childlike inflection. The recorded audio is then edited with Pro Tools, and the pitch is altered to make the voice sound more like that of a fourth grader. \n\nIsaac Hayes voiced the character of Chef, a black, soul-singing cafeteria worker who was one of the few adults the boys consistently trusted. Hayes agreed to voice the character after being among Parker and Stone's ideal candidates which also included Lou Rawls and Barry White. Hayes, who lived and hosted a radio show in New York during his tenure with South Park, would record his dialogue on a digital audio tape while a respective episode's director would give directions over the phone, then the tape would be shipped to the show's production studio in California. After Hayes left the show in early 2006, the character of Chef was killed off in the season 10 (2006) premiere \"The Return of Chef\".\n\nGuest stars\n\nCelebrities who are depicted on the show are usually impersonated, though some celebrities do their own voices for the show. Celebrities who have voiced themselves include Michael Buffer, Brent Musburger, Jay Leno, Robert Smith, and the bands Radiohead and Korn. \nComedy team Cheech & Chong voiced characters representing their likenesses for the season four (2000) episode \"Cherokee Hair Tampons\", which was the duo's first collaborative effort in 20 years. Malcolm McDowell appears in live-action sequences as the narrator of the season four episode \"Pip\". \n\nJennifer Aniston, Richard Belzer, \nNatasha Henstridge, Norman Lear, and Peter Serafinowicz have guest starred as other speaking characters. During South Park's earliest seasons, several high-profile celebrities inquired about guest-starring on the show. As a joke, Parker and Stone responded by offering low-profile, non-speaking roles, most of which were accepted; George Clooney provided the barks for Stan's dog Sparky in the season one (1997) episode \"Big Gay Al's Big Gay Boat Ride\", Leno provided the meows for Cartman's cat in the season one finale \"Cartman's Mom Is a Dirty Slut\", and Henry Winkler voiced the various growls and grunts of a kid-eating monster in the season two (1998) episode \"City on the Edge of Forever\". Jerry Seinfeld offered to lend his voice for the Thanksgiving episode \"Starvin' Marvin\", but declined to appear when he was only offered a role as \"Turkey #2\". \n\nMusic\n\nParker says that the varying uses of music is of utmost importance to South Park. Several characters often play or sing songs in order to change or influence a group's behavior, or to educate, motivate, or indoctrinate others. The show also frequently features scenes in which its characters have disapproving reactions to the performances of certain popular musicians.\n\nAdam Berry, the show's original score composer, used sound synthesis to simulate a small orchestra, and frequently alluded to existing famous pieces of music. Berry also used signature acoustic guitar and mandolin cues as leitmotifs for the show's establishing shots. After Berry left in 2001, Jamie Dunlap and Scott Nickoley of the Los Angeles-based Mad City Production Studios provided the show's original music for the next seven seasons. Since 2008, Dunlap has been credited as the show's sole score composer. Dunlap's contributions to the show are one of the few that are not achieved at the show's own production offices. Dunlap reads a script, creates a score using digital audio software, and then e-mails the audio file to South Park Studios, where it is edited to fit with the completed episode.\n\nIn addition to singing in an effort to explain something to the children, Chef would also sing about things relevant to what had transpired in the plot. These songs were original compositions written by Parker, and performed by Hayes in the same sexually suggestive R&B style he had utilized during his own music career. The band DVDA, which consists of Parker and Stone, along with show staff members Bruce Howell and D.A. Young, would perform the music for these compositions, and, until the character's death on the show, were listed as \"Chef's Band\" in the closing credits.\n\nRick James, Elton John, Meat Loaf, Joe Strummer, Ozzy Osbourne, Primus, Rancid, and Ween all guest starred and briefly performed in the season two (1998) episode \"Chef Aid\". Korn debuted their single \"Falling Away from Me\" as guest stars on the season three (1999) episode \"Korn's Groovy Pirate Ghost Mystery\".\n\nTitle sequence\n\nThe show's original theme song was a musical score performed by the band Primus, while the lyrics are alternately sung by the band's lead singer, Les Claypool, and the show's four central characters. Kenny's muffled lines are altered after every few seasons. The original composition was originally slower but was sped up for the show, while an instrumental version of the original composition is often played during the show's closing credits. The song's melody is similar to the song \"Coddingtown\", on Primus's Brown Album. The opening theme song has been remixed three times during the course of the series, including a remix performed by Paul Robb. In 2006, the theme music was remixed with the song \"Whamola\" by Colonel Les Claypool's Fearless Flying Frog Brigade, from the album Purple Onion. \n\nDistribution\n\nEpisodes\n\nInternational\n\nInternationally, South Park is broadcast in India, New Zealand, and several countries throughout Europe and Latin America on channels that are divisions of Comedy Central and MTV Networks, both subsidiaries of Viacom. In distribution deals with Comedy Central, other independent networks also broadcast the series in other international markets. In Australia, the show is broadcast on The Comedy Channel, SBS One (Season 1–13 edited and 14–15 Uncut) & SBS2 (Season 16 Uncut). The series is broadcast uncensored in Canada in English on The Comedy Network and, later, Much. South Park also airs on TG4 in Ireland, STV in Scotland, Comedy Central and MTV in the UK (previously on Channel 4) and B92 in Serbia. \n\nSyndication\n\nBroadcast syndication rights to South Park were acquired by Debmar-Mercury and Tribune Entertainment in 2003 and 2004 respectively. Episodes further edited for content began running in syndication on September 19, 2005, and are aired in the United States with the TV-14 rating. 20th Television replaced Tribune as co-distributor in early 2008. The series is currently aired in syndication in 90 percent of the television markets across the U.S. and Canada, where it generates an estimated US$25 million a year in advertising revenue. \n\nHome media\n\nThe first eighteen seasons of South Park are available in their entirety on DVD. Several other themed DVD compilations have been released by Rhino Entertainment and Comedy Central, while the three-episode Imaginationland story arc was reissued straight-to-DVD as a full-length feature in 2008. \n\nStreaming\n\nIn March 2008, Comedy Central made every episode of South Park available for free full-length on-demand legal streaming on the official South Park Studios website. From March 2008 until December 2013 new episodes were added to the site the day following their debut, and an uncensored version was posted the following day. The episode stayed up for the remainder of the week, then taken down, and added to the site three weeks later.\n\nWithin a week, the site served more than a million streams of full episodes, and the number grew to 55 million by October 2008. Legal issues prevent the U.S. content from being accessible outside the U.S., so local servers have been set up in other countries. In September 2009, a South Park Studios website with streaming episodes was launched in the UK and Ireland. In Canada, episodes were available for streaming from The Comedy Network's website, though due to digital rights restrictions, they are no longer available. \n\nIn July 2014 it was announced that Hulu had signed a three-year deal purchasing exclusive online streaming rights to the South Park for a reported 80 million dollars. Following the announcement every episode remained available for free on the South Park Studios website, using the Hulu player. As of September 2014, following the premiere of the eighteenth season, only 30 select episodes are featured for free viewing at a time on a rationing basis on the website, with new episodes being available for an entire month starting the day following their original airings. The entire series will be available for viewing on Hulu Plus.\n\nIn April 2010, the season five episode \"Super Best Friends\" and the season fourteen episodes \"200\" and \"201\" (which all depict the Muslim prophet Muhammad) were removed from the site; additionally, these episodes no longer air in reruns and are only available exclusively on DVD. These episodes remain unavailable following the 2014 purchase by Hulu.\n\nRe-rendered episodes\n\nFrom its debut in 1997 until the season twelve finale in 2008 the series had been natively produced in 4:3 480i standard definition. In 2009 the series switched to being natively produced in 16:9 1080i high definition with the beginning of the thirteenth season. \n\nAll seasons originally produced in standard definition have been remastered by being completely re-rendered scene-by-scene and frame-by-frame by South Park Studios from their original resolution to full 1080i high definition. Additionally, the original 4:3 aspect ratio has been converted to 16:9 as well. The re-rendering process took South Park Studios several years, and resulted in the picture quality being in true HD as opposed to being up-converted. The re-rendered episodes from the earlier seasons also feature their original uncensored audio tracks, which have never previously been released to the public uncensored. \n\nReception\n\nRatings\n\nWhen South Park debuted, it was a huge ratings success for Comedy Central and is seen as being largely responsible for the success of the channel, with Herzog crediting it for putting the network \"on the map\". \n\nThe show's first episode, \"Cartman Gets an Anal Probe\", earned a Nielsen rating of 1.3 (980,000 viewers), at the time considered high for a cable program. The show instantly generated buzz among television viewers, and mass viewing parties began assembling on college campuses. By the time the eighth episode, \"Starvin' Marvin\", aired — three months after the show debuted — ratings and viewership had tripled, and South Park was already the most successful show in Comedy Central's history. When the tenth episode \"Damien\" aired the following February, viewership increased another 33 percent. The episode earned a 6.4 rating, which at the time was over 10 times the average rating earned by a cable show aired in prime time. The ratings peaked with the second episode of season two, \"Cartman's Mom Is Still a Dirty Slut\", which aired on April 22, 1998. The episode earned an 8.2 rating (6.2 million viewers) and, at the time, set a record as the highest-rated non-sports show in basic cable history. During the spring of 1998, eight of the ten highest-rated shows on basic cable were South Park episodes.\n\nThe success of South Park prompted more cable companies to carry Comedy Central and led it to its becoming one of the fastest-growing cable channels. The number of households that had Comedy Central jumped from 9.1 million in 1997 to 50 million in June 1998. When the show debuted, the most Comedy Central had earned for a 30-second commercial was US$7,500. Within a year, advertisers were paying an average of US$40,000 for 30 seconds of advertising time during airings of South Park in its second season, while some paid as much as US$80,000. \n\nBy the third season (1999), the series' ratings began to decrease. The third season premiere episode drew 3.4 million viewers, a dramatic drop from the 5.5 million of the previous season's premiere. Stone and Parker attributed this drop in the show's ratings to the media hype that surrounded the show in the previous year, adding that the third season ratings reflected the show's \"true\" fan base. The show's ratings dropped further in its fourth season (2000), with episodes averaging just above 1.5 million viewers. The ratings eventually increased, and seasons five through nine consistently averaged about 3 million viewers per episode. Though its viewership is lower than it was at the height of its popularity in its earliest seasons, South Park remains one of the highest-rated series on Comedy Central. The season 14 (2010) premiere gained 3.7 million viewers, the show's highest-rated season premiere since 1998. \n\nRecognitions and awards\n\nIn 2004, Channel 4 voted South Park the third-greatest cartoon of all time. In 2007, Time magazine included the show on its list of the \"100 Best TV Shows of All Time\", proclaiming it as \"America's best source of rapid-fire satire for [the past] decade\". The same year, Rolling Stone declared it to be the funniest show on television since its debut 10 years prior. In 2008, South Park was named the 12th-greatest TV show of the past 25 years by Entertainment Weekly, while AOL declared it as having the \"most astute\" characters of any show in history when naming it the 16th-best television comedy series of all time. In 2011, South Park was voted number one in the 25 Greatest Animated TV Series poll by Entertainment Weekly. The character of Cartman ranked 10th on TV Guide's 2002 list of the \"Top 50 Greatest Cartoon Characters\", 198th on VH1's \"200 Greatest Pop Culture Icons\", 19th on Bravo's \"100 Greatest TV Characters\" television special in 2004, and second on MSNBC's 2005 list of TV's scariest characters behind Mr. Burns from The Simpsons. In 2006, Comedy Central received a Peabody Award for South Park's \"stringent social commentary\" and \"undeniably fearless lampooning of all that is self-important and hypocritical in American life\". In 2013, the Writers Guild of America ranked South Park at number 63 among the \"101 Best-Written Shows Ever\". Also in 2013, TV Guide listed the show at number 10 among the \"60 Greatest Cartoons of All Time\". \n\nSouth Park won the CableACE Award for Best Animated Series in 1997, the last year the awards were given out. In 1998, South Park was nominated for the Annie Award for Outstanding Achievement in an Animated Primetime or Late Night Television Program. It was also nominated for the 1998 GLAAD Award for Outstanding TV – Individual Episode for \"Big Gay Al's Big Gay Boat Ride\".\n\nSouth Park has been nominated for the Emmy Award for Outstanding Animated Program ten times (1998, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2010 and 2013). The show has won the award for Outstanding Animated Program (For Programming Less Than One Hour) four times, for the 2005 episode \"Best Friends Forever\", the 2006 episode \"Make Love, Not Warcraft\", the 2009 episode \"Margaritaville\", and the 2012 episode \"Raising the Bar\". The \"Imaginationland\" trilogy of episodes won the Emmy Award for Outstanding Animated Program (For Programming One Hour or More) in 2008. \n\nCriticism and controversy\n\nThe show's frequent depiction of taboo subject matter, general toilet humor, accessibility to younger viewers, disregard for conservative sensibilities, negative depiction of liberal causes, and portrayal of religion for comic effect have been the main sources for generating controversy and debate over the course of its run. As the series first became popular, students in several schools were barred from wearing South Park-related T-shirts, while several parent councils in the United Kingdom expressed concern when eight- and nine-year-old children voted the South Park character Cartman as their favorite personality in a 1999 poll. Parker and Stone assert that the show is not meant to be viewed by young children, and the show is certified with TV ratings that indicate its intention for mature audiences. \n\nParents Television Council founder L. Brent Bozell III and Action for Children's Television founder Peggy Charren have both condemned the show, with the latter claiming it is \"dangerous to the democracy\". Several other activist groups have protested the show's parodies of Christianity and portrayal of Jesus Christ. Stone claims that parents who disapprove of South Park for its portrayal of how kids behave are upset because they \"have an idyllic vision of what kids are like\", adding \"[kids] don't have any kind of social tact or etiquette, they're just complete little raging bastards\".\n\nThe show further lampooned the controversy surrounding its use of profanity, as well as the media attention surrounding the network show Chicago Hope's singular use of the word shit, with the season five premiere \"It Hits the Fan\", in which the word shit is said 162 times without being bleeped for censorship purposes, while also appearing uncensored in written form. In the days following the show's original airing, 5,000 disapproving e-mails were sent to Comedy Central. Despite its 43 uncensored uses of the racial slur nigger, the season 11 episode \"With Apologies to Jesse Jackson\" generated relatively little controversy, as most in the black community and the NAACP praised the episode for its context and its comedic way of conveying other races' perceptions of how black people must feel when hearing the word. \n\nSpecific controversies regarding the show have included an April Fools' Day prank played on its viewers in 1998, its depiction of the Virgin Mary in the season nine (2005) finale \"Bloody Mary\" which angered several Catholics, its depiction of Steve Irwin with a stingray barb stuck in his chest in the episode \"Hell on Earth 2006\", which originally aired less than two months after Irwin was killed in the same fashion, and Comedy Central's censorship of the depiction of Muhammad in the season 10 episode \"Cartoon Wars Part II\" in the wake of the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy.\n\nThe season nine (2005) episode \"Trapped in the Closet\" denounces Scientology as nothing more than \"a big fat global scam\", while freely divulging church information that Scientology normally only reveals to members who make significant monetary contributions to the church. The episode also ambiguously parodies the rumors involving the sexual orientation of Scientologist Tom Cruise, who allegedly demanded any further reruns of the episode be canceled. Isaac Hayes, a Scientologist, later quit South Park because of his objection to the episode. \n\nThe season fourteen episodes \"200\" and \"201\" were mired in controversy for satirizing issues surrounding the depiction of the Islamic prophet, Muhammad. The website for the organization Revolution Muslim, a New York-based radical Muslim organization, posted an entry that included a warning to creators Parker and Stone that they risk violent retribution for their depictions of Muhammad. It said that they \"will probably wind up like Theo van Gogh for airing this show\". The posting provided the addresses to Comedy Central in New York and the production company in Los Angeles. The author of the post, Zachary Adam Chesser (who prefers to be called Abu Talhah al-Amrikee), said it was meant to serve as a warning to Parker and Stone, not a threat, and that providing the addresses was meant to give people the opportunity to protest. Despite al-Amrikee's claims that the website entry was a warning, several media outlets and observers interpreted it as a threat. Support for the episode has come in the form of Everybody Draw Mohammed Day, a movement started on Facebook that encourages people to draw Muhammad on May 20. The \"200\" episode, which also depicted the Buddha snorting cocaine, prompted the government of Sri Lanka to ban the series outright.[http://www.thesundayleader.lk/2010/04/25/american-television-depicts-buddha-snorting-cocaine/comment-page-1/ American Television Depicts Buddha Snorting Cocaine|The Sunday Leader]\n\nInfluence\n\nCultural\n\nCommentary made in episodes has been interpreted as statements Parker and Stone are attempting to make to the viewing public, and these opinions have been subject to much critical analysis in the media and literary world within the framework of popular philosophical, theological, social, and political concepts. Since South Park debuted, college students have written term papers and doctoral theses analyzing the show, while Brooklyn College offers a course called \"South Park and Political Correctness\". \n\nSoon after one of Kenny's trademark deaths on the show, other characters would typically shout \"Oh my God, they killed Kenny!\". The exclamation quickly became a popular catchphrase, while the running gag of Kenny's recurring deaths are one of the more recognized hallmarks among viewers of modern television. Cartman's exclamations of \"Respect my authori-tah!\" and \"Screw you guys ...I'm going home!\" became catchphrases as well, and during the show's earlier seasons, were highly popular in the lexicon of viewers. Cartman's eccentric intonation of \"Hey!\" was included in the 2002 edition of The Oxford Dictionary of Catchphrases. \n\nIn the season two episode \"Chef Aid\", attorney Johnnie Cochran uses what's called in the show the Chewbacca defense, which is a legal strategy that involves addressing plot holes related to Chewbacca in the film Return of the Jedi rather than discussing the trial at hand during a closing argument in a deliberate attempt to confuse jurors into thinking there is reasonable doubt. The term \"Chewbacca defense\" has been documented as being used by criminologists, forensic scientists, and political commentators in their various discussions of similar methods used in legal cases and public forums. \n\nAnother season two episode, \"Gnomes\", revolves around a group of \"underpants gnomes\" who, as their name suggests, run a corporation stealing people's underpants. When asked about their business model, various gnomes reply that theirs is a three-step process: Phase 1 is \"collect underpants\". Phase 3 is \"profit\". However, the gnomes are unable to explain what is to occur between the first and final steps, and \"Phase 2\" is accompanied by a large question mark on their corporate flow chart. Using \"????\" and \"PROFIT!\" as the last two steps in a process (usually jokingly) has become a widely popular Internet meme because of this. Especially in the context of politics and economics, \"underpants gnomes\" has been used by some commentators to characterize a conspicuous gap of logic or planning. \n\nWhen Sophie Rutschmann of the University of Strasbourg discovered a mutated gene that causes an adult fruit fly to die within two days after it is infected with certain bacteria, she named the gene kep1 in honor of Kenny. \n\nPolitical\n\nWhile some conservatives have condemned the show for its vulgarity, a growing population of people who hold center-right political beliefs, including teenagers and young adults, have embraced the show for its tendency to mock liberal viewpoints and lampoon liberal celebrities and icons. Political commentator Andrew Sullivan dubbed the group South Park Republicans, or South Park conservatives. Sullivan classified the group as \"extremely skeptical of political correctness but also are socially liberal on many issues\", though he says the phrase applied to them is meant to be more of a casual indication of beliefs than a strong partisan label. Brian C. Anderson describes the group as \"generally characterized by holding strong libertarian beliefs and rejecting more conservative social policy\", and notes that although the show makes \"wicked fun of conservatives\", it is \"at the forefront of a conservative revolt against liberal media.\"\n\nParker and Stone downplay the show's alignment with any particular political affiliation, and deny having a political agenda when creating an episode. \nThe two claim the show's higher ratio of instances lampooning liberal orthodoxies stems simply from their preference to make fun of liberals more than conservatives. While Stone has been quoted saying, \"I hate conservatives, but I really fucking hate liberals\", Stone and Parker have explained that their drive to lampoon a given target comes first from the target's insistence on telling other people how to behave. The duo explains that they perceive liberals as having both delusions of entitlement to remain free from satire, and a propensity to enforce political correctness while patronizing the citizens of Middle America. Parker and Stone are uncomfortable with the idea of themselves or South Park being applied with any kind of partisan classification. Parker said he rejects the \"South Park Republican\" and \"South Park conservative\" labels as a serious notion, feeling that either tag implies that one only adheres to strictly conservative or liberal viewpoints. Canadian columnist Jaime J. Weinman observes that the most die-hard conservatives who identified themselves as \"South Park Republicans\" began turning away from the label when the show ridiculed Republicans in the season nine (2005) episode \"Best Friends Forever.\"\n\nFilm\n\nIn 1999, less than two years after the series first aired, a feature-length film was released. The film, a musical comedy, was directed by Parker, who co-wrote the script with Stone and Pam Brady. The film was generally well received by critics, and earned a combined US$83.1 million at the domestic and foreign box office. The film satirizes the controversy surrounding the show itself and gained a spot in the 2001 edition of Guinness World Records for \"Most Swearing in an Animated Film\". The song \"Blame Canada\" from the film's soundtrack earned song co-writers Parker and Marc Shaiman an Academy Award nomination for Best Music, Original Song. \n\nParker and Stone said in a 2008 interview that a theatrically released sequel would most likely be what concludes the series. In 2011, when asked on the official South Park website whether a sequel would be made, they said \"the first South Park movie was so potent, we're all still recovering from the blow. Unfortunately, at the current moment, there are no plans for a second South Park movie. But you never know what the future may bring, crazier things have happened...\" In 2011, Time called South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut the sixth greatest animated feature of all-time. In 2013, Warner Bros. Entertainment relinquished to Paramount Pictures its rights to co-finance a potential future South Park film during their negotiations to co-finance the Christopher Nolan science fiction film Interstellar. Previous efforts to create a second South Park film were complicated due to both studios retaining certain rights to the property. \n\nMedia and merchandise\n\nShorts\n\nAs a tribute to the Dead Parrot sketch, a short that features Cartman attempting to return a dead Kenny to a shop run by Kyle aired during a 1999 BBC television special commemorating the 30th anniversary of Monty Python's Flying Circus. South Park parodied Scientology in a short that aired as part of the 2000 MTV Movie Awards. The short was entitled \"The Gauntlet\" and also poked fun at John Travolta, a Scientologist. The four main characters were featured in the documentary film The Aristocrats, listening to Cartman tell his version of the film's titular joke. Short clips of Cartman introducing the starting lineup for the University of Colorado football team were featured during ABC's coverage of the 2007 matchup between the University of Colorado and the University of Nebraska. In 2008, Parker, as Cartman, gave answers to a Proust Questionnaire conducted by Julie Rovner of NPR. The Snakes & Arrows Tour for Rush in 2007 used an intro from Cartman, Stan, Kyle, and Kenny preceding \"Tom Sawyer\". As Parker, Stone and producer Frank Agnone are Los Angeles Kings fans, special South Park pre-game videos have been featured at Kings home games at Staples Center, and the club even sent the Stanley Cup to visit South Park Studios after winning the 2012 finals. Parker and Stone have also created Denver Broncos and Denver Nuggets-themed shorts, featuring Cartman, for home games at Pepsi Center.\n\nMusic\n\nChef Aid: The South Park Album, a compilation of original songs from the show, characters performing cover songs, and tracks performed by guest artists was released in 1998, while Mr. Hankey's Christmas Classics, a compilation of songs performed by the characters in the episode of the same name as well as other Christmas-themed songs was released in 1999, as was the soundtrack to the feature film. The song \"Chocolate Salty Balls\" (performed by Hayes as Chef) was released as a single in the UK in 1998 to support the Chef Aid: The South Park Album and became a number one hit. \n\nVideo games\n\nFollowing the early success of the series, three video games based on the series were released by Acclaim Entertainment. A first-person shooter simply titled South Park was released in 1998 for the PC, Nintendo 64, and PlayStation. This was followed in 1999 by South Park: Chef's Luv Shack, a party video game featuring quizzes and mini-games, on the Dreamcast, PlayStation, Nintendo 64, and PC. In 2000, South Park Rally, a racing game, was released on the Dreamcast, PlayStation, Nintendo 64, and PC. Parker and Stone had little to do with the development of these games, apart from providing voice acting, and have publicly criticized Acclaim and the quality of the South Park games they produced. \n\nThere was a South Park game for the Game Boy Color in development at Acclaim but it was cancelled by Parker and Stone because they thought the game wasn't right for the system as the main demograpic was kids. Parker and Stone have the prototype cartridge of the game, making it the first South Park video game ever made. Only one screenshot was published in Nintendo Power issue 114 in 1998. \n\nAnother South Park game was in development for the PlayStation 2, Xbox, and GameCube in 2004 but was cancelled for unknown reasons. A prototype of the game was found in an Xbox development kit in 2015. \n\nIn 2010, the decision was made to form a small group called South Park Digital Studios, which would, among other things, work on creating new South Park games, that would involve the studio and the show's creators more heavily. The first such title is South Park Let's Go Tower Defense Play!, a tower defense game developed by Doublesix, which was released in 2009 for the Xbox Live Arcade service on the Xbox 360 console. Another Xbox Live Arcade game, South Park: Tenorman's Revenge, is a platformer which was released in the spring of 2012. South Park: The Stick of Truth is a role-playing video game that was written by Parker and Stone, and was originally scheduled to be released on March 5, 2013 for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 consoles, and Microsoft Windows; the game was eventually released on March 4, 2014 to positive reviews. A sequel to The Stick of Truth has been announced and will be titled South Park: The Fractured But Whole.\n \n\nMerchandising\n\nMerchandising related to the show is an industry which generates several million dollars a year. In 1998, the top-selling specialty T-shirt in the United States was based on South Park, and US$30 million in T-shirt sales was reached during the show's first season.\n\nA South Park pinball machine was released in 1999 by Sega Pinball. The companies Fun 4 All, Mezco Toyz, and Mirage have produced various South Park action figures, collectibles, and plush dolls. \n\nComedy Central entered into an agreement with Frito-Lay to sell 1.5 million bags of Cheesy Poofs, Cartman's favorite snack from the show, at Walmart until the premiere of the second half of the fifteenth season on October 5, 2011." ] }

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{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe", "Search" ], "filename": [ "The_Nightmare_Before_Christmas.txt", "Jack_Skellington.txt" ], "title": [ "The Nightmare Before Christmas", "Jack Skellington" ], "wiki_context": [ "The Nightmare Before Christmas, often promoted as Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas, is a 1993 American stop motion dark fantasy musical film directed by Henry Selick, and produced and conceived by Tim Burton. It tells the story of Jack Skellington, a character from \"Halloween Town\" who stumbles through a portal to \"Christmas Town\" and decides to celebrate the holiday, with some dastardly and comical consequences. Danny Elfman wrote the film score and voiced the singing role of Jack. The principal voice cast also includes Chris Sarandon, Catherine O'Hara, William Hickey, Ken Page, Paul Reubens and Glenn Shadix.\n\nThe Nightmare Before Christmas originated in a poem written by Tim Burton in 1982, while he was working as an animator at Walt Disney Feature Animation. With the success of Vincent in the same year, Walt Disney Studios began to consider developing The Nightmare Before Christmas as either a short film or 30-minute television special. Over the years, Burton's thoughts regularly returned to the project, and in 1990, he made a development deal with Disney. Production started in July 1991 in San Francisco. Disney released the film through the Touchstone Pictures banner because the studio believed the film would be \"too dark, and scary for kids.\"\n\nThe Nightmare Before Christmas was met with both critical and financial success. The film has since been reissued by Walt Disney Pictures and re-released annually in the Disney Digital 3-D format from 2006 until 2009, making it the first stop-motion animated feature to be entirely converted to 3D.\n\nPlot\n\nThe story starts in a forest called Holiday Woods with seven trees containing doors leading to towns representing various holidays: Valentine's Day, St. Patrick's Day, Easter, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Halloween and Independence Day. Halloween Town is a fantasy world filled with citizens such as deformed monsters, ghosts, ghouls, goblins, vampires, werewolves and witches. Jack Skellington, a skeleton known as The Pumpkin King, leads them in organizing the annual Halloween holiday (\"This is Halloween\"). However, in a monologue, Jack reveals he has grown weary of the same routine year after year, and wants something more (\"Jack's Lament\"). Wandering dejectedly in the woods, he stumbles across the seven holiday doors and accidentally opens a portal to Christmas Town, whose residents are charged with organizing the annual Christmas holiday (\"What's This?\"). Impressed by the bright and cheery feeling and style of Christmas, Jack presents his findings and his understanding of Christmas, to the Halloween Town residents. However, they fail to grasp his meaning and compare everything to their ideas of Halloween, although there is one Christmas character they can relate to: the fearsome lobster-like king of Christmas Town who flies at night, named \"Sandy Claws\" (\"Town Meeting Song\"). Jack is dismayed that no one understands the feeling of Christmas, obsessively tries to study the holiday but fails to grasp any further explanation of it. He ultimately decides that it's unfair for Christmas Town alone to enjoy the feeling and there's no reason why he shouldn't be able to, and announces that the citizens of Halloween Town will take over Christmas this year (\"Jack's Obsession\").\n\nJack's obsession with Christmas leads him to usurp the role of Santa. Every resident is assigned a task, while Sally, a beautiful rag doll woman created by the town's mad scientist, starts falling in love with Jack (\"Making Christmas\"). However, after a vision of a burning Christmas tree, she alone realizes that his plans to run Christmas will become disastrous, but has no luck convincing him. Jack assigns Lock, Shock and Barrel, a trio of mischievous children, to abduct Santa and bring him back to Halloween Town (\"Kidnap The Sandy Claws\"). Against Jack's wishes and largely for their amusement, the trio deliver Santa to Oogie Boogie, a gambling-addict bogeyman who plots to play a game with Santa's life at stake (\"Oogie Boogie's Song\").\n\nChristmas Eve arrives and Sally attempts to stop Jack with fog, but fails to do so thanks to Jack's ghost dog Zero and his glowing nose allowing Jack to embark into the sky on a coffin-like sleigh pulled by skeletal reindeer, guided by Zero. Down on the ground, Sally prays that her premonition does not come true ( \"Sally's Song\"). Jack begins to deliver presents to children around the world, but the gifts (shrunken heads, Christmas tree-eating snakes, pumpkin jack-in-the-boxes, vampire teddy bears, toy ducks with sharp teeth, man-eating wreaths, bats, etc.) only terrify the recipients. The children alert their parents, who call the police, who call the military. The air raid siren is activated, and Jack is spotted with search lights, after which he is then shot at by air raid artillery cannons. Initially mistaking the firing for a celebration, he simply flies higher. However, after a reindeer is hit, and his sleigh is grazed, he realizes that he is being targeted, but the next cannon destroys the sleigh, and Jack falls from the sky to Earth, devastating Halloween Town's citizens. Thought to have been dead by the attack, Jack crash-lands in a cemetery unharmed. Although he is depressed by the failure of his plan, he quickly regains his old spirit, having come up with new ideas for next Halloween. He then rushes back home to rescue Santa and put things right (\"Poor Jack\").\n\nMeanwhile, Sally attempts to free Santa, but is captured by Oogie. Jack slips into the lair and frees them, then angrily confronts Oogie. Almost immediately, Oogie springs several traps on Jack, who manages to dodge them, and Oogie attempts to flee. However, Jack pulls one of Oogie's loose threads, revealing him to be nothing more than a collection of snakes and insects, which are all incinerated, save for the last one, which Santa squashes with his boot. Jack apologizes to Santa for his actions, and Santa, while still annoyed with Jack for attempting to take over his job, assures him that he can fix things, and leaves to get rid of the evil toys and deliver the right presents to the world's children.\n\nAfter Jack returns to Halloween Town, the townspeople celebrate that he's alive, and Santa, after fixing Christmas, returns and makes snow fall over Halloween Town in reconciliation between himself and Jack. The townspeople are confused by the snow at first, but soon begin to play happily in it, finally realizing what Christmas is about. Jack spies Sally heading to the graveyard, and follows her. Atop the graveyard's big hill, Jack admits that he reciprocates Sally's romantic feelings for him, and they declare their new found love, and kiss on the hill (\"Finale/Reprise\").\n\nCast and characters\n\n* Chris Sarandon (speaking voice) and Danny Elfman (singing voice) as Jack Skellington: A skeleton known as the \"Pumpkin King\" of Halloween Town. He owns a ghost dog named Zero, who has a small, glowing jack-o'-lantern nose. Danny Elfman also voices Barrell, one of the trick-or-treaters working for Oogie Boogie.\n* Catherine O'Hara as Sally: A rag doll-like creation of Finklestein, and the growing love interest of Jack. She is an amateur toxicologist that uses various types of poison to liberate herself from the captivity of Finklestein. O'Hara also voices Shock, one of the trick-or-treaters working for Oogie Boogie. She had previously co-starred in Burton's Beetlejuice (1988).\n* William Hickey as Doctor Finklestein: A mad scientist, and the \"father\" of Sally.\n* Glenn Shadix as Mayor of Halloween Town: An enthusiastic leader who conducts town meetings. His wild mood swings from happy to distraught cause his head to spin between a \"happy\" and \"sad\" face; where some career politicians are figuratively two-faced, the Mayor is literally so. Burton and Shadix previously worked on Beetlejuice.\n* Ken Page as Oogie Boogie: A villainous bogeyman in Halloween Town, who has a passion for gambling.\n* Ed Ivory as Santa Claus: The leader of Christmas Town. Santa Claus is responsible for the annual celebration of Christmas, at which time he delivers presents to children around the world. Ivory also does the brief narration at the start of the film.\n* Paul Reubens as Lock. Reubens and Burton previously worked on Pee-wee's Big Adventure (1985) and Batman Returns (1992).\n* Danny Elfman as Barrel. Elfman also does the singing voice of Jack Skellington.\n\nThe cast also features Kerry Katz, Carmen Twillie, Randy Crenshaw, Debi Durst, Glenn Walters, Sherwood Ball, and Greg Proops voicing various characters. Patrick Stewart recorded narration for a prologue and epilogue. While not used in the final film, the narration is included on the soundtrack album.\n\nProduction\n\nAs writer Tim Burton's upbringing in Burbank, California was associated with the feeling of solitude, the filmmaker was largely fascinated by holidays during his childhood. \"Anytime there was Christmas or Halloween, [...] it was great. It gave you some sort of texture all of a sudden that wasn't there before\", Burton would later recall. After completing his short film Vincent in 1982, then-Disney animator Burton wrote a three-page poem titled The Nightmare Before Christmas, drawing inspiration from television specials of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, How the Grinch Stole Christmas! and the poem A Visit from St. Nicholas. Burton intended to adapt the poem into a television special with the narration spoken by his favorite actor, Vincent Price, but also considered other options such as a children's book. He created concept art and storyboards for the project in collaboration with Rick Heinrichs, who also sculpted character models;Avins, Mimi (November 1993). \"Ghoul World\". Premiere: pp. 24–30. Retrieved on September 26, 2008. Burton later showed his and Heinrichs' works-in-progress to Henry Selick, also a Disney animator at the time. After the success of Vincent in 1982, Disney started to consider developing The Nightmare Before Christmas as either a short film or 30-minute holiday television special. However, the project's development eventually stalled, as its tone seemed \"too weird\" to the company. As Disney was unable to \"offer his nocturnal loners enough scope\", Burton was fired from the studio in 1984, and went on to direct the commercially successful films Beetlejuice and Batman.\n\nOver the years, Burton regularly thought about the project. In 1990, Burton found out that Disney still owned the film rights. He and Selick committed to produce a full-length film with the latter as director. Disney was looking forward to Nightmare \"to show capabilities of technical and storytelling achievements that were present in Who Framed Roger Rabbit.\" Nightmare marked Burton's third film in a row to have a Christmas setting. Burton could not direct because of his commitment to Batman Returns and he did not want to be involved with \"the painstakingly slow process of stop motion\". To adapt his poem into a screenplay, Burton approached Michael McDowell, his collaborator on Beetlejuice. McDowell and Burton experienced creative differences, which convinced Burton to make the film as a musical with lyrics and compositions by frequent collaborator Danny Elfman. Elfman and Burton created a rough storyline and two-thirds of the film's songs, while Selick and his team of animators began production in July 1991 in San Francisco, California with a crew of over 120 workers, utilizing 20 sound stages for filming. Joe Ranft was hired from Disney as a storyboard supervisor, while Eric Leighton was hired to supervise animation. At the peak of production, 20 individual stages were simultaneously being used for filming. In total, there were 109,440 frames taken for the movie.\n\nElfman found writing Nightmares 11 songs as \"one of the easiest jobs I've ever had. I had a lot in common with Jack Skellington.\" Caroline Thompson still had yet to be hired to write the screenplay. With Thompson's screenplay, Selick stated, \"there are very few lines of dialogue that are Caroline's. She became busy on other films and we were constantly rewriting, reconfiguring and developing the film visually.\" The work of Ray Harryhausen, Ladislas Starevich, Edward Gorey, Charles Addams, Jan Lenica, Francis Bacon and Wassily Kandinsky influenced the filmmakers. Selick described the production design as akin to a pop-up book. In addition, Selick stated, \"When we reach Halloween Town, it's entirely German Expressionism. When Jack enters Christmas Town, it's an outrageous Dr. Seuss-esque setpiece. Finally, when Jack is delivering presents in the 'Real World', everything is plain, simple and perfectly aligned.\" \n\nOn the direction of the film, Selick reflected, \"It's as though he [Burton] laid the egg, and I sat on it and hatched it. He wasn't involved in a hands-on way, but his hand is in it. It was my job to make it look like 'a Tim Burton film', which is not so different from my own films.\"David Helpern (December 1994). \"Animated Dreams\", Sight & Sound, pp. 33—37. Retrieved on September 26, 2008. When asked on Burton's involvement, Selick claimed, \"I don't want to take away from Tim, but he was not in San Francisco when we made it. He came up five times over two years, and spent no more than eight or ten days in total.\" Walt Disney Feature Animation contributed with some use of second-layering traditional animation.Salisbury, Burton, p.115—120 Burton found production somewhat difficult because he was directing Batman Returns and in pre-production of Ed Wood.\n\nCharacter design\n\nThe filmmakers constructed 227 puppets to represent the characters in the movie, with Jack Skellington having \"around four hundred heads\", allowing the expression of every possible emotion. Sally's mouth movements \"were animated through the replacement method. During the animation process, [...] only Sally's face 'mask' was removed in order to preserve the order of her long, red hair. Sally had ten types of faces, each made with a series of eleven expressions (e.g. eyes open and closed, and various facial poses) and synchronised mouth movements.\" \n\nThe stop motion figurine of Jack Skellington was reused in James and the Giant Peach (also directed by Selick) as Captain Jack.\n\nMarketing\n\nThe owners of the franchise have undertaken an extensive marketing campaign of these characters across many media. In addition to the Haunted Mansion Holiday at Disneyland featuring the film's characters, Jack Skellington, Sally, Pajama Jack, and the Mayor have been made into Bendies figures, while Jack and Sally even appear in fine art. Moreover, Sally has been made into an action figure and a Halloween costume. A Jack Skellington figurine is available for the Disney Infinity video game, allowing the character to be playable in the game's \"Toy Box Mode\". Jack is also the titular character in the short story \"Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas: Jack's Story\". \n\nJim Edwards contends that \"Tim Burton's animated movie The Nightmare Before Christmas is really a movie about the marketing business. The movie's lead character, Jack Skellington, the chief marketing officer (CMO) for a successful company, decides that his success is boring and he wants the company to have a different business plan.\" \n\nSoundtracks\n\nThe film's soundtrack album was released in 1993 on Walt Disney Records. For the film's 2006 re-release in Disney Digital 3-D, a special edition of the soundtrack was released, featuring a bonus disc which contained covers of five of the film's songs by Fall Out Boy, Panic! at the Disco, Marilyn Manson, Fiona Apple, and She Wants Revenge. Four original demo tracks by Elfman were also included. On September 30, 2008, Disney released the cover album Nightmare Revisited, featuring artists such as Amy Lee, Flyleaf, Korn, Rise Against, Plain White T's, The All-American Rejects, and many more.\n\nAmerican gothic rock band London After Midnight featured a cover of \"Sally's Song\" on their 1998 album Oddities.\n\nLiLi Roquelin did a French cover of \"Sally's Song\" which was released on her album Will you hate the rest of the world or will you renew your life? in 2010.\n\nAnother soundtrack released in 2003 was the Disneyland Haunted Mansion Holiday CD. Although most were not original songs from the movie, one song provided on the CD is a medley of \"Making Christmas\", \"What's This?\", and \"Kidnap the Santy Claws\". Other songs included are original holiday songs changed to incorporate the theme of the movie. The last song on the list, however, is the soundtrack for the Disneyland Haunted Mansion Holiday ride.\n\nThe film was also one of the inspiration for Blink-182's \"I Miss You\", with its grim mood and lyrical references like \"have Hallowe'en on Christmas\" and \"Jack and Sally\".\n\nRelease\n\nDisney decided to release the film under their Touchstone Pictures banner because they thought the film would be \"too dark and scary for kids\", Selick remembered. \"Their biggest fear, and why it was kind of a stepchild project, [was] they were afraid of their core audience hating the film and not coming.\" To help market the film, \"It was released as Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas,\" Burton explained. \"But it turned more into more of a brand-name thing, it turned into something else, which I'm not quite sure about.\" The film premiered at the New York Film Festival on October 9. \n\nHome media\n\nWith successful home video sales, Nightmare achieved the ranks of a cult film. Touchstone Home Video first released the film on VHS on September 30, 1994, and on DVD on December 2, 1997. The DVD release contained no special features. Nightmare was released a second time on October 3, 2000 as a special edition. The release included an audio commentary by Selick and cinematographer Pete Kozachik, a 28-minute making-of documentary, a gallery of concept art, storyboards, test footage and deleted scenes. Burton's Vincent and Frankenweenie were also included. Both DVDs were non-anamorphic widescreen releases.\n\nWalt Disney Studios Home Entertainment released the film on DVD again (this time with an anamorphic transfer) and on Blu-ray Disc (for the first time) in August 2008 as a two-disc digitally remastered \"collector's edition\", but still containing the same special features. \n\nWalt Disney Studios Home Entertainment released The Nightmare Before Christmas on Blu-ray 3D on August 30, 2011. The release is a 3-disc combo pack including a Blu-ray 3D disc, Blu-ray Disc and a DVD that includes both a DVD and digital copy of the film. \n\nReception\n\nCritical response\n\nThe film initially received positive reviews from critics; it has since gone on to receive widespread critical acclaim. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a rating of 94%, based on 88 reviews, with an average rating of 8.2/10. The site's consensus reads, \"The Nightmare Before Christmas is a stunningly original and visually delightful work of stop-motion animation.\" On Metacritic the film has a score of 77 out of 100, based on 16 critics, indicating \"generally favorable reviews\". \n\nRoger Ebert gave a highly positive review for Nightmare. Ebert believed the film's visual effects were as revolutionary as Star Wars, taking into account that Nightmare was \"filled with imagination that carries us into a new world\". \n\nPeter Travers of Rolling Stone called it a restoration of \"originality and daring to the Halloween genre. This dazzling mix of fun and fright also explodes the notion that animation is kid stuff. ... It's 74 minutes of timeless movie magic.\" James Berardinelli stated \"The Nightmare Before Christmas has something to offer just about everyone. For the kids, it's a fantasy celebrating two holidays. For the adults, it's an opportunity to experience some light entertainment while marveling at how adept Hollywood has become at these techniques. There are songs, laughs, and a little romance. In short, The Nightmare Before Christmas does what it intends to: entertain.\" Desson Thomson of The Washington Post enjoyed stylistic features in common with Oscar Wilde, German Expressionism, the Brothers Grimm and The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. \n\nMichael A. Morrison discusses the influence of Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas! on the film, writing that Jack parallels the Grinch and Zero parallels Max, the Grinch's dog. Philip Nel writes that the film \"challenges the wisdom of adults through its trickster characters\", contrasting Jack as a \"good trickster\" with Oogie Boogie, whom he also compares with Dr. Seuss' Dr. Terwilliker as a bad trickster. Entertainment Weekly reports that fan reception of these characters borders on obsession, profiling Laurie and Myk Rudnick, a couple whose \"degree of obsession with [the] film is so great that ... they named their son after the real-life person that a character in the film is based on.\" This enthusiasm for the characters has also been profiled as having spread beyond North America to Japan. \n\nYvonne Tasker notes \"the complex characterization seen in The Nightmare Before Christmas\". Most recently, the film ranked #1 on Rotten Tomatoes' \"Top 25 Best Christmas Movies\" list. \n\nDanny Elfman was worried the characterization of Oogie Boogie would be considered racist by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Elfman's predictions came true; however, director Henry Selick stated the character was inspired by the Betty Boop cartoon The Old Man of the Mountain. \"Cab Calloway would dance his inimitable jazz dance and sing 'Minnie the Moocher' or 'Old Man of the Mountain', and they would rotoscope him, trace him, turn him into a cartoon character, often transforming him into an animal, like a walrus,\" Selick continued. \"I think those are some of the most inventive moments in cartoon history, in no way racist, even though he was sometimes a villain. We went with Ken Page, who is a black singer, and he had no problem with it\".\n\nNightmare has inspired video game spin-offs, including Oogie's Revenge and The Pumpkin King, and is among the many Disney-owned franchises that contribute to the mythology of the Kingdom Hearts series. A trading card game is also available. Since 2001, Disneyland has held a Nightmare Before Christmas theme for its Haunted Mansion Holiday attraction.\n\nBox office\n\nAround the release of the film, Disney executive David Hoberman was quoted, \"I hope Nightmare goes out and makes a fortune. If it does, great. If it doesn't, that doesn't negate the validity of the process. The budget was less than any Disney blockbuster so it doesn't have to earn Aladdin-sized grosses to satisfy us.\" Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas was given a limited release on October 15, 1993, before being wide released on October 29. The film earned $50 million in the United States on its first theatrical run.[http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?pagereleases&id\nnightmarebeforechristmas.htm \"Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas\"], Releases, Box Office Mojo, Retrieved September 18, 2009\n\nOn October 20, 2006, Walt Disney Pictures reissued Nightmare (no longer under Touchstone) with conversion to Disney Digital 3-D. Industrial Light & Magic assisted in the process. It made a further $8.7 million in box office gross. Subsequently, the 3-D version of Nightmare has been re-released annually in October. The 2007 and 2008 reissues earned $14.5 million and $1.1 million, respectively, increasing the film's total box office gross to $75 million. The El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood, California has been showing the film in 4-D screenings annually in October, ending on Halloween, since 2010. The reissues have led to a reemergence of 3-D films and advances in RealD Cinema. \n\nAccolades\n\nThe film was nominated for both the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects and the Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation. Nightmare won the Saturn Award for Best Fantasy Film, while Elfman won Best Music. Selick and the animators were also nominated for their work. Elfman was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score. \n\nThe American Film Institute nominated The Nightmare Before Christmas for its Top 10 Animated Films list. \n\nPossible sequel\n\nIn 2001, Walt Disney Pictures began to consider producing a sequel, but rather than using stop motion, Disney wanted to use computer animation. Burton convinced Disney to drop the idea. \"I was always very protective of Nightmare not to do sequels or things of that kind,\" Burton explained. \"You know, 'Jack visits Thanksgiving world' or other kinds of things just because I felt the movie had a purity to it and the people that like it... Because it's a mass-market kind of thing, it was important to kind of keep that purity of it.\" The 2005 video game The Nightmare Before Christmas: Oogie's Revenge did continue the story of the film, with Capcom's crew of developers going after Tim Burton for advice, and having the collaboration of the film's art director, Deane Taylor. In 2009, Selick said he would do a film sequel if he and Burton could create a good story for it. \n\nCharacters from The Nightmare Before Christmas have also had cameos in Disney and Square Enix's role-playing game series, Kingdom Hearts. In the majority of these games, Jack acts as a partner to the main character. In the first game, Jack attempts to liven up Halloween by giving a heart created by Dr. Finklestein to a Heartless, but the experiment goes wrong and the heart soon is taken by Oogie Boogie. In Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, he tries to help the protagonist, Sora, regain his memories. In Kingdom Hearts II, Halloween Town and its inhabitants are seen, while Jack rekindles his notion of taking over Santa's job. In the prequel game Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days, Jack seeks inspiration for livening up his Halloween by paying attention to the actions of the protagonist, Roxas.\n\nIn September 2001, Disneyland's Haunted Mansion attraction was redesigned with characters, decorations and music from the movie. This attraction is called the Haunted Mansion Holiday, and remains in operation through the Christmas season. It takes ride goers on a what-if adventure of if Jack, as \"Sandy Claws,\" had visited the Haunted Mansion on Christmas Eve, leaving holiday chaos in his wake.\n\nRelated media\n\nA video game developed by Capcom, The Nightmare Before Christmas: Oogie's Revenge, was released for PlayStation 2 and Xbox on October 21, 2004 in Japan, September 30, 2005 in Europe and October 10, 2005 in North America. Set after the events of the film, the player controls Jack as he fights against Oogie Boogie, who is revived and takes over Halloween Town and plots to take over all of the Holiday Worlds. Another game (a prequel this time), The Nightmare Before Christmas: The Pumpkin King, was developed by Tose Co., Ltd. and was released for the Game Boy Advance in 2005. A Jack Skellington figure was released for Disney Infinity in October 2013.\n\nA collectible card game based on the film called The Nightmare Before Christmas TCG was released in 2005 by NECA. The game was designed by Quixotic Games founder Andrew Parks and Kez Shlasnger. It consists of a Premiere set and 4 Starter Decks based on four characters, Jack Skellington, the Mayor, Oogie Boogie, and Doctor Finklestein. Each Starter Deck contains a rule book, a Pumpkin King card, a Pumpkin Points card, and a 48-card deck. The game has four card types: Characters, Locales, Creations, and Surprises. The Cards' rarities are separated into four categories: Common, Uncommon, Rare, Ultra Rare.\n\nQuixotic Games also developed The Nightmare Before Christmas Party Game that was released in 2007 by NECA. \n\nA collector's edition The Nightmare Before Christmas-themed Jenga game was issued with orange, purple and black blocks with Jack Skellington heads on them. The set comes in a coffin-shaped box instead of the normal rectangular box. \n\nA 168-card Munchkin Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas-themed Munchkin was developed by USAopoly featuring the citizens of Halloween Town such as Jack Skellington, Oogie Boogie, Doctor Finklestein and Lock, Shock and Barrel. The game comes with a custom die similar to the ones used by Oogie Boogie in the film.", "Jack Skellington is a character and the protagonist of the 1993 film The Nightmare Before Christmas. Jack is the Pumpkin King of Halloween Town and lives in a make believe town based solely on the Halloween holiday. \n\nHis overall appearance is a skeleton dressed in a black pin-striped suit and a bow tie that strongly resembles a black bat. At the beginning of the film, Jack makes his grand entrance by emerging out of a fire-breathing dragon-themed fountain. His last name is based on the word \"skeleton\". He has a ghost dog named Zero for a pet, who has a small glowing nose that looks like a jack-o'-lantern. His is adored by Sally, a rag doll created by Dr. Finklestein. Jack is voiced by Chris Sarandon.The image to the right is Jack Skellington in the game Kingdom Hearts. The character is a popular design on bags, hats, clothing, umbrellas, belt buckles, pet collars and other items. \n\nJack Skellington in The Nightmare Before Christmas\n\nJack Skellington is the patron spirit of Halloween, the ghost skeleton of a spider, portrayed as being on par with Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny within his own holiday. As a living skeleton, he is immortal and can remove parts of his body without harm, as is often demonstrated for comic relief. He is the most important of many Halloween spirits, with the implication that their job is to scare people in the real world on Halloween night.\n\nJack, as the Pumpkin King, is in charge of Halloween Town's Halloween celebration. He is respected and even idolized by the other residents for his role, but he has grown weary of celebrating the same holiday endlessly and is depressed about it. The only one who understands Jack's feelings is a lonely and attractive ragdoll named Sally. She overhears his singing monologue and feels she can relate to his situation.\n\nJack discovers Christmas Town and decides that this new experience is what his life was missing. He makes preparations for his own Christmas celebration in Halloween Town and wants to impersonate Santa Claus in the real world. While his intentions are not malicious, Jack does not understand the true spirit of Christmas. Halloween Town plans to give the holidays a macabre make-over. Sally reveals to Jack a bad premonition, but Jack's basic nature is impulsiveness. He does not seem to register contradictory information. By the end of the film, he notices Sally and her determination to help him. He proves that love can be a part of his nature by calling Sally his \"Dearest Friend\", telling Sally that they were meant to be together, embracing his future with her and embracing her.\n\nJack follows the formula of a tragic hero, because he begins the story at a lofty position. In spite of all his fame and talent, he yearns for another side of life. While a desire for completeness is not a flaw, his impulsiveness proves to be. He tends to be enthusiastic and inclusive, and his charisma is enough to sway every member of Halloween Town except Sally. His selfish decisions lead to the near destruction of Christmas and himself. The strength of Jack's character is demonstrated by his will to correct his own mistakes.\n\nThe official film soundtrack CD contains an epilogue not in the film, stating that \"many years later\" Santa returned to Halloween Town to visit Jack, where he discovered that Jack had \"four or five skeleton children at hand\" who play together in a xylophone band.\n\nIn video games\n\nThe Nightmare Before Christmas: The Pumpkin King\n\nJack Skellington has been shown to have an extreme hatred for Oogie Boogie as was proven when he spoke of this plan to Lock, Shock, and Barrel, stating to \"leave that no account Oogie Boogie out of this!\" He later finds out that Santa Claus and Sally have been kidnapped by the Boogie Man and are in his underground lair. While trying to save his friends, Jack manages to destroy Oogie and save Christmas.\n\nThe Nightmare Before Christmas: Oogie's Revenge\n\nTired of using the same old themes over and over on Halloween, Jack Skellington goes to Doctor Finkelstein, who gives him the Soul Robber, an invention that changes shape. Jack decided to leave Halloween Town to get new ideas for Halloween frights. When Jack comes back to town, he finds that Oogie Boogie has been resurrected. Now Jack has to set things right again. Jack dances, fights, and sings in this game to attack Oogie Boogie's minions. Jack is portrayed as inept to some degree in this game.\n\nIt should be noted that Chris Sarandon did both the speaking and singing voice for Jack in this game, just like with the original film.\n\nDisney Universe\n\nJack Skellington features in the Nightmare Before Christmas downloadable expansion pack which includes Jack Skellington, Sally, Oogie-Boogie, Dr. Finklestein and the Mayor as in-game playable costumes. The downloadable content can be bought from console stores (e.g. the PlayStation Store). The package included the costumes of which some could be found in the downloaded level. Unlike the worlds originally in the game which all had 3 chapters, the Nightmare Before Christmas world only had 1 chapter called 'Halloween Graveyard'.\n\nKingdom Hearts series\n\nJack Skellington appears in four installments of the Kingdom Hearts video game series. He inhabits the world of Halloween Town, where the evil Heartless threatens its denizens. The games' main protagonists, Sora, Donald Duck and Goofy, befriend Jack and together they battle the Heartless, and also Oogie Boogie. In combat, Jack uses some of his scary powers with demonstrations of some magic, making him a formidable sorcerer.\n\nChris Sarandon reprises his role for the English version, and Masachika Ichimura provides Jack's Japanese voice.\n\nKingdom Hearts\n\nJack Skellington introduces himself to Sora, Goofy, and Donald Duck as the ruler of Halloween Town. Jack plans to use the heart that Finklestein created to control the seemingly docile Heartless to make a festival called \"Heartless Halloween\" so that Halloween can be frightening, but the idea fails when not only the first experiment cause the Heartless to go berserk, but Oogie Boogie steals the finished heart, and plans to use it to take over Halloween Town. At Oogie's manor, Jack, Sora, and the gang confront him. After Oogie is defeated, Jack finds out that Oogie uses dark orbs as his source of life, which Oogie combines himself with his manor to become a giant boss. Once the gang defeats Oogie once again, and his manor crumbles, revealing Halloween Town's keyhole. Jack is considerably shorter in this game than as he appeared in the movie, though he is still rather tall when compared to the game's main protagonists.\n\nChain of Memories\n\n\"Created\" from Sora's memories of Halloween Town, when Jack Skellington wanted to ask Doctor Finkelstein what happened when he sniffs the potion that can bring \"true memories\", Heartless appeared. When Jack Skellington had found out that Oogie Boogie had stolen the Doc's potion, he must stop him before Oogie drinks the whole potion. They fail to reach him before he does, but they defeat him, as Oogie becomes overwhelmed with fear as a side effect of the potion. Sora becomes worried about what will happen when he discovers his true memories, but Jack reassures him that fear is a sign of a strong heart.\n\nKingdom Hearts 358/2 Days\n\nIn this game, Roxas arrives at Halloween Town while Jack is in the middle of a brainstorming for Halloween. Jack is having trouble with thinking of things but gets inspiration when he sees Roxas leaving through a Dark Corridor. Time after time, Roxas' adventures through Halloween Town inspire Jack to create such things as balloons filled with spiders, exploding frost pumpkins, and Halloween lanterns. When Roxas is sent to find the source of a terrible drop in heartless population, he finds the town overrun with monsters called Tentaclaws. After seeing Roxas defeating the source of the Tentaclaws, the cannibalistic Leechgrave, Jack invents a terrifying scarecrowish version of Roxas as his centerpiece for that Halloween.\n\nKingdom Hearts II\n\nFollowing the film loosely to some degree, out of reference, Jack tries to take Santa Claus's place again. To that end, Jack asks Sora and gang to help him be Santa's bodyguards. But after fighting the Heartless and Oogie Boogie, who has been resurrected by Maleficent, Santa explains to Jack that they each have a job to do with their respective holidays. Despite this, he begins to wear a Santa suit Sally sewed together for him. In the second trip to Halloween Town, Jack still wears the Santa suit, as he still longs to deliver Christmas presents and feels that it would be rude not to wear the suit Sally worked so hard on. Along with Sora and the gang, he helps defeat Doctor Finkelstein's experiment, who stole Christmas presents from Santa in search of a heart. As a reward for all his hard work and assistance, Santa brings Jack on a ride-along with him in his sleigh for a while. After Santa drops Jack off at Halloween Town, Jack learns the true meaning of Christmas by understanding the act of giving. He dances with Sally in the end, finally realizing all of the gifts she had given to him were all from the heart and wishes to give her something in return. She tells him that the nicest present she could ever ask for is just to be with Jack. Jack responds telling her that she does not even have to ask for that, meaning Jack feels the same way for her. During a cut scene in the end credits, he is shown to be wearing his original suit, suggesting he has taken Santa's previous advice to heart completely, and apparently begins presenting new ideas for next Halloween.\n\nDisney Infinity\n\nJack appears as part of the second wave of playable characters.\n\nAttractions\n\nJack appears as a meetable character at several Walt Disney Parks and Resorts including Disneyland, Hong Kong Disneyland, Disneyland Paris and Walt Disney World.\nAt Disneyland during the holidays, Haunted Mansion is taken over by the cast of The Nightmare Before Christmas and is turned into Haunted Mansion Holiday. Jack and other characters appear throughout the ride wearing Christmas attire. Additionally, Jack hosts the Anaheim version of the Halloween Screams fireworks show. Chris Sarandon provided the voice for the character in each instance.\n\nCameos\n\n* In Vincent, Jack appears as one of the phantasmic imaginisms of the titular character, during the final minutes of the short film.\n* During the opening scene of Sleepy Hollow, a scarecrow bearing a strong resemblance to the Pumpkin King scarecrow at the beginning of \"This is Halloween\" can be seen.\n* In the 2010 film Alice in Wonderland, Jack's face can be found on the Mad Hatter's bow tie.\n* In James and the Giant Peach, Jack makes a cameo as Captain Jack, an antagonist second to Aunt Sponge and Aunt Spiker, in the pirate scene. Upon discovering him, Centipede says \"A skellington?\".\n* A silhouette of Jack is shown in The Princess and the Frog as one of the shadows Dr. Facilier summons.\n* Jack Skellington's face made a cameo appearance on a doormat in the first volume of the graphic novel series Lenore, created by Roman Dirge.\n* Jack appears in an episode of The Critic in a short parody called \"The Nightmare Before Chanukka\", done in the same stop-motion animation style as the original movie. In this parody, Jack wears a red suit rather than his usual black and white striped one.\n* Jack also appears in Adult Swim's show Robot Chicken finding \"Chanukka Town\" and watches children open up presents, but finding out that it is just socks and pencils for their first day of Chanukka, he says to himself: \"Wow, This Sucks...\" Jack appears again on a sketch called \"Grown Up Halloween\" alongside the Mayor of Halloween Town.\n* Jack appears in the background in a South Park made-for-TV movie called \"Imaginationland\".\n* Jack also appears in the movie Coraline in the scene where the other mother cracks open an egg, Jack's head is the egg yolk.\n* Jack appears in the MAD episode \"Kitchen Nightmares Before Christmas\". He also makes a cameo appearance in the short it was paired with, \"How I Met Your Mummy\".\n* A parody of Jack Skellington, in the form of a character named The Pumpkin Guy, appears in the Tiny Toon Adventures episode \"Tiny Toons' Night Ghoulery\".\n* Jack appears in the movie Beetlejuice, in the scene when Beetlejuice comes out of the model town with a carousel-shaped hat on his head. Jack's head is at the top of the carousel. This may have been a coincidence though, as Beetlejuice was released in 1988 and The Nightmare Before Christmas was not released until 1993.\n* A Jack plush doll also made an appearance in Stocking's room in the anime Panty and Stocking.\n* Jack is included as one of many characters featured in Disney on Ice's production Let's Celebrate!. Mickey Mouse calls upon him to throw a Halloween party, which a number of Disney Villains find their way into. During his appearance, a medley of \"Jack's Lament\" and \"What's This?\" are performed, along with the film's opening number \"This Is Halloween\".\n* In Edward Scissorhands, also a Tim Burton film, during the opening scene, one of the cookie-cutter machines closely resembles Jack Skellington. Again, this may be a coincidence, as Edward Scissorhands was released in 1990.\n\nToys\n\nJack Skellington has been made into a Bendies figure, as well as a FunKo pop vinyl figurine that also had a Day Of The Dead variant. He appeared in the Kingdom Hearts action figure collections, and was also released in Japan's REVOLTECH Sci-fi line in 2010, along with the Japanese monsters, Gamera and Gyaos. \n\nPop culture\n\n* Lyrics in the Blink 182 song \"I Miss You\": \"We can live like Jack and Sally if we want, Where you can always find me, And we'll have Halloween on Christmas, ...\" \n* Lyrics in the Blood on the Dance Floor song \"Fallen Star\": \"Like Jack and Sally on top of Death Valley or below in Southern Cali we lived our Grand Finale...\"\n* Lyrics in Modwheelmood song \"Problem Me\": \"This time, I might blow into smithereenes, like Jack. Come back, Christmas, where've you been?\"\n\nReception\n\nJamie Frater adds, \"Jack is perfectly realized as the 'town hero' who seeks more in his life (or death, as it may be), a place we all find ourselves time to time.\" UGO Networks listed Jack as one of their best heroes of all time." ] }

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{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe", "TagMe", "TagMe", "Search" ], "filename": [ "George_Washington.txt", "Hessian_(soldier).txt", "Battle_of_Trenton.txt", "George_Washington's_crossing_of_the_Delaware_River.txt" ], "title": [ "George Washington", "Hessian (soldier)", "Battle of Trenton", "George Washington's crossing of the Delaware River" ], "wiki_context": [ "George Washington (Contemporary records, which used the Julian calendar and the Annunciation Style of enumerating years, recorded his birth as February 11, 1731. The provisions of the British Calendar (New Style) Act 1750, implemented in 1752, altered the official British dating method to the Gregorian calendar with the start of the year on January 1 (it had been March 25). These changes resulted in dates being moved forward 11 days, and for those between January 1 and March 25, an advance of one year. For a further explanation, see Old Style and New Style dates. – , 1799) was the first President of the United States (1789–97), the Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War, and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. He presided over the convention that drafted the current United States Constitution and during his lifetime was called the \"father of his country\". \n\nWidely admired for his strong leadership qualities, Washington was unanimously elected president by the Electoral College in the first two national elections. He oversaw the creation of a strong, well-financed national government that maintained neutrality in the French Revolutionary Wars, suppressed the Whiskey Rebellion, and won acceptance among Americans of all types. Washington's incumbency established many precedents, still in use today, such as the cabinet system, the inaugural address, and the title Mr. President. His retirement from office after two terms established a tradition that lasted until 1940, when Franklin Delano Roosevelt won an unprecedented third term. The 22nd Amendment (1951) now limits the president to two elected terms. Born into the provincial gentry of Colonial Virginia, his family were wealthy planters who owned tobacco plantations and slaves which he inherited. In his youth he became a senior officer in the colonial militia during the first stages of the French and Indian War. In 1775 the Second Continental Congress commissioned Washington as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army in the American Revolution. In that command, Washington forced the British out of Boston in 1776, but was defeated and nearly captured later that year when he lost New York City. After crossing the Delaware River in the middle of winter, he defeated the British in two battles (Trenton and Princeton), retook New Jersey and restored momentum to the Patriot cause.\n\nHis strategy enabled Continental forces to capture two major British armies at Saratoga in 1777 and Yorktown in 1781. Historians laud Washington for the selection and supervision of his generals, preservation and command of the army, coordination with the Congress, state governors and their militia, and attention to supplies, logistics, and training. In battle, however, Washington was repeatedly outmaneuvered by British generals with larger armies. After victory had been finalized in 1783, Washington resigned as commander-in-chief rather than seize power, proving his opposition to dictatorship and his commitment to American republicanism. Washington presided over the Constitutional Convention in 1787, which devised a new form of federal government for the United States. Following his election as president in 1789, he worked to unify rival factions in the fledgling nation. He supported Alexander Hamilton's programs to satisfy all debts, federal and state, established a permanent seat of government, implemented an effective tax system, and created a national bank. In avoiding war with Great Britain, he guaranteed a decade of peace and profitable trade by securing the Jay Treaty in 1795, despite intense opposition from the Jeffersonians. Although he remained nonpartisan, never joining the Federalist Party, he largely supported its policies. Washington's Farewell Address was an influential primer on civic virtue, warning against partisanship, sectionalism, and involvement in foreign wars. He retired from the presidency in 1797, returning to his home and plantation at Mount Vernon.\n\nWhile in power, his use of national authority pursued many ends, especially the preservation of liberty, reduction of regional tensions, and promotion of a spirit of American nationalism. Upon his death, Washington was eulogized as \"first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen\" by Henry Lee. Revered in life and in death, scholarly and public polling consistently ranks him among the top three presidents in American history; he has been depicted and remembered in monuments, currency, and other dedications through the present day.\n\nEarly life (1732–1753)\n\nThe first child of Augustine Washington (1694–1743) and his second wife, Mary Ball Washington (1708–1789), George Washington was born on their Pope's Creek Estate near present-day Colonial Beach in Westmoreland County, Virginia. According to the Julian calendar and Annunciation Style of enumerating years (then in use in the British Empire), Washington was born on February 11, 1731; the Gregorian calendar, adopted later within the British Empire in 1752, renders a birth date of February 22, 1732. \n\nWashington was of primarily English gentry descent, especially from Sulgrave, England. His great-grandfather, John Washington, emigrated to Virginia in 1656 and began accumulating land and slaves, as did his son Lawrence and his grandson, George's father, Augustine. Augustine was a tobacco planter who also tried his hand in iron-mining ventures. In George's youth, the Washingtons were moderately prosperous members of the Virginia gentry, of \"middling rank\" rather than one of the leading planter families. At this time, Virginia and other southern colonies had employed slave labor, in which slaveholders (and the rich in general) formed the ruling class and much of the economy was based upon slave labor. \n\nSix of George's siblings reached maturity, including two older half-brothers, Lawrence and Augustine, from his father's first marriage to Jane Butler Washington, and four full siblings, Samuel, Elizabeth (Betty), John Augustine and Charles. Three siblings died before adulthood: his full sister Mildred died when she was about one, his half-brother Butler died in infancy,\nand his half-sister Jane died at age twelve, when George was about two. His father died of a sudden illness in April 1743 when George was eleven years old, and his half-brother Lawrence became a surrogate father and role model. William Fairfax, Lawrence's father-in-law and cousin of Virginia's largest landowner, Thomas, Lord Fairfax, was also a formative influence. \n\nWashington's father was the Justice of the Westmoreland County Court. Young Washington spent much of his boyhood at Ferry Farm in Stafford County near Fredericksburg. Lawrence Washington inherited another family property from his father, a plantation on the Potomac River at Little Hunting Creek, which he named Mount Vernon, in honor of his commanding officer, Admiral Edward Vernon. George inherited Ferry Farm upon his father's death and eventually acquired Mount Vernon after Lawrence's death. \n\nThe death of his father prevented Washington from an education at England's Appleby School, as his older brothers had received. He achieved the equivalent of an elementary school education from a variety of tutors, as well as from a school run by an Anglican clergyman in or near Fredericksburg. Talk of securing an appointment in the Royal Navy for him when he was 15 was dropped when his widowed mother objected. \n\nIn 1751 Washington traveled to Barbados with Lawrence, who was suffering from tuberculosis, with the hope that the climate would be beneficial to Lawrence's health. Washington contracted smallpox during the trip, which left his face slightly scarred, but immunized him against future exposures to the dreaded disease. However, Lawrence's health failed to improve, and he returned to Mount Vernon, where he died in the summer of 1752. Lawrence's position as Adjutant General (militia leader) of Virginia was divided into four district offices after his death. Washington was appointed by Governor Dinwiddie as one of the four district adjutants in February 1753, with the rank of major in the Virginia militia. During this period, Washington became a Freemason while in Fredericksburg, although his involvement was minimal. \n\nSurveyor\n\nWashington's introduction to surveying began at an early age through school exercises that taught him the basics of the profession, followed by practical experience in the field. His first experiences at surveying occurred in the surrounding territory of Mount Vernon. Washington's first opportunity as a surveyor occurred in 1748 when he was invited to join a survey party organized by his neighbor and friend George Fairfax of Belvoir. Fairfax organized a professional surveying party to layout large tracts of land along the border of western Virginia where the young Washington gained invaluable experience in the field. \n\nIn 1749, at the age of 17, Washington began his career as a professional surveyor. He subsequently received a commission and surveyor's license from the College of William and Mary and became the official surveyor for the newly formed Culpeper County. Thanks to his older brother Lawrence's connection to the prominent Fairfax family, Washington had been appointed to this well-paid official position. In less than two days he completed his first survey, plotting a 400 acre parcel of land and was well on his way to a promising career. He was subsequently able to purchase land in the Shenandoah Valley, the first of his many land acquisitions in western Virginia. For the next four years Washington worked surveying land in Western Virginia and for the Ohio Company, a land investment company funded by Virginia investors. Thanks to Lawrence's position as commander of the Virginia militia, Washington came to the notice of the new lieutenant governor of Virginia, Robert Dinwiddie. He was hard to miss: At over six feet, he was taller than most of his contemporaries. In October 1750, Washington resigned his position as an official surveyor, though he continued to work diligently over the next three years at his new profession. He continued to survey professionally for two more years, mostly in Frederick County before receiving a military appointment as adjutant for southern Virginia. By 1752, Washington completed close to 200 surveys on numerous properties totaling more than 60,000 acres. He would continue to survey at different times throughout his life and as late as 1799.\n\nFrench and Indian War\n\nWashington began his military service in the French and Indian War as a major in the militia of the British Province of Virginia. In 1753 he was sent as an ambassador from the British crown to the French officials and Indians as far north as present-day Erie, Pennsylvania. The Ohio Company was an important vehicle through which British investors planned to expand into the Ohio Valley, opening new settlements and trading posts for the Indian trade.. In 1753 the French themselves began expanding their military control into the Ohio Country, a territory already claimed by the British colonies of Virginia and Pennsylvania. These competing claims led to a war in the colonies called the French and Indian War (1754–62), and contributed to the start of the global Seven Years' War (1756–63). By chance, Washington became involved in its beginning.\n\nRobert Dinwiddie, lieutenant governor of colonial Virginia, was ordered by the British government to guard the British territorial claims including the Ohio River basin. In late 1753 Dinwiddie ordered Washington to deliver a letter asking the French to vacate the Ohio Valley; he was eager to prove himself as the new adjutant general of the militia, appointed by the Lieutenant Governor himself only a year before. During his trip Washington met with Tanacharison (also called \"Half-King\") and other Iroquois chiefs allied with England at Logstown to secure their support in case of a military conflict with the French—indeed Washington and Tanacharison became friends. He delivered the letter to the local French commander Jacques Legardeur de Saint-Pierre, who politely refused to leave. Washington kept a diary during his expedition which was printed by William Hunter on Dinwiddie's order and which made Washington's name recognizable in Virginia. This increased notoriety helped him to obtain a commission to raise a company of 100 men and start his military career. \n\nDinwiddie sent Washington back to the Ohio Country to safeguard an Ohio Company's construction of a fort at present-day Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. However, before he reached the area, a French force drove out colonial traders and began construction of Fort Duquesne. A small detachment of French troops led by Joseph Coulon de Jumonville, was discovered by Tanacharison and a few warriors east of present-day Uniontown, Pennsylvania. On May 28, 1754, Washington and some of his militia unit, aided by their Mingo allies, ambushed the French in what has come to be called the Battle of Jumonville Glen. Exactly what happened during and after the battle is a matter of contention, but several primary accounts agree that the battle lasted about 15 minutes, that Jumonville was killed, and that most of his party were either killed or taken prisoner. Whether Jumonville died at the hands of Tanacharison in cold blood or was somehow shot by an onlooker with a musket as he sat with Washington or by another means, is not completely clear. He was given the epithet Town Destroyer by Tanacharison. \n\nThe French responded by attacking and capturing Washington at Fort Necessity in July 1754. However, he was allowed to return with his troops to Virginia. Historian Joseph Ellis concludes that the episode demonstrated Washington's bravery, initiative, inexperience and impetuosity. These events had international consequences; the French accused Washington of assassinating Jumonville, who they claimed was on a diplomatic mission. Both France and Great Britain were ready to fight for control of the region and both sent troops to North America in 1755; war was formally declared in 1756. \n\nBraddock disaster 1755\n\nIn 1755 Washington became the senior American aide to British General Edward Braddock on the ill-fated Braddock expedition. This was the largest British expedition to the colonies, and was intended to expel the French from the Ohio Country; the first objective was the capture of Fort Duquesne. Washington initially sought an appointment as a major from Braddock, but upon advice that no rank above captain could be given except by London, he agreed to serve as a staff volunteer. During the passage of the expedition, Washington fell ill with severe headaches and fever; nevertheless, when the pace of the troops continued to slow, Washington recommended to Braddock that the army be split into two divisions – a primary and more lightly, but adequately equipped, \"flying column\" offensive which could move at a more rapid pace, to be followed by a more heavily armed reinforcing division. Braddock accepted the recommendation (likely made in a council of war including other officers) and took command of the lead division. \n\nIn the Battle of the Monongahela the French and their Indian allies ambushed Braddock's reduced forces and the general was mortally wounded. After suffering devastating casualties, the British panicked and retreated in disarray; however, Washington rode back and forth across the battlefield, rallying the remnants of the British and Virginian forces into an organized retreat. In the process, despite his lingering illness, he demonstrated much bravery and stamina—he had two horses shot from underneath him, while his coat was pierced with four bullets. In his report, Washington chiefly blamed the disaster on the conduct of the redcoats while praising that of the Virginia contingent. Whatever responsibility rested on him for the defeat as a result of his recommendation to Braddock, Washington was not included by the succeeding commander, Col. Thomas Dunbar, in planning subsequent force movements. \n\nCommander of Virginia Regiment\n\nLt. Governor Dinwiddie rewarded Washington in 1755 with a commission as \"Colonel of the Virginia Regiment and Commander in Chief of all forces now raised in the defense of His Majesty's Colony\" and gave him the task of defending Virginia's frontier. The Virginia Regiment was the first full-time American military unit in the colonies (as opposed to part-time militias and the British regular units). Washington was ordered to \"act defensively or offensively\" as he thought best. While Washington happily accepted the commission, the coveted redcoat of a British officer as well as the accompanying pay continued to elude him. Dinwiddie as well pressed in vain for the British military to incorporate the Virginia Regiment into its ranks. \n\nIn command of a thousand soldiers, Washington was a disciplinarian who emphasized training. He led his men in brutal campaigns against the Indians in the west; in 10 months his regiment fought 20 battles, and lost a third of its men. Washington's strenuous efforts meant that Virginia's frontier population suffered less than that of other colonies; Ellis concludes \"it was his only unqualified success\" in the war. \n\nIn 1758 Washington participated in the Forbes Expedition to capture Fort Duquesne. He was embarrassed by a friendly fire episode in which his unit and another British unit thought the other was the French enemy and opened fire, with 14 dead and 26 wounded in the mishap. Washington was not involved in any other major fighting on the expedition, and the British scored a major strategic victory, gaining control of the Ohio Valley, when the French abandoned the fort. Following the expedition, he retired from his Virginia Regiment commission in December 1758. Washington did not return to military life until the outbreak of the revolution in 1775. \n\nLessons learned\n\nAlthough Washington never gained the commission in the British army he yearned for, in these years the young man gained valuable military, political, and leadership skills. ;   ;   ;   ;   . He closely observed British military tactics, gaining a keen insight into their strengths and weaknesses that proved invaluable during the Revolution. Washington learned to organize, train, drill, and discipline his companies and regiments. From his observations, readings and conversations with professional officers, he learned the basics of battlefield tactics, as well as a good understanding of problems of organization and logistics. He gained an understanding of overall strategy, especially in locating strategic geographical points. \n\nWashington demonstrated his resourcefulness and courage in the most difficult situations, including disasters and retreats. He developed a command presence, given his size, strength, stamina, and bravery in battle that demonstrated to soldiers he was a natural leader whom they could follow without question. However Washington's fortitude in his early years was sometimes manifested in less constructive ways. Biographer John R. Alden contends Washington offered \"fulsome and insincere flattery to British generals in vain attempts to win great favor\" and on occasion showed youthful arrogance, as well as jealousy and ingratitude in the midst of impatience. \n\nHistorian Ron Chernow is of the opinion that his frustrations in dealing with government officials during this conflict led him to advocate the advantages of a strong national government and a vigorous executive agency that could get results; other historians tend to ascribe Washington's position on government to his later American Revolutionary War service. He developed a very negative idea of the value of militia, who seemed too unreliable, too undisciplined, and too short-term compared to regulars. On the other hand, his experience was limited to command of at most 1000 men, and came only in remote frontier conditions that were far removed from the urban situations he faced during the Revolution at Boston, New York, Trenton and Philadelphia. \n\nBetween the wars: Mount Vernon (1759–1774)\n\nOn January 6, 1759, Washington married the wealthy widow Martha Dandridge Custis, then 28 years old. Surviving letters suggest that he may have been in love at the time with Sally Fairfax, the wife of a friend. Nevertheless, George and Martha made a compatible marriage, because Martha was intelligent, gracious, and experienced in managing a planter's estate. \n\nTogether the two raised her two children from her previous marriage, John Parke Custis and Martha Parke (Patsy) Custis; later the Washingtons raised two of Mrs. Washington's grandchildren, Eleanor Parke Custis and George Washington Parke Custis. George and Martha never had any children together—his earlier bout with smallpox in 1751 may have made him sterile. The newlywed couple moved to Mount Vernon, near Alexandria, where he took up the life of a planter and political figure.\n\nWashington's marriage to Martha greatly increased his property holdings and social standing, and made him one of Virginia's wealthiest men. He acquired one-third of the 18000 acre Custis estate upon his marriage, worth approximately $100,000, and managed the remainder on behalf of Martha's children, for whom he sincerely cared. \n\nIn 1754 Lieutenant Governor Dinwiddie had promised land bounties to the soldiers and officers who volunteered to serve during the French and Indian War. After Washington prevailed upon Lord Botetourt, the new governor, he finally fulfilled Dinwiddie's promise in 1769–1770, with Washington subsequently receiving title to 23200 acre where the Kanawha River flows into the Ohio River, in what is now western West Virginia. He also frequently bought additional land in his own name. By 1775 Washington had doubled the size of Mount Vernon to 6500 acre, and had increased its slave population to over 100. As a respected military hero and large landowner, he held local office and was elected to the Virginia provincial legislature, representing Frederick County in the House of Burgesses for seven years, beginning in 1758. \n\nWashington lived an aristocratic lifestyle—fox hunting was a favorite leisure activity. He also enjoyed going to dances and parties, in addition to the theater, races, and cockfights. Washington also was known to play cards, backgammon, and billiards. Like most Virginia planters, he imported luxuries and other goods from England and paid for them by exporting his tobacco crop. Washington began to pull himself out of debt in the mid-1760s by diversifying his previously tobacco-centric business interests into other ventures and paying more attention to his affairs.\n\nIn 1766 he started switching Mount Vernon's primary cash crop away from tobacco to wheat, a crop that could be processed and then sold in various forms in the colonies, and further diversified operations to include flour milling, fishing, horse breeding, spinning, weaving and (in the 1790s) erected a distillery for whiskey production which yielded more than 1000 gallons a month. After several prior epileptic attacks Patsy Custis died in Washington arms in 1773. Her early and unexpected death proved to be one of the saddest moments in his life. He intimated his hopes to Martha and others that she had gone to a \"happier place\". Washington cancelled all business activity and for the next three months was not away from Martha for one single night. Patsy's death enabled Washington to pay off his British creditors, since half of her inheritance passed to him. \n\nA successful planter of tobacco and wheat, Washington was a leader in the social elite in Virginia. From 1768 to 1775, he invited some 2000 guests to his Mount Vernon estate, mostly those he considered \"people of rank\". As for people not of high social status, his advice was to \"treat them civilly\" but \"keep them at a proper distance, for they will grow upon familiarity, in proportion as you sink in authority\". In 1769 he became more politically active, presenting the Virginia Assembly with legislation to ban the importation of goods from Great Britain. \n\nAmerican Revolution (1775–1783)\n\nWashington played a leading military and political role in the American Revolution. His involvement began in 1767, when he first took political stands against the various acts of the British Parliament. He opposed the 1765 Stamp Act, the first direct tax on the colonies imposed by the British Parliament, which included no representatives from the colonies; he began taking a leading role in the growing colonial resistance when protests against the Townshend Acts (enacted in 1767) became widespread. In May 1769 Washington introduced a proposal, drafted by his friend George Mason, calling for Virginia to boycott English goods until the Acts were repealed. Parliament repealed the Townshend Acts in 1770. However, Washington regarded the passage of the Intolerable Acts in 1774 as \"an Invasion of our Rights and Privileges\". Washington told friend Bryan Fairfax, \"I think the Parliament of Great Britain has no more right to put their hands in my pocket without my consent than I have to put my hands into yours for money.\" He also said that Americans must not submit to acts of tyranny \"till custom and use shall make us as tame and abject slaves, as the blacks we rule over with such arbitrary sway.\" \n\nIn July 1774 he chaired the meeting at which the \"Fairfax Resolves\" were adopted, which called for the convening of a Continental Congress, among other things. In August, Washington attended the First Virginia Convention, where he was selected as a delegate to the First Continental Congress. \n\nCommander in chief\n\nAfter the Battles of Lexington and Concord near Boston in April 1775, the colonies went to war. Washington appeared at the Second Continental Congress in a military uniform, signaling that he was prepared for war. Washington had the prestige, military experience, charisma and military bearing of a military leader and was known as a strong patriot. Virginia, the largest colony, deserved recognition, and New England—where the fighting began—realized it needed Southern support. Washington did not explicitly seek the office of commander and said that he was not equal to it, but there was no serious competition. Congress created the Continental Army on June 14, 1775. Nominated by John Adams of Massachusetts, Washington was then appointed as a full General and Commander-in-chief. The British then articulated the peril of Washington and his army—on August 23, 1775 Britain issued a Royal proclamation labeling American rebels as traitors; if they resorted to force, they faced confiscation of their property. Their leaders were subject to execution upon the scaffold. \nGeneral Washington essentially assumed three roles during the war. First, in 1775–77, and again in 1781 he provided leadership of troops against the main British forces. Although he lost many of his battles, he never surrendered his army during the war, and he continued to fight the British relentlessly until the war's end. He plotted the overall strategy of the war, in cooperation with Congress. \n\nSecondly, he was charged with organizing and training the army. He recruited regulars and assigned Baron von Steuben, a veteran of the Prussian general staff, to train them. The war effort and getting supplies to the troops were under the purview of Congress, but Washington pressured the Congress to provide the essentials. In June 1776 Congress' first attempt at running the war effort was established with the committee known as \"Board of War and Ordnance\", succeeded by the Board of War in July 1777, a committee which eventually included members of the military. The command structure of the armed forces was a hodgepodge of Congressional appointees (and Congress sometimes made those appointments without Washington's input) with state-appointments filling the lower ranks and of all of the militia-officers. The results of his general staff were mixed, as some of his favorites (like John Sullivan) never mastered the art of command.\n\nEventually, he found capable officers, such as General Nathanael Greene, General Daniel Morgan—\"the old wagoner\" that he had served with in The French and Indian War, Colonel Henry Knox—chief of artillery, and Colonel Alexander Hamilton—chief-of-staff. The American officers never equaled their opponents in tactics and maneuver, and consequently they lost most of the pitched battles. The great successes, at Boston (1776), Saratoga (1777) and Yorktown (1781), came from trapping the British far from base with much larger numbers of troops. Daniel Morgan's annihilation of Banastre Tarleton's legion of dragoons at Cowpens in February 1781, came as a result of Morgan's employment of superior line tactics against his British opponent, resulting in one of the very few double envelopments in military history, another being Hannibal's defeat of the Romans at Cannae in 216 b.c. The decisive defeat of Col. Patrick Ferguson's Tory Regiment at King's Mountain demonstrated the superiority of the riflery of American \"over-mountain men\" over British-trained troops armed with musket and bayonet. These \"over-mountain men\" were led by a variety of elected officers, including the 6'6\" William Campbell who had become one of Washington's officers by the time of Yorktown. Similarly, Morgan's Virginia riflemen proved themselves superior to the British at Saratoga, a post-revolutionary war development being the creation of trained \"rifle battalions\" in the European armies.\n\nWashington's third, and most important role in the war effort, was the embodiment of armed resistance to the Crown—the representative man of the Revolution. His long-term strategy was to maintain an army in the field at all times, and eventually this strategy worked. His enormous personal and political stature and his political skills kept Congress, the army, the French, the militias, and the states all pointed toward a common goal. Furthermore, by voluntarily resigning his commission and disbanding his army when the war was won (rather than declaring himself monarch), he permanently established the principle of civilian supremacy in military affairs. Yet his constant reiteration of the point that well-disciplined professional soldiers counted for twice as much as erratic militias (clearly demonstrated in the rout at Camden, where only the Maryland and Delaware Continentals under Baron DeKalb held firm), helped overcome the ideological distrust of a standing army. \n\nVictory at Boston\n\nWashington assumed command of the Continental Army in the field at Cambridge, Massachusetts, in July 1775, during the ongoing siege of Boston. Realizing his army's desperate shortage of gunpowder, Washington asked for new sources. American troops raided British arsenals, including some in the Caribbean, and some manufacturing was attempted. They obtained a barely adequate supply (about 2.5 million pounds) by the end of 1776, mostly from France. \n\nWashington reorganized the army during the long standoff, and forced the British to withdraw by putting artillery on Dorchester Heights overlooking the city. The British evacuated Boston in March 1776 and Washington moved his army to New York City. \n\nAlthough highly disparaging toward most of the Patriots, British newspapers routinely praised Washington's personal character and qualities as a military commander. These articles were bold, as Washington was an enemy general who commanded an army in a cause that many Britons believed would ruin the empire. \n\nDefeat at New York\n\nIn August 1776 British General William Howe launched a massive naval and land campaign designed to seize New York. The Continental Army under Washington engaged the enemy for the first time as an army of the newly independent United States at the Battle of Long Island, the largest battle of the entire war. The Americans were heavily outnumbered, many men deserted, and Washington was badly defeated. After conferring with other generals of the situation a plan of retreat was decided. Washington instructed General Heath to make available every flat bottom river boat and sloop in the area. In little time Washington's army under the cover of darkness crossed the East River safely to Manhattan Island, and did so without loss of life or materiel. \n\nWashington had considered abandoning the island and Fort Washington, but heeding Generals Greene and Putnam's recommendation to attempt a defense of this fort, he belatedly retreated further across the Hudson to Fort Lee, to avoid encirclement. With the Americans in retreat Howe was then able to take the offensive and on November 16, landed his troops on the island and surrounded and captured Fort Washington, resulting in high Continental casualties. Biographer Alden opines that \"although Washington was responsible for the decision to delay the patriots' retreat, he tried to ascribe blame for the decision to defend Fort Washington to the wishes of Congress and the bad advice of Nathaniel Greene.\" \n\nCrossing the Delaware\n\nWashington then continued his flight across New Jersey; the future of the Continental Army was in doubt due to expiring enlistments and the string of losses. On the night of December 25, 1776, Washington staged a comeback with a surprise attack on a Hessian outpost in western New Jersey. He led his army across the Delaware River to capture nearly 1,000 Hessians in Trenton, New Jersey. Washington followed up his victory at Trenton with another over British regulars at Princeton in early January. The British retreated to New York City and its environs, which they held until the peace treaty of 1783. Washington's victories wrecked the British carrot-and-stick strategy of showing overwhelming force then offering generous terms. The Americans would not negotiate for anything short of independence. These victories alone were not enough to ensure ultimate Patriot victory, however, since many soldiers did not reenlist or deserted during the harsh winter. Washington and Congress reorganized the army with increased rewards for staying and punishment for desertion, which raised troop numbers effectively for subsequent battles. \n\nIn February 1777, while encamped at Morristown, New Jersey, Washington became convinced that only smallpox inoculation would prevent the destruction of his Army, by using variolation. Washington ordered the inoculation of all troops and by some reports, death by smallpox in the ranks dropped from 17% of all deaths to 1% of all reported deaths. \n\nHistorians debate whether or not Washington preferred a Fabian strategy to harass the British with quick, sharp attacks followed by a retreat so the larger British army could not catch him, or whether he preferred to fight major battles. While his southern commander Greene in 1780–81 did use Fabian tactics, Washington did so only in fall 1776 to spring 1777, after losing New York City and seeing much of his army melt away. Trenton and Princeton were Fabian examples. By summer 1777, however, Washington had rebuilt his strength and his confidence; he stopped using raids and went for large-scale confrontations, as at Brandywine, Germantown, Monmouth and Yorktown. \n\n1777 campaigns\n\nIn late summer of 1777, British General John Burgoyne led a major invasion army south from Quebec, with the intention of splitting off rebellious New England; but General Howe in New York took his army south to Philadelphia instead of going up the Hudson River to join with Burgoyne near Albany—a major strategic mistake. Meanwhile, Washington rushed to Philadelphia to engage Howe, while closely following the action in upstate New York, where the patriots were led by General Philip Schuyler and his successor Horatio Gates. The ensuing pitched battles at Philadelphia were too complex for Washington's relatively inexperienced men and they were defeated. At the Battle of Brandywine on September 11, 1777, Howe outmaneuvered Washington, and marched into the American capital at Philadelphia unopposed on September 26. Washington's army unsuccessfully attacked the British garrison at Germantown in early October. Meanwhile, to the north, Burgoyne, beyond the reach of help from Howe, was trapped and forced to surrender after the Battles of Saratoga. This was a major turning point militarily and diplomatically—the French responded to Burgoyne's defeat by entering the war, allying with America and expanding the Revolutionary War into a major worldwide affair.\n\nWashington's loss at Philadelphia prompted some members of Congress to consider removing Washington from command. This movement, termed the Conway Cabal, failed after Washington's supporters rallied behind him. Biographer Alden relates, \"it was inevitable that the defeats of Washington's forces and the concurrent victory of the forces in upper New York should be compared.\" The zealous admiration of Washington indeed inevitably waned. John Adams (never a fan of the southern delegation to the Continental Congress) wrote \"Congress will appoint a thanksgiving; and one cause of it ought to be that the glory of turning the tide of arms is not immediately due to the commander-in-chief nor to southern troops. If it had been, idolatry and adulation would have been unbounded...Now we can allow a certain citizen to be wise, virtuous, and good, without thinking him a deity or a savior.\" \n\nValley Forge\n\nWashington's army of 11,000 went into winter quarters at Valley Forge north of Philadelphia in December 1777. Over the next six months, the deaths in camp numbered in the thousands (the majority being from disease, compounded by lack of food, proper clothing, poor shelter and the extreme cold), with historians' death toll estimates ranging from 2,000 to over 3,000 men. While the British were comfortably quartered in Philadelphia and paid for their supplies in sterling, Washington had difficulty procuring supplies from the few farmers in the area who would not accept rapidly depreciating American paper currency, while the woodlands about the valley had soon been exhausted of game. As conditions worsened, Washington was faced with the task of maintaining morale and discouraging desertion which by February had become common. Washington had repeatedly petitioned the Continental Congress for badly needed provisions but with no success. Finally, on January 24, 1778, five Congressmen came to Valley Forge to examine the conditions of the Continental Army. Washington expressed the urgency of the situation exclaiming, \"Something must be done. Important alterations must be made.\" At this time he also contended that Congress should take control of the army supply system, pay for its supplies and promptly expedite them as they became necessary. In response to Washington's urgent appeal, Congress soon gave full support to funding the supply lines of the army, an advent which also resulted in the reorganizing the commissary department, which controlled the gathering of the supplies for the army. By late February, there were adequate supplies flowing throughout camp.\n\nThe next spring, a revitalized army emerged from Valley Forge in good order, thanks in part to a full-scale training program supervised by General von Steuben. The British evacuated Philadelphia to New York in June, 1778. After Washington summoned a council of war with Generals Lee, Greene and Wayne and Lafayette, Washington decided to make a partial attack on the retreating British at the Battle of Monmouth. Lee and Lafayette, moving with 4000 men and without Washington's immediate knowledge, attempted to launch but bungled the first attack at the British rear guard, where Clinton, also with 4000 men and waiting in anticipation, came about and offered stiff resistance, keeping the Americans in check. After sharp words of criticism Washington relieved Lee and continued fighting to an effective draw in one of the war's largest battles. When night fall came the fighting came to a stop and the British continued their retreat and headed towards New York, where Washington soon moved his army just outside that city. \n\nSullivan Expedition\n\nIn the summer of 1779 Washington and Congress decided to strike the Iroquois warriors of the \"Six Nations\" in a campaign to force Britain's Indian allies out of New York, which they had used as a base to attack American settlements across New England. In June 1779 the warriors had joined with Tory rangers led by Colonel William Butler, using barbarities normally shunned, slew over 200 frontiersmen and laid waste to the Wyoming Valley in Pennsylvania. Indeed, one British officer who witnessed the Tory brutality said the redcoats on return to England would \"scalp every son of a bitch of them.\" In August of 1779 General John Sullivan led a military operation that destroyed at least 40 Iroquois villages, burned all available crops. Few people were killed as the Indians fled to British protection in Canada. Sullivan later reported that \"the immediate objects of this expedition are accomplished, viz: total ruin of the Indian settlements and the destruction of their crops, which were designed for the support of those inhuman barbarians.\" \n\nHudson River and Southern battles\n\nWashington at this time moved his headquarters from Middlebrook in New Jersey up to New Windsor on the Hudson, with an army of 10,000. The British, led by Howe's successor, Sir Henry Clinton made a move up the Hudson against American posts at Verplanck's Point and Stony Point and both places succumbed, but a counter-offensive by the patriots led by General Anthony Wayne was briefly successful. Clinton was in the end able to shut off Kings Ferry but it was a strategic loss; he could proceed no further up the river, due to American fortifications and Washington's army. The skirmishes at Verplanck's Point and at Stony Point demonstrated that the continental infantry had become quite formidable and were an enormous boost to morale. \n\nThe winter of 1779–1780, when Washington went into quarters at Morristown, represented the worst suffering for the army during the war. The temperatures fell to 16 below zero, the New York Harbor was frozen over, and snow and ice covered the ground for weeks, with the troops again lacking provisions for a time as at Valley Forge. In late 1779 Clinton moved his forces south to Charleston for an offensive against the patriots, led by Benjamin Lincoln. After his success there Clinton returned victorious to New York, leaving Cornwallis in the south. Congress replaced Lincoln with Gates, despite Washington's recommendation of Greene. When Gates failed in South Carolina, he was then replaced by Greene. The British at the time seemed to have the South almost in their grasp. Despite this news, Washington was encouraged to learn in mid-1780 that Lafayette had returned from France with additional naval assets and forces.\n\nArnold's treason\n\nIn the summer of 1778 George Washington ordered Major Benjamin Tallmadge to form the Culper Ring. This group was composed of select few trustworthy individuals, whose purpose was to collect information about the British movements and activities in New York City. The Ring is famous for uncovering the intentions of treason of Benedict Arnold, which shocked Washington because Arnold was someone who had contributed significantly to the war effort. Embittered by his dealings with Congress over rank and finances, as well as the alliance with France, Arnold joined the British cause; he conspired with the British in a plan to seize the post he commanded at West Point. Washington just missed apprehending him, but did capture his conspirator, Major John André, a British intelligence officer under Clinton, who was later hanged by order of a court-martial called by Washington. \n\nWashington's army went into winter quarters at New Windsor in 1780 and suffered again for lack of supplies. There resulted a considerable mutiny by Pennsylvania troops; Washington prevailed upon Congress as well as state officials to come to their aid with provisions. He very much sympathized with their suffering, saying he hoped the army would not \"continue to struggle under the same difficulties they have hitherto endured, which I cannot help remarking seem to reach the bounds of human patience\". \n\nVictory at Yorktown\n\nIn July 1780, 5,000 veteran French troops led by the comte de Rochambeau arrived at Newport, Rhode Island to aid in the war effort; French naval forces then landed, led by Admiral François Joseph Paul de Grasse. Though it was Washington's hope initially to bring the allied fight to New York and to end the war there, de Grasse was advised by Rochambeau that Cornwallis in Virginia was the better target. de Grasse followed Rochambeau's advice and arrived off the Virginia Coast. Washington immediately saw the advantage created, made a feinting move with his force towards Clinton in New York and then headed south to Virginia. \n\nWashington's Continental Army, also newly funded by $20,000 in French gold, delivered the final blow to the British in 1781, after a French naval victory allowed American and French forces to trap a British army in Virginia, preventing reinforcement by Clinton from the North. The surrender at Yorktown on October 19, 1781, marked the end of major fighting in continental North America. Cornwallis failed to appear at the official surrender ceremony, and sent General Charles Oharrow as his proxy; Washington then assigned his role to Benjamin Lincoln of equal rank. \n\nDemobilization\n\nThough substantial combat had ended, the war had not, and a formal treaty of peace was months away, creating tension. The British still had 26,000 troops occupying New York City, Charleston and Savannah, together with a powerful fleet. The French army and navy departed, so the Americans were on their own in 1782–83. Money matters fed the anxiety—the treasury was empty, and the unpaid soldiers were growing restive, almost to the point of mutiny. At one point the mutineers forced an adjournment of the Congress from Philadelphia to Princeton. Washington dispelled unrest among officers by suppressing the Newburgh Conspiracy in March 1783, and Congress came up with the promise of a five-year bonus. \n\nWith the initial peace treaty articles ratified in April, a recently formed Congressional committee under Hamilton was considering needs and plans for a peacetime army. On May 2, 1783, the Commander in Chief submitted his Sentiments on a Peace Establishment to the Committee, essentially providing an official Continental Army position. The original proposal was defeated in Congress in two votes (May 1783, October 1783) with a truncated version also being rejected in April 1784. \n\nBy the Treaty of Paris (signed that September), Great Britain recognized the independence of the United States. Washington disbanded his army and, on November 2, gave an eloquent farewell address to his soldiers. On November 25, the British evacuated New York City, and Washington and the governor took possession. At Fraunces Tavern on December 4, Washington formally bade his officers farewell and on December 23, 1783, he resigned his commission as commander-in-chief, saying \"I consider it an indispensable duty to close this last solemn act of my official life, by commending the interests of our dearest country to the protection of Almighty God, and those who have the superintendence of them, to his holy keeping.\" Historian Gordon Wood concludes that the greatest act in his life was his resignation as commander of the armies. King George III called Washington \"the greatest character of the age\" because of this. \n\nWashington later submitted a formal account of the expenses he had personally advanced the army over the eight year conflict, of about $450,000. It is said to have been detailed regarding small items, vague concerning large ones and included the expenses incurred from Martha's visits to his headquarters, as well as his compensation for service, none of which had been drawn during the war. \n\nHistorian John Shy says that by 1783 Washington was \"a mediocre military strategist but had become a master political tactician with an almost perfect sense of timing and a developed capacity to exploit his charismatic reputation, using people who thought they were using him\". \n\nConstitutional Convention\n\nWashington's retirement to personal business at Mount Vernon was short-lived. Making an exploratory trip to the western frontier in 1784, he inspected his land holdings in Western Pennsylvania that had been earned decades earlier for his service in the French and Indian War. There, he confronted squatters, including David Reed and the Covenanters, who vacated, but only after losing a court decision heard in Washington, Pennsylvania in 1786.\nAfter much reluctance, he was persuaded to attend the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia during the summer of 1787 as a delegate from Virginia, where he was elected in unanimity as president of the Convention. He held considerable criticism of the Articles of Confederation of the thirteen colonies, for the weak central government it established, referring to the Articles as no more than \"a rope of sand\" to support the new nation. Washington's view for the need of a strong federal government grew out of the recent war, moreover, the inability of the Continental Congress to rally the states to provide for the needs of the military, as was clearly demonstrated for him during the winter at Valley Forge. The general populace however did not share Washington's views of a strong federal government binding the states together, comparing such a prevailing entity to the British Parliament that previously ruled and taxed the colonies. \n\nWashington's participation in the debates was minor, although he cast his vote when called upon; his prestige facilitated the collegiality and productivity of the delegates. After a couple of months into the task, Washington told Alexander Hamilton, \"I almost despair of seeing a favorable issue to the proceedings of our convention and do therefore repent having had any agency in the business.\"\nFollowing the Convention, his support convinced many, but not all of his colleagues, to vote for ratification. He unsuccessfully lobbied anti-federalist Patrick Henry, saying that \"the adoption of it under the present circumstances of the Union is in my opinion desirable;\" he declared that the only alternative would be anarchy. Nevertheless, he did not consider it appropriate to cast his vote in favor of adoption for Virginia, since he was expected to be nominated president thereunder. The new Constitution was subsequently ratified by all thirteen states. The delegates to the convention designed the presidency with Washington in mind, allowing him to define the office by establishing precedent once elected. In the end after agreements were hatched however, Washington thought the achievements finally made were monumental.\n\nPresidency (1789–1797)\n\nThe Electoral College unanimously elected Washington as the first president in 1789, and again 1792; He remains the only president to receive the totality of electoral votes. John Adams, who received the next highest vote total, was elected vice president. On April 30, 1789, Washington was inaugurated, taking the first presidential oath of office on the balcony of Federal Hall in New York City. The oath, as follows, was administered by Chancellor Robert R. Livingston: \"I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.\" Historian John R. Alden indicates that Washington added the words \"So help me God.\" \n\nThe 1st United States Congress voted to pay Washington a salary of $25,000 a year—a large sum in 1789, valued at about $340,000 in 2015 dollars. Washington, despite facing financial troubles then, initially declined the salary, valuing his image as a selfless public servant. At the urging of Congress, however, he ultimately accepted the payment, to avoid setting a precedent whereby the presidency would be perceived as limited only to independently wealthy individuals who could serve without any salary. The president, aware that everything he did set a precedent, attended carefully to the pomp and ceremony of office, making sure that the titles and trappings were suitably republican and never emulated European royal courts. To that end, he preferred the title \"Mr. President\" to the more majestic names proposed by the Senate. \n\nWashington proved an able administrator, and established many precedents in the functions of the presidency, including messages to Congress and the cabinet form of government. Despite fears that a democratic system would lead to political violence, he set the standard for tolerance of opposition voices and conducted a smooth transition of power to his successor. An excellent delegator and judge of talent and character, he talked regularly with department heads and listened to their advice before making a final decision. In handling routine tasks, he was \"systematic, orderly, energetic, solicitous of the opinion of others ... but decisive, intent upon general goals and the consistency of particular actions with them.\" After reluctantly serving a second term, Washington refused to run for a third, establishing the tradition of a maximum of two terms for a president, which was solidified by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. \n\nDomestic issues\n\nWashington was not a member of any political party and hoped that they would not be formed, fearing conflict that would undermine republicanism. His closest advisors formed two factions, setting the framework for the future First Party System. Secretary of Treasury Alexander Hamilton had bold plans to establish the national credit and build a financially powerful nation, and formed the basis of the Federalist Party. Secretary of the State Thomas Jefferson, founder of the Jeffersonian Republicans, strenuously opposed Hamilton's agenda, but Washington typically favored Hamilton over Jefferson, and it was Hamilton's agenda that went into effect. Jefferson's political actions, his support of Philip Freneau's National Gazette, and his attempt to undermine Hamilton, nearly led George Washington to dismiss Jefferson from his cabinet. Though Jefferson left the cabinet voluntarily, Washington never forgave him, and never spoke to him again. \n\nIn early 1790 Hamilton devised a plan with the approval of Washington, culminating in The Residence Act of 1790, that established the creditworthiness of the new government, as well as its permanent location. Congress had previously issued almost $22 million in certificates of debt during the war to suppliers; some of the states had incurred debt as well (more so in the north). In accordance with the plan, Congress authorized the \"assumption\" and payment of these debts, and provided funding through customs duties and excise taxes. The proposal was largely favored in the north and opposed in the south. Hamilton obtained the approval of the southern states in exchange for an agreement to place the new national capitol on the Potomac River. While the national debt increased as a result during Hamilton's service as Secretary of the Treasury, the nation established its good credit. Many in the Congress and elsewhere in the government profited from trading in the debt paper which was assumed. Though many of Washington's fellow Virginians, as well as others, were vexed by this, he considered they had adequate redress through their Congressional representatives. \n\nThe Revenue Act authorized the president to select the specific location of the seat of the government on the Potomac; the president was to appoint three commissioners to survey and acquire property for this seat. Washington personally oversaw this effort throughout his term in office. In 1791 the commissioners named the permanent seat of government \"The City of Washington in the Territory of Columbia\" to honor Washington. In 1800, the Territory of Columbia became the District of Columbia when the federal government moved to the site according to the provisions of the Residence Act. \n\nIn 1791 partly as a result of the Copper Panic of 1789, Congress imposed an excise tax on distilled spirits, which led to protests in frontier districts, especially Pennsylvania. By 1794 after Washington ordered the protesters to appear in U.S. district court, the protests turned into full-scale defiance of federal authority known as the Whiskey Rebellion. The federal army was too small to be used, so Washington invoked the Militia Act of 1792 to summon militias from Pennsylvania, Virginia, Maryland and New Jersey. The governors sent the troops, with Washington taking initial command. He subsequently named Henry \"Lighthorse Harry\" Lee as field commander to lead the troops into the rebellious districts. The rebels dispersed and there was no fighting, as Washington's forceful action proved the new government could protect itself. This represented the premier instance of the federal government using military force to exert authority over the states and citizens and is also the only time a sitting U.S. president personally commanded troops in the field. \n\nForeign affairs\n\nIn February 1793 the French Revolutionary Wars broke out between Great Britain and its allies and revolutionary France, and engulfed Europe until 1815; Washington, with cabinet approval, proclaimed American neutrality. The revolutionary government of France sent diplomat Edmond-Charles Genêt, called \"Citizen Genêt\", to America. Genêt was welcomed with great enthusiasm, and began promoting the case for France using a network of new Democratic Societies in major cities. He even issued French letters of marque and reprisal to French ships manned by American sailors so they could capture British merchant ships. Washington denounced the societies and demanded the French government recall Genêt, which they did. \n\nHamilton formulated the Jay Treaty to normalize trade relations with Great Britain, remove them from western forts, and resolve financial debts remaining from the Revolution; John Jay negotiated and signed the treaty on November 19, 1794. Jeffersonians supported France and strongly attacked the treaty. Washington listened to both sides then announced his strong support, which mobilized public opinion and was pivotal in securing ratification in the Senate by the requisite two-thirds majority. \n\nThe British agreed to depart from their forts around the Great Lakes and the United States-Canadian boundary had to be re-adjusted; numerous pre-Revolutionary debts were liquidated, and the British opened their West Indies colonies to American trade. Most importantly, the treaty delayed war with Great Britain and instead brought a decade of prosperous trade with the British. The treaty angered the French and became a central issue in many political debates. Relations with France deteriorated after the treaty was signed, leaving the succeeding president, John Adams, with the prospect of war. \n\nFarewell Address\n\nWashington's Farewell Address (issued as a public letter in 1796) was one of the most influential statements of republicanism. Drafted primarily by Washington himself, with help from Hamilton, it gives advice on the necessity and importance of national union, the value of the Constitution and the rule of law, the evils of political parties and the proper virtues of a republican people. He referred to morality as \"a necessary spring of popular government\", and said, \"Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.\" The address warned against foreign influence in domestic affairs and American meddling in European affairs, and as well against bitter partisanship in domestic politics; he also called for men to move beyond partisanship and serve the common good. He cautioned against \"permanent alliances with any portion of the foreign world\", saying the United States must concentrate primarily on American interests. He counseled friendship and commerce with all nations, but advised against involvement in European wars and entering into long-term \"entangling\" alliances. While advancing the general idea of noninvolvement in foreign affairs the Farewell Address made no clear distinction between domestic and foreign policies—John Quincy Adams interpreted Washington's policy as advocating a strong nationalist foreign policy while not limiting America's international activities. The address, however, quickly set American values regarding foreign affairs. Washington's policy of noninvolvement in the foreign affairs of the old world was largely embraced by the founding generation of American Statesmen, including John Adams, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. \n\nRetirement (1797–1799)\n\nAfter retiring from the presidency in March 1797, Washington returned to Mount Vernon with a profound sense of relief. He devoted much time to his plantations and other business interests, including his distillery which produced its first batch of spirits in February 1797. As explains, his plantation operations were only minimally profitable. The lands out west yielded little income because they were under attack by Indians and the squatters living there refused to pay him rent. Most Americans assumed he was rich because of the well-known \"glorified façade of wealth and grandeur\" at Mount Vernon. Historians estimate his estate was worth about $1 million in 1799 dollars, equivalent to about $19.9 million in 2014 purchasing power. \n\nBy 1798 relations with France had deteriorated to the point that war seemed imminent, and on July 4, 1798, President Adams offered Washington a commission as lieutenant general and Commander-in-chief of the armies raised or to be raised for service in a prospective war. He accepted, and served as the senior officer of the United States Army from July 13, 1798 until his death seventeen months later. He participated in the planning for a Provisional Army to meet any emergency that might arise, but avoided involvement in details as much as possible; he delegated most of the work, including leadership of the army, to Hamilton, then serving as a major general in the U.S. Army. \n\nComparisons with Cincinnatus\n\nDuring the Revolutionary and Early Republican periods of American history, many commentators compared Washington with the Roman aristocrat and statesman Cincinnatus. The comparison arose as Washington, like Cincinnatus, remained in command of the Continental Army only until the British had been defeated. Thereafter, instead of seeking great political power, he returned as quickly as possible to cultivating his lands. Remarking on Washington's resignation in December 1783, and his decision to retire to Mount Vernon, poet Philip Freneau wrote: Thus He, whom Rome's proud legions sway'd/Return'd, and sought his sylvan shade. Lord Byron's Ode to Napoleon also lionized Washington as \"the Cincinnatus of the West\". \n\nDeath\n\nOn Thursday, December 12, 1799, Washington spent several hours inspecting his plantation on horseback, in snow, hail, and freezing rain; later that evening he ate his supper without changing from his wet clothes. That Friday he awoke with a severe sore throat and became increasingly hoarse as the day progressed, yet still rode out in the heavy snow, marking trees on the estate that he wanted cut. Sometime around 3 a.m. that Saturday, he suddenly awoke with severe difficulty breathing and almost completely unable to speak or swallow. A firm believer in bloodletting, a standard medical practice of that era which he had used to treat various ailments of slaves on his plantation, he ordered estate overseer Albin Rawlins to remove half a pint of his blood.\n\nA total of three physicians were sent for, including Washington's personal physician Dr. James Craik along with Dr. Gustavus Brown and Dr. Elisha Dick. Craik and Brown thought that Washington had \"quinsey\" or \"quincy\", while Dick, the younger man, thought the condition was more serious or a \"violent inflammation of the throat\". By the time the three physicians finished their treatments and bloodletting of the president, there had been a massive volume of blood loss—half or more of his total blood content was removed over the course of just a few hours. Recognizing that the bloodletting and other treatments were failing, Dr. Dick proposed performing an emergency tracheotomy, a procedure that few American physicians were familiar with at the time, as a last-ditch effort to save Washington's life, but the other two doctors disapproved.\n\nWashington died at home around 10 p.m. on Saturday, December 14, 1799, aged 67. In his journal, Lear recorded Washington's last words as being \"'Tis well.\" \n\nThe diagnosis of Washington's final illness and the immediate cause of his death have been subjects of debate since the day he died. In the days immediately following his death, Craik and Dick's published account stated that they felt his symptoms had been consistent with \"cynanche trachealis\", a term of that period used to describe severe inflammation of the structures of the upper airway. Even at that early date, there were accusations of medical malpractice, with some believing that Washington had been bled to death. Various modern medical authors have speculated that Washington probably died from a severe case of epiglottitis which was complicated by the given treatments (all of which were accepted medical practice in Washington's day)—most notably the massive deliberate blood loss, which almost certainly caused hypovolemic shock.\n\nThroughout the world, people were saddened by Washington's death. In the United States, memorial processions were held in major cities and thousands wore mourning clothes for months. Martha Washington wore a black mourning cape for one year. In France, First Consul Napoleon Bonaparte ordered ten days of mourning throughout the country; \n\nTo protect their privacy, Martha Washington burned the correspondence they had exchanged; only five letters between the couple are known to have survived, two letters from Martha to George and three from him to Martha. \n\nOn December 18, 1799, a funeral was held at Mount Vernon, where his body was interred. Congress passed a joint resolution to construct a marble monument in the planned crypt below the rotunda of the center section of the Capitol (then still under construction) for his body, a plan supported by Martha. In December 1800, the House passed an appropriations bill for $200,000 to build the mausoleum, which was to be a pyramid with a 100 ft square base. Southern representatives and senators, in later opposition to the plan, defeated the measure because they felt it was best to have Washington's body remain at Mount Vernon. \n\nIn 1831, for the centennial of his birth, a new tomb was constructed to receive his remains. That year, an unsuccessful attempt was made to steal the body of Washington. Despite this, a joint Congressional committee in early 1832, debated the removal of President Washington's body from Mount Vernon to a crypt in the Capitol, built by architect Charles Bulfinch in the 1820s during the reconstruction of the burned-out structure after the British set it afire in August 1814, during the \"Burning of Washington\". Southern opposition was intense, antagonized by an ever-growing rift between North and South. Congressman Wiley Thompson of Georgia expressed the fear of Southerners when he said, \"Remove the remains of our venerated Washington from their association with the remains of his consort and his ancestors, from Mount Vernon and from his native State, and deposit them in this capitol, and then let a severance of the Union occur, and behold the remains of Washington on a shore foreign to his native soil.\"\n\nWashington's remains were moved on October 7, 1837 to the new tomb constructed at Mount Vernon, presented by John Struthers of Philadelphia. After the ceremony, the inner vault's door was closed and the key was thrown into the Potomac.\n\nPersonal life\n\nAlong with Martha's biological family, George Washington had a close relationship with his nephew and heir, Bushrod Washington, son of George's younger brother, John Augustine Washington. The year before his uncle's death, Bushrod became an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. George, however, apparently had difficulty getting along with his mother, Mary Ball Washington (Augustine's second wife), a very difficult and exacting woman. \n\nAs a young man, Washington had red hair. A popular myth is that he wore a wig, as was the fashion among some at the time. However, Washington did not wear a wig; instead, he powdered his hair, as is represented in several portraits, including the well-known, unfinished Gilbert Stuart depiction called the \"Athenaeum Portrait.\" \n\nWashington's height was variously recorded as 6 ft to 6 ft, and he had unusually great physical strength that amazed younger men. Jefferson called Washington \"the best horseman of his age\", and both American and European observers praised his riding; the horsemanship benefited his hunting, a favorite hobby. Washington was an excellent dancer and frequently attended the theater, often referencing Shakespeare in letters. He drank in moderation and precisely recorded gambling wins and losses, but Washington disliked the excessive drinking, gambling, smoking, and profanity that was common in colonial Virginia. Although he grew tobacco, he eventually stopped smoking, and considered drunkenness a man's worst vice; Washington was glad that post-Revolutionary Virginia society was less likely to \"force [guests] to drink and to make it an honor to send them home drunk.\" \n\nWashington suffered from problems with his teeth throughout his life, and historians have tracked his experiences in great detail. He lost his first adult tooth when he was twenty-two and had only one left by the time he became president. John Adams claims he lost them because he used them to crack Brazil nuts but modern historians suggest the mercury oxide, which he was given to treat illnesses such as smallpox and malaria, probably contributed to the loss. He had several sets of false teeth made, four of them by a dentist named John Greenwood. None of the sets were made from wood. The set made when he became president was carved from hippopotamus and elephant ivory, held together with gold springs. Prior to these, he had a set made with real human teeth, likely ones he purchased from \"several unnamed 'Negroes,' presumably Mount Vernon slaves\" in 1784. Dental problems left Washington in constant pain, for which he took laudanum. This distress may be apparent in many of the portraits painted while he was still in office, including the one still used on the $1 bill.\n\nReligion\n\nFor his entire life Washington was affiliated with the Anglican Church, later called the Episcopal Church. He served as a vestryman and as church warden for both Fairfax Parish in Alexandria and Truro Parish, administrative positions that, like all positions in Virginia while it had an official religion, required one to swear they would not speak or act in a way that did not conform to the tenets of the Church. Numerous historians have suggested that theologically, Washington agreed largely with the Deists. However, he never spoke about any particular Deist beliefs he may of have had. He often used words for the deity, such as \"God\" and \"Providence,\" while avoiding using the words \"Jesus\" and \"Christ.\" In his collected works, they appear in an official letter to Indians that might have been drafted by an aide. At the time, Deism was a theological outlook, not an organized denomination, and was compatible with being an Episcopalian. Historian Gregg Frazer argues that Washington was not a deist but a \"theistic rationalist.\" This theological position rejected core beliefs of Christianity, such as the divinity of Christ, the Trinity and original sin. However, unlike the deists, the theological rationalists believed in the efficacy of prayer to God. Historian Peter A. Lillback argues that Washington was neither a deist nor a \"theistic rationalist\" but a Christian who believed in the core beliefs of Christianity.\n\nWashington frequently accompanied his wife to church services. Although third-hand reports say he took communion, he is usually characterized as never or rarely participating in the rite. He would regularly leave services before communion with the other non-communicants (as was the custom of the day), until, after being admonished by a rector, he ceased attending at all on communion Sundays. \n\nWashington regarded religion as a protective influence for America's social and political order, and recognized the church's \"laudable endeavors to render men sober, honest, and good citizens, and the obedient subjects of a lawful government\". \n\nWhile it is generally conceded that Washington was a Christian, the exact nature of his religious beliefs has still been debated by some historians and biographers for over two hundred years. Washington biographer Don Higginbotham notes that in such instances people with diametrically opposing opinions frequently base their views of Washington's beliefs on their own beliefs. Though Washington was in ways conventionally enlightened about religion, once saying, \"being no bigot myself to any mode of worship\" he harbored no contempt of organized Christianity and its clergy as did Jefferson. Washington, as commander of the army and as president, was a vigorous promoter of tolerance for all religious denominations. He believed religion was an important support for public order, morality and virtue. He often attended services of different denominations. He suppressed anti-Catholic celebrations in the Army. \n\nMichael Novak and Jana Novak suggest that it may have been \"Washington's intention to maintain a studied ambiguity (and personal privacy) regarding his own deepest religious convictions, so that all Americans, both in his own time and for all time to come, might feel free to approach him on their own terms—and might also feel like full members of the new republic, equal with every other\". They conclude: \"He was educated in the Episcopal Church, to which he always adhered; and my[sic] conviction is, that he believed in the fundamental doctrines of Christianity as usually taught in that Church, according to his understanding of them; but without a particle of intolerance, or disrespect for the faith and modes of worship adopted by Christians of other denominations.\" \n\nFreemasonry\n\nWashington was initiated into Freemasonry in 1752. He had a high regard for the Masonic Order and often praised it, but he seldom attended lodge meetings. He was attracted by the movement's dedication to the Enlightenment principles of rationality, reason and fraternalism; the American lodges did not share the anti-clerical perspective that made the European lodges so controversial. In 1777 a convention of Virginia lodges recommended Washington to be the Grand Master of the newly established Grand Lodge of Virginia; however, Washington declined, due to his necessity to lead the Continental Army at a critical stage, and because he had never been installed as Master or Warden of a lodge, he did not consider it Masonically legal to serve as Grand Master. In 1788 Washington, with his personal consent, was named Master in the Virginia charter of Alexandria Lodge No. 22. \n\nSlavery\n\nWashington was the only prominent Founding Father to arrange in his will for the manumission of all his slaves following his death. He privately opposed slavery as an institution which he viewed as economically unsound and morally indefensible. He also regarded the divisiveness of his countrymen's feelings about slavery as a potentially mortal threat to the unity of the nation. He never publicly challenged the institution of slavery, possibly because he wanted to avoid provoking a split in the new republic over so inflammatory an issue, but he did pass the Slave Trade Act of 1794, which limited American involvement in the Atlantic slave trade. Washington had owned slaves since the death of his father in 1743, when at the age of eleven, he inherited 10 slaves. At the time of his marriage to Martha Custis in 1759, he personally owned at least 36 slaves, which meant he had achieved the status of a major planter. The wealthy widow Martha brought at least 85 \"dower slaves\" to Mount Vernon by inheriting a third of her late husband's estate. Using his wife's great wealth, Washington bought more land, tripling the size of the plantation at Mount Vernon, and purchased the additional slaves needed to work it. By 1774 he paid taxes on 135 slaves (this figure does not include the \"dowers\"). The last record of a slave purchase by him was in 1772, although he later received some slaves in repayment of debts. Washington also used some hired staff and white indentured servants; in April 1775, he offered a reward for the return of two runaway white servants. \n\nLegacy\n\nAs Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army, hero of the Revolution and the first president of the United States, George Washington's legacy remains among the two or three greatest in American history. Congressman Henry \"Light-Horse Harry\" Lee, a Revolutionary War comrade, famously eulogized Washington, \"First in war—first in peace—and first in the hearts of his countrymen\". \n\nLee's words set the standard by which Washington's overwhelming reputation was impressed upon the American memory. Biographers hailed him as the great exemplar of republicanism. Washington set many precedents for the national government, and the presidency in particular, and was called the \"Father of His Country\" as early as 1778. Washington's Birthday, is a federal holiday in the United States. In terms of personality, a leading biographer Douglas Southall Freeman concluded, \"the great big thing stamped across that man is character.\" By character, says David Hackett Fischer \"Freeman meant integrity, self-discipline, courage, absolute honesty, resolve, and decision, but also forbearance, decency, and respect for others.\" \n\nAs the leader of the first successful revolution against a colonial empire in world history, Washington became an international icon for liberation and nationalism. The Federalists made him the symbol of their party but for many years, the Jeffersonians continued to distrust his influence and delayed building the Washington Monument. After Yorktown, his service as Commander in Chief brought him election as a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.\n\nDuring the United States Bicentennial year, George Washington was posthumously appointed to the grade of General of the Armies of the United States by the congressional joint resolution Public Law 94-479 passed on January 19, 1976, with an effective appointment date of July 4, 1976. This restored Washington's position as the highest-ranking military officer in U.S. history.\n\nPapers\n\nThe serious collection and publication of Washington's documentary record began with the pioneer work of Jared Sparks in the 1830s, Life and Writings of George Washington (12 vols., 1834–1837). The Writings of George Washington from the Original Manuscript Sources, 1745–1799 (1931–44) is a 37 volume set edited by John C. Fitzpatrick. It contains over 17,000 letters and documents and is available online from the University of Virginia. The definitive letterpress edition of his writings was begun by the University of Virginia in 1968, and today comprises 52 published volumes, with more to come. It contains everything written by Washington, or signed by him, together with most of his incoming letters. Part of the collection is available online from the University of Virginia. \n\nMonuments and memorials\n\nStarting with victory in their Revolution, there were many proposals to build a monument to Washington. After his death, Congress authorized a suitable memorial in the national capital, but the decision was reversed when the Democratic-Republicans took control of Congress in 1801. The Democratic-Republicans were dismayed that Washington had become the symbol of the Federalist Party. Construction of the 554 foot memorial didn't begin until 1848.\n\nSeveral naval vessels, including the USS George Washington, are named in Washington's honor. \n\nWashington, together with Theodore Roosevelt, Thomas Jefferson, and Lincoln, is depicted in stone at the Mount Rushmore Memorial. The Washington Monument, one of the best known American landmarks, was built in his honor. The George Washington Masonic National Memorial in Alexandria, Virginia, was constructed between 1922 and 1932 with voluntary contributions from all 52 local governing bodies of the Freemasons in the United States. \n\nMany places and entities have been named in honor of Washington. Washington's name became that of the nation's capital, Washington, D.C., one of two national capitals across the globe to be named after an American president (the other is Monrovia, Liberia). The state of Washington is the only state to be named after a United States president. Mount Washington in New Hampshire, the tallest mountain in the Northeastern United States, was named soon after the American Revolution by Colonel John Whipple and others who were the first to climb to the summit for scientific observations in 1784. \n\nThere are many other \"Washington Monuments\" in the United States, including two well-known equestrian statues: one in Manhattan and one in Richmond, Virginia. The first statue to show Washington on horseback was dedicated in 1856 and is located in Manhattan's Union Square. \n\nPostage and currency\n\nGeorge Washington appears on contemporary U.S. currency, including the one-dollar bill and the quarter-dollar coin (the Washington quarter).\n\nWashington, along with Benjamin Franklin, appeared on the nation's first postage stamps in 1847. Since that time Washington has appeared on many postage issues, more than all other presidents combined. \n\nWashington's victory over Cornwallis at the Battle of Yorktown was commemorated with a two-cent stamp on the battle's 150th anniversary on October 19, 1931. The 150th anniversary of the signing of the Constitution with George Washington as presiding officer was celebrated with a three-cent issue on September 17, 1937, was adapted from the painting by Julius Brutus Stearns. Washington's presidential inauguration at Federal Hall in New York City was celebrated on its 150th anniversary on April 30, 1939. \n\nSelected Issues :\n\nSelected currency :\n\nCherry tree\n\nPerhaps the best known story about Washington's childhood is that he chopped down his father's favorite cherry tree and admitted the deed when questioned: \"I can't tell a lie, Pa.\" The anecdote was first reported by biographer Parson Weems, who after Washington's death interviewed people who knew him as a child over a half-century earlier. The Weems text was very widely reprinted throughout the 19th century, for example in McGuffey Readers. Adults wanted children to learn moral lessons from history, especially as taught by example from the lives of great national heroes like Washington. After 1890 however, historians insisted on scientific research methods to validate every statement, and there was no documentation for this anecdote apart from Weems' report that he learned it from one of the neighbors who knew the young Washington. Joseph Rodman in 1904 claimed that Weems plagiarized other Washington tales from published fiction set in England, but no one has found an alternative source for the cherry tree story. Austin Washington, the great-nephew of George Washington, maintains that it is unlikely that Parson Weems, a man of the clergy, while writing an account about truth and honesty, would then turn around and outright lie about such a story. He further maintains that if Weems was making up a story he would have more dramatically depicted the young Washington 'chopping down' the cherry tree, not merely \"barking it\", (i.e.removing some if the bark). i.e.Weems never claimed the tree was chopped down. There has been much conjecture and ad hominem attacks from some historians about Weems and his story, but none have proven or disproven the story to this date. \n\nPersonal property auction record\n\nOn June 22, 2012, George Washington's personal annotated copy of the \"Acts Passed at a Congress of the United States of America\" from 1789, which includes the Constitution of the United States and a draft of the Bill of Rights, was sold at Christie's for a $9,826,500 (with fees added to the final cost), to The Mount Vernon Ladies' Association. This was the record for a document sold at auction.", "Hessians is the term given to the 18th-century German auxiliaries contracted for military service by the British government, which found it easier to borrow money to pay for their service than to recruit its own soldiers. They took their name from the German state of Hesse-Kassel. The British hired Hessian troops for combat duty in several eighteenth century conflicts, but they are most widely associated with combat operations in the American Revolutionary War (1775-1783).\n\nAbout 30,000 German soldiers fought for the British during the American Revolutionary War, making up a quarter of the troops the British sent to America. They entered the British service as entire units, fighting under their own German flags, commanded by their usual officers, and wearing their existing uniforms. The largest contingent came from the state of Hesse, which supplied about 40% of the German troops who fought for the British. The large number of troops from Hesse-Kassel led to the use of the term Hessians to refer to all German troops fighting on the British side, a form of synecdoche. The others were rented from other small German states.\n\nPatriots presented the soldiers as foreign mercenaries with no stake in America. Many of the men were press-ganged into Hessian service. Deserters were summarily executed or beaten by an entire company. Hessian prisoners of war were put to work on local farms and were offered land bounties to desert, which many did.\n\nHistory\n\n \nThe small German states had professional armies, which their princes were willing to hire out for service with other armies. When military conflict broke out, the German states provided a ready supply of trained troops that were equipped to go into action immediately. John Childs wrote:\n\nIn most of these wars, Hesse-Kassel never became a belligerent by declaring war on any other country. The troops were rented for service in other armies, and Hesse-Kassel itself had no stake in the outcome of the war. Thus, it was possible for Hessians to serve with the British and Bavarian armies in the War of the Austrian Succession, even though Britain and Bavaria were on opposite sides of the war. Historian Charles Ingrao says that the local prince had turned Hesse into a \"mercenary state\" by renting out his regiments to fund his government. \n\nAmerican Revolutionary War\n\nDuring the American Revolutionary War, Landgrave Frederick II of Hesse-Kassel and other German princes hired out some of their regular army units to Great Britain for use to fight against the rebels in the American revolution. Of 30,067 German troops leased by Great Britain, 12,992 were supplied by Hesse-Kassel. They came not as individuals but in entire units with their usual uniforms, flags, equipment, and officers.\n\nHessian troops included jäger, hussars, three artillery companies, and four battalions of grenadiers. Most of the infantry were chasseurs (sharpshooters), musketeers, and fusiliers. Line infantry were armed with muskets, while the Hessian artillery used three-pounder cannon. The elite Jäger battalions used the büchse, a short, large-caliber rifle well-suited to woodland combat. Initially the average regiment was made up of 500 to 600 men. Later in the war, the regiments had only 300 to 400 men.\n\nThe first Hessian troops to arrive in North America landed at Staten Island in New York on August 15, 1776. Their first engagement was in the Battle of Long Island. The Hessians fought in almost every battle, although after 1777, the British used them mainly as garrison and patrol troops. An assortment of Hessians fought in the battles and campaigns in the southern states during 1778–80 (including Guilford Courthouse), and two regiments fought at the Siege of Yorktown in 1781.\n\nAmericans, both Rebel and Tory, often feared the Hessians, believing them to be rapacious and brutal mercenaries. Meanwhile, Hessian diaries frequently express disapproval of the British troops' conduct towards the colonists, including the destruction of property and the occasional execution of prisoners, the latter being doubly upsetting when American Germans were among them. \n\nThe British common soldiers, in a similar fashion to the Americans, distrusted the primarily German-speaking Hessians and hence, despite their strong military performance, often treated them with contempt.\n\nHessian captives\n\nGeneral George Washington's Continental Army had crossed the Delaware River to make a surprise attack on the Hessians on the early morning of December 26, 1776. In the Battle of Trenton, the Hessian force of 1,400 was wiped out by the Continentals, with about 20 killed, 100 wounded, and 1,000 captured. \n\nThe Hessians captured in the Battle of Trenton were paraded through the streets of Philadelphia to raise American morale; anger at their presence helped the Continental Army recruit new soldiers. Most of the prisoners were sent to work as farm hands. \n\nBy early 1778, negotiations for the exchange of prisoners between Washington and the British had begun in earnest. Nicholas Bahner(t), Jacob Strobe, George Geisler, and Conrad Kramm are a few of the Hessian soldiers who deserted the British forces after being returned in exchange for American prisoners of war. These men were hunted by the British for being deserters as well as by many of the colonists as a foreign enemy.\n\nAmericans tried to entice Hessians to desert from the British and join the already large German-American population. The US Congress authorized the offer of 50 acres (approximately 20 hectares) of land to individual Hessian soldiers to encourage them to desert the group. British soldiers were offered 50 to 800 acres, depending on rank. \n\nIn August 1777, a satirical letter, \"The Sale of the Hessians\", was widely distributed. It claimed that a Hessian commander wanted more of his soldiers dead so that he could be better compensated. For many years, the author of the letter was unknown. In 1874, John Bigelow translated it to English (from a French version) and claimed that Benjamin Franklin wrote it, including it in his biography, The Life of Benjamin Franklin, published that year. There appears to be no evidence to support this claim. \n\nLancaster POW experience\n\nMany Hessian prisoners were held in camps at the interior city of Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Lancaster was a center for the Pennsylvania Dutch, who treated the German prisoners well. The Hessians responded favorably; some volunteered for extra work assignments, helping to replace local men serving in the Continental Army. After the war, many POWs never returned to Germany and instead accepted American offers of religious freedom and free land, becoming permanent settlers. By contrast, British prisoners were also held in Lancaster, but these men did not respond favorably to good treatment – they tried to escape. \n\nNova Scotia theatre \n\nThe Hessians served in Nova Scotia for five years (1778-1783). They protected the colony from American privateers, such as when they responded to the Raid on Lunenburg (1782). They were led by Baron Oberst Franz Carl Erdmann von Seitz. \n\nConclusion of the war\n\nAbout 30,000 Germans served in the Americas, and, after the war ended in 1783, some 17,313 returned to their German homelands. Of the 12,526 who did not return, about 7,700 had died. Some 1,200 were killed in action, and 6,354 died from illness or accidents, mostly the former. Approximately 5,000 German troops settled in North America, either the United States or Canada.\n\nCommanding officers \n\n* Wilhelm von Knyphausen\n* Baron Oberst Franz Carl Erdmann von Seitz - led regiment in the Battle of Fort Washington \n* Oberst Johann Rall, commanding officer of the Hessian forces at the Battle of Trenton.\n\nUnits in the American Revolution\n\n*Hesse-Kassel Jäger Corps\n*Fusilier Regiment von Ditfurth\n*Fusilier Regiment Erbprinz (later Musketeer Regiment Erbprinz (1780))\n*Fusilier Regiment von Knyphausen\n*Fusilier Regiment von Lossburg\n*Grenadier Regiment von Rall (later von Woellwarth (1777); von Trümbach (1779); d'Angelelli (1781))\n**1st Battalion Grenadiers von Linsing\n**2nd Battalion Grenadiers von Block (later von Lengerke)\n**3rd Battalion Grenadiers von Minnigerode (later von Löwenstein)\n**4th Battalion Grenadiers von Köhler (later von Graf; von Platte)\n*Garrison Regiment von Bünau\n*Garrison Regiment von Huyn (later von Benning)\n*Garrison Regiment von Stein (later von Seitz; von Porbeck)\n*Garrison Regiment von Wissenbach (later von Knoblauch)\n*Leib Infantry Regiment\n*Musketeer Regiment von Donop \n*Musketeer Regiment von Trümbach (later von Bose (1779))\n*Musketeer Regiment von Mirbach (later Jung von Lossburg (1780))\n*Musketeer Regiment Prinz Carl\n*Musketeer Regiment von Wutgenau (later Landgraf (1777))\n*Hesse-Kassel Artillery corps\n\nIreland 1798\n\nAfter the Battle of Mainz in 1795, the British rushed Hessian forces to Ireland in 1798 to assist in the suppression of rebellion inspired by the Society of United Irishmen, an organization that first worked for Parliamentary reform. Influenced by the American and French revolutions, its members began by 1798 to seek independence for Ireland.\n\nBaron Hompesch's 2nd Battalion of riflemen embarked on 11 April 1798 from the Isle of Wight bound for the port of Cork. They were later joined by the Jäger (Hunter) 5th Battalion 60th regiment. They were in the action of the battles of Vinegar Hill and Foulksmills.\n\nIn popular culture\n\n*Hessian fly, a significant pest of cereal crops, was named after its supposed source of Hessian soldiers' straw bedding.\n*Washington Irving's story \"The Legend of Sleepy Hollow\" (1820) includes a celebrated figure known as the \"Headless Horseman\" who is \"the ghost of a Hessian trooper, whose head had been carried away by a cannonball, in some nameless battle during the Revolutionary War.\" He has been portrayed in many dramatic adaptations of the story.\n**In the 2013-present TV show Sleepy Hollow, a battalion of Hessian mercenaries served the British Empire, as well as the demon Moloch. However, they wore the red uniform of the British Red coats, shaved their heads, wore masks, and branded themselves. Their descendants continued to serve Moloch well into the 2010s.\n*D. W. Griffith co-wrote and directed the short film, The Hessian Renegades (1909), about the early stages of the American Revolution.\n*In the Merrie Melodies short \"Bunker Hill Bunny\" (1950) set during the Revolutionary War, Bugs Bunny faces off against Hessian soldier Sam von Schamm.\n*The 1972 novel The Hessian by Howard Fast centers around a Hessian soldier who tries to escape.\n* Hessians appear as an enemy in the 2012 historical-fiction stealth videogame Assassin's Creed III, albeit referred to as \"Jägers\" in-game. They are represented during gameplay as highly experienced soldiers that pose a serious combative threat to the player in open conflict.\n*In the television series Turn: Washington's Spies, Hessians are depicted in Season 1 as participating in the Battle of Trenton and meet Abraham Woodhull in New York.\n*Hessians also appear as a unit in the 2009 videogame Empire: Total War.\n\nFootnotes", "The Battle of Trenton was a small but pivotal battle during the American Revolutionary War which took place on the morning of December 26, 1776, in Trenton, New Jersey. After General George Washington's crossing of the Delaware River north of Trenton the previous night, Washington led the main body of the Continental Army against Hessian soldiers garrisoned at Trenton. After a brief battle, nearly the entire Hessian force was captured, with negligible losses to the Americans. The battle significantly boosted the Continental Army's flagging morale, and inspired re-enlistments.\n\nThe Continental Army had previously suffered several defeats in New York and had been forced to retreat through New Jersey to Pennsylvania. Morale in the army was low; to end the year on a positive note, George Washington—Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army—devised a plan to cross the Delaware River on the night of December 25–26 and surround the Hessian garrison.\n\nBecause the river was icy and the weather severe, the crossing proved dangerous. Two detachments were unable to cross the river, leaving Washington with only 2,400 men under his command in the assault. The army marched 9 mi south to Trenton. The Hessians had lowered their guard, thinking they were safe from the American army, and had no long-distance outposts or patrols. Washington's forces caught them off guard and, after a short but fierce resistance, most of the Hessians surrendered. Almost two thirds of the 1,500-man garrison was captured, and only a few troops escaped across Assunpink Creek.\n\nDespite the battle's small numbers, the American victory inspired rebels in the colonies. With the success of the revolution in doubt a week earlier, the army had seemed on the verge of collapse. The dramatic victory inspired soldiers to serve longer and attracted new recruits to the ranks.\n\nBackground\n\nIn early December 1776, American morale was very low. The Americans had been ousted from New York by the British and their Hessian auxiliaries, and the Continental Army was forced to retreat across New Jersey. Ninety percent of the Continental Army soldiers who had served at Long Island were gone. Men had deserted, feeling that the cause for independence was lost. Washington, Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army, expressed some doubts, writing to his cousin in Virginia, \"I think the game is pretty near up.\"\n\nAt the time a small town in New Jersey, Trenton was occupied by three regiments of Hessian soldiers commanded by Colonel Johann Rall, numbering about 1,400 men. Washington's force comprised 2,400 men, with infantry divisions commanded by Major Generals Nathanael Greene and John Sullivan, and artillery under the direction of Brigadier General Henry Knox. \n\nPrelude\n\nIntelligence \n\nWashington had stationed a spy named John Honeyman, posing as a Tory, in Trenton. Honeyman had served with Major General James Wolfe in Quebec at the Battle of the Plains of Abraham on September 13, 1759, and had no trouble establishing his credentials as a Tory. Honeyman was a butcher and weaver, who traded with the British and Hessians. This enabled him to gather intelligence, and also to convince the Hessians that the Continental Army was in such a low state of morale that they would not attack Trenton. Shortly before Christmas, he arranged to be captured by the Continental Army, who had orders to bring him to Washington unharmed. After being questioned by Washington, he was imprisoned in a small hut, to be tried as a Tory in the morning, but a small fire broke out nearby, enabling him to \"escape.\" \n\nAmerican plan \n\nThe American plan relied on launching coordinated attacks from three directions. General John Cadwalader would launch a diversionary attack against the British garrison at Bordentown, New Jersey, to block off reinforcements from the south. General James Ewing would take 700 militia across the river at Trenton Ferry, seize the bridge over the Assunpink Creek and prevent enemy troops from escaping. The main assault force of 2,400 men would cross the river north of Trenton and split into two groups, one under Greene and one under Sullivan, to launch a pre-dawn attack. Sullivan would attack the town from the south, and Greene from the north. Depending on the success of the operation, the Americans would possibly follow up with separate attacks on Princeton and New Brunswick. \n\nDuring the week before the battle, American advance parties began to ambush enemy cavalry patrols, capturing dispatch riders and attacking Hessian pickets. The Hessian commander, to emphasize the danger to his men, sent 100 infantry and an artillery detachment to deliver a letter to the British commander at Princeton. Washington ordered Ewing and his Pennsylvania militia to try to gain information on Hessian movements and technology. Ewing instead made three successful raids across the river. On December 17 and 18, 1776, they attacked an outpost of jägers and on the 21st, they set fire to several houses. Washington put constant watches on all possible crossings near the Continental Army encampment on the Delaware, as he believed William Howe would launch an attack from the north on Philadelphia if the river froze over. \n\nOn December 20, 1776, some 2,000 troops led by General Sullivan arrived in Washington's camp. They had been under the command of Charles Lee, and had been moving slowly through northern New Jersey when Lee was captured. That same day, an additional 800 troops arrived from Fort Ticonderoga under the command of Horatio Gates.\n\nHessian moves \n\nOn December 14, 1776, the Hessians arrived in Trenton to establish their winter quarters. At the time, Trenton was a small town with about 100 houses and two main streets, King (now Warren) Street and Queen (now Broad) Street. Carl von Donop, Rall's superior, had marched south to Mount Holly on December 22 to deal with the resistance in New Jersey, and had clashed with some New Jersey militia there on December 23. \n\nDonop, who despised Rall, was reluctant to give command of Trenton to him. Rall was known to be loud and unacquainted with the English language, but he was also a 36-year soldier with a great deal of battle experience. His request for reinforcements had been turned down by British commander General James Grant, who disdained the American rebels and thought them poor soldiers. Despite Rall's experience, the Hessians at Trenton did not admire their commander. They believed that he was too nice, and not ruthless enough to be successful. His officers complained, \"His love of life was too great, a thought came to him, then another, so he could not settle on a firm decision ...\" Rall avoided hard work and had little concern for his troops' comfort.\n\nTrenton lacked city walls or fortifications, which was typical of American settlements. Some Hessian officers advised Rall to fortify the town, and two of his engineers advised that a redoubt be constructed at the upper end of town, and fortifications be built along the river. The engineers went so far as to draw up plans, but Rall disagreed with them. When Rall was again urged to fortify the town, he replied, \"Let them come ... We will go at them with the bayonet.\"\n\nAs Christmas approached, Loyalists came to Trenton to report the Americans were planning action. American deserters told the Hessians that rations were being prepared for an advance across the river. Rall publicly dismissed such talk as nonsense, but privately in letters to his superiors, he said he was worried about an imminent attack. He wrote to Donop that he was \"liable to be attacked at any moment\". Rall said that Trenton was \"indefensible\" and asked that British troops establish a garrison in Maidenhead (now Lawrenceville). Close to Trenton, this would help defend the roads from Americans. His request was denied. As the Americans disrupted Hessian supply lines, the officers started to share Rall's fears. One wrote, \"We have not slept one night in peace since we came to this place.\" On December 22, 1776, a spy reported to Grant that Washington had called a council of war; Grant told Rall to \"be on your guard\". \n\nThe main Hessian force of 1,500 men was divided into three regiments: Knyphausen, Lossberg and Rall. That night, they did not send out any patrols because of the severe weather. \n\nCrossing and march \n\nBefore Washington and his troops left, Benjamin Rush came to cheer up the General. While he was there, he saw a note Washington had written, saying, \"Victory or Death\". Those words would be the password for the surprise attack. Each soldier carried 60 rounds of ammunition, and three days of rations. When the army arrived at the shores of the Delaware, they were already behind schedule, and clouds began to form above them. It began to rain. As the air's temperature dropped, the rain changed to sleet, and then to snow. The Americans began to cross the river, with John Glover in command. The men went across in Durham boats, while the horses and artillery went across on large ferries. The 14th Continental Regiment of Glover manned the boats. During the crossing, several men fell overboard, including Colonel John Haslet. Haslet was quickly pulled out of the water. No one died during the crossing, and all the artillery pieces made it over in good condition. \n\nTwo small detachments of infantry of about 40 men each were ordered ahead of main columns. They set roadblocks ahead of the main army, and were to take prisoner whoever came into or left the town. One of the groups was sent north of Trenton, and the other was sent to block River Road, which ran along the Delaware River to Trenton. \n\nThe terrible weather conditions delayed the landings in New Jersey until 3:00 am; the plan was that they were supposed to be completed by 12:00 am. Washington realized it would be impossible to launch a pre-dawn attack. Another setback occurred for the Americans, as generals Cadwalader and Ewing were unable to join the attack due to the weather conditions.\n\nAt 4:00 am, the soldiers began to march towards Trenton. Along the way, several civilians joined as volunteers, and led as guides (see Captain John Mott) because of their knowledge of the terrain. After marching through winding roads into the wind, they reached Bear Tavern, where they turned right. The ground was slippery, but it was level, making it easier for the horses and artillery. They began to make better time. They soon reached Jacobs Creek, where, with difficulty, the Americans made it across. The two groups stayed together until they reached Birmingham, where they split apart. Soon after, they reached the house of Benjamin Moore, where the family offered food and drink to Washington. At this point, the first signs of daylight began to appear. Many of the troops did not have boots, so they were forced to wear rags around their feet. Some of the men's feet bled, turning the snow to a dark red. Two men died on the trip. \n\nAs they marched, Washington rode up and down the line, encouraging the men to continue. General Sullivan sent a courier to tell Washington that the weather was wetting his men's gunpowder. Washington responded, \"Tell General Sullivan to use the bayonet. I am resolved to take Trenton.\" \n\nAbout 2 mi outside the town, the main columns reunited with the advance parties. They were startled by the sudden appearance of 50 armed men, but they were American. Led by Adam Stephen, they had not known about the plan to attack Trenton, and had attacked a Hessian outpost. Washington feared the Hessians would have been put on guard, and shouted at Stephen, \"You sir! You Sir, may have ruined all my plans by having them put on their guard.\" Despite this, Washington ordered the advance continue to Trenton. In the event, Rall thought the first raid was the attack which Grant had warned him about, and that there would be no further action that day. \n\nBattle \n\nAmerican attack\n\nAt 8 am, the outpost was set up by the Hessians at a cooper shop on Pennington Road about one mile north-west of Trenton. Washington led the assault, riding in front of his soldiers. As the Hessian commander of the outpost, Lieutenant Andreas Wiederholdt, left the shop, an American fired at him but missed. Wiederholdt shouted, \"Der Feind!\" (The Enemy!) and other Hessians came out. The Americans fired three volleys and the Hessians returned one of their own. Washington ordered Edward Hand's Pennsylvania Riflemen and a battalion of German-speaking infantry to block the road that led to Princeton. They attacked the Hessian outpost there. Wiederholdt soon realized that this was more than a raiding party; seeing other Hessians retreating from the outpost, he led his men to do the same. Both Hessian detachments made organized retreats, firing as they fell back. On the high ground at the north end of Trenton, they were joined by a duty company from the Lossberg Regiment. They engaged the Americans, retreating slowly, keeping up continuous fire and using houses for cover. Once in Trenton, they gained covering fire from other Hessian guard companies on the outskirts of the town. Another guard company nearer to the Delaware River rushed east to their aid, leaving open the River Road into Trenton. Washington ordered the escape route to Princeton be cut off, sending infantry in battle formation to block it, while artillery formed at the head of King and Queen streets. \n\nLeading the southern American column, General Sullivan entered Trenton by the abandoned river road and blocked the only crossing over the Assunpink Creek to cut off the Hessian escape. Sullivan briefly held up his advance to make sure Greene's division had time to drive the Hessians from their outposts in the north. Soon after, they continued their advance, attacking the Hermitage, home of Philemon Dickinson, where 50 Jägers under the command of Lieutenant von Grothausen were stationed. Lieutenant von Grothausen brought 12 of his Jägers into action against the advanced guard, but had only advanced a few hundred yards when he saw a column of Americans advancing to the Hermitage. Pulling back to the Hessian barracks, he was joined by the rest of the Jägers. After the exchange of one volley, they turned and ran, some trying to swim across the creek, while others escaped over the bridge, which had not yet been cut off. The 20 British Dragoons also fled. As Greene and Sullivan's columns pushed into the town, Washington moved to high ground north of King and Queens streets to see the action and direct his troops. By this time, American artillery from the other side of the Delaware River came into action, devastating the Hessian positions. \n\nWith the sounding alarm, the three Hessian regiments began to prepare for battle. The Rall regiment formed on lower King Street along with the Lossberg Regiment, while the Knyphausen Regiment formed at the lower end of Queen Street. Lieutenant Piel, Rall's brigade adjutant, woke his commander, who found that the rebels had taken the \"V\" of the main streets of the town. This is where the engineers had recommended building a redoubt. Rall ordered his regiment to form up at the lower end of King Street, the Lossberg regiment to prepare for an advance up Queen Street, and the Knyphausen regiment to stand by as a reserve for Rall's advance up King Street.\n\nThe American cannon stationed at the head of the two main streets soon came into action. In reply, Rall directed his regiment, supported by a few companies of the Lossberg regiment, to clear the guns. The Hessians formed ranks and began to advance up the street, but their formations were quickly broken by the American guns and fire from Mercer's men who had taken houses on the left side of the street. Breaking ranks, the Hessians fled. Rall ordered two three-pound cannon into action. After getting off six rounds each, within just a few minutes, half of the Hessians manning their guns were killed by the American cannon. After the men fled to cover behind houses and fences, their cannon were taken by the Americans. Following capture of the cannon, men under the command of George Weedon advanced down King Street.\n\nOn Queen Street, all Hessian attempts to advance up the street were repulsed by guns under the command of Thomas Forrest. After firing four rounds each, two more Hessian guns were silenced. One of Forrest's Howitzers was put out of action with a broken axle. The Knyphausen Regiment became separated from the Lossberg and the Rall regiments. The Lossberg and the Rall fell back to a field outside town, taking heavy losses from grapeshot and musket fire. In the southern part of the town, Americans under command of Sullivan began to overwhelm the Hessians. John Stark led a bayonet charge at the Knyphausen regiment, whose resistance broke because their weapons would not fire. Sullivan led a column of men to block off escape of troops across the creek.\n\nHessian resistance collapses\n\nThe Hessians in the field attempted to reorganize, and make one last attempt to retake the town so they could make a breakout. Rall decided to attack the American flank on the heights north of the town. Rall yelled \"Forward! Advance! Advance!\", and the Hessians began to move, with the brigade's band playing fifes, bugles and drums to help the Hessians' spirit. \n\nWashington, still on high ground, saw the Hessians approaching the American flank. He moved his troops to assume battle formation against the enemy. The two Hessian Regiments began marching toward King Street, but were caught in American fire that came at them from three directions. Some Americans had taken up defensive positions inside houses, reducing their exposure. Some civilians joined the fight against the Hessians. Despite this, they continued to push, recapturing their cannon. At the head of King Street, Knox saw the Hessians had retaken the cannon and ordered his troops to take them. Six men ran and, after a brief struggle, seized the cannon, turning them on the Hessians. With most of the Hessians unable to fire their guns, the attack stalled. The Hessians' formations broke, and they began to scatter. Rall was mortally wounded. Washington led his troops down from high ground while yelling, \"March on, my brave fellows, after me!\" Most of the Hessians retreated into an orchard, with the Americans in close pursuit. Quickly surrounded, the Hessians were offered terms of surrender, to which they agreed.\n\nAlthough ordered to join Rall, the remains of the Knyphausen Regiment mistakenly marched in the opposite direction. They tried to escape across the bridge, but found it had been taken. The Americans quickly swept in, defeating a Hessian attempt to break through their lines. Surrounded by Sullivan's men, the regiment surrendered, just minutes after the rest of the brigade. \n\nCasualties and Capture\n\nThe Hessian forces lost 22 killed in action, 83 wounded, and 896 captured. The Americans suffered only two deaths from bare feet causing frostbite and five wounded from battle, including a near-fatal wound to future president James Monroe. Other losses incurred by the Patriots due to exhaustion, exposure, and illness in the following days may have raised their losses above those of the Hessians. \n\nThe captured Hessians were sent to Philadelphia and later Lancaster. In 1777 they were moved to Virginia. Rall was mortally wounded and died later that day at his headquarters. All four Hessian colonels in Trenton were killed in the battle. The Lossberg regiment was effectively removed from the British forces. Parts of the Knyphausen regiment escaped to the south, but Sullivan captured some 200 additional men, along with the regiment's cannon and supplies. They also captured approximately 1,000 arms and much-needed ammunition. Last, but not least, was the capture from the Hessians their entire store of provisions—tons of flour, dried and salted meats, ale and other liquors, but also shoes, boots, clothing and bedding—things that were as much needed by the ragtag Continental forces as weapons and horses.\n\nHessians drinking\n\nAn officer in Washington's staff wrote before the battle, \"They make a great deal of Christmas in Germany, and no doubt the Hessians will drink a great deal of beer and have a dance to-night. They will be sleepy to-morrow morning.\" Popular history commonly portrays the Hessians as drunk from Christmas celebrations. However, historian David Hackett Fischer quotes Patriot John Greenwood, who fought in the battle and supervised Hessians afterward, who wrote, \"I am certain not a drop of liquor was drunk during the whole night, nor, as I could see, even a piece of bread eaten.\" Military historian Edward G. Lengel wrote, \"The Germans were dazed and tired but there is no truth to the legend claiming that they were helplessly drunk.\" \n\nAfter effect\n\nAfter the Hessians' surrender, Washington is reported to have shook the hand of a young officer and said, \"This is a glorious day for our country.\" On December 28. General Washington interviewed Lieutenant (later Colonel) Andreas Wiederhold, who detailed the failures of Ralle's preparation. Washington soon learned however that Cadwalader and Ewing had been unable to complete their crossing, leaving his worn-out army of 2,400 men isolated. Without their 2,600 men, Washington realized he did not have the forces to attack Princeton and New Brunswick.\n\nThis small but decisive battle, as with the later Battle of Cowpens, had an effect disproportionate to its size. The colonial effort was galvanized, and the Americans overturned the psychological dominance achieved by the British Government troops in the previous months. Howe was stunned that the Patriots so easily surprised and overwhelmed the Hessian garrison. On the contrary, Fischer argues that the changing attitudes were buoyed more by writings of Thomas Paine and additional successful actions by the New Jersey Militia than they were by the Battle of Trenton. \n\nAftermath and legacy\n\nBy noon, Washington's force had moved across the Delaware back into Pennsylvania, taking their prisoners and captured supplies with them. This battle gave the Continental Congress a new confidence, as it proved colonial forces could defeat regulars. It also increased re-enlistments in the Continental Army forces. By defeating a European army, the colonials reduced the fear which the Hessians had caused earlier that year after the fighting in New York.\n\nTwo notable American officers were wounded: William Washington, cousin of the General, and Lieutenant James Monroe, the future President of the United States. Monroe was carried from the field bleeding badly after he was struck in the left shoulder by a musket ball, which severed an artery. Doctor John Riker clamped the artery, preventing him from bleeding to death.\n\nThe hours before the battle served as the inspiration for the painting Washington Crossing the Delaware by German American artist Emanuel Leutze. The image in the painting, in which Washington stands majestic in his boat as it crosses the Delaware River, is generally believed to be more symbolic than historically accurate. The waters of the river were icy and treacherous, and the flag Monroe holds was not created until six months after the battle. In addition, contrary to the painting, the crossing occurred before dawn. On the other hand, Fischer argues that because the crossing took place in a storm, people may have stood to avoid sitting in icy water in the boats. Because of its emotional content, the painting has become an icon of American history.\n\nThe Trenton Battle Monument, erected at \"Five Points\" in Trenton, stands as a tribute to this American victory. The crossing of the Delaware and battle are reenacted by local enthusiasts every year (unless the weather is too severe on the river).\n\nEight current Army National Guard units (101st Eng Bn, 103rd Eng Bn, A/1-104th Cav, 111th Inf, 125th QM Co, 175th Inf, 181st Inf and 198th Sig Bn ) and one currently-active Regular Army Artillery battalion (1–5th FA ) are derived from American units that participated in the Battle of Trenton. There are only thirty current units of the U.S. Army with colonial roots.", "George Washington's crossing of the Delaware River, which occurred on the night of December 25–26, 1776, during the American Revolutionary War, was the first move in a surprise attack organized by George Washington against the Hessian forces in Trenton, New Jersey on the morning of December 26. Planned in partial secrecy, Washington led a column of Continental Army troops across the icy Delaware River in a logistically challenging and dangerous operation. Other planned crossings in support of the operation were either called off or ineffective, but this did not prevent Washington from surprising and defeating the troops of Johann Rall quartered in Trenton. The army crossed the river back to Pennsylvania, this time laden with prisoners and military stores taken as a result of the battle.\n\nWashington's army then crossed the river a third time at the end of the year, under conditions made more difficult by the uncertain thickness of the ice on the river. They defeated British reinforcements under Lord Cornwallis at Trenton on January 2, 1777, and defeated his rear guard at Princeton on January 3, before retreating to winter quarters in Morristown, New Jersey.\n\nThe unincorporated communities of Washington Crossing, Pennsylvania and Washington Crossing, New Jersey are named in honor of this event.\n\nBackground\n\nWhile 1776 had started well for the American cause with the evacuation of British troops from Boston in March, the defense of New York City had gone quite poorly. British General William Howe had landed troops on Long Island in August and had pushed George Washington's Continental Army completely out of New York by mid-November, when he captured the remaining troops on Manhattan. The main British troops returned to New York for the winter season. They left mainly Hessian troops in New Jersey. These troops were under the command of Col. Rall and Col. Von Donop. They were ordered to small outposts in and around Trenton. Howe then sent troops under the command of Charles Cornwallis across the Hudson River into New Jersey and chased Washington across New Jersey. Washington's army was shrinking, due to expiring enlistments and desertions, and suffered from poor morale, due to the defeats in the New York area. Most of Washington's army crossed the Delaware River into Pennsylvania north of Trenton, New Jersey, and destroyed or moved to the western shore all boats for miles in both directions. Cornwallis (under Howe's command), rather than attempting to immediately chase Washington further, established a chain of outposts from New Brunswick to Burlington, including one at Bordentown and one at Trenton, and ordered his troops into winter quarters. The British were happy to end the campaign season when they were ordered to winter quarters. This was a time for the generals to regroup, re-supply, and strategize for the upcoming campaign season the following spring.\n\nWashington's army\n\nWashington encamped the army near McKonkey's Ferry, not far from the crossing site. While Washington at first took quarters across the river from Trenton, he moved his headquarters on December 15 to the home of William Keith so he could remain closer to his forces. When Washington's army first arrived at McKonkey's Ferry, he had four to six thousand men, although 1,700 soldiers were unfit for duty and needed hospital care. In the retreat across New Jersey Washington had lost precious supplies, as well as losing contact with two important divisions of his army. General Horatio Gates was in the Hudson River Valley and General Charles Lee was in western New Jersey with 2,000 men. Washington had ordered both generals to join him, but Gates was delayed by heavy snows en route, and Lee, who did not have a high opinion of Washington, delayed following repeated orders, preferring to remain on the British flank near Morristown, New Jersey.\n\nOther problems affected the quantity and quality of his forces. Many of his men's enlistments were due to expire before Christmas, and many soldiers were inclined to leave the army when their commission ended. Several deserted before their enlistments were up. The pending loss of forces, the series of lost battles, the loss of New York, the flight of the Army along with many New Yorkers and the Second Continental Congress to Philadelphia, left many in doubt about the prospects of winning the war. But Washington persisted. He successfully procured supplies and dispatched men to recruit new members of the militia, which was successful in part due to British and Hessian mistreatment of New Jersey and Pennsylvania residents.\n\nThe losses at Fort Lee and Washington placed a heavy toll on the Patriots. When they evacuated their forts, they were forced to leave behind critical supplies and munitions. Many troops had been killed or taken prisoner, and the morale of the remaining troops was low. Few believed that they could win the war and gain independence.\n\nPublication of The American Crisis\n\nBut the morale of the Patriot forces was boosted on December 19 when a new pamphlet titled The American Crisis written by Thomas Paine, the author of Common Sense, was published.\n\nWithin a day of its publication in Philadelphia, General Washington ordered it to be read to all of his troops. It encouraged the soldiers and improved their tolerance of their difficult conditions.\n\nReinforcements arrive \n\nOn December 20. General Lee's division of 2,000 troops arrived in Washington's camp under the command of General John Sullivan. General Lee had been captured by the British on December 12, when he ventured too far outside the protection of his troops in search of more comfortable lodgings (or, according to rumors, a possible assignation). Later that same day General Gates' division arrived in camp, reduced to 600 whose enlistments had ended, and by the need to keep the northern frontier secure. Soon after, another 1,000 militia men from Philadelphia under Colonel John Cadwalader joined Washington.\n\nThese reinforcements and smaller numbers of local volunteers who joined his forces, Washington's forces now totaled about 6,000 troops fit for duty. But this total was reduced by a large portion of these forces who were detailed to guard the ferries at Bristol and New Hope, Pennsylvania. Another group was sent to protect supplies at Newtown, Pennsylvania and to guard the sick and wounded who had to remain behind when the army crossed the Delaware River. This left Washington with about 2,400 men able to take offensive action against the Hessian and British troops in Central New Jersey.\n\nThis improvement in morale was aided by the arrival of some provisions, including much-needed blankets, on December 24.\n\nPlanning the attack\n\nGeneral Washington had been considering some sort of bold move since arriving in Pennsylvania. With the arrival of Sullivan's and Gates' forces and the influx of militia companies, he felt the time was finally right for some sort of action. He first considered an attack on the southernmost British positions near Mount Holly, where a militia force had gathered. He sent his adjutant, Joseph Reed, to meet with Samuel Griffin, the militia commander. Reed arrived in Mount Holly on December 22, found Griffin to be ill, and his men in relatively poor condition, but willing to make some sort of diversion. (This they did with the Battle of Iron Works Hill the next day, drawing the Hessians at Bordentown far enough south that they would be unable to come to the assistance of the Trenton garrison.) The intelligence gathered by Reed and others led Washington to abandon the idea of attacking at Mount Holly, preferring instead to target the Trenton garrison. He announced this decision to his staff on December 23, saying the attack would take place just before daybreak on December 26.\n\nWashington's final plan was for three crossings, with his troops, the largest contingent, to lead the attack on Trenton. A second column under Lieutenant Colonel John Cadwalader was to cross at Dunk's Ferry, near Bristol, Pennsylvania, and create a diversion to the south. A third column under Brigadier General James Ewing was to cross at Trenton Ferry and hold the bridge across the Assunpink Creek, just south of Trenton, in order to prevent the enemy's escape by that route. Once Trenton was secure, the combined army would move against the British posts in Princeton and New Brunswick. A fourth crossing, by men provided by General Israel Putnam to assist Cadwalader, was dropped after Putnam indicated he did not have enough men fit for the operation.\n\nPreparations for the attack began on December 23. On December 24 the boats used to bring the army across the Delaware from New Jersey were brought down from Malta Island near New Hope and hidden behind Taylor Island at McKonkey's Ferry, Washington's planned crossing site, and security was tightened there. A final planning meeting took place that day, with all of the general officers present. General orders were issued by Washington on December 25 outlining plans for the operation.\n\nWatercraft\n\nA wide variety of watercraft were assembled for the crossing, primarily through the work of militia men from the surrounding counties in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, and the assistance of the Pennsylvania Navy. \n\nCaptain Daniel Bray, along with Captain Jacob Gearhart and Captain Jacob Ten Eyck, were chosen by General George Washington to take charge of the boats used in the crossing, supervising the transport of infantry, cavalry, cannon, and howitzers.\nIn addition to the large ferry vessels (which were big enough to carry large coaches, and likely served for carrying horses and artillery during the crossing), a large number of Durham boats were used to transport soldiers across the river. These boats were designed to carry heavy loads from the Durham Iron Works, featured high sides and a shallow draft, and could be poled across the river.\n\nThe boats were operated by experienced watermen. Most prominent among them were the men of John Glover's Marblehead Regiment, a company of experienced seamen from Marblehead, Massachusetts. These men were joined by seamen, dockworkers, and shipbuilders from Philadelphia, as well as local ferry operators and boatsmen who knew the river well.\n\nCrossing\n\nOn the morning of December 25, Washington ordered his army to prepare three days' food, and issued orders that every soldier be outfitted with fresh flints for their muskets. He was also somewhat worried by intelligence reports that the British were planning their own crossing once the Delaware was frozen over. At 4 pm Washington's army turned out for its evening parade, where the troops were issued ammunition, and even the officers and musicians were ordered to carry muskets. They were told that they were departing on a secret mission. Marching eight abreast in close formations, and ordered to be as quiet as possible, they left the camp for McKonkey's Ferry. Washington's plan required the crossing to begin as soon as it was dark enough to conceal their movements on the river, but most of the troops did not reach the crossing point until about 6 pm, about ninety minutes after sunset. The weather got progressively worse, turning from drizzle to rain to sleet and snow. \"It blew a hurricane,\" recalled one soldier.\n\nWashington had given charge of the crossing logistics to his chief of artillery, the portly Henry Knox. In addition to the crossing of large numbers of troops (most of whom could not swim), he had to safely transport eighteen pieces of artillery and the horses to move them over the river. Knox wrote that the crossing was accomplished \"with almost infinite difficulty\", and that its most significant danger was \"floating ice in the river\". One observer noted that the whole operation might well have failed \"but for the stentorian lungs of Colonel Knox\".\n\nWashington was among the first of the troops to cross, going with Virginia troops led by General Adam Stephen. These troops formed a sentry line around the landing area in New Jersey, with strict instructions that no one was to pass through. The password was \"Victory or Death\". The rest of the army crossed without significant incident, although a few men, including Delaware's Colonel John Haslet, fell into the water.\n\nThe amount of ice on the river prevented the artillery from finishing the crossing until 3 am on December 26. The troops were not ready to march until 4 am. \n\nThe two other crossings fared less well. The treacherous weather and ice jams on the river stopped General Ewing from even attempting a crossing below Trenton. Colonel Cadwalader crossed a significant portion of his men to New Jersey, but when he found that he could not get his artillery across the river he recalled his men from New Jersey. When he received word about Washington's victory, he crossed his men over again but retreated when he found out that Washington had not stayed in New Jersey.\n\nAttack\n\nOn the morning of December 26, as soon as the army was ready, Washington ordered it split into two columns, one under the command of himself and General Greene, the second under General Sullivan. The Sullivan column would take River Road from Bear Tavern to Trenton while Washington's column would follow Pennington Road, a parallel route that lay a few miles inland from the river. Only three Americans were killed and six wounded, while 22 Hessians were killed with 98 wounded. The Americans captured 1,000 prisoners and seized muskets, powder, and artillery.\n\nReturn to Pennsylvania\n\nFollowing the battle, Washington had to execute a second crossing that was in some ways more difficult than the first. In the aftermath of the battle, the Hessian supplies had been plundered, and, in spite of Washington's explicit orders for its destruction, casks of captured rum were opened, so some of the celebrating troops got drunk, probably contributing to the larger number of troops that had to be pulled from the icy waters on the return crossing. They also had to transport the large numbers of prisoners across the river while keeping them under guard. One American acting as a guard on one of the crossings observed that the Hessians, who were standing in knee-deep ice water, were \"so cold that their underjaws quivered like an aspen leaf.\"\n\nThe victory had a marked effect on the troops' morale. Soldiers celebrated the victory, Washington's role as a leader was secured, and Congress gained renewed enthusiasm for the war.\n\nThird crossing\n\nIn a war council on December 27, Washington learned that all of the British and Hessian forces had withdrawn as far north as Princeton, something Cadwalader had learned when his militia company crossed the river that morning. In his letter Cadwalader proposed that the British could be driven entirely from the area, magnifying the victory. After much debate, the council decided on action, and planned a third crossing for December 29. On December 28 it snowed, but the weather cleared that night and it became bitter cold. As this effort involved most of the army, eight crossing points were used. At some of them the ice had frozen two to three inches (4 to 7 cm) thick, and was capable of supporting soldiers, who crossed the ice on foot. At other crossings the conditions were so bad that the attempts were abandoned for the day. It was New Years Eve before the army and all of its baggage was back in New Jersey. This was somewhat fortunate, as the enlistment period of John Glover's regiment (along with a significant number of others) was expiring at the end of the year, and many of these men, including most of Glover's, wanted to go home, where a lucrative privateering trade awaited them. Only by offering a bounty to be paid immediately from Congressional coffers in Philadelphia did a significant number of men agree to stay with the army another six weeks.\n\nWashington then adopted a fortified position just south of the Assunpink Creek, across the creek from Trenton. In this position he beat back one assault on January 2, 1777, which he followed up with a decisive victory at Princeton the next day. In the following days, the British withdrew to New Brunswick, and the Continental Army entered winter quarters in Morristown, New Jersey.\n\nLegacy\n\nAt the time of the crossing, Washington's army included a significant number of people who played important roles in the formation and early days of the United States of America. These included future President James Monroe, future Chief Justice of the United States John Marshall, Alexander Hamilton (a future Secretary of the Treasury), and Arthur St. Clair, who later served as President of the Continental Congress and Governor of the Northwest Territory.Fischer (2006), pp. 222, 223, 339Bennett (2006), p. 89\n\nBoth sides of the Delaware River where the crossing took place have been preserved, in an area designated as the Washington's Crossing National Historic Landmark. In this district, Washington Crossing Historic Park in Washington Crossing, Pennsylvania, preserves the area in Pennsylvania, and Washington Crossing State Park marks the New Jersey side. The two areas are connected by the Washington Crossing Bridge. \n\nIn 1851 the artist Emmanuel Leutze created the painting called Washington Crossing the Delaware (pictured above), an idealized and historically inaccurate portrayal of the crossing. Fictional portrayals in film of the crossing have also been made, with perhaps the most notable recent one being The Crossing, a 2000 television movie starring Jeff Daniels as George Washington. \n\nThe 19th episode of the PBS miniseries Liberty's Kids, entitled \"Across The Delaware\", chronicles the crossing, beginning with the report and escape of Washington's spy John Honeyman, and showing events up to the reenlistment of most of the Army after their supplies are restored, and a footnote is made by character Sarah Phillips of Washington's follow-up attack, where the army delayed its retreat to capture the now ill-defended British garrison at Princeton, New Jersey. The episode makes one minor historical error: footage of the Hessians' Christmas celebration depicts soldiers dancing to \"Silent Night\", at least forty years before the carol was written. \n\nA direct reference to the crossing was used in an episode of the \"I Love Lucy\" TV series. In episode 32, \"Lucy gets Ricky on the Radio\" (19 May 1952), they are on a radio quiz show. Up to the last question (the $500 Bonus Question), Lucy has wrongly answered every question and Ricky can't believe it and isn't feeling well. Right after the bonus question -- \"What did George Washington say while crossing the Delaware?\" -- is asked, Ricky says, more as an aside, \"Please let me sit down. This is making me sick.\" The quiz host hears this and accepts it as the correct answer. Lucy and Ricky win the bonus question and the money." ] }

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{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe", "Search" ], "filename": [ "It's_a_Wonderful_Life.txt", "George_Bailey_(It's_a_Wonderful_Life).txt" ], "title": [ "It's a Wonderful Life", "George Bailey (It's a Wonderful Life)" ], "wiki_context": [ "It's a Wonderful Life is a 1946 American Christmas fantasy drama film produced and directed by Frank Capra, based on the short story \"The Greatest Gift\", which Philip Van Doren Stern wrote in 1939 and published privately in 1945. The film is now among the most popular in American cinema and because of numerous television showings in the 1980s has become traditional viewing during the Christmas season.\n\nThe film stars James Stewart as George Bailey, a man who has given up his dreams in order to help others, and whose imminent suicide on Christmas Eve brings about the intervention of his guardian angel, Clarence Odbody (Henry Travers). Clarence shows George all the lives he has touched and how different life in his community of Bedford Falls would be had he never been born.\n\nDespite initially performing poorly financially because of high production costs and stiff competition at the time of its release, the film has come to be regarded as a classic. Theatrically, the film's break-even point was $6.3 million, approximately twice the production cost, a figure it never came close to achieving in its initial release. An appraisal in 2006 reported: \"Although it was not the complete box office failure that today everyone believes ... it was initially a major disappointment and confirmed, at least to the studios, that Capra was no longer capable of turning out the populist features that made his films the must-see, money-making events they once were.\" \n\nIt's a Wonderful Life is one of the most acclaimed films ever made, praised particularly for its writing. It was nominated for five Academy Awards including Best Picture and has been recognized by the American Film Institute as one of the 100 best American films ever made, placing number 11 on its initial 1998 greatest movie list, and number one on AFI's list of the most inspirational American films of all time. Capra revealed that the film was his personal favorite among those he directed, adding that he screened it for his family every Christmas season. \n\nPlot\n\nIn Bedford Falls, New York, on Christmas Eve 1945, George Bailey is suicidal. Prayers for him reach Heaven, where Clarence Odbody, Angel 2nd Class, is assigned to save George in order to earn his angel wings. To prepare Clarence, his superior Joseph shows flashbacks of George's life.\n\nIn 1919, 12-year-old George saves his younger brother Harry, who falls through the ice on a frozen pond, from drowning: this heroic act results in George losing his hearing in one ear. One day while working after school at the local drug store, he catches a deadly mistake made by his boss Mr. Gower, who had gotten himself drunk after news of the death of his son in the flu epidemic and accidentally poisoned a prescription.\n\nOn Harry's graduation night in 1928, George (James Stewart) discusses his dreams of travel and building things with Mary Hatch (Donna Reed), who has had a crush on him from an early age. After the sudden death of his father, George postpones his plans in order to sort out the affairs of the family business, Bailey Brothers' Building and Loan, a longtime adversary to Henry F. Potter, a greedy banker who is the richest man in town. Potter wishes to dissolve the Building and Loan, which has been preventing him from controlling the entire town. George convinces the board of directors to vote against Potter, which they will do under the condition that George succeed his father, running the business along with his absent-minded uncle William \"Billy\" (Thomas Mitchell). He gives his college money to Harry, under the agreement that George will attend college after Harry graduates, whereupon Harry will assume the presidency of the Bailey Building & Loan.\n\nWhen Harry graduates, he brings home a wife, whose father has offered Harry a job. Although Harry vows to decline the offer for the sake of their earlier agreement, George cannot deny him such a great opportunity and keeps running the Building and Loan. George and Mary get married and plan a dream honeymoon, having saved up enough money, but on the way out of town witness a run on the bank and use the money to lend financial support until the bank reopens.\n\nGeorge builds Bailey Park, which offers houses affordable to lower-middle income families who would otherwise have to live in Potter's overpriced apartments. Mary and George welcome the Martinis, a family of Italian immigrants who just bought of one the houses, and have a traditional blessing ceremony. Potter, frustrated at losing control of the housing market, attempts to lure George into becoming his assistant with a huge salary and the prospect of business trips to Europe, appealing to his yearning to travel. George is tempted, but rejects the offer.\n\nDuring World War II, George is ineligible for service because of his bad ear, and instead leads a recycling campaign to collect metal and rubber for the war effort. Harry, however, becomes a Navy flier and is awarded the Medal of Honor, having intercepted a kamikaze that would have bombed an amphibious transport. On Christmas Eve morning 1945, the town prepares a hero's welcome for Harry. Uncle Billy goes to Potter's bank to deposit $8,000 for the Building and Loan. After bragging to Potter about Harry, Potter angrily grabs the newspaper from Billy along with the $8,000. Realizing the potential scandal would lead to the Building and Loan's downfall, Potter secretly hides the money.\n\nWhen Uncle Billy cannot find the money, he and George frantically search for it. When the bank examiner arrives to review their records, Uncle Billy panics. George berates his uncle for endangering the Building and Loan, goes home and takes out his frustration on his family. He apologizes to his frightened wife and children, then leaves.\n\nDesperate, George appeals to Potter for a loan. When George claims a life insurance policy as collateral, Potter mockingly says George is worth \"more dead than alive\". George gets drunk at a local bar, and gets in a fight with the husband of one of his children's teachers (on whom George had unleashed a phone tirade earlier). Mr. Martini, the owner of the bar, ejects George's attacker, but cannot catch up to George, who has driven away and crashes his car into a big tree. He staggers to a nearby bridge to commit suicide. Unbeknownst to him, Clarence has been watching him from the shadows.\n\nBefore he can jump, Clarence jumps in the river and pretends to be drowning. George rescues him, but does not believe Clarence's claim to be George's guardian angel. When George wishes he had never been born, Clarence grants his unintentional wish, creating an alternate universe in which George never existed: Bedford Falls is now named Pottersville and is filled with cocktail bars, casinos, and gentlemen's clubs; Mr. Gower has recently been released from prison for manslaughter, having put the poison in the pills because George was not there to catch his mistake; The Building and Loan is defunct, as George never took over after Mr. Bailey's passing. George's friends Ernie, a cab driver, Burt, a policeman, and Nick, a bartender, exist in this reality, but are darker individuals than the good friends he knew, suggesting George was a positive force in their lives.\n\nGeorge runs to see his own mother, who does not recognize him. She reveals that Uncle Billy was institutionalized after the collapse of the Building and Loan. In the cemetery where Bailey Park would have been, George discovers the grave of his brother. Clarence says the soldiers on the transport all died, as Harry was never there to save them, as George had never saved Harry from drowning. Clarence then explains how George single-handedly prevented this dire fate. He, and he alone, kept Potter in check, preventing the town from descending into squalor and vice. Mary never married, and became the local librarian. When George claims he is her husband, she considers him a stalker and screams for the police, causing George to flee and Burt to give chase.\n\nGeorge runs back to the bridge and begs for his life back. His prayer is answered, as Burt catches up to him, but only to say he was glad he found George as everyone was worried about him. George runs through the town joyously, wishing everyone he sees a merry Christmas, and is fine with his forthcoming arrest when he comes home. Mary and Uncle Billy arrive, having rallied the townspeople, who donate more than enough to cover the deficit and for Potter's warrant to be torn up. Harry arrives and toasts George, calling him \"the richest man in town.\" A bell on the Christmas tree rings, and his daughter recalls the story that it means an angel has just earned his wings. George then sees a copy of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer signed by Clarence, who reminds him that \"No man is a failure who has friends\".\n\nCast\n\nThe contention that James Stewart is often referred to as Capra's only choice to play George Bailey is disputed by film historian Stephen Cox, who claims that \"Henry Fonda was in the running.\" \n\nAlthough it was stated that Jean Arthur, Ann Dvorak, and Ginger Rogers were all considered for the role of Mary before Donna Reed won the part, this list is also disputed by Cox, who states that Jean Arthur was first offered the part, but had to turn it down for a prior commitment to star in the Broadway play Born Yesterday, before Capra turned to Olivia de Havilland, Martha Scott, Laraine Day, and Dvorak. Rogers was offered the female lead, but she considered it \"too bland\". In chapter 26 of her autobiography, Ginger: My Story, she questioned her decision by asking her readers: \"Foolish, you say?\"\n\nA long list of actors were considered for the role of Potter (originally named Herbert Potter): Edward Arnold, Charles Bickford, Edgar Buchanan, Louis Calhern, Victor Jory, Raymond Massey, Vincent Price, and even Thomas Mitchell. However, Lionel Barrymore, who eventually won the role, was a famous Ebenezer Scrooge in radio dramatizations of A Christmas Carol at the time and was a natural choice for the role. Barrymore had also worked with Capra on his 1938 Best Picture Oscar winner, You Can't Take It with You.\n\nH.B. Warner, who was cast as the drugstore owner Mr. Gower, actually studied medicine before going into acting. He was also in some of Capra's other films, including Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, Lost Horizon, You Can't Take It with You, and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. The name Gower came from Capra's employer, Columbia Pictures, which had been located on Gower Street for many years. Also on Gower Street was a drugstore that was a favorite for the studio's employees. James Stewart says in the film that he wants to build skyscrapers; he had studied and graduated in architecture before his acting career.\n\nJimmy the raven (Uncle Billy's pet) appeared in You Can't Take It with You and each subsequent Capra film. \n\nProduction\n\nBackground\n\nThe original story \"The Greatest Gift\" was written by Philip Van Doren Stern in November 1939. After being unsuccessful in getting the story published, he decided to make it into a Christmas card, and mailed 200 copies to family and friends in December 1943. The story came to the attention of RKO producer David Hempstead, who showed it to Cary Grant's Hollywood agent, and in April 1944, RKO Pictures bought the rights to the story for $10,000, hoping to turn the story into a vehicle for Grant. RKO created three unsatisfactory scripts before shelving the planned movie, and Grant went on to make another Christmas movie staple, The Bishop's Wife. \n\nAt the suggestion of RKO studio chief Charles Koerner, Frank Capra read \"The Greatest Gift\" and immediately saw its potential. RKO, anxious to unload the project, in 1945 sold the rights to Capra's production company, Liberty Films, which had a nine-film distribution agreement with RKO, for $10,000, and threw in the three scripts for free. Capra, along with writers Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett, with Jo Swerling, Michael Wilson, and Dorothy Parker brought in to \"polish\" the script, turned the story and what was worth using from the three scripts into a screenplay that Capra would rename It's a Wonderful Life. The script underwent many revisions throughout pre-production and during filming. Final screenplay credit went to Goodrich, Hackett and Capra, with \"additional scenes\" by Jo Swerling.\n\nSeneca Falls, New York claims that when Frank Capra visited their town in 1945, he was inspired to model Bedford Falls after it. The town has an annual It's a Wonderful Life festival in December. In mid-2009, The Hotel Clarence opened in Seneca Falls, named for George Bailey's guardian angel. On December 10, 2010, the \"It's a Wonderful Life\" Museum opened in Seneca Falls, with Karolyn Grimes, who played Zuzu in the movie, cutting the ribbon. \n\nBoth James Stewart (from Indiana, Pennsylvania) and Donna Reed (from Denison, Iowa) came from small towns. Stewart's father ran a small hardware store where James worked for years. Reed demonstrated her rural roots by winning an impromptu bet with Lionel Barrymore when he challenged her to milk a cow on set. \n\nFilming\n\nIt's a Wonderful Life was shot at RKO Radio Pictures Studio in Culver City, California, and the 89-acre RKO movie ranch in Encino, where \"Bedford Falls\" consisted of Art Director Max Ree's Oscar-winning sets originally designed for the 1931 epic film Cimarron that covered 4 acres (1.6 ha), assembled from three separate parts, with a main street stretching 300 yards (three city blocks), with 75 stores and buildings, and a residential neighborhood. For It's a Wonderful Life Capra built a working bank set, added a tree-lined center parkway, and planted 20 full-grown oak trees on existing sets. \n\nPigeons, cats, and dogs were allowed to roam the mammoth set in order to give the \"town\" a lived-in feel. Due to the requirement to film in an \"alternate universe\" setting as well as during different seasons, the set was extremely adaptable. RKO created \"chemical snow\" for the film in order to avoid the need for dubbed dialogue when actors walked across the earlier type of movie snow, made up of crushed cornflakes. Filming started on April 15, 1946 and ended on July 27, 1946, exactly on deadline for the 90-day principal photography schedule.\n\nRKO's movie ranch in Encino, a filming location of \"Bedford Falls\", was razed in 1954. There are only two surviving locations from the film. The first is the swimming pool that was unveiled during the famous dance scene where George courts Mary. It is located in the gymnasium at Beverly Hills High School and is still in operation as of 2014. The second is the \"Martini home\", in La Cañada Flintridge, California. \n\nDuring filming, in the scene where Uncle Billy gets drunk at Harry and Ruth's welcome home/newlyweds' party, George points him in the right direction home. As the camera focuses on George, smiling at his uncle staggering away, a crash is heard in the distance and Uncle Billy yells, \"I'm all right! I'm all right!\" Equipment on the set had actually been accidentally knocked over; Capra left in Thomas Mitchell's impromptu ad lib (although the \"crashing\" noise was augmented with added sound effects).\n\nDimitri Tiomkin had written \"Death Telegram\" and \"Gower's Deliverance\" for the drugstore scenes, but in the editing room, Capra elected to go with no music for those scenes. Those changes, along with others, led to a falling out between Tiomkin and Capra. Tiomkin had worked on several of Capra's previous films, and was saddened that Capra decided to have the music pared or toned down, moved, or cut entirely. He felt as though his work was being seen as a mere suggestion. In his autobiography Please Don't Hate Me, he said of the incident, \"an all around scissors job\". \n\nThe products and advertisements featured in Mr. Gower's drugstore include Coca-Cola, Peterson tobacco pipes, La Unica cigars, Camel cigarettes, Lucky Strike cigarettes, Chesterfield cigarettes, Sweet Caporal cigarettes (with a sign that says \"Ask Dad, he knows\", which plays a role in the plot), Vaseline hair tonic, Penetro cough syrup, Pepto-Bismol, Bayer Aspirin (\"for colds and influenza\"), and The Saturday Evening Post. \n\nIn an earlier draft of the script, the scene where George saves his brother Harry as a child was different. The scene had the boys playing ice hockey on the river (which is on Potter's property) as Potter watches with disdain. George shoots the puck, but it goes astray and breaks the \"No Trespassing\" sign and lands in Potter's yard. Potter becomes irate, and the gardener releases the attack dogs, which causes the boys to flee. Harry falls through the ice, and George saves him with the same results. In the alternate scenario, Clarence erred by saying that Harry drowned at the age of nine, whereas Harry's grave was marked 1911–1919, indicating Harry's age at death as only seven or eight, depending on his birth and death dates.\n\nAnother scene that was in an earlier version of the script had young George visiting his father at his work. After George tells off Mr. Potter and closes the door, he considers asking Uncle Billy about his drugstore dilemma. Billy is talking on the phone to the bank examiner, and lights his cigar and throws his match in the wastebasket. This scene explains that Tilly (short for Matilda) and Eustace are both his cousins (not Billy's kids, though), and Tilly is on the phone with her friend Martha and says, \"Potter's here, the bank examiner's coming. It's a day of judgment.\" As George is about to interrupt Tilly on the phone, Billy cries for help and Tilly runs in and puts the fire out with a pot of coffee. George decides he is probably better off dealing with the situation by himself.\n\nCapra had filmed a number of sequences that were subsequently cut, the only remnants remaining being rare stills that have been unearthed. A number of alternative endings were considered, with Capra's first script having Bailey falling to his knees reciting \"The Lord's Prayer\" (the script also called for an opening scene with the townspeople in prayer). Feeling that an overtly religious tone did not have the emotional impact of the family and friends rushing to rescue George Bailey, the closing scenes were rewritten. \n\nReception\n\nIt's a Wonderful Life premiered at the Globe Theatre in New York on December 20, 1946, to mixed reviews. While Capra considered the contemporary critical reviews to be either universally negative or at best dismissive, Time said, \"It's a Wonderful Life is a pretty wonderful movie. It has only one formidable rival (Goldwyn's The Best Years of Our Lives) as Hollywood's best picture of the year. Director Capra's inventiveness, humor and affection for human beings keep it glowing with life and excitement.\" Variety also praised the film, writing: \"Capra brought back to 'Life' all his oldtime craft, delicate devotion to detail and character delineation as well as his sure-footed feeling for true dramatic impact, as well as his deft method of leavening humor into right spots at right times. He again proves he can fashion what ordinarily would be homilizing hokum into gleaming, engaging entertainment for all brows—high, low or beetle.\" \n\nBosley Crowther, writing for The New York Times, complimented some of the actors, including Stewart and Reed, but concluded that \"the weakness of this picture, from this reviewer's point of view, is the sentimentality of it—its illusory concept of life. Mr. Capra's nice people are charming, his small town is a quite beguiling place and his pattern for solving problems is most optimistic and facile. But somehow they all resemble theatrical attitudes rather than average realities.\" John McCarten of The New Yorker panned the film along the same grounds, calling it \"chock-full of whimsey, and in his discretion Mr. Capra has seen to it that almost all the actors involved behave as cutely as pixies ... Every now and then, James Stewart, who heads the cast, manages to escape from the sticky confines of the script with a bit of honest acting, but he breaks loose too seldom to pull the picture out of its doldrums.\" \n\nThe film, which went into general release on January 7, 1947, placed 26th ($3.3 million) in box office revenues for 1947 (out of more than 400 features released), one place ahead of another Christmas film, Miracle on 34th Street. The film was supposed to be released in January 1947, but was moved up to December 1946 to make it eligible for the 1946 Academy Awards. This move was seen as worse for the film, as 1947 did not have quite the stiff competition as 1946. If it had entered the 1947 Awards, its biggest competition would have been Miracle on 34th Street. The number one grossing movie of 1947, The Best Years of Our Lives, made $11.5 million.\n\nThe film recorded a loss of $525,000 at the box office for RKO. \n\nOn May 26, 1947, the FBI issued a memo stating \"With regard to the picture 'It's a Wonderful Life', [redacted] stated in substance that the film represented rather obvious attempts to discredit bankers by casting Lionel Barrymore as a 'scrooge-type' so that he would be the most hated man in the picture. This, according to these sources, is a common trick used by Communists. [In] addition, [redacted] stated that, in his opinion, this picture deliberately maligned the upper class, attempting to show the people who had money were mean and despicable characters.\" \n\nThe film's elevation to the status of a beloved classic came decades after its initial release, when it became a television staple during Christmas season in the late 1970s. This came as a welcome surprise to Frank Capra and others involved with its production. \"It's the damnedest thing I've ever seen,\" Capra told The Wall Street Journal in 1984. \"The film has a life of its own now, and I can look at it like I had nothing to do with it. I'm like a parent whose kid grows up to be president. I'm proud ... but it's the kid who did the work. I didn't even think of it as a Christmas story when I first ran across it. I just liked the idea.\" In a 1946 interview, Capra described the film's theme as \"the individual's belief in himself\" and that he made it \"to combat a modern trend toward atheism\". In an interview with Michael Parkinson in 1973, James Stewart declared that out of all the movies he had made, It's a Wonderful Life was his favorite. \n\nSomewhat more iconoclastic views of the film and its content are occasionally expressed. Wendell Jamieson, in a 2008 essay for The New York Times which was generally positive in its analysis of the film, interpreted it as \"a terrifying, asphyxiating story about growing up and relinquishing your dreams, of seeing your father driven to the grave before his time, of living among bitter, small-minded people. It is a story of being trapped, of compromising, of watching others move ahead and away, of becoming so filled with rage that you verbally abuse your children, their teacher and your oppressively perfect wife.\" \n\nIn a 2010 Salon.com piece, Richard Cohen described It's a Wonderful Life as \"the most terrifying Hollywood film ever made\". In the \"Pottersville\" sequence, he wrote, George is not \"seeing the world that would exist had he never been born\", but rather \"the world as it does exist, in his time and also in our own.\" Nine years earlier, another Salon writer, Gary Kamiya, had expressed the opposing view that \"Pottersville rocks!\", adding, \"The gauzy, Currier-and-Ives veil Capra drapes over Bedford Falls has prevented viewers from grasping what a tiresome and, frankly, toxic environment it is... We all live in Pottersville now.\" \n\nIn 1990, It's a Wonderful Life was deemed \"culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant\" by the United States Library of Congress and selected for preservation in their National Film Registry.\n\nIn 2002, Britain's Channel 4 ranked It's a Wonderful Life as the seventh greatest film ever made in its poll \"The 100 Greatest Films\" and in 2006, the film reached No. 37 in the same channel's \"100 Greatest Family Films\".\n\nIn June 2008, AFI revealed its 10 Top 10, the best ten films in ten \"classic\" American film genres, after polling over 1,500 people from the creative community. It's a Wonderful Life was acknowledged as the third-best film in the fantasy genre. \n\nThe film's popularity continues, and it currently holds an 8.6 out of 10 rating on the IMDb consumer reviews and a 93% \"Fresh\" rating on Rotten Tomatoes.\n\nAntecedent\n\nIn a 1997 review, film historian James Berardinelli commented on the parallels between this film and the classic Charles Dickens tale A Christmas Carol. In both stories, a man revisits his life and potential death (or non-existence) with the help of supernatural agents, culminating in a joyous epiphany and a renewed view of his life. \n\nAwards and honors\n\nPrior to the Los Angeles release of It's a Wonderful Life, Liberty Films mounted an extensive promotional campaign that included a daily advertisement highlighting one of the film's players, along with comments from reviewers. Jimmy Starr wrote, \"If I were an Oscar, I'd elope with It's a Wonderful Life lock, stock and barrel on the night of the Academy Awards\". The New York Daily Times offered an editorial in which it declared the film and James Stewart's performance to be worthy of Academy Award consideration. \n\nIt's a Wonderful Life received five Academy Award nominations: \n\nThe Academy Award win in the Technical Achievement category was for developing a new method of creating artificial snow. Before this, fake movie snow was mostly made from cornflakes painted white. And it was so loud when stepped on that any snow filled scenes with dialogue had to be re-dubbed afterwards. RKO studio's head of special effects, Russell Sherman, developed a new compound, utilizing water, soap flakes, foamite and sugar. \n\nThe Best Years of Our Lives, a drama about servicemen attempting to return to their pre-World War II lives, won most of the awards that year, including four of the five for which It's a Wonderful Life was nominated. (The award for \"Best Sound Recording\" was won by The Jolson Story.) The Best Years of Our Lives was also an outstanding commercial success, ultimately becoming the highest-grossing film of the decade, in contrast to the more modest initial box office returns of It's a Wonderful Life. \n\nFrank Capra received a Golden Globe Award for Best Director and a \"CEC Award\" from the Cinema Writers Circle in Spain, for Mejor Película Extranjera (Best Foreign Film). Jimmy Hawkins won a \"Former Child Star Lifetime Achievement Award\" from the Young Artist Awards in 1994; the award recognized his role as Tommy Bailey as igniting his career, which lasted until the mid-1960s. \n\nAmerican Film Institute lists:\n\n* AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies – 11\n* AFI's 100 Years...100 Passions – 8\n* AFI's 100 Years...100 Heroes and Villains:\n** Mr. Potter – No. 6 Villain\n** George Bailey – No. 9 Hero\n* AFI's 100 Years...100 Songs:\n** \"Buffalo Gal (Won't You Come Out Tonight)\" – Nominated \n* AFI's 100 Years...100 Movie Quotes:\n** \"What is it you want, Mary? What do you want? You want the moon? Just say the word, and I'll throw a lasso around it and pull it down.\" – Nominated[http://www.afi.com/Docs/100Years/quotes400.pdf AFI's 100 Years...100 Movie Quotes Nominees]\n** \"To my big brother George, the richest man in town!\" – Nominated\n** \"Look, Daddy. Teacher says, 'Every time a bell rings an angel gets his wings.'\" – Nominated\n* AFI's 100 Years...100 Cheers – No. 1\n* AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition) – No. 20\n* AFI's 10 Top 10 – No. 3 Fantasy Film\n\nRelease\n\nOwnership and copyright issues\n\nAncillary rights\n\nLiberty Films was purchased by Paramount Pictures, and remained a subsidiary until 1951. In 1955, M. & A. Alexander purchased the movie. This included key rights to the original television syndication, the original nitrate film elements, the music score, and the film rights to the story on which the film is based, \"The Greatest Gift\". National Telefilm Associates (NTA) took over the rights to the film soon thereafter.\n\nA clerical error at NTA prevented the copyright from being renewed properly in 1974. Despite the lapsed copyright, television stations that aired the film (after 1993) were still required to pay royalties. Although the film's images had entered the public domain, the film's story was still protected by virtue of it being a derivative work of the published story \"The Greatest Gift\", whose copyright was properly renewed by Philip Van Doren Stern in 1971. The film became a perennial holiday favorite in the 1980s, possibly due to its repeated showings each holiday season on hundreds of local television stations. It was mentioned during the deliberations on the Copyright Term Extension Act of 1998. \n\nIn 1993, Republic Pictures, which was the successor to NTA, relied on the 1990 US Supreme Court ruling in Stewart v. Abend (which involved another Stewart film, Rear Window) to enforce its claim to the copyright. While the film's copyright had not been renewed, Republic still owned the film rights to \"The Greatest Gift\"; thus the plaintiffs were able to argue its status as a derivative work of a work still under copyright. NBC is licensed to show the film on US network television, and traditionally shows it twice during the holidays, with one showing on Christmas Eve. Paramount (via parent company Viacom's 1998 acquisition of Republic's then-parent, Spelling Entertainment) once again has distribution rights for the first time since 1955. \n\nDue to all the above actions, this is one of the few RKO films not controlled by Turner Entertainment/Warner Bros. in the US. It is also one of two Capra films which Paramount owns despite not having originally released it—the other is Broadway Bill (originally from Columbia, remade by Paramount as Riding High in 1950).\n\nColorization\n\nDirector Capra met with Wilson Markle about having Colorization, Inc., colorize It's a Wonderful Life based on an enthusiastic response to the colorization of Topper from actor Cary Grant. The company's art director Brian Holmes prepared 10 minutes of colorized footage from It's a Wonderful Life for Capra to view, which resulted in Capra signing a contract with Colorization, Inc., and his \"enthusiastic agree[ment] to pay half the $260,000 cost of colorizing the movie and to share any profits\" and giving \"preliminary approval to making similar color versions of two of his other black-and-white films, Meet John Doe (1941) and Lady for a Day (1933)\". However, the film was believed to be in the public domain at the time, and as a result Markle and Holmes responded by returning Capra's initial investment, eliminating his financial participation, and refusing outright to allow the director to exercise artistic control over the colorization of his films, leading Capra to join in the campaign against the process.\n\nThree colorized versions have been produced. The first was released by Hal Roach Studios in 1986. The second was authorized and produced by the film's permanent owner, Republic Pictures, in 1989. Both Capra and Stewart took a critical stand on the colorized editions. The Hal Roach color version was re-released in 1989 to VHS through the cooperation of Video Treasures. A third colorized version was produced by Legend Films and released on DVD in 2007 with the approval of Capra's estate.\n\nHome media\n\nVHS and LaserDisc\n\nThroughout the 1980s and early 1990s, when the film was still under public domain status, It's a Wonderful Life was released on VHS by a variety of home video companies. Among the companies that released the film on home video before Republic Pictures stepped in were Meda Video (which would later become Media Home Entertainment), Kartes Video Communications (under its Video Film Classics label), GoodTimes Home Video and Video Treasures (now Anchor Bay Entertainment). The film was also issued on LaserDisc by The Criterion Collection.\n\nAfter Republic reclaimed the rights to the film, all unofficial VHS copies of the film in print were destroyed. Artisan Entertainment (under license from Republic) took over home video rights in the mid-1990s. Artisan was later sold to Lions Gate Entertainment, which continued to hold US home video rights until late 2005 when they reverted to Paramount, who also owns video rights throughout Region 4 (Latin America and Australia) and in France. Video rights in the rest of the world are held by different companies; for example, the UK rights are with Universal Studios.\n\nTechnological first: CD-ROM\n\nIn 1993, due in part to the confusion of the ownership and copyright issues, Kinesoft Development, with the support of Republic Pictures, released It's a Wonderful Life as one of the first commercial feature-length films on CD-ROM for the Windows PC (Windows 3.1). Predating commercial DVDs by several years, it included such features as the ability to follow along with the complete shooting script as the film was playing. \n\nGiven the state of video playback on the PC at the time of its release, It's a Wonderful Life for Windows represented another first, as the longest running video on a computer. Prior to its release, Windows could only play back approx. 32,000 frames of video, or about 35 minutes at 15 frames per second. Working with Microsoft, Kinesoft was able to enhance the video features of Windows to allow for the complete playback of the entire film — all of this on a PC with a 486SX processor and only 8 MB of RAM. \n\nDVD and Blu-ray Disc\n\nThe film has seen multiple releases in the DVD format. In the autumn of 2001, Republic issued the movie twice, once in August, and again with different packaging in September of that same year. On October 31, 2006, Paramount Home Media Distribution released a newly restored \"60th Anniversary Edition\", while also pairing this holiday film with White Christmas as part of the \"Classic Christmas Collection\" two-disc set released on that same day. Paramount released a two-disc \"special edition\" DVD of the film that contained both the original theatrical black-and-white version, and a new, third colorized version, produced by Legend Films using the latest colorization technology on November 13, 2007. This was followed by a DVD version with a \"Collector's Edition Ornament\", and a Blu-ray Disc edition on November 3, 2009.\n\nAdaptations in other media\n\nThe film was thrice adapted for radio in 1947, first on Lux Radio Theater (March 10) and then on The Screen Guild Theater (December 29), then again on the Screen Guild Theater broadcast of March 15, 1951. James Stewart and Donna Reed reprised their roles for all three radio productions. Stewart also starred in the May 8, 1949 radio adaptation presented on the Screen Director's Playhouse.\n\nA musical stage adaptation of the film, titled A Wonderful Life, was written by Sheldon Harnick and Joe Raposo. This version was first performed at the University of Michigan in 1986, but a planned professional production was stalled by legal wrangling with the estate of Philip Van Doren Stern. It was eventually performed in Washington, D.C. by Arena Stage in 1991, and had revivals in the 21st century, including a staged concert version in New York City in 2005 and several productions by regional theatres.\n\nAnother musical stage adaptation of the film, titled It's a Wonderful Life – The Musical, was written by Bruce Greer and Keith Ferguson. This version premiered at the Majestic Theatre, Dallas, Texas in 1998. It was an annual Christmas show at the theatre for five years. It has since been performed at venues all around the United States.\n\nThe film was also adapted into a play in two acts by James W. Rodgers. It was first performed on December 15, 1993 at Paul Laurence Dunbar High School. The play opens with George Bailey contemplating suicide and then goes back through major moments in his life. Many of the scenes from the movie are only alluded to or mentioned in the play rather than actually dramatized. For example, in the opening scene Clarence just mentions George having saved his brother Harry after the latter had fallen through the ice. \n\nIt's a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play, a stage adaptation presented as a 1940s radio show, was adapted by Joe Landry and has been produced around the United States since 1997. The script is published by Playscripts, Inc.\n\nIn 1997, PBS aired Merry Christmas, George Bailey, taped from a live performance of the 1947 Lux Radio Theatre script at the Pasadena Playhouse. The presentation, which benefited the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation, featured an all-star cast including Bill Pullman as George, Nathan Lane as Clarence, Martin Landau as Mr. Potter, Penelope Ann Miller as Mary, and Sally Field as Mother Bailey. \n\nPhilip Grecian's 2006 radio play based on the film It's a Wonderful Life is a faithful adaptation, now in its third incarnation, that has been performed numerous times by local theatres in Canada. \n\nIn a June 2011 interview, John McDaniel told Saint Louis Magazine, \"I'm in the throes of writing a musical version ... right now, working with Kathie Lee Gifford, who's doing the lyrics. I find we're mostly writing to character: Is it George, or the old guy who runs the bank? What do they want, what are they trying to do, what is the mood of that — is it staccato, are they agitated, is it a ballad?\" \n\nThe Last Temptation of Clarence Odbody is a novel written by John Pierson. The novel imagines the future lives of various characters if George had not survived his jump into the river. \n\nRemakes\n\nThe film was remade as the 1977 television movie It Happened One Christmas. Lionel Chetwynd based the screenplay on the original Van Doren Stern short story and the 1946 screenplay. This remake employed gender-reversal, with Marlo Thomas as the protagonist Mary Bailey, Wayne Rogers as George Hatch, and Cloris Leachman as the angel Clara Oddbody. Leachman received her second Emmy nomination for this role. In a significant departure from his earlier roles, Orson Welles was cast as Mr. Potter. Following initial positive reviews, the made-for-television film was rebroadcast twice in 1978 and 1979, but has not been shown since on national re-broadcasts, nor issued in home media. \n\nAttempted unauthorized sequel\n\nA sequel aimed for 2015 release was in development, to be called It's a Wonderful Life: The Rest of the Story. It was to be written by Bob Farnsworth and Martha Bolton and would've followed the angel of George Bailey's daughter Zuzu (played once again by Karolyn Grimes), as she teaches Bailey's evil grandson how different the world would have been if he had never been born. Producers were originally looking for directors in hopes to shoot the film with a $25–$35 million budget in Louisiana early in 2014. The film had been announced in November 2013 as being produced by Star Partners and Hummingbird Productions, neither of which are affiliated with Paramount, owners of the original film (Farnsworth claimed that It's a Wonderful Life was in the public domain). Days later, a Paramount spokesperson claimed that they were not granted permission to make the film, and it cannot be made without the necessary paperwork. \"To date, these individuals have not obtained any of the necessary rights, and we would take all appropriate steps to protect those rights,\" the spokesperson said. This seems to be the final word on the project, since, as of March 2016, no further attempts to make this sequel have happened.\n\nSpin-off\n\nIn 1990, another made-for-television film called Clarence starred Robert Carradine in a new tale of the helpful angel. \n\nPopular culture\n\nIt's a Wonderful Life has been popularized in modern cultural references in many of the mainstream media. Due to the proliferation of these references, a few examples will suffice to illustrate the film's impact.\n\nIts story has been parodied in episodes of American television series such as Married... with Children, Mork & Mindy, The Facts of Life, Moonlighting, Rugrats, Tiny Toon Adventures, Beavis and Butthead, That 70's Show and Dallas, as well as the television film It's a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie. The town of Kingston Falls in the 1984 film Gremlins is laid out to look like Bedford Falls, and clips from It's A Wonderful Life also appear within the film. \n\nThe Sesame Street Muppets characters Bert and Ernie share their names with the cop and the taxicab driver in the film. Longtime Muppets writer and puppeteer Jerry Juhl said he believed there was no connection and that this was a coincidence.Carroll, Jon. [http://articles.sfgate.com/2000-01-03/entertainment/17636419_1_facts-wonderful-life-bert \"A Few Tiny Errors\"]. The San Francisco Chronicle January 3, 2000. The episode Elmo Saves Christmas (1996), which featured a clip from the film, pokes fun at the persistent reports of a connection, having them look at each other in disbelief as George calls Bert and Ernie by name.\n\nStephen Jay Gould's book Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of History takes its main title from the film. The book proposes that the evolution of life, rewound and replayed multiple times, would yield a different world each time, just as life without George Bailey is Pottersville, not Bedford Falls.", "George Bailey is a fictional character and the protagonist in Frank Capra's 1946 film It's a Wonderful Life. He occupies slot #9 on the American Film Institute's list of the 50 greatest screen heroes (in its 2003 list entitled AFI's 100 Years... 100 Heroes and Villains). He is played by James Stewart as an adult and Bobby Anderson as a child. He is loosely based on George Pratt, a character in Philip Van Doren Stern's The Greatest Gift. \n\nEarly life\n\nIn the winter of 1919, George (aged 12, portrayed by Bobby Anderson) and his friends (including Bert, Ernie Bishop, Marty Hatch, Sam Wainwright, and brother Harry) are sledding on a snow shovel down a slope onto a frozen river. When George's brother Harry sleds down, he breaks through the ice into the freezing water. George jumps in after him. His friends form a human chain and pull them to safety. George develops a cold which permanently affects the hearing in his left ear.\n\nThe following spring George goes to his job at Gower's Drug store, where he finds a telegram informing Gower that his son has died of influenza. Gower directs George to deliver medicine, and George realizes that in his distress Gower has inadvertently packaged poison. He seeks advice from his father, the President of the Bailey Bros. Building & Loan at his office, but is unable to as his father is meeting with banker Henry F. Potter. When he returns to the store, Gower angrily confronts him for failing to deliver the medicine until George points out the mistake. George promises that he will never tell anyone.\n\nYoung adult\n\nNine years later, in the month of June, George (played by James Stewart) is preparing to leave town for an overseas trip. He drops by his brother Harry's graduation party at the high school, where he is re-introduced to his friend Marty Hatch's eighteen-year-old sister Mary. George is walking Mary home when a car pulls up and George is informed that his father has had a stroke.\n\nThree months later, George is in a meeting with the board of directors of the Building & Loan to appoint a new successor to the late Peter Bailey. Potter argues that the Building & Loan should be dissolved. The directors tell George that the Building & Loan will only stay open if he agrees to remain and carry on his father's work. George foregoes a trip to Europe and his plans for college, giving the funds saved toward tuition to his younger brother.[http://movies.msn.com/movies/movie-synopsis/it%27s-a-wonderful-life/ \"It's a Wonderful Life: Synopsis\", MSN]\n\nFour years later, George and Uncle Billy are waiting at the Bedford Falls railroad station for Harry to come home from college, when Harry arrives with his new wife, Ruth. Her father has offered Harry a job, which means he will not be taking George's place at the Building & Loan. George is stuck in Bedford Falls. While the family is celebrating Harry's return, Ma Bailey mentions to George that Mary Hatch is back from college and he should pay her a visit. He eventually goes to Mary’s home to visit her, only to find that she is being courted by his friend, the now wealthy but absent, Sam Wainwright.\n\nPre-war\n\nA few months later, George and Mary are married. Their plans for a honeymoon in New York City and Bermuda are interrupted by a run on the banks which also affects the Building & Loan. Potter's bank calls their loan, and panicked depositors want their money, threatening to take their business to the bank. As a stockholder, Potter threatens to shut the Building & Loan if they are forced to close early. Mary and George use the money saved for their honeymoon to keep the Building & Loan solvent.\n\nTwo years later, thanks to the Building & Loan, the Martini family move out of 'Potter's Field' to the new 'Bailey Park', a residential development created by George that proves successful enough to seriously threaten Mr. Potter's rental interests. Potter offers George a job. Although this would bring a significant increase in salary George declines. George returns home to learn that Mary is pregnant. Their first child is a son they call Pete. Their second child is a daughter, Janie.\n\nThe war years\n\n;1939–45\n\nDuring the war years, George and Mary had another two children, a girl, Zuzu, born in 1940, and a son, Tommy, born in 1941. Due to George's deaf ear he was given a 4-F draft classification and had to stay in Bedford Falls. His friend Bert the Cop went to Africa to fight and got wounded, but was awarded the Silver Star. Ernie was a member of the airborne and parachuted in on D-Day, and Marty helped capture the Bridge at Remagen. Harry fought as a naval flyer and shot down fifteen planes, two of which were attacking a troop transport. For his bravery he was awarded the Medal of Honor by the President of the United States. Sam made a lot of money making plastic hoods for planes. While all this happened, George served as an Air Raid Warden. Despite having to look after four children, Mary still had time to run the United Service Organizations in the town. Mr Potter became head of the draft board.\n\nPost war\n\n;Christmas Eve 1945\n\nOn Christmas Eve morning, Uncle Billy is on his way to the bank to deposit $8,000 of the Building & Loan's cash funds. Holding a newspaper which has Harry on the front page he greets Potter saying, \"Well, good morning, Mr. Potter. What's the news?\" Billy grabs Mr. Potter's newspaper and says, \"Well, well, well, Harry Bailey wins Congressional Medal. That couldn't be one of the Bailey boys? You just can't keep those Baileys down, now, can you, Mr. Potter?\" Potter angrily snatches the paper, but Billy inattentively allows the money to be snatched with it. Potter opens the paper, notices the money and keeps it, knowing that displacement of bank money would result in bankruptcy for the Building & Loan and criminal charges for George. Billy goes back to the Building & Loan and tells George the news. George is extremely worried, especially with the bank examiner just outside the room. George and Billy go through the town taking every step Billy took in the morning and it goes to a dead end. George later goes home and Mary knows straight away something is wrong with him. To add to his anger, he finds out his youngest daughter Zuzu has come home with a cold, George blames it on her teacher and when she rings he abuses her on the phone, and also her husband. He then gets frustrated with his family and ends up smashing up the models of buildings and bridges he had made.\n\nA desperate George appeals to Potter for a loan. Potter sarcastically turns George down, and then swears out a warrant for his arrest for bank fraud. George, now completely depressed, gets drunk at the bar owned by his friend, Martini, where he silently prays for help. He also gets a full punch to the face from Zuzu's teacher's husband, who is drinking there. Again George runs out, and drives his car into a tree. He comes to a bridge intending to commit suicide, feeling he is \"worth more dead than alive\" because of a life insurance policy. Before he can leap, another man jumps in first and pretends to be drowning. After George rescues him, the man reveals himself to be George's guardian angel, Clarence Odbody.\n\nGeorge does not believe him and he bitterly wishes he had never been born. Inspired by this comment, Clarence shows George what the town would have been like without him, with the snow outside stopping as the change is made. In this alternate scenario Bedford Falls is instead named Pottersville, and is home to sleazy nightclubs, pawn shops, and amoral people. Bailey Park was never built, and remains an old cemetery. Mr. Gower was sent to prison for poisoning the child and is despised and homeless. Martini does not own the bar. George's friend Violet Bick is a taxi-dancer who gets arrested. Ernie is helplessly poor, with his family having forsaken him. Uncle Billy has been in an insane asylum for many years since he lost his brother and the family business. Harry is dead as a result of George not being there to save him from drowning, and the servicemen he would have saved also died. Ma Bailey is a bitter widow, and Mary a shy, single spinster librarian.\n\nGeorge runs back to the bridge and begs to be allowed to live again. His prayer is answered, shown as the snow restarts, and he runs home joyously, where the authorities are waiting to arrest him. Mary, Uncle Billy, and a flood of townspeople arrive with more than enough donations to save George and the Building & Loan. George's friend Sam Wainwright sends him a $25,000 line of credit by telegram. Harry also arrives to support his brother, and toasts George as \"The richest man in town\". In the pile of donated funds, George finds a copy of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer inscribed, \"Dear George: Remember no man is a failure who has friends. P.S. Thanks for the wings! Love, Clarence.\" A bell on the Christmas tree rings, and his daughter Zuzu says, \"Teacher says every time a bell rings, an angel gets his wings!\" George agrees and looks up to heaven and says, \"Attaboy, Clarence.\" George realizes that he truly has a wonderful life.\n\nAccolades\n\nCiting generosity as Bailey's most admirable trait, Time magazine lists George Bailey among their top ten movie dads." ] }

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{ "doc_source": [ "Search" ], "filename": [ "Hallmark_Cards.txt" ], "title": [ "Hallmark Cards" ], "wiki_context": [ "Hallmark Cards is a privately owned American company based in Kansas City, Missouri. Founded in 1910 by Joyce Hall, Hallmark is the largest manufacturer of greeting cards in the United States. In 1985, the company was awarded the National Medal of Arts. \n\nHistory \n\nJoyce Clyde Hall became captivated by a salesman who stopped by his family's store in 1906 in Norfolk, Nebraska. Driven by the postcard craze of 1903, Hall decided to venture from retail of various products to wholesale of postcards. He moved his business to the larger market of Kansas City. As time went on, Hall became more convinced that greeting cards would become more prominent than postcards. Greeting cards, according to J.C. Hall, represented class, promised discretion and \"they were more than a form of communication—they were a social custom.”\n\nBy 1915, the company was known as Hall Brothers and sold Valentine's Day and Christmas cards. In 1917, Hall and his brother Rollie \"invented\" modern wrapping paper when they ran out of traditional colored tissue paper. In 1922, the company expanded throughout the country. The staff grew from 4 to 120 people, and the line increased from holiday cards to include everyday greeting cards.\n\nIn 1928, the company adopted the name \"Hallmark\", after the hallmark symbol used by goldsmiths in London in the 14th century, and began printing the name on the back of every card. In the same year, the company became the first in the greeting card industry to advertise their product nationally. Their first advertisement appeared in Ladies' Home Journal and was written by J.C. Hall himself. In 1931, the Canadian William E. Coutts Company, Ltd., a major card maker, became an affiliate of Hall Brothers, which was Hall Brothers' first international business venture.\n\nIn 1944, it adopted its current slogan, \"When you care enough to send the very best.\" It was created by C. E. Goodman, a Hallmark marketing and sales executive, and written on a 3x5 card. The card is on display at the company headquarters. In 1951, Hall sponsored a television program for NBC that gave rise to the Hallmark Hall of Fame, which has won 80 Emmy Awards. Hallmark now has its own cable television channel, the Hallmark Channel which was established in 2001. For a period of about 15 years, Hallmark owned a stake in the Spanish language network Univision.\n\nIn 1954, the company name was changed from Hall Brothers to Hallmark. In 1958, William E. Coutts Company, Ltd., was acquired by Hallmark; until the 1990s, Hallmark's Canadian branch was known as \"Coutts Hallmark\".\n\nIn 1998, Hallmark made a number of acquisitions, including Britain-based Creative Publishing (a recent spinoff of Fine Art Developments), and U.S. based InterArt. \n\nEmployees \n\nWorldwide, Hallmark has 11,000 full-time employees. About 3,100 Hallmarkers work at the Kansas City headquarters. \n\nManagement \n\nThe current president & CEO chairman is Donald J. Hall.\n\nCreative resources \n\nHallmark's creative staff consists of around 800 artists, designers, stylists, writers, editors and photographers. Together they generate more than 19,000 new and redesigned greeting cards and related products per year. The company offers more than 48,000 products in its model line at any one time.\n\nProducts and services \n\nHallmark offers or has offered the following products and services:\n\nGreeting cards \n\nHallmark Cards feature several brands and licenses. Shoebox, the company's line of humorous cards, evolved from studio cards. Maxine (by John Wagner), was introduced in 1986 when she appeared on several Shoebox cards the year the alternative card line was launched. hoops&yoyo, were characters created by Bob Holt and Mike Adair. Revilo is another popular line, by artist Oliver Christianson (\"Revilo\" is \"Oliver\" spelled backwards). Forever Friends was purchased in 1994 from English entrepreneur Andrew Brownsword, who for four years subsequently was Chief Executive of Hallmark Europe. Image Craft was acquired by the William E. Coutts Company subsidiary of Hallmark Canada in the mid-2000s.\n\nHallmark has provided software for creating and printing cards. This software has been known as Hallmark Card Studio, with partner Nova Development, and Microsoft Greetings Workshop in partner with Microsoft. \n\nNotable changes to their line up has been in August 2008 when Hallmark added same-sex marriage cards. Hallmark also was the first company to recognize Valentine's Day.\n\nHallmarks Cards is also one of the biggest data mining company in United States.\n\nGift products \n\n* Gifts, Greeting Cards\n* Hallmark Flowers\n* Keepsake Ornaments\n* Road Rovers: diecast cartoon vehicles \n* Books\n* Stationery\n* Sentimental Frames\n* Recordable Plush\n* Itty-Bittys\n* Bookmarks\n\nLicensors \n\nHallmark manufactures greeting cards, ornaments, and related gift products from the following licensors:\n\n* 20th Century Fox\n* Beatrix Potter\n* Cartoon Network\n* DC Comics\n* Dr. Seuss\n* DreamWorks Animation\n* Family Guy\n* Filstar Distributors Corporation\n* Ford Motor Company\n* General Motors\n* Hanna Barbera\n* Harley-Davidson\n* Ice Age film series\n* Looney Tunes\n* Lucasfilm\n* Marvel Comics\n* Mattel\n* MGM\n* National Basketball Association\n* National Football League\n* National Hockey League\n* Paws, Inc.\n* Peanuts\n* Peyo\n* Precious Moments, Inc.\n* Rankin/Bass\n* Sony Pictures\n* Star Wars\n* Tervis Tumbler\n* The Hershey Company\n* The Simpsons\n* The Walt Disney Company\n* Thomas Kinkade\n* Tim Burton\n* Ty Inc\n* Universal Studios\n\nHallmark Visitors Center\n\nThe Hallmark Visitors Center is located at the company's headquarters in Kansas City, Missouri. The Center features exhibits about the company's history including historic greeting cards and postcards, Christmas ornaments, exhibits from the company's art collection, and displays about the Hallmark Hall of Fame programs and awards. There is also a movie about the company's history.\n\nHallmark School Store \n\nAlvirne High School in Hudson, New Hampshire, operates the only Hallmark school store in the United States. Besides normal food and beverage items, the \"Bronco Barn\" store also sells Hallmark cards. The store is run by students in Marketing I and Marketing II classes, and is open to students all day and after school. \n\nSubsidiaries and assets \n\nHallmark owns:\n* Crayola LLC (formerly Binney & Smith): makers of Crayola-brand crayons\n* DaySpring Greeting Cards, is the world's largest Christian greeting card company. It was purchased in 1999 from Cook Publishing and is based in Siloam Springs, Arkansas.\n* Hallmark Business Expressions: Formed in 1996, Hallmark Business Expressions is a business-to-business subsidiary of Hallmark Cards, Inc. and is headquartered in Kansas City, MO. \n* Hallmark Channel: cable television network—Hallmark Cards owns the majority of stock in this publicly traded company (Crown Media Holdings);\n* Hallmark Gold Crown: a chain of independently-owned card and gift stores in the United States and Canada. Certain locations are corporate operated.\n* Hallmark Business Connections: Incentives—Reward programs, recognition programs and online gift certificates;\n* Halls, an upscale department store at Kansas City's Crown Center\n* Feeln: A premium subscription video on-demand (SVOD) service that is the exclusive streaming provider of the Hallmark Hall of Fame library of films, along with a curated collection of Hollywood features, TV series and original productions.\n* Rainbow Brite: a franchise of children's dolls\n* Shirt Tales: a franchise of cards, featuring animals with shirts that read different messages\n* Sunrise Greetings: Located in Bloomington, IN\n* Zoobilee Zoo: a 1986 TV show, centered a zoo populated by animals with artistic tastes\n\nIn addition, Hallmark Cards is the property manager of the Crown Center commercial complex, adjacent to its headquarters, and the owner of lithographer Litho-Krome Co.\n\nPhilanthropy \n\nIn 2006, Hallmark donated its extensive collection of photographs by prominent photographers including Todd Webb to the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City.\n\nHallmark Music \n\nIn the Philippines, singer Richard Tan sang a song about Hallmark Cards, entitled \"No One Throws Away Memories\". The song was featured in a commercial of the product in the 1970s.\n\nIn the mid-1980s, the company started its music division, issuing compilation albums by a number of popular artists. In 2004, Hallmark entered into a licensing agreement with Somerset Entertainment to produce Hallmark Music CDs.\n\nFormer subsidiaries \n\n* Hallmark Entertainment: a producer of television shows and mini-series. Halmi Jr. and Halmi Sr. acquired the company in 2006 and was absorbed into RHI Entertainment;\n* Univision: Hallmark owned Spanish-language broadcaster Univision from 1986 to 1992 \n\nHallmark photographic collection \n\nThe Hallmark Photographic Collection was donated to the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, Missouri.\n\nLegal problems \n\nNeil Armstrong sued Hallmark Cards in 1994 after they used his name and a recording of his quote, \"That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind\" in a Christmas ornament without permission. The lawsuit was settled out of court for an undisclosed amount of money which Armstrong donated to Purdue University. The case caused Armstrong and NASA to be more careful about the use of astronaut names, photographs and recordings, and to whom he had granted permission. For non-profit and government public-service announcements, he would usually give permission. \n\nOn September 6, 2007, Paris Hilton filed an injunction lawsuit against Hallmark Cards Inc. in U.S. District Court over the unlawful use of her picture and catchphrase \"That's hot\" on a greeting card. The card is titled \"Paris's First Day as a Waitress\" with a photograph of Hilton's face on a cartoon of a waitress serving a plate of food, with a Hilton's dialogue bubble, \"Don't touch that, it's hot.\" (which had a registered trademark on February 13, 2007). Hilton's attorney Brent Blakely said that the infringement damages would be based on profits from the $2.49 greeting cards. Julie O'Dell said that Hallmark used the card as parody, protected under fair use law." ] }

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{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe", "TagMe", "Search", "Search" ], "filename": [ "Robert_L._May.txt", "Montgomery_Ward.txt", "Rudolph_the_Red-Nosed_Reindeer.txt", "Rudolph_the_Red-Nosed_Reindeer_(song).txt" ], "title": [ "Robert L. May", "Montgomery Ward", "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer", "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (song)" ], "wiki_context": [ "Robert Lewis May (July 27 1905 – August 10 1976) was the creator of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.\n\nLife and work\n\nMay grew up in an affluent, secular Jewish home in New Rochelle, New York. He had a brother and two sisters. One of the sisters, Evelyn May, is the grandmother of the well-known economist Steven D. Levitt, of “Freakonomics” fame.The Probability that a Real-Estate Agent is Cheating You (and other riddles of modern life): Inside the curious mind of the heralded young economist Steven Levitt by Stephen J. Dubner, New York Times Magazine, August 3, 2003 Another sister, Margaret, married songwriter Johnny Marks in 1947. May graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Dartmouth College in 1926.\n\nRobert May’s parents were hard hit by the Great Depression (1929) and lost their wealth. Sometime in the 1930s, May moved to Chicago and took a job as a low-paid in-house advertising copywriter for Montgomery Ward. In early 1939, May’s boss at Montgomery Ward asked him to write a “cheery” Christmas book for shoppers and suggested that an animal be the star of the book. Montgomery Ward had been buying and giving away coloring books for Christmas every year and it was decided that creating their own book would save money and be a nice good-will gesture.\n\nMay’s (Jewish) wife, Evelyn, had contracted cancer in 1937 and was quite ill as he started on the book in early 1939. May \"drew on memories of his own painfully shy childhood when creating his Rudolph stories.\" He decided on making a deer the central character of the book because his then 4-year-old daughter, Barbara, loved the deer in the Chicago zoo. He ran verses and chapters of the Rudolph poem by Barbara to make sure they entertained children. The final version of the poem was first read to Barbara and his wife’s parents.\n\nEvelyn May died in July, 1939. She is interred at Saint Joseph Cemetery, River Grove, Cook County, IL. His boss offered to take him off the book assignment in light of his wife’s death. May refused and completed the poem in August, 1939. The Rudolph poem booklet was first distributed during the 1939 holiday season. Shoppers loved the poem and 2.4 million copies were distributed. War time restrictions on paper use prevented a re-issue until 1946. In that year, another 3.6 million copies were distributed to Montgomery Ward shoppers.\n\nIn 1946, May received an offer from a company that wanted to do a spoken-word record of the poem. May could not give his approval (and be compensated) because Montgomery Ward held the rights to the poem. In late 1946 or early 1947, Sewell Avery, the company’s president, gave the copyright rights to the poem to May, free and clear. The spoken-word version of the poem was a big sales success.\n\nIn 1947, Harry Elbaum, the head of Maxton Publishers, a small New York publishing company, took a chance and put out an updated print edition of the Rudolph (poem) book. Other publishers had passed on the book, believing that the distribution of millions of free copies had ruined the market. The book was a best seller.\n\nIn 1948, May’s brother-in-law, Johnny Marks, wrote (words and music) an adaptation of Rudolph. Though the song was turned down by such popular vocalists as Bing Crosby and Dinah Shore, it was recorded by the singing cowboy Gene Autry. \"Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer\" was released in 1949 and became a phenomenal success, selling more records than any other Christmas song, with the exception of \"White Christmas\". \n\nIn 1941, May married another Ward employee, Virginia, and had five children with her. She was a devout Catholic, and he converted to Catholicism during the marriage. He is buried in Saint Joseph Cemetery in River Grove, Illinois. \n\nMay wrote two sequels to Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. The first is mostly in prose (except that Rudolph speaks in anapaestic tetrameter), written in 1947 but only published posthumously as Rudolph's Second Christmas (1992), and subsequently with the title Rudolph to the Rescue (2006). The second sequel is entirely in anapaestic tetrameter like the original: Rudolph Shines Again (1954). May also published four other children's books: Benny the Bunny Liked Beans (1940), Winking Willie (1948), The Fighting Tenderfoot (1954), and Sam the Scared-est Scarecrow (1972). \n\nMay told his story of the writing of \"Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer\" in his article \"Robert May Tells how Rudolph, The Red Nosed Reindeer Came into Being\" from the Gettysburg Times published on December 22, 1975. \n\nMay is interred at Saint Joseph Cemetery, River Grove, Cook County, IL.", "Montgomery Ward was the name of two historically distinct American retail enterprises. It can refer either to the defunct mail order and department store retailer, which operated between 1872 and 2001, or to the current catalog and online retailer also known as Wards.\n\nOriginal Montgomery Ward (1872–2001)\n\nCompany origins\n\nMontgomery Ward was founded by Aaron Montgomery Ward in 1872. Ward had conceived of the idea of a dry goods mail-order business in Chicago, Illinois, after several years of working as a traveling salesman among rural customers. He observed that rural customers often wanted \"city\" goods but their only access to them was through rural retailers who had little competition and did not offer any guarantee of quality. Ward also believed that by eliminating intermediaries, he could cut costs and make a wide variety of goods available to rural customers, who could purchase goods by mail and pick them up at the nearest train station.\n\nAfter several false starts, including the destruction of his first inventory by the Great Chicago Fire, Ward started his business at his first office, either in a single room at 825 North Clark Street, or in a loft above a livery stable on Kinzie Street between Rush and State Streets. He and two partners used $1,600 they had raised in capital and issued their first catalog in August 1872 which consisted of an 8 x single-sheet price list, listing 163 items for sale with ordering instructions for which Ward had written the copy. His two partners left the following year, but he continued the struggling business and was joined by his future brother-in-law George Robinson Thorne.\n\nIn the first few years, the business was not well received by rural retailers. Considering Ward a threat, they sometimes publicly burned his catalog. Despite the opposition, however, the business grew at a fast pace over the next several decades, fueled by demand primarily from rural customers who were inspired by the wide selection of items that were unavailable to them locally. Customers were also inspired by the innovative and unprecedented company policy of \"satisfaction guaranteed or your money back\", which Ward began in 1875. Ward turned the copy writing over to department heads, but he continued poring over every detail in the catalog for accuracy.\n\nIn 1883, the company's catalog, which became popularly known as the \"Wish Book\", had grown to 240 pages and 10,000 items. In 1896, Wards acquired its first serious competition in the mail order business, when Richard Warren Sears introduced his first general catalog. In 1900, Wards had total sales of $8.7 million, compared to $10 million for Sears, and both companies would struggle for dominance during much of the 20th century. By 1904, the company had expanded as such that it mailed three million catalogs, weighing 4 lb each, to customers.\n\nIn 1908, the company opened a 1.25 million ft² (116,000 m²) building stretching along nearly one-quarter mile of the Chicago River, north of downtown Chicago. The building, known as the Montgomery Ward & Co. Catalog House, served as the company headquarters until 1974, when the offices moved across the street to a new tower designed by Minoru Yamasaki. The catalog house was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1978 and a Chicago historic landmark in May 2000. In the decades before 1930, Montgomery Ward built a network of large distributions centers across the country in Baltimore, Fort Worth, Kansas City, St. Paul, Portland, and Oakland. In most cases, these reinforced concrete structures were the largest industrial structures in their respective locations. The Baltimore Montgomery Ward Warehouse and Retail Store was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2000. \n\nExpansion into retail outlets\n\nWard died in 1913, after 41 years running the catalog business. The company president, William C. Thorne (eldest son of the co-founder) died in 1917, and was succeeded by Robert J. Thorne. Robert Thorne retired in 1920 due to ill health.\n\nIn 1926, the company broke with its mail-order-only tradition when it opened its first retail outlet store in Plymouth, Indiana. It continued to operate its catalog business while pursuing an aggressive campaign to build retail outlets in the late-1920s. In 1928, two years after opening its first outlet, it had opened 244 stores. By 1929, it had more than doubled its number of outlets to 531. Its flagship retail store in Chicago was located on Michigan Avenue between Madison and Washington streets.\n\nIn 1930, the company declined a merger offer from its rival chain Sears. Losing money during the Great Depression, the company alarmed its major investors, including J. P. Morgan. In 1931, Morgan hired Sewell Avery as president who cut staff levels and stores, changed lines, hired store rather than catalog managers and refurbished stores. These actions caused the company to turn profitable before the end of the 1930s.\n\nWards was very successful in its retail business. \"Green awning\" stores dotted hundreds of small towns across the country. Larger stores were built in the major cities. By the end of the 1930s Montgomery Ward had become the country's largest retailer. It was this period of growth and prosperity that earned its president, Sewell Avery, an unchallenged position as Chief Executive Officer.\n\nIn 1939, as part of a Christmas promotional campaign, staff copywriter Robert L. May created the character and illustrated poem of \"Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer.\" The store distributed six-million copies of the storybook in 1946 and actor and singer Gene Autry popularized the song nationally.\n\nAfter World War II, Sewell Avery believed the country would fall back into a recession or even a depression. He decided to not open any new stores. In fact he would not even permit the expenditure of paint to freshen the stores. He wanted to bank the profits Wards was making so that he could have the liquidity when the recession or depression hit. Then he would buy up his retail competition. Without new stores or any investment back into the business, Montgomery Ward declined in sales volume compared to Sears, and many people have blamed the conservative decisions of its president, Sewell Avery. Avery seemed to not understand the changing economy of the postwar years. As new shopping centers were built after the war, it was Sears that got the best locations and Wards was shut out of any opportunity to expand. Nonetheless, for many years Wards was still the nation's third-largest department store chain.\n\nIn 1946, the Grolier Club, a society of bibliophiles in New York City, exhibited the Wards catalog alongside Webster's Dictionary as one of 100 American books chosen for their influence on life and culture of the people. The brand name of the store became embedded in the popular American consciousness and was often called by the nickname Monkey Ward, both affectionately and derisively.\n\nGovernment seizure\n\nIn April 1944, four months into a nationwide strike by the company’s 12,000 workers, U.S. Army troops seized the Chicago offices of Montgomery Ward & Company because Avery refused to settle the strike, as requested by the Roosevelt administration because of its adverse effect on the delivery of needed goods in wartime. Avery had refused to comply with a War Labor Board order to recognize the unions and institute the terms of a collective bargaining agreement. Eight months later, with Montgomery Ward continuing to refuse to recognize the unions, President Roosevelt issued an Executive Order seizing all of Montgomery Ward’s property nationwide, citing the War Labor Disputes Act as well as his power under the Constitution as Commander in Chief. In 1945, Truman ended the seizure and the Supreme Court ended the pending appeal as moot.\n\nDecline\n\nIn 1955, investor Louis Wolfson waged a high-profile proxy fight to obtain control of the board of Montgomery Ward. The new board forced the resignation of Avery. This fight led to a state court decision that Illinois corporations are not entitled to stagger election of their board members under that state's laws, as well as to tax litigation over whether the costs of a proxy fight are an \"ordinary and necessary business expense.\" In time, it helped inspire new Securities and Exchange Commission rules concerning proxies.\n\nMeanwhile, throughout the 1950s, the company was slow to respond to the general movement of the American middle class to suburbia. While its former rivals Sears, JCPenney, Macy's, Gimbels, and Dillard's established new anchor outlets in the growing number of suburban shopping malls, Avery and succeeding top executives had been reluctant to pursue such expansion. They stuck to their downtown and main street stores until the company had lost too much market share to compete with its rivals. After Avery's departure in 1955 it took two years before the first new store since the 1930s was opened in 1957. Wards tried to become more aggressive with store opening but it was too late. Competition had already taken the best locations. As the existing stores looked worn and disheveled, often malls would not entertain allowing Wards to build there. Its catalog business had begun to slip by the 1960s. In 1968, it merged with Container Corporation of America to become Marcor Inc.\n\nDuring the 1970s, the company continued to flounder. In 1973, its 101st year in business, it purchased a small discount store chain, the Miami-based Jefferson Stores, Inc. It renamed the stores Jefferson Ward. In 1976 Mobil, flush with cash from the recent rise in oil prices, acquired Montgomery Ward. By 1980, Mobil realized that the Montgomery Ward stores were doing poorly in comparison to the Jefferson stores, and decided that high quality discount units, along the lines of Dayton Hudson Company's Target stores, would be the retailer's future. Within 18 months, management quintupled the size of the operation, now called Jefferson Ward, to more than 40 units and planned to convert one-third of Montgomery Ward's existing stores to the Jefferson Ward model. The burden of servicing the new stores fell to the tiny Jefferson staff, who were overwhelmed by the increased store count, had no experience in dealing with some of the product lines they now carried, and were unfamiliar with buying for northern markets. Almost immediately, Jefferson had turned from a small moneymaker into a large drain on profits. The company sold the chain's 18-store Northern Division to Bradlees, a division of Stop & Shop, in 1985. The remaining stores closed.\n\nIn 1985, the company closed its catalog business after 113 years and began an aggressive policy of renovating its remaining stores. It restructured many of the store layouts in the downtown areas of larger cities and affluent neighborhoods into boutique-like specialty stores, as these were drawing business from traditional department stores. In 1988, the company management undertook a successful $3.8 billion leveraged buyout, making Montgomery Ward a privately held company.\n\nIn 1987, the company began a push into consumer electronics, using the \"Electric Avenue\" name. Montgomery Ward greatly expanded its electronics presence by shifting from a predominantly private label mix to an assortment dominated by major brands such as Sony, Toshiba, Hitachi, Panasonic, JVC and others. Vice President Vic Sholis, later President of the Tandy Name Brand Retail Group (McDuff, VideoConcepts, and Incredible Universe), led this strategy. In 1994, revenues increased 94% largely due to Montgomery Ward's tremendously successful direct-marketing arms. For a short period, the company reentered the mail-order business, through \"Montgomery Ward Direct\", a mail order business licensed to the catalog giant Fingerhut. But by the mid-1990s, sales margins eroded in the competitive electronics and appliance hardlines, which traditionally were Montgomery Ward's strongest lines.\n\nIn 1994, Wards acquired the now-defunct New England retail chain Lechmere.\n\nBankruptcy, restructuring, and liquidation\n\nBy the 1990s, however, even its rivals began to lose ground to low-price competition from Kmart, Wal-Mart, and especially Target, which eroded even more of Montgomery Ward's traditional customer base. In 1997, it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, emerging from protection by the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Illinois in August 1999 as a wholly owned subsidiary of GE Capital, which was by then its largest shareholder. As part of a last-ditch effort to remain competitive, the company closed 250 retail locations in 30 U.S. states (including all the Lechmere stores), abandoned the specialty store strategy, renamed and rebranded the chain as simply Wards (although unrelated, Wards was the original name for the now-defunct Circuit City), and spent millions of dollars to renovate its remaining outlets to be flashier and more consumer-friendly. But GE reneged on promises of further financial support of Montgomery Ward's restructuring plans.\n\nOn December 28, 2000, the company, after lower-than-expected sales during the Christmas season, announced it would cease operating, close its remaining 250 retail outlets, and lay off its 37,000 employees. All the stores closed within weeks of the announcement. The subsequent liquidation was at the time the largest retail Chapter 7 bankruptcy liquidation in American history (this was surpassed by Circuit City's liquidation eight years later). Roger Goddu, Montgomery Ward's CEO, received an offer from JCPenney to become CEO, but he declined under pressure from GE. One of the last stores to close was the Salem, Oregon location in which the human resources division was located. All of Montgomery Ward was liquidated by the end of May 2001, ending a 130-year enterprise.\n\nTermination of pension plan\n\nIn 1999, Montgomery Ward completed a standard termination of its $1.1 billion employee pension plan (Wards Retirement Plan WRP and Retired/Terminated Associate Plan RTAP), which at that time had an alleged estimated surplus of $270 million. The termination of the pension plan included 30,000 Wards retirees and 22,000 active employees who were employed by Wards in 1999. According to tax rules at that time (to avoid paying a 50% federal excise tax on the plan's termination), Wards then placed 25% of the plan's surplus into a new replacement pension plan, and paid federal tax of just 20% on the balance of the surplus. The final result: the estimated remaining $25 to $50 million of the employee pension plan surplus went to Wards free of income taxes, because the company, which was in Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings, had huge operating losses. In reality, Wards received an alleged estimated $25 to $50 million for ending the employee pension plan and avoided paying hundreds of thousands in yearly pension premiums to the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation. Employees and retirees vested in the pension plan were given a choice of receiving an annuity from an insurance company or a lump sum payment.\n\nDistribution centers\n\nFour of the six massive catalog distribution centers Montgomery Ward built between 1921 and 1929 remain. Three have been subject to renovations for adaptive reuse and the buildings are perhaps the most tangible legacy of Montgomery Ward. Two others have been demolished for various types of redevelopment. \n*In Baltimore, the 1925 warehouse, an eight-story, 1300000 sqft building at 1800 Washington Blvd. southwest of downtown Baltimore, now known as Montgomery Park, has been restored for office use. It has a green building with a green roof, storm water reutilization systems, and extensive use of recycled building materials. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2000 as the Montgomery Ward Warehouse and Retail Store. \n*The eight-story Fort Worth facility at West 7th St and Carroll was built in 1928 to replace the previous operation in a former Chevrolet assembly plant across the street. In its history, the warehouse survived a flood in 1949 that reached the second floor and a direct hit from a tornado in 2000. After the demise of the company, developers renovated the structure as a mixed-use condominium project and retail center known as Montgomery Plaza.\n*The Portland, Oregon center at NW 27th and Vaughn, ceased operation as a warehouse in 1976. A developer purchased the property in 1984 and renamed Montgomery Park, converting it for offices making it the second-largest office building in Portland.[http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/ohq/107.1/dibling.html Oregon Historical Quarterly] \n*The Kansas City distribution center at St. John Street and North Belmont Boulevard houses the Super Flea flea market.\n*The St. Paul, Minnesota center at 1450 University Ave West was the fourth of the distribution centers to be built and employed up to 2,500 employees in the 1920s. It had more than 1 e6sqft or 27 acres, under roof, making it the largest building in St. Paul at the time. The last remaining section of the original building was demolished in 1996. The site was redeveloped as a shopping center called Midway Marketplace.\n*The Oakland, California facility, constructed in 1923, was an eight-story 950000 sqft structure of reinforced concrete frame that was the largest industrial building in Oakland. After years of community organizing that urged city leaders to either demolish or re-purpose the site, despite opposition by preservation groups, the building at 2875 International Boulevard was demolished in 2003. It has been replaced by the Cesar Chavez Education Center, an elementary school.\n\nAs online retailer\n\nAt its height, the original Montgomery Ward was one of the largest retailers in the United States. After its demise, the familiarity of its brand meant its name, corporate logo, and advertising were still considered valuable intangible assets. In 2004, catalog marketer Direct Marketing Services Inc. (DMSI), an Iowa-based direct marketing company, purchased much of the intellectual property assets of the former Wards, including the \"Montgomery Ward\" and \"Wards\" trademarks, for an undisclosed amount of money.\n\nDMSI applied the brand to a new online and catalog-based retailing operation, with no physical stores, headquartered in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. DMSI then began operating under the Montgomery Ward branding and managed to get it up and running in three months. The new firm began operations in June 2004, selling essentially the same categories of products as the former brand, but as a new, smaller catalog.\n\nThe DMSI version of Montgomery Ward was not the same company as the original. The company did not honor obligations of the previous company, such as gift cards and items sold with a lifetime guarantee. David Milgrom, then president of the firm, said in an interview with the Associated Press: \"We're rebuilding the brand, and we want to do it right.\"\n\nIn July 2008, DMSI announced it was on the auction block, with sale scheduled for the following month. Catalog retailer Swiss Colony purchased DMSI August 5, 2008. Swiss Colony – which changed its name to Colony Brands Inc. on June 1, 2010 – announced it would keep the Montgomery Ward catalog division open. The Website launched September 10, 2008, with new catalogs mailing in February 2009. A month before the catalogs' launch, Swiss Colony President John Baumann told United Press International the retailer might also resurrect Montgomery Ward's Signature and Powr-Kraft store brands. To augment its vast selection, Montgomery Ward started promoting several exclusive new brands in July 2012 in its Early Fall 2012 catalog and on its website– Devonshire Collection, Apothecarie Collection and Elysian Forest Collection furniture, Chef Tested kitchen products, Comfort Creek towels and sheets, Freshica shoes, Sleep Connection bedding and Color Connection window treatments.", "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer is a fictional male reindeer, created by Robert Lewis May, usually depicted as a young calf who barely has antlers, with a glowing red nose, popularly known as \"Santa's Ninth Reindeer.\" When depicted, he is the lead reindeer pulling Santa's sleigh on Christmas Eve. The luminosity of his nose is so great that it illuminates the team's path through inclement winter weather.\n\nRudolph first appeared in a 1939 booklet written by Robert L. May and published by Montgomery Ward. \n\nThe story is owned by The Rudolph Company, LP and has been adapted in numerous forms including a popular song, a television special and sequels, and a feature film and sequel. Character Arts, LLC manages the licensing for the Rudolph Company, LP. In many countries, Rudolph has become a figure of Christmas folklore. 2014 marked the 75th anniversary of the character and the 50th anniversary of the television special. A series of postage stamps featuring Rudolph was issued by the United States Postal Service on November 6, 2014. \n\nPublication history\n\nRobert L. May created Rudolph in 1939, as an assignment for Chicago-based Montgomery Ward. The retailer had been buying and giving away coloring books for Christmas every year and it was decided that creating their own book would save money. Rudolph was supposed to be a moose but that was changed because a reindeer seemed friendly. May considered naming the reindeer \"Rollo\" or \"Reginald\" before deciding upon using the name \"Rudolph\". In its first year of publication, Montgomery Ward had distributed 2.5 million copies of Rudolph's story. The story is written as a poem in anapestic tetrameter, the same meter as \"A Visit from St. Nicholas\" (also known as \"'Twas the Night Before Christmas\"). Publication and reprint rights for the book Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer are controlled by Pearson Plc.\n\nOf note is the change in the cultural significance of a red nose. In popular culture, a bright red nose was then closely associated with chronic alcoholism and drunkards, and so the story idea was initially rejected. May asked his illustrator friend at Wards, Denver Gillen, to draw \"cute reindeer\", using zoo deer as models. The alert, bouncy character Gillen developed convinced management to support the idea. \n\nMaxton Books published the first mass-market edition of Rudolph and a sequel, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer Shines Again, in 1954. In 1991, Applewood Books published Rudolph's Second Christmas, an unpublished sequel that Robert May wrote in 1947. In 2003, Penguin Books issued a reprint version of the original Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer with new artwork by Lisa Papp. Penguin also reprinted May's sequels, Rudolph Shines Again and Rudolph's Second Christmas (now retitled Rudolph to the Rescue).\n\nThe story\n\nThe story chronicles the experiences of Rudolph, a youthful reindeer buck (male) who possesses an unusual luminous red nose. Mocked and excluded by his peers because of this trait, Rudolph manages to prove himself one Christmas Eve after Santa Claus catches sight of Rudolph's nose and asks Rudolph to lead his sleigh for the evening. Rudolph agrees, and is finally treated better by his fellow reindeer for his heroism.\n\nIn media\n\nTheatrical cartoon short (1948)\n\nRudolph made his first screen appearance in 1948, in a cartoon short produced by Max Fleischer for the Jam Handy Corporation that was more faithful to May's original story than Marks' song, which had not yet been written. It was reissued in 1951 with the song added.\n\nSong (1949)\n\nMay's brother-in-law, Johnny Marks, adapted the story of Rudolph into a song. Gene Autry's recording of the song hit No. 1 on the Billboard pop singles chart the week of Christmas 1949. Autry's recording sold 2.5 million copies the first year, eventually selling a total of 25 million, and it remained the second best-selling record of all time until the 1980s. \n\nComic books (beginning in 1950)\n\nDC Comics, then known as National Periodical Publications, published a series of 13 annuals titled Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer from 1950 to 1962. Rube Grossman drew most of the 1950s stories. \n\nIn 1972, DC Comics published a 14th edition in an extra-large format. Subsequently, they published six more in that format: Limited Collectors' Edition C-24, C-33, C-42, C-50 and All-New Collectors' Edition C-53, C-60. \n\nAdditionally, one digest format edition was published as The Best of DC #4 (March–April 1980). The 1970s Rudolph stories were written and drawn by Sheldon Mayer. \n\nChildren's book (1958)\n\nIn 1958, Little Golden Books published an illustrated storybook, adapted by Barbara Shook Hazen and illustrated by Richard Scarry. The book, similar in story to the Max Fleischer cartoon short, is no longer in print, but a revised Little Golden Books version of the storybook was reissued in 1972.\n\nStop-motion animation television special (1964) and sequels (1976–79)\n\nIn 1964, Rankin/Bass adapted the tale into a stop-motion Christmas special. Filmed entirely in Japan, with all sound recordings done in Toronto, Canada, the show premièred on NBC, drastically altering the original telling of the story. This re-telling chronicles Rudolph's social rejection among his peers and his decision to run away from home. Rudolph is accompanied by a similarly outcast elf named Hermey, whose dreams of becoming a dentist are shunned by the other elves, along with a loud, boisterous, eager prospector named Yukon Cornelius who was in search of wealth. Additional original characters include Rudolph's love interest, Clarice; the antagonistic \"Abominable Snow Monster\"; and, as narrator, the anthropomorphic Sam the Snowman, voiced by Burl Ives. The movie uses the story from the original song, but adds a more in-depth look at the story of Rudolph. In the 1964 stop-motion movie, Rudolph is born to Donner the Reindeer, and Donner's wife. He is discovered by Santa to have a shiny, glowing red nose. Donner, regardless of Rudolph's defect, trains him, to be a normal reindeer, with skills such as gathering food, and hiding from the \"Abominable Snow Monster\", a giant, furry white beast.\n\nTo hide Rudolph's nose, Donner puts dirt on it, to cover the nose with a black coating. Consequentially, this causes Rudolph to talk in a funny accent, as told by the Rudolph's peers. Soon, Rudolph enters the \"Reindeer Games\" coached by Comet, to see which reindeer are eligible to fly Santa's sleigh in the future. He meets a friend, named Fireball. Rudolph also meets a doe, named Clarice, who becomes Rudolph's love interest throughout the movie. She calls Rudolph cute, which causes Rudolph to become excited, exclaiming \"she said I'm cute!\" And flying, exceeding Comet's and all the other calf's and doe's expectations for a flying calf. This makes Rudolph and Fireball happy, as they play around with their antlers.\nThe play causes Rudolph's false nose to fall off, and scares Fireball and everyone to make fun of him, except for Clarice. Clarice tells Rudolph that she doesn't care about his nose, and they walk together, until Clarice's dad says that she is not allowed anymore to talk or interact in any way with Rudolph, because of his nose. Meanwhile, Hermey, an elf with dreams of becoming a dentist, quits his job after being yelled at from his boss because he missed elf practice, which is a band practice performed in front of Santa and Mrs. Clause. He runs away, after being told he'll never fit in.\n\nAfter both characters walk, depressed about being discriminated, they run into each other, saying that they're both independent, and that they should both be independent together. They then decide to run away together. Along the way, the duo meets Yukon Cornelius, a prospector whose one desire is to find silver and gold. They all soon run into the Abominable Snow Monster, who is attracted to Rudolph's nose. They go onto an iceberg, and travel, with Rudolph's nose dimming down. Soon, they land on the Island of Misfit Toys, which is home to toys that have multiple defects, for example, a polka-dot elephant, or a cowboy riding an ostrich. The trio asks to stay at the island, and is sent to King Moonracer. He accepts, only if Santa promises to deliver the misfit toys to children who will love them. But the trio leaves the island, with Rudolph knowing that if they stay, they will endanger everyone else with Rudolph's nose. Years later, Rudolph is moving from place to place, and constantly is leaving because of his nose. Soon, he finds his friends and family being held captive by the Abominable Snow Monster. Rudolph is knocked unconscious after fighting the monster. But Hermey and Yukon then lure the monster and knock him out. Hermey then extracts his teeth, but the Snow Monster knocks himself and Yukon off a cliff, apparently killing him. Later, Santa tells Rudolph he will find a home for all the misfit toys, and Hermey plans to open up a dentist shop the week after Christmas. Soon, everyone apologizes to Rudolph about making fun of his nose, and Yukon returns with a tamed Snow Monster. But suddenly, a huge blizzard comes, and Santa asks Rudolph to guide his, sleigh, to which Rudolph accepts. Santa then takes the misfit toys, and they are given homes.\n\nAfter the story's initial broadcast, its closing credits were revised. Images of wrapped presents being dropped from Santa's sleigh were replaced by \"Misfit\" Toys being dropped to the homes of children below, where they were found by children who loved them. The changes were prompted by viewer feedback pleading for a happy ending for each toy. The special now airs annually on CBS, rather than NBC, and is hailed as a classic by many. The special's original assortment of trademarked characters have acquired iconic status, and its alterations of the true storyline are frequently parodied in other works.\n\nThe sequel Rudolph's Shiny New Year (premier air date December 10, 1976) continued the reindeer's journeys, and the series was made into a trilogy with the 1979 feature-length film Christmas in July, which integrated the Rudolph universe into that of Rankin-Bass's adaptation of Frosty the Snowman.\n\nAnimated feature-length films\n\nRudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer: The Movie (1998) is an animated feature film. It received only a limited theatrical release before debuting on home video. Its inclusion of a villain, a love interest, a sidekick, and a strong protector are more derivative of the Rankin-Bass adaptation of the story than the original tale and song (the characters of Stormella, Zoey, Arrow, Slyly, and Leonard parallel the Rankin-Bass characters of the Bumble, Clarice, Fireball, Hermey, and Yukon, respectively). The movie amplifies the early backstory of Rudolph's harassment by his schoolmates (primarily his cousin Arrow) during his formative years.\n\nGoodTimes Entertainment, the producers of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer: The Movie, brought back most of the same production team for a CGI animated sequel, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and the Island of Misfit Toys (2001). Unlike the previous film, the sequel featured the original characters from the Rankin-Bass special (as GoodTimes soon learned that Rankin-Bass had made a copyright error that made the characters unique to their special free to use).\n\nOther\n\nA live-action version of Rudolph (complete with glowing nose) along with Donner and Blitzen appears in the Doctor Who Christmas special, Last Christmas, which was broadcast on BBC One on 25 December 2014. In this special, Santa is able to park him like a car and turn off his nose.\n\nNathaniel Dominy, an anthropology professor at Dartmouth College (Robert L. May's alma mater), published a scholarly paper on Rudolph's red nose in the open access online journal Frontiers for Young Minds in 2015. In the paper, Dominy noted that reindeer eyes can perceive shorter wavelengths of light than humans, allowing them to see ultraviolet light; ultraviolet light, however, is much more easily scattered in fog, which would blind reindeer. Thus, Rudolph's red nose, emitting longer-wavelength red light, would penetrate the fog more easily. A summary of Dominy's findings was released in an Associated Press article on December 22. \n\nHomages in media\n\nFilm\n\n*In the film remake of Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000), The Grinch disguises his dog, Max, as Rudolph for his plan to disguise himself as Santa Claus and steal everything in each house in Whoville, to stop Christmas from coming. He also changes Rudolph's story saying, he hates Christmas and is gonna steal it. He then yells \"Action!\" through a megaphone. But Max takes off the fake red nose the Grinch had put on him.\n*In the film Fred Claus (2007), Rudolph is mentioned and briefly seen, although his red nose is not glowing. Fred (Vince Vaughn) is filling in for his injured brother Nick (Paul Giamatti) delivering the toys on Christmas Eve. While en route, he crashes the sleigh through a billboard advertisement for Pepsi Cola featuring Santa Claus and tells Rudolph to \"shake it off\". There are quick edits of Fred flying through the night making his deliveries. Willie the elf says, \"Fred, I have a bad feeling about this\", followed by a shot of the full moon. The sleigh zips by and turns to go head on into the camera. Here, you can see Rudolph leading the pack. In slow motion, you can clearly count nine reindeer.\n\nGames\n\n*Rudolph is mentioned in the video game Army of Two (2008) during a tutorial video about the use of the game's Aggro feature.\n*In Guild Wars Nightfall (2006), player characters are accompanied by a reindeer named Rudy whose nose begins to glow red when coming into range of presents that the player is tasked to find in a holiday themed quest.\n\nMusic\n\n*Rudolph is mentioned in the Beach Boys' song \"Little Saint Nick\" (1963) in the following lyric: \"Now haulin' through the snow at a frightening speed with a half a dozen deer with Rudy to lead.\" \n*\"Run Rudolph Run\" (1958) is a Christmas song popularized by Chuck Berry and written by Johnny Marks and Marvin Brodie and published by St. Nicholas Music (ASCAP). The song was released as a single on Chess Records (label no. 1714) and has since been covered by numerous other artists, sometimes under the title \"Run, Run, Rudolph\". The song is a 12-bar blues and has a clear musical parallel to Chuck Berry's popular and recognizable song, \"Johnny B. Goode\" (1958); it is also melodically identical to Berry's \"Little Queenie\" (1959).\n*In Ray Stevens' novelty song \"Santa Claus Is Watching You\" (1962), Rudolph is replaced on Santa's team by \"Clyde the Camel\", a character from Steven's earlier hit, \"Ahab the Arab\". In the original version, aimed at children in a similar fashion to \"Santa Claus Is Coming to Town\", Rudolph was said to be recuperating from an injury sustained during \"a twist contest\"; a later version, warning a lover away from infidelity because Santa is watching, has Rudolph on a \"stakeout at (the lover's) house\".\n\nTelevision and webisodes\n\n*In the Doctor Who promotional mini-webisode, \"Songtaran Carols\" (2012), the Sontaran warrior-nurse-detective, Strax, stated: \"Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer, had a very shiny nose. It proved to be a tactical disadvantage, because it enabled me to punch him in the dark.\"\n*Rudolph along with Donner and Blitzen appear in the Doctor Who Christmas special, Last Christmas.\n*The anime/manga series One Piece has a main character Tony Tony Chopper, who was discriminated for his blue nose and was born on Christmas Eve. However his background is otherwise very different and has the ability to shapeshift.\n\nRelatives in different adaptations\n\nParents\n\n*Robert L. May's original book does not name Rudolph's parents.\n*The animated specials produced by both Rankin-Bass and GoodTimes Entertainment have given Rudolph different sets of parents:\n**In Rankin-Bass's holiday special, he is Donner's son, and his mother is a tan doe who is called Mrs.\n**In GoodTimes' retelling, Rudolph's father is Blitzen, and his mother is named Mitzi.\n\nOffspring\n\nThree BBC animations carry on the legend by introducing Rudolph's son, Robbie the Reindeer. However, Rudolph is never directly mentioned by name (references are replaced by the character Blitzen's interrupting with the phrase, \"Don't say that name!\", or something similar, presumably for copyright reasons.)\n\nSiblings\n\nRudolph is also given a brother, Rusty Reindeer, in the American special, Holidaze: The Christmas That Almost Didn't Happen (2006). Unlike in the \"Robbie the Reindeer\" cartoons, Rudolph's name is mentioned in the film.\n\nMichael Fry and T. Lewis have given Rudolph another brother in a series of Over the Hedge comic strips: an overweight, emotionally damaged reindeer named Ralph, the Infra-Red nosed Reindeer. Ralph's red nose is good for defrosting Santa's sleigh and warming up toast and waffles; he enviously complains about his brother Rudolph's publicity and his own anonymity.\n\nAunts, uncles, and cousins\n\n* Rudolph has a cousin, Leroy, in Joe Diffie's 1995 song, \"Leroy the Redneck Reindeer\" (1995), which tells the story of Leroy's joining the sleigh team to substitute for Rudolph, who was ill.\n* In GoodTimes' retelling, three of Santa's reindeer (Dasher, Comet, and Cupid) are his uncles, and Cupid's son Arrow is Rudolph's cousin and rival.", "\"Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer\" is a song written by Johnny Marks based on the 1939 story Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer published by the Montgomery Ward Company.\n\nHistory\n\nIn 1939 Marks' brother-in-law, Robert L. May, created the character Rudolph as an assignment for Montgomery Ward, and Marks decided to adapt the story of Rudolph into a song. Marks (1909–1985) was a radio producer who also wrote several other popular Christmas songs. \n\nThe song had an added introduction, stating the names of the eight reindeer which went:\n\n\"You know Dasher and Dancer and Prancer and Vixen,\nComet and Cupid and Donner and Blitzen,\nBut do you recall\nThe most famous reindeer of all?\"\n\nThe song was sung commercially by crooner Harry Brannon on New York City radio in early November 1949, before Gene Autry's recording hit No. 1 in the U.S. charts the week of Christmas 1949. Autry's version of the song also holds the distinction of being the only chart-topping hit to fall completely off the chart after reaching No. 1. The official date of its No. 1 status was for the week ending January 7, 1950, making it the first No. 1 song of the 1950s. \n\nThe song was also performed on the December 6, 1949, Fibber McGee and Molly radio broadcast by Teeny (Marion Jordan's little girl character) and The Kingsmen vocal group. The lyrics varied greatly from the Autry version.\n\nAutry's recording sold 1.75 million copies its first Christmas season, eventually selling a total of 12.5 million. Cover versions included, sales exceed 150 million copies, second only to Bing Crosby's \"White Christmas\". \n\nCurrent owner of copyrights is Kobalt Music Group\n\nOther notable recordings\n\n* 1950: The song was recorded by Bing Crosby. His version reached No. 6 on Billboard magazine's Best Selling Children's Records chart and No. 14 on Billboards pop singles chart that year. \n* 1950: Spike Jones and his City Slickers released a version of the song that peaked at No. 7 on Billboard magazine's pop singles chart and No. 8 on Billboards Best Selling Children's Records chart. \n* 1951: Red Foley and The Little Foleys released a version of the song that peaked at No. 8 on Billboard magazine's Best Selling Children's Records chart. \n* 1953: Billy May recorded a mambo version of the song titled \"Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer Mambo\" with vocals by Alvin Stoller.\n* 1957: The Cadillacs released a doo-wop version of the song that peaked at No. 11 on Billboard magazine's Rhythm & Blues Records chart. \n* 1959: Dean Martin recorded the song for his album, A Winter Romance.\n* 1959: Ray Conniff recorded the song for his album, Christmas with Conniff, which was designed as a presentation for dancing.\n* 1960: Alvin and the Chipmunks recorded a popular cover for their album Around the World with The Chipmunks. They would record the song again for their 1961 album Christmas with The Chipmunks and their 1994 album A Very Merry Chipmunk as a duet with Gene Autry.\n* 1960: Ella Fitzgerald recorded the song for her album, Ella Wishes You a Swinging Christmas.\n* 1960: The Melodeers released a doo-wop version of the song that peaked at No. 72 on Billboard magazine's Hot 100 singles chart. \n* 1960: Paul Anka released a version of the song that peaked at No. 104 on Billboard magazine's Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles chart. \n* 1963: The Crystals recorded the song for the rock 'n' roll holiday album A Christmas Gift for You from Philles Records, which was produced by Phil Spector.\n* 1964: Ernest Tubb recorded a country version on his LP Blue Christmas.\n* 1964: Burl Ives recorded the song for the soundtrack of the holiday TV special, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. The soundtrack album containing Ives' version reached No. 142 on the Billboard 200 albums sales chart. He would re-record the song the following year for his holiday album Have a Holly Jolly Christmas.\n* 1965: The Supremes recorded the song for their holiday album, Merry Christmas.\n* 1968: The Temptations released a version of the song that peaked at No. 12 on Billboard magazine's special, year-end, weekly Christmas Singles chart (this same version later got as high as No. 3 on the same chart in December 1971). Their version of the song was also included on the group's 1970 Christmas album, The Temptations Christmas Card.\n* 1970: The Jackson 5 recorded the song for their holiday album, The Jackson 5 Christmas Album.\n* 1977: Filipino singer Rico J. Puno covered the song for his holiday album, Christmas.\n* 1979: Paul McCartney recorded an instrumental version of the song under the title Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reggae. It was released as the B-side of his first Christmas hit, Wonderful Christmastime.\n* 1982: Merle Haggard recorded the song for his holiday album, Goin' Home for Christmas.\n* 1985: Ray Charles recorded the song for his holiday album The Spirit of Christmas.\n* 1985: Corey Hart performed the song live at a concert held at Lansdowne Park in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada in August 1985. The special collector's edition clear red vinyl 45-rpm single was released in October of that year.\n* 1987: The California Raisins did a rendition of the song (largely based on The Temptations' 1968 version) for Will Vinton's A Claymation Christmas Celebration.\n* 1989: The Simpsons performed the song during the end credits of their series' pilot episode \"Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire\".\n* 1990: Dolly Parton recorded the song for her holiday album, Home for Christmas.\n* 1995: Mannheim Steamroller produced a techno-like synth-driven arrangement on their album Christmas in the Aire.\n* 1996: Alan Jackson released a version of the song that peaked at No. 56 on Billboard magazine's Hot Country Singles & Tracks chart. \n* 1996: The Wiggles recorded this song for their album, Wiggly, Wiggly Christmas. A year later, they sang it on their video, Wiggly Wiggly Christmas.\n* 1996: Peach Hips, a group consisting of Kotono Mitsuishi, Aya Hisakawa, Rica Fukami, Emi Shinohara and Michie Tomizawa covered this song for a Christmas album coinciding with the fifth season of Sailor Moon.\n* 1997: RuPaul recorded a version of the song with altered lyrics for the album Ho, Ho, Ho.\n* 1998: Babyface recorded the song for his holiday album, Christmas with Babyface.\n* 1999: Jewel recorded the song for her holiday album, Joy: A Holiday Collection.\n* 1999: Ringo Starr recorded the song for his holiday album, I Wanna Be Santa Claus.\n* 2000: Lynyrd Skynyrd recorded the song for their holiday album, Christmas Time Again.\n* 2002: Jack Johnson recorded the song for a various artists holiday album released by Nettwerk Records and titled Maybe This Christmas (this same version was also released on the 2008 various artists holiday album, This Warm December: Brushfire Holiday Volume 1, which was released on Johnson's record label Brushfire Records).\n* 2002: Kidz Bop Kids covered this song for the album Kidz Bop Christmas (2002). Also featured in The Coolest Kidz Bop Christmas Ever! (2007), and Kidz Bop Christmas (2009, 2011, 2012).\n* 2003: Chicago released a jazz-funk arrangement of the song for their album, What's It Gonna Be, Santa\n* 2004: Destiny's Child included the song on a reissue of their 2001 holiday album, 8 Days of Christmas.\n*2004: Rugrats characters Susie Carmichael, and Kimi Finster performed a rock version of the song for their 2004 album Rugrats Holiday Classics.\n* 2007: 1910 Fruitgum Company recorded the song for their Christmas album, Bubblegum Christmas.\n* 2007: Deathcore band I Declare War (band) recorded the song for their Bring the Season EP.\n* 2009: Barry Manilow included the song in the re-release of his third Christmas album, In the Swing of Christmas.\n* 2011: Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, and Goofy sing their version of the song in the Disney Karaoke Series: Christmas Favorites album.\n* 2012: Rapper DMX performed an a cappella version of the song with his own ad-libs. \n* 2012: Metalcore band August Burns Red recorded and released the song on their holiday album, August Burns Red Presents: Sleddin' Hill.\n* 2013: Mary J. Blige sang the song on the finale of The X Factor (USA).\n\nOther Versions \n\nBurl Ives Version (1964) \n\nBurl Ives recorded the song for the soundtrack of the holiday TV special, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. The soundtrack album containing Ives' version reached No. 142 on the Billboard 200 albums sales chart. He would re-record the song the following year for his holiday album Have a Holly Jolly Christmas.\n\nBabyface Version (1998) \n\nBabyface recorded the song for his holiday album, Christmas with Babyface.\n\nKidz Bop Kids Version (2002) \n\nKidz Bop Kids recorded the song in 2002 for the album Kidz Bop Christmas.\n\n3rd Generation Mix (2011) \n\nA 3rd Generation Mix was released in 2011.\n\nDestiny's Child Version (2004) \n\nDestiny's Child included the song on a reissue of their 2001 holiday album, 8 Days of Christmas.\n\nDMX Version (2012) \n\nRapper DMX performed an a cappella version of the song with his own ad-libs.\n\nIn popular culture\n\nThe lyric \"All of the other reindeer\" can be misheard in dialects with the cot–caught merger as the mondegreen \"Olive, the other reindeer\", and has given rise to another character featured in her own Christmas television special, Olive, the Other Reindeer. (She mentions Rudolph by name to one of the reindeer, and the reindeer tells her that Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer doesn't exist; it's all an urban legend.)\n\nThe song in its Finnish translation, Petteri Punakuono, has led to Rudolph's general acceptance in the mythology as the lead reindeer of Joulupukki, the Finnish Santa.\n\nOn the December 23, 2011, edition of WWE SmackDown, Booker T sang a capella the parody of the song, \"Cody the Red-Nosed Reindeer\", with a reference to Cody Rhodes, in order to cost Rhodes the match against Zack Ryder.\n\nThe series of light novels Sword Art Online has a chapter named \"The Red-Nosed Reindeer\" after the song, due to a character of the series singing the song by the end of the chapter." ] }

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{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe", "TagMe", "TagMe" ], "filename": [ "Ballet.txt", "The_Nutcracker.txt", "Nutcracker.txt" ], "title": [ "Ballet", "The Nutcracker", "Nutcracker" ], "wiki_context": [ "Ballet is a type of performance dance that originated in the Italian Renaissance courts of the 15th century and later developed into a concert dance form in France and Russia. It has since become a widespread, highly technical form of dance with its own vocabulary based on French terminology. It has been globally influential and has defined the foundational techniques used in many other dance genres. Becoming a ballet dancer requires years of training. Ballet has been taught in various schools around the world, which have historically incorporated their own cultures to evolve the art.\n\nBallet may also refer to a ballet dance work, which consists of the choreography and music for a ballet production. A well-known example of this is The Nutcracker, a two-act ballet that was originally choreographed by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov with a music score by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. Ballets are choreographed and performed by trained artists. Traditional classical ballets usually are performed with classical music accompaniment and use elaborate costumes and staging, whereas modern ballets, such as the neoclassical works of American choreographer George Balanchine, often are performed in simple costumes (e.g., leotards and tights) and without the use of elaborate sets or scenery.\n\nEtymology\n\nBallet is a French word which had its origin in Italian balletto, a diminutive of ballo (dance) which comes from Latin ballo, ballare, meaning \"to dance\", which in turn comes from the Greek \"βαλλίζω\" (ballizo), \"to dance, to jump about\". The word came into English usage from the French around 1630.\n\nHistory\n\nBallet originated in the Italian Renaissance courts of the 15th and 16th centuries before being spread from Italy to France by an Italian aristocrat, Catherine de' Medici, who became Queen of France. In France, ballet developed even further under her aristocratic influence. The dancers in these early court ballets were mostly noble amateurs. Ballets in this period were lengthy and elaborate and often served a political purpose. Ornamented costumes were meant to impress viewers and restricted performers' freedom of movement.\n\nThe ballets were performed in large chambers with viewers on three sides. The implementation of the proscenium arch from 1618 on distanced performers from audience members, who could then better view and appreciate the technical feats of the professional dancers in the productions.\n\nFrench court ballet reached its height under the reign of King Louis XIV. Known as the Sun King, Louis symbolized the brilliance of France. In 1661 Louis founded the Académie Royale de Danse (Royal Dance Academy) to establish standards and certify dance instructors. In 1672, Louis XIV made Jean-Baptiste Lully the director of the Académie Royale de Musique (Paris Opera) from which the first professional ballet company, the Paris Opera Ballet, arose. Lully is considered the most important composer of music for ballets de cour and instrumental to the development of the form.\n\nBallet went into decline in France after 1830, though it continued to develop in Denmark, Italy, and Russia. The arrival in Europe on the eve of First World War of the Ballets Russes of Sergei Diaghilev, revived interest in the ballet and started the modern era. The Russian choreographer Michel Fokine challenged tradition and called for reforms that reinvigorated ballet as an art form. \n\nIn the 20th century, ballet had a strong influence on other dance genres, and subgenres of ballet have also evolved. In the United States, choreographer George Balanchine developed what is now known as neoclassical ballet. Other developments include contemporary ballet and post-structural ballet. Also in the twentieth century, ballet took a turn dividing it from classical ballet to the introduction of modern dance, leading to modernist movements in several countries. Famous dancers of the 20th century include Mikhail Baryshnikov, Suzanne Farrell, Gelsey Kirkland, Natalia Makarova, and Arthur Mitchell.\n\nStyles\n\nStylistic variations have emerged and evolved since the Italian Renaissance. Early, classical variations are primarily associated with geographic origin. Examples of this are Russian ballet, French ballet, and Italian ballet. Later variations, such as contemporary ballet and neoclassical ballet, incorporate both classical ballet and non-traditional technique and movement. Perhaps the most widely known and performed ballet style is late Romantic ballet (or Ballet blanc), a classical style that focuses on female dancers (ballerinas) and features pointe work, flowing and precise movements, and often presents the female dancers in traditional, short white tutus.\n\nRomantic ballet\n\nRomantic ballet is defined by an era during the early to mid 19th century (the romantic era) in which ballets featured themes that emphasized intense emotion as a source of aesthetic experience. The plots of many romantic ballets revolved around spirit women (sylphs, wilis, and ghosts) who enslaved the hearts and senses of mortal men. The 1827 ballet La Sylphide is widely considered to be the first, and the 1870 ballet Coppélia is considered to be the last work of romantic ballet. Famous ballet dancers of the Romantic era include Marie Taglioni and Fanny Elssler. \n\nClassical ballet\n\nClassical ballet is based on traditional ballet technique and vocabulary. There are different styles of classical ballet that are related to their areas of origin, such as French ballet, Italian ballet and Russian ballet. Several of the classical ballet styles are associated with specific training methods, which are typically named after their creators. For example, the Cecchetti method is named after its creator, Italian dancer Enrico Cecchetti and the Vaganova method is named after Russian ballerina Agrippina Vaganova. The Royal Academy of Dance method is a ballet technique and training system that was founded by a diverse group of ballet dancers. They merged their respective dance methods (Italian, French, Danish and Russian) to create a new style of ballet that is unique to the organisation and is recognized internationally as the English style of ballet. Some examples of classical ballet productions are: Swan Lake, The Nutcracker, and Sleeping Beauty.\n\nNeoclassical ballet\n\nNeoclassical ballet is a style that utilizes classical ballet technique and vocabulary, but deviates from classical ballet in its use of the abstract. In Neo-Classical Ballet, there often is no clear plot, costumes or scenery. Music choice can be diverse and will often include music that is also Neo-Classical (e.g. Stravinsky, Webern). Neo-Classical ballet opens up the use of space to multiple possibilities, as the elimination of the necessity of formalities and story telling allows far more possibilities for architecture and design in choreography.\n\nTim Scholl, author of From Petipa to Balanchine, considers George Balanchine's Apollo in 1928 to be the first neoclassical ballet. Apollo represented a return to form in response to Sergei Diaghilev's abstract ballets. Balanchine worked with modern dance choreographer Martha Graham, expanding his exposure to modern techniques and ideas, and he brought modern dancers into his company (New York City Ballet) such as Paul Taylor, who in 1959 performed in Balanchine's Episodes.\n\nWhile Balanchine is widely considered the face of Neo-Classical Ballet, there were others who made significant contributions to the development of the style. Fredrick Ashton’s Symphonic Dances (1946) is a seminal work for the choreographer, and is a work staged in white tunics, abstract and minimal set design with no discernable plot. Set to César Franck’s score of the same title, it is a pure-dance interpretation of the score in a manner that exemplifies the Ashton style.\n\nAnother form, Modern Ballet, also emerged as an offshoot of neo-classicism. Among the innovators in this form were Glen Tetley, Robert Joffrey and Gerald Arpino. While difficult to parse modern ballet from neo-classicism, the work of these choreographers favored a greater athleticism that departed from the delicacy of ballet. The physicality was more daring, with mood, subject matter and music more intense. An example of this would be Joffrey's Astarte (1967), which featured a rock score and sexual overtones in the choreography.\n\nContemporary ballet\n\nContemporary ballet is a form of dance that opens up the doors for any style to influence a work made utilizing ballet technique. Contemporary ballet can take on a wide variety of aesthetics, incorporating pedestrian, modern, jazz, or ethnic forms, so long as the roots of classical ballet are apparent. It allows for open-ended exploration and experimentation, but a good way to determine if a work is contemporary ballet, as opposed to contemporary dance, is to ask the question, is ballet training needed to perform this as it was intended?.\nAgain, it can sometimes be difficult to parse this form from neo-classical or modern ballet. Some prime examples of this would be Twyla Tharp’s Deuce Coupe (1973) for the Joffrey Ballet. In this ballet, Tharp juxtaposed a ballerina clad in white who makes her way through the lexicon of ballet steps, while dancers clad in street clothes, sometimes in pointe shoes, socks or sneakers, dance in wide range of styles to the music of the Beach Boys. In the 1980s William Forsythe made substantial innovations in contemporary ballet with a range of works, including In the Middle Somewhat Elevated (1987). This work featured a robust athleticism and electric score. Forsythe took classical ballet vocabulary and exaggerated it, making the dancers move bigger, faster and in more directions than before.\n\nMany contemporary ballet concepts come from the ideas and innovations of 20th-century modern dance, including floor work and turn-in of the legs. This ballet style is often performed barefoot. Contemporary ballets may include mime and acting, and are usually set to music (typically orchestral but occasionally vocal).\n\nGeorge Balanchine, the founding director of the New York City Ballet, is considered to have been a pioneer of contemporary ballet because of his pioneering development of neoclassical ballet. Another early contemporary ballet choreographer, Twyla Tharp, choreographed Push Comes To Shove for the American Ballet Theatre in 1976, and in 1986 created In The Upper Room for her own company. Both of these pieces were considered innovative for their melding of distinctly modern movements with the use of pointe shoes and classically trained dancers.\n\nToday there are many contemporary ballet companies and choreographers. These include Alonzo King and his company LINES Ballet; Matthew Bourne and his company New Adventures; Complexions Contemporary Ballet; Nacho Duato and his Compañia Nacional de Danza; William Forsythe and The Forsythe Company; and Jiří Kylián of the Nederlands Dans Theater. Traditionally \"classical\" companies, such as the Mariinsky (Kirov) Ballet and the Paris Opera Ballet, also regularly perform contemporary works.\n\nThe term ballet has evolved to include all forms associated with it. Someone training as a ballet dancer will now be expected to perform neo-classical, modern and contemporary work. A ballet dancer is expected to be able to be stately and regal for classical work, free and lyrical in neo-classical work, and unassuming, harsh or pedestrian for modern and contemporary work. The art form has grown vertically and horizontally and can sometimes be blurred with other dance forms, however the foundational elements of ballet technique will always be apparent.", "The Nutcracker ( / Shchelkunchik, Balet-feyeriya; ) is a two-act ballet, originally choreographed by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov with a score by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (op. 71). The libretto is adapted from E.T.A. Hoffmann's story The Nutcracker and the Mouse King, by way of Alexander Dumas' adapted story 'The Nutcracker'. It was given its première at the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg on Sunday, December 18, 1892, on a double-bill with Tchaikovsky's opera Iolanta.\n\nAlthough the original production was not a success, the 20-minute suite that Tchaikovsky extracted from the ballet was. However, the complete Nutcracker has enjoyed enormous popularity since the late 1960s, and is now performed by countless ballet companies, primarily during the Christmas season, especially in North America. Major American ballet companies generate around 40 percent of their annual ticket revenues from performances of The Nutcracker. \n\nTchaikovsky's score has become one of his most famous compositions, in particular the pieces featured in the suite. Among other things, the score is noted for its use of the celesta, an instrument that the composer had already employed in his much lesser known symphonic ballad The Voyevoda.\n\nComposition\n\nAfter the success of The Sleeping Beauty in 1890, Ivan Vsevolozhsky, the director of the Imperial Theatres, commissioned Tchaikovsky to compose a double-bill program featuring both an opera and a ballet. The opera would be Iolanta. For the ballet, Tchaikovsky would again join forces with Marius Petipa, with whom he had collaborated on The Sleeping Beauty. The material Petipa chose was an adaptation of E.T.A. Hoffmann's story The Nutcracker and the Mouse King by Alexandre Dumas père called The Tale of the Nutcracker. The plot of Hoffmann's story (and Dumas' adaptation) was greatly simplified for the two-act ballet. Hoffmann's tale contains a long flashback story within its main plot titled The Tale of the Hard Nut, which explains how the Prince was turned into the Nutcracker. This had to be excised for the ballet. \n\nPetipa gave Tchaikovsky extremely detailed instructions for the composition of each number, down to the tempo and number of bars. The completion of the work was interrupted for a short time when Tchaikovsky visited the United States for twenty-five days to conduct concerts for the opening of Carnegie Hall. Tchaikovsky composed parts of The Nutcracker in Rouen, France. \n\nHistory\n\nSt. Petersburg première\n\nThe first performance of the ballet was held as a double premiere together with Tchaikovsky's last opera, Iolanta, on , at the Imperial Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg, Russia. Although the libretto was by Marius Petipa, who exactly choreographed the first production has been debated. Petipa began work on the choreography in August 1892; however, illness removed him from its completion and his assistant of seven years, Lev Ivanov, was brought in. Although Ivanov is often credited as the choreographer, some contemporary accounts credit Petipa. The performance was conducted by Riccardo Drigo, with Antonietta Dell'Era as the Sugar Plum Fairy, Pavel Gerdt as Prince Coqueluche, Stanislava Belinskaya as Clara, Sergei Legat as the Nutcracker-Prince, and Timofey Stukolkin as Drosselmeyer. The children's roles, unlike many later productions, were performed by real children rather than adults (with Belinskaya as Clara, and Vassily Stukolkin as Fritz), students of Imperial Ballet School of St. Petersburg.\n\nThe first performance of The Nutcracker was not deemed a success. The reaction to the dancers themselves was ambivalent. While some critics praised Dell'Era on her pointework as the Sugar Plum Fairy (she allegedly received five curtain-calls), one critic called her \"corpulent\" and \"podgy.\"Fisher (2003): p. 15 Olga Preobrajenskaya as the Columbine doll was panned by one critic as \"completely insipid\" and praised as \"charming\" by another.\n\nAlexandre Benois described the choreography of the battle scene as confusing: \"One can not understand anything. Disorderly pushing about from corner to corner and running backwards and forwards – quite amateurish.\"\n\nThe libretto was criticized for being \"lopsided\"Fisher (2003): p. 16 and for not being faithful to the Hoffmann tale. Much of the criticism focused on the featuring of children so prominently in the ballet, and many bemoaned the fact that the ballerina did not dance until the Grand Pas de Deux near the end of the second act (which did not occur until nearly midnight during the program). Some found the transition between the mundane world of the first scene and the fantasy world of the second act too abrupt. Reception was better for Tchaikovsky's score. Some critics called it \"astonishingly rich in detailed inspiration\" and \"from beginning to end, beautiful, melodious, original, and characteristic.\" But even this was not unanimous as some critics found the party scene \"ponderous\" and the Grand Pas de Deux \"insipid.\" \n\nSubsequent productions\n\nIn 1919, choreographer Alexander Gorsky staged a production which eliminated the Sugar Plum Fairy and her Cavalier and gave their dances to Clara and the Nutcracker Prince, who were played by adults instead of children. His was the first production to do so. An abridged version of the ballet was first performed outside Russia in Budapest (Royal Opera House) in 1927, with choreography by Ede Brada. In 1934, choreographer Vasili Vainonen staged a version of the work that addressed many of the criticisms of the original 1892 production by casting adult dancers in the roles of Clara and the Prince, as Gorsky had. The Vainonen version influenced several later productions.\n\nThe first complete performance outside Russia took place in England in 1934, staged by Nicholas Sergeyev after Petipa's original choreography. Annual performances of the ballet have been staged there since 1952. Another abridged version of the ballet, performed by the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, was staged in New York City in 1940, Alexandra Fedorova – again, after Petipa's version. The ballet's first complete United States performance was on 24 December 1944, by the San Francisco Ballet, staged by its artistic director, Willam Christensen, and starring Gisella Caccialanza as the Sugar Plum Fairy. After the enormous success of this production, San Francisco Ballet has presented Nutcracker every Christmas Eve and throughout the winter season, debuting new productions in 1944, 1954, 1967, and 2004. The New York City Ballet gave its first annual performance of George Balanchine's staging of The Nutcracker in 1954. Beginning in the 1960s, the tradition of performing the complete ballet at Christmas eventually spread to the rest of the United States.\n\nSince Gorsky, Vainonen and Balanchine's productions, many other choreographers have made their own versions. Some institute the changes made by Gorsky and Vainonen while others, like Balanchine, utilize the original libretto. Some notable productions include those by Rudolf Nureyev for the Royal Ballet, Yuri Grigorovich for the Bolshoi Ballet, Mikhail Baryshnikov for the American Ballet Theatre, and Peter Wright for the Royal Ballet and the Birmingham Royal Ballet. In recent years, revisionist productions, including those by Mark Morris, Matthew Bourne, and Mikhail Chemiakin have appeared; these depart radically from both the original 1892 libretto and Vainonen's revival, while Maurice Bejart's version completely discards the original plot and characters. In addition to annual live stagings of the work, many productions have also been televised and/or released on home video.\n\nRoles\n\nThe following extrapolation of the characters (in order of appearance) is drawn from an examination of the stage directions in the score. \n\nAct I\n\n*Dr. Stahlbaum\n**His wife\n**His children, including:\n**Clara, his daughter, sometimes known as Marie or Masha\n**Fritz, son\n**Louise, his daughter\n*Children Guests\n*Parents dressed as incroyables\n*Drosselmeyer\n**His nephew (in some versions) who resembles the Nutcracker Prince and is played by the same dancer\n*Dolls (spring-activated, sometimes all three dancers instead):\n**Harlequin and Columbine, appearing out of a cabbage (1st gift)\n**Vivandière and a Soldier (2nd gift)\n*Nutcracker (3rd gift, at first a normal-sized toy, then full-sized and \"speaking\", then a Prince)\n*Owl (on clock, changing into Drosselmeyer)\n*Mice\n*Sentinel (speaking role)\n*Hare-Drummers\n*Soldiers (of the Nutcracker)\n*Mouse King\n*Snowflakes\n\nAct II\n\n*Angels\n*Sugar Plum Fairy\n*Clara\n*Nutcracker Prince\n*12 Pages\n*Eminent members of the court\n*Spanish dancers (Chocolate)\n*Arabian dancers (Coffee)\n*Chinese dancers (Tea)\n*Russian dancers (Candy Canes)\n*Danish Shepherdesses \n*Mother Ginger\n*Polichinelles (Mother Ginger's Children)\n*Dewdrop\n*Flowers\n*Sugar Plum Fairy's Cavalier\n\nSynopsis\n\nBelow is a synopsis based on the original 1892 libretto by Marius Petipa. The story varies from production to production, though most follow the basic outline. The names of the characters also vary. In the original E.T.A. Hoffmann story, the young heroine is called Marie Stahlbaum and Clara (Klärchen) is her doll's name. In the adaptation by Dumas on which Petipa based his libretto, her name is Marie Silberhaus. In still other productions, such as Baryshnikov's, Clara is Clara Stahlbaum rather than Clara Silberhaus.\n\nAct I\n\nScene 1: The Stahlbaum Home\n\nIt is Christmas Eve. Family and friends have gathered in the parlor to decorate the beautiful Christmas tree in preparation for the party. Once the tree is finished, the children are sent for. They stand in awe of the tree sparkling with candles and decorations.\n\nThe party begins. A march is played. Presents are given out to the children. Suddenly, as the owl-topped grandmother clock strikes eight, a mysterious figure enters the room. It is Drosselmeyer, a local councilman, magician, and Clara's godfather. He is also a talented toymaker who has brought with him gifts for the children, including four lifelike dolls who dance to the delight of all. He then has them put away for safekeeping.\n\nClara and Fritz are sad to see the dolls being taken away, but Drosselmeyer has yet another toy for them: a wooden nutcracker carved in the shape of a little man, used for cracking nuts. The other children ignore it, but Clara immediately takes a liking to it. Fritz, however, purposely breaks it. Clara is heartbroken.\n\nDuring the night, after everyone else has gone to bed, Clara returns to the parlor to check on her beloved nutcracker. As she reaches the little bed, the clock strikes midnight and she looks up to see Drosselmeyer perched atop it. Suddenly, mice begin to fill the room and the Christmas tree begins to grow to dizzying heights. The nutcracker also grows to life size. Clara finds herself in the midst of a battle between an army of gingerbread soldiers and the mice, led by their king. They begin to eat the soldiers.\n\nThe nutcracker appears to lead the soldiers, who are joined by tin ones and dolls who serve as doctors to carry away the wounded. As the Mouse King advances on the still-wounded nutcracker, Clara throws her slipper at him, distracting him long enough for the nutcracker to stab him.\n\nScene 2: A Pine Forest\n\nThe mice retreat and the nutcracker is transformed into a handsome Prince. He leads Clara through the moonlit night to a pine forest in which the snowflakes dance around them, beckoning them on to his kingdom as the first act ends.\n\nAct II\n\nScene 1: The Land of Sweets\n\nClara and the Prince travel to the beautiful Land of Sweets, ruled by the Sugar Plum Fairy in his place until his return. He recounts for her how he had been saved from the Mouse King by Clara and had been transformed back into his own self.\n\nIn honor of the young heroine, a celebration of sweets from around the world is produced: chocolate from Spain, coffee from Arabia, tea from China, and candy canes from Russia all dance for their amusement; Danish shepherdesses perform on their flutes; Mother Ginger has her children, the Polichinelles, emerge from under her enormous hoop skirt to dance; a string of beautiful flowers perform a waltz. To conclude the night, the Sugar Plum Fairy and her Cavalier perform a dance.\n\nA final waltz is performed by all the sweets, after which the Sugar Plum Fairy ushers Clara and the Prince down from their throne. He bows to her, she kisses Clara goodbye, and leads them to a reindeer drawn sleigh. It takes off as they wave goodbye to all the subjects who wave back.\n\nIn the original libretto, the ballet's apotheosis \"represents a large beehive with flying bees, closely guarding their riches\". Just like Swan Lake, there have been various alternative endings created in productions subsequent to the original.\n\nThe music\n\nFrom the Imperial Ballet's 1892 program\n\nTitles of all of the numbers listed here come from Marius Petipa's original scenario, as well as the original libretto and programs of the first production of 1892. All libretti and programs of works performed on the stages of the Imperial Theatres were titled in French, which was the official language of the Imperial Court, as well as the language from which balletic terminology is derived.\n\nCasse-Noisette. Ballet-féerie in two acts and three tableaux with apotheosis.\n\nAct I\n*№01 Petite ouverture\n*№02 Scène: Une fête de Noël\n*№03 Marche et petit galop des enfants\n*№04 Danse des incroyables et merveilleuses\n*№05 Entrée de Drosselmeyer\n*№06 Danses des poupées mécaniques—\n:—a. Le Soldat et la vivandière\n:—b. Arlequin et Colombine (originally composed for a She-devil and a He-devil)\n*№07 Le Casse-Noisette—Polka et la berceuse\n*№08 Danse \"Großvater\"\n*№09 Grand scène fantastique: la métamorphose du salon\n*№10 La bataille de Casse-Noisette et du Roi des souris\n*№11 Le voyage\n*№12 Valse des flocons de neige\n\nAct II\n*№13a Entr'acte\n*№13b Grand scène de Confiturembürg\n*Grand divertissement—\n:—№14 \"Chocolat\"—Danse espagnole\n:—№15 \"Café\"—Danse arabe\n:—№16 \"Thé\"—Danse chinoise\n:—№17 Danse des Bouffons\n:—№18 Danse des mirlitons\n:—№19 La mère Gigogne et les polichinelles\n:—№20 Grand ballabile (a.k.a. Waltz of the Flowers)\n*№21 Pas de deux—\n:—a. Adage\n:—b. Variation du Prince Coqueluche (M. Pavel Gerdt)\n:—c. Variation de la Fée-Dragée (Mlle. Antoinetta Dell-Era)\n:—d. Coda\n*№22 Coda générale\n*№23 Apothéose: Une ruche\n\nStructure\n\nList of acts, scenes (tableaux) and musical numbers, along with tempo indications. Numbers are given according to the original Russian and French titles of the first edition score (1892), the piano reduction score by Sergei Taneyev (1892), both published by P. Jurgenson in Moscow, and the Soviet collected edition of the composer's works, as reprinted Melville, New York: Belwin Mills [n.d.] \n\nInstrumentation\n\n; Woodwinds\n3 flutes (2nd & 3rd doubling on piccolo), 2 oboes, cor anglais, 2 clarinets in B-flat and A, bass clarinet in B-flat and A, and 2 bassoons\n; Brass\n4 French horns in F, 2 trumpets in A and B-flat, 3 trombones (2 tenor, 1 bass), and tuba\n; Percussion\ntimpani, snare drum, cymbals, bass drum, triangle, tambourine, castanets, tam-tam, glockenspiel, and \"toy instruments\" (rattle, trumpet, drum, cuckoo, quail, cymbals, and rifle)\n; Keyboard\ncelesta\n; Voice\nSA chorus\n; Strings\n2 harps, first and second violins, violas, violoncellos, and double basses\n\nTchaikovsky's sources and influences\n\nThe Nutcracker is one of the composer's most popular compositions. The music belongs to the Romantic Period and contains some of his most memorable melodies, several of which are frequently used in television and film. (They are often heard in TV commercials shown during the Christmas season.) The Trepak, or Russian dance, is one of the most recognizable pieces in the ballet, along with the famous Waltz of the Flowers and March, as well as the ubiquitous Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy. The ballet contains surprisingly advanced harmonies and a wealth of melodic invention that is (to many) unsurpassed in ballet music. Nevertheless, the composer's reverence for Rococo and late 18th-century music can be detected in passages such as the Overture, the \"Entrée des parents\", and \"Tempo di Grossvater\" in Act I.\n\nTchaikovsky is said to have argued with a friend who wagered that the composer could not write a melody based on the notes of the scale in an octave in sequence. Tchaikovsky asked if it mattered whether the notes were in ascending or descending order, and was assured it did not. This resulted in the Adagio from the Grand pas de deux, which, in the ballet, nearly always immediately follows the Waltz of the Flowers. A story is also told that Tchaikovsky's sister had died shortly before he began composition of the ballet, and that his sister's death influenced him to compose a melancholy, descending scale melody for the adagio of the Grand Pas de Deux. \n\nOne novelty in Tchaikovsky's original score was the use of the celesta, a new instrument Tchaikovsky had discovered in Paris. He wanted it genuinely for the character of the Sugar Plum Fairy to characterize her because of its \"heavenly sweet sound\". It appears not only in her \"Dance\", but also in other passages in Act II. (However, he first wrote for the celesta in his symphonic ballad The Voyevoda the previous year.) Tchaikovsky also uses toy instruments during the Christmas party scene. Tchaikovsky was proud of the celesta's effect, and wanted its music performed quickly for the public, before he could be \"scooped.\"\n\nAlthough the original ballet is only about 85 minutes long if performed without applause or an intermission, and therefore much shorter than either Swan Lake or The Sleeping Beauty, some modern staged performances have omitted or re-ordered some of the music, or inserted selections from elsewhere, thus adding to the confusion over the suites. In fact, most of the very famous versions of the ballet have had the order of the dances slightly re-arranged, if they have not actually altered the music. For instance, the 1954 George Balanchine New York City Ballet version adds to Tchaikovsky's score an entr'acte that the composer wrote for Act II of The Sleeping Beauty, but which is now seldom played in productions of that ballet. It is used as a transition between the departure of the guests and the battle with the mice. Nearly all of the CD and LP recordings of the complete ballet present Tchaikovsky's score exactly as he originally conceived it.\n\nTchaikovsky was less satisfied with The Nutcracker than with The Sleeping Beauty. (In the film Fantasia, commentator Deems Taylor observes that he \"really detested\" the score.) Tchaikovsky accepted the commission from Vsevolozhsky but did not particularly want to write the ballet (though he did write to a friend while composing it: \"I am daily becoming more and more attuned to my task\"). \n\nConcert excerpts and arrangements\n\nTchaikovsky: Suite from the ballet The Nutcracker\n\nTchaikovsky made a selection of eight of the numbers from the ballet before the ballet's December 1892 première, forming The Nutcracker Suite, Op. 71a, intended for concert performance. The suite was first performed, under the composer's direction, on 19 March 1892 at an assembly of the St. Petersburg branch of the Musical Society. The suite became instantly popular, with almost every number encored at its premiere, while the complete ballet did not begin to achieve its great popularity until after the George Balanchine staging became a hit in New York City. The suite became very popular on the concert stage, and was featured in Disney's Fantasia. The Nutcracker Suite should not be mistaken for the complete ballet. The outline below represents the selection and sequence of the Nutcracker Suite culled by the composer.\nI. Miniature Overture\nII. Danses caractéristiques\n:a. Marche\n:b. Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy [ending altered from ballet-version]\n:c. Russian Dance (Trepak)\n:d. Arabian Dance\n:e. Chinese Dance\n:f. Reed Flutes\nIII. Waltz of the Flowers\n\nGrainger: Paraphrase on Tchaikovsky’s Flower Waltz, for solo piano\n\nThe Paraphrase on Tchaikovsky’s Flower Waltz is a successful piano arrangement from one of the movements from The Nutcracker by the pianist and composer Percy Grainger.\n\nPletnev: Concert suite from The Nutcracker, for solo piano\n\nThe pianist and conductor Mikhail Pletnev adapted some of the music into a virtuosic concert suite for piano solo:\na. March\nb. Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy\nc. Tarantella\nd. Intermezzo (Journey through the Snow)\ne. Russian Trepak\nf. Chinese Dance\ng. Andante maestoso (Pas de Deux)\n\nSelected discography\n\nMany recordings have been made since 1909 of the Nutcracker Suite, which made its initial appearance on disc that year in what is now historically considered the first record album. This recording was conducted by Herman Finck and featured the London Palace Orchestra. But it was not until the LP album was developed that recordings of the complete ballet began to be made. Because of the ballet's approximate hour and a half length when performed without intermission, applause, or interpolated numbers, it fits very comfortably onto two LPs. Most CD recordings take up two discs, often with fillers. An exception is the 81-minute 1998 Philips recording by Valery Gergiev that fits onto one CD because of Gergiev's somewhat brisker speeds.\n\n*1954, the year in which Balanchine first staged his production of it, was also the year that the first complete recording of the ballet appeared – a 2-LP album set in mono sound released by Mercury Records. The cover design was by George Maas and featured illustrations by Dorothy Maas. The music was performed by the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Antal Doráti. Dorati later re-recorded the complete ballet in stereo, with the London Symphony Orchestra in 1962 for Mercury and with the Amsterdam Concertgebouw Orchestra in 1975 for Philips Classics. According to Mercury Records, the 1962 recording was made on 35mm magnetic film rather than audio tape, and used album cover art identical to that of the 1954 recording. Dorati is the only conductor so far to have made three different recordings of the complete ballet. Some have hailed the 1975 recording as the finest ever made of the complete ballet. It is also faithful to the score in employing a boys choir in the Waltz of the Snowflakes. Many other recordings use an adult or mixed choir.\n*In 1956, the conductor Artur Rodziński and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra made a complete recording of the ballet on stereo master tapes for Westminster Records, but because stereo was not possible on the LP format in 1956, the recording was issued in stereo on magnetic tape, and only a mono 2-LP set was issued. (Recently, the Rodziński performance was issued in stereo on CD.) Rodziński had previously made a 78-RPM mono recording of the Nutcracker Suite for Columbia Masterworks in 1946, a recording which was reissued in 1948 as part of Columbia's first collection of classical LP's. According to some sources, Rodziński made two complete recordings of the ballet, one with the Royal Philharmonic and one with the London Philharmonic Orchestra. However, the conductor died only two years after making his 1956 Nutcracker recording, so it is possible that there may have been a mislabeling.\n*In 1959, the first stereo LP album set of the complete ballet, with Ernest Ansermet conducting the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, appeared on Decca Records in the UK and London Records in the US.\n*The first complete stereo Nutcracker with a Russian conductor and a Russian orchestra appeared in 1960, when Gennady Rozhdestvensky's recording of it, with the Bolshoi Theatre Orchestra, was issued first in the Soviet Union on Melodiya, then imported to the U.S. on Columbia Masterworks. It was also Columbia Masterworks' first complete Nutcracker. \n\nWith the advent of the stereo LP coinciding with the growing popularity of the complete ballet, many other complete recordings of it have been made. Notable conductors who have done so include Maurice Abravanel, André Previn, Michael Tilson Thomas, Mariss Jansons, Seiji Ozawa, Richard Bonynge, Semyon Bychkov, Alexander Vedernikov, Ondrej Lenard, Mikhail Pletnev, and most recently, Simon Rattle. A CD of excerpts from the Tilson Thomas version had as its album cover art a painting of Mikhail Baryshnikov in his Nutcracker costume; perhaps this was due to the fact that the Tilson Thomas recording was released by CBS Masterworks, and CBS had first telecast the Baryshnikov \"Nutcracker\". \n\n*The soundtrack of the 1977 television production with Mikhail Baryshnikov and Gelsey Kirkland, featuring the National Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Kenneth Schermerhorn, was issued in stereo on a CBS Masterworks 2 LP-set, but it has not appeared on CD. The LP soundtrack recording was, for a time, the only stereo version of the Baryshnikov Nutcracker available, since the show was originally telecast only in mono, and it was not until recently that it began to be telecast with stereo sound. The sound portion of the DVD is also in stereo.\n*The first complete recording of the ballet in digital stereo was issued in 1985, on a two-CD RCA set featuring Leonard Slatkin conducting the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra. This album originally had no \"filler\", but it has recently been re-issued on a multi-CD set containing complete recordings of Tchaikovsky's two other ballets, Swan Lake and The Sleeping Beauty. This three-ballet album has now gone out of print.\n\nThere have been two major theatrical film versions of the ballet, made within seven years of each other, and both were given soundtrack albums.\n* The first theatrical film adaptation, made in 1985, is of the Pacific Northwest Ballet version, and was conducted by Sir Charles Mackerras. The music is played in this production by the London Symphony Orchestra. The film was directed by Carroll Ballard, who had never before directed a ballet film (and hasn't since). Patricia Barker played Clara in the fantasy sequences, and Vanessa Sharp played her in the Christmas party scene. Wade Walthall was the Nutcracker Prince.\n* The second film adaptation was a 1993 film of the New York City Ballet version, titled George Balanchine's The Nutcracker, with David Zinman conducting the New York City Ballet Orchestra. The director was Emile Ardolino, who had won the Emmy, Obie, and Academy Awards for filming dance, and was to die of AIDS later that year. Principal dancers included the Balanchine muse Darci Kistler, who played the Sugar Plum Fairy, Heather Watts, Damian Woetzel, and Kyra Nichols. Two well-known actors also took part: Macaulay Culkin appeared as the Nutcracker/Prince, and Kevin Kline served as the offscreen narrator. The soundtrack features the interpolated number from The Sleeping Beauty that Balanchine used in the production, and the music is heard on the album in the order that it appears in the film, not in the order that it appears in the original ballet. \n*Notable albums of excerpts from the ballet, rather than just the usual Nutcracker Suite, were recorded by Eugene Ormandy conducting the Philadelphia Orchestra for Columbia Masterworks, and Fritz Reiner and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra for RCA Victor. Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops Orchestra (for RCA), as well as Erich Kunzel and the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra (for Telarc) have also recorded albums of extended excerpts. The original edition of Michael Tilson Thomas's version with the Philharmonia Orchestra on CBS Masterworks was complete, but is out of print; the currently available edition is abridged. \n\nNeither Ormandy, Reiner, nor Fiedler ever recorded a complete version of the ballet; however, Kunzel's album of excerpts runs 73 minutes, containing more than two-thirds of the music. Conductor Neeme Järvi has recorded Act II of the ballet complete, along with excerpts from Swan Lake. The music is played by the Royal Scottish National Orchestra. \n\n*Very many famous conductors of the twentieth century made recordings of the suite, but not of the complete ballet. These include such luminaries as Arturo Toscanini, Sir Thomas Beecham, Claudio Abbado, Leonard Bernstein, Herbert von Karajan, James Levine, Sir Neville Marriner, Robert Shaw, Mstislav Rostropovich, Sir Georg Solti, Leopold Stokowski, Zubin Mehta, and John Williams, among many others.\n*In 2007, Josh Perschbacher recorded an organ transcription of the Nutcracker Suite.\n\nContemporary arrangements\n\n* In 1942, Freddy Martin and his orchestra recorded The Nutcracker Suite for Dance Orchestra on a set of 4 10-inch 78-RPM records. An arrangement of the suite that lay between dance music and jazz, it was released by RCA Victor. \n* In 1960, Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn composed jazz interpretations of pieces from Tchaikovsky's score, recorded and released on LP as The Nutcracker Suite. In 1999, this suite was supplemented with additional arrangements from the score by David Berger for The Harlem Nutcracker, a production of the ballet by Donald Byrd set during the Harlem Renaissance. \n* In 1960, Shorty Rogers released The Swingin' Nutcracker, featuring jazz interpretations of pieces from Tchaikovsky's score.\n*In 1962, American poet and humorist Ogden Nash wrote verses inspired by the ballet, and these verses have sometimes been performed in concert versions of the Nutcracker Suite. It has been recorded with Peter Ustinov reciting the verses, and the music is unchanged from the original. \n*In 1962 a novelty boogie piano arrangement of the \"Marche\", titled \"Nut Rocker\", was a No.1 single in the UK, and No.21 in the USA. Credited to B. Bumble and the Stingers, it was produced by Kim Fowley and featured studio musicians Al Hazan (piano), Earl Palmer (drums), Tommy Tedesco (guitar) and Red Callender (bass). \"Nut Rocker\" has subsequently been covered by many others including The Shadows, Emerson, Lake & Palmer, The Ventures, Dropkick Murphys, The Brian Setzer Orchestra, and the Trans-Siberian Orchestra. The Ventures' own instrumental rock cover of \"Nut Rocker\", known as \"Nutty\", is commonly connected to the NHL team, the Boston Bruins, from being used as the theme for the Bruins' telecast games for over two decades, from the late 1960s. In 2004, The Invincible Czars arranged, recorded, and now annually perform the entire suite for rock band.\n* The Trans-Siberian Orchestra's first album, Christmas Eve and Other Stories, includes an instrumental piece titled \"A Mad Russian's Christmas\", which is a rock version of music from The Nutcracker.\n* On the other end of the scale is the humorous Spike Jones version released in December 1945 and again in 1971 as part of the long play record Spike Jones is Murdering the Classics, one of the rare comedic pop records to be issued on the prestigious RCA Red Seal label.\n* The Disco Biscuits, a trance-fusion jam band from Philadelphia, have performed \"Waltz of the Flowers\" and \"Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy\" on multiple occasions.\n* The Los Angeles Guitar Quartet (LAGQ) recorded the Suite arranged for four acoustic guitars on their CD recording Dances from Renaissance to Nutcracker (1992, Delos).\n* The Shirim Klezmer Orchestra released a klezmer version, titled \"Klezmer Nutcracker,\" in 1998 on the Newport label. The album became the basis for a December 2008 production by Ellen Kushner, titled \"The Klezmer Nutcracker\" and staged off Broadway in New York City. \n* In 2002, The Constructus Corporation used the melody of Sugar Plum Fairy for their track Choose Your Own Adventure.\n* In 2008 a progressive metal / instrumental rock version of The Nutcracker Suite was released by Christmas at the Devil's House. It includes Overture Miniature, March, Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy, Russian Dance, Chinese Dance, Arabian Dance, Dance of the Reed Flutes, and Waltz of the Flowers.\n* In 2009, Pet Shop Boys used a melody from the Nutcracker Suite for their track \"All Over the World\", taken from their album Yes.\n* In 2010, the Belgian rapper Lunaman had a hit single with 'Nutcracka' by using a melody from the Nutcracker as the chorus of the song.\n* In 2012, jazz pianist Eyran Katsenelenbogen released his renditions of Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy, Dance of the Reed Flutes, Russian Dance and Waltz of the Flowers from the Nutcracker Suite.\n* In 2012, Duo Symphonious recorded an extended version of the Suite arranged for two classical guitars on their debut album \"The Portable Nutcracker\". Their version includes \"A Pine Forest in Winter\" as well as the entire \"Pas de Deux\".\n* In 2014, Canadian electronic music producer Brado Popcorn released three versions of the song, titled \"The Distorted Dance of The Sugarplum Fairy\" on his \"A Tribute to the Music of Tetris\" album. \n* In 2014, Pentatonix released an a cappella arrangement of \"Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy\" on the holiday album That's Christmas to Me and received a Grammy Award on 16th February 2016 for best arrangement.\n\nIn popular culture\n\nFor a comprehensive list of stage, film and television adaptations of The Nutcracker, see: List of productions of The Nutcracker\n\nFilm\n\nSeveral films having little or nothing to do with the ballet or the original Hoffmann tale have used its music:\n* The 1940 Disney animated film Fantasia features a segment using The Nutcracker Suite. This version was also included both as part of the 3-LP soundtrack album of Fantasia (since released as a 2-CD set), and as a single LP, with Dance of the Hours, another Fantasia segment, on the reverse side. \n* The Spirit of Christmas, a 1950 marionette made-for-TV featurette in color narrated by Alexander Scourby, utilizes the poem A Visit from St. Nicholas, and this sequence also includes music from The Nutcracker.\n* A 1951 thirty-minute short, Santa and the Fairy Snow Queen, issued on DVD by Something Weird Video, features several dances from The Nutcracker. \n* A 1954 16mm short subject version of The Little Match Girl features a dream sequence in which music from The Nutcracker is played.\n* The Nutcracker (1973) features a nameless girl (slightly similar to Clara) who works as a maid befriends and falls in love with a nutcracker ornament, who was a young prince cursed by the three headed Mouse King. \n* A 1990 animated film titled The Nutcracker Prince uses cuts of the music throughout and its story is based heavily on that of the ballet.\n* In 2001, Barbie appeared in her first film, Barbie in the Nutcracker. It used excerpts by Tchaikovsky, which were performed by the London Symphony Orchestra. Though it heavily altered the story, it still made use of ballet sequences which had been rotoscoped using real ballet dancers. \n* In 2007, Tom and Jerry: A Nutcracker Tale also used 'The Nutcracker' excerpts, which were performed by The Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia.\n* In 2010, The Nutcracker in 3D abandoned the ballet and most of the story, retaining much of Tchaikovsky's music with lyrics by Tim Rice. The $90 million film became the year's biggest box office bomb.\n* In 2013, Puella Magi Madoka Magica: The Movie the ending scene is a reference to the Nutcracker Witch.\n* Disney is developing a live-action adaptation titled The Nutcracker and the Four Realms, Lasse Hallström would direct from a script by Ashleigh Powell. \n\nTelevision\n\n*Princess Tutu, an anime that uses elements from many ballets as both music and as part of the storyline, uses the music from The Nutcracker in many places throughout its run, including using an arranged version of the overture as the theme for the main character. Both the first and last episodes feature The Nutcracker as their 'theme', and one of the main characters is named Drosselmeyer.\n* A 1954 Christmas episode of General Electric Theater featured Fred Waring and his choral group, the Pennsylvanians, singing excerpts from The Nutcracker with specially written lyrics. While the music was being sung, the audience saw ballet dancers performing. The episode was hosted by Ronald Reagan.\n* A 1996 episode of The Magic School Bus (\"Holiday Special\", Season 3, episode 39), Wanda is planning to see a performance of The Nutcracker. Some of the music for this episode was based on the score of the ballet. \n*A 2002 episode of Courage The Cowardly Dog titled \"The Nutcracker\", set in a junkyard, portrayed the title character using a broken nutcracker to defend his masters against two enormous rats intent on devouring them.\n*A House of Mouse special, Snowed in at the House of Mouse, included an animated short, starring Mickey Mouse as the Nutcracker, Minnie Mouse as Maria, Ludwig von Drake as a character based on Herr Drosselmeyer, Goofy as the Sugar Plum Fairy and Donald Duck as the \"Duck-stroke-Mouse-stroke-King-type-person\" (or the Mouse King), and portrayed a brief overview of the story, sarcastically narrated by John Cleese. The story ran with modern rock-style adaptations of Tchaikovsky's music.\n* The \"Toon TV\" episode of Tiny Toon Adventures and The Plucky Duck Show features a song called \"Video Game Blues\", set to the melodies of \"Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy\" and the \"Russian Dance\".\n* A 2005 episode of The Simpsons called \"Simpsons Christmas Stories\" (Season 17, episode 9), features a montage in which are seen residents of Springfield on Christmas, singing to the tune of pieces from The Nutcracker Suite. \n*The Wonder Pets on Nick Jr. includes a Christmas themed episode called \"Save the Nutcracker\", featuring the Nutcracker and Mouse King from the original ballet, as well as much of the music.\n*An episode of the PBS Kids series Super Why features the Mouse King as a central character.\n*In an episode of Angelina Ballerina: The Next Steps, Angelina sees a performance of The Nutcracker.\n*The Animaniacs cartoon Nutcracker Slappy featured Slappy and Skippy trying to crack open a walnut in various ways only to find it was empty, all to the music of The Nutcracker.\n*A two part episode of the Care Bears cartoon series in the 1980s features the Care Bears as the main characters, with Beastley as the Rat King.\n*During the Christmas music special of Beavis and Butt-head, one of the incidental bits of music they hear is the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy, at which Beavis is impressed (saying it's like Ozzy) and he even chants along to the tune before humming Iron Man. The song also appears in the episode The Mystery Of Morning Wood while they sleep and the Morning Wood Fairy comes out of the TV.\n*In the 2009 MythBusters Demolition Derby Special, Adam and Jamie are testing the \"Need for Speed\" myth. As Adam and Jamie are preparing the bus for testing, Adam is aggressively preparing the bus to the sound of heavy metal, while Jamie is gently preparing the roll cage to the tune of “Dance of the Sugarplum Fairies.”\n*Monty Python's Flying Circus, episode 25 (series 2, episode 12) titled, \"Spam.\" Within this episode is the \"Hospital for Over-Actors\" sketch, which includes several patients acting as the Mouse King.\n* In the early 1980s, a commercial for the breakfast cereal Smurfberry Crunch used a portion of The Nutcracker Suite as music for an advertising jingle sung by Smurfs. \n* In Numbertime Number 2, \"Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy\" is heard as part of the background music.\n* The season 1 episode of SpongeBob SquarePants, \"Suds\", \"Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy\" is heard in its background music soundtrack a number of times.\n* In \"Batman: The Animated Series\", slightly altered version of \"dance of the Sugar-Plum Fairy\" was used during \"Christmas with Joker\" episode\n\nVideo games\n\n*In the Game Boy version of Tetris, \"Russian Dance\".\n*In the NES version of Tetris, the \"Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy\" is available as background music (referred to in the settings as \"Music 1\").\n*In the NES game, Winter Games, \"Waltz of the Flowers\" is used as the music for the figure skating event.\n*In the game BioShock, the main character Jack meets an insane musician named Sander Cohen who tasks Jack with killing and photographing four of Sander's ex-disciples. When the third photograph is given to Sander, in a fit of pique he unleashes waves of splicer enemies to attack Jack while playing \"Waltz of the Flowers\" from speakers in the area.\n*In the original Lemmings \"Dance of the Reed Flutes\" and \"Miniature Overture\" is used in several levels.\n*In Weird Dreams, there is also a fat ballerina dancing to the \"Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy\" in the Hall of Tubes.\n*In the Baby Bowser levels of Yoshi's Story, a variation of the \"Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy\" is used as the background music.\n*In Mega Man Legends, the \"Waltz of the Flowers\" can be heard in the Balloon Fantasy minigame.\n*In the Wii Winter Olympics game, a piece from \"The Nutcracker\" is used as background music for a figure skating event. \n*In Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance the \"Waltz of Flowers\", \"The Arabian Dance\", \"The Russian Dance\", \"The Dance of the Reed Flutes\" and \"The Chinese Dance\" are the background themes that play when Riku is in the world based on Disney's Fantasia.\n*In Hatoful Boyfriend, the \"Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy\" is used as the character theme for Iwamine Shuu.\n*In a TV advertisement for Army Men: Sarge's Heroes 2, the plastic army men work together using a train playset to move a firecracker under the Christmas tree and place it between the Nutcracker doll's legs, while \"Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy\" plays.\n*In Fantasia: Music Evolved, a medley of \"The Nutcracker\" is listed and consists of the \"Marche\", \"Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy\", and \"Trepak\"; besides the original mix, there is also the \"D00 BAH D00\" mix and the \"DC Breaks\" mix.\n*In Dynamite Headdy, the \"March\" is used in the Mad Dog boss battle.\n*In Grand Theft Auto V one of the classical horns, that can be bought for cars, plays the \"Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy\". \n\nChildren's recordings\n\nThere have been several recorded children's adaptations of the E.T.A. Hoffmann story (the basis for the ballet) using Tchaikovsky's music, some quite faithful, some not. One that was not was a version titled The Nutcracker Suite for Children, narrated by Metropolitan Opera announcer Milton Cross, which used a two-piano arrangement of the music. It was released as a 78-RPM album set in the 1940s. For the children's label Peter Pan Records, actor Victor Jory narrated a condensed adaptation of the story with excerpts from the score. It was released on one side of a 45-RPM disc. A later version, titled The Nutcracker Suite, starred Denise Bryer and a full cast, was released in the 1960s on LP and made use of Tchaikovsky's music in the original orchestral arrangements. It was quite faithful to Hoffmann's story The Nutcracker and the Mouse King, on which the ballet is based, even to the point of including the section in which Clara cuts her arm on the glass toy cabinet, and also mentioning that she married the Prince at the end. It also included a less gruesome version of \"The Tale of the Hard Nut\", the tale-within-a-tale in Hoffmann's story. It was released as part of the Tale Spinners for Children series. \n\nAnother children's LP, The Nutcracker Suite with Words, featured Captain Kangaroo's Bob Keeshan narrating the story, and sung versions of the different movements, with special lyrics. \n\nJournalism\n\n* In 2009, Pulitzer Prize-winning dance critic Sarah Kaufman wrote a series of articles for The Washington Post criticizing the primacy of The Nutcracker in the American repertory for stunting the creative evolution of ballet in the United States: \n\n* In 2010, Alastair Macaulay, dance critic for The New York Times (who had previously taken Sarah Kaufman to task for her criticism of The Nutcracker ) began The Nutcracker Chronicles, a series of blog articles documenting his travels across the United States to see different productions of the ballet.", "A nutcracker is a tool designed to open nuts by cracking their shells. There are many designs, including levers, screws, and ratchets. A well-known type portrays a person whose mouth forms the jaws of the nutcracker, though many of these are meant for decorative use.\n\nFunctional\n\nNuts were historically opened using a hammer and anvil, often made of stone. Some nuts such as walnuts can also be opened by hand, by holding the nut in the palm of the hand and applying pressure with the other palm or thumb, or using another nut. \n\nManufacturers produce modern functional nutcrackers usually somewhat resembling pliers, but with the pivot point at the end beyond the nut, rather than in the middle. These are also used for cracking the shells of crab and lobster to make the meat inside available for eating. Hinged lever nutcrackers, often called a \"pair of nutcrackers\", may date back to Ancient Greece. By the 14th century in Europe, nutcrackers were documented in England, including in the Canterbury Tales, and in France. The lever design may derive from blacksmiths' pincers. Materials included metals such as silver, cast-iron and bronze, and wood including boxwood, especially those from France and Italy. More rarely, porcelain was used. Many of the wooden carved nutcrackers were in the form of people and animals.\n\nDuring the Victorian era, fruit and nuts were presented at dinner and ornate and often silver-plated nutcrackers were produced to accompany them on the dinner table. Nuts have long been a popular choice for desserts, particularly throughout Europe. The nutcrackers were placed on dining tables to serve as a fun and entertaining center of conversation while diners awaited their final course. At one time, nutcrackers were actually made of metals such as brass, and it was not until the 1800s in Germany that the popularity of wooden ones began to spread.\n\nThe late 19th century saw two shifts in nutcracker production: the rise in figurative and decorative designs, particularly from the Alps where they were sold as souvenirs, and a switch to industrial manufacture, including availability in mail-order catalogues, rather than artisan production. After the 1960s, the availability of pre-shelled nuts led to a decline in ownership of nutcrackers and a fall in the tradition of nuts being put in children's Christmas stockings.\n\nAlternative designs\n\nIn the 17th century, screw nutcrackers were introduced that applied more gradual pressure to the shell, some like a vise. The spring-jointed nutcracker was patented by Henry Quackenbush in 1913. A ratchet design, similar to a car jack, that gradually increases pressure on the shell to avoid damaging the kernel inside is used by the Crackerjack, patented in 1947 by Cuthbert Leslie Rimes of Morley, Leeds and exhibited at the Festival of Britain. Unshelled nuts are still popular in China, where a key device is inserted into the crack in walnuts, pecans, and macadamias and twisted to open the shell. \n\nDecorative\n\nNutcrackers in the form of wood carvings of a soldier, knight, king, or other profession have existed since at least the 15th century. Figurative nutcrackers are a good luck symbol in Germany, and a folk tale recounts that a puppet-maker won a nutcracking challenge by creating a doll with a mouth for a lever to crack the nuts. These nutcrackers portray a person with a large mouth which the operator opens by lifting a lever in the back of the figurine. Originally one could insert a nut in the big-toothed mouth, press down and thereby crack the nut. Modern nutcrackers in this style serve mostly for decoration, mainly at Christmas time, a season of which they have long been a traditional symbol. The ballet The Nutcracker derives its name from this festive holiday decoration.\n\nThe carving of nutcrackers—as well as of religious figures and of cribs—developed as a cottage industry in forested rural areas of Germany. The most famous nutcracker carvings come from Sonneberg in Thuringia (also a center of dollmaking) and as part of the industry of wooden toymaking in the Ore Mountains. Wood-carving usually provided the only income for the people living there. Today the travel industry supplements their income by bringing visitors to the remote areas. Carvings by famous names like Junghanel, Klaus Mertens, Karl, Olaf Kolbe, Petersen, Christian Ulbricht and especially the Steinbach nutcrackers have become collectors' items.\n\nDecorative nutcrackers became popular in the United States after the Second World War, following the first US production of The Nutcracker ballet in 1940 and the exposure of US soldiers to the dolls during the war. In the United States, few of the decorative nutcrackers are now functional, though expensive working designs are still available. Many of the woodworkers in Germany were in Erzgebirge, in the Soviet zone after the end of the war, and they mass-produced poorly-made designs for the US market. With the increase in pre-shelled nuts the need for functionality was also lessened. After the 1980s, Chinese and Taiwanese imports that copied the traditional German designs took over. The recreated \"Bavarian village\" of Leavenworth, Washington, features a nutcracker museum. Many other materials also serve to make decorated nutcrackers, such as porcelain, silver, and brass; the museum displays samples. The United States Postal Service (USPS) issued four stamps in October 2008 with custom-made nutcrackers made by Richmond, Virginia artist Glenn Crider. \n\nOther uses\n\nSome artists, among them the multi-instrumentalist Mike Oldfield, have used the sound nutcrackers make in music.\n\nIn animals\n\nMany animals shell nuts to eat them, including using tools. Parrots use their beaks as natural nutcrackers, in much the same way smaller birds crack seeds. In this case, the pivot point stands opposite the nut, at the jaw." ] }

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{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe" ], "filename": [ "The_Gift_of_the_Magi.txt" ], "title": [ "The Gift of the Magi" ], "wiki_context": [ "\"The Gift of the Magi\" is a short story, written by O. Henry (a pen name for William Sydney Porter), about a young married couple and how they deal with the challenge of buying secret Christmas gifts for each other with very little money. As a sentimental story with a moral lesson about gift-giving, it has been a popular one for adaptation, especially for presentation at Christmas time. The plot and its \"twist ending\" are well-known, and the ending is generally considered an example of comic irony. It was allegedly written at Pete's Tavern on Irving Place in New York City.\n\nThe story was initially published in The New York Sunday World under the title \"Gifts of the Magi\" on December 10, 1905. It was first published in book form in the O. Henry Anthology The Four Million in April 1906.\n\nSummary \n\nMr. James Dillingham Young (\"Jim\") and his wife, Della, are a couple living in a modest apartment. They have only two possessions between them in which they take pride: Della's beautiful long, flowing hair, almost touching to her knees, and Jim's shiny gold watch, which had belonged to his father and grandfather.\n\nOn Christmas Eve, with only $1.87 in hand, and desperate to find a gift for Jim, Della sells her hair for $20 to a nearby hairdresser named Madame Sofronie, and eventually finds a platinum pocket watch fob chain for Jim's watch for $21. Satisfied with the perfect gift for Jim, Della runs home and begins to prepare pork chops for dinner.\n\nAt 7 o'clock, Della sits at a table near the door, waiting for Jim to come home. Unusually late, Jim walks in and immediately stops short at the sight of Della, who had previously prayed that she was still pretty to Jim. Della then admits to Jim that she sold her hair to buy him his present. Jim gives Della her present – an assortment of expensive hair accessories (referred to as “The Combs”), useless now that her hair is short. Della then shows Jim the chain she bought for him, to which Jim says he sold his watch to get the money to buy her combs. Although Jim and Della are now left with gifts that neither one can use, they realize how far they are willing to go to show their love for each other, and how priceless their love really is. \n\nThe story ends with the narrator comparing the pair's mutually sacrificial gifts of love with those of the Biblical Magi: \n\nAdaptations\n\nThe story has been adapted to films, The Sacrifice (1909), Love's Surprises Are Futile (1916), The Gift of the Magi (1917), a segment of O. Henry's Full House (1952), The Gift of Love (1978), The Gift of the Magi (1958), Dary magów (Poland, 1972), Christmas Eve on Sesame Street (1978), I'll not be a gangster, love (Не буду гангстером, дорогая/Nebūsiu gangsteriu, brangioji, USSR, 1978), Mickey's Once Upon a Christmas (1999), The Gift of the Magi (2004) and the short film for the Irish band The Script in 2010 called For the First Time. Love, another French movie, based some of its scenes on this story. Raincoat (2004), a Hindi film directed by Rituparno Ghosh is an adaptation of the story. The Greek film directed by Ismene Daskarolis (2014) places it in the economical crisis of Greece today. [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4007168/ The Gift of the Magi (2014) - IMDb] The Mexican film Nosotros los pobres includes this tale as a small sub-plot. There is also a Bulgarian adaptation known as the short film \"Darovete na vlahvite\" (2013) [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3003626/ Darovete Na Vlahvite (2013) - IMDb] directed by Ivan Abadjiev.\n\nAn off-Broadway musical version premiered at Lamb's Theatre in New York City in 1984. Written by Mark St. Germain and Randy Courts, the play is regularly produced in schools and regional theaters. It also features elements from another O. Henry story The Cop and the Anthem as a sub plot.\n\nThe opera Gift of the Magi with music by David Conte and libretto by Nicholas Giardini premiered in 2000.\n\nAdditionally, in the Rugrats episode \"The Santa Experience\", Phil and Lil look to exchange gifts to one another, but have nothing to offer. Manipulated by Angelica to give up their most precious items, the twins barter their precious personal items in favor of being able to give a gift to their opposite. Although Phil no longer has his Reptar, and Lil no longer has her coloring book, the twins both believe the sacrifice is the greatest gift of all, leaving Angelica in bitter Christmas spirits until she returns the original gifts.\n \nThe Squirrel Nut Zippers song \"Gift of the Magi\" from their 1998 album Christmas Caravan is a duet sung from the point of view of both Jim and Della.\n\nOn folk punk band Andrew Jackson Jihad's 2011 album Knife Man, the second track is titled \"Gift of the Magi 2: Return of the Magi\".\n\nEmmet Otter's Jug-Band Christmas, which is a twist on \"The Gift of the Magi\", is a children's storybook by Russell Hoban which was first published in 1971. In 1977, Muppet creator Jim Henson produced a one-hour television adaptation of the story, filmed in Toronto for HBO in the United States and CBC in Canada. The special premiered on HBO on December 17, 1978. The special later aired on ABC in 1980 and on Nickelodeon in the 1990s. The special features several original songs written by songwriter Paul Williams.\n\nIn the Futurama episode \"Xmas Story\", Amy, Hermes and Zoidberg engage in a gift exchange reminiscent of the one from \"The Gift of the Magi\".\n\nThe sketch comedy show Studio C contains a skit called \"Gift of the Magi\" in which Jim and Della argue over their gift-giving.\n\nThe television series My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic has the episode \"The Gift of the Maud Pie\" in which Pinkie Pie gives Maud a perfect gift, costing her the confetti-using Party Cannon. Maud's gift in return was confetti for the cannon of which Pinkie Pie had sold." ] }

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{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe" ], "filename": [ "Saint_Nicholas.txt" ], "title": [ "Saint Nicholas" ], "wiki_context": [ "Saint Nicholas (, , ); (15 March 270 – 6 December 343), also called Nikolaos of Myra, was a historic 4th-century Christian saint and Greek Bishop of Myra, in Asia Minor (modern-day Demre, Turkey). Because of the many miracles attributed to his intercession, he is also known as Nikolaos the Wonderworker (, ). His reputation evolved among the faithful, as was common for early Christian saints, and his legendary habit of secret gift-giving gave rise to the traditional model of Santa Claus through Sinterklaas.\n\nThe historical Saint Nicholas is commemorated and revered among Anglican, Catholic, Lutheran, and Orthodox Christians. In addition, some Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian, and Reformed churches have been named in honor of Saint Nicholas. Saint Nicholas is the patron saint of sailors, merchants, archers, repentant thieves, children, brewers, pawnbrokers and students in various cities and countries around Europe.\n\nLife \n\nNicholas was born in Asia Minor (Greek Anatolia in present-day Turkey) in the Roman Empire, to a Greek family during the third century in the city of Patara (Lycia et Pamphylia), a port on the Mediterranean Sea. He lived in Myra, Lycia (part of modern-day Demre), at a time when the region was Greek in its heritage, culture, and outlook and politically part of the Roman diocese of Asia. He was the only son of wealthy Christian parents named Epiphanius () and Johanna () according to some accounts and Theophanes () and Nonna () according to others. He was very religious from an early age and according to legend, Nicholas was said to have rigorously observed the canonical fasts of Wednesdays and Fridays. His wealthy parents died in an epidemic while Nicholas was still young and he was raised by his uncle—also named Nicholas—who was the bishop of Patara. He tonsured the young Nicholas as a reader and later ordained him a presbyter (priest).\n\nIn the year AD 305, several monks from Anatolia in Asia Minor came to the Holy Land to Beit Jala, Judea and established a small monastery with a church named in honor of the Great Martyr George (Saint George). This was before St. Sava’s Monastery was founded in the desert east of Bethlehem on the Kidron Gorge near the Dead Sea. These monks lived on the mountain overlooking Bethlehem in a few caves. In the years 312-315, St. Nicholas lived there and came as a pilgrim to visit the Holy Sepulchre, Golgotha, Bethlehem, and many other sites in the Holy Land. The Saint Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church is located on the site of his cave in Beit Jala where today there are innumerable stories about Nicholas still handed down from generation to generation. A text written in his own hand is still in the care of the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem. In 317 he returned to Asia Minor and was soon thereafter consecrated bishop in Myra. \n\nIn 325, he was one of many bishops to answer the request of Constantine and appear at the First Council of Nicaea. There, Nicholas was a staunch anti-Arian, defender of the Orthodox Christian position, and one of the bishops who signed the Nicene Creed. Tradition has it that he became so angry with the heretic Arius during the Council that he struck him in the face. \n\nDemre \n\nThe modern city of Demre, Turkey is built near the ruins of the saint's home town of ancient Myra, and attracts many Russian tourists as St. Nicholas is a very popular Orthodox saint. Restoration of Saint Nicholas' original church is currently underway, with the Ministry of Culture and Tourism in 2007 permitting Divine Liturgy to be celebrated at the site, and contributing 40,000 Turkish Lira to the project. \n\nA solemn bronze statue of the saint by Russian sculptor Gregory Pototsky was donated by the Russian government in 2000, and was given a prominent place in the square fronting the medieval Church of St. Nicholas. In 2005, mayor Süleyman Topçu had the statue replaced by a red-suited plastic Santa Claus statue, because he wanted an image more recognisable to foreign visitors. Protests from the Russian government against this were successful, and the bronze statue was returned (albeit without its original high pedestal) to a corner nearer the church.\n\nRelics \n\nOn 26 August 1071 Romanus IV, Emperor of the Byzantine Empire (reigned 1068–1071), faced Sultan Alp Arslan of the Seljuk Turks (reigned 1059–1072) in the Battle of Manzikert. The battle ended in humiliating defeat and capture for Romanus. As a result, the Empire temporarily lost control over most of Asia Minor to the invading Seljuk Turks. The Byzantines would regain its control over Asia Minor during the reign of Alexius I Comnenus (reigned 1081–1118). But early in his reign Myra was overtaken by the Turks. Nicholas' tomb in Myra had become a popular place of pilgrimage. Because of the many wars and attacks in the region, some Christians were concerned that access to the tomb might become difficult. For both the religious and commercial advantages of a major pilgrimage site, the Italian cities of Venice and Bari vied to get the Nicholas relics. Taking advantage of the confusion, in the spring of 1087, sailors from Bari in Apulia seized part of the remains of the saint from his burial church in Myra, over the objections of the Greek Orthodox monks. Returning to Bari, they brought the remains with them and cared for them. The remains arrived on 9 May 1087. There are numerous variations of this account. In some versions those taking the relics are characterized as thieves or pirates, in others they are said to have taken them in response to a vision wherein Saint Nicholas himself appeared and commanded that his relics be moved in order to preserve them from the impending Muslim conquest.\nCurrently at Bari, there are two churches at his shrine, one Roman Catholic and one Orthodox.\n\nSailors from Bari collected just half of Nicholas' skeleton, leaving all the minor fragments in the grave. These were collected by Venetian sailors during the first crusade and brought to Venice, where a church to St. Nicholas, the patron of sailors, was built on the Lido. This tradition was confirmed in two scientific investigations of the relics in Bari and Venice, which revealed that the relics in the two cities belong to the same skeleton. Many churches in Europe, Russia and the United States claim to possess small relics, such as a tooth or a finger. \n\nIt is said that in Myra the relics of Saint Nicholas each year exuded a clear watery liquid which smells like rose water, called manna (or myrrh), which is believed by the faithful to possess miraculous powers. After the relics were brought to Bari, they continued to do so, much to the joy of the new owners. Vials of myrrh from his relics have been taken all over the world for centuries, and can still be obtained from his church in Bari. Even up to the present day, a flask of manna is extracted from the tomb of Saint Nicholas every year on 6 December (the Saint's feast day) by the clergy of the basilica. The myrrh is collected from a sarcophagus which is located in the basilica vault and could be obtained in the shop nearby. The liquid gradually seeps out of the tomb, but it is unclear whether it originates from the body within the tomb, or from the marble itself; since the town of Bari is a harbour, and the tomb is below sea level, there have been several natural explanations proposed for the manna fluid, including the transfer of seawater to the tomb by capillary action.\n\nIn 1993, a grave was found on the small Turkish island of Gemile, east of Rhodes, which historians believe is the original tomb of Saint Nicholas. On 28 December 2009, the Turkish Government announced that it would be formally requesting the return of St. Nicholas's skeletal remains to Turkey from the Italian government. Turkish authorities have asserted that St. Nicholas himself desired to be buried at his episcopal town, and that his remains were illegally removed from his homeland.\n\nAn Irish tradition states that the relics of Saint Nicholas are also reputed to have been stolen from Myra by local Norman crusading knights in the 12th century and buried near Thomastown, Co. Kilkenny, where a stone slab marks the site locally believed to be his grave. This is not widely accepted beyond local tradition.\n\nMiracles and other stories \n\nNumerous stories, some miraculous, are told about Nicolas.\n\nOne tells how during a terrible famine, a malicious butcher lured three little children into his house, where he killed them, placing their remains in a barrel to cure, planning to sell them off as ham. Nicholas, visiting the region to care for the hungry, not only saw through the butcher's horrific crime but also resurrected the three boys from the barrel by his prayers. Another version of this story, possibly formed around the 11th century, claims that the butcher's victims were instead three clerks who wished to stay the night. The man murdered them, and was advised by his wife to dispose of them by turning them into meat pies. The saint saw through this and brought the men back to life.\n\nAccording to another story, during a great famine that Myra experienced in 311–312, a ship was in the port at anchor, loaded with wheat for the Emperor in Constantinople. Nicholas invited the sailors to unload a part of the wheat to help in the time of need. The sailors at first disliked the request, because the wheat had to be weighed accurately and delivered to the Emperor. Only when Nicholas promised them that they would not suffer any loss for their consideration, the sailors agreed. When they arrived later in the capital, they made a surprising find: the weight of the load had not changed, although the wheat removed in Myra was enough for two full years and could even be used for sowing. \n\nWhile yet a young man, Nicholas followed the example of his uncle, the abbot, by making a pilgrimage to the birthplace of Christianity—the Holy Land. Desiring a serene time of preparation, Nicholas set sail on an Egyptian ship where the other pilgrims did not know who he was. The first night he dreamed a storm would put them all at peril. When he awoke in the morning he warned the sailors that a severe storm was coming, but they need not fear, for \"God will protect us.\" Almost immediately the sky darkened and strong winds roared round the ship. The wind and waves made it impossible to keep the ship under control. Even with lowered sails, the sailors feared for their very lives and begged Nicholas to pray for safety. One sailor climbed the main mast, tightening the ropes so the mast would not crash onto the deck. As he was coming back down, the sailor slipped, fell to the deck, and was killed. While Nicholas prayed, the storm did quiet, relieving the sailors. Their comfort, however, was dampened by grief over their comrade's death. As Nicholas prayed over the dead sailor, he was revived, \"as if he had only been asleep.\" The man awakened without pain and the ship finished the journey to the Holy Land. Nicholas then embarked on his pilgrimage to the holy places, walking where Jesus had walked.\n\nOne night while staying with a family in Jerusalem, he wanted to pray at the only church remaining in Jerusalem at that time. It was the Church of the Room of the Last Supper on Mount Zion. As he approached the heavy, locked doors, they swung open of their own accord, allowing him to enter the church. Nicholas fell to the ground in thanksgiving. \n\nIn his most famous exploit, Nicholas aided a poor man who had three daughters, but could not afford a proper dowry for them. This meant that they would remain unmarried and probably, in absence of any other possible employment, would have to become prostitutes. Even if they did not, unmarried maidens in those days would have been assumed as being a prostitute. Hearing of the girls' plight, Nicholas decided to help them, but being too modest to help the family in public (or to save them the humiliation of accepting charity), he went to the house under the cover of night and threw three purses (one for each daughter) filled with gold coins through the window opening into the house.\n\nOne version has him throwing one purse for three consecutive nights. Another has him throwing the purses over a period of three years, each time the night before one of the daughters comes of age. Invariably, the third time the father lies in wait, trying to discover the identity of their benefactor. In one version the father confronts the saint, only to have Nicholas say it is not him he should thank, but God alone. In another version, Nicholas learns of the poor man's plan and drops the third bag down the chimney instead; a variant holds that the daughter had washed her stockings that evening and hung them over the embers to dry, and that the bag of gold fell into the stocking.\n\nThe stories with the most likely historical basis are the stories of Nicholas helping three girls and stories of Nicholas coming to the aid of sailors. Others, especially that of the three murdered children, are much later additions to Nicholas lore, historian Dr. Adam English concludes in a new biography of Nicholas for Baylor University Press based on a four-year study of current historical research into Nicholas of Myra.\n\nSanta Claus\n\nNicholas had a reputation for secret gift-giving, such as putting coins in the shoes of those who left them out for him, a practice celebrated on his feast day (6 December in the Gregorian calendar, in Western Christianity; 19 December in the Julian calendar, in Eastern Christianity); and thus became the model for Santa Claus, whose modern name comes from the Dutch Sinterklaas, itself from a series of elisions and corruptions of the transliteration of \"Saint Nikolaos\".\n\nFace of the historical saint \n\nWhereas the devotional importance of relics and the economics associated with pilgrimages caused the remains of most saints to be divided up and spread over numerous churches in several countries, St. Nicholas is unusual in that most of his bones have been preserved in one spot: his grave crypt in Bari. Even with the allegedly continuing miracle of the manna, the archdiocese of Bari has allowed for one scientific survey of the bones. In the late 1950s, during a restoration of the chapel, it allowed a team of hand-picked scientists to photograph and measure the contents of the crypt grave. \n\nIn the summer of 2005, the report of these measurements was sent to a forensic laboratory in England. The review of the data revealed that the historical St. Nicholas was barely five feet in height and had a broken nose. The facial reconstruction was produced by Dr. Caroline Wilkinson at the University of Manchester and was shown on a BBC2 TV program 'The Real Face of Santa' \n\nFormal veneration \n\nAmong the Greeks and Italians he is a favorite of sailors, fishermen, ships and sailing. As such he has become over time the patron saint of several cities maintaining harbours. In centuries of Greek folklore, Nicholas was seen as \"The Lord of the Sea\", often described by modern Greek scholars as a kind of Christianized version of Poseidon. In modern Greece, he is still easily among the most recognizable saints and 6 December finds many cities celebrating their patron saint. He is also the patron saint of all of Greece and particularly of the Hellenic Navy. \n\nIn the Eastern Orthodox Church, Saint Nicholas' memory is celebrated on almost every Thursday of the year (together with the Apostles) with special hymns to him which are found in the liturgical book known as the Octoechos. Soon after the transfer of Saint Nicholas' relics from Myra to Bari, a Russian version of his Life and an account of the transfer of his relics were written by a contemporary to this event. Devotional akathists and canons have been composed in his honour, and are frequently chanted by the faithful as they ask for his intercession. He is mentioned in the Liturgy of Preparation during the Divine Liturgy (Eastern Orthodox Eucharist) and during the All-Night Vigil. Many Orthodox churches will have his icon, even if they are not named after him.\n\nIn Oriental Orthodoxy, the Coptic Church observes the Departure of St. Nicholas on Kiahk 10, or 19 December. \n\nIn late medieval England, on Saint Nicholas' Day parishes held Yuletide \"boy bishop\" celebrations. As part of this celebration, youths performed the functions of priests and bishops, and exercised rule over their elders. Today, Saint Nicholas is still celebrated as a great gift-giver in several Western European and Central European countries. According to one source, in medieval times nuns used the night of 6 December to deposit baskets of food and clothes anonymously at the doorsteps of the needy. According to another source, on 6 December every sailor or ex-sailor of the Low Countries (which at that time was virtually all of the male population) would descend to the harbour towns to participate in a church celebration for their patron saint. On the way back they would stop at one of the various Nicholas fairs to buy some hard-to-come-by goods, gifts for their loved ones and invariably some little presents for their children. While the real gifts would only be presented at Christmas, the little presents for the children were given right away, courtesy of Saint Nicholas. This and his miracle of him resurrecting the three butchered children made Saint Nicholas a patron saint of children and later students as well.\n\nAmong Albanians, Saint Nicholas is known as Shen'Kollë and is venerated by most Catholic families, even those from villages that are devoted to other saints. The Feast of Saint Nicholas is celebrated on the evening before 6 December, known as Shen'Kolli i Dimnit (Saint Nicholas of Winter), as well as on the commemoration of the interring of his bones in Bari, the evening before 9 May, known as Shen'Kolli i Majit (Saint Nicholas of May). Albanian Catholics often swear by Saint Nicholas, saying \"Pasha Shejnti Shen'Kollin!\" (\"May I see Holy Saint Nicholas!\"), indicating the importance of this saint in Albanian culture, especially among the Albanians of Malësia. On the eve of his feast day, Albanians will light a candle and abstain from meat, preparing a feast of roasted lamb and pork, to be served to guests after midnight. Guests will greet each other, saying, \"Nata e Shen'Kollit ju nihmoftë!\" (\"May the Night of Saint Nicholas help you!\") and other such blessings. The bones of Albania's greatest hero, George Kastrioti, were also interred in the Church of Saint Nicholas in Lezha, Albania, upon his death.\n\nIconography \n\nSaint Nicholas is a popular subject portrayed on countless Eastern Orthodox icons, particularly Russian ones. He is depicted as an Orthodox bishop, wearing the omophorion and holding a Gospel Book. Sometimes he is depicted wearing the Eastern Orthodox mitre, sometimes he is bareheaded. Iconographically, Nicholas is depicted as an elderly man with a short, full, white, fluffy beard and balding head. In commemoration of the miracle attributed to him by tradition at the Ecumenical Council of Nicea, he is sometimes depicted with Christ over his left shoulder holding out a Gospel Book to him and the Theotokos over his right shoulder holding the omophorion. Because of his patronage of mariners, occasionally Saint Nicholas will be shown standing in a boat or rescuing a drowning sailor.\n\nIn Roman Catholic iconography, Saint Nicholas is depicted as a bishop, wearing the insignia of this dignity: a bishop's vestments, a mitre and a crozier. The episode with the three dowries is commemorated by showing him holding in his hand either three purses, three coins or three balls of gold. Depending on whether he is depicted as patron saint of children or sailors, his images will be completed by a background showing ships, children or three figures climbing out of a wooden barrel (the three slaughtered children he resurrected). In medieval paintings, Saint Nicholas is depicted as a dark-skinned man, as in Pietro di Giovanni d'Ambrogio's Saint Nicholas of Bari, a 1430s painting held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, or Francesco di Giorgio e di Lorenzo's 1461 Altarpiece with the Annunciation made for the church of Spedaletta. \n\nIn a strange twist, the three gold balls referring to the dowry affair are sometimes metaphorically interpreted as being oranges or other fruits. As in the Low Countries in medieval times oranges most frequently came from Spain, this led to the belief that the Saint lives in Spain and comes to visit every winter bringing them oranges, other 'wintry' fruits and tales of magical creatures.\n\nIn music \n\n* San Nicola di Bari, an oratorio composed by Giovanni Bononcini (1693).\n* St. Nicolas, a choral song for male choir by Edward Purcell (1730).\n* Saint Nicolas, a Christmas cantata by Benjamin Britten (1948).\n* St. Nicholas arrives (Miklavž prihaja), a Christmas operetta in three acts by Salesian priest Jerko Gržinčič. The premiere took place before World War II in the Union Hostel in Ljubljana (now in Slovenia) with great success." ] }

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{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe", "TagMe", "TagMe" ], "filename": [ "Secession.txt", "Secession_in_the_United_States.txt", "First_Battle_of_Bull_Run.txt" ], "title": [ "Secession", "Secession in the United States", "First Battle of Bull Run" ], "wiki_context": [ "Secession (derived from the Latin term secessio) is the withdrawal of a group from a larger entity, especially a political entity (a country), but also any organization, union or military alliance. Threats of secession can also be a strategy for achieving more limited goals. \n\nSecession theory\n\nTheories of secession relate to a fundamental question of political philosophy: the basis of the state's authority. \n\nIn his 1991 book Secession: The Morality of Political Divorce From Fort Sumter to Lithuania and Quebec, philosophy professor Allen Buchanan outlined limited rights to secession under certain circumstances, mostly related to oppression by people of other ethnic or racial groups, and especially those previously conquered by other peoples. \n\nIn the fall of 1994 the Journal of Libertarian Studies published Robert W. McGee's article \"Secession Reconsidered\". He writes from a libertarian perspective, but holds that secession is justified only if secessionists can create a viable, if minimal, state on contiguous territory. \n\nIn April 1995 the Ludwig Von Mises Institute sponsored a secession conference. Papers from the conference were later published in the book Secession, State and Liberty by David Gordon. Among articles included were: \"The Secession Tradition in America\" by Donald Livingston; \"The Ethics of Secession\" by Scott Boykin; \"Nations by Consent: Decomposing the Nation-State\" by Murray Rothbard; \"Yankee Confederates: New England Secession Movements Prior to the War Between the States\" by Thomas DiLorenzo; \"Was the Union Army's Invasion of the Confederate States a Lawful Act?\" by James Ostrowski. \n\nIn July 1998 the Rutgers University journal \"Society\" published papers from a \"Symposium on Secession and Nationalism at the Millennium\" including the articles \"The Western State as Paradigm\" by Hans-Herman Hoppe, \"Profit Motives in Secession\" by Sabrina P. Ramet, \"Rights of Secession\" by Daniel Kofman, \"The Very Idea of Secession\" by Donald Livingston and \"Secession, Autonomy, & Modernity\" by Edward A. Tiryakian. In 2007 the University of South Carolina sponsored a conference called \"Secession As an International Phenomenon\" which produced a number of papers on the topic. \n\nJustifications for secession\n\nSome theories of secession emphasize a general right of secession for any reason (\"Choice Theory\") while others emphasize that secession should be considered only to rectify grave injustices (\"Just Cause Theory\"). Some theories do both. A list of justifications may be presented supporting the right to secede, as described by Allen Buchanan, Robert McGee, Anthony Birch, Walter Williams, Jane Jacobs, Frances Kendall and Leon Louw, Leopold Kohr, Kirkpatrick Sale, and various authors in David Gordon's \"Secession, State and Liberty\", includes:\n* United States President James Buchanan, Fourth Annual Message to Congress on the State of the Union December 3, 1860: \"The fact is that our Union rests upon public opinion, and can never be cemented by the blood of its citizens shed in civil war. If it can not live in the affections of the people, it must one day perish. Congress possesses many means of preserving it by conciliation, but the sword was not placed in their hand to preserve it by force.\"\n* Former President of the United States Thomas Jefferson, in a letter to William H. Crawford, Secretary of War under President James Madison, on June 20, 1816: \"In your letter to Fisk, you have fairly stated the alternatives between which we are to choose : 1, licentious commerce and gambling speculations for a few, with eternal war for the many ; or, 2, restricted commerce, peace, and steady occupations for all. If any State in the Union will declare that it prefers separation with the first alternative, to a continuance in union without it, I have no hesitation in saying, 'let us separate'. I would rather the States should withdraw, which are for unlimited commerce and war, and confederate with those alone which are for peace and agriculture.\" \n* Economic enfranchisement of an economically oppressed class that is regionally concentrated within the scope of a larger national territory.\n* The right to liberty, freedom of association and private property\n* Consent as important democratic principle; will of majority to secede should be recognized\n* Making it easier for states to join with others in an experimental union\n* Dissolving such union when goals for which it was constituted are not achieved\n* Self-defense when larger group presents lethal threat to minority or the government cannot adequately defend an area\n* Self-determination of peoples\n* Preserving culture, language, etc. from assimilation or destruction by a larger or more powerful group\n* Furthering diversity by allowing diverse cultures to keep their identity\n* Rectifying past injustices, especially past conquest by a larger power\n* Escaping \"discriminatory redistribution\", i.e., tax schemes, regulatory policies, economic programs, etc. that distribute resources away to another area, especially in an undemocratic fashion\n* Enhanced efficiency when the state or empire becomes too large to administer efficiently\n* Preserving \"liberal purity\" (or \"conservative purity\") by allowing less (or more) liberal regions to secede\n* Providing superior constitutional systems which allow flexibility of secession\n* Keeping political entities small and human scale through right to secession\n\nAleksandar Pavkovic, associate professor at the Department of Politics and International Studies at Macquarie University in Australia and the author of several books on secession describes five justifications for a general right of secession within liberal political theory: \n* Anarcho-Capitalism: individual liberty to form political associations and private property rights together justify right to secede and to create a \"viable political order\" with like-minded individuals.\n* Democratic Secessionism: the right of secession, as a variant of the right of self-determination, is vested in a \"territorial community\" which wishes to secede from \"their existing political community\"; the group wishing to secede then proceeds to delimit \"its\" territory by the majority.\n* Communitarian Secessionism: any group with a particular \"participation-enhancing\" identity, concentrated in a particular territory, which desires to improve its members' political participation has a prima facie right to secede.\n* Cultural Secessionism: any group which was previously in a minority has a right to protect and develop its own culture and distinct national identity through seceding into an independent state.\n* The Secessionism of Threatened Cultures: if a minority culture is threatened within a state that has a majority culture, the minority needs a right to form a state of its own which would protect its culture.\n\nTypes of secession\n\nSecession theorists have described a number of ways in which a political entity (city, county, canton, state) can secede from the larger or original state: \n\n* Secession from federation or confederation (political entities with substantial reserved powers which have agreed to join together) versus secession from a unitary state (a state governed as a single unit with few powers reserved to sub-units)\n* Colonial aka \"wars of independence\" from a \"mother country\" or imperial state\n* National (seceding entirely from the national state) versus local (seceding from one entity of the national state into another entity of the same state)\n* Central or enclave (seceding entity is completely surrounded by the original state) versus peripheral (along a border of the original state)\n* Secession by contiguous units versus secession by non-contiguous units (exclaves)\n* Separation or partition (although an entity secedes, the rest of the state retains its structure) versus dissolution (all political entities dissolve their ties and create several new states)\n* Irredentism where secession is sought in order to annex the territory to another state because of common ethnicity or prior historical links\n* Minority (a minority of the population or territory secedes) versus majority (a majority of the population or territory secedes)\n* Secession of better off regions versus secession of worse off regions\n* The threat of Secession sometimes is used as a strategy to gain greater autonomy within the original state\n\nArguments against secession\n\nAllen Buchanan, who supports secession under limited circumstances, lists arguments that might be used against secession: \n* \"Protecting Legitimate Expectations\" of those who now occupy territory claimed by secessionists, even in cases where that land was stolen\n* \"Self Defense\" if losing part of the state would make it difficult to defend the rest of it\n* \"Protecting Majority Rule\" and the principle that minorities must abide by them\n* \"Minimization of Strategic Bargaining\" by making it difficult to secede, such as by imposing an exit tax\n* \"Soft Paternalism\" because secession will be bad for secessionists or others\n* \"Threat of Anarchy\" because smaller and smaller entities may choose to secede until there is chaos, although this is not the true meaning of the political and philosophical concept.\n* \"Preventing Wrongful Taking\" such as the state's previous investment in infrastructure\n* \"Distributive Justice\" arguments that wealthier areas cannot secede from poorer ones\n\nSecession movements\n\n \n'\n\nMovements that work towards political secession may describe themselves as being autonomy, separatist, independence, self-determination, partition, devolution decentralization, sovereignty, self-governance or decolonization movements instead of, or in addition to, being secession movements.\n\nAustralia\n\nDuring the 19th century, the single British colony in eastern mainland Australia, New South Wales (NSW) was progressively divided up by the British government as new settlements were formed and spread. Victoria (Vic) in 1851 and Queensland (Qld) in 1859.\n\nHowever, settlers agitated to divide the colonies throughout the later part of the century; particularly in central Queensland (centred in Rockhampton) in the 1860s and 1890s, and in North Queensland (with Bowen as a potential colonial capital) in the 1870s. Other secession (or territorial separation) movements arose and these advocated the secession of New England in northern central New South Wales, Deniliquin in the Riverina district also in NSW, and Mount Gambier in the eastern part of South Australia.\n\n;Western Australia\n\nSecession movements have surfaced several times in Western Australia (WA), where a 1933 referendum for secession from the Federation of Australia passed with a two-thirds majority. The referendum had to be ratified by the British Parliament, which declined to act, on the grounds that it would contravene the Australian Constitution.\n* The Principality of Hutt River claims to have seceded from Australia in 1970, although its status is not recognised by Australia or any other country. According to a lexicon on nationalist movements across the world, Macau happened to recognise that Principality.\n\nAustria\n\nAustria successfully seceded from Nazi Germany on April 27, 1945. This took place after seven years of Austria being part of Adolf Hitler's Third Reich due to the Anschluss annexation of Austria into Nazi Germany in March 1938.\n\nBelgium and the Netherlands\n\nOn August 25, 1830, during the reign of William I, the nationalistic opera La muette de Portici was performed in Brussels. Soon after, the Belgian Revolt occurred, which resulted in the Belgian secession from the Netherlands.\n\nBrazil\n\nIn 1825, soon after the Empire of Brazil managed to defeat the Cortes-Gerais and Portugal in a Independence War, the platinean nationalists in Cisplatina declared independence and joined the United Provinces, which led to a stagnated war between both, as they were both weakened, without manpower and fragile politically. The peace treaty accepted Uruguay independence, reasserted the rule of both nations over their land and some important points like free navigation in the Silver River.\n\nThree rather disorganized secessionist rebellions happened in Grão-Pará, Bahia and Maranhão, where the people were unhappy with the Empire (these provinces were Portuguese bastions in the Independence War). The Malê Revolt, in Bahia, was an Islamic slave revolt. These three rebellions were bloodily crushed by the Empire of Brazil.\n\nThe Pernambuco was one of the most nativist of all Brazilian regions, which in five revolts (1645–1654, 1710, 1817, 1824, 1848), the province ousted the Dutch West India Company, tried to secede from the Portuguese Empire and from the Brazilian Empire. In the attempts the rebels were crushed, the leaders shot and its territory divided, nevertheless they kept revolting until its territory was a little fraction of what it was before.\n\nIn the Ragamuffin War, the Province of Rio Grande do Sul was undergoing a (at that time common) liberal vs conservative \"cold\" war. After the Emperor favoured the conservatives, the liberals took the Capital and declared an independent Republic, fighting their way to the Province of Santa Catarina, declaring the Juliana Republic. Eventually they were slowly forced back, and made a reunification peace with the Empire. The war was not a secessionist war, even if it could become if the Empire was defeated, after the Empire agreed to aid its economy by taxing Argentina's products (like dry meat), the rebels reunited with the Empire and even filled its ranks, as the rebels were very good fighters.\n\nCanada\n\nThroughout Canada's history, there has been tension between English-speaking and French-speaking Canadians. Under the Constitutional Act of 1791, the Quebec colony (including parts of what is today Quebec, Ontario and Newfoundland and Labrador) was divided in two: Lower Canada (which retained French law and institutions and is now divided between the provinces of Quebec and Newfoundland and Labrador) and Upper Canada (a new colony intended to accommodate the many English-speaking settlers, including the United Empire Loyalists, and now part of Ontario). The intent was to provide each group with its own colony. In 1841, the two Canadas were merged into the Province of Canada. The union proved contentious, however, resulting in a legislative deadlock between English and French legislators. The difficulties of the union led to the adoption of a federal system in Canada, and the Canadian Confederation in 1867. The federal framework did not eliminate all tensions, however, leading to the Quebec sovereignty movement in the latter half of the 20th century.\n\nOther occasional secessionist movements have included anti-Confederation movements in 19th century Atlantic Canada (see Anti-Confederation Party), the North-West Rebellion of 1885, and various small separatism movements in Alberta particularly (see Alberta separatism) and Western Canada generally (see, for example, Western Canada Concept).\n\nCentral America\n\nAfter the 1823 collapse of the First Mexican Empire, the former Captaincy-General of Guatemala was organized into a new Federal Republic of Central America. In 1838 Nicaragua seceded. The Federal Republic was formally dissolved in 1840, all but one of the states having seceded amidst general disorder.\n\nChina\n\n* Three northwestern regions of Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia, and Tibet, (and its accompanying regions) are also the focus of secessionist calls by the Tibetan Independence Movement and East Turkestan Islamic Movement.\n\nCongo\n\nIn 1960 the State of Katanga declared independence from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. United Nations troops crushed it in Operation Grand Slam.\n\nCyprus\n\nIn 1974, the Turkish Army invaded northern Cyprus to protect the interests of the ethnic Turkish minority, who in the following year formed the Turkish Federative State of Cyprus and in 1983 declared independence as the Republic of Northern Cyprus, recognized only by Turkey.\n\nEast Timor\n\nThe Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste (also known as East Timor) has been described as having \"seceded\" from Indonesia. After Portuguese sovereignty was terminated in 1975, East Timor was occupied by Indonesia. However the United Nations and the International Court of Justice refused to recognize this incorporation. Therefore, the resulting civil war and eventual 2002 East Timorese vote for complete separation are better described as an independence movement. \n\nEthiopia\n\nFollowing the 1993 victory of opposition forces against the communist Derg regime during the Ethiopian Civil War, Eritrea (formerly known as \"Bahri Negash\" before being renamed to \"Eritrea\" by Italian colonizers from 1890–1941) seceded in a United Nations referendum with the blessing of the newly formed Ethiopian government.\n\nEuropean Union\n\nBefore the Treaty of Lisbon entered into force on 1 December 2009 no provision in the treaties or law of the European Union outlined the ability of a state to voluntarily withdraw from the EU. The European Constitution did propose such a provision and, after the failure to ratify the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe, that provision was then included in the Lisbon Treaty.\n\nThe treaty introduces an exit clause for members who wish to withdraw from the Union. This formalises the procedure by stating that a member state may notify the European Council that it wishes to withdraw, upon which withdrawal negotiations begin; if no other agreement is reached the treaty ceases to apply to the withdrawing state two years after such notification.\n\nFinland\n\nFinland successfully and peacefully seceded from the newly formed and weak Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic in 1917, the latter led by Lenin who had goodwill towards the Finns due to their having helped in his revolutionary struggle. Unsuccessful attempts at greater autonomy or peaceful secession had already been made during the preceding Russian Empire but had been denied by the Russian emperor.\n\nFrance\n\n* Alsace independence movement\n\nGran Colombia\n\nAfter a decade of tumultuous federalism, Ecuador and Venezuela seceded from Gran Colombia in 1830, leaving the similarly tumultuous United States of Colombia, now the Republic of Colombia which also lost Panama in 1903.\n\nRepublic of India (Indian Union)\n\nPakistan seceded from the British Indian empire in what is known as the Partition.\nToday, the Constitution of India does not allow Indian states to secede from the Union. The disputed territory of Indian-administered Kashmir has had a violent nationalist movement against Indian annexation mostly in the Valley of Kashmir since 1989, which continues and is supported by Pakistan. Other violent secessionist movements in Nagaland, Assam, Manipur, Punjab (known as the Khalistan movement), Mizoram and Tripura were also formerly active, while Tamil Nadu had a non-violent movement in the 1960s. While a violent Maoist Naxalite insurgency continues to rage across a wide-swath of eastern rural India, the movement is not considered a secessionist movement because the goal of the Maoists is to overthrow the government of India, although rebel commanders have occasionally called for a Communist republic to be carved out of swaths of India.\nThe Pakistani Armed organizations is a participant in the Kashmir conflict and strives to establish the merger state of Jammu and Kashmir from secular India to Muslim Pakistan.\n\nItaly\n\nThe Movement for the Independence of Sicily (Movimento Indipendentista Siciliano, MIS) has its roots in the Sicilian Independentist Movement of the late 1940s; they have been around for 60 years. Today, the MIS no longer exists, though many other parties have been born. One is Nation Sicily (Sicilia Nazione), which still believes in the idea that Sicily, due to its deeply personal and ancient history, has to be a sovereign country. Moreover, a common ideology shared by all the Sicilian independentist movements is to fight against Cosa Nostra and all the other Mafia organizations, that have a very deep influence over Sicily's public and private institutions. Also, the Sicilian branch of the Five Star Movement, which is according to the polls Sicily's most popular party, has publicly expressed the intention to start working for a possible secession from Italy in the case where the central government would not collaborate in shifting the nation's admistriative organization from a unitary country to a federative country.Lega Nord has been seeking the independence of the so-called region of Padania, which includes lands along the Po Valley in northern Italy. Some organizations separately work for the independence of Venetia or Veneto and the secession or reunification of South Tyrol with Austria. Lega Nord, that governs Lombardy, has expressed his will in making the region a sovereign nation. Also the island of Sardinia is home to a notable nationalist movement. Still, the whole southern Italy has clearly expressed the will to secede from the nation. This newborn ideology is so-called neo-bourbonic, because of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies which was under the control of the House of Bourbon. The Kingdom of Two Sicilies was created in 1816 after the Congress of Vienna, and it had over its control both Sicily and South Italy. The Reign came to an end in 1861 with the unification of Italy, being annexed to the newborn kingdom. However, the patriotic feelings shared among the shouthern Italian population is more ancient, starting in 1130 with the Kingdom of Sicily, which was composed by both the island and south Italy. According to the neo-bourbonic movements the Italian regions which should secede are Sicily, Calabria, Basilicata, Apulia, Molise, Campania, Abruzzo, and Latio's provinces of Rieti, Latina and Frosinone. The major movements and parties which believe in this ideology are Unione Mediterranea, Mo! and Briganti.\n\nIran\n\nActive secession movements include: Iranian Azeri, Assyrian independence movement, Bakhtiary lurs movement in 1876, Iranian Kurdistan; Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran (KDPI), Khūzestān Province Balochistan independence movement for free separated Balochistan, (Arab nationalist); Al-Ahwaz Arab People's Democratic Popular Front, Democratic Solidarity Party of Al-Ahwaz (See Politics of Khūzestān Province: Arab politics and separatism), and Balochistan People's Party (BPP) supporting Baloch Separatism. \n\nMalaysia\n\nWhen racial and partisan strife erupted, Singapore was expelled from the Malaysian federation in 1965. Agitation for secession has since been sporadic on the culturally distinct large island of Borneo in the states of Sabah and Sarawak although these sentiments has been gaining momentum and supports in the past few years following the proliferation of social medias and failure of the central government to fulfill conditions of the Malaysia Agreement 1963.\n\nMexico\n\n* Texas seceded from Mexico in 1836 (see Texas Revolution), after animosity between the Mexican government and the American settlers of the Coahuila y Tejas State. It was later annexed by the United States in 1845.\n* The Republic of the Rio Grande seceded from Mexico on January 17, 1840, it rejoined Mexico on November 6 the same year.\n* After the federal system was abandoned by President Santa Anna, the Congress of Yucatán approved in 1840 a declaration of independence, establishing the Republic of Yucatán. The Republic rejoined Mexico in 1843.\n\nNew Zealand\n\nSecession movements have surfaced several times in the South Island of New Zealand. A Premier of New Zealand, Sir Julius Vogel, was amongst the first people to make this call, which was voted on by the Parliament of New Zealand as early as 1865. The desire for South Island independence was one of the main factors in moving the capital of New Zealand from Auckland to Wellington in the same year.\n\nThe NZ South Island Party with a pro-South agenda, fielded only five candidates (4.2% of electoral seats) candidates in the 1999 General Election but only achieved 0.14% (2622 votes) of the general vote. The reality today is that although \"South Islanders\" are most proud of their geographic region, secession does not carry any real constituency; the party was not able to field any candidates in the 2008 election due to being unable to enlist 500 paying members, a requirement by the New Zealand Electoral commission. The party is treated more as a \"joke\" party than any real political force.\n\nNigeria\n\nBetween 1967 and 1970, the unrecognised state of Biafra (The Republic of Biafra) seceded from Nigeria, resulting in a civil war that ended with the state returning to Nigeria.\nLater in 1999 at the beginning of a new democratic regime, other secessionist movements emerged, the movement for the Actualization of a Sovereign state of Biafra was formed as a military wing of the Republic of Biafra.\n\nNorway and Sweden\n\nSweden, having left the Kalmar Union with Denmark and Norway in the 16th century, entered into a loose personal union with Norway in 1814. Following a constitutional crisis, on June 7, 1905 the Norwegian Parliament declared that King Oscar II had failed to fulfill his constitutional duties. He was therefore no longer King of Norway and because the union depended on the two countries sharing a king, it was thus dissolved. After negotiations Sweden agreed to this on October 26 and on April 14.\n\nPakistan\n\nAfter the Awami League won the 1970 national elections, negotiations to form a new government floundered, resulting in the Bangladesh Liberation War by which the eastern wing of Pakistan seceded, to become Bangladesh. The Balochistan Liberation Army (also Baloch Liberation Army or Boluchistan Liberation army) (BLA) is a Baloch nationalist militant secessionist organization. The stated goals of the organization include the establishment of an independent state of Balochistan free of Pakistani , Iranian and Afghan Federations . The name Baloch Liberation Army first became public in summer 2000, after the organization claimed credit for a series of bomb attacks in markets and removal of railways lines.and Sindhudesh liberation army(S.L.A) is Sindhi nationalists militant wing which also struggled against Punjabi imperials national slavery they also claimed series of bomb attack at transmission lines and railway lines .\n\nPapua New Guinea\n\nThe island of Bougainville has made several efforts to secede from Papua New Guinea.\n\nSomalia\n\nSomaliland is an autonomous region, which is part of the Federal Republic of Somalia. Those who call the area the Republic of Somaliland consider it to be the successor state of the former British Somaliland protectorate. Having established its own local government in Somalia in 1991, the region's self-declared independence remains unrecognized by any country or international organization. \n\nSoviet Union\n\nThe Constitution of the Soviet Union guaranteed all SSRs the right to secede from the Union. In practice however, the central government wouldn't allow an SSR to secede. In 1990, after free elections, the Lithuanian SSR declared independence and other SSRs soon followed. Despite the Soviet central-government's refusal to recognize the independence of the republics, the Soviet Union dissolved in 1991.\n\nSouth Africa\n\nIn 1910, following the British Empire's defeat of the Afrikaner in the Boer Wars, four self-governing colonies in the south of Africa were merged into the Union of South Africa. The four regions were the Cape Colony, Orange Free State, Natal and Transvaal. Three other territories, High Commission Territories of Bechuanaland (now Botswana), Basutoland (now Lesotho) and Swaziland later became independent states in the 1960s. Following the election of the Nationalist government in 1948, some English-speaking whites in Natal advocated either secession or a loose federation. There were also calls for secession, with Natal and the eastern part of the Cape Province breaking away. following the referendum in 1960 on establishing a republic, and in 1993, prior to South Africa's first elections under universal suffrage and the end of apartheid, some Zulu leaders in KwaZulu-Natal considered secession as did some politicians in the Cape Province. \n\nIn 2008, a political movement calling for the return to independence of the Cape resurged in the shape of the political organisation, the Cape Party. The Cape Party contested their first elections on 22 April 2009. \n\nSpain\n\nSpain (known officially as \"the Kingdom of Spain\") was assembled in the 15th and 16th centuries from various component kingdoms, some having lost their secession wars. Spain has several secessionist movements, the most notable being in Catalonia and in the Basque Country.\n\nSri Lanka\n\nThe Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, operated a de facto independent state for Tamils called Tamil Eelam in eastern and northern Sri Lanka until 2009.\n\nSwitzerland\n\nIn 1847, seven disaffected Catholic cantons formed a separate alliance because of moves to change the cantons of Switzerland from a confederation to a more centralized government federation. This effort was crushed in the Sonderbund war and a new Swiss Federal Constitution was created. \n\nUkraine\n\nIn the aftermath of the Ukrainian Revolution of 2014, several regions of Ukraine declared independence:\n* In March 2014, the governments of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol declared independence from Ukraine and asked to join the Russian Federation. \n* The Donetsk People's Republic was declared to be independent from Ukraine on 7 April 2014, comprising the territory of the Donetsk Oblast. There have been military confrontations between the Ukrainian Army and the forces of the Donetsk People's Republic when the Ukrainian Government attempted to reassert control over the oblast.\n* The Lugansk Parliamentary Republic was proclaimed on 27 April 2014. before being succeeded by the Lugansk People's Republic. The Lugansk forces have successfully occupied vital buildings in Lugansk since 8 April, and controlled the City Council, prosecutor's office, and police station since 27 April. The Government of the Lugansk Oblast announced its support for a referendum, and granted the governorship to independence leader Valeriy Bolotov. \n\nUnited Kingdom\n\nIreland is the only territory that has withdrawn from the United Kingdom proper. Ireland declared independence in 1916 and, as the Irish Free State, gained independence in 1922. Currently the United Kingdom has a number of secession movements:\n* In Northern Ireland, Irish Republicans and Nationalists in general, have long called for the secession of Northern Ireland from the United Kingdom in order to join the Republic of Ireland. This is opposed by Unionists.\n* In Scotland the Scottish National Party (SNP) campaigns for Scottish independence and direct Scottish membership of the European Union. It has representation at all levels of Scottish politics and forms the devolved Scottish Government. A number of nascent pro-independence parties have enjoyed only limited electoral success. The Scottish Green Party, the Scottish Socialist Party and the Scottish Enterprise Party are most widely publicised. However all independence movements/parties are opposed by Unionists. A referendum on independence, in which voters were asked \"Should Scotland be an independent country?\", took place in September 2014, and resulted in a victory for the \"no\" campaign as 55.3 percent of voters voted against independence. \n* In Wales, Plaid Cymru (Party of Wales) stands for Welsh independence within the European Union. It is also represented at all levels of Welsh politics and is the second largest party in the National Assembly of Wales.\n* In Cornwall, supporters of Mebyon Kernow call for the creation of a Cornish Assembly and separation from England, giving the county significant self-government, whilst remaining within the United Kingdom as a fifth home nation.\n* In England the now-disbanded Free England Party (FEP) campaigned for English independence.\n* Parts of Southern England like Devon, the Isle of Wight, Minster in Kent, and Wessex, have autonomy movements.\n* Some of the more radical members of the British direct democracy movement in the Conservative Party (Daniel Hannan for example) – while not actually advocating secession – support the federalization of the UK into states along county boundaries (actually a proposal of 5 or 6 regions of England, 4 or 5 in Scotland and 3 in Wales). There are currently 9 government office regions in England and none in the other Home Nations.\n\nUnited States\n\nDiscussions and threats of secession often surface in American politics, and secession was declared during the Civil War between the States. However, in 1869 the United States Supreme Court ruled in Texas v. White, 74 U.S. 700 (1869) that unilateral secession was not permitted saying that the union between a state (Texas in the case before the bar) \"was as complete, as perpetual, and as indissoluble as the union between the original States. There was no place for reconsideration or revocation, except through revolution or through consent of the States.\" \n\nYemen\n\nNorth Yemen and South Yemen merged in 1990; tensions led to a 1994 southern secession which was crushed in a civil war.\n\nYugoslavia\n\nOn June 25, 1991, Croatia and Slovenia seceded from the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Bosnia and Hercegovina and Macedonia also declared independence, after which the federation broke up, causing the separation of the remaining two countries Serbia and Montenegro. Several wars ensued between FR Yugoslavia and seceding entitites and among other ethnic groups in Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and later, Kosovo. Montenegro peacefully separated from its union with Serbia in 2006.\n\nKosovo declared de facto independence on February 17, 2008, and was recognized by several dozen countries, but officially remains under United Nations administration.", "Secession in the United States properly refers to State secession, which is the withdrawal of one or more States from the Union that constitutes the United States; but may loosely refer to leaving a State or territory to form a separate territory or new State, or to the severing of an area from a city or county within a State.\n\nThreats and aspirations to secede from the United States, or arguments justifying secession, have been a feature of the country's politics almost since its birth. Some have argued for secession as a constitutional right and others as from a natural right of revolution. In Texas v. White, the United States Supreme Court ruled unilateral secession unconstitutional, while commenting that revolution or consent of the States could lead to a successful secession.\n\nThe most serious attempt at secession was advanced in the years 1860 and 1861 as eleven southern States each declared secession from the United States, and joined together to form the Confederate States of America. This movement collapsed in 1865 with the defeat of Confederate forces by Union armies in the American Civil War.\n\nA 2008 Zogby International poll found that 22% of Americans believed that \"any state or region has the right to peaceably secede and become an independent republic.\" \nA 2014 Reuters/Ipsos poll showed 23.9% of Americans supported their state seceding from the union if necessary; 53.3% opposed the idea. Republicans were somewhat more supportive than Democrats. Respondents cited issues like gridlock, governmental overreach, the Affordable Care Act and a loss of faith in the federal government as reasons for secession. \n\nThe American Revolution\n\nThe Declaration of Independence states:\n\nHistorian Pauline Maier argues that this narrative asserted \"... the right of revolution, which was, after all, the right Americans were exercising in 1776\"; and notes that Thomas Jefferson's language incorporated ideas explained at length by a long list of seventeenth-century writers including John Milton, Algernon Sidney, and John Locke and other English and Scottish commentators, all of whom had contributed to the development of the Whig tradition in eighteenth-century Britain.\n\nThe right of revolution expressed in the Declaration was immediately followed with the observation that long-practised injustice is tolerated until sustained assaults on the rights of the entire people have accumulated enough force to oppress them; then they may defend themselves. This reasoning was not original to the Declaration, but can be found in many prior political writings: Locke's Two Treatises of Government (1690); the Fairfax Resolves of 1774; Jefferson's own Summary View of the Rights of British America; Thomas Paine's Common Sense (1776); and the first Constitution of Virginia, which was enacted five days prior to the Declaration. \n\nGordon S. Wood quotes John Adams: \"Only repeated, multiplied oppressions placing it beyond all doubt that their rulers had formed settled plans to deprive them of their liberties, could warrant the concerted resistance of the people against their government\".\n\nCivil War era political and legal views on secession\n\nOverview\n\nWith origins in the question of states' rights the issue of secession was argued in many forums and advocated from time to time in both the North and South in the decades after adopting the Constitution and before the American Civil War. Historian Maury Klein described the contemporary debate: \"Was the Republic a unified nation in which the individual states had merged their sovereign rights and identities forever, or was it a federation of sovereign states joined together for specific purposes from which they could withdraw at any time?\" He observed that \"the case can be made that no result of the [American Civil] war was more important than the destruction, once and for all . . . of the idea of secession\".\n\nHistorian Forrest McDonald argued that after adopting the Constitution \"there were no guidelines, either in theory or in history, as to whether the compact could be dissolved and, if so, on what conditions\". However, during \"the founding era, many a public figure . . . declared that the states could interpose their powers between their citizens and the power of the federal government, and talk of secession was not unknown.\" But according to McDonald, to avoid resorting to the violence that had accompanied the Revolution, the Constitution established \"legitimate means for constitutional change in the future\". In effect, the Constitution \"completed and perfected the Revolution\".\n\nWhatever the intentions of the Founders, threats of secession and disunion were a constant in the political discourse of Americans preceding the Civil War. Historian Elizabeth R. Varon wrote:\n\nAbandoning the Articles of Confederation\n\nIn late 1777 the Second Continental Congress approved the Articles of Confederation for ratification by the individual states. The confederation government was administered de facto by the Congress under the provisions of the approved (final) draft of the Articles until they achieved ratification—and de jure status—in early 1781. In 1786 delegates of five states (the Annapolis Convention) called for a convention of delegates in Philadelphia to amend the Articles—which would require unanimous consent of the thirteen states.\n\nThe delegates to the Philadelphia Convention convened and deliberated from May to September 1787. Instead of pursuing their official charge they returned a draft (new) Constitution, proposed for constructing and administering a new federal—later also known as \"national\"—government. And they further proposed that the draft Constitution not be submitted to the Congress (where it would require unanimous approval of the states); instead that it be presented directly to the states for ratification in special ratification conventions, and that approval by only nine state conventions would suffice to adopt the new Constitution and initiate the new federal government; and that only those states ratifying the Constitution would be included in the new government. (For a time, eleven of the original states operated under the Constitution without two non-ratifying states, Rhode Island and North Carolina.) In effect, the delegates proposed to abandon and replace the Articles of Confederation rather than amend them.\n\nBecause the Articles had specified a \"perpetual union\", various arguments have been offered to explain the apparent contradiction (and presumed illegality) of abandoning one form of government and creating another that did not include the members of the original. One explanation was that the Articles of Confederation simply failed to protect the vital interests of the individual states. Necessity then, rather than legality, was the practical factor in abandoning the Articles.\n\nAccording to historian John Ferling, by 1786 the Union under the Articles was falling apart. James Madison of Virginia and Alexander Hamilton of New York—they who joined together to vigorously promote a new Constitution—urged that renewed stability of the Union government was critically needed to protect property and commerce. Both founders were strong advocates for a more powerful central government; they published The Federalist Papers to advocate their cause and became known as the federalists. (Because of his powerful advocacy Madison was later accorded the honorific \"Father of the Constitution\".) Ferling wrote:\n\nOther arguments that justified abandoning the Articles of Confederation pictured the Articles as an international compact between unconsolidated, sovereign states, any one of which was empowered to renounce the compact at will. (This as opposed to a consolidated union that \"totally annihilated, without any power of revival\" the sovereign states.) The Articles required that all states were obliged to comply with all requirements of the agreement; thus, permanence was linked to compliance.\n\nAnd 'compliance' was typically perceived as a matter of interpretation by each individual state. Emerich de Vattel, a recognized authority on international law, wrote at the time that \"Treaties contain promises that are perfect and reciprocal. If one of the allies fails in his engagements, the other may ... disengage himself in his promises, and ... break the treaty.\" Thus, each state could unilaterally 'secede' from the Articles of Confederation at will; this argument for abandoning the Articles — for its weakness in the face of secession — was used by advocates for the new Constitution and was featured by James Madison in Federalist No. 43.\n\nSome argued that abandoning the Articles was the same as seceding from the Articles and thus was legal precedent for future secession(s) from the Constitution. St. George Tucker, a respected jurist in the early republic era, wrote in 1803:\n\nOthers denied that such a precedent was set; historian Akhil Reed Amar wrote:\n\nAnd others argued the opposite of secession; that indeed the new Constitution inherited perpetuity from the language in the Articles and from other actions done prior to the Constitution. Historian Kenneth Stampp explains their view:\n\nAdopting the Constitution\n\nConstitutional scholar Akhil Reed Amar argues that the permanence of the Union of the states changed significantly when the U.S. Constitution replaced the Articles of Confederation. This action \"signaled its decisive break with the Articles' regime of state sovereignty.\" By adopting a constitution—rather than a treaty, or a compact, or an instrument of confederacy, etc.—that created a new body of government designed to be senior to the several states, and by approving the particular language and provisions of that new Constitution, the framers and voters made it clear that the fates of the individual states were (severely) changed; and that the new United States was:\n\nPatrick Henry adamantly opposed adopting the Constitution because he interpreted its language to replace the sovereignty of the individual states, including that of his own Virginia. He gave his strong voice to the anti-federalist cause in opposition to the federalists led by Madison and Hamilton. Questioning the nature of the proposed new federal government, Henry asked:\n\nThe federalists acknowledged that national sovereignty would be transferred by the new Constitution to the whole of the American people—indeed, regard the expression, \"We the people ...\". They argued, however, that Henry exaggerated the extent to which a consolidated government was being created and that the states would serve a vital role within the new republic even though their national sovereignty was ending. Tellingly, on the matter of whether states retained a right to unilaterally secede from the United States, the federalists made it clear that no such right would exist under the Constitution.\n\nAmar specifically cites the example of New York's ratification as suggestive that the Constitution did not countenance secession. Anti-federalists dominated the Poughkeepsie Convention that would ratify the Constitution. Concerned that the new compact might not sufficiently safeguard states' rights, the anti-federalists sought to insert into the New York ratification message language to the effect that \"there should be reserved to the state of New York a right to withdraw herself from the union after a certain number of years.\" The Madison federalists opposed this, with Hamilton, a delegate at the Convention, reading aloud in response a letter from James Madison stating: \"the Constitution requires an adoption in toto, and for ever\" [emphasis added]. Hamilton and John Jay then told the Convention that in their view, reserving \"a right to withdraw [was] inconsistent with the Constitution, and was no ratification.\" The New York convention ultimately ratified the Constitution without including the \"right to withdraw\" language proposed by the anti-federalists.\n\nAmar explains how the Constitution impacted on state sovereignty:\n\nNatural right of revolution versus right of secession\n\nDebates on the legality of secession often looked back to the example of the American Revolution and the Declaration of Independence. Law professor Daniel Farber defined what he considered the borders of this debate:\n\nIn the public debate over the Nullification Crisis the separate issue of secession was also discussed. James Madison, often referred to as \"The Father of the Constitution\", strongly opposed the argument that secession was permitted by the Constitution. In a March 15, 1833, letter to Daniel Webster (congratulating him on a speech opposing nullification), Madison discussed \"revolution\" versus \"secession\":\n\nThus Madison affirms an extraconstitutional right to revolt against conditions of \"intolerable oppression\"; but if the case cannot be made (that such conditions exist), then he rejects secession—as a violation of the Constitution.\n\nDuring the crisis, President Andrew Jackson, published his Proclamation to the People of South Carolina, which made a case for the perpetuity of the Union; plus, he provided his views re the questions of \"revolution\" and \"secession\":\n\nSome twenty-eight years after Jackson spoke, President James Buchanan gave a different voice — one much more accommodating to the views of the secessionists and the 'slave' states — in the midst of the pre-War secession crisis. In his final State of the Union address to Congress, on December 3, 1860, he acknowledged his view that the South, \"after having first used all peaceful and constitutional means to obtain redress, would be justified in revolutionary resistance to the Government of the Union\"; but he also drew his apocalyptic vision of the results to be expected from secession:\n\nAlien and Sedition Acts\n\nIn response to the 1798 Alien and Sedition Acts—advanced by the Federalist Party—John Taylor of the Virginia House of Delegates spoke out, urging Virginia to secede from the United States. He argued—as one of many vociferous responses by the Jeffersonian Republicans—the sense of the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions, adopted in 1798 and 1799, which reserved to those States the rights of secession and interposition (nullification).\n\nThomas Jefferson, while sitting as Vice President of the United States in 1799, wrote to James Madison of his conviction in \"a reservation of th[ose] rights resulting to us from these palpable violations [the Alien and Sedition Acts]\" and, if the federal government did not return to\n\nHere Jefferson is arguing in a radical voice (and in a private letter) that he would lead a movement for secession; but it is unclear whether he is arguing for \"secession at will\" or for \"revolution\" on account of \"intolerable oppression\" (see above), or neither. Either way, some historians conclude that his language and acts were broaching the legal edges of treason. Jefferson secretly wrote (one of) the Kentucky Resolutions, which was done—again—while he was holding the office of Vice President. His biographer Dumas Malone argued that, had his actions become known at the time, Jefferson's participation might have gotten him impeached for (charged with) treason. In writing the first Kentucky Resolution, Jefferson warned that, \"unless arrested at the threshold,\" the Alien and Sedition Acts would \"necessarily drive these states into revolution and blood.\" Historian Ron Chernow says of this \"he wasn't calling for peaceful protests or civil disobedience: he was calling for outright rebellion, if needed, against the federal government of which he was vice president.\" Jefferson \"thus set forth a radical doctrine of states' rights that effectively undermined the constitution.\"\n\nJeffersonian Republicans were not alone in claiming \"reserved rights\" against the federal government. Contributing to the rancorous debates during the War of 1812, Founding Father Gouverneur Morris of Pennsylvania and New York—a Federalist, a Hamilton ally and a primary author of the Constitution who advanced the concept that Americans were citizens of a single Union of the states—was persuaded to claim that \"secession, under certain circumstances, was entirely constitutional.\"\n\nNew England Federalists and the Hartford Convention\n\nThe election of 1800 showed Jefferson's Democratic-Republican Party on the rise and the Federalists declining. The Federalists felt threatened by initiatives taken by their opponents. They viewed Jefferson's unilateral purchase of the Louisiana territory as violating foundational agreements between the original thirteen states—Jefferson transacted the purchase in secret and refused to seek the approval of Congress. The new lands anticipated several future western states that would be—the Federalists supposed—populated by emigrants from the eastern states who likely would be dominated by the Democratic-Republicans. The impeachment of John Pickering, a Federalist district judge, by the Jeffersonian dominated Congress and similar attacks on Pennsylvania state officials by the Democratic-Republican legislature added to the Federalists' alarm. By 1804, their national leadership was decimated and their viable base was reduced to the states of Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Delaware.\n\nTimothy Pickering of Massachusetts and a few Federalists envisioned creating a separate New England confederation, possibly combining with lower Canada to form a new pro-British nation. Historian Richard Buell, Jr., characterizes these separatist musings:\n\nThe Embargo Act of 1807 was seen as a threat to the economy of Massachusetts and in May 1808 the state legislature debated how the state should respond. These debates generated isolated references to secession, but no definite plot materialized.\n\nFederalist party members convened the Hartford Convention on December 15, 1814; they addressed their opposition to the continuing war with England and the domination of the federal government by the 'Virginia dynasty'. Twenty six delegates attended—Massachusetts sent 12, Connecticut seven, and Rhode Island four; New Hampshire and Vermont declined but two counties each from those states sent delegates. Historian Donald R. Hickey noted:\n\nThe final report addressed issues related to the war and state defense; and it recommended several amendments to the Constitution dealing with \"the overrepresentation of white southerners in Congress, the growing power of the West, the trade restrictions and the war, the influence of foreigners (like Albert Gallatin), and the Virginia dynasty's domination of national politics.\" \n\nMassachusetts and Connecticut endorsed the report, but the war ended as the delegates were returning to Washington, effectively quashing any good impact the report might have had. Generally, the Hartford Convention was a \"victory for moderation\", but the timing of events caused the convention to be castigated (by the Jeffersonians) as \"a synonym for disloyalty and treason\"; all which became a major factor in the sharp decline of the Federalist Party.\n\nAbolitionists for secession\n\nBy the late 1830s tensions between north and south, already aggravated over tariff disputes, begin to rise ominously over slavery and related issues. Many northerners, especially New Englanders, saw themselves as political victims of conspiracies between slaveholders and western expansionists. They viewed the movements to annex Texas and to make war on Mexico as fomented by slaveholders bent on dominating western expansion—and thereby the national destiny—with 'slave' states and a 'slave' national economy.\n\nHistorian Joel Sibley wrote of the beliefs held by some leaders in New England:\n\nVoices demanding separation from the south were beginning (again). In The Liberator of May 1844 with his \"Address to the Friends of Freedom and Emancipation in the United States,\" William Lloyd Garrison called for disunion (secession). Garrison wrote: the Constitution was created \"at the expense of the colored population of the country\"; southerners were dominating the nation—especially representation in Congress—because of the Three-Fifths Compromise; now it was time \"to set the captive free by the potency of truth\" and to \"secede from the government\". Coincidentally, the New England Anti-Slavery Convention endorsed the principles of disunion by a vote of 250–24.\n\nFrom 1846, after introduction of the Wilmot Proviso into the public debate, talk in favor of secession shifted to southern voices. Southern leaders' increasing perceptions of helplessness in confronting a powerful political group attacking their interests (and survival) were reminiscent of Federalist alarms at the beginning of the century.\n\nSouth Carolina\n\nDuring the presidential term of Andrew Jackson, South Carolina had its own semi-secession movement due to the 1828 \"Tariffs of Abomination\" which threatened both South Carolina's economy and the Union. Andrew Jackson also threatened to send federal troops to put down the movement and to hang the leader of the secessionists from the highest tree in South Carolina. Also due to this, Jackson's vice president, John C. Calhoun, who supported the movement and wrote the essay \"The South Carolina Exposition and Protest\", became the first US vice-president to resign. On May 1, 1833, Jackson wrote of nullification, \"the tariff was only a pretext, and disunion and southern confederacy the real object. The next pretext will be the negro, or slavery question.\" South Carolina also threatened to secede in 1850 over the issue of California's statehood. It became the first state to declare its secession from the Union on December 20, 1860, with the Declaration of the Immediate Causes Which Induce and Justify the Secession of South Carolina from the Federal Union and later joined with the other southern states in the Confederacy.\n\nConfederate States of America\n\nSee main articles Origins of the American Civil War, Confederate States of America and American Civil War.\n\nThe most famous secession movement was the case of the Southern states of the United States. Secession from the United States was declared in eleven states (and failed in two others). The seceding states joined together to form the Confederate States of America (CSA). The eleven states of the CSA, in order of secession, were: South Carolina (seceded December 20, 1860), Mississippi (seceded January 9, 1861), Florida (seceded January 10, 1861), Alabama (seceded January 11, 1861), Georgia (seceded January 19, 1861), Louisiana (seceded January 26, 1861), Texas (seceded February 1, 1861), Virginia (seceded April 17, 1861), Arkansas (seceded May 6, 1861), North Carolina (seceded May 20, 1861), and Tennessee (seceded June 8, 1861). Secession was declared by its supporters in Missouri and Kentucky, but did not become effective as it was opposed by their pro-Union state governments. This secession movement brought about the American Civil War. The position of the Union was that the Confederacy was not a sovereign nation—and never had been, but that \"the Union\" was always a single nation by intent of the states themselves, from 1776 onward—and thus that a rebellion had been initiated by individuals. Historian Bruce Catton described President Abraham Lincoln's April 15, 1861, proclamation after the attack on Fort Sumter, which defined the Union's position on the hostilities:\n\nSupreme Court rulings\n\nTexas v. White was argued before the United States Supreme Court during the December 1868 term. Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase read the Court's decision, on April 15, 1869. Australian Professors Peter Radan and Aleksandar Pavkovic write:\n\nHowever, the Court's decision recognized some possibility of the divisibility \"through revolution, or through consent of the States\". \n\nIn 1877, the Williams v. Bruffy decision was rendered, pertaining to civil war debts. The Court wrote regarding acts establishing an independent government that \"The validity of its acts, both against the parent state and the citizens or subjects thereof, depends entirely upon its ultimate success; if it fail to establish itself permanently, all such acts perish with it; if it succeed and become recognized, its acts from the commencement of its existence are upheld as those of an independent nation.\" \n\nHistorian Kenneth Stampp notes that a historical case against secession had been made that argued that \"the Union is older than the states\" and that \"the provision for a perpetual Union in the Articles of Confederation\" was carried over into the Constitution by the \"reminder that the preamble to the new Constitution gives us one of its purposes the formation of 'a more perfect Union'.\" Concerning the White decision Stampp wrote:\n\nTexas secession from Mexico\n\nThe Republic of Texas successfully seceded from Mexico in 1836 (this, however took the form of outright rebellion against Mexico, and claimed no warrant under the Mexican Constitution to do so). Mexico refused to recognize its revolted province as an independent country, but the major nations of the world did recognize it. In 1845, Congress admitted Texas as a state. The documents governing Texas' accession to the United States of America do not mention any right of secession—although they did raise the possibility of dividing Texas into multiple states inside the Union. Mexico warned that annexation meant war and the Mexican–American War followed in 1846.\n\nPartition of a state\n\nArticle IV, Section. 3, Clause 1 of the United States Constitutions provides: \nNew States may be admitted by the Congress into this Union; but no new States shall be formed or erected within the Jurisdiction of any other State; nor any State be formed by the Junction of two or more States, or parts of States, without the Consent of the Legislatures of the States concerned as well as of the Congress.\n\nThe separation referred to is not secession but partition. Some of the movements to partition states have incorrectly identified themselves as \"secessionist\" movements.\n\nOf the new states admitted to the Union by Congress, three were set off from already existing states, while one was established upon land claimed by an existing state after existing for several years as a de facto independent republic. They are:\n\n* Vermont was admitted as a new state in 1791 after the legislature of New York ceded its claim to the region in 1790. New York's claim that Vermont (also known as the New Hampshire Grants) was legally a part of New York was and remains a matter of disagreement. King George III, ruled in 1764 that the region belonged to the Province of New York.\n* Kentucky was a part of Virginia until it was admitted as a new state in 1792 with the consent of the legislature of Virginia in 1789.\n* Maine was a part of Massachusetts until it was admitted as a new state in 1820 after the legislature of Massachusetts consented in 1819.\n* West Virginia was a part of Virginia until it was admitted as a new state in 1863 after the General Assembly of the Restored Government of Virginia consented in 1862. The question of whether the legislature of Virginia consented is controversial, as Virginia was one of the Confederate states. However, antisecessionist Virginians formed a government in exile, which was recognized by the United States and approved the state's partition. Later, by its ruling in Virginia v. West Virginia (1871), the Supreme Court implicitly affirmed that the breakaway Virginia counties did have the proper consents required to become a separate state. \n\n1980s–present efforts\n\nThe late 20th and early 21st centuries have seen examples of local and state secession movements. All such movements to create new states have failed. The formation in 1971 of the Libertarian Party and its national platform affirmed the right of states to secede on three vital principles: \"We shall support recognition of the right to secede. Political units or areas which do secede should be recognized by the United States as independent political entities where: (1) secession is supported by a majority within the political unit, (2) the majority does not attempt suppression of the dissenting minority, and (3) the government of the new entity is at least as compatible with human freedom as that from which it seceded.\" \n\nCity secession\n\nThere was an attempt by Staten Island to break away from New York City in the late 1980s and early 1990s, leading to a 1993 referendum, in which 65% voted to secede. Implementation was blocked in the State Assembly by assertions that the state's constitution required a \"home rule message\" from New York City. \n\nThe San Fernando Valley lost a vote to separate from Los Angeles in 2002 but has seen increased attention to its infrastructure needs. Despite the majority (55%) of the valley within the L.A. city limits voting for secession, the city council unanimously voted to block the partition of the valley north of Mulholland Drive. If the San Fernando Valley became a city, it would be the seventh largest in the United States, with over one million people.\n\nOther attempted city secession drives include Killington, Vermont, which has voted twice (2005 and 2006) to join New Hampshire; the community of Miller Beach, Indiana, originally a separate incorporated community, to split from the city of Gary in 2007; Northeast Philadelphia to split from the city of Philadelphia; and the rejection of annexation of what was the unincorporated area of West Indio from Indio, California.\n\nA portion of the town of Calabash, North Carolina voted to secede from the town in 1998 after receiving permission for a referendum on the issue from the state of North Carolina. Following secession, the area incorporated itself as the town of Carolina Shores. Despite the split, the towns continue to share fire and emergency services.\n\nCounty secession\n\nIn U.S. history, many counties have been divided, often for routine administrative convenience, although sometimes at the request of a majority of the residents. During the 20th century, over 1,000 county secession movements existed, but since the 1950s only three have succeeded: La Paz County, Arizona, broke off from Yuma County and the Cibola County, New Mexico, effort both occurred in the early 1980s, while during 1998–2001 there was a transition by Broomfield, Colorado, to become a separate jurisdiction from four different counties.\n\nPrior to these, the last county created in the U.S. was Menominee County, Wisconsin, in 1959. The problem with Menominee County was an act to replace the Menominee Indian Reservation from 1961 to its restoration in 1973. Another case is Osage County, Oklahoma, when the county was meant to replace the Osage tribal sovereignty, and the BIA declaration of it being a \"mineral estate\" not a sovereign tribal group nor the state's only Indian reservation in 1997.\n\nThe High Desert County, California, plan to split the northern half of Los Angeles and the eastern half of Kern counties, was approved by the California state government in 2006, but was never officially declared in force. The state rejected the approval due to inaction of any establishment of county government in 2009.\n\nIn 2010, southern Cook County, Illinois petitioned to create \"Lincoln County\", to protest the dominance of Chicago. The county's possible largest city would be Calumet City, Illinois, and only 600,000 out of 5.03 million Cook County residents live south of Chicago.\n\nIn Arizona, a movement called for the southeastern portion of Maricopa County, Arizona to secede and establish \"Mesa County\" for Mesa in order to complain about the county government mainly focusing on Phoenix instead of the entire county.\n\nState secession\n\nSome state movements seek secession from the United States itself and the formation of a nation from one or more states.\n\n* Alaska: In November 2006, the Alaska Supreme Court held in the case [Kohlhaas v. State] that secession was illegal, and refused to permit an initiative to be presented to the people of Alaska for a vote. The Alaskan Independence Party remains a factor in state politics. \n* California - This was discussed by involved grassroots movement parties and small activist groups calling for the state to secede from the union, they met in a pro-secessionist meeting in Sacramento on April 15, 2010 to discuss advancing the matter. In 2015, a Political Action Committee called the \"Yes California Independence Committee\" formed to advocate California's independence from the United States. On January 8, 2016, the California Secretary of State's office confirmed that a political body called the California National Party filed the appropriate paperwork to begin qualifying as a political party. The California National Party, whose primary objective is California independence, is running a candidate for State Assembly in the June 7, 2016 primary. \n*Florida: The mock 1982 secessionist protest by the Conch Republic in the Florida Keys resulted in an ongoing source of local pride and tourist amusement. In 2015, right-wing activist Jason Patrick Sager called for Florida to secede. \n*Georgia: On April 1, 2009, the Georgia State Senate passed a resolution 43-1 that asserted the right of states to nullify federal laws under some circumstances. The resolution also asserted that if Congress, the president, or the federal judiciary took certain steps, such as establishing martial law without state consent, requiring some types of involuntary servitude, taking any action regarding religion or restricting freedom of political speech, or establishing further prohibitions of types or quantities of firearms or ammunition, the constitution establishing the United States government would be considered nullified and the union would be dissolved. \n*Hawaii: The Hawaiian sovereignty movement has a number of active groups that have won some concessions from the state of Hawaii, including the offering of H.R. 258 in March 2011, which removes the words \"Treaty of Annexation\" from a statute. It has passed a committee recommendation 6-0 thus far. \n*With the decision of the Supreme Court of the United States to hear District of Columbia v. Heller in late 2007, an early 2008 movement began in Montana involving at least 60 elected officials addressing potential secession if the Second Amendment were interpreted not to grant an individual right, citing its compact with the United States of America. \n*New Hampshire: On September 1, 2012 \"The New Hampshire Liberty Party was formed to promote independence from the federal government and for the individual.\" The Free State Project is another NH based movement that has considered secession to increase liberty. On July 23, 2001 founder of the FSP, Jason Sorens, published \"Announcement: The Free State Project\", in The Libertarian Enterprise stating, \"Even if we don't actually secede, we can force the federal government to compromise with us and grant us substantial liberties. Scotland and Quebec have both used the threat of secession to get large subsidies and concessions from their respective national governments. We could use our leverage for liberty.\" \n* South Carolina: In May 2010 a group formed that called itself the Third Palmetto Republic, a reference to the fact that the state claimed to be an independent republic twice before: once in 1776 and again in 1860. The group models itself after the Second Vermont Republic, and says its aims are for a free and independent South Carolina, and to abstain from any further federations.\n*Texas Secession Movement: The group Republic of Texas generated national publicity for its controversial actions in the late 1990s. A small group still meets. In April 2009, Rick Perry, the Governor of Texas, raised the issue of secession in disputed comments during a speech at a Tea Party protest saying \"Texas is a unique place. When we came into the union in 1845, one of the issues was that we would be able to leave if we decided to do that...My hope is that America and Washington in particular pays attention. We've got a great union. There's absolutely no reason to dissolve it. But if Washington continues to thumb their nose at the American people, who knows what may come of that.\" \n*Vermont: The Second Vermont Republic, founded in 2003, is a loose network of several groups that describes itself as \"a nonviolent citizens' network and think tank opposed to the tyranny of Corporate America and the U.S. government, and committed to the peaceful return of Vermont to its status as an independent republic and more broadly the dissolution of the Union.\" Its \"primary objective is to extricate Vermont peacefully from the United States as soon as possible.\" They have worked closely with the Middlebury Institute created from a meeting sponsored in Vermont in 2004. On October 28, 2005, activists held the Vermont Independence Conference, \"the first statewide convention on secession in the United States since North Carolina voted to secede from the Union on May 20, 1861\". They also participated in the 2006 and 2007 Middlebury-organized national secessionist meetings that brought delegates from over a dozen groups. \n* Republic of Lakotah: Some members of the Lakota people of Montana, Wyoming, Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota created the Republic to assert the independence of a nation that was always sovereign and did not willingly join the United States; therefore they do not consider themselves technically to be secessionists. \n* In the aftermath of the 2012 presidential election, secession petitions pertaining to all fifty states were filed through the White House We the People petition website. \n\nRegional secession\n\n*Pacific Northwest: Cascadia: There have been repeated attempts to form a Bioregional Democracy Cascadia in the northwest. The core of Cascadia would be made up through the secession of the states of Washington, Oregon and the Canadian province of British Columbia, while some supporters of the movement support portions of Northern California, Southern Alaska, Idaho and Montana joining, to define its boundaries along ecological, cultural, economic and political boundaries. \n\n*Northwest Front: The Northwest Front is a white separatist movement that is advocating for the formation of an independent sovereign republic in the Pacific Northwestern states of Washington, Oregon, Idaho and western Montana, that will serve as a \"white homeland\" for white people throughout the world. The nationalist movement is led by Harold Covington. \n*League of the South: The group seeks \"a free and independent Southern republic\" made up of the former Confederate States of America. It operated a short-lived Southern Party supporting the right of states to secede from the Union or to legally nullify federal laws. \n\nTerritory secession\n\n*Puerto Rico: The Puerto Rican independence movement traces its origins to the Taíno rebellion of 1511. Recent resolutions aimed at giving the island the right to self-determination include a draft from the U.N. Special Committee of the 24 on Decolonization in 2009 and the Puerto Rico Democracy Act of 2010.\n*Philippine Islands: the Philippines is the only territory both among states and present territories that have succeeded in attaining full independence from the union.\n\nCultural reference\n\nThe secession-from-Massachusetts movement of the late 1970s was reflected in Nathaniel Benchley's comic novel of the time, Sweet Anarchy.", "The First Battle of Bull Run, also known as Battle of First Manassas[http://www.nps.gov/mana/learn/historyculture/first-manassas.htm National Park Service]. (the name used by Confederate forces), was fought on July 21, 1861 in Prince William County, Virginia, near the city of Manassas, not far from Washington, D.C. It was the first major battle of the American Civil War. The Union's forces were slow in positioning themselves, allowing Confederate reinforcements time to arrive by rail. Each side had about 18,000 poorly trained and poorly led troops in their first battle. It was a Confederate victory, followed by a disorganized retreat of the Union forces.\n\nJust months after the start of the war at Fort Sumter, the Northern public clamored for a march against the Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia, which was expected to bring an early end to the rebellion. Yielding to political pressure, Brig. Gen. Irvin McDowell led his unseasoned Union Army across Bull Run against the equally inexperienced Confederate Army of Brig. Gen. P. G. T. Beauregard camped near Manassas Junction. McDowell's ambitious plan for a surprise flank attack on the Confederate left was poorly executed by his officers and men; nevertheless, the Confederates, who had been planning to attack the Union left flank, found themselves at an initial disadvantage.\n\nConfederate reinforcements under Brig. Gen. Joseph E. Johnston arrived from the Shenandoah Valley by railroad, and the course of the battle quickly changed. A brigade of Virginians under the relatively unknown brigadier general from the Virginia Military Institute, Thomas J. Jackson, stood its ground, which resulted in Jackson receiving his famous nickname, \"Stonewall\". The Confederates launched a strong counterattack, and as the Union troops began withdrawing under fire, many panicked and the retreat turned into a rout. McDowell's men frantically ran without order in the direction of Washington, D.C.\n\nBoth armies were sobered by the fierce fighting and many casualties, and realized that the war was going to be much longer and bloodier than either had anticipated, and not the short conflict that had been expected. The Battle of First Bull Run highlighted many of the problems and deficiencies that were typical of the first year of the war. Units were committed piecemeal, attacks were frontal, infantry failed to protect exposed artillery, tactical intelligence was nil, and neither commander was able to employ his whole force effectively. McDowell, with 35,000 men, was only able to commit about 18,000, and the combined Confederate forces, with about 32,000 men, committed only 18,000. \n\nBackground\n\nMilitary and political situation\n\nOn 15 April 1861, the day after South Carolina military forces attacked and captured Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor, President Abraham Lincoln issued a proclamation declaring an insurrection against the laws of the United States. Earlier, South Carolina and seven other\nSouthern states had declared their secession from the Union and formed the Confederate States of America.\n \nTo suppress the rebellion and restore Federal law in the Southern states, Lincoln called for 75,000 volunteers with ninety-day enlistments to augment the existing U.S. Army of about 15,000. He later accepted an additional 40,000 volunteers with three-year enlistments and increased the strength of the U.S. Army to almost 20,000. Lincoln’s actions caused four more Southern states, including Virginia, to secede and join the Confederacy, and by 1 June the Confederate capital had been moved from Montgomery, Alabama, to Richmond, Virginia.\n\nIn Washington, D.C., as thousands of volunteers rushed to defend the capital, General in Chief Lt. Gen. Winfield Scott laid out his strategy to subdue the rebellious states. He proposed that an army of 80,000 men be organized and sail down the Mississippi River and capture New Orleans. While the Army “strangled” the Confederacy in the west, the U.S. Navy would blockade Southern ports along the eastern and Gulf coasts. The press ridiculed what they dubbed as Scott’s “Anaconda Plan.” Instead, many believed the capture of the Confederate capital at\nRichmond, only one hundred miles south of Washington, would quickly end the war. \nBy July 1861 thousands of volunteers were camped in and around Washington. Since General Scott was seventy-five years old and physically unable to lead this force, the administration searched for a more suitable field commander. \n\nIrvin McDowell\n\nSecretary of the Treasury Salmon P. Chase championed fellow Ohioan, 42-year-old Maj. Irvin McDowell. Although McDowell was a West Point graduate, his command experience was limited. In fact, he had spent most of his career engaged in various staff duties in the Adjutant General’s Office. While stationed in Washington he had become acquainted with Chase, a former Ohio governor and senator. Now, through Chase’s influence, McDowell was promoted three grades to brigadier general in the Regular Army and on 27 May was assigned command (by President Abraham Lincoln) of the Department of Northeastern Virginia, which included the military forces in and around Washington (Army of Northeastern Virginia). McDowell immediately began organizing what became known as the Army of Northeastern Virginia, 35,000 men arranged in five divisions. Under public and political pressure to begin offensive operations, McDowell was given very little time to train the newly inducted troops. Units were instructed in the maneuvering of regiments, but they received little or no training at the brigade or division level. He was reassured by President Lincoln, \"You are green, it is true, but they are green also; you are all green alike.\" Against his better judgment, McDowell commenced campaigning.\n\nIntelligence\n\nDuring the previous year, U.S. Army captain Thomas Jordan set up a pro-Southern spy network in Washington City, including Rose O'Neal Greenhow, a prominent socialite with a wide range of contacts. He provided her with a code for messages. After he left to join the Confederate Army, he gave her control of his network but continued to receive reports from her. On July 9 and 16, 1861, Greenhow passed secret messages to Confederate General P.G.T. Beauregard containing critical information regarding military movements for what would be the First Battle of Bull Run, including the plans of Union general McDowell. \n\nMcDowell's plan and initial movements in the Manassas Campaign\n\nOn July 16, 1861, McDowell departed Washington with the largest field army yet gathered on the North American continent, about 35,000 men (28,452 effectives).Strength figures vary by source. Eicher, p. 87-88: 35,000 Union, 32,000 Confederate; Esposito, map 19: 35,000 Union, 29,000 Confederate; [http://www.history.army.mil/StaffRide/1st%20Bull%20Run/Organization.htm Ballard], 35,000 Union (18,000 engaged), 34,000 Confederate (18,000 engaged); Salmon, p. 20: 28,450 Union, 32,230 Confederate; Kennedy, p. 14: 35,000 Union, 33,000 Confederate; Livermore, p. 77: 28,452 Union \"effectives\", 32,323 Confederate engaged. Writing in The Century Magazine, adjutant generals James B. Fry [http://www.rugreview.com/cw/cwcu.htm cites] 18,572 Union men (including stragglers not on the field) and 24 guns engaged, Thomas Jordan [http://www.rugreview.com/cw/cwcc.htm cites] 18,052 Confederate men and 37 guns engaged. McDowell's plan was to move westward in three columns and make a diversionary attack on the Confederate line at Bull Run with two columns, while the third column moved around the Confederates' right flank to the south, cutting the railroad to Richmond and threatening the rear of the Confederate army. He assumed that the Confederates would be forced to abandon Manassas Junction and fall back to the Rappahannock River, the next defensible line in Virginia, which would relieve some of the pressure on the U.S. capital. McDowell had hoped to have his army at Centreville by 17 July, but the troops, unaccustomed to marching, moved in starts and stops. Along the route soldiers often broke ranks to wander off to pick apples or blackberries or to get water, regardless of the orders of their officers to remain in ranks. \n\nThe Confederate Army of the Potomac (21,883 effectives)Livermore, p. 77. under Beauregard was encamped near Manassas Junction, approximately 25 miles (40 km) from the United States capital. McDowell planned to attack this numerically inferior enemy army. Union Maj. Gen. Robert Patterson's 18,000 men engaged Johnston's force (the Army of the Shenandoah at 8,884 effectives, augmented by Maj. Gen. Theophilus H. Holmes's brigade of 1,465) in the Shenandoah Valley, preventing them from reinforcing Beauregard.\n\nAfter two days of marching slowly in the sweltering heat, the Union army was allowed to rest in Centreville. McDowell reduced the size of his army to approximately 31,000 by dispatching Brig. Gen. Theodore Runyon with 5,000 troops to protect the army's rear. In the meantime, McDowell searched for a way to outflank Beauregard, who had drawn up his lines along Bull Run. On July 18, the Union commander sent a division under Brig. Gen. Daniel Tyler to pass on the Confederate right (southeast) flank. Tyler was drawn into a skirmish at Blackburn's Ford over Bull Run and made no headway. Also on the morning of 18 July Johnston had received a telegram suggesting he go to Beauregard’s assistance if possible. Johnston marched out of Winchester about noon, while Stuart’s cavalry screened the movement from Patterson. Patterson was completely deceived. One hour after\nJohnston’s departure Patterson telegraphed Washington, “I have succeeded, in accordance with the wishes of the General-in-Chief, in keeping General Johnston’s force at Winchester.” \n\nFor the maneuver to be successful McDowell felt he needed to act quickly. He had already begun to hear rumors that Johnston had slipped out of the valley and was headed for Manassas Junction. If the rumors were true, McDowell might soon be facing 34,000 Confederates, instead\nof 22,000. Another reason for quick action was McDowell’s concern that the ninety-day enlistments of many of his regiments were about to expire. “In a few days I will lose many thousands of the best of this force,” he wrote Washington on the eve of battle. In fact, the next morning two units of McDowell’s command, their enlistments expiring that day, would turn\na deaf ear to McDowell’s appeal to stay a few days longer. Instead, to the sounds of battle, they would march back to Washington to be mustered out of service. \n\nBecoming more frustrated, McDowell resolved to attack the Confederate left (northwest) flank instead. He planned to attack with Brig. Gen. Daniel Tyler's division at the Stone Bridge on the Warrenton Turnpike and send the divisions of Brig. Gens. David Hunter and Samuel P. Heintzelman over Sudley Springs Ford. From here, these divisions could march into the Confederate rear. The brigade of Col. Israel B. Richardson (Tyler's Division) would harass the enemy at Blackburn's Ford, preventing them from thwarting the main attack. Patterson would tie down Johnston in the Shenandoah Valley so that reinforcements could not reach the area. Although McDowell had arrived at a theoretically sound plan, it had a number of flaws: it was one that required synchronized execution of troop movements and attacks, skills that had not been developed in the nascent army; it relied on actions by Patterson that he had already failed to take; finally, McDowell had delayed long enough that Johnston's Valley force was able to board trains at Piedmont Station and rush to Manassas Junction to reinforce Beauregard's men. \n\nPrelude to battle\n\nOn July 19–20, significant reinforcements bolstered the Confederate lines behind Bull Run. Johnston arrived with all of his army, except for the troops of Brig. Gen. Kirby Smith, who were still in transit. Most of the new arrivals were posted in the vicinity of Blackburn's Ford, and Beauregard's plan was to attack from there to the north toward Centreville. Johnston, the senior officer, approved the plan. If both of the armies had been able to execute their plans simultaneously, it would have resulted in a mutual counterclockwise movement as they attacked each other's left flank. \n\nMcDowell was getting contradictory information from his intelligence agents, so he called for the balloon Enterprise, which was being demonstrated by Prof. Thaddeus S. C. Lowe in Washington, to perform aerial reconnaissance.\n\nOpposing forces\n\nUnion\n\nMcDowell's Army of Northeastern Virginia was organized into five infantry divisions of three to five brigades each. Each brigade contained three to five infantry regiments. An artillery battery was generally assigned to each brigade. The total\nnumber of Union troops present at the Battle of First Bull Run was about\n35,000, although only about 18,000 were actually engaged.\nThe Union army was organized as follows:\n* 1st Division of Brig. Gen. Daniel Tyler the largest in the army, contained four brigades, led by Brig. Gen. Robert C. Schenck, Col. Erasmus Keyes, Col. William T. Sherman, and Col. Israel B. Richardson;\n* 2nd Division of Col. David Hunter of two brigades. These were led by Cols. Andrew Porter and Ambrose E. Burnside;\n* 3rd Division of Col. Samuel P. Heintzelman included 3 brigades, led by Cols. William B. Franklin, Orlando B. Willcox, and Oliver O. Howard;\n* 4th Division of Brig. Gen. Theodore Runyon without brigade organization and not engaged, contained seven regiments of New Jersey and one regiment of New York volunteer infantries;\n* 5th Division of Col. Dixon S. Miles included 2 brigades, commanded by Cols. Louis Blenker and Thomas A. Davies;\nWhile McDowell organized the Army of Northeastern Virginia, a smaller Union command was organized and stationed northwest of Washington, near Harper’s Ferry. Commanded by Maj. Gen. Robert Patterson, 18,000 men of the Department of Pennsylvania protected against a Confederate incursion from the Shenandoah Valley.\n\nAbstract from the returns of the Department of Northeastern Virginia, commanded by Brigadier-General McDowell, U. S. A., for July 16 and 17, 1861.\n\nAbstract from return of the Department of Pennsylvania, commanded by Major-General Patterson, June 28, 1861. \n\nConfederate\n\nJoseph E. Johnston's forces was organized as follows:\n* The Army of the Potomac (Brig. Gen. P. G. T. Beauregard) was organized into six infantry brigades, with each brigade containing three to six infantry regiments. Artillery batteries were assigned to various infantry brigades. The total number of troops in the Confederate Army of the Potomac was approximately 22,000. Beauregard’s army also contained thirty-nine pieces of field artillery and a regiment of Virginia cavalry. The Army of the Potomac was organized into seven infantry brigades. These were:\n** 1st Brigade, under Brig. Gen. Milledge L. Bonham;\n** 2nd Brigade, under Brig. Gen. Richard S. Ewell;\n** 3rd Brigade, under Brig. Gen. David R. Jones;\n** 4th Brigade, under Brig. Gen. James Longstreet;\n** 5th Brigade, under Col. Philip St. George Cocke;\n** 6th Brigade, under Col. Jubal A. Early;\n** 7th Brigade, under Col. Nathan G. Evans.\n* The Army of the Shenandoah (Brig. Gen. Joseph E. Johnston) was also organized into brigades. It consisted of four brigades of three to five infantry regiments each, which totaled approximately 12,000 men. Each brigade was assigned one artillery battery. In addition to the infantry, there were twenty pieces of artillery and about 300 Virginia cavalrymen under Col. J. E. B. Stuart. Although the combined strength of both Confederate armies was about 34,000, only about 18,000 were actually engaged at First Bull Run. The Army of the Shenandoah consisted of four infantry brigades:\n** 1st Brigade, commanded by Brig. Gen. Thomas J. Jackson;\n** 2nd Brigade, commanded by Col. Francis S. Bartow;\n** 3rd Brigade, commanded by Brig. Gen. Barnard E. Bee;\n** 4th Brigade, commanded by Brig. Gen. E. Kirby Smith.\n\nAbstract front field return, First Corps (Army of the Potomac), July 21, 1861.\n\n[Dated September 25, 1861.]\n\nAbstract from monthly report of Brig. Gen. Joseph E. Johnston’s division, or Army of the Shenandoah (C. S. A.), for June 30, 1861.\n\nAggregate present for duty.\n\nBattle\n\nMorning phase\n\nMatthews Hill\n\nOn the morning of July 21, 1861, McDowell sent the divisions of Hunter and Heintzelman (about 12,000 men) from Centreville at 2:30 a.m., marching southwest on the Warrenton Turnpike and then turning northwest toward Sudley Springs. Tyler's division (about 8,000) marched directly toward the Stone Bridge. The inexperienced units immediately developed logistical problems. Tyler's division blocked the advance of the main flanking column on the turnpike. The later units found the approach roads to Sudley Springs were inadequate, little more than a cart path in some places, and did not begin fording Bull Run until 9:30 a.m. Tyler's men reached the Stone Bridge around 6 a.m. \n\nAt 5:15 a.m., Richardson's brigade fired a few artillery rounds across Mitchell's Ford on the Confederate right, some of which hit Beauregard's headquarters in the Wilmer McLean house as he was eating breakfast, alerting him to the fact that his offensive battle plan had been preempted. Nevertheless, he ordered demonstration attacks north toward the Union left at Centreville. Bungled orders and poor communications prevented their execution. Although he intended for Brig. Gen. Richard S. Ewell to lead the attack, Ewell, at Union Mills Ford, was simply ordered to \"hold ... in readiness to advance at a moment's notice.\" Brig. Gen. D.R. Jones was supposed to attack in support of Ewell, but found himself moving forward alone. Holmes was also supposed to support, but received no orders at all. \n\nAll that stood in the path of the 20,000 Union soldiers converging on the Confederate left flank were Col. Nathan \"Shanks\" Evans and his reduced brigade of 1,100 men.Rafuse, \"First Battle of Bull Run\", p. 312. Evans had moved some of his men to intercept the direct threat from Tyler at the bridge, but he began to suspect that the weak attacks from the Union brigade of Brig. Gen. Robert C. Schenck were merely feints. He was informed of the main Union flanking movement through Sudley Springs by Captain Edward Porter Alexander, Beauregard's signal officer, observing from 8 mi southwest on Signal Hill. In the first use of wig-wag semaphore signaling in combat, Alexander sent the message \"Look out for your left, your position is turned.\" Evans hastily led 900 of his men from their position fronting the Stone Bridge to a new location on the slopes of Matthews Hill, a low rise to the northwest of his previous position.\n\nThe Confederate delaying action on Matthews Hill included a spoiling attack launched by Major Roberdeau Wheat's 1st Louisiana Special Battalion, \"Wheat's Tigers\". After Wheat's command was thrown back, and Wheat seriously wounded, Evans received reinforcement from two other brigades under Brig. Gen. Barnard Bee and Col. Francis S. Bartow, bringing the force on the flank to 2,800 men. They successfully slowed Hunter's lead brigade (Brig. Gen. Ambrose Burnside) in its attempts to ford Bull Run and advance across Young's Branch, at the northern end of Henry House Hill. One of Tyler's brigade commanders, Col. William T. Sherman, crossed at an unguarded ford and struck the right flank of the Confederate defenders. This surprise attack, coupled with pressure from Burnside and Maj. George Sykes, collapsed the Confederate line shortly after 11:30 a.m., sending them in a disorderly retreat to Henry House Hill. \n\n(Further map details, see: Additional Map 4, Additional Map 5, Additional Map 6 and Additional Map 7.)\n\nNoon phase\n\nHenry House Hill\n\nAs they retreated from their Matthews Hill position, the remainder of Evans's, Bee's, and Bartow's commands received some cover from Capt. John D. Imboden and his battery of four 6-pounder guns, who held off the Union advance while the Confederates attempted to regroup on Henry House Hill. They were met by generals Johnston and Beauregard, who had just arrived from Johnston's headquarters at the M. Lewis Farm, \"Portici\". Fortunately for the Confederates, McDowell did not press his advantage and attempt to seize the strategic ground immediately, choosing to bombard the hill with the batteries of Capts. James B. Ricketts (Battery I, 1st U.S. Artillery) and Charles Griffin (Battery D, 5th U.S.) from Dogan's Ridge. \n\nBrig. Gen Thomas J. Jackson's Virginia brigade came up in support of the disorganized Confederates around noon, accompanied by Col. Wade Hampton and his Hampton's Legion, and Col. J.E.B. Stuart's cavalry. Jackson posted his five regiments on the reverse slope of the hill, where they were shielded from direct fire, and was able to assemble 13 guns for the defensive line, which he posted on the crest of the hill; as the guns fired, their recoil moved them down the reverse slope, where they could be safely reloaded. Meanwhile, McDowell ordered the batteries of Ricketts and Griffin to move from Dogan's Ridge to the hill for close infantry support. Their 11 guns engaged in a fierce artillery duel across 300 yd against Jackson's 13. Unlike many engagements in the Civil War, here the Confederate artillery had an advantage. The Union pieces were now within range of the Confederate smoothbores and the predominantly rifled pieces on the Union side were not effective weapons at such close ranges, with many shots fired over the head of their targets. \n\nOne of the casualties of the artillery fire was Judith Carter Henry, an 85-year-old widow and invalid, who was unable to leave her bedroom in the Henry House. As Ricketts began receiving rifle fire, he concluded that it was coming from the Henry House and turned his guns on the building. A shell that crashed through the bedroom wall tore off one of the widow's feet and inflicted multiple injuries, from which she died later that day. \n\n\"The Enemy are driving us,\" Bee exclaimed to Jackson. Jackson, a former U.S. Army officer and professor at the Virginia Military Institute, is said to have replied, \"Then, Sir, we will give them the bayonet.\" Bee exhorted his own troops to re-form by shouting, \"There is Jackson standing like a stone wall. Let us determine to die here, and we will conquer. Rally behind the Virginians.\" This exclamation was the source for Jackson's (and his brigade's) nickname, \"Stonewall\". There is some controversy over Bee's statement and intent, which could not be clarified because he was mortally wounded almost immediately after speaking and none of his subordinate officers wrote reports of the battle. Major Burnett Rhett, chief of staff to General Johnston, claimed that Bee was angry at Jackson's failure to come immediately to the relief of Bee's and Bartow's brigades while they were under heavy pressure. Those who subscribe to this opinion believe that Bee's statement was meant to be pejorative: \"Look at Jackson standing there like a stone wall!\" \n\nArtillery commander Griffin decided to move two of his guns to the southern end of his line, hoping to provide enfilade fire against the Confederates. At approximately 3 p.m., these guns were overrun by the 33rd Virginia, whose men were outfitted in blue uniforms, causing Griffin's commander, Maj. William F. Barry, to mistake them for Union troops and to order Griffin not to fire on them. Close range volleys from the 33rd Virginia and Stuart's cavalry attack against the flank of the 11th New York Volunteer Infantry Regiment (Ellsworth's Fire Zouaves), which was supporting the battery, killed many of the gunners and scattered the infantry. Capitalizing on this success, Jackson ordered two regiments to charge Ricketts's guns and they were captured as well. As additional Federal infantry engaged, the guns changed hands several times. \n\nThe capture of the Union guns turned the tide of battle. Although McDowell had brought 15 regiments into the fight on the hill, outnumbering the Confederates two to one, no more than two were ever engaged simultaneously. Jackson continued to press his attacks, telling soldiers of the 4th Virginia Infantry, \"Reserve your fire until they come within 50 yards! Then fire and give them the bayonet! And when you charge, yell like furies!\" For the first time, Union troops heard the disturbing sound of the Rebel yell. At about 4 p.m., the last Union troops were pushed off Henry House Hill by a charge of two regiments from Col. Philip St. George Cocke's brigade. \n\nTo the west, Chinn Ridge had been occupied by Col. Oliver O. Howard's brigade from Heintzelman's division. Also at 4 p.m., two Confederate brigades that had just arrived from the Shenandoah Valley—Col. Jubal A. Early's and Brig. Gen. Kirby Smith's (commanded by Col. Arnold Elzey after Smith was wounded)—crushed Howard's brigade. Beauregard ordered his entire line forward. At 5 p.m. everywhere McDowell’s army was disintegrating. Thousands, in large and small groups or as individuals, began to leave the battlefield and head for Centreville. McDowell rode around the field trying to rally regiments and groups of soldiers, but most had had enough. Unable to stop the mass exodus, McDowell gave orders for Porter’s Regular infantry battalion, near the intersection of the turnpike and\nManassas-Sudley Road, to act as a rear guard as his army withdrew. The unit briefly held the crossroads, then retreated eastward with the rest of the army. \nMcDowell's force crumbled and began to retreat. \n\n(Further map details, see: Additional Map 8, Additional Map 9, Additional Map 10 , Additional Map 11 and Additional Map 12.)\n\nUnion retreat\n\nThe retreat was relatively orderly up to the Bull Run crossings, but it was poorly managed by the Union officers. A Union wagon was overturned by artillery fire on a bridge spanning Cub Run Creek and incited panic in McDowell's force. As the soldiers streamed uncontrollably toward Centreville, discarding their arms and equipment, McDowell ordered Col. Dixon S. Miles's division to act as a rear guard, but it was impossible to rally the army short of Washington. In the disorder that followed, hundreds of Union troops were taken prisoner. Wagons and artillery were abandoned, including the 30-pounder Parrott rifle, which had opened the battle with such fanfare. Expecting an easy Union victory, the wealthy elite of nearby Washington, including congressmen and their families, had come to picnic and watch the battle. When the Union army was driven back in a running disorder, the roads back to Washington were blocked by panicked civilians attempting to flee in their carriages. \n\nSince their combined army had been left highly disorganized as well, Beauregard and Johnston did not fully press their advantage, despite urging from Confederate President Jefferson Davis, who had arrived on the battlefield to see the Union soldiers retreating. An attempt by Johnston to intercept the Union troops from his right flank, using the brigades of Brig. Gens. Milledge L. Bonham and James Longstreet, was a failure. The two commanders squabbled with each other and when Bonham's men received some artillery fire from the Union rear guard, and found that Richardson's brigade blocked the road to Centreville, he called off the pursuit. \n\nIn Washington President Lincoln and members of the cabinet waited for news of a Union victory. Instead, a telegram arrived stating “General McDowell’s army in full retreat through Centreville. The day is lost. Save Washington and the remnants of this army.” 28 The tidings were happier in the Confederate capital. From the battlefield President Davis telegraphed\nRichmond, “We have won a glorious but dear-bought victory. Night closed on the enemy in full flight and closely pursued.” \n\nAftermath\n\nBrief observations\n\nFirst Bull Run was a clash between relatively large, ill-trained bodies of recruits, led by inexperienced officers. Neither army commander was able to deploy his forces effectively, only 18,000 men from each side were actually engaged. Although McDowell had been active on the battlefield, he had expended most of his energy maneuvering nearby regiments and brigades, instead of controlling and coordinating the movements of his army as a whole. Other factors contributed to McDowell’s defeat: Patterson’s failure to hold Johnston in the valley; McDowell’s two-day delay at Centreville; allowing Tyler’s division to lead the march on 21 July\nthus delaying the flanking divisions of Hunter and Heintzelman; and the 2 1/2-hour delay after the Union victory on Matthews’ Hill, which allowed the Confederates to bring up reinforcements and establish a defensive position on Henry Hill.\nOn Henry Hill Beauregard had also limited his control to the regimental level, generally allowing the battle to continue on its own and only reacting to Union moves. Johnston’s decision to transport his infantry to the battlefield by rail played a major role in the Confederate victory. Although the trains were slow and a lack of sufficient cars did not allow\nthe transport of large numbers of troops at one time, almost all of his army arrived in time to participate in the battle. After reaching Manassas Junction, Johnston had relinquished command of the battlefield to Beauregard, but his forwarding of reinforcements to the scene of fighting was decisive. \n\nDetailed casualties\n\nBull Run was the largest and bloodiest battle in United States history up to that point. Union casualties were 460 killed, 1,124 wounded, and 1,312 missing or captured; Confederate casualties were 387 killed, 1,582 wounded, and 13 missing. Among the Union dead was Col. James Cameron, brother of President Lincoln's first Secretary of War, Simon Cameron. Among the Confederate casualties was Col. Francis S. Bartow, who was the first Confederate brigade commander to be killed in the Civil War. General Bee was mortally wounded and died the following day. \nCompared to later battles, casualties at First Bull Run had not been especially heavy. Both Union and Confederate killed, wounded, and missing were a little over one thousand seven hundred each. \n\nUnion\n\nUnion casualties at the battle of Bull Run, July 21, 1861.\n\nUnion artillery lost in the battle of Bull Run, July 21, 1861. \n\nConfederate\n\nConfederate casualties at the battle of Bull Run, July 21, 1861.\n\nEffect on the Union and subsequent events\n\nUnion forces and civilians alike feared that Confederate forces would advance on Washington, D.C., with very little standing in their way. On July 24, Prof. Thaddeus S. C. Lowe ascended in the balloon Enterprise to observe the Confederates moving in and about Manassas Junction and Fairfax. He saw no evidence of massing Confederate forces, but was forced to land in Confederate territory. It was overnight before he was rescued and could report to headquarters. He reported that his observations \"restored confidence\" to the Union commanders. \n\nThe Northern public was shocked at the unexpected defeat of their army when an easy victory had been widely anticipated. Both sides quickly came to realize the war would be longer and more brutal than they had imagined. On July 22 President Lincoln signed a bill that provided for the enlistment of another 500,000 men for up to three years of service. On July 25, eleven thousand Pennsylvanians who had earlier been rejected by the U.S. Secretary of War, Simon Cameron, for federal service in either Patterson's or McDowell's command arrived in Washington, D.C., and were finally accepted. \n\nThree months after First Bull Run Union forces suffered another, smaller defeat at the Battle of Ball’s Bluff, near Leesburg, Virginia. The perceived military incompetence at First Bull Run and Ball’s Bluff led to the establishment of the Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War, a congressional body created to investigate Northern military affairs. Concerning the Battle of First Bull Run, the committee listened to testimony from a variety of witnesses connected with McDowell’s army. Although the committee’s report concluded that the principal cause of defeat was Patterson’s failure to prevent Johnston from reinforcing Beauregard, Patterson’s enlistment had expired a few days after the battle, and he was no longer in the service. The Northern public clamored for another scapegoat, and McDowell bore the chief blame. On 25 July 1861, he was relieved of army command and replaced by Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan, who was named general-in-chief of all the Union armies. McDowell was also present to bear significant blame for the defeat of Maj. Gen. John Pope's Army of Virginia by Gen. Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia thirteen months later, at the Second Battle of Bull Run. \n\nEffect on the Confederacy\n\nThe reaction in the Confederacy was more muted. There was little public celebration as the Southerners realized that despite their victory, the greater battles that would inevitably come would mean greater losses for their side as well. Once the euphoria of victory had worn off, Jefferson Davis called for 400,000 additional volunteers.\n\nBeauregard was considered the Confederate hero of the battle and was promoted that day by C.S. President Davis to full general in the Confederate army. Stonewall Jackson, arguably the most important tactical contributor to the victory, received no special recognition, but would later achieve glory for his 1862 Valley Campaign. Privately, Davis credited Greenhow with ensuring Confederate victory. Jordan sent a telegram to Greenhow: \"Our President and our General direct me to thank you. We rely upon you for further information. The Confederacy owes you a debt. (Signed) JORDAN, Adjutant-General.\" \n\nConfederate victory: turning point of the American Civil War\n\n\"Bull Run\" vs. \"Manassas\"\n\nThe name of the battle has caused controversy since 1861. The Union Army frequently named battles after significant rivers and creeks that played a role in the fighting; the Confederates generally used the names of nearby towns or farms. The U.S. National Park Service uses the Confederate name for its national battlefield park, but the Union name (Bull Run) also has widespread currency in popular literature. \n\nConfusion between the battle flags\n\nBattlefield confusion between the battle flags, especially the similarity of the Confederacy's \"Stars and Bars\" and the Union's \"Stars and Stripes\" when fluttering, led to the adoption of the Confederate Battle Flag, which eventually became the most popular symbol of the Confederacy and the South in general. \n\nConclusions\n\nFirst Bull Run demonstrated that the war would not be won by one grand battle, and both sides began preparing for a long and bloody conflict. The battle also showed the need for adequately trained and experienced officers and men. One year later many of the same soldiers who had fought at First Bull Run, now combat veterans, would have an opportunity to test their skills on the same battlefield.\n\nAdditional battle maps\n\nGallery: the First Bull Run hour by hour\n\nFile:First Battle of Bull Run Map1.jpg|Map 1:Situation Mid-July 1861\nFile:First Battle of Bull Run Map2.jpg|Map 2:Beauregard's defensive situation(Mid-July 1861)\nFile:First Battle of Bull Run Map3.jpg|Map 3:Situation at 05:30-06:00(July 21, 1861)\nFile:First Battle of Bull Run Map4.jpg|Map 4:Situation at 10:30-11:00(July 21, 1861)\nFile:First Battle of Bull Run Map5.jpg|Map 5:Situation at 11:00-11:30(July 21, 1861)\nFile:First Battle of Bull Run Map6.jpg|Map 6:Situation at 12:00-12:30(July 21, 1861)\nFile:First Battle of Bull Run Map7.jpg|Map 7:Situation at 13:00(July 21, 1861)\nFile:First Battle of Bull Run Map8.jpg|Map 8:Situation at 14:30-15:00(July 21, 1861)\nFile:First Battle of Bull Run Map9.jpg|Map 9:Situation at 15:00(July 21, 1861)\nFile:First Battle of Bull Run Map10.jpg|Map 10:Situation at 15:30(July 21, 1861)\nFile:First Battle of Bull Run Map11.jpg|Map 11:Situation at 16:00(July 21, 1861)\nFile:First Battle of Bull Run Map12.jpg|Map 12:Situation at 16:30-17:30(July 21, 1861)\n\nIn popular culture\n\nThe First Battle of Bull Run is mentioned in the novel Gods and Generals, but is depicted more fully in its film adaptation. The battle forms the climax of the film Class of '61. It also appears in the first episode of the second season of the mini-series North and South, in the second episode of the first season of the mini-series How the West Was Won and in the first episode of the mini-series The Blue and the Gray. Manassas (1999) is the first volume in the James Reasoner Civil War Series of historical novels. The battle is described in Rebel (1993), the first volume of Bernard Cornwell's The Starbuck Chronicles series of historical novels. The battle is described from the viewpoint of a Union infantryman in Upton Sinclair's novella Manassas, which also depicts the political turmoil leading up to the Civil War. The battle is also depicted in John Jakes's The Titans, the fifth novel in The Kent Family Chronicles, a series that explores the fictional Confederate cavalry officer Gideon Kent. The battle is the subject of the Johnny Horton song, \"Battle of Bull Run\". Shaman, second in the Cole family trilogy by Noah Gordon, includes an account of the battle. The battle is also depicted in the song \"Yankee Bayonet\" by indie-folk band The Decemberists. In Murder at 1600, Detective Harlan Regis (Wesley Snipes) has built a plan-relief of the battle which plays a certain role in the plot.\n\nSesquicentennial\n\nPrince William County staged special events commemorating the 150th anniversary of the Civil War through 2011. Manassas was named the No. 1 tourist destination in the United States for 2011 by the American Bus Association for its efforts in highlighting the historical impact of the Civil War. The cornerstone of the commemoration event featured a reenactment of the battle on July 23–24, 2011. Throughout the year, there were tours of the Manassas battlefield and other battlefields in the county and a number of related events and activities. \n\nThe City of Manassas commemorated the 150th anniversary of the battle July 21–24, 2011. \n\nBattlefield preservation\n\nPart of the site of the battle is now Manassas National Battlefield Park. Located north of Manassas, in Prince William County, Virginia, it preserves the site of two major American Civil War battles: the First Battle of Bull Run on July 21, 1861, and the Second Battle of Bull Run which was fought between August 28 and August 30, 1862 (also known as the First Battle of Manassas and the Second Battle of Manassas, respectively). The peaceful Virginia countryside bore witness to clashes between the armies of the North (Union) and the South (Confederacy), and it was there that Confederate General Thomas J. Jackson acquired his nickname \"Stonewall.\"\n\nToday the National Battlefield Park provides the opportunity for visitors to explore the historic terrain where men fought and died more than a century ago. More than 900,000 people visit the battlefield each year. (In comparison, roughly 15 million people annually visit nearby Washington, DC. ) As a historic area under the National Park Service, the park was administratively listed on the National Register of Historic Places on October 15, 1966." ] }

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{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe" ], "filename": [ "Home_Alone.txt" ], "title": [ "Home Alone" ], "wiki_context": [ "Home Alone (stylized as HOME ALONe) is a 1990 American Christmas comedy film written and produced by John Hughes and directed by Chris Columbus. The film stars Macaulay Culkin as Kevin McCallister, a boy who is mistakenly left behind when his family flies to Paris for their Christmas vacation. Kevin initially relishes being home alone, but soon has to contend with two would-be burglars played by Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern. The film also features Catherine O'Hara and John Heard as Kevin's parents.\n\nCulkin was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Musical or Comedy. After its release, Home Alone became the highest-grossing live action comedy film of all time in the US, and also held the record worldwide until it was overtaken by The Hangover Part II in 2011. It is the highest grossing Christmas movie of all time at the North American box office (when adjusted for inflation). Home Alone has spawned a successful film franchise with four sequels, including the 1992 film Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, the only Home Alone sequel to have the original cast reprising their roles.\n\nPlot\n\nIn Chicago, Illinois, the McCallister family is preparing for a Christmas vacation in Paris. On the night before their departure, the entire family gathers at Peter and Kate's home, where their 8-year-old son, Kevin, is ridiculed by his siblings and cousins. After a scuffle with his older brother, Buzz, Kevin is sent to the third floor of the house, where he wishes that his family would disappear. During the night, heavy winds cause damage to power lines, which causes the alarm clocks to reset; consequently, the family oversleeps. In the confusion and rush to get to the airport in time to catch their flight, Kevin is accidentally left behind.\n\nMeanwhile, Kevin wakes up to find the house empty and, believing his wish has come true, is overjoyed with his new-found freedom. However, Kevin's joy turns to fear as he encounters his next door neighbor, \"Old Man\" Marley, who is rumored to have murdered his family with a snow shovel in 1958; he also encounters the \"Wet Bandits\", Harry and Marv, a pair of burglars who have been breaking into other vacant houses in the neighborhood and have targeted the McCallisters' house. Kevin is initially able to keep them away by making the house appear as if the family is home, but they eventually realize that Kevin is home alone.\n\nKate realizes mid-flight that Kevin is missing and, upon arrival in Paris, the family finds out all flights to Chicago for the next two days are all booked. Peter and the rest of the family go to Uncle Frank's apartment in the city while Kate manages to get a flight back to the United States but is only able to get as far as Scranton, Pennsylvania. She tries to book a flight to Chicago but again, everything is booked. Unable to accept this, Kate is overheard by Gus Polinski (played by John Candy), the lead member of a traveling polka band, who offers to let her travel with them to Winnetka on their way to Milwaukee in a moving van, which she graciously accepts.\n\nOn Christmas Eve, Kevin overhears Harry and Marv discussing plans for breaking into his house that night. Kevin goes to church and watches a choir perform. He meets Old Man Marley, who sits with Kevin and they briefly speak; he learns that Marley is actually a nice man and that the rumors about him are false. He tells Kevin he is watching the choir because his granddaughter is singing, but he never gets to see her because he and his son are estranged and have not been on speaking terms ever since; Kevin suggests that he try to reconcile with his son.\n\nKevin returns home and rigs the house with numerous booby traps. Harry and Marv break in, springing the traps and suffering various injuries. While the duo chases Kevin around the house, he calls the police and escapes the house, luring the duo into a neighboring vacant home. Harry and Marv manage to catch him and discuss how they will get their revenge, but Marley sneaks in and knocks them unconscious with his snow shovel before they can do anything to Kevin. The police arrive and arrest Harry and Marv, having identified all the houses they burglarized due to Marv's habit of flooding them.\n\nOn Christmas Day, Kevin is disappointed to find that his family is still gone. He then hears Kate enter the house and call for him; they reconcile and are soon joined by the rest of the McCallisters, who waited in Paris until they could get a direct flight to Chicago. Kevin keeps silent about his encounter with Harry and Marv, although Peter finds Harry's missing gold tooth. Kevin then observes Marley reuniting with his son and his family. Marley notices Kevin and the pair acknowledge each other before Marley and his family go home. Buzz suddenly calls out, \"Kevin, what did you do to my room?!\" at which point Kevin runs off.\n\nCast\n\n* Macaulay Culkin as Kevin McCallister, an energetic 8-year-old boy who is the youngest son of the McCallister family. He can be obnoxious and annoying, but he is proven to be extremely clever and resourceful.\n* Joe Pesci as Harry Lime, the short leader of the Wet Bandits. He is intelligent but short tempered and resolute.\n* Daniel Stern as Marv Merchants, the tall member of the Wet Bandits. The dimmer of the duo, he has a childlike enthusiasm for toys and likes to leave the water running to 'mark' the houses they have burgled.\n* John Heard as Peter McCallister, Kevin's father.\n* Catherine O'Hara as Kate McCallister, Kevin's mother.\n* Roberts Blossom as Old Man Marley, the McCallisters' elderly neighbor.\nThe rest of the McCallister family is portrayed by: Devin Ratray as Buzz and Mike Maronna as Jeff, Kevin's brothers; Hillary Wolf as Megan and Angela Goethals as Linnie, Kevin's sisters; Gerry Bamman as Uncle Frank; Terrie Snell as Aunt Leslie; and Kevin's cousins are portrayed by Jedidiah Cohen as Rod, Senta Moses as Tracy, Daiana Campeanu as Sondra, Kieran Culkin (Macaulay Culkin's real-life brother) as Fuller, Anna Slotky as Brooke, and 25-year old Kristin Minter as Heather.\n\nThe cast also includes: John Candy as Gus Polinski, \"the Polka King of the Midwest\"; Ralph Foody as Johnny, a gangster who appears in the fictional film Angels with Filthy Souls; Larry Hankin as Larry Balzak, a police sergeant who works in family crisis; Ken Hudson Campbell as a man dressed as Santa Claus; and Hope Davis as a Paris-Orly Airport receptionist.\n\nProduction\n\nHome Alone was initially a Warner Bros. production; when 20th Century Fox took over the project, the budget grew from $14 to $17 million. Columbus ended up directing the film after Hughes helped him secure a directing gig for National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. However, a few days into the shoot a personality clash between Columbus and Chevy Chase, led to Columbus exiting the project. Hughes then gave him the script to Home Alone which he accepted. \n\nHughes suggested to Columbus that they cast Macaulay Culkin in the main role based on his experience with him while shooting Uncle Buck. Still, Columbus met with other actors for the part, by his count, \"hundreds and hundreds\" as he felt it was his \" directorial responsibility \". Columbus finally me with Culkin at which point he agreed that it was the right choice for the role. Due to Culkins age he could only work until 10 PM which due to the many night scenes in the movie proved to be somewhat of a challenge for the crew. The stunts needed for the script also created tension with Columbus noting \"Every time the stunt guys did one of those stunts it wasn’t funny. We’d watch it, and I would just pray that the guys were alive.\" Stunts were prepared with safety harnessess beforehand, however the technology involved at the time did not allow for digital erasing, so the actual stunts had to be performed without them.\n\nHome Alone was set—and mostly shot—in the greater Chicago area in February 1990. Other shots, such as those of Paris, are either stock footage or film trickery. The Paris-Orly Airport scenes were filmed in one part of O'Hare International Airport. The scene where Kevin wades through a neighbor's flooded basement when trying to outsmart the burglars was shot in the swimming pool of New Trier High School. A mock-up of the McDonnell Douglas DC10 business class was also put together on the school's basketball courts. \n\nSome scenes were shot in a three-story single-family house located at 671 Lincoln Avenue in the village of Winnetka. The kitchen in the film was shot in the house, along with the main staircase, basement and most of the first floor landing. The house's dining room, and all the downstairs rooms (excluding the kitchen) were built on a sound stage. The house was built in 1921 and features five bedrooms, a fully converted attic, a detached double garage and a greenhouse. The tree house in the back yard was built specifically for the film and dismantled after filming ended. \n\nThe scenes inside of the church were shot at Grace Episcopal Church, Oak Park, Illinois. \n\nIn May 2011, the house was listed for sale at $2.4 million; it sold in March 2012 for $1.585 million. The house is promoted as a tourist attraction and cited as an example of \"How to Get Your Home in the Movies.\" \n\nMusic\n\nInitially Columbus hoped to have Bruce Broughton, score the films, and early posters list him as the composer. However Broughton was busy with The Rescuers Down Under and had to cancel at the last minute. From there Columbus was able to get in touch with Steven Spielberg who helped him contact John Williams to produce the final score. Christmas songs, such as \"O Holy Night\" and \"Carol of the Bells\", are featured prominently in the film, as well as the film's theme song \"Somewhere in My Memory\". The soundtrack was released by Sony Classical in cassette on December 4, 1990 and in CD on May 27, 2015. \n\nReception\n\nBox office\n\nIn its opening weekend, Home Alone grossed $17 million in 1,202 theaters, averaging $14,211 per site and just 6% of the final total and added screens over the next six weeks, with a peak screen count of 2,174 during its eighth weekend at the start of January 1991. Home Alone proved so popular that it stayed in theaters well past the Christmas season. It was the 1 film at the box office for 12 straight weeks, from its release weekend of November 16–18, 1990 through the weekend of February 1–3, 1991. It was finally dethroned from the top spot when Sleeping with the Enemy opened with $13 million. It nevertheless remained a top ten draw at the box office until the weekend of April 26 that year, which was well past Easter weekend. It made two more appearances in the top ten (the weekend of May 31 – June 2 and the weekend of June 14–16) before finally falling out of the top ten. After over nine months into its run, the film had earned 16x its debut weekend and ended up making a final gross of $285,761,243, the top grossing film of its year in North America. The film is listed in the Guinness World Records as the highest-grossing live-action comedy ever. \n\nBy the time it had run its course in theaters, Home Alone was the third highest-grossing film of all time worldwide, as well as in the United States and Canada behind only Star Wars ($322 million at the time) and E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial ($399 million at that time), according to the home video box. In total, its cinema run grossed $477,561,243 worldwide. Box Office Mojo estimates that the film sold over 67.7 million tickets in the US. \n\nAccording to William Goldman, the film's success prompted the creation of a Hollywood verb: \"to be Home Aloned\", meaning to have a film's box office reduced by the impact of Home Alone. \n\nCritical response\n\nOn Rotten Tomatoes, Home Alone holds an approval rating of 55%, based on 42 reviews, with an average rating of 5.2/10. The site's critical consensus reads: \"Home Alone is frequently funny and led by a terrific starring turn from Macaulay Culkin, but an uneven script and a premise stretched unreasonably thin make it hard to wholeheartedly recommend.\" On Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating, it has a score of 63 out of 100, based on 9 critics, indicating \"generally favorable reviews\". \n\nVariety magazine praised the film for its cast. Jeanne Cooper of The Washington Post praised the film for its comedic approach. Hal Hinson, also of The Washington Post, praised Chris Columbus's direction and Culkin's acting. Although Caryn James of The New York Times complained that the film's first half is \"flat and unsurprising as its cute little premise suggests\", she praised the second half for its slapstick humor. She also praised the conversation between Kevin and Marley, as well as the film's final scenes. \n\nRoger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film a out of 4-star rating. He compared the elaborate booby-traps in the film to Rube Goldberg, writing \"they're the kinds of traps that any 8-year-old could devise, if he had a budget of tens of thousands of dollars and the assistance of a crew of movie special effects people\" and criticized the plot as \"so implausible that it makes it hard for [him] to really care about the plight of the kid [Kevin]\". However, he praised Culkin's performance. Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly magazine gave the film a \"D\" grade, criticizing the film for its \"sadistic festival of adult-bashing\". Gleiberman said that \"[John] Hughes is pulling our strings as though he'd never learn to do anything else\". \n\nHome Alone is often ranked among the greatest Christmas films of all-time. \n\nAccolades\n\nThe film was nominated for two Academy Awards, one for Best Original Score, which was written by John Williams, and the other for Best Original Song for \"Somewhere in My Memory\", music by Williams and lyrics by Leslie Bricusse. \n;American Film Institute Lists:\n* AFI's 100 Years...100 Laughs - Nominated \n* AFI's 100 Years...100 Heroes & Villains:\n** Harry Lime & Marv Merchants - Nominated Villains \n\nSequels\n\nThe film was followed by a commercially successful sequel in 1992, Lost in New York, which brings back the first film's cast. The film within a film, Angels with Filthy Souls, had a sequel in Home Alone 2, Angels with Even Filthier Souls. Both Angels meta-films featured character actor Ralph Foody as stereotypical 1930s mobster Johnny. \n\nHome Alone 3, released in 1997, has completely different actors, and a different storyline with Hughes writing the screenplay.\n\nA fourth made-for-TV film followed in 2002, Home Alone 4. This entry features some of the same characters who were in the first two films, but with a new cast and a storyline that does not fall into the same continuity. Hughes did not write the screenplay for the TV film.\n\nOn November 25, 2012, a fifth film, The Holiday Heist premiered during ABC Family's 25 Days of Christmas programming event. \n\nIn December 2015, Culkin reprised his role as an adult Kevin McCallister in the inaugural episode of the Jack Dishel web series, \"DRYVRS\", where a visibly disturbed Kevin recounts his experience of being left home alone by his family. In response to Culkin's video, Daniel Stern appeared in a short video reprising his role as Marv, released in conjunction with Stern's Reddit AMA, where he pleads for Harry to return to help protect him against Kevin's cunning traps. \n\nNovelization\n\nHome Alone (ISBN 0-590-55066-7) was novelized by Todd Strasser and published by Scholastic in 1990 to coincide with the film.\n\nAmong the differences from the film the McCallisters live in Oak Park, Illinois, the Wet Bandits are named as Harry Lyme and Marv Murchens and Buzz's tarantula is named as Axl.\n\nOn October 6, 2015, to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the movie, an illustrated book by Kim Smith and Quirk Books was released." ] }

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{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe" ], "filename": [ "Ebenezer_Scrooge.txt" ], "title": [ "Ebenezer Scrooge" ], "wiki_context": [ "Ebenezer Scrooge is the focal character of Charles Dickens' 1843 novella, A Christmas Carol.\nAt the beginning of the novella, Scrooge is a cold-hearted miser who despises Christmas. Dickens describes him thus: \"The cold within him froze his old features, nipped his pointed nose, made his eyes red, his thin lips blue, and spoke out shrewdly in his grating voice...\". His last name has come into the English language as a byword for miserliness and misanthropy. The tale of his redemption by the three Ghosts of Christmas (Ghost of Christmas Past, Ghost of Christmas Present, and Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come) has become a defining tale of the Christmas holiday in the English-speaking world. Ebenezer Scrooge is arguably both one of the most famous characters created by Charles Dickens and one of the most famous in English literature.\n\nScrooge's catchphrase, \"Bah, humbug!\" is often used to express disgust with many of the modern Christmas traditions.\n\nOrigins\n\nSeveral theories have been put forward as to where Dickens got inspiration for the character.\n* It has been suggested that he chose the name Ebenezer (\"stone (of) help\") to reflect the help given to Scrooge to change his life. \n* The surname may be from the now obscure English verb scrouge, meaning \"squeeze\" or \"press\". \n* One school of thought is that Dickens based Scrooge's views on the poor on those of demographer and political economist Thomas Malthus. \n* Another is that the minor character Gabriel Grub from The Pickwick Papers was worked up into a more mature characterization (his name stemming from an infamous Dutch miser, Gabriel de Graaf). \n* Jemmy Wood, owner of the Gloucester Old Bank and possibly Britain’s first millionaire, was nationally renowned for his stinginess, and may have been another.\n* The man whom Dickens eventually mentions in his letters and who strongly resembles the character portrayed by Dickens's illustrator, John Leech, was a noted British eccentric and miser named John Elwes (1714–1789).\n*During King George IVs visit to Scotland, the Ball catering contract was won by Ebenezer Scroggie, who would become the posthumous inspiration for Charles Dickens' character Ebenezer Scrooge in A Christmas Carol. \n\nAppearance in the novel\n\nThe story of A Christmas Carol starts on Christmas Eve 1843 with Scrooge at his money-lending business. He despises Christmas as a \"humbug\" and subjects his clerk, Bob Cratchit, to grueling hours and low pay. He shows his cold-heartedness toward others by refusing to make a monetary donation for the good of the poor, claiming they are better off dead, thereby \"decreasing the surplus population.\" \nWhile he is preparing to go to bed, he is visited by the ghost of his business partner, Jacob Marley, who had died seven years earlier (1836) on Christmas Eve. Like Scrooge, Marley had spent his life hoarding his wealth and exploiting the poor, and, as a result, is damned to walk the Earth for eternity bound in the chains of his own greed. Marley warns Scrooge that he risks meeting the same fate and that as a final chance at redemption he will be visited by three spirits of Christmas: Past, Present and Yet-to-Come.\n\nThe Ghost of Christmas Past takes Scrooge to see his time as a schoolboy and young man, during the late 18th and early 19th centuries. These visions reveal that Scrooge was a lonely child whose unloving father sent him away to a boarding school. (Some film adaptations say Scrooge's mother died giving birth to him, which is the source of his father's grudge.) His one solace was his beloved younger sister, Fan, who repeatedly begged their father to allow Scrooge to return home, and he at last relented. Fan later died giving birth to her son, Fred, Scrooge's nephew. The spirit then takes him to see another Christmas a few years later in which he enjoyed a Christmas party held by his kind-hearted and festive boss, Mr. Fezziwig. It is there that he meets his love and later fiancée, Belle. Then the spirit shows him a Christmas in which Belle leaves him, as she realizes his love for money has replaced his love for her. Finally, the spirit shows him a Christmas Eve several years later, in which Belle is happily married to another man.\n\nScrooge is then visited by the Ghost of Christmas Present, who shows him the whole of London celebrating Christmas, including Fred and the impoverished Cratchit family. Scrooge is both bewildered and touched by the loving and pure-hearted nature of Cratchit's youngest son, Tiny Tim. When Scrooge shows concern for the sickly boy's health, the spirit informs him that the boy will die unless something changes, a revelation that deeply disturbs Scrooge. The spirit then uses Scrooge's earlier words about \"decreasing the surplus population\" against him. The spirit takes him to a spooky graveyard. There, the spirit produces two misshapen, sickly children he names Ignorance and Want. When Scrooge asks if they have anyone to care for them, the spirit throws more of Scrooge's own words back in his face: \"Are there no prisons, no workhouses?\"\n\nFinally, the Ghost of Christmas Yet-to-Come/Future shows Scrooge Christmas Day one year later (1844). Just as the previous spirit predicted, Tiny Tim has died; his father could not afford to give him proper care on his small salary and there was no social health care. The spirit then shows Scrooge scenes related to the death of a \"wretched man\": His business associates snicker about how it's likely to be a cheap funeral and one associate will only go if lunch is provided; his possessions are stolen and sold by his housekeeper, undertaker and laundress, and a young couple who owed the man money are relieved he is dead, as they have more time to pay off their debt. The spirit then shows Scrooge the man's tombstone, which bears Scrooge's name.\n\nScrooge weeps over his own grave, begging the spirit for a chance to change his ways, before awakening to find it is Christmas morning. He immediately repents and becomes a model of generosity and kindness: he visits Fred and accepts his earlier invitation to Christmas dinner, gives Bob Cratchit a raise, and becomes like \"a second father\" to Tiny Tim. As the final narration states, \"Some people laughed to see the alteration in him, but he let them laugh, and little heeded them; for he was wise enough to know that nothing ever happened on this globe, for good, at which some people did not have their fill of laughter in the outset; and knowing that such as these would be blind anyway, he thought it quite as well that they should wrinkle up their eyes in grins, as have the malady in less attractive forms. His own heart laughed: and that was quite enough for him...it was always said of him that he knew how to keep Christmas well if any man alive possessed the knowledge.\"\n\nActors portraying Ebenezer Scrooge\n\nScrooge has been portrayed by:\n\n* Tom Ricketts in 1908\n* Marc McDermott in 1910\n* Seymour Hicks in 1913 and again in 1935\n* Rupert Julian in 1916\n* Russell Thorndike in 1923\n* Lionel Barrymore on radio 1935-1937, 1939-1940s\n* John Barrymore on radio, for ailing brother Lionel\n* Orson Welles in 1938 on radio replacing Lionel Barrymore for one appearance only.\n* Reginald Owen in 1938\n* John Carradine in 1947\n* Malcolm Keen in 1947\n* Taylor Holmes in 1949\n* Bransby Williams in 1950\n* Alastair Sim in 1951, and again in 1971 (voice)\n* Fredric March in 1954\n* Basil Rathbone in 1956 and 1958\n* Stan Freberg in Green Chri$tma$, 1958. \"Mr Scrooge\" is portrayed as an advertising executive \"...trying to find new ways of tying their product into Christmas.\" The satirical skit was so sarcastic that sponsors threatened to pull their ads from any radio station that dared play it. As a result, the skit received very little airplay until 1983 and still doesn't get much.\n* Jim Backus (as Quincy Magoo) in Mister Magoo's Christmas Carol, 1962\n* Cyril Ritchard in 1964\n* Wilfrid Brambell in a 1966 radio musical version (adapted from his Broadway role)\n* Sid James in the Carry On Christmas Specials, 1969\n* Albert Finney in 1970\n* Marcel Marceau in 1973\n* Michael Hordern in 1977\n* Rich Little as W.C. Fields playing Scrooge in Rich Little's Christmas Carol, 1978\n* Walter Matthau (voice) in The Stingiest Man in Town, 1978\n* Henry Winkler as Benedict Slade in An American Christmas Carol, 1979\n* Hoyt Axton as Cyrus Flint in Skinflint: A Country Christmas Carol, 1979\n* Mel Blanc (as Yosemite Sam) in Bugs Bunny's Christmas Carol, 1979\n* Henk Van Ulzen in De Wonderbaarlijke Genezing Van (the Wonderfull Cure of) Ebenezer Scrooge 1979\n* Hal Landon Jr. as Ebenezer Scrooge since 1980, more than 1,100 performances, in South Coast Repertory's \"A Christmas Carol,\" adapted by Jerry Patch and directed by John-David Keller\n* Alan Young (as Scrooge McDuck) in Mickey's Christmas Carol, 1983\n* George C. Scott in 1984\n* Mel Blanc (this time as Cosmo Spacely) in the Jetsons episode \"A Jetson Christmas Carol\", 1985\n* Robert Guillaume as John Grin in John Grin's Christmas, 1986\n* Oliver Muirhead as \"Constable Scrooge\" in A Christmas Held Captive, 1986\n* Bill Murray as Frank Cross in Scrooged, 1988\n** Buddy Hackett (as himself) played Scrooge in the film-within-a-film.\n* Rowan Atkinson as Ebenezer Blackadder in Blackadder's Christmas Carol, 1988\n* Michael Caine in The Muppet Christmas Carol, 1992\n* Jeffrey Sanzel has appeared in more than 1,000 stage performances since 1992\n* James Earl Jones in Bah, Humbug, 1994\n* Henry Corden (as Fred Flintstone) in A Flintstones Christmas Carol, 1994\n* Susan Lucci as Elizabeth \"Ebbie\" Scrooge in Ebbie, 1995\n* Beavis as Beavis Scrooge, 1995\n* Cicely Tyson as Ebenita Scrooge in Ms. Scrooge, 1997\n* Tim Curry (voice) in 1997\n* Jack Palance in Ebenezer, 1997\n* Ernest Borgnine (as Carface Carruthers) in An All Dogs Christmas Carol, 1998\n* Patrick Stewart in 1999\n* Vanessa Williams as Ebony Scrooge in A Diva's Christmas Carol, 2000\n* Ross Kemp as Eddie Scrooge in 2000\n* Dean Jones in Scrooge and Marley, 2001\n* Tori Spelling as \"Scroogette\" Carol Cartman in A Carol Christmas, 2003\n* Kelsey Grammer in 2004\n* Bill Bourne in The Carol Project, 2006\n* Joe Alaskey (as Daffy Duck) in Bah, Humduck! A Looney Tunes Christmas, 2006\n* Helen Fraser as Sylvia Hollamby in Bad Girls 2006 Christmas Special\n* Morwenna Banks as Eden Starling (Barbie) in Barbie in a Christmas Carol, 2008\n* Jim Carrey in 2009 (Carrey also played the three spirits haunting Scrooge). \n* Catherine Tate as Nan in Nan's Christmas Carol, 2009\n* Matthew McConaughey as Connor 'Dutch' Mead in the movie Ghosts of Girlfriends Past which is a 2009 American romantic comedy film whose plot is based loosely on Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol. Mark Waters directed a script by Jon Lucas and Scott Moore. Filming spanned February 19, 2008, to July 2008 in Massachusetts with stars Matthew McConaughey, Breckin Meyer, Jennifer Garner, Lacey Chabert and Michael Douglas. The film was released on May 1, 2009\n* Christina Milian as Sloane Spencer in Christmas Cupid, December 2010\n* Eric Braeden as Victor Newman in \"Victor's Christmas Carol\" on The Young and the Restless, December 2010\n* Michael Gambon as Kazran Sardick in \"A Christmas Carol\" on Doctor Who, December 2010. \n* George Lopez as Grouchy Smurf in The Smurfs: A Christmas Carol (2011)\n* Andy Day In the 2013 CBeebies pantomime A CBeebies Christmas Carol.\n* Zach Sherwin In the 2013 Donald Trump vs. Ebenezer Scrooge Epic Rap Battles of History video.\n* Robert Powell in Neil Brand's 2014 BBC Radio 4 adaptation of A Christmas Carol. \n* Corey Burton (as Captain Hook) in the Captain Scrooge episode of Jake and the Never Land Pirates, 2014\n* Graham Rehill (as Ebenezer Scrooge in \"The Challenge\" Christmas presentation, 2015\n* Ned Dennehy in the BBC drama Dickensian, 2015\n* Kelly Sheridan as Starlight Glimmer/Snowball Frost in \"A Hearth's Warming Tail\" episode of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, 2016\n\nIn popular culture\n\nThe name \"Scrooge\" is used in English as a word for a person who is misanthropic and tight-fisted despite the fact Ebenezer Scrooge reformed later. \n\nThe character is most often noted for exclaiming \"Bah! Humbug!\" despite uttering this phrase only twice in the entire story. He uses the word \"Humbug\" on its own on seven occasions, although on the seventh we are told he \"stopped at the first syllable\" after realizing Marley's ghost is real. The word is never used again after that in the book.\n\nA species of snail is named Ba humbugi after Scrooge's catchphrase. \n\nScrooge appears in Louis Bayard's 2003 novel Mr. Timothy, which is told from Tim Cratchit's perspective." ] }

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{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe", "TagMe", "Search" ], "filename": [ "Scrooge_(1970_film).txt", "A_Christmas_Carol.txt", "A_Christmas_Carol_(musical).txt" ], "title": [ "Scrooge (1970 film)", "A Christmas Carol", "A Christmas Carol (musical)" ], "wiki_context": [ "Scrooge is a 1970 Technicolor musical film adaptation in Panavision of Charles Dickens' 1843 story, A Christmas Carol. It was filmed in London between January and May 1970 and directed by Ronald Neame, and starred Albert Finney in the title role. The film's musical score was composed by Leslie Bricusse, and arranged and conducted by Ian Fraser. With eleven musical arrangements interspersed throughout (all retaining a traditional British air), the award-winning motion picture is a faithful musical retelling of the original. The film received limited praise, but Albert Finney won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Musical/Comedy in 1971.\n\nThe film received four Academy Award nominations.\n\nPlot \n\nEbenezer Scrooge (Albert Finney) is a cold-hearted and greedy old miser whose only concern is money and profit and hates everything to do with Christmas. After Scrooge scares off a group of boys who were singing a carol outside his door, his nephew Fred (Michael Medwin) arrives to invite him to Christmas dinner with his wife (Mary Peach) and friends. Scrooge, however, refuses. After Fred leaves, Scrooge reluctantly gives his clerk Bob Cratchit (David Collings) the next day off as it is Christmas, but says he expects him back \"all the earlier the next morning.\" Bob meets two of his children, including Tiny Tim (Richard Beaumont), in the streets, and they buy the food for their Christmas dinner. Scrooge, meanwhile, is surveyed by two other men (Derek Francis and Roy Kinnear) for a donation for the poor, but Scrooge refuses to support the prisons and workhouses, and even says \"if they would rather die, then they better do it and decrease the surplus population.\" On his way home, Scrooge meets some of his clients, including Tom Jenkins (Anton Rodgers), and reminds them the debts they owe him. In a running gag, Scrooge is stalked and made fun of by the same street urchins seen at the start of the film, who call him \"Father Christmas.\"\n\nBack home, Scrooge notices that the image of his late partner Jacob Marley (Alec Guinness) appears in the doorknocker, followed by a hearse passing him up the stairs. While eating some soup, Scrooge hears bells ring before the ghost of Marley arrives in person covered in chains. Scrooge thinks it is just a hoax, but sees reason after Marley frightens him. Marley tells Scrooge he wears the chain he made with the sins he committed while alive on Earth and tells Scrooge he is close to suffering the same fate as him. After Marley shows Scrooge other ghosts suffering the same fate, he returns him home and tells him he will be haunted by three more spirits, and that the first will call at one o'clock.\n\nAs Marley said, the Ghost of Christmas Past (Edith Evans), a Victorian upper-class woman, arrives and takes Scrooge to witness his past. Scrooge sees the time he spent the holidays alone at school, until his sister Fan came to collect him. Scrooge then sees when he had a happier Christmas working for Mr. Fezziwig (Lawrence Naismith) and falling in love with his daughter, Isabel (Suzanne Neve). Scrooge proposes to Isabel; yet after a long period of being taken for granted, Isabel calls off the engagement as she realizes Scrooge's love for wealth has replaced his love for her.\n\nThe Ghost of Christmas Present (Kenneth More), a jolly giant, visits next and shows Scrooge the home of Bob Cratchit and his family. Scrooge learns that Tiny Tim is very ill, and the spirit warns if the shadows of the future don't change, the boy will die. They then pay a visit to Fred, his wife and friends at Fred's home, where they toast Scrooge and play The Minister's Cat. Finally, the ghost leaves Scrooge, but not before telling him life is too short.\n\nThe Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come (Paddy Stone), a silent, cloaked figure, shows Scrooge what will happen the following Christmas. Scrooge and the spirit witness Tom and the other citizens rejoicing at Scrooge's future funeral (Scrooge comically thinks he is being treated like a celebrity). Scrooge discovers Tiny Tim had died and is shown his own future grave. The spirit reveals himself as a skeleton (possibly Death or the Grim Reaper), which startles Scrooge and causes him to fall into his \"grave.\" In the bowels of Hell, Scrooge reunites with Marley, who has him adorned with a huge chain made of his past sins by several demons. Scrooge yells for help and finds himself back in his room on Christmas morning.\n\nScrooge discovers he has time to put things right and becomes a generous man. He goes on a shopping spree, buying food and presents. He runs into Fred and his wife and gives them some overdue presents as well. They invite Scrooge to Christmas lunch, which he gladly accepts. Scrooge, dressed as Father Christmas, then delivers a giant turkey, presents and toys to the Cratchits, and after making his identity known, announces to Bob that he is doubling his salary and promises that they will work to find the best doctors to make Tiny Tim better. Scrooge then frees all his clients from their debts, much to their delight. Scrooge returns home to get ready for lunch with his family and thanks Marley for helping him at a second chance at life.\n\nCast of characters\n\n* Albert Finney as Ebenezer Scrooge\n* Alec Guinness as Jacob Marley's ghost\n* Edith Evans as Ghost of Christmas Past\n* Kenneth More as Ghost of Christmas Present\n* Paddy Stone as Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come\n* David Collings as Bob Cratchit\n* Frances Cuka as Mrs. Cratchit\n* Richard Beaumont as Tiny Tim\n* Michael Medwin as Fred, Scrooge's nephew\n* Mary Peach as Fred's wife\n* Gordon Jackson as Tom, Fred's friend\n* Anton Rodgers as Tom Jenkins\n* Laurence Naismith as Fezziwig\n* Kay Walsh as Mrs. Fezziwig\n* Suzanne Neve as Isabel\n* Derek Francis as charity gentleman\n* Roy Kinnear as charity gentleman\n* Geoffrey Bayldon as Pringle, the toyshop owner\n* Molly Weir as woman debtor\n* Helena Gloag as woman debtor\n* Reg Lever as Punch and Judy man\n* Keith Marsh as well wisher\n* Marianne Stone as party guest\n\nSoundtrack listing\n\n# \"Overture\" (removed from current Blu-ray release)\n# \"A Christmas Carol\" – Chorus\n# \"Christmas Children\" – David Collings & Cratchit Children\n# \"I Hate People\" – Albert Finney\n# \"Father Christmas\" – Urchins\n# \"See the Phantoms\" – Alec Guinness\n# \"December the 25th\" – Laurence Naismith, Kay Walsh & Ensemble\n# \"Happiness\" – Suzanne Neve\n# \"A Christmas Carol\" (Reprise) – Chorus\n# \"You....You\" – Albert Finney\n# \"I Like Life\" – Kenneth More & Albert Finney\n# \"The Beautiful Day\" – Richard Beaumont\n# \"Happiness\" (Reprise)\n# \"Thank You Very Much\" – Anton Rodgers & Ensemble\n# \"I'll Begin Again\" – Albert Finney\n# \"I Like Life\" (Reprise) – Albert Finney\n# \"Finale: Father Christmas\" (Reprise) / \"Thank You Very Much\" (Reprise) – All\n# \"Exit Music\" (Bonus Track, not included on LP)\n\nA soundtrack album containing all the songs from the film was issued on Columbia Records in 1970. Due to legal complications, however, the soundtrack has never been re-released in the CD format. The current Paramount Blu-ray release of the film has removed the Overture (intact on all VHS and DVD releases).\n\nTitle Sequence\n\nThe film features an opening title sequence of numerous hand-painted backgrounds and overlays by British illustrator Ronald Searle. Art of the Title described it, saying, \"As is often the case with Searle’s illustrations, the forms jump and squiggle into shape, the strokes loose and sprightly. In each scene, swaths of colour and life pour out, white snowflakes dotting the brush strokes.\" The illustrations later appeared in a book, Scrooge, by Elaine Donaldson and published in 1970 by Cinema Center Films.\n\nAcclaim\n\nThe film was nominated for a BAFTA Film Award in the UK, one Golden Laurel award, four Oscars, and five Golden Globes in the USA, in which Albert Finney won for The Best Motion Picture Actor in a Musical/Comedy in 1971. Finney was only 34 years old at the time he was chosen to play both the old miser and the young man Scrooge of flashback scenes, but his performance was widely praised by the critics and the public. Several critics, however, found fault with Leslie Bricusse's score. \n\n;Academy Award nominations:\n* Best Art Direction (Terence Marsh, Robert Cartwright, Pamela Cornell)\n* Costume Design (Margaret Furse)\n* Best Original Song\n* Best Score\n\nStage adaptation\n\nIn 1992, a stage musical adapted from the film, featuring the Bricusse/Fraser songs and starring Anthony Newley, was mounted in the UK under the title Scrooge: The Musical.\n\nThe show was revived in 2003 on a tour of the country by British song and dance man Tommy Steele, and he again reprised the role at the London Palladium in 2004 -making him the performer to have done the most shows at the Palladium. In 2007, Shane Ritchie played the part at the Manchester Palace. The musical was revived at London Palladium in October 2012 with Steele reprising the role. It ran till 5 January 2013.", "A Christmas Carol in Prose, Being a Ghost-Story of Christmas, commonly known as A Christmas Carol, is a novella by Charles Dickens, first published in London by Chapman & Hall on 19 December 1843. The novella met with instant success and critical acclaim. A Christmas Carol tells the story of a bitter old miser named Ebenezer Scrooge and his transformation into a gentler, kindlier man after visitations by the ghost of his former business partner Jacob Marley and the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Yet to Come.\n\nThe book was written at a time when the British were examining and exploring Christmas traditions from the past as well as new customs such as Christmas cards and Christmas trees. Carol singing took a new lease of life during this time. Dickens' sources for the tale appear to be many and varied, but are, principally, the humiliating experiences of his childhood, his sympathy for the poor, and various Christmas stories and fairy tales. \n\nA Christmas Carol remains popular—having never been out of print —and has been adapted many times to film, stage, opera, and other media.\n\nBackground\n\nDickens was not the very first author to celebrate the Christmas season in literature, but it was he who superimposed his humanitarian vision of the holiday upon the public, an idea that has been termed as Dickens's \"Carol Philosophy\". Dickens believed the best way to reach the broadest segment of the population regarding his concerns about poverty and social injustice was to write a deeply felt Christmas story rather than polemical pamphlets and essays. Dickens's career as a best-selling author was on the wane, and the writer felt he needed to produce a tale that would prove both profitable and popular. Dickens's visit to the work-worn industrial city of Manchester was the \"spark\" that fired the author to produce a story about the poor, a repentant miser, and redemption that would become A Christmas Carol. \n\nThe forces that inspired Dickens to create a powerful, impressive and enduring tale were the profoundly humiliating experiences of his childhood, the plight of the poor and their children during the boom decades of the 1830s and 1840s, and Washington Irving's essays on old English Christmas traditions published in his Sketch Book (1820); and fairy tales and nursery stories, as well as satirical essays and religious tracts.\n\nChildhood experiences\n\nWhile Dickens' humiliating childhood experiences are not directly described in A Christmas Carol, his conflicting feelings for his father as a result of those experiences are principally responsible for the dual personality of the tale's protagonist, Ebenezer Scrooge. In 1824, Dickens's father, John, was imprisoned in the Marshalsea whilst 12-year-old Charles was forced to take lodgings nearby, pawn his collection of books, leave school and accept employment in a blacking factory. \n\nThe boy had a deep sense of class and intellectual superiority and was entirely uncomfortable in the presence of factory workers who referred to him as \"the young gentleman\". As a result of this treatment, he developed nervous fits. When his father was released at the end of a three-month stint, young Dickens was forced to continue working in the factory, which only grieved and humiliated him further. He despaired of ever recovering his former happy life.\n\nThe devastating impact of the period wounded him psychologically, coloured his work, and haunted his entire life with disturbing memories. Dickens both loved and demonised his father, and it was this psychological conflict that was responsible for the two radically different Scrooges in the tale—one Scrooge, a cold, stingy and greedy semi-recluse, and the other Scrooge, a benevolent, sociable man, whose generosity and goodwill toward all men earn for him a near-saintly reputation. It was during this terrible period in Dickens's childhood that he observed the lives of the men, women, and children in the most impoverished areas of London and witnessed the social injustices they suffered.\n\nChildren living in poverty\n\nDickens was keenly touched by the lot of poor children in the middle decades of the 19th century. In early 1843, he toured the Cornish tin mines, where he saw children working in appalling conditions. The suffering he witnessed there was reinforced by a visit to the Field Lane Ragged school, one of several London schools set up for the education of the capital's half-starved, illiterate street children. \n\nInspired by the February 1843 parliamentary report exposing the effects of the Industrial Revolution upon poor children called Second Report of the Children's Employment Commission, Dickens planned in May 1843 to publish an inexpensive political pamphlet tentatively titled, \"An Appeal to the People of England, on behalf of the Poor Man's Child\", but changed his mind, deferring the pamphlet's production until the end of the year. He wrote to Dr. Southwood Smith, one of 84 commissioners responsible for the Second Report, about his change in plans: \"[Y]ou will certainly feel that a Sledge hammer has come down with twenty times the force—twenty thousand times the force—I could exert by following out my first idea\". The pamphlet would become A Christmas Carol. \n\nIn a fundraising speech on 5 October 1843, at the Manchester Athenæum, Dickens urged workers and employers to join together to combat ignorance with educational reform, and realised in the days following that the most effective way to reach the broadest segment of the population with his social concerns about poverty and injustice was to write a deeply felt Christmas narrative rather than polemical pamphlets and essays. It was during his three days in Manchester that he conceived the plot of A Christmas Carol. \n\nWashington Irving's Christmas stories\n\nIrving's The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. (1819–1820) was written over 20 years before A Christmas Carol. The Sketch Book depicted the harmonious warmhearted English Christmas traditions that Irving had experienced while staying at Aston Hall. The tales and essays attracted Dickens, and the two authors shared the belief that the staging of a nostalgic English Christmas might restore a social harmony and well-being lost in the modern world. In \"A Christmas Dinner\" from Sketches by Boz (1833), Dickens had approached the holiday in a manner similar to Irving, and, in The Pickwick Papers (1837), he offered an idealised vision of Christmas at Dingley Dell. In the Pickwick episode, a Mr. Wardle relates the tale of Gabriel Grub, a lonely and mean-spirited sexton, who undergoes a Christmas conversion after being visited by goblins who show him the past and future – the prototype of A Christmas Carol. \n\nOther influences\n\nOther likely influences were a visit Dickens made to the Western Penitentiary in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, from 20–22 March 1842; the decade-long fascination on both sides of the Atlantic with spiritualism; fairy tales, and nursery stories (which Dickens regarded as stories of conversion and transformation); and contemporary religious tracts about conversion.\n\nThe works of Douglas Jerrold in general, but especially \"The Beauties of the Police\" (1843), a satirical and melodramatic essay about a father and his child forcibly separated in a workhouse, were influences, and another satirical essay by Jerrold which may have had a direct influence on Dickens's conception of Scrooge, called \"How Mr. Chokepear keeps a merry Christmas\" (Punch, 1841).\n\nPlot\n\nDickens divides the book into five chapters, which he labels \"staves\", that is, song stanzas or verses, in keeping with the title of the book.\n\nStave One\n\nThe tale begins on a \"cold, bleak, biting\" Christmas Eve in London, exactly seven years after the death of Scrooge's business partner Jacob Marley. Scrooge, an old miser, is established within the first stave as \"a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous, old sinner!\" He hates Christmas, calling it \"humbug\"; he refuses his nephew Fred's Christmas dinner invitation, and he sarcastically turns away two gentlemen who seek a donation from him to provide a Christmas dinner for the poor and needy. His only \"Christmas gift\" is allowing his overworked, underpaid clerk Bob Cratchit Christmas Day off with pay – which he does only to keep with social custom, Scrooge considering it \"a poor excuse for picking a man's pocket every 25th of December!\"\n\nAt home that night, Scrooge is visited by Marley's ghost, who is forever cursed to wander the earth dragging a network of heavy chains, forged during a lifetime of greed and selfishness. Dickens describes the apparition thus: \"Marley's face ... had a dismal light about it, like a bad lobster in a dark cellar.\" Marley has a bandage under his chin, tied at the top of his head; \"... how much greater was his horror, when the phantom taking off the bandage round its head, as if it were too warm to wear indoors, its lower jaw dropped down upon its breast!\"\n\nMarley tells Scrooge that he has one chance to avoid the same fate and that he will be visited by three spirits, one on each successive evening and that he must listen to them or be cursed to carry chains of his own that are much longer than Marley's chains. As Marley departs, Scrooge witnesses other restless spirits who now wish they could help their fellow man, but are powerless to do so. Scrooge is then visited by the three spirits Marley spoke of – each visit detailed in a separate stave – who accompany him on visits to various Christmas scenes.\n\nStave Two\n\nThe first of the spirits, the Ghost of Christmas Past, takes Scrooge to Christmas scenes of Scrooge's boyhood and youth, which stir the old miser's gentle and tender side by reminding him of a time when he was kinder and more innocent. These scenes portray Scrooge's lonely childhood, his relationship with his beloved sister Fan and a Christmas party hosted by his first employer Mr. Fezziwig who treated Scrooge like a son. They also portray Scrooge's neglected fiancée Belle who ends their relationship after she realises that Scrooge will never love her as much as he loves money. Then there is a visit later in time to the then-married Belle's large and happy family on Christmas Eve.\n\nStave Three\n\nThe second spirit, the Ghost of Christmas Present, takes Scrooge to several different scenes – a joy-filled market of people buying the makings of Christmas dinner, celebrations of Christmas in a miner's cottage and in a lighthouse. Scrooge and the Ghost of Christmas Present also visit Fred's Christmas party, where Fred speaks of his uncle with pity. A major part of this stave is taken up with Bob Cratchit's family feast, and introduces his youngest son, Tiny Tim, who is full of simple happiness despite being seriously ill. The spirit informs Scrooge that Tiny Tim will soon die unless the course of events changes. Before disappearing, the spirit shows Scrooge two hideous, emaciated children named Ignorance and Want. He tells Scrooge to beware the former above all, and replies to Scrooge's concern for their welfare by repeating Scrooge's own words: \"Are there no prisons? Are there no workhouses?\"\n\nStave Four\n\nThe third spirit, the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, shows Scrooge a Christmas Day in the future. The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come shows Scrooge scenes involving the death of a \"wretched man\". The man's funeral will only be attended by local businessmen if lunch is provided. His charwoman Mrs. Dilber, his laundress, and the local undertaker steal some of his possessions and sell them to a fence named Old Joe for money. Mrs. Dilber gives Old Joe the bed curtains, the Laundress gives Old Joe the bed sheets, and the undertaker gives Old Joe some button collars. Scrooge also sees a shrouded corpse which he implores the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come not to unmask. When Scrooge asks the ghost to show anyone who feels any emotion over the man's death, the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come can only show him an emotion of pleasure, from a poor couple indebted to the man momentarily rejoicing that his death gives them more time to pay off their debt. After Scrooge asks to see some tenderness connected with any death, the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come shows him Bob Cratchit and his family mourning the passing of Tiny Tim. The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come then shows Scrooge the man's neglected grave: the tombstone bears Scrooge's name. Sobbing, Scrooge pledges to the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come that he will change his ways in hopes that he may \"sponge the writing from this stone\".\n\nStave Five\n\nScrooge awakens on Christmas morning with joy and love in his heart. He spends the day with Fred's family and anonymously sends a prize turkey to the Cratchit home for Christmas dinner. The following day, he gives Cratchit a raise and becomes like \"a second father\" to Tiny Tim. A changed man, Scrooge now treats everyone with kindness, generosity, and compassion; he now embodies the spirit of Christmas. As the final narration states, \"Some people laughed to see the alteration in him, but he let them laugh, and little heeded them; for he was wise enough to know that nothing ever happened on this globe, for good, at which some people did not have their fill of laughter in the outset; and knowing that such as these would be blind anyway, he thought it quite as well that they should wrinkle up their eyes in grins, as have the malady in less attractive forms. His own heart laughed: and that was quite enough for him...it was always said of him that he knew how to keep Christmas well if any man alive possessed the knowledge.\" The story closes with the narrator repeating Tiny Tim's famous words: \"God bless us, every one!\"\n\nPublication\n\nDickens began to write A Christmas Carol in September 1843. The book was completed in six weeks, with the final pages written in early December. The book was published on 19 December 1843. As the result of a feud with his publisher over the slim earnings on his previous novel, Martin Chuzzlewit, Dickens declined a lump-sum payment for the tale, chose a percentage of the profits in hopes of making more money thereby, and published the work at his own expense. High production costs however brought him only £230 (equal to £ today) rather than the £1,000 (equal to £ today) he expected and needed, as his wife was once again pregnant. A year later, the profits were only £744, and Dickens was deeply disappointed.\n\nProduction of the book was not without problems. The first printing contained drab olive endpapers that Dickens felt were unacceptable, and the publisher Chapman and Hall quickly replaced them with yellow endpapers, but, once replaced, those clashed with the title page, which was then redone. The final product was bound in red cloth with gilt-edged pages, completed only two days before the release date of 19 December 1843. \n\nFollowing publication, Dickens arranged for the manuscript to be bound in red Morocco leather and presented as a gift to his solicitor, Thomas Mitton. In 1875, Mitton sold the manuscript to bookseller Francis Harvey reportedly for £50 (equal to £ today), who sold it to autograph collector, Henry George Churchill, in 1882, who, in turn, sold the manuscript to Bennett, a Birmingham bookseller. Bennett sold it for £200 to Robson and Kerslake of London, which sold it to Dickens collector Stuart M. Samuel for £300. Finally, it was purchased by J. Pierpont Morgan for an undisclosed sum. It is now held by the Pierpont Morgan Library, New York. Four expensive, hand-coloured etchings and four black and white wood engravings by John Leech accompanied the text.\n\nPriced at five shillings (equal to £ today), the first run of 6,000 copies sold out by Christmas Eve and the book continued to sell well into the new year. By May 1844, a seventh edition had sold out. In all, 24 editions ran in its original form. In spite of the disappointing profits for the author, the book was a huge artistic success, with most critics responding positively.\n\nCritical reception\n\nThe book received immediate critical acclaim. The London literary magazine, Athenaeum, declared it: \"A tale to make the reader laugh and cry – to open his hands, and open his heart to charity even toward the uncharitable ... a dainty dish to set before a King.\" Poet and editor Thomas Hood wrote, \"If Christmas, with its ancient and hospitable customs, its social and charitable observances, were ever in danger of decay, this is the book that would give them a new lease. The very name of the author predisposes one to the kindlier feelings, and a peep at the Frontispiece sets the animal spirits capering\". \n\nWilliam Makepeace Thackeray in Fraser's Magazine (February 1844) pronounced the book, \"a national benefit and to every man or woman who reads it, a personal kindness. The last two people I heard speak of it were women; neither knew the other, or the author, and both said, by way of criticism, 'God bless him!'\" Thackeray wrote about Tiny Tim, \"There is not a reader in England, but that little creature will be a bond of union between the author and him; and he will say of Charles Dickens, as the woman just now, 'GOD BLESS HIM!' What a feeling this is for a writer to inspire, and what a reward to reap!\".\n\nEven the caustic critic Theodore Martin (who was usually virulently hostile to Dickens) spoke well of the book, noting it was \"finely felt and calculated to work much social good\". A few critics registered their complaints. The New Monthly Magazine, for example, thought the book's physical magnificence kept it from being available to the poor and recommended the tale be printed on cheap paper and priced accordingly. The religious press generally ignored the tale but, in January 1884, Christian Remembrancer thought the tale's old and hackneyed subject was treated in an original way and praised the author's sense of humour and pathos. Dickens later noted that he received \"by every post, all manner of strangers writing all manner of letters about their homes and hearths, and how the Carol is read aloud there, and kept on a very little shelf by itself\". After Dickens's death, Margaret Oliphant deplored the turkey and plum pudding aspects of the book but admitted that in the days of its first publication it was regarded as \"a new gospel\" and noted that the book was unique in that it actually made people behave better.\n\nAmericans were less enthusiastic at first. Dickens had wounded their national pride with American Notes for General Circulation and Martin Chuzzlewit, but Carol was too compelling to be dismissed, and, by the end of the American Civil War, copies of the book were in wide circulation. The New York Times published an enthusiastic review in 1863, noting that the author brought the \"old Christmas ... of bygone centuries and remote manor houses, into the living rooms of the poor of today\", while the North American Review believed Dickens's \"fellow feeling with the race is his genius\"; and John Greenleaf Whittier thought the book charming, \"inwardly and outwardly\". \n\nFor Americans, Scrooge's redemption may have recalled that of the United States as it recovered from war, and the curmudgeon's charitable generosity to the poor in the final pages viewed as a reflection of a similar generosity practised by Americans as they sought solutions to poverty. The book's issues are detectable from a slightly different perspective in Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life (1946), and Scrooge is likely an influence upon Dr. Seuss's How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (1957). \n\nImpact\n\nParley's Illuminated Library pirated the tale in January 1844, and, though Dickens sued and won his case, the literary pirates simply declared bankruptcy. Dickens was left to pay £700 in costs, equal to £ today. The entanglements of the various suits Dickens brought against the publishers, his resulting financial losses, and the slim profits from the sale of Carol greatly disappointed Dickens. He felt a special affection for the book's moral lesson and its message of love and generosity. In his tale of a man who is given a second chance to live a good life, he was demonstrating to his readers that they, too, could achieve a similar salvation in a selfish world that had blunted their generosity and compassion.\n\nThe novella was adapted for the stage almost immediately. Three productions opened on 5 February 1844, with one by Edward Stirling sanctioned by Dickens and running for more than 40 nights. By the close of February 1844, eight rival Carol theatrical productions were playing in London. Stirling's version played New York City's Park Theatre during the Christmas season of 1844 and was revived in London the same year. Hundreds of newsboys gathered for a musical version of the tale at the Chatham Theatre in New York City in 1844, but brawling broke out and was quelled only when offenders were led off by police to the Tombs. Even after order had been restored in the theatre, the clamorous cries of one youngster drowned out the bass drum that ushered Marley onto the stage as he rose through a trap door. \n\nOther media adaptations include films, a radio play, and a television version. In all, there are at least 28 film versions of the tale. The earliest surviving one is Scrooge; or Marley's Ghost (1901), a silent British version. Six more silent versions followed, with one made by Thomas Edison in 1910. The first sound version was made in Britain in 1928. Other media adaptations include a popular radio play version in 1934, starring Lionel Barrymore, an American television version from the 1940s, and, in 1949, the first commercial sound recording with Ronald Colman. \n\nIn the years following the book's publication, responses to the tale were published by W. M. Swepstone (Christmas Shadows, 1850), Horatio Alger (Job Warner's Christmas, 1863), Louisa May Alcott (A Christmas Dream, and How It Came True, 1882), and others who followed Scrooge's life as a reformed man – or some who thought Dickens had got it wrong and needed to be corrected. \n\nDickens himself returned to the tale time and again during his life to tweak the phrasing and punctuation, and capitalised on the success of the book by annually publishing other Christmas stories in 1844, 1845, 1846, and 1848. The Chimes, The Cricket on the Hearth, The Battle of Life and The Haunted Man and the Ghost's Bargain were all based on the pattern laid down in Carol – a secular conversion tale laced with social injustice. While the public eagerly bought the later books, the critics bludgeoned them. Dickens himself questioned The Battle of Lifes worth. Dickens liked its title, though, and once considered using it for another novel which instead became A Tale of Two Cities. \n\nBy 1849, Dickens was engaged with David Copperfield and had neither the time nor the inclination to produce another Christmas book. Disappointed with those that followed Carol, he decided the best way to reach his audience with his \"Carol philosophy\" was via public readings. In 1853, Carol was the text chosen for his first public dramatic reading with the performance an immense success. Thereafter, he read the tale in an abbreviated version 127 times, until 1870 (the year of his death), when it provided the material for his farewell performance.\n\nThemes\n\nDickens wrote in the wake of British government changes to the benefits system known as the Poor Laws, changes that required, among other things, benefits applicants to work on treadmills. Dickens asks, in effect, for people to recognise the plight of those whom the Industrial Revolution has displaced and driven into poverty, and the obligation of society to provide for them humanely. Failure to do so, the writer implies through the personification of Ignorance and Want as ghastly children, will result in an unnamed \"Doom\" for those who, like Scrooge, believe their wealth and status qualifies them to sit in judgement over the poor rather than to assist them. \n\nChristian themes are woven throughout the book, \nand the entire novella may be classified as an allegory of the Christian concept of redemption. \nDickens's statement that Jacob Marley \"had no bowels\" is a reference to the \"bowels of compassion\" mentioned in I John, the reason for his eternal damnation. The themes of \"sinfulness to regret to repentance to salvation\" are also featured throughout the novella. \n\nAs the title identifies the work as a \"Christmas carol\", the book's chapters are called \"staves\" (i.e. stanzas of a song). A carol is mentioned within the narrative as part of the exposition of Scrooge's character,\n\"...at the first sound of 'God bless you, merry gentlemen! May nothing you dismay!', Scrooge seized the ruler with such energy of action that the singer fled in terror, leaving the keyhole to the fog and even more congenial frost.\"\n\nRestad (1995) suggested that Scrooge's redemption underscores \"the conservative, individualistic and patriarchal aspects\" of Dickens's \"Carol philosophy\" of charity (a more fortunate individual willingly looking after a less fortunate one). \nPersonal moral conscience and individual action led in effect to a form of noblesse oblige, which was expected of those individuals of means. \n\nLegacy\n\nWhile the phrase \"Merry Christmas\" was popularised following the appearance of the story, and the name \"Scrooge\" and exclamation \"Bah! Humbug!\" have entered the English language, Ruth Glancy argues the book's singular achievement is the powerful influence it has exerted upon its readers. In the spring of 1844, The Gentleman's Magazine attributed a sudden burst of charitable giving in Britain to Dickens' novella; in 1874, Robert Louis Stevenson waxed enthusiastic after reading Dickens's Christmas books and vowed to give generously; and Thomas Carlyle expressed a generous hospitality by staging two Christmas dinners after reading the book. In America, a Mr. Fairbanks attended a reading on Christmas Eve in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1867, and was so moved he closed his factory on Christmas Day and sent every employee a turkey. In the early years of the 20th century, the Queen of Norway sent gifts to London's crippled children signed \"With Tiny Tim's Love\"; Squire Bancroft raised £20,000 for the poor by reading the tale aloud publicly; and Captain Corbett-Smith read the tale to the troops in the trenches of World War I. \n\nAccording to historian Ronald Hutton, the current state of observance of Christmas is largely the result of a mid-Victorian revival of the holiday spearheaded by A Christmas Carol. Hutton writes that Dickens \"linked worship and feasting, within a context of social reconciliation\". In advocating a humanitarian focus of the holiday, Dickens influenced many aspects of Christmas that are celebrated today in Western culture, such as family gatherings, seasonal food and drink, dancing, games and a festive generosity of spirit. With the appearance of the Oxford Movement and the growth of Anglo-Catholicism, a revival in the traditional rituals and religious observances associated with Christmastide also occurred. \n\nThis simple morality tale with its pathos and theme of redemption significantly redefined the \"spirit\" and importance of Christmas, since, as Margaret Oliphant recalled, it \"moved us all those days ago as if it had been a new gospel.\" The tale helped resurrect a form of seasonal merriment that had been suppressed by the Puritan quelling of Yuletide pageantry in 17th-century England. \n\nAdaptations\n\nThe story has been adapted to other media including film, opera, ballet, a Broadway musical, animation, and a BBC mime production starring Marcel Marceau.", "A Christmas Carol is a musical with music by Alan Menken, lyrics by Lynn Ahrens, and book by Mike Ockrent and Lynn Ahrens. The musical is based on Charles Dickens' 1843 novella of the same name. The show was presented annually at New York City's Paramount Theatre in Madison Square Garden from 1 December 1994 to 27 December 2003.\n\nProductions\n\nA Christmas Carol premiered on 1 December 1994. It was performed annually in December at the Paramount Theatre in Madison Square Garden from December 1994 until December 2003.\n\nThe original 1994 production was directed by Mike Ockrent with choreography by Susan Stroman, sets by Tony Walton, costumes by William Ivey Long, lighting by Jules Fisher and Peggy Eisenhauer, sound by Tony Meoloa, and musical direction by Paul Gemignani. Walter Charles played Ebenezer Scrooge.\n\nIn the December 2002 production, directed by Mike Ockrent and with choreography by Susan Stroman, F. Murray Abraham portrayed Scrooge.\n\nTim Curry, Tony Randall, Roddy McDowall (in his final role), Frank Langella, Tony Roberts, Jim Dale, and Roger Daltrey have all played the iconic role of Ebenezer Scrooge in productions of A Christmas Carol.\n\nIn 2004, the production was adapted for television and produced by Hallmark Entertainment for NBC. It was directed by Arthur Allan Seidelman and features Kelsey Grammer as Ebenezer Scrooge, Jason Alexander as Jacob Marley, Jesse L. Martin as the Ghost of Christmas Present, and Jennifer Love Hewitt as Scrooge's former fiancée.\n\nSynopsis\n\nThe opening numbers are \"The Years Are Passing By\" and \"Jolly, Rich, and Fat\". In later productions the two numbers are combined as \"Jolly Good Time.\" Scrooge first encounters the three ghosts of Christmas in their real-world guises as a lamplighter (Past), a charity show barker (Present), and a blind beggar woman (Future) (\"Nothing to Do With Me\"). Scrooge's long-suffering employee Bob Cratchit, and Bob's son Tiny Tim, purchase a Christmas chicken (\"You Mean More to Me\").\n\nThe visit of the ghost of Jacob Marley (\"Link By Link\"), features a half-dozen singing, dancing spirits presented with various levels of makeup and special effects. One of these ghosts in this version is known to be an old colleague of Scrooge and Marley's, Mr. Haynes, who was said to be \"mean to the bone\", resulting in his charred skeleton. Other puns include a spirit with a safe embedded in his chest, who \"never had a heart\".\n\nThe Ghost of Christmas Past reinforces the character's signature theme of illuminating Scrooge's worldview (\"The Lights of Long Ago\"). One notable departure from Dickens' novella in this portion of the film is its depiction of Ebenezer Scrooge's father, identified as John William Scrooge, being sentenced to debtors' prison while his horrified family looks on; this scene was inspired by an actual occurrence from Dickens' own childhood.\n\nThe Ghost of Christmas Present (\"Abundance and Charity\" and \"Christmas Together\"), makes his point that Christmas is a time for celebration, generosity, and fellowship. The former takes place at a fantastical version of the charity show he was seen promoting on Christmas Eve, and the latter whisks Scrooge on a tour of London that includes the homes of his nephew Fred, his clerk Bob Cratchit, and Mr. Smythe, a recently widowed client of Scrooge's lending house.\n\nThe entire Christmas Future (\"Dancing On Your Grave\", \"You Mean More to Me (Reprise)\", and \"Yesterday, Tomorrow, and Today\"), culminates in Scrooge's awakening in his bedroom on Christmas morning.\n\n\"What a Day, What a Sky\" bookends \"Nothing to Do With Me\", dramatizing Scrooge's new outlook as he races through the streets of London making amends. The film concludes with a reprise of \"Christmas Together\" featuring the entire cast.\n\nMusical numbers\n\n*\"The Years Are Passing By\" – Gravedigger \n*\"Jolly, Rich and Fat (A Jolly Good Time)\" – Ensemble\n*\"Nothing to Do With Me\" – Scrooge, Cratchit \n*\"Street Song\"(\"Nothing To Do With Me\") – Scrooge, Cratchit, Fred, Jonathan, Sandwich Board Man, Lamplighter, Blind Old Hag, Ensemble\n*\"You Mean More To Me\" - Cratchit, Tiny Tim\n*\"Link By Link\" – Ghost of Jacob Marley, Ensemble\n*\"The Lights of Long Ago\" (Part 1) – Ghost of Christmas Past, Scrooge Family\n*\"God Bless Us, Everyone\" – Scrooge's Mother, Fan (aged 6), Scrooge (aged 8) \n*\"A Place Called Home\" – Scrooge at 18, Emily, Scrooge\n*\"Mr. Fezziwig's Annual Christmas Ball\" – Fezziwig, Mrs. Fezziwig, Scrooge, Ghost of Christmas Past, Ensemble\n*\"The Lights of Long Ago\" (Part 2) – Scrooge (aged 18), Marley as a Young Man, Emily, People from Scrooge's Past \n*\"Abundance And Charity\" – Ghost of Christmas Present, Ensemble\n*\"Christmas Together\" – Tiny Tim, Ghost of Christmas Present, Cratchit Family, Fred, Ensemble\n*\"Dancing On Your Grave\" – Scrooge, Mrs. Mops, Ensemble\n*\"Yesterday, Tomorrow And Today\" – Scrooge\n*\"The Years Are Passing By\" (reprise) - Jonathan \n*\"Nothing to Do With Me\" (reprise) - Scrooge \n*\"Christmas Together\" (reprise) – Company\n*\"God Bless Us Everyone\" – Company\n\n1995 Recording cast\n\n*Punch and Judy Man/Marley as a young man/Undertaker - Christopher Sieber\n*Punch and Judy Woman - Donna Lee Marshall\n*Organ Grinder - Robert Ousley\n*Grave Digger - Bill Nolte\n*Mr. Smythe - Joseph Kolinski\n*Jack Smythe - Andy Jobe\n*Grace Smythe - Lindsay Jobe\n*Scrooge - Walter Charles\n*Cratchit - Nick Corley\n*Charity Men - Robert Ousley, Martin Van Treuren, Walter Willison\n*Old Joe/Mr. Hawkins - Ken McMullen\n*Match Girl - Arlene Pierret\n*Street Urchins and Children - Matthew F. Byrne, Jacy De Filippo, Justin Bartholemew Kamen, Olivia Oguma, Christopher Mark Petrizzo, P.J. Smith\n*Sandwich Board Man/Ghost of Christmas Present - Michael Mandell\n*Fred - Robert Westenberg\n*Jonathan - Jason Fuchs\n*Lamplighter/Ghost of Christmas Past - Ken Jennings\n*Blind Hag/Scrooge's Mother - Andrea Frierson Toney\n*Mrs. Mops - Darcy Pulliam\n*Ghost of Jacob Marley - Jeff Keller\n*Judge - Michael H. Ingram\n*Scrooge at 8 - David Gallagher\n*Fan at 6 - Mary Elizabeth Albano\n*Scrooge's Father/Undertaker - Michael X. Martin\n*Scrooge at 12 - Ramzi Khalaf\n*Fan at 10 - Jacy De Filippo or Olivia Oguma\n*Fezziwig - Gerry Vichi\n*Scrooge at 18 - Michael Christopher Moore\n*Mrs. Fezziwig - Mary Stout\n*Emily - Emily Skinner\n*Tiny Tim - Matthew Mezzacappa\n*Mrs. Cratchit - Joy Hermalyn\n*The Cratchit Children - Mary Elizabeth Albano, Betsy Chang, David Gallagher, Sean Thomas Morrissey\n*Sally, Fred's Wife - Natalie Toro\n*Ensemble - Joan Barber, Leslie Ball, Renee Bergeron, Christophe Caballero, Candy Cook, Madeleine Doherty, Mark Dovey, Donna Dunmire, Melissa Haizlip, Michael Howard-Jones, Mark S. Hoebee, Don Johanson, Eric H. Kaufman, John-Charles, Kelly, David Lowenstein, Seth Malkin, Carol Lee Meadows, Karen Murphy, Tom Pardoe, Gail Pennington, Angela Piccinni, Josef Reiter, Pamela Remler, Sam Reni, Eric Riley, Rommy SandhuErin Stoddard Tracy Terstriep, Cynthia Thole, Matthew J. Vargo, Billy Vitelli, Theara J. Ward, Whitney Webster\n*Angels - Blessed Sacrament Chorus of Staten Island, PS 26 Chorus, Righteousness Unlimted, William F. Halloran Vocal Ensemble-School 22\n\nReception\n\nDavid Richards, reviewing for The New York Times, wrote of the 1994 premiere performance, \"It would be ill-advised to head off to this 'Christmas Carol' expecting great performances, unless you're expecting them from the stagehands... Although Walter Charles, who portrays Scrooge, is onstage constantly, you can forget for long patches that 'A Christmas Carol' is about his conversion to goodness.\" He wrote of the score, \"After the spectacle, the score by Mr. Menken (with lyrics by Ms. Ahrens) is the production's major drawing card... Musically speaking, Mr. Menken is an optimist, which sometimes puts him at odds with Dickens but probably makes him the right man when it comes to spreading good cheer. Ms. Ahrens keeps her lyrics simple. To the extent that I could hear them, they are not unintelligent.\"\n\nLawrence Van Gelder reviewed the 2002 production for The New York Times writing, \"Music, dance, colorful costumes and atmospheric scenery -- all intended to make holiday theatergoing a pleasant family experience -- are marshaled here to satisfying effect.\" Of F. Murray Abraham's performance, Gelder wrote: \"Far from the terrifying figure who made blind men's dogs tug their owners into doorways and up courts, Mr. Abraham can scarcely contain the good cheer waiting to burst out in little bits of business before his ghostly encounters.\"" ] }

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{ "aliases": [ "Bob Cratchit", "Bob Cratchitt", "Bob Cratchet", "Cratchit" ], "normalized_aliases": [ "cratchit", "bob cratchitt", "bob cratchit", "bob cratchet" ], "matched_wiki_entity_name": "", "normalized_matched_wiki_entity_name": "", "normalized_value": "bob cratchit", "type": "WikipediaEntity", "value": "Bob Cratchit" }

{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe" ], "filename": [ "J._Otto_Seibold.txt" ], "title": [ "J. Otto Seibold" ], "wiki_context": [ "J.otto Seibold, artist and author/illustrator to over 20 children's books, born in Oakland, California in 1960, grew up an apricots-throw away from the John Muir home in Martinez Ca. \nWith no formal art training he was able to sneak into the art world during the \" outsider artist\" craze of the 1990s. He is the first person to create children's books digitally with \"Mr.Lunch Takes a Plane Ride\" (1993) and has continued publishing for 20 years. His book \"Olive the Other Reindeer\" (1996) led to an animated television special of the same name produced by Matt Groening and Fox Family Entertainment.\n\nHis art has also been shown at Mass MOCA, Deitch Projects NYC, The Getty LA, Contemporary Jewish Museum SF, Grass Hut Portland, MOCA LA, The Yerba Buena Center for the Arts SF, Gallery Paule Anglim SF, Oakland Museum CA, Juxtapoz Gallery Detroit, and Galerie Impare in Paris. He has done freelance illustration for years including clients such as: Nike, Time Warner, Girl Skateboards, Pixar, Comcast, Giant Robot, Target, TiVo, 826 Detroit, Quaker Oats, Fox Entertainment, Gnu Skateboards, Swatch, Nordstrom\n\nHis book Penguin Dreams was named a New York Times \"Best Illustrated Book\". Mr. Lunch Takes a Plane Ride won a Cuffie Award from Publisher's Weekly; Mr. Lunch won for most memorable character in a lead role. Going to the Getty won an Art Directors Club Illustration Award. Olive, the Other Reindeer was a New York Times Bestseller and the movie version was nominated for an Emmy Award.\n\nJames has three children and after many far flung homes, currently lives and works in Oakland Ca.\n \nBooks illustrated by J.otto\n\nWritten by J.otto Seibold and Vivian Walsh\n\n*Mr. Lunch Takes a Plane Ride (1993)\n*Mr. Lunch Borrows a Canoe (1994)\n*Monkey Business (1995)\n*Free Lunch (1996)\n*Going to the Getty (1997)\n\nWritten by Vivian Walsh\n\n*Olive, the Other Reindeer (1997)\n*Penguin Dreams (1999)\n*Gluey: A Snail Tale (2002)\n*Olive, My Love (2004)\n\nWritten by Richard Wilbur\n\n*The Pig in the Spigot (2000)\n\nWritten by Lewis Carroll\n\n*Alice in (pop-up) Wonderland (2003)\n\nWritten by J.otto Seibold\n\n*Quincy, the Hobby Photographer (2006)\n*The Fuchsia Is Now (2006)\n*Other Goose (2010)\n*Lost Sloth (2013)\n\nWritten by j.otto seibold and Siobhan Vivian\n\n*Vunce Upon a Time (2008)" ] }

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{ "aliases": [ "Raindeers", "Cervus tarandus", "Cratering", "Rein deer", "Arctic caribou", "Caribou (zoology)", "Reindeer herder", "Reindeer", "Reindeer husbandry", "Rangifer (genus)", "Rangerine", "Reindeer herding", "Reindeers", "Raindeer", "Reindeer habitat", "Woodland reindeer", "Qalipu", "Caribous", "Rangiferine" ], "normalized_aliases": [ "cervus tarandus", "rangiferine", "raindeers", "reindeers", "raindeer", "arctic caribou", "caribous", "cratering", "rein deer", "reindeer husbandry", "rangerine", "reindeer herding", "reindeer habitat", "reindeer", "woodland reindeer", "qalipu", "caribou zoology", "reindeer herder", "rangifer genus" ], "matched_wiki_entity_name": "", "normalized_matched_wiki_entity_name": "", "normalized_value": "reindeer", "type": "WikipediaEntity", "value": "Reindeer" }

{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe", "TagMe", "Search" ], "filename": [ "Christmas_Island.txt", "Indian_Ocean.txt", "Hawaii.txt" ], "title": [ "Christmas Island", "Indian Ocean", "Hawaii" ], "wiki_context": [ "Christmas Island, officially the Territory of Christmas Island, is an external territory of the Commonwealth of Australia in the Indian Ocean, comprising the island of the same name. It has a population of 2,072 residents, who live mainly in settlements on the northern tip of the island, including Flying Fish Cove (also known as Kampong), Silver City, Poon Saan, and Drumsite. Around two-thirds of the island's population are Malaysian Chinese, with significant numbers of Malays and European Australians as well as smaller numbers of Malaysian Indians and Eurasians. Several languages are in use, including English, Malay, and various Chinese dialects, while Buddhism is the primary religion, followed by three-quarters of the population.\n\nThe island was discovered on Christmas Day (25 December) 1643, but only settled in the late 19th century. Its geographic isolation and history of minimal human disturbance has led to a high level of endemism among its flora and fauna, which is of interest to scientists and naturalists. 63% of its 135 km2 is an Australian national park. There exist large areas of primary monsoonal forest. Phosphate, deposited originally as guano, has been mined on the island for many years.\n\nGeography\n\nLocated at , the island is about 19 km in greatest length and in breadth. The total land area is 135 km2, with of coastline. The island is the flat summit of an underwater mountain more than 4500 m high, which rises from about 4200 m below the sea and only about 300 m above it. The mountain was originally a volcano, and some basalt is exposed in places such as The Dales and Dolly Beach, but most of the surface rock is limestone accumulated from coral growth. The karst terrain supports numerous anchialine caves. The summit of this mountain peak is formed by a succession of tertiary limestones ranging from the eocene (or oligocene) up to recent reef deposits, with intercalations of volcanic rock in the older beds. \n\nSteep cliffs along much of the coast rise abruptly to a central plateau. Elevation ranges from sea level to 361 m at Murray Hill. The island is mainly tropical rainforest, 63% of which is national park land.\n\nThe narrow fringing reef surrounding the island can be a maritime hazard.\n\nChristmas Island lies 2600 km northwest of Perth, Western Australia, 500 km south of Indonesia, 975 km ENE of the Cocos (Keeling) Islands, and 2748 km west of Darwin, Northern Territory. Its closest point to the Australian mainland is 1560 km from the town of Exmouth, Western Australia.\n\nBeaches \n\nChristmas Island has 80 kilometres of shoreline but only small parts of the shoreline are easily accessible. The island's perimeter is embodied by sharp cliff faces, making many of the islands beaches difficult to get to. Some of the easily accessible beaches include Flying Fish Cove (main beach), Lily Beach, Ethel Beach, and Isabel Beach, while the more difficult beaches to access include Greta Beach, Dolly Beach, Winifred Beach, Merrial Beach, and West White Beach, which all require a vehicle with four wheel drive and a difficult walk through dense rainforest to access.\n\nClimate\n\nAs Christmas Island is located toward the southern edge of the equatorial region, climate is tropical and temperatures vary little throughout the months. The highest temperature is usually around 29 C in March and April, while the lowest temperature is 23 C and occurs in August. There is a dry season from July to November with only occasional showers. The wet season is between November and May, and includes monsoons, which are downpours of rain at random times of the day. Tropical cyclones may also occur in the wet season, bringing very solid winds, rain and enormous seas. These tropical cyclones only happen occasionally, for most of the time during the wet season is damp, subside weather.\n\nHistory\n\nFirst visits by Europeans, 1643\n\nCaptain William Mynors of the Royal Mary, an English East India Company vessel, named the island when he sailed past it on Christmas Day, in 1643. The island was included on English and Dutch navigation charts as early as the beginning of the 17th century, but it was not until 1666 that a map published by Dutch cartographer Pieter Goos included the island. Goos labelled the island \"Mony\", the meaning of which is unclear. \nEnglish navigator William Dampier, aboard the English ship Cygnet, made the earliest recorded visit to the sea around the island in March 1688. He found it uninhabited. Dampier gave an account of the visit which can be found in his Voyages. Dampier was trying to reach Cocos from New Holland. His ship was pulled off course in an easterly direction, arriving at Christmas Island twenty-eight days later. Dampier landed at the Dales (on the west coast). Two of his crewmen became the first Europeans to set foot on Christmas Island.\n\nDaniel Beeckman made the next recorded visit, chronicled in his 1718 book, A Voyage to and from the Island of Borneo, in the East-Indies.\n\nExploration and annexation\n\nThe first attempt at exploring the island was in 1857 by the crew of the Amethyst. They tried to reach the summit of the island, but found the cliffs impassable.\n\nDuring the 1872–76 Challenger expedition to Indonesia, naturalist John Murray carried out extensive surveys. \n\nIn 1887, Captain John Maclear of , having discovered an anchorage in a bay that he named \"Flying Fish Cove\", landed a party and made a small collection of the flora and fauna. In the next year, Pelham Aldrich, on board HMS Egeria, visited it for ten days, accompanied by J. J. Lister, who gathered a larger biological and mineralogical collection.\n\nAmong the rocks then obtained and submitted to Murray for examination were many of nearly pure phosphate of lime; this discovery led to annexation of the island by the British Crown on 6 June 1888.\n\nSettlement and exploitation\n\nSoon afterwards, a small settlement was established in Flying Fish Cove by G. Clunies Ross, the owner of the Cocos (Keeling) Islands (some 900 km to the south west) to collect timber and supplies for the growing industry on Cocos.\n\nPhosphate mining began in the 1890s using indentured workers from Singapore, Malaya and China. John Davis Murray, a mechanical engineer and recent graduate of Purdue University, was sent to supervise the operation on behalf of the Phosphate Mining and Shipping Company. Murray was known as the \"King of Christmas Island\" until 1910, when he married and settled in London. \n\nThe island was administered jointly by the British Phosphate commissioners and district officers from the United Kingdom Colonial Office through the Straits Settlements, and later the Crown Colony of Singapore. Hunt (2011) provides a detailed history of Chinese indentured labour on the island during those years. In 1922, scientists attempted unsuccessfully to view a solar eclipse from the island to test Einstein's Theory of Relativity. \n\nJapanese invasion\n\nFrom the outbreak of the South-East Asian theatre of World War II in December 1941, Christmas Island was a target for Japanese occupation because of its rich phosphate deposits. A naval gun was installed under a British officer and four NCOs and 27 Indian soldiers. The first attack was carried out on 20 January 1942, by the Japanese submarine , which torpedoed a Norwegian freighter, the Eidsvold. The vessel drifted and eventually sank off West White Beach. Most of the European and Asian staff and their families were evacuated to Perth. In late February and early March 1942, there were two aerial bombing raids. Shelling from a Japanese naval group on 7 March led the district officer to hoist the white flag. But after the Japanese naval group sailed away, the British officer raised the Union flag once more. During the night of 10–11 March, a mutiny of the Indian troops, abetted by Sikh policemen, led to the murder of the five British soldiers and the imprisonment of the remaining 21 Europeans. At dawn on 31 March 1942, a dozen Japanese bombers launched the attack, destroying the radio station. The same day, a Japanese fleet of nine vessels arrived, and the island was surrendered. About 850 men of the 21st and 24th special base forces and 102nd Construction Unit came ashore at Flying Fish Cove and occupied the island. They rounded up the workforce, most of whom had fled to the jungle. Sabotaged equipment was repaired and preparations were made to resume the mining and export of phosphate. Only 20 men from the 21st Special Base Force were left as a garrison.\n\nIsolated acts of sabotage and the torpedoing of the Nissei Maru at the wharf on 17 November 1942 meant that only small amounts of phosphate were exported to Japan during the occupation. In November 1943, over 60% of the island's population was evacuated to Surabayan prison camps, leaving a total population of just under 500 Chinese and Malays and 15 Japanese to survive as best they could. In October 1945, ' re-occupied Christmas Island. \n\nAfter the war, seven mutineers were traced and prosecuted by the Military Court in Singapore. In 1947, five of them were sentenced to death; however, following representations made by the newly independent government of India, their sentences were reduced to penal servitude for life.\n\nTransfer to Australia\n\nAt Australia's request, the United Kingdom transferred sovereignty to Australia, with a M$20 million payment from the Australian government to Singapore as compensation for the loss of earnings from the phosphate revenue. \n\nThe United Kingdom’s Christmas Island Act was given royal assent on 14 May 1958, enabling Britain to transfer authority over Christmas Island from Singapore to Australia by an order-in-council. \n\nAustralia's Christmas Island Act was passed in September 1958 and the island was officially placed under the authority of the Commonwealth of Australia on 1 October 1958. \n\nUnder Commonwealth Cabinet Decision 1573 of 9 September 1958, D. E. Nickels was appointed the first official representative of the new territory. In a media statement on 5 August 1960, the minister for territories, Paul Hasluck, said, among other things, that, \"His extensive knowledge of the Malay language and the customs of the Asian people... has proved invaluable in the inauguration of Australian administration... During his two years on the island he had faced unavoidable difficulties... and constantly sought to advance the island's interests.\" John William Stokes succeeded him and served from 1 October 1960, to 12 June 1966. On his departure he was lauded by all sectors of the island community. In 1968, the official secretary was re-titled an administrator and, since 1997, Christmas Island and the Cocos (Keeling) Islands together are called the Australian Indian Ocean Territories and share a single administrator resident on Christmas Island. Recollections of the island's history and lifestyle, and lists and timetables of the island's leaders and events since its settlement are at the World Statesmen site and in Neale (1988), Bosman (1993), Hunt (2011) and Stokes (2012).\n\nThe settlement of Silver City was built in the 1970s, with aluminium-clad houses that were supposed to be cyclone-proof. \n\nThe 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami centred off the western shore of Sumatra in Indonesia, resulted in no reported casualties, but some swimmers were swept some 150 m out to sea for a time before being swept back in. \n\nRefugee and immigration detention\n\nFrom the late 1980s and early 1990s, boats carrying asylum seekers, mainly departing from Indonesia, began landing on the island. In 2001, Christmas Island was the site of the Tampa controversy, in which the Australian government stopped a Norwegian ship, MV Tampa, from disembarking 438 rescued asylum-seekers. The ensuing standoff and the associated political reactions in Australia were a major issue in the 2001 Australian federal election. \n\nThe Howard government operated the \"Pacific Solution\" from 2001-2007, excising Christmas Island from Australia's migration zone so that asylum seekers on the island could not apply for refugee status. Asylum seekers were relocated from Christmas Island to Manus Island and Nauru. In 2006, an immigration detention centre, containing approximately 800 beds, was constructed on the island for the Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs. Originally estimated to cost  million, the final cost was over $400 million.\n\nIn 2007, the Rudd government announced plans to decommission Manus Island Regional Processing Centre and Nauru detention centre; processing would then occur on Christmas Island itself. \n\nIn December 2010, 48 asylum-seekers died just off the coast of the island in what became known as the Christmas Island boat disaster when the boat they were on hit rocks off Flying Fish Cove, and then smashed against nearby cliffs. \n\nIn June 2013, a surge of asylum-seekers resulted in the island's five detention facilities exceeding their designed capacity. Regular operating capacity is 1,094 people, with a \"contingency capacity\" of 2,724. After the interception of four boats in six days, carrying 350 people, the Immigration Department said there were 2,960 \"irregular maritime arrivals\" being held. \n\nDemographics\n\nAs of the 2011 Australian census, the estimated resident population is 2,072. This does not include the highly variable population at the Immigration Detention Centre.\n\nThe ethnic composition is 65% Chinese, 20% Malay, 10% European and 5% Indian and Eurasian. A 2011 report by the Australian government estimated that religions practised on Christmas Island include Buddhism 75%, Christianity 12%, Islam 10%, and other 3%. This includes Traditional Chinese religions like Taoism and Confucianism, as well as the Baha'i Faith. The cuisine of Christmas Island is mostly flown or shipped in.\n\nGovernment\n\nChristmas Island is a non-self-governing territory of Australia, currently administered by the Department of Infrastructure and Regional Development. Administration was carried out by the Attorney-General's Department until 14 September 2010, and prior to this by the Department of Transport and Regional Services before 29 November 2007. The legal system is under the authority of the Governor-General of Australia and Australian law. An administrator appointed by the Governor-General represents the monarch and Australia.\n\nThe Australian government provides services through the Christmas Island Administration and the Department of Infrastructure and Regional Development. Under the federal government's Territories Law Reform Act 1992, which came into force on 1 July 1992, Western Australian laws are applied to Christmas Island \"so far as they are capable of applying in the territory\";[http://www.comlaw.gov.au/Details/C2004A04395 Territories Law Reform Act 1992] non-application or partial application of such laws is at the discretion of the federal government. The act also gives Western Australian courts judicial power over Christmas Island. Christmas Island remains constitutionally distinct from Western Australia, however; the power of the state to legislate for the territory is delegated by the federal government. The kind of services typically provided by a state government elsewhere in Australia are provided by departments of the Western Australian government, and by contractors, with the costs met by the federal government. A unicameral Shire of Christmas Island with nine seats provides local government services and is elected by popular vote to serve four-year terms. Elections are held every two years, with four or five of the members standing for election.\n\nChristmas Island residents who are Australian citizens also vote in federal elections. Christmas Island residents are represented in the House of Representatives by the Division of Lingiari in the Northern Territory and in the Senate by Northern Territory senators. \n\nIn early 1986, the Christmas Island Assembly held a design competition for an island flag; the winning design was adopted as the informal flag of the territory for over a decade, and in 2002 it was made the official flag of Christmas Island.\n\nEconomy\n\nPhosphate mining had been the only significant economic activity, but in December 1987 the Australian government closed the mine. In 1991, the mine was reopened by a consortium which included many of the former mine workers as shareholders. With the support of the government, the $34 million Christmas Island Casino and Resort opened in 1993, but was closed in 1998. , the resort has re-opened without the casino.\n\nThe Australian government in 2001 agreed to support the creation of a commercial spaceport on the island, however this has not yet been constructed, and appears that it will not proceed. The Howard government built a temporary immigration detention centre on the island in 2001 and planned to replace it with a larger, modern facility at North West Point until Howard's defeat in the 2007 elections.\n\nCulture\n\nThe culture of Christmas Island is unique, for people of many different ethnicities inhabit the area. The majority of residents are Chinese, but Europeans and Malays reside there as well with small Indian and Eurasian communities too. The main languages of Christmas Island are English and Chinese. Dress is usually modest, and tourists should keep a wrap, such as a sarong or pareo, on hand to cover shorts, bathing suits, and tank tops. It is common to remove shoes when entering a house and to also avoid touching anyone's head.\n\nReligious beliefs are diverse, but people are very tolerant of each other's religions. The religions practised include Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism, Islam, and Christianity. There is a Mosque in Flying Fish Cove. With all of these religions, there are many religious festivals, such as Spring Festival, Hari Raya, Christmas and Easter. Additionally, there is a Bahá'í centre on the island \n\nAttractions\n\nChristmas Island is well known for its biological diversity. There are many rare species of animals and plants on the island, making nature-walking a popular activity. Along with the diversity of species, many different types of caves exist, such as plateau caves, coastal caves, raised coastal caves and alcoves, sea caves, fissure caves, collapse caves and basalt caves; most of these are near the sea and have been formed by the action of water. Altogether, there are 42 caves on the island, with Lost Lake Cave, Daniel Roux Cave and Full Frontal Cave being the most well-known. The many freshwater springs include Hosnies Spring Ramsar, which also has a mangrove stand. The Dales is a rainforest in the western part of the island and consists of seven deep valleys, all of which were formed by spring streams. Hugh's Dale waterfall is part of this area and is a popular attraction. The annual breeding migration of the red crabs is a popular event. Fishing is another common activity. There are many distinctive species of fish in the oceans surrounding Christmas Island. Snorkeling and swimming in the ocean are two other activities that are extremely popular. Walking trails are also very popular, for there are many beautiful trails surrounded by extravagant flora and fauna. 63% of the island is national park making it one of the main attractions to experience when visiting.\n\nFlora and fauna\n\nChristmas Island was uninhabited until the late 19th century, allowing many species to evolve without human interference. Two-thirds of the island has been declared a National Park, which is managed by the Australian Department of Environment and Heritage through Parks Australia. Christmas Island has always been known for its unique species, both of flora and fauna.\n\nFlora\n\nThe dense rainforest has grown in the deep soils of the plateau and on the terraces. The forests are dominated by 25 tree species. Ferns, orchids and vines grow on the branches in the humid atmosphere beneath the canopy. The 135 plant species include at least 18 that are found nowhere else. The rainforest is in great condition despite the mining activities over the last 100 years. Areas that have been damaged by mining are now apart of an ongoing rehabilitation project. The island is small and covers 135 square kilometres of land which 63% of that land has been declared National Park. \n\nChristmas Island's endemic plants include the trees Arenga listeri, Pandanus elatus and Dendrocnide peltata var. murrayana; the shrubs Abutilon listeri, Colubrina pedunculata, Grewia insularis and Pandanus christmatensis; the vines Hoya aldrichii and Zehneria alba; the herbs Asystasia alba, Dicliptera maclearii and Peperomia rossii; the grass Ischaemum nativitatis; the fern Asplenium listeri; and the orchids Brachypeza archytas, Flickingeria nativitatis, Phreatia listeri and Zeuxine exilis. \n\nFauna\n\nTwo species of native rats, the Maclear's and bulldog rats, have become extinct since the island was settled. The Javan rusa is an introduced species here. The endemic Christmas Island shrew has not been seen since the mid-1980s and may be already extinct, while the Christmas Island pipistrelle (a small bat) is critically endangered and possibly also extinct. \n\nThe land crabs and seabirds are the most noticeable fauna on the island. Christmas Island has been identified by BirdLife International as both an Endemic Bird Area and an Important Bird Area because it supports five endemic species and five subspecies as well as over 1% of the world populations of five other seabirds. \n\nTwenty terrestrial and intertidal species of crab have been described here, of which thirteen are regarded as true land crabs, being only dependent on the ocean for larval development. Robber crabs, known elsewhere as coconut crabs, also exist in large numbers on the island. The annual red crab mass migration (around 100 million animals) to the sea to spawn has been called one of the wonders of the natural world. This takes place each year around November – after the start of the wet season and in synchronisation with the cycle of the moon. Once at the ocean, the mothers release the embryos where they can survive and grow until they are able to live on land.\n\nThe island is a focal point for seabirds of various species. Eight species or subspecies of seabirds nest on it. The most numerous is the red-footed booby, which nests in colonies, using trees on many parts of the shore terrace. The widespread brown booby nests on the ground near the edge of the seacliff and inland cliffs. Abbott's booby (listed as endangered) nests on tall emergent trees of the western, northern and southern plateau rainforest, the only remaining nesting habitat for this bird in the world. Another endangered and endemic bird, the Christmas frigatebird, has nesting areas on the northeastern shore terraces. The more widespread great frigatebirds nest in semi-deciduous trees on the shore terrace, with the greatest concentrations being in the North West and South Point areas. The common noddy and two species of bosun or tropicbirds, with their brilliant gold or silver plumage and distinctive streamer tail feathers, also nest on the island.\n\nOf the ten native land birds and shorebirds, seven are endemic species or subspecies. This includes the Christmas thrush and the Christmas imperial pigeon. Some 86 migrant bird species have been recorded as visitors to the island.\n\nSix species of butterfly are known to occur on Christmas Island. These are the Christmas swallowtail (Papilio memnon), striped albatross (Appias olferna), Christmas emperor (Polyura andrewsi), king cerulean (Jamides bochus), lesser grass-blue (Zizina otis), and Papuan grass-yellow (Eurema blanda).\n\nMedia\n\nChristmas Island has access to a range of modern communication services.\n\nRadio broadcasts from Australia include ABC Radio National, ABC Kimberley, Triple J and Red FM. All services are provided by satellite links from the mainland. Broadband internet became available to subscribers in urban areas in mid-2005 through the local internet service provider, CIIA (formerly dotCX).\n\nChristmas Island, due to its close proximity to Australia's northern neighbours, falls within many of the more interesting satellite footprints throughout the region. This results in ideal conditions for receiving various Asian broadcasts, which locals sometimes prefer to the Western Australian-provided content. Additionally, ionospheric conditions usually bode well for many of the more terrestrial radio transmissions – HF through VHF and sometimes into UHF. The island plays home to a small array of radio equipment that spans a good chunk of the usable spectrum. A variety of government owned and operated antenna systems are employed on the island to take advantage of this.\n\nTelevision\n\nFree-to-air digital television stations from Australia are broadcast in the same time zone as Perth, and are broadcast from three separate locations:\n\n \n\nCable television from Australia, Malaysia, Singapore and the United States commenced in January 2013.\n\nTelecommunications\n\nTelephone services are provided by Telstra and are a part of the Australian network with the same prefix as Western Australia, South Australia and the Northern Territory (08). A GSM mobile telephone system replaced the old analogue network in February 2005.\n\nPostage stamps\n\nA postal agency was opened on the island in 1901 and sold stamps of the Strait Settlements. \n\nAfter the Japanese occupation (1942–45), postage stamps of the British Military Administration in Malaya were in use, then stamps of Singapore. \n\nIn 1958, the island received its own postage stamps after being put under Australian custody. It had a large philatelic and postal independence, managed first by the Phosphate Commission (1958–1969) and then by the island's administration (1969–93). This ended on 2 March 1993 when Australia Post became the island's postal operator; Christmas Island stamps may be used in Australia and Australian stamps may be used on the island.\n\nTransport\n\nA container port exists at Flying Fish Cove with an uncompleted alternative container-unloading point to the east of the island at Norris Point, intended for use during the December-to-March \"swell season\" of rough seas.\n\nAn 18-km standard gauge railway from Flying Fish Cove to the phosphate mine was constructed in 1914. It was closed in December 1987, when the Australian government closed the mine, and since has been recovered as scrap, leaving only earthworks in places.\n\nVirgin Australia Regional Airlines provides two weekly flights to Christmas Island Airport from Perth, Western Australia, and ad hoc charter flight from/to Jakarta organised by the Christmas Island Travel Exchange.\n\nThere is a recreation centre at Phosphate Hill operated by South Australian-based CASA Leisure Pty Ltd. There is also a taxi service. The road network covers most of the island and is generally good quality, although four-wheel drive vehicles are needed to access some of the more distant parts of the rainforest or the more isolated beaches, which are only accessible by rough dirt roads.\n\nEducation\n\nThe island-operated crèche is in the Recreation Centre. Christmas Island District High School, catering to students in grades P-12, is run by the Western Australian Education Department. There are no universities on Christmas Island.\n\nThe island has one public library.", "The Indian Ocean is the third largest of the world's oceanic divisions, covering (approximately 20% of the water on the Earth's surface). It is bounded by Asia on the north, on the west by Africa, on the east by Australia, and on the south by the Southern Ocean or, depending on definition, by Antarctica. It is named after the country of India. The Indian Ocean is known as Ratnākara (), \"the mine of gems\" in ancient Sanskrit literature, and as Hind Mahāsāgar (), \"the great Indian sea\", in Hindi.\n\nGeography\n\nThe borders of the Indian Ocean, as delineated by the International Hydrographic Organization in 1953 included the Southern Ocean but not the marginal seas along the northern rim, but in 2000 the IHO delimited the Southern Ocean separately, which removed waters south of 60°S from the Indian Ocean, but included the northern marginal seas. Meridionally, the Indian Ocean is delimited from the Atlantic Ocean by the 20° east meridian, running south from Cape Agulhas, and from the Pacific Ocean by the meridian of 146°55'E, running south from the southernmost point of Tasmania. The northernmost extent of the Indian Ocean is approximately 30° north in the Persian Gulf.\n\nThe ocean covers , including the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf but excluding the Southern Ocean, or 19.5% world's oceans; its volume is or 19.8% of oceans volume; it has an average depth of and a maximum depth of . \n\nThe ocean's continental shelves are narrow, averaging 200 km in width. An exception is found off Australia's western coast, where the shelf width exceeds 1000 km. The average depth of the ocean is . Its deepest point is Diamantina Deep in Diamantina Trench, at deep; also sometimes considered is Sunda Trench, at a depth of . North of 50° south latitude, 86% of the main basin is covered by pelagic sediments, of which more than half is globigerina ooze. The remaining 14% is layered with terrigenous sediments. Glacial outwash dominates the extreme southern latitudes.\n\nThe major choke points include Bab el Mandeb, Strait of Hormuz, the Lombok Strait, the Strait of Malacca and the Palk Strait. Seas include the Gulf of Aden, Andaman Sea, Arabian Sea, Bay of Bengal, Great Australian Bight, Laccadive Sea, Gulf of Mannar, Mozambique Channel, Gulf of Oman, Persian Gulf, Red Sea and other tributary water bodies. The Indian Ocean is artificially connected to the Mediterranean Sea through the Suez Canal, which is accessible via the Red Sea.\n\nMarginal seas\n\nMarginal seas, gulfs, bays and straits of the Indian Ocean include:\n\n* Andaman Sea\n* Arabian Sea\n* Bay of Bengal\n* Great Australian Bight\n* Gulf of Mannar\n* Gulf of Aden\n* Gulf of Carpentaria\n\n* Gulf of Kutch\n* Gulf of Khambat\n* Gulf of Oman\n* Indonesian Seaway (including the Malacca, Sunda and Torres Straits)\n* Laccadive Sea\n* Mozambique Channel\n\n* Palk Strait connecting Arabian Sea and Bay of Bengal\n* Persian Gulf\n* Red Sea\n* Strait of Bab-el-Mandeb connecting Arabian Sea\n\nClimate\n\nThe climate north of the equator is affected by a monsoon climate. Strong north-east winds blow from October until April; from May until October south and west winds prevail. In the Arabian Sea the violent Monsoon brings rain to the Indian subcontinent. In the southern hemisphere, the winds are generally milder, but summer storms near Mauritius can be severe. When the monsoon winds change, cyclones sometimes strike the shores of the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal. The Indian Ocean is the warmest ocean in the world.\n\nOceanography\n\nAmong the few large rivers flowing into the Indian Ocean are the Zambezi, Shatt al-Arab, Indus, Godavari, Krishna, Narmada, Ganges, Brahmaputra, Jubba and Irrawaddy River. The ocean's currents are mainly controlled by the monsoon. Two large gyres, one in the northern hemisphere flowing clockwise and one south of the equator moving anticlockwise (including the Agulhas Current and Agulhas Return Current), constitute the dominant flow pattern. During the winter monsoon, however, currents in the north are reversed.\n\nDeep water circulation is controlled primarily by inflows from the Atlantic Ocean, the Red Sea, and Antarctic currents. North of 20° south latitude the minimum surface temperature is 22 C, exceeding 28 C to the east. Southward of 40° south latitude, temperatures drop quickly.\n\nPrecipitation and evaporation leads to salinity variation in all oceans, and in the Indian Ocean salinity variations are driven by: (1) river inflow mainly from the Bay of Bengal, (2) fresher water from the Indonesian Throughflow; and (3) saltier water from the Red Sea and Persian Gulf. \nSurface water salinity ranges from 32 to 37 parts per 1000, the highest occurring in the Arabian Sea and in a belt between southern Africa and south-western Australia. Pack ice and icebergs are found throughout the year south of about 65° south latitude. The average northern limit of icebergs is 45° south latitude.\n\nGeology\n\nAs the youngest of the major oceans, the Indian Ocean has active spreading ridges that are part of the worldwide system of mid-ocean ridges. In the Indian Ocean these spreading ridges meet at the Rodrigues Triple Point with the Central Indian Ridge, including the Carlsberg Ridge, separating the African Plate from the Indian Plate; the Southwest Indian Ridge separating the African Plate form the Antarctic Plate; and the Southeast Indian Ridge separating the Australian Plate from the Antarctic Plate.The Central Ridge runs north on the in-between across of the Arabian Peninsula and Africa into the Mediterranean Sea. \n\nA series of ridges and seamount chains produced by hotspots pass over the Indian Ocean. The Réunion hotspot (active 70-40 Ma) connects Réunion and the Mascarene Plateau to the Chagos-Laccadive Ridge and the Deccan Traps in north-western India; the Kerguelen hotspot (100-35 Ma) connects the Kerguelen Islands and Kerguelen Plateau to the Ninety East Ridge and the Rajmahal Traps in north-eastern India; the Marion hotspot (100-70 Ma) possibly connects Prince Edward Islands to the Eighty Five East Ridge. It should be noted that these hotspot tracks have been broken by the still active spreading ridges mentioned above.\n\nMarine life\n\nAmong the tropical oceans, the western Indian Ocean hosts one of the largest concentration of phytoplankton blooms in summer, due to the strong monsoon winds. The monsoonal wind forcing leads to a strong coastal and open ocean upwelling, which introduces nutrients into the upper zones where sufficient light is available for photosynthesis and phytoplankton production. These phytoplankton blooms support the marine ecosystem, as the base of the marine food web, and eventually the larger fish species. The Indian Ocean accounts for the second largest share of the most economically valuable tuna catch. Its fish are of great and growing importance to the bordering countries for domestic consumption and export. Fishing fleets from Russia, Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan also exploit the Indian Ocean, mainly for shrimp and tuna. \n\nResearch indicates that increasing ocean temperatures are taking a toll on the marine ecosystem. A study on the phytoplankton changes in the Indian Ocean indicates a decline of up to 20% in the marine phytoplankton in the Indian Ocean, during the past six decades. The tuna catch rates have also declined abruptly during the past half century, mostly due to increased industrial fisheries, with the ocean warming adding further stress to the fish species.\n\nEndangered marine species include the dugong, seals, turtles, and whales.\n\nAn Indian Ocean garbage patch was discovered in 2010 covering at least . Riding the southern Indian Ocean Gyre, this vortex of plastic garbage constantly circulates the ocean from Australia to Africa, down the Mozambique Channel, and back to Australia in a period of six years, except for debris that get indefinitely stuck in the centre of the gyre.\n\nHistory\n\nFirst settlements\n\nThe history of the Indian Ocean is marked by maritime trade; cultural and commercial exchange probably date back at least seven thousand years. During this period, independent, short-distance oversea communications along its littoral margins have evolved into an all-embracing network. The début of this network was not the achievement of a centralised or advanced civilisation but of local and regional exchange in the Persian Gulf, the Red Sea, and Arabian Sea. Sherds of Ubaid (2500-500 BCE) pottery have been found in the western Gulf at Dilmun, present-day Bahrain; traces of exchange between this trading centre and Mesopotamia. Sumerian traded grain, pottery, and bitumen (used for reed boats) for copper, stone, timber, tin, dates, onions, and pearls. \nCoast-bound vessels transported goods between the Harappa civilisation (2600–1900 BCE) in India (modern-day Pakistan and Gujarat in India) and the Persian Gulf and Egypt.\n\nPeriplus of the Erythraean Sea, an Alexandrian guide to the world beyond the Red Sea — including Africa and India — from the first century CE, not only gives insights into trade in the region but also shows that Roman and Greek sailors had already gained knowledge about the monsoon winds. The contemporaneous settlement of Madagascar by Indonesian sailors shows that the littoral margins of the Indian Ocean were being both well-populated and regularly traversed at least by this time. Albeit the monsoon must have been common knowledge in the Indian Ocean for centuries.\n\nThe world's earliest civilizations in Mesopotamia (beginning with Sumer), ancient Egypt, and the Indian subcontinent (beginning with the Indus Valley civilization), which began along the valleys of the Tigris-Euphrates, Nile and Indus rivers respectively, all developed around the Indian Ocean. Civilizations soon arose in Persia (beginning with Elam) and later in Southeast Asia (beginning with Funan).\n\nDuring Egypt's first dynasty (c. 3000 BC), sailors were sent out onto its waters, journeying to Punt, thought to be part of present-day Somalia. Returning ships brought gold and myrrh. The earliest known maritime trade between Mesopotamia and the Indus Valley (c. 2500 BC) was conducted along the Indian Ocean. Phoenicians of the late 3rd millennium BC may have entered the area, but no settlements resulted.\n\nThe Indian Ocean's relatively calmer waters opened the areas bordering it to trade earlier than the Atlantic or Pacific oceans. The powerful monsoons also meant ships could easily sail west early in the season, then wait a few months and return eastwards. This allowed ancient Indonesian peoples to cross the Indian Ocean to settle in Madagascar around 2000 BP. \n\nEra of discovery\n\nIn the 2nd or 1st century BC, Eudoxus of Cyzicus was the first Greek to cross the Indian Ocean. The probably fictitious sailor Hippalus is said to have discovered the direct route from Arabia to India around this time. During the 1st and 2nd centuries AD intensive trade relations developed between Roman Egypt and the Tamil kingdoms of the Cheras, Cholas and Pandyas in Southern India. Like the Indonesian peoples above, the western sailors used the monsoon to cross the ocean. The unknown author of the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea describes this route, as well as the commodities that were traded along various commercial ports on the coasts of the Horn of Africa and India circa 1 AD. Among these trading settlements were Mosylon and Opone on the Red Sea littoral.\n\nUnlike the Pacific Ocean where the civilization of the Polynesians reached most of the far flung islands and atolls and populated them, almost all the islands, archipelagos and atolls of the Indian Ocean were uninhabited until colonial times. Although there were numerous ancient civilizations in the coastal states of Asia and parts of Africa, the Maldives were the only island group in the Central Indian Ocean region where an ancient civilization flourished. Maldivian ships used the Indian Monsoon Current to travel to the nearby coasts. \n\nFrom 1405 to 1433, Admiral Zheng He led large fleets of the Ming Dynasty on several treasure voyages through the Indian Ocean, ultimately reaching the coastal countries of East Africa. \n\nIn 1497, Portuguese navigator Vasco da Gama rounded the Cape of Good Hope and became the first European to sail to India and later the Far East. The European ships, armed with heavy cannon, quickly dominated trade. Portugal achieved pre-eminence by setting up forts at the important straits and ports. Their hegemony along the coasts of Africa and Asia lasted until the mid 17th century. Later, the Portuguese were challenged by other European powers. The Dutch East India Company (1602–1798) sought control of trade with the East across the Indian Ocean. France and Britain established trade companies for the area. From 1565, Spain established a major trading operation with the Manila Galleons in the Philippines and the Pacific. Spanish trading ships purposely avoided the Indian Ocean, following the Treaty of Tordesillas with Portugal. By 1815, Britain became the principal power in the Indian Ocean.\n\nIndustrial era\n\nThe opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 revived European interest in the East, but no nation was successful in establishing trade dominance. Since World War II the United Kingdom was forced to withdraw from the area, to be replaced by India, the USSR, and the United States. The last two tried to establish hegemony by negotiating for naval base sites. Developing countries bordering the ocean, however, seek to have it made a \"zone of peace\" so that they may use its shipping lanes freely. The United Kingdom and United States maintain a military base on Diego Garcia atoll in the middle of the Indian Ocean.\n\nContemporary era \n\nOn 26 December 2004, the countries surrounding the Indian Ocean were hit by a tsunami caused by the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake. The waves resulted in more than 226,000 deaths and over 1 million people were left homeless.\n\nIn the late 2000s, the ocean evolved into a hub of pirate activity. By 2013, attacks off the Horn region's coast had steadily declined due to active private security and international navy patrols, especially by the Indian Navy. \n\nTrade\n\nThe Indian Ocean provides major sea routes connecting the Middle East, Africa, and East Asia with Europe and the Americas. It carries a particularly heavy traffic of petroleum and petroleum products from the oil fields of the Persian Gulf and Indonesia. Large reserves of hydrocarbons are being tapped in the offshore areas of Saudi Arabia, Iran, India, and Western Australia. An estimated 40% of the world's offshore oil production comes from the Indian Ocean. Beach sands rich in heavy minerals, and offshore placer deposits are actively exploited by bordering countries, particularly India, Pakistan, South Africa, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, and Thailand.\n\nMajor ports and harbours\n\nThe Port of Singapore is the busiest port in the Indian Ocean, located in the Strait of Malacca where it meets the Pacific. Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Kochi, Mormugao Port, Mundra, Panambur, Hazira, Port Blair, Alang, Visakhapatnam, Paradip, Ennore, Tuticorin and Nagapattinam are the other major ports in India. South Asian ports include Chittagong in Bangladesh, Colombo, Hambantota and Galle in Sri Lanka, and ports of Karachi, Sindh province and Gwadar, Balochistan province in Pakistan. Aden is a major port in Yemen and controls ships entering the Red Sea. Major African ports on the shores of the Indian Ocean include: Mombasa (Kenya), Dar es Salaam, Zanzibar (Tanzania), Durban, East London, Richard's Bay (South Africa), Beira (Mozambique), and Port Louis (Mauritius). Zanzibar is especially famous for its spice export. Other major ports in the Indian Ocean include Muscat (Oman), Yangon (Burma), Jakarta, Medan (Indonesia), Fremantle (port servicing Perth, Australia) and Dubai (UAE).\n\nChinese companies have made investments in several Indian Ocean ports, including Gwadar, Hambantota, Colombo and Sonadia. This has sparked a debate about the strategic implications of these investments. \n\nBordering countries and territories\n\nSmall islands dot the continental rims. Island nations within the ocean are Madagascar (the world's fourth largest island), Bahrain, Comoros, Maldives, Mauritius, Seychelles and Sri Lanka. The archipelago of Indonesia and the island nation of East Timor border the ocean on the east.\n\nHeading roughly clockwise, the states and territories (in italics) with a coastline on the Indian Ocean (including the Red Sea and Persian Gulf) are:\n\n; Africa\n\n*\n*\n*\n*' (FRA)\n* (Mayotte and Réunion)\n*\n*\n*\n*\n*\n*\n*\n*\n*\n*\n\n; Asia\n\n*\n*\n*\n*\n*\n*\n*\n*\n*\n*\n*\n*\n*\n*\n*\n*' (UK)\n*\n*\n*\n*\n*\n*\n*\n*' (AUS)\n*\n\n; Australasia\n* Ashmore and Cartier Islands (AUS)\n*\n*\n\n; Southern Indian Ocean\n* Heard Island and McDonald Islands (AUS)\n*' (FRA)\n* Prince Edward Islands (RSA)", "Hawaii ( ; locally,; ) is the 50th and most recent state of the United States of America, receiving statehood on August 21, 1959. Hawaii is the only U.S. state located in Oceania and the only one composed entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean. Hawaii is the only U.S. state not located in the Americas. The state does not observe daylight saving time.\n\nThe state encompasses nearly the entire volcanic Hawaiian archipelago, which comprises hundreds of islands spread over 1500 mi. At the southeastern end of the archipelago, the eight main islands are—in order from northwest to southeast: Niihau, Kauai, Oahu, Molokai, Lānai, Kahoolawe, Maui and the Island of Hawaii. The last is the largest island in the group; it is often called the \"Big Island\" or \"Hawaii Island\" to avoid confusion with the state or archipelago. The archipelago is physiographically and ethnologically part of the Polynesian subregion of Oceania.\n\nHawaii's diverse natural scenery, warm tropical climate, abundance of public beaches, oceanic surroundings, and active volcanoes make it a popular destination for tourists, surfers, biologists, and volcanologists. Because of its central location in the Pacific and 19th-century labor migration, Hawaii's culture is strongly influenced by North American and Asian cultures, in addition to its indigenous Hawaiian culture. Hawaii has over a million permanent residents, along with many visitors and U.S. military personnel. Its capital is Honolulu on the island of Oahu.\n\nHawaii is the 8th-smallest and the 11th-least populous, but the 13th-most densely populated of the fifty U.S. states. It is the only state with an Asian plurality. The state's coastline is about 750 mi long, the fourth longest in the U.S. after the coastlines of Alaska, Florida and California.\n\nEtymology\n\nThe state of Hawaii derives its name from the name of its largest island, Hawaii. A common Hawaiian explanation of the name of Hawaii is that was named for Hawaiiloa, a legendary figure from Hawaiian myth. He is said to have discovered the islands when they were first settled. \n\nThe Hawaiian language word Hawaii is very similar to Proto-Polynesian *Sawaiki, with the reconstructed meaning \"homeland\". Cognates of Hawaii are found in other Polynesian languages, including Māori (Hawaiki), Rarotongan (ʻAvaiki) and Samoan (Savaii) . According to linguists Pukui and Elbert, \"[e]lsewhere in Polynesia, Hawaii or a cognate is the name of the underworld or of the ancestral home, but in Hawaii, the name has no meaning\". \n\nSpelling of state name\n\nA somewhat divisive political issue arose in 1978 when the Constitution of the State of Hawaii added Hawaiian as a second official state language. The title of the state constitution is The Constitution of the State of Hawaii. ArticleXV, Section1 of the Constitution uses The State of Hawaii. Diacritics were not used because the document, drafted in 1949, predates the use of the okina () and the kahakō in modern Hawaiian orthography. The exact spelling of the state's name in the Hawaiian language is Hawaii. In the Hawaii Admission Act that granted Hawaiian statehood, the federal government recognized Hawaii as the official state name. Official government publications, department and office titles, and the Seal of Hawaii use the traditional spelling with no symbols for glottal stops or vowel length. In contrast, the National and State Parks Services, the University of Hawaii and some private enterprises implement these symbols. No precedent for changes to U.S. state names exists since the adoption of the United States Constitution in 1789. However, the Constitution of Massachusetts formally changed the Province of Massachusetts Bay to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in 1780, and in the 1819 the Territory of Arkansaw was created but was later admitted to statehood as State of Arkansas.\n\nGeography and environment\n\nThere are eight main Hawaiian islands, seven of which are permanently inhabited. The island of Niihau is privately managed by brothers Bruce and Keith Robinson; access is restricted to those who have permission from the island's owners.\n\nTopography\n\nThe Hawaiian archipelago is located 2000 mi southwest of the continental United States. Hawaii is the southernmost U.S. state and the second westernmost after Alaska. Hawaii, along with Alaska, does not border any other U.S. state. It is the only U.S. state that is not geographically located in North America, the only state completely surrounded by water and that is entirely an archipelago, and the only state in which coffee is cultivable.\n\nIn addition to the eight main islands, the state has many smaller islands and islets. Kaula is a small island near Niihau that is often overlooked. The Northwest Hawaiian Islands is a group of nine small, older islands to the northwest of Kauai that extend from Nihoa to Kure Atoll; these are remnants of once much larger volcanic mountains. Across the archipelago are around 130 small rocks and islets, such as Molokini, which are either volcanic, marine sedimentary or erosional in origin. \n\nHawaii's tallest mountain Mauna Kea is 13796 ft above mean sea level; it is taller than Mount Everest if measured from the base of the mountain, which lies on the floor of the Pacific Ocean and rises about 33500 ft. \n\nGeology\n\nThe Hawaiian islands were formed by volcanic activity initiated at an undersea magma source called the Hawaii hotspot. The process is continuing to build islands; the tectonic plate beneath much of the Pacific Ocean continually moves northwest and the hot spot remains stationary, slowly creating new volcanoes. Because of the hotspot's location, all currently active land volcanoes are located on the southern half of Hawaii Island. The newest volcano, Lōihi Seamount, is located south of the coast of Hawaii Island.\n\nThe last volcanic eruption outside Hawaii Island occurred at Haleakalā on Maui before the late 18thcentury, though it could have been hundreds of years earlier. In 1790, Kīlauea exploded; it was the deadliest eruption known to have occurred in the modern era in what is now the United States. Up to 5,405 warriors and their families marching on Kīlauea were killed by the eruption. Volcanic activity and subsequent erosion have created impressive geological features. Hawaii Island has the third-highest point among the world's islands. \n\nOn the flanks of the volcanoes, slope instability has generated damaging earthquakes and related tsunamis, particularly in 1868 and 1975. Steep cliffs have been created by catastrophic debris avalanches on the submerged flanks of ocean island volcanoes. \n\nFlora and fauna\n\nBecause the islands of Hawaii are distant from other land habitats, life is thought to have arrived there by wind, waves (i.e. by ocean currents) and wings (i.e. birds, insects, and any seeds they may have carried on their feathers). This isolation, in combination with the diverse environment (including extreme altitudes, tropical climates, and arid shorelines), produced an array of endemic flora and fauna. Hawaii has more endangered species and has lost a higher percentage of its endemic species than any other U.S. state. One endemic plant, Brighamia, now requires hand-pollination because its natural pollinator is presumed to be extinct. The two species of Brighamia—B. rockii and B. insignis—are represented in the wild by around 120 individual plants. To ensure these plants set seed, biologists rappel down cliffs to brush pollen onto their stigmas. \n\nThe extant main islands of the archipelago have been above the surface of the ocean for fewer than 10million years; a fraction of the time biological colonization and evolution have occurred there. The islands are well known for the environmental diversity that occurs on high mountains within a trade winds field. On a single island, the climate around the coasts can range from dry tropical (less than 20 in annual rainfall) to wet tropical; on the slopes, envionments range from tropical rainforest (more than 200 in per year), through a temperate climate, to alpine conditions with a cold, dry climate. The rainy climate impacts soil development, which largely determines ground permeability, affecting the distribution of streams and wetlands.\n\nProtected areas\n\nSeveral areas in Hawaii are under the protection of the National Park Service. Hawaii has two national parks: Haleakalā National Park located near Kula on the island of Maui, which features the dormant volcano Haleakalā that formed east Maui, and Hawaii Volcanoes National Park in the southeast region of the Hawaii Island, which includes the active volcano Kīlauea and its rift zones.\n\nThere are three national historical parks; Kalaupapa National Historical Park in Kalaupapa, Molokai, the site of a former leper colony; Kaloko-Honokōhau National Historical Park in Kailua-Kona on Hawaii Island; and Puuhonua o Hōnaunau National Historical Park, an ancient place of refuge on Hawaii Island's west coast. Other areas under the control of the National Park Service include Ala Kahakai National Historic Trail on Hawaii Island and the USS Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor on Oahu.\n\nThe Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument was proclaimed by President George W. Bush on June 15, 2006. The monument covers roughly 140000 mi2 of reefs, atolls, and shallow and deep sea out to 50 mi offshore in the Pacific Ocean—an area larger than all of the national parks in the U.S. combined. \n\nClimate\n\nHawaii's climate is typical for the tropics, although temperatures and humidity tend to be less extreme because of near-constant trade winds from the east. Summer highs usually reach around during the day and at night. Winter day temperatures are usually around ; at low elevation they seldom dip below at night. Snow, not usually associated with the tropics, falls at 4200 m on Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa on Hawaii Island in some winter months. Snow rarely falls on Haleakalā. Mount Waialeale on Kauai has the second-highest average annual rainfall on Earth, about 460 in per year. Most of Hawaii experiences only two seasons; the dry season runs from May to October and the wet season is from October to April. \n\nThe warmest temperature recorded in the state, in Pahala on April 27, 1931, is 100 °F, making it tied with Alaska as the lowest record high temperature observed in a U.S. state. Hawaii's record low temperature is 12 °F observed in May1979 on the summit of Mauna Kea. Hawaii is the only state to have never recorded sub-zero Fahrenheit temperatures.\n\nClimates vary considerably on each island; they can be divided into windward and leeward (koolau and kona, respectively) areas based upon location relative to the higher mountains. Windward sides face cloud cover.\n\nAntipodes\n\nHawaii is the only U.S. state that is antipodal to inhabited land. Most of the state lies opposite Botswana, though Niihau's antipode aligns with Namibia, and Kauai's straddles the Botswana–Namibia border. This area of Africa near Maun, Botswana and Ghanzi includes nature reserves and small settlements near the Okavango Delta. \n\nHistory\n\nHawaii is one of four U.S. states—apart from the original thirteen—the Vermont Republic (1791), the Republic of Texas (1845), and the California Republic (1846)—that were independent nations prior to statehood. Along with Texas, Hawaii had formal, international diplomatic recognition as a nation. \n\nThe Kingdom of Hawaii was sovereign from 1810 until 1893 when the monarchy was overthrown by resident American and European capitalists and landholders in a coup d'état. Hawaii was an independent republic from 1894 until August 12, 1898, when it officially became a territory of the United States. Hawaii was admitted as a U.S. state on August 21, 1959. \n\nFirst human settlement – Ancient Hawaii (800–1778)\n\nBased on archaeological evidence, the earliest habitation of the Hawaiian Islands dates to around 300 CE, probably by Polynesian settlers from the Marquesas Islands. A second wave of migration from Raiatea and Bora Bora took place in the century. The date of the human discovery and habitation of the Hawaiian Islands is the subject of academic debate. Some archaeologists and historians believe there was an early settlement from the Marquesas. They think it was a later wave of immigrants from Tahiti around 1000 CE who introduced a new line of high chiefs, the kapu system, the practice of human sacrifice, and the building of heiau. This later immigration is detailed in Hawaiian mythology (moolelo) about Paao. Other authors say there is no archaeological or linguistic evidence for a later influx of Tahitian settlers and that Paao must be regarded as a myth.\n\nThe history of the islands is marked by a slow, steady growth in population and the size of the chiefdoms, which grew to encompass whole islands. Local chiefs, called alii, ruled their settlements, and launched wars to extend their influence and defend their communities from predatory rivals. Ancient Hawaii was a caste-based society, much like that of Hindus in India. \n\nEuropean arrival\n\nIt is possible that Spanish explorers arrived in the Hawaiian Islands in the 16th century—200 years before Captain James Cook's first documented visit in 1778. Ruy López de Villalobos commanded a fleet of six ships that left Acapulco in 1542 bound for the Philippines with a Spanish sailor named Juan Gaetano aboard as pilot. Depending on the interpretation, Gaetano's reports describe an encounter with either Hawaii or the Marshall Islands. If de Villalobos' crew spotted Hawaii, Gaetano would be considered the first European to see the islands. Some scholars have dismissed these claims due to a lack of credibility. \n\nSpanish archives contain a chart that depicts islands at the same latitude as Hawaii but with a longitude ten degrees east of the islands. In this manuscript, the island of Maui is named La Desgraciada (The Unfortunate Island), and what appears to be Hawaii Island is named La Mesa (The Table). Islands resembling Kahoolawe, Lanai, and Molokai are named Los Monjes (The Monks). For two-and-a-half centuries, Spanish galleons crossed the Pacific from Mexico along a route that passed south of Hawaii on their way to Manila. The exact route was kept secret to protect the Spanish trade monopoly against competing powers.\n\nThe 1778 arrival of British explorer James Cook was the first documented contact by a European explorer with Hawaii. Cook named the archipelago as the Sandwich Islands in honor of his sponsor John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich. Cook published the islands' location and rendered the native name as Owyhee. This spelling lives on in Owyhee County, Idaho. It was named after three native Hawaiian members of a trapping party who went missing in that area. The Owyhee Mountains were also named for them. \n\nCook visited the Hawaiian Islands twice. As he prepared for departure after his second visit in 1779, a quarrel ensued as Cook took temple idols and fencing as \"firewood\", and a minor chief and his men took a ship's boat. Cook abducted the King of Hawaii Island, Kalaniōpuu, and held him for ransom aboard his ship in order to gain return of Cook's boat. This tactic had worked in Tahiti and other islands. Instead, Kalaniōpuu's supporters fought back, killing Cook and four marines as Cook's party retreated along the beach to their ship. They departed without the ship's boat.\n\nAfter Cook's visit and the publication of several books relating his voyages, the Hawaiian islands attracted many European visitors: explorers, traders, and eventually whalers, who found the islands to be a convenient harbor and source of supplies. Early British influence can be seen in the design of the flag of Hawaii, which bears the Union Jack in the top-left corner. These visitors introduced diseases to the once-isolated islands, causing the Hawaiian population to drop precipitously. Native Hawaiians had no resistance to Eurasian diseases, such as influenza, smallpox and measles. By 1820, disease, famine and wars between the chiefs killed more than half of the Native Hawaiian population. During the 1850s, measles killed a fifth of Hawaii's people. \n\nHistorical records indicated the earliest Chinese immigrants to Hawaii originated from Guangdong Province; a few sailors arrived in 1778 with Captain Cook's journey and more arrived in 1789 with an American trader, who settled in Hawaii in the late 18th century. It appears that leprosy was introduced by Chinese workers by 1830; as with the other new infectious diseases, it proved damaging to the Hawaiians.\n\nKingdom of Hawaii\n\nHouse of Kamehameha\n\nDuring the 1780s and 1790s, chiefs often fought for power. After a series of battles that ended in 1795, all inhabited islands were subjugated under a single ruler, who became known as King Kamehameha the Great. He established the House of Kamehameha, a dynasty that ruled the kingdom until 1872.\n\nAfter Kamehameha II inherited the throne in 1819, American Protestant missionaries to Hawaii converted many Hawaiians to Christianity. They used their influence to end many traditional practices of the people. The islands' first Christan king was Kamehameha III. Hiram Bingham I, a prominent Protestant missionary, was a trusted adviser to the monarchy during this period. Other missionaries and their descendants became active in commercial and political affairs, leading to conflicts between the monarchy and its restive American subjects. Catholic and Mormon missionaries were also active in the kingdom, but they converted a minority of the Native Hawaiian population. Missionaries from each major group administered to the leper colony at Kalaupapa on Molokai, which was established in 1866 and operated well into the 20th century. The best known were Father Damien and Mother Marianne Cope, both of whom were canonized in the early 21st century as Roman Catholic saints.\n\nThe death of the bachelor King Kamehameha V—who did not name an heir—resulted in the popular election of Lunalilo over Kalākaua. Lunalilo died the next year, also without naming an heir. In 1874, the election was contested within the legislature between Kalākaua and Emma, Queen Consort of Kamehameha IV. After riots broke out, the United States and Britain landed troops on the islands to restore order. Governance passed to the House of Kalākaua.\n\n1887 Constitution and overthrow preparations\n\nIn 1887, Kalākaua was forced to sign the 1887 Constitution of the Kingdom of Hawaii. Drafted by white businessmen and lawyers, the document stripped the king of much of his authority. It established a property qualification for voting that effectively disenfranchised most Hawaiians and immigrant laborers and favored the wealthier, white elite. Resident whites were allowed to vote but resident Asians were not. Because the 1887 Constitution was signed under threat of violence, it is known as the Bayonet Constitution. King Kalākaua, reduced to a figurehead, reigned until his death in 1891. His sister, Queen Liliuokalani, succeeded him; she was the last monarch of Hawaii.\n\nIn 1893, Queen Liliuokalani announced plans for a new constitution. On January 14, 1893, a group of mostly Euro-American business leaders and residents formed the Committee of Safety to stage a coup d'état against the kingdom and seek annexation by the United States. United States Government Minister John L. Stevens, responding to a request from the Committee of Safety, summoned a company of U.S. Marines. According to historian William Russ, these troops effectively rendered the monarchy unable to protect itself. \n\nOverthrow of 1893—the Republic of Hawaii (1894–1898)\n\nIn January 1893, Queen Liliuokalani was overthrown and replaced by a provisional government composed of members of the American Committee of Safety. American lawyer Sanford B. Dole became President of the Republic when the Provisional Government of Hawaii ended on July 4, 1894. Controversy ensued in the following years as the Queen tried to regain her throne. The administration of President Grover Cleveland commissioned the Blount Report, which concluded that the removal of Liliuokalani had been illegal. The U.S. government first demanded that Queen Liliuokalani be reinstated, but the Provisional Government refused.\n\nCongress conducted an independent investigation, and on February 26, 1894, submitted the Morgan Report, which found all parties, including Minister Stevens—with the exception of the Queen—\"not guilty\" and not responsible for the coup. Partisans on both sides of the debate questioned the accuracy and impartiality of both the Blount and Morgan reports over the events of 1893. \n\nIn 1993, the US Congress passed a joint Apology Resolution regarding the overthrow; it was signed by President Bill Clinton. The resolution apologized for the overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom and acknowledged that the United States had annexed Hawaii unlawfully.\n\nAnnexation—the Territory of Hawaii (1898–1959)\n\nAfter William McKinley won the 1896 U.S. presidential election, advocates pressed to annex the Republic of Hawaii. The previous president, Grover Cleveland, was a friend of Queen Liliuokalani. McKinley was open to persuasion by U.S. expansionists and by annexationists from Hawaii. He met with three annexationists: Lorrin A. Thurston, Francis March Hatch and William Ansel Kinney. After negotiations in June 1897, Secretary of State John Sherman agreed to a treaty of annexation with these representatives of the Republic of Hawaii. The U.S. Senate never ratified the treaty. Despite the opposition of most native Hawaiians, the Newlands Resolution was used to annex the Republic to the U.S.; it became the Territory of Hawaii. The Newlands Resolution was passed by the House on June 15, 1898, by 209 votes in favor to 91 against, and by the Senate on July 6, 1898, by a vote of 42 to 21.\n\nIn 1900, Hawaii was granted self-governance and retained Iolani Palace as the territorial capitol building. Despite several attempts to become a state, Hawaii remained a territory for sixty years. Plantation owners and capitalists, who maintained control through financial institutions such as the Big Five, found territorial status convenient because they remained able to import cheap, foreign labor. Such immigration and labor practices were prohibited in many states.\n\nPuerto Rican immigration to Hawaii began in 1899 when Puerto Rico's sugar industry was devastated by two hurricanes, causing a worldwide shortage of sugar and a huge demand for sugar from Hawaii. Hawaiian sugarcane plantation owners began to recruit experienced, unemployed laborers in Puerto Rico. Two waves of Korean immigration to Hawaii occurred in the 20th century. The first wave arrived between 1903 and 1924; the second wave began in 1965 after President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 into law.\n\nOahu was the target of a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor by Imperial Japan on December 7, 1941. The attack on Pearl Harbor and other military and naval installations, carried out by aircraft and by midget submarines, brought the United States into World War II.\n\nPolitical changes of 1954—the State of Hawaii (1959–present)\n\nIn the 1950s, the power of the plantation owners was broken by the descendants of immigrant laborers, who were born in the incorporated U.S. territory and were U.S. citizens. They voted against the Hawaii Republican Party, strongly supported by plantation owners. The new majority voted for the Democratic Party of Hawaii, which dominated territorial and state politics for more than 40 years. Eager to gain full voting rights, Hawaii's residents actively campaigned for statehood. There was concern from both political parties in the U.S. that Hawaii would be a permanent Republican Party stronghold so the admission of Alaska, thought to be a permanent Democratic Party stronghold, was to happen the same year. These predictions turned out to be inaccurate; today, Hawaii votes Democratic predominately, and Alaska votes Republican. \n\nIn March 1959, Congress passed the Hawaii Admission Act, which U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed into law. The act excluded Palmyra Atoll from statehood; it had been part of the Kingdom and Territory of Hawaii. On June 27, 1959, a referendum asked residents of Hawaii to vote on the statehood bill; 94.3% voted in favor of statehood and 5.7% opposed it. The referendum asked voters to choose between accepting the Act and remaining a U.S. territory. The United Nations' Special Committee on Decolonization later removed Hawaii from its list of self-governing territories.\n\nAfter attaining statehood, Hawaii quickly modernized through construction and a rapidly growing tourism economy. Later, state programs promoted Hawaiian culture. The Hawaii State Constitutional Convention of 1978 created institutions such as the Office of Hawaiian Affairs to promote indigenous language and culture.\n\nDemographics\n\nPopulation\n\nAfter the arrival of Europeans and Americans, the population of Hawaii fell dramatically until an influx of primarily Asian settlers arrived as migrant laborers at the end of the 19thcentury. \n\nThe United States Census Bureau estimates the population of Hawaii was 1,431,603 on July 1, 2015; an increase of 5.24% since the 2010 United States Census. , Hawaii had an estimated population of 1,431,603; an increase of 12,042 from the previous year and an increase of 71,302 (5.24%) since 2010. This includes a natural increase of 48,111 (96,028 births minus 47,917 deaths) and an increase due to net migration of 16,956 people into the state. Immigration from outside the United States resulted in a net increase of 30,068; migration within the country produced a net loss of 13,112 people. The center of population of Hawaii is located between the two islands of O'ahu and Moloka'i. Large numbers of Native Hawaiians have moved to Las Vegas, which has been called the \"ninth island\" of Hawaii. \n\nHawaii has a de facto population of over 1.4million, due in part to a large number of military personnel and tourist residents. O'ahu is the most populous island; it has the highest population density with a resident population of just under one million in 597 sqmi, about 1,650 people per square mile. Hawaii's 1.4million residents, spread across 6000 mi2 of land, results in an average population density of 188.6 persons per square mile. The state has a lower population density than Ohio and Illinois. \n\nThe average projected lifespan of people born in Hawaii in 2000 is 79.8 years; 77.1 years if male, 82.5 if female—longer than the average lifespan of any other U.S. state. the U.S. military reported it had 42,371 personnel on the islands.\n\nRace and ethnicity\n\nAccording to the 2010 United States Census, Hawaii had a population of 1,360,301. The state's population identified as 38.6% Asian; 24.7% White (22.7% Non-Hispanic White Alone); 23.6% from two or more races; 10.0% Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders; 8.9% Hispanics and Latinos of any race; 1.6% Black or African American; 1.2% from some other race; and 0.3% Native American and Alaska Native. \n\nHawaii has the highest percentage of Asian Americans and multiracial Americans and the lowest percentage of White Americans of any state. It is the only state where Asian Americans identify as the largest ethnic group. In 2011, 14.5% of births were to white, non-Hispanic parents. Hawaii's Asian population consists mainly of 198,000 (14.6%) Filipino Americans, 185,000 (13.6%) Japanese Americans, roughly 55,000 (4.0%) Chinese Americans, and 24,000 (1.8%) Korean Americans. There are over 80,000 Indigenous Hawaiians—5.9% of the population. Including those with partial ancestry, Samoan Americans comprise 2.8% of Hawaii's population, and Tongan Americans comprise 0.6%. \n\nOver 120,000 (8.8%) of Hispanic and Latino Americans live in Hawaii. Mexican Americans number over 35,000 (2.6%); Puerto Ricans exceed 44,000 (3.2%). Multiracial Americans comprise almost 25% of Hawaii's population, exceeding 320,000 people. Eurasian Americans are a prominent mixed-race group, numbering about 66,000 (4.9%). The Non-Hispanic White population numbers around 310,000—just over 20% of the population. The multi-racial population outnumbers the non-Hispanic white population by about 10,000 people. In 1970, the Census Bureau reported Hawaii's population was 38.8% white and 57.7% Asian and Pacific Islander. \n\nThe five largest European ancestries in Hawaii are German (7.4%), Irish (5.2%), English (4.6%), Portuguese (4.3%) and Italian (2.7%). About 82.2% of the state's residents were born in the United States. Roughly 75% of foreign-born residents originate in Asia. Hawaii is a majority-minority state. It is expected to be one of three states that will not have a non-Hispanic white plurality in 2014; the other two are California and New Mexico. \n\nAncestry groups\n\nThe third group of foreigners to arrive in Hawaii were from China. Chinese workers on Western trading ships settled in Hawaii starting in 1789. In 1820, the first American missionaries arrived to preach Christianity and teach the Hawaiians Western ways. , a large proportion of Hawaii's population have Asian ancestry—especially Filipino, Japanese and Chinese. Many are descendants of immigrants brought to work on the sugarcane plantations in the mid-to-late 19th century. The first 153 Japanese immigrants arrived in Hawaii on June 19, 1868. They were not approved by the then-current Japanese government because the contract was between a broker and the Tokugawa shogunate—by then replaced by the Meiji Restoration. The first Japanese current-government-approved immigrants arrived on February 9, 1885, after Kalākaua's petition to Emperor Meiji when Kalākaua visited Japan in 1881. \n\nAlmost 13,000 Portuguese migrants had arrived by 1899; they also worked on the sugarcane plantations. By 1901, over 5,000 Puerto Ricans were living in Hawaii. \n\nLanguages\n\nEnglish (General American) and Hawaiian are listed as Hawaii's \"official languages\" in the state's 1978 constitution. Article XV, Section 4 specifies that \"Hawaiian shall be required for public acts and transactions only as provided by law\". Hawaii Creole English, locally referred to as \"Pidgin\", is the native language of many native residents and is a second language for many others.\n\nAs of the 2000 Census, 73.44% of Hawaii residents aged five and older exclusively speak English at home. According to the 2008 American Community Survey, 74.6% of Hawaii's residents over the age of five speak only English at home. In their homes, 21.0% of state residents speak an additional Asian language, 2.6% speak Spanish, 1.6% speak other Indo-European languages and 0.2% speak an other language.\n\nAfter English, other languages popularly spoken in the state are Tagalog, Japanese and Ilokano. Significant numbers of European immigrants and their descendants also speak their native languages; the most numerous are German, Portuguese, Italian and French. 5.37% of residents speak Tagalog—which includes non-native speakers of Filipino language, the national, co-official, Tagalog-based language; 4.96% speak Japanese and 4.05% speak Ilokano; 1.2% speak Chinese, 1.68% speak Hawaiian; 1.66% speak Spanish; 1.61% speak Korean; and 1.01% speak Samoan.\n\nFinally, Hawai'i Sign Language is spoken on the islands, but is dwindling in numbers due to American Sign Language supplanting HSL through schooling and various other domains.\n\nThe keyboard layout used for Hawaiian is QWERTY. \n\nHawaiian\n\nThe Hawaiian language has about 2,000 native speakers, less than 0.1% of the total population. According to the United States Census, there were over 24,000 total speakers of the language in Hawaii in 2006–2008. Hawaiian is a Polynesian member of the Austronesian language family. It is closely related to other Polynesian languages, such as Marquesan, Tahitian, Māori, Rapa Nui (the language of Easter Island), and less closely to Samoan and Tongan.\n\nAccording to Schütz, the Marquesans colonized the archipelago in roughly 300 CE and were later followed by waves of seafarers from the Society Islands, Samoa and Tonga.\n\nThese Polynesians remained in the islands; they eventually became the Hawaiian people and their languages evolved into the Hawaiian language. Kimura and Wilson say, \"[l]inguists agree that Hawaiian is closely related to Eastern Polynesian, with a particularly strong link in the Southern Marquesas, and a secondary link in Tahiti, which may be explained by voyaging between the Hawaiian and Society Islands\". Before the arrival of Captain James Cook, the Hawaiian language had no written form. That form was developed mainly by American Protestant |missionaries between 1820 and 1826. They assigned to the Hawaiian phonemes letters from the Latin alphabet.\n\nInterest in Hawaiian increased significantly in the late 20th century. With the help of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, specially designated immersion schools in which all subjects would be taught in Hawaiian were established. The University of Hawaii developed a Hawaiian language graduate studies program. Municipal codes were altered to favor Hawaiian place and street names for new civic developments. A sign language for the deaf, based on the Hawaiian language, has been in use in the islands since the early 1800s. Hawaiʻi Sign Language is now nearly extinct.\n\nHawaiian distinguishes between long and short vowel sounds. In modern practice, vowel length is indicated with a macron (kahakō). Hawaiian-language newspapers (nūpepa) published from 1834 to 1948 and traditional native speakers of Hawaiian generally omit the marks in their own writing. The okina and kahakō are intended to help non-native speakers. The Hawaiian language uses the glottal stop (okina) as a consonant. It is written as a symbol similar to the apostrophe or left-hanging (opening) single quotation mark.\n\nHawaiian Pidgin\n\nSome residents of Hawaii speak Hawaii Creole English (HCE), endonymically called pidgin or pidgin English. The lexicon of HCE derives mainly from English but also uses words that have derived from Hawaiian, Chinese, Japanese, Portuguese, Ilocano and Tagalog. During the 19th century, the increase in immigration—mainly from China, Japan, Portugal—especially from the Azores and Madeira, and Spain—catalyzed the development of a hybrid variant of English known to its speakers as pidgin. By the early 20th century, pidgin speakers had children who acquired it as their first language. HCE speakers use some Hawaiian words without those words being considered archaic. Most place names are retained from Hawaiian, as are some names for plants and animals. For example, tuna fish is often called by its Hawaiian name, ahi.\n\nHCE speakers have modified the meanings of some English words. For example, \"aunty\" and \"uncle\" may either refer to any adult who is a friend or be used to show respect to an elder. Syntax and grammar follow distinctive rules different from those of General American English. For example, instead of \"it is hot today, isn't it?\", an HCE speaker would say simply \"stay hot, eh?\" The term da kine is used as a filler; a substitute for virtually any word or phrase. During the surfing boom in Hawaii, HCE was influenced by surfer slang. Some HCE expressions, such as brah and da kine, have found their ways elsewhere through surfing communities.\n\nReligion\n\nThe largest denominations by number of adherents were the Catholic Church with 249,619 adherents in 2010 and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints with 68,128 adherents in 2009. The third-largest religious group includes all non-denominational churches, with 128 congregations and 32,000 members. The third-largest denominational group is the United Church of Christ, with 115 congregations and 20,000 members. The Southern Baptist Convention has 108 congregations and 18,000 members in Hawaii. \n\nAccording to data provided by religious establishments, religion in Hawaii in 2000 was distributed as follows: \n\n* Christianity: 351,000 (29%)\n* Buddhism: 110,000 (9%)\n* Judaism: 10,000 (0.8%)\n* Other: 100,000 (10%)\n* Unaffiliated: 650,000 (51%)\n\nA Pew poll found that the religious composition was as follows: \n\n* 44% – Protestantism\n* 22% – Catholicism\n* 6% – Buddhism\n* 5% – The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints\n* 1% – Hinduism\n* 0.5% – Judaism\n* 0.5% – Islam\n* 17% – Irreligion (including agnostics, atheists and deists)\n\nA 2010 Glenmary Research Center study also places the Roman Catholic population as greater than 22%. \n\nReligion notes\n\nLGBT\n\nHawaii has had a long history of queer identities. Māhū people, who often traversed gender as defined by Western standards, were a respected group of pre-colonization people who were widely known in society as healers. Another Hawaiian word, aikāne, referred to same-sex relationships. According to journals written by Captain Cook's crew, it is widely believed that many alii engaged in aikāne relationships. Hawaiian scholar Lilikalā Kameeleihiwa said, \"If you didn't sleep with a man, how could you trust him when you went into battle? How would you know if he was going to be the warrior that would protect you at all costs, if he wasn't your lover?\" \n\nA 2012 poll by Gallup found that Hawaii had the largest proportion of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) adults in the U.S., at 5.1%, comprising an estimated adult LGBT population of 53,966 individuals. The number of same-sex couple households in 2010 was 3,239; a 35.45% increase of figures from a decade earlier. In 2013, Hawaii became the fifteenth U.S. state to legalize same-sex marriage; a University of Hawaii researcher said the law may boost tourism by $217 million. \n\nEconomy\n\nThe history of Hawaii's economy can be traced through a succession of dominant industries; sandalwood, whaling, sugarcane, pineapple, military, tourism and education. Since statehood in 1959, tourism has been the largest industry, contributing 24.3% of the gross state product (GSP) in 1997, despite efforts to diversify. The state's gross output for 2003 was billion; per capita income for Hawaii residents was . Hawaiian exports include food and clothing. These industries play a small role in the Hawaiian economy, due to the shipping distance to viable markets, such as the West Coast of the continental U.S. The state's food exports include coffee, macadamia nuts, pineapple, livestock, sugarcane and honey. \n\nBy weight, honey bees may be the state's most valuable export. According to the Hawaii Agricultural Statistics Service, agricultural sales were million from diversified agriculture, million from pineapple, and million from sugarcane. Hawaii's relatively consistent climate has attracted the seed industry, which is able to test three generations of crops per year on the islands, compared with one or two on the mainland. Seeds yielded million in 2012, supporting 1,400 workers.\n\nAs of December 2015, the state's unemployment rate was 3.2%. \n\nIn 2009, the United States military spent billion in Hawaii, accounting for 18% of spending in the state for that year. 75,000 United States Department of Defense personnel live in Hawaii. \n\nAccording to a 2013 study by Phoenix Marketing International, Hawaii had the fourth-largest number of millionaires per capita in the United States, with a ratio of 7.18%. \n\nTaxation\n\nHawaii residents pay the most per person in state taxes in the United States. Millions of tourists pay general excise tax and hotel room tax.\n\nThe Hawaii Tax Foundation considers the state's tax burden too high, which it says contributes to higher prices and the perception of an unfriendly business climate.\n\nState Senator Sam Slom says state taxes are comparatively higher than other states because the state government handles education, health care, and social services that are usually handled at a county or municipal level in most other states.\n\nCost of living\n\nThe cost of living in Hawaii, specifically Honolulu, is high compared to that of most major U.S. cities. However, the cost of living in Honolulu is 6.7% lower than in New York City and 3.6% lower than in San Francisco. These numbers may not take some costs, such as increased travel costs for flights, additional shipping fees, and the loss of promotional participation opportunities for customers outside the continental U.S., into account. While some online stores offer free shipping on orders to Hawaii, many merchants exclude Hawaii, Alaska, Puerto Rico and certain other U.S. territories.\n\nHawaiian Electric Industries, a privately owned company, provides 95% of the state's population with electricity, mostly from fossil-fuel power stations. Average electricity prices in October 2014 () were nearly three times the national average () and 80% higher than the second-highest state, Connecticut. \n\nThe median home value in Hawaii in the 2000 U.S. Census was , while the national median home value was . Hawaii home values were the highest of all states, including California with a median home value of . Research from the National Association of Realtors places the 2010 median sale price of a single family home in Honolulu, Hawaii, at and the U.S. median sales price at . The sale price of single family homes in Hawaii was the highest of any U.S. city in 2010, just above that of the Silicon Valley area of California (). \n\nHawaii's very high cost of living is the result of several interwoven factors of the global economy in addition to domestic U.S. government trade policy. Like other regions with desirable weather throughout the year, such as areas of California, Arizona and Florida, Hawaii's residents can be considered to be subject to a \"Sunshine tax\". This situation is further exacerbated by the natural factors of geography and world distribution that lead to higher prices for goods due to increased shipping costs, a problem which many island states and territories suffer from as well. The situation is compounded even further by what could possibly be the single largest contributor to the high costs of living in Hawaii, a U.S. trade law known as the Jones Act, or the Merchant Marine Act of 1920. This trade regulation prohibits any foreign-flagged ships from carrying cargo between two American ports—a practice known as cabotage. Most consumer goods in the United States are manufactured by outsourced labor in East Asia, then transported by container ships to ports on the U.S. mainland, and Hawaii also receives the same goods. Being located in the central Pacific Ocean, right between major Pacific shipping lanes, it would be very economical to unload Hawaiian-bound goods in Honolulu, before continuing on to the mainland. However, this would effectively make the second leg of the voyage between Hawaii and the mainland a domestic route between two American ports. Because most large cargo ships operate under foreign \"flags of convenience\" such as Liberia, Vanuatu or Papua New Guinea, allowing them to avoid the more stringent, and thus more costly, regulations of developed nations' ports, the domestic leg of the voyage would be disallowed by the Jones Act. Instead, those cargo ships must proceed directly to the West Coast, where distributors break bulk and transport the Hawaiian-bound, Asian-manufactured goods back across the ocean by U.S.-flagged ships and increasing the length of the voyage by more than 50%. This highly-inefficient system of shipping Hawaii's consumer cargo comes at a very hefty price for the average Hawaiian citizen, and makes the cost of living in Hawaii much, much higher than it would otherwise be. \n\nHawaiian consumers ultimately bear the expense of transporting goods imposed by the Jones Act. This law makes Hawaii less competitive than West Coast ports as a shopping destination for tourists from countries with much higher taxes like Japan, even though prices for Asian-manufactured goods should be cheaper because Hawaii is much closer than mainland states to Asia. \n\nCulture\n\nThe aboriginal culture of Hawaii is Polynesian. Hawaii represents the northernmost extension of the vast Polynesian Triangle of the south and central Pacific Ocean. While traditional Hawaiian culture remains as vestiges in modern Hawaiian society, there are re-enactments of the ceremonies and traditions throughout the islands. Some of these cultural influences, including the popularity (in greatly modified form) of lūau and hula, are strong enough to affect the wider United States.\n\nCuisine\n\nThe cuisine of Hawaii is a fusion of many foods brought by immigrants to the Hawaiian Islands, including the earliest Polynesians and Native Hawaiian cuisine, and American, Chinese, Filipino, Japanese, Korean, Polynesian and Portuguese origins. Plant and animal food sources are imported from around the world for agricultural use in Hawaii. Poi, a starch made by pounding taro, is one of the traditional foods of the islands. Many local restaurants serve the ubiquitous plate lunch, which features two scoops of rice, a simplified version of American macaroni salad and a variety of toppings including hamburger patties, a fried egg, and gravy of a loco moco, Japanese style tonkatsu or the traditional lūau favorites, including kālua pork and laulau. Spam musubi is an example of the fusion of ethnic cuisine that developed on the islands among the mix of immigrant groups and military personnel. In the 1990s, a group of chefs developed Hawaii regional cuisine as a contemporary fusion cuisine.\n\nCustoms and etiquette\n\nSome key customs and etiquette in Hawaii are as follows: when visiting a home, it is considered good manners to bring a small gift for one's host (for example, a dessert). Thus, parties are usually in the form of potlucks. Most locals take their shoes off before entering a home. It is customary for Hawaiian families, regardless of ethnicity, to hold a luau to celebrate a child's first birthday. It is also customary at Hawaiian weddings, especially at Filipino weddings, for the bride and groom to do a money dance (also called the pandanggo). Print media and local residents recommend that one refer to non-Hawaiians as \"locals of Hawaii\" or \"people of Hawaii\".\n\nHawaiian mythology\n\nHawaiian mythology comprises the legends, historical tales, and sayings of the ancient Hawaiian people. It is considered a variant of a more general Polynesian mythology that developed a unique character for several centuries before about 1800. It is associated with the Hawaiian religion, which was officially suppressed in the 19th century but was kept alive by some practitioners to the modern day. Prominent figures and terms include Aumakua, the spirit of an ancestor or family god and Kāne, the highest of the four major Hawaiian deities.\n\nPolynesian mythology\n\nPolynesian mythology is the oral traditions of the people of Polynesia, a grouping of Central and South Pacific Ocean island archipelagos in the Polynesian triangle together with the scattered cultures known as the Polynesian outliers. Polynesians speak languages that descend from a language reconstructed as Proto-Polynesian that was probably spoken in the area around Tonga and Samoa in around 1000 BCE.\n\nPrior to the 15th century, Polynesian people migrated east to the Cook Islands, and from there to other island groups such as Tahiti and the Marquesas. Their descendants later discovered the islands Tahiti, Rapa Nui and later the Hawaiian Islands and New Zealand.\n\nThe Polynesian languages are part of the Austronesian language family. Many are close enough in terms of vocabulary and grammar to be mutually intelligible. There are also substantial cultural similarities between the various groups, especially in terms of social organization, childrearing, horticulture, building and textile technologies. Their mythologies in particular demonstrate local reworkings of commonly shared tales. The Polynesian cultures each have distinct but related oral traditions; legends or myths are traditionally considered to recount ancient history (the time of \"pō\") and the adventures of gods (\"atua\") and deified ancestors.\n\nList of state parks\n\nThere are many Hawaiian state parks. \n*The Island of Hawaii has state parks, recreation areas, and historical parks.\n*Kauai has the Ahukini State Recreation Pier, six state parks, and the Russian Fort Elizabeth State Historical Park. \n*Maui has two state monuments, several state parks, and the Polipoli Spring State Recreation Area. Moloka‘i has the Pala'au State Park. *Oahu has several state parks, a number of state recreation areas, and a number of monuments, including the Ulu Pō Heiau State Monument.\n\nLiterature\n\nThe literature of Hawaii is diverse and includes authors Kiana Davenport, Lois-Ann Yamanaka, and Kaui Hart Hemmings. Hawaiian magazines include Hana Hou!, Hawaii Business Magazine and Honolulu, among others.\n\nMusic\n\nThe music of Hawaii includes traditional and popular styles, ranging from native Hawaiian folk music to modern rock and hip hop. Hawaii's musical contributions to the music of the United States are out of proportion to the state's small size. Styles such as slack-key guitar are well-known worldwide, while Hawaiian-tinged music is a frequent part of Hollywood soundtracks. Hawaii also made a major contribution to country music with the introduction of the steel guitar. \n\nTraditional Hawaiian folk music is a major part of the state's musical heritage. The Hawaiian people have inhabited the islands for centuries and have retained much of their traditional musical knowledge. Their music is largely religious in nature, and includes chanting and dance music. Hawaiian music has had an enormous impact on the music of other Polynesian islands; according to Peter Manuel, the influence of Hawaiian music a \"unifying factor in the development of modern Pacific musics\". \n\nTourism\n\nTourism is an important part of the Hawaiian economy. In 2003, according to state government data, there were over 6.4 million visitors, with expenditures of over $10 billion, to the Hawaiian Islands. Due to the mild year-round weather, tourist travel is popular throughout the year. The major holidays are the most popular times for outsiders to visit, especially in the winter months. Substantial numbers of Japanese tourists still visit the islands but have now been surpassed by Chinese and Koreans due to the collapse of the value of the Yen and the weak Japanese economy. The average Japanese stays only 5 days while other Asians spend over 9.5 days and spend 25% more. \n\nHawaii hosts numerous cultural events. The annual Merrie Monarch Festival is an international Hula competition. The Hawaii International Film Festival is the premier film festival for Pacific rim cinema. Honolulu hosts the state's long-running LGBT film festival, the Rainbow Film Festival. \n\nHealth\n\n, Hawaii's health care system insures 92% of residents. Under the state's plan, businesses are required to provide insurance to employees who work more than twenty hours per week. Heavy regulation of insurance companies helps reduce the cost to employers. Due in part to heavy emphasis on preventive care, Hawaiians require hospital treatment less frequently than the rest of the United States, while total health care expenses measured as a percentage of state GDP are substantially lower. Proponents of universal health care elsewhere in the U.S. sometimes use Hawaii as a model for proposed federal and state health care plans.\n\nEducation\n\nPublic schools\n\nHawaii has the only school system within the U.S. that is unified statewide. Policy decisions are made by the fourteen-member state Board of Education, which sets policy and hires the superintendent of schools, who oversees the state Department of Education. The Department of Education is divided into seven districts; four on Oahu and one for each of the other three counties. The main rationale for centralization is to combat inequalities between highly populated Oahu and the more rural Neighbor Islands, and between lower-income and more affluent areas. In most of the U.S., schools are funded from local property taxes. Educators struggle with children of non-native-English-speaking immigrants, whose cultures are different from those of the mainland, where most course materials and testing standards originate.\n\nPublic elementary, middle and high school test scores in Hawaii are below national averages on tests mandated under the No Child Left Behind Act. The Hawaii Board of Education requires all eligible students to take these tests and report all student test scores; some other states—Texas and Michigan, for example—do not. This may have unbalanced the results that reported in August 2005 that of 282 schools across the state, 185 failed to reach federal minimum performance standards in mathematics and reading. The ACT college placement tests show that in 2005, seniors scored slightly above the national average (21.9 compared with 20.9), but in the widely accepted SAT examinations, Hawaii's college-bound seniors tend to score below the national average in all categories except mathematics.\n\nPrivate schools\n\nHawaii has the highest rates of private school attendance in the nation. During the 2011-2012 school year, Hawaii public and charter schools had an enrollment of 181,213, while private schools had 37,695. Private schools educated over 17% of students in Hawaii that school year, nearly three times the approximate national average of 6%. It has four of the largest independent schools; Iolani School, Kamehameha Schools, Mid-Pacific Institute and Punahou School. Pacific Buddhist Academy, the second Buddhist high school in the U.S. and first such school in Hawaii, was founded in 2003. The first native controlled public charter school was the Kanu O Ka Aina New Century Charter School.\n\nIndependent and charter schools can select their students, while the public schools are open to all students in their district. The Kamehameha Schools are the only schools in the U.S. that openly grant admission to students based on ancestry; collectively, they are one of the wealthiest schools in the United States, if not the world, having over eleven billion US dollars in estate assets. In 2005, Kamehameha enrolled 5,398 students, 8.4% of the Native Hawaiian children in the state. \n\nColleges and universities\n\nGraduates of secondary schools in Hawaii often enter directly into the workforce. Some attend colleges and universities on the mainland or other countries, and the rest attend an institution of higher learning in Hawaii. The largest is the University of Hawaii System, which consists of: the research university at Mānoa, two comprehensive campuses at Hilo and West Oahu, and seven community colleges. Private universities include Brigham Young University–Hawaii, Chaminade University of Honolulu, Hawaii Pacific University, and Wayland Baptist University. Saint Stephen Diocesan Center is a seminary of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Honolulu. Kona hosts the University of the Nations, which is not an accredited university.\n\nPūnana Leo\n\nFirst opened in 1984 illegally in Kekaha, Kaua'i, the Pūnana Leo or \"Language Nest\" (lit. \"Nest of Voices\") were the first indigenous language immersion schools in the United States. Modelled after the Māori language Kōhanga reo of New Zealand, they provide preschool aged children the opportunity to engage in early education through a Hawaiian language medium, generally taught by elders. Graduates from the Pūnana Leo schools have achieved several measures of academic success in later life. As of 2006, there were a total of eleven Pūnana Leo preschools, with locations on five of the islands.\n\nTransportation\n\nA system of state highways encircles each main island. Only Oahu has federal highways, and is the only area outside the contiguous 48 states to have signed Interstate highways. Narrow, winding roads and congestion in populated places can slow traffic. Each major island has a public bus system.\n\nHonolulu International Airport (IATA:HNL), which shares runways with the adjacent Hickam Field (IATA:HIK), is the major commercial aviation hub of Hawaii. The commercial aviation airport offers intercontinental service to North America, Asia, Australia and Oceania. Hawaiian Airlines, Mokulele Airlines and go! use jets to provide services between the large airports in Honolulu, Līhue, Kahului, Kona and Hilo. Island Air and Pacific Wings serve smaller airports. These airlines also provide air freight services between the islands.\n\nUntil air passenger services began in the 1920s, private boats were the sole means of traveling between the islands. Seaflite operated hydrofoils between the major islands in the mid-1970s. \n\nThe Hawaii Superferry operated between Oahu and Maui between December 2007 and March 2009, with additional routes planned for other islands. Protests and legal problems over environmental impact statements ended the service, though the company operating Superferry has expressed a wish to recommence ferry services in the future. Currently there are passenger ferry services in Maui County between Molokai and Maui, and between Lanai and Maui, though neither of these take vehicles. Currently Norwegian Cruise Lines and Princess Cruises provide passenger cruise ship services between the larger islands. \n\nRail\n\nAt one time Hawaii had a network of railroads on each of the larger islands that transported farm commodities and passengers. Most were narrow gauge systems but there were some gauge on some of the smaller islands. The standard gauge in the U.S. is . By far the largest railroad was the Oahu Railway and Land Company (OR&L) that ran lines from Honolulu across the western and northern part of Oahu. \n\nThe OR&L was important for moving troops and goods during World War II. Traffic on this line was busy enough for signals to be used to facilitate movement of trains and to require wigwag signals at some railroad crossings for the protection of motorists. The main line was officially abandoned in 1947, although part of it was bought by the U.S. Navy and operated until 1970. 13 mi of track remain; preservationists occasionally run trains over a portion of this line. The Honolulu High-Capacity Transit Corridor Project aims to add elevated passenger rail on Oahu to relieve highway congestion.\n\nGovernance\n\nState government\n\nThe state government of Hawaii is modeled after the federal government with adaptations originating from the kingdom era of Hawaiian history. As codified in the Constitution of Hawaii, there are three branches of government: executive, legislative and judicial. The executive branch is led by the Governor of Hawaii, who is assisted by the Lieutenant Governor of Hawaii, both of whom are elected on the same ticket. The governor is the only state public official elected statewide; all others are appointed by the governor. The lieutenant governor acts as the Secretary of State. The governor and lieutenant governor oversee twenty agencies and departments from offices in the State Capitol. The official residence of the governor is Washington Place.\n\nThe legislative branch consists of the bicameral Hawaii State Legislature, which is composed of the 51-member Hawaii House of Representatives led by the Speaker of the House, and the 25-member Hawaii Senate led by the President of the Senate. The Legislature meets at the State Capitol. The unified judicial branch of Hawaii is the Hawaii State Judiciary. The state's highest court is the Supreme Court of Hawaii, which uses Aliiōlani Hale as its chambers.\n\nPolitical subdivisions and local government\n\nThe movement of the Hawaiian royal family from Hawaii Island to Maui, and subsequently to Oahu, explains the modern-day distribution of population centers. Kamehameha III chose the largest city, Honolulu, as his capital because of its natural harbor—the present-day Honolulu Harbor. Now the state capital, Honolulu is located along the southeast coast of Oahu. The previous capital was Lahaina, Maui, and before that Kailua-Kona, Hawaii. Some major towns are Hilo; Kāneohe; Kailua; Pearl City; Waipahu; Kahului; Kailua-Kona. Kīhei; and Līhue.\n\nHawaii comprises five counties: the City and County of Honolulu, Hawaii County, Maui County, Kauai County, and Kalawao County.\n\nHawaii has the fewest local governments among U.S. states. Unique to this state is the lack of municipal governments. All local governments are generally administered at the county level. The only incorporated area in the state is Honolulu County, a consolidated city–county that governs the entire island of Oahu. County executives are referred to as mayors; these are the Mayor of Hawaii County, Mayor of Honolulu, Mayor of Kauai, and the Mayor of Maui. The mayors are all elected in nonpartisan elections. Kalawao County has no elected government, and as mentioned above there are no local school districts and instead all local public education is administered at the state level by the Hawaii Department of Education. The remaining local governments are special districts.\n\nFederal government\n\nHawaii is represented in the United States Congress by two senators and two representatives. Mark Takai represented the 1st congressional district in the House, representing southeastern Oahu, including central Honolulu, before passing away July 20, 2016. His seat is currently vacant. , all three other seats are held by Democrats. Tulsi Gabbard represents the 2nd congressional district, representing the rest of the state, which is largely rural and semi-rural.\n\nBrian Schatz is the senior United States Senator from Hawaii. He was appointed to the office on December 26, 2012, by Governor Neil Abercrombie, following the death of former senator Daniel Inouye. The state's junior senator is Mazie Hirono, the former representative from the second congressional district. Hirono is the first female Asian American senator and the first Buddhist senator. Hawaii incurred the biggest seniority shift between the 112th and 113th Congresses. The state went from a delegation consisting of senators who were first and twenty-first in seniority to their respective replacements, relative newcomers Schatz and Hirono. \n\nFederal officials in Hawaii are based at the Prince Kūhiō Federal Building near the Aloha Tower and Honolulu Harbor. The Federal Bureau of Investigation, Internal Revenue Service and the Secret Service maintain their offices there; the building is also the site of the federal District Court for the District of Hawaii and the United States Attorney for the District of Hawaii.\n\nNational politics\n\nSince gaining statehood and participating in its first election in1960, Hawaii has supported Democrats in all but two presidential elections; 1972 and1984, both of which were landslide victories for Republicans Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan respectively. In Hawaii's statehood tenure, only Minnesota has supported Republican candidates fewer times in presidential elections.\n\nHawaii hasn't elected a Republican to represent the state in the U.S. Senate since Hiram Fong in 1970; since 1977, both of the state's U.S. Senators have been Democrats. \n\nIn 2004, John Kerry won the state's four electoral votes by a margin of nine percentage points with 54% of the vote. Every county supported the Democratic candidate. In 1964, favorite son candidate senator Hiram Fong of Hawaii sought the Republican presidential nomination, while Patsy Mink ran in the Oregon primary in 1972.\n\nHonolulu-born Barack Obama, then serving as United States Senator from Illinois, was elected the 44th President of the United States on November 4, 2008 and was re-elected for a second term on November 6, 2012. Obama had won the Hawaii Democratic caucus on February 19, 2008, with 76% of the vote. He was the third Hawaii-born candidate to seek the nomination of a major party and the first presidential nominee from Hawaii. \n\nLegal status of Hawaii\n\nWhile Hawaii is internationally recognized as a state of the United States of America while also being broadly accepted as such in mainstream understanding, the legality of this status has been raised in U.S. District Court, the U.N., and other international forums. Domestically, the debate is a topic covered in the Kamehameha Schools curriculum. On September 29, 2015 the Department of the Interior announced a procedure to recognize a Native Hawaiian government. \n\nHawaiian sovereignty movement\n\nPolitical organizations seeking some form of sovereignty for Hawaii have been active since the 1880s. Generally, their focus is on self-determination and self-governance, either for Hawaii as an independent nation (in many proposals, for \"Hawaiian nationals\" descended from subjects of the Hawaiian Kingdom or declaring themselves as such by choice), or for people of whole or part native Hawaiian ancestry in an indigenous \"nation to nation\" relationship akin to tribal sovereignty with US federal recognition of Native Hawaiians.\n\nSome groups also advocate some form of redress from the United States for the 1893 overthrow of Queen Liliuokalani, and for what is described as a prolonged military occupation beginning with the 1898 annexation. The movement generally views both the overthrow and annexation as illegal, with the Apology Resolution passed by US Congress in 1993 cited as a major impetus by the movement for Hawaiian sovereignty. The sovereignty movement considers Hawaii to be an illegally occupied nation. \n\nGallery" ] }

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{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe" ], "filename": [ "North_American_Aerospace_Defense_Command.txt" ], "title": [ "North American Aerospace Defense Command" ], "wiki_context": [ "North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD,), known until March 1981 as the North American Air Defense Command, is a combined organization of the United States and Canada that provides aerospace warning, air sovereignty, and defense for Northern America. Headquarters for NORAD and the NORAD/United States Northern Command (USNORTHCOM) center are located at Peterson Air Force Base in El Paso County, near Colorado Springs, Colorado. The nearby Cheyenne Mountain Complex has the Alternate Command Center. The NORAD commander and deputy commander (CINCNORAD) are, respectively, a United States four-star general or equivalent and a Canadian three-star general or equivalent.\n\nOrganization\n\nCINCNORAD maintains the NORAD headquarters at Peterson Air Force Base near Colorado Springs, Colorado. The NORAD and USNORTHCOM Command Center at Peterson AFB serves as a central collection and coordination facility for a worldwide system of sensors designed to provide the commander and the leadership of Canada and the U.S. with an accurate picture of any aerospace or maritime threat. NORAD has administratively divided the North American landmass into three regions: the Alaska NORAD (ANR) Region, under Eleventh Air Force (11 AF); the Canadian NORAD (CANR) Region, under 1 Canadian Air Division, and the Continental U.S. (CONR) Region, under 1 AF/CONR-AFNORTH. Both the CONR and CANR regions are divided into eastern and western sectors.\n\nAlaska NORAD Region\n\nThe Alaska NORAD Region (ANR) maintains continuous capability to detect, validate and warn off any atmospheric threat in its area of operations from its Regional Operations Control Center (ROCC) at Joint Base Elmendorf–Richardson, Alaska (which is an amalgamation of the United States Air Force's Elmendorf Air Force Base and the United States Army's Fort Richardson, which were merged in 2010).\n\nANR also maintains the readiness to conduct a continuum of aerospace control missions, which include daily air sovereignty in peacetime, contingency and/or deterrence in time of tension, and active air defense against manned and unmanned air-breathing atmospheric vehicles in times of crisis.\n\nANR is supported by both active duty and reserve units. Active duty forces are provided by 11 AF and the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF), and reserve forces provided by the Alaska Air National Guard. Both 11 AF and the CAF provide active duty personnel to the ROCC to maintain continuous surveillance of Alaskan airspace.\n\nCanadian NORAD Region\n\n1 Canadian Air Division/Canadian NORAD Region Headquarters is at CFB Winnipeg, Manitoba. It was established on 22 April 1983. It is responsible for providing surveillance and control of Canadian airspace. The Royal Canadian Air Force provides alert assets to NORAD. CANR is divided into two sectors, which are designated as the Canada East Sector and Canada West Sector. Both Sector Operations Control Centers (SOCCs) are co-located at CFB North Bay Ontario. The routine operation of the SOCCs includes reporting track data, sensor status and aircraft alert status to NORAD headquarters.\n\nCanadian air defense forces assigned to NORAD include 409 Tactical Fighter Squadron at CFB Cold Lake, Alberta and 425 Tactical Fighter Squadron at CFB Bagotville, Quebec. All squadrons fly the McDonnell Douglas CF-18 Hornet fighter aircraft. \n\nTo monitor for drug trafficking, in cooperation with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the United States drug law enforcement agencies, the Canadian NORAD Region monitors all air traffic approaching the coast of Canada. Any aircraft that has not filed a flight plan may be directed to land and be inspected by RCMP and Canada Border Services Agency.\n\nUnited States NORAD Region\n\nThe Continental NORAD Region (CONR) is the component of NORAD that provides airspace surveillance and control and directs air sovereignty activities for the Contiguous United States (CONUS).\n\nCONR is the NORAD designation of the United States Air Force First Air Force/AFNORTH. Its headquarters is located at Tyndall Air Force Base, Florida. The First Air Force (1 AF) became responsible for the USAF air defense mission on 30 September 1990. AFNORTH is the United States Air Force component of United States Northern Command (NORTHCOM).\n\n1 AF/CONR-AFNORTH comprises State Air National Guard Fighter Wings assigned an air defense mission to 1 AF/CONR-AFNORTH, made up primarily of citizen Airmen. The primary weapons systems are the McDonnell Douglas F-15 Eagle and General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon aircraft.\n\nIt plans, conducts, controls, coordinates and ensures air sovereignty and provides for the unilateral defense of the United States. It is organized with a combined First Air Force command post at Tyndall Air Force Base and two Sector Operations Control Centers (SOCC) at Rome, New York for the US East ROCC (Eastern Air Defense Sector) and McChord Field, Washington for the US West ROCC (Western Air Defense Sector) manned by active duty personnel to maintain continuous surveillance of CONUS airspace.\n\nIn its role as the CONUS NORAD Region, 1 AF/CONR-AFNORTH also performs counter-drug surveillance operations.\n\nHistory\n\nNORAD (originally known as the North American Air Defense Command), was recommended by the Joint Canadian-U.S. Military Group in late 1956, approved by the United States JCS in February 1957, and announced on 1 August 1957; the \"establishment of [NORAD] command headquarters\" was on 12 September 1957, at Ent Air Force Base's 1954 blockhouse. The 1958 international agreement designated the NORAD commander always be a United States officer (Canadian vice commander), and \"Royal Canadian Air Force officers ... agreed the command's primary purpose would be…early warning and defense for SAC's retaliatory forces.\" In late 1958, Canada and the United States started the Continental Air Defense Integration North (CADIN) for the SAGE air defense network (initial CADIN cost sharing agreement between the countries was on 5 January 1959), and two December 1958 plans submitted by NORAD had \"average yearly expenditure of around five and one half billions\", including \"cost of the accelerated Nike Zeus program\" and three Ballistic Missile Early Warning System (BMEWS) sites.\n\nCanada's NORAD bunker with a SAGE AN/FSQ-7 Combat Direction Central computer was constructed from 1959 to 1963, and each of the USAF's eight smaller AN/FSQ-8 Combat Control Central systems provided NORAD with data and could command the entire United States air defense. The RCAF's 1950 \"ground observer system, the Long Range Air Raid Warning System,\"Canadian Long Range Early Warning (letter to HQ WADF), CONAC, 16 October 1950 (cited by Schaffel p. 138 & 304) was discontinued and on 31 January 1959, the United States Ground Observer Corps was deactivated. The Cheyenne Mountain nuclear bunker's planned mission was expanded in August 1960 to \"a hardened center from which CINCNORAD would supervise and direct operations against space attack as well as air attack\" (cited by Schaffel, p. 262) (NORAD would be renamed North American Aerospace Defense Command in March 1981). The Secretary of Defense assigned on 7 October 1960, \"operational command of all space surveillance to Continental Air Defense Command (CONAD) and operational control to North American Air Defense Command (NORAD)\".\n\nThe JCS placed the Ent Air Force Base Space Detection and Tracking System (496L System with Philco 2000 Model 212 computer) \"under the operational control of CINCNORAD on December 1, 1960\"; during Cheyenne Mountain nuclear bunker excavation, and the joint SAC-NORAD exercise \"Sky Shield II\"—and on 2 September 1962—\"Sky Shield III\" were conducted for mock penetration of NORAD sectors. \n\nNORAD command center operations moved from Ent Air Force Base to the 1963 partially underground \"Combined Operations Center\" for Aerospace Defense Command and NORAD at the Chidlaw Building. President John F. Kennedy visited \"NORAD headquarters\" after the 5 June 1963 United States Air Force Academy graduation. and on 30 October 1964, \"NORAD began manning\" the Combat Operations Center in the Cheyenne Mountain Complex. By 1965, about 250,000 United States and Canadian personnel were involved in the operation of NORAD, Academic Search Premier. Web. 18 Sept. 2012. On 1 January 1966, Air Force Systems Command turned the COC over to NORAD The NORAD Cheyenne Mountain Complex was accepted on 8 February 1966.\n\n1968 reorganization\n\nUnited States Department of Defense realignments for the NORAD command organization began by 15 November 1968 (e.g., Army Air Defense Command (ARADCOM)) and by 1972, there were eight NORAD \"regional areas ... for all air defense\", and the NORAD Cheyenne Mountain Complex Improvements Program (427M System) became operational in 1979.\n\nFalse alarms\n\nOn at least three occasions, NORAD systems failed, such as on 9 November 1979, when a technician in NORAD loaded a test tape, but failed to switch the system status to \"test\", causing a stream of constant false warnings to spread to two \"continuity of government\" bunkers as well as command posts worldwide. On 3 June 1980, and again on 6 June 1980, a computer communications device failure caused warning messages to sporadically flash in U.S. Air Force command posts around the world that a nuclear attack was taking place. During these incidents, Pacific Air Forces (PACAF) properly had their planes (loaded with nuclear bombs) in the air; Strategic Air Command (SAC) did not and took criticism, because they did not follow procedure, even though the SAC command knew these were almost certainly false alarms, as did PACAF. Both command posts had recently begun receiving and processing direct reports from the various radar, satellite, and other missile attack detection systems, and those direct reports simply did not match anything about the erroneous data received from NORAD.\n\n1980 reorganization\n\nFollowing the 1979 Joint US-Canada Air Defense Study, the command structure for aerospace defense was changed, e.g., \"SAC assumed control of ballistic missile warning and space surveillance facilities\" on 1 December 1979 from ADCOM. The Aerospace Defense Command major command ended 31 March 1980. and its organizations in Cheyenne Mountain became the \"ADCOM\" specified command under the same commander as NORAD, e.g., HQ NORAD/ADCOM J31 manned the Space Surveillance Center. By 1982, a NORAD Off-site Test Facility was located at Peterson AFB. The DEW Line was to be replaced with the North Warning System (NWS); the Over-the-Horizon Backscatter (OTH-B) radar was to be deployed; more advanced fighters were deployed, and E-3 Sentry AWACS aircraft were planned for greater use. These recommendations were accepted by the governments in 1985. The United States Space Command was formed in September 1985 as an adjunct, but not a component of NORAD.\n\nPost–Cold War\n\nIn 1989 NORAD operations expanded to cover counter-drug operations, e.g., tracking of small aircraft entering and operating within the United States and Canada. DEW line sites were replaced between 1986 and 1995 by the North Warning System. The Cheyenne Mountain site was also upgraded, but none of the proposed OTH-B radars are currently in operation.\n\nAfter the September 11, 2001 attacks, the NORAD Air Warning Center's mission \"expanded to include the interior airspace of North America.\" \n\nThe Cheyenne Mountain Realignment was announced on 28 July 2006, to consolidate NORAD's day-to-day operations at Peterson Air Force Base with Cheyenne Mountain in \"warm standby\" staffed with support personnel.\n\nIn popular culture\n\nMovies and television \n\nThe NORAD command center was depicted in the satirical film Dr. Strangelove that starred Peter Sellers and in the drama Fail-Safe, which starred Henry Fonda. Both films were released in 1964; a television adaptation of Fail-Safe starring George Clooney and Richard Dreyfuss was broadcast live on CBS in 2000.\n\nCheyenne Mountain is a setting of the 1983 film WarGames and the television series Jeremiah and Stargate.\n\nNORAD HQ is a retreat facility for NASA in the mid/late 21st century in the 2014 science fiction film Interstellar.\n\nIn the film The Sum of All Fears, the Russian military intends to destroy NORAD headquarters.\n\nNORAD Tracks Santa \n\nAs a publicity move on December 24, 1955, NORAD's predecessor, the Continental Air Defense Command (CONAD), informed the press that CONAD was tracking Santa Claus's sleigh, adding that \"CONAD, Army, Navy and Marine Air Forces will continue to track and guard Santa and his sleigh on his trip to and from the U.S. against possible attack from those who do not believe in Christmas,\" and a Christmas Eve tradition was born, known as the \"NORAD Tracks Santa\" program. Every year on Christmas Eve, \"NORAD Tracks Santa\" purports to track Santa Claus as he leaves the North Pole and delivers presents to children around the world. Today, NORAD relies on volunteers to make the program possible." ] }

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{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe" ], "filename": [ "Kazakhstan.txt" ], "title": [ "Kazakhstan" ], "wiki_context": [ "Kazakhstan (; ), officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a country in northern Central Asia. Kazakhstan is the world's largest landlocked country, and the ninth largest in the world, with an area of . Kazakhstan is the dominant nation of Central Asia economically, generating 60% of the region's GDP, primarily through its oil/gas industry. Kazakhstan has vast mineral resources.\n\nIt shares borders with Russia, China, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan, and also adjoins a large part of the Caspian Sea. The terrain of Kazakhstan includes flatlands, steppe, taiga, rock canyons, hills, deltas, snow-capped mountains, and deserts. Kazakhstan has an estimated 18 million people , Given its large land area, its population density is among the lowest, at less than 6 people per square kilometre (15 people per sq. mi.). The capital is Astana, where it was moved in 1997 from Almaty.\n\nThe territory of Kazakhstan has historically been inhabited by nomadic tribes. This changed in the 13th century, when Genghis Khan occupied the country as part of the Mongolian Empire. Following internal struggles among the conquerors, power eventually reverted to the nomads. By the 16th century, the Kazakh emerged as a distinct group, divided into three jüz (ancestor branches occupying specific territories). The Russians began advancing into the Kazakh steppe in the 18th century, and by the mid-19th century, they nominally ruled all of Kazakhstan as part of the Russian Empire. Following the 1917 Russian Revolution, and subsequent civil war, the territory of Kazakhstan was reorganized several times. In 1936, it was made the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic, part of the Soviet Union.\n\nKazakhstan was the last of the Soviet republics to declare independence following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. The current President, Nursultan Nazarbayev, has been leader of the country since then, and is characterized as authoritarian, with a government history of human rights abuses and suppression of political opposition. Kazakhstan has worked to develop its economy, especially its dominant hydrocarbon industry. Human Rights Watch says that \"Kazakhstan heavily restricts freedom of assembly, speech, and religion,\" and other human rights organizations regularly describe Kazakhstan's human rights situation as poor. \n \nKazakhstan's 131 ethnicities include Kazakhs (63% of the population), Russians, Uzbeks, Ukrainians, Germans, Tatars, and Uyghurs. Islam is the religion of about 70% of the population, with Christianity practiced by 26%; Kazakhstan officially allows freedom of religion, but religious leaders who oppose the government are suppressed. The Kazakh language is the state language, and Russian has equal official status for all levels of administrative and institutional purposes. \n\nEtymology\n \nThe name \"Kazakh\" comes from the ancient Turkic word qaz, \"to wander\", reflecting the Kazakhs' nomadic culture. The name \"Cossack\" is of the same origin. The Persian suffix -stan means \"land\" or \"place of\", so Kazakhstan can be literally translated as \"land of the wanderers\".\n\nThough traditionally referring only to ethnic Kazakhs, including those living in China, Russia, Turkey, Uzbekistan and other neighboring countries, the term \"Kazakh\" is increasingly being used to refer to any inhabitant of Kazakhstan, including non-Kazakhs. \n\nHistory \n\nKazakhstan has been inhabited since the Neolithic Age: the region's climate and terrain are best suited for nomads practicing pastoralism. Archaeologists believe that humans first domesticated the horse in the region's vast steppes. Central Asia was originally inhabited by the Scythians. \n\nKazakh Khanate\n\nThe Cuman entered the steppes of modern-day Kazakhstan around the early 11th century, where they later joined with the Kipchak and established the vast Cuman-Kipchak confederation. While ancient cities Taraz (Aulie-Ata) and Hazrat-e Turkestan had long served as important way-stations along the Silk Road connecting Asia and Europe, true political consolidation began only with the Mongol invasion of the early 13th century. Under the Mongol Empire, the largest in world history, administrative districts were established. These eventually came under the rule of the emergent Kazakh Khanate (Kazakhstan).\n\nThroughout this period, traditional nomadic life and a livestock-based economy continued to dominate the steppe. In the 15th century, a distinct Kazakh identity began to emerge among the Turkic tribes, a process which was consolidated by the mid-16th century with the appearance of the Kazakh language, culture, and economy.\n\nNevertheless, the region was the focus of ever-increasing disputes between the native Kazakh emirs and the neighbouring Persian-speaking peoples to the south. At its height the Khanate would rule parts of Central Asia and control Cumania. The Kazakhs nomads would raid people of Russian territory for slaves until the Russian conquest of Kazakhstan. By the early 17th century, the Kazakh Khanate was struggling with the impact of tribal rivalries, which had effectively divided the population into the Great, Middle and Little (or Small) hordes (jüz). Political disunion, tribal rivalries, and the diminishing importance of overland trade routes between East and West weakened the Kazakh Khanate. Khiva Khanate used this opportunity and annexed Mangyshlak Peninsula. Uzbek rule there lasted two centuries until the Russian arrival.\n\nDuring the 17th century, Kazakhs fought Oirats, a federation of western Mongol tribes, including the Dzungar. The beginning of the 18th century marked the zenith of the Kazakh Khanate. During this period the Little Horde participated in the 1723–1730 war against the Dzungar, following their \"Great Disaster\" invasion of Kazakh territories. Under the leadership of Abul Khair Khan, the Kazakh won major victories over the Dzungar at the Bulanty River in 1726, and at the Battle of Anrakay in 1729. \n\nAblai Khan participated in the most significant battles against the Dzungar from the 1720s to the 1750s, for which he was declared a \"batyr\" (\"hero\") by the people. The Kazakh suffered from the frequent raids against them by the Volga Kalmyk. The Kokand Khanate used the weakness of Kazakh jüzs after Dzungar and Kalmyk raids and conquered present Southeastern Kazakhstan, including Almaty, the formal capital in the first quarter of the 19th century. Also, the Emirate of Bukhara ruled Shymkent before the Russians took dominance.\n\nRussian Empire\n\nIn the 19th century, the Russian Empire began to expand its influence into Central Asia. The \"Great Game\" period is generally regarded as running from approximately 1813 to the Anglo-Russian Convention of 1907. The tsars effectively ruled over most of the territory belonging to what is now the Republic of Kazakhstan.\n\nThe Russian Empire introduced a system of administration and built military garrisons and barracks in its effort to establish a presence in Central Asia in the so-called \"Great Game\" for dominance in the area against the British Empire, which was extending its influence from the south in India and Southeast Asia. Russia built its first outpost, Orsk, in 1735. Russia introduced the Russian language in all schools and governmental organizations.\n\nRussian efforts to impose its system aroused the resentment by the Kazakh people, and, by the 1860s, some Kazakh resisted Russia's rule. It had disrupted the traditional nomadic lifestyle and livestock-based economy, and people were suffering from hunger and starvation, with some Kazakh tribes being decimated. The Kazakh national movement, which began in the late 19th century, sought to preserve the native language and identity by resisting the attempts of the Russian Empire to assimilate and stifle them.\n\nFrom the 1890s onward, ever-larger numbers of settlers from the Russian Empire began colonizing the territory of present-day Kazakhstan, in particular the province of Semirechye. The number of settlers rose still further once the Trans-Aral Railway from Orenburg to Tashkent was completed in 1906. A specially created Migration Department (Переселенческое Управление) in St. Petersburg oversaw and encouraged the migration to expand Russian influence in the area. During the 19th century about 400,000 Russians immigrated to Kazakhstan, and about one million Slavs, Germans, Jews, and others immigrated to the region during the first third of the 20th century. Vasile Balabanov was the administrator responsible for the resettlement during much of this time.\n\nThe competition for land and water that ensued between the Kazakh and the newcomers caused great resentment against colonial rule during the final years of Tsarist Russia. The most serious uprising, the Central Asian Revolt, occurred in 1916. The Kazakh attacked Russian and Cossack settlers and military garrisons. The revolt resulted in a series of clashes and in brutal massacres committed by both sides. Both sides resisted the communist government until late 1919.\n\nSoviet Union\n\nAlthough there was a brief period of autonomy (Alash Autonomy) during the tumultuous period following the collapse of the Russian Empire, the Kazakhs eventually succumbed to Soviet rule. In 1920, the area of present-day Kazakhstan became an autonomous republic within the Soviet Union.\n\nSoviet repression of the traditional elite, along with forced collectivization in the late 1920s–1930s, brought famine and high fatalities, leading to unrest. (see also: Famine in Kazakhstan of 1932–33). The Kazakh population declined by 38% due to starvation and mass emigration. Estimates today suggest that the population of Kazakhstan would be closer to 28–35 million if there had been no starvation or emigration of the Kazakh. \n\nDuring the 1930s, many renowned Kazakh writers, thinkers, poets, politicians and historians were killed on Stalin's orders, both as part of the Great Purge and as a methodical pattern of suppressing Kazakh identity and culture. Soviet rule took hold, and a Communist apparatus steadily worked to fully integrate Kazakhstan into the Soviet system. In 1936 Kazakhstan became a Soviet republic. Millions of political prisoners and undesired ethnic groups were internally exiled to Kazakhstan from other parts of the Soviet Union during the 1930s and 1940s; many of the deportation victims were deported to Siberia or Kazakhstan merely due to their ethnic heritage or beliefs. For example, after the German invasion in June 1941, the Soviets swept the area and transported approximately 400,000 Volga Germans from Western Russia to Kazakhstan.\n\nDeportees were interned in some of the biggest Soviet labor camps of the system, including ALZHIR camp outside Astana, which was reserved for the wives of men considered \"enemies of the people.\" Many moved due to the policy of population transfer in the Soviet Union and others were forced into involuntary settlements in the Soviet Union. The Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic contributed five national divisions to the Soviet Union's World War II effort. In 1947, two years after the end of the war, the USSR founded its Semipalatinsk Test Site, the main national nuclear weapon test site, near the city of Semey.\n\nWorld War II led to an increase in industrialisation and mineral extraction in support of the war effort. At the time of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin's death, however, Kazakhstan still had an overwhelmingly agriculturally based economy. In 1953, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev initiated the ambitious \"Virgin Lands\" program to turn the traditional pasture lands of Kazakhstan into a major grain-producing region for the Soviet Union. The Virgin Lands policy brought mixed results. However, along with later modernizations under Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev, it accelerated the development of the agricultural sector, which remains the source of livelihood for a large percentage of Kazakhstan's population. Because of the decades of privation, war and resettlement, by 1959 the Kazakh were a minority in the country, making up 30% of the population. Ethnic Russians accounted for 43%. \n\nFinally in the late 20th century, growing tensions within Soviet society led to a demand for political and economic reforms, which came to a head in the 1980s. A factor that contributed strongly to this was Lavrentii Beria's decision to test a nuclear bomb on the territory of Kazakh SSR in Semey in 1949. This had catastrophic ecological and biological consequences that were felt generations later, and Kazakh anger toward the Soviet system escalated.\n\nIn December 1986, mass demonstrations by young ethnic Kazakhs, later called the Jeltoqsan riot, took place in Almaty to protest the replacement of the First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Kazakh SSR Dinmukhamed Konayev with Gennady Kolbin from the Russian SFSR. Governmental troops suppressed the unrest, several people were killed, and many demonstrators were jailed. In the waning days of Soviet rule, discontent continued to grow and found expression under Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev's policy of glasnost.\n\nIndependence\n\nOn 16 December 1991, Kazakhstan became the last Soviet republic to declare independence. Its communist-era leader, Nursultan Nazarbayev, became the country's first President, a position he has since retained.\n\nKazakhstan declared its sovereignty as a republic within the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics in October 1990. Following the August 1991 aborted coup attempt in Moscow and the subsequent dissolution of the Soviet Union, Kazakhstan declared independence on 16 December 1991. Nazarbayev has ruled in an authoritarian manner, which was needed in the first years of independence. Emphasis was on converting to a market economy. Political reforms have lagged behind achievements in the economy. By 2006 Kazakhstan generated 60% of the GDP of Central Asia, primarily through its oil industry.\n\nThe government moved the capital in 1997, from Almaty, established under the Soviet Union and now Kazakhstan's largest city, to Astana.\n\nIn 2011 Switzerland confiscated $48 million US in Khazakh assets from Swiss bank accounts, as a result of a bribery investigation in the United States.\n US officials believed the funds represented bribes paid by American officials to Khazakh officials in exchange for oil or prospecting rights in Khazazkstan. Proceedings eventually involved $84 million in the US and another $60 million US in Switzerland\n\nGeography\n\nAs it extends across both sides of the Ural River, considered the dividing line with the European continent, Kazakhstan is one of only two landlocked countries in the world that has territory in two continents (the other is Azerbaijan).\n\nWith an area of - equivalent in size to Western Europe - Kazakhstan is the ninth-largest country and largest landlocked country in the world. While it was part of the Soviet Union, Kazakhstan lost some of its territory to China's Xinjiang autonomous region and some to Uzbekistan's Karakalpakstan autonomous republic.\n\nIt shares borders of 6846 km with Russia, 2203 km with Uzbekistan, 1533 km with China, 1051 km with Kyrgyzstan, and 379 km with Turkmenistan. Major cities include Astana, Almaty, Karagandy, Shymkent, Atyrau and Oskemen. It lies between latitudes 40° and 56° N, and longitudes 46° and 88° E. While located primarily in Asia, a small portion of Kazakhstan is also located west of the Urals in Eastern Europe. \n\nKazakhstan's terrain extends west to east from the Caspian Sea to the Altay Mountains and north to south from the plains of Western Siberia to the oases and deserts of Central Asia. The Kazakh Steppe (plain), with an area of around , occupies one-third of the country and is the world's largest dry steppe region. The steppe is characterized by large areas of grasslands and sandy regions. Major seas, lakes and rivers include the Aral Sea, Lake Balkhash and Lake Zaysan, the Charyn River and gorge and the Ili, Irtysh, Ishim, Ural and Syr Darya rivers.\n\nThe climate is continental, with warm summers and colder winters. Precipitation varies between arid and semi-arid conditions.\n\nThe Charyn Canyon is 80 km long, cutting through a red sandstone plateau and stretching along the Charyn River gorge in northern Tian Shan (\"Heavenly Mountains\", 200 km east of Almaty) at . The steep canyon slopes, columns and arches rise to heights of between 150 and 300 metres. The inaccessibility of the canyon provided a safe haven for a rare ash tree Fraxinus sogdiana that survived the Ice Age and is now also grown in some other areas. Bigach crater, at , is a Pliocene or Miocene asteroid impact crater, 8 km in diameter and estimated to be 5±3-million years old.\n\nAdministrative divisions\n\nKazakhstan is divided into fourteen regions (). The regions are subdivided into districts ().\n\nThe cities of Almaty and Astana have status \"state importance\" and do not belong to any region. The city of Baikonur has a special status because it is being leased until 2050 to Russia for the Baikonur cosmodrome.\n\nEach region is headed by an akim (regional governor) appointed by the president. Municipal akims [akimi?] are appointed by region akims. Kazakhstan's government relocated its capital from Almaty, established under the Soviet Union, to Astana on 10 December 1997.\n\nPolitics\n\nPolitical system\n\nKazakhstan is a unitary republic. Its first and, to date (2016), only President is Nursultan Nazarbayev. The President may veto legislation that has been passed by the Parliament and is also the commander in chief of the armed forces. The Prime Minister chairs the Cabinet of Ministers and serves as Kazakhstan's head of government. There are three deputy prime ministers and sixteen ministers in the Cabinet.\n\nKazakhstan has a bicameral Parliament composed of the Majilis (the lower house) and Senate (the upper house). Single-mandate districts popularly elect 107 seats in the Majilis; there also are ten members elected by party-list vote. The Senate has 47 members. Two senators are selected by each of the elected assemblies (Maslikhats) of Kazakhstan's sixteen principal administrative divisions (fourteen regions plus the cities of Astana and Almaty). The President appoints the remaining seven senators. Majilis deputies and the government both have the right of legislative initiative, though the government proposes most legislation considered by the Parliament.\n\nPolitical culture\n\nElections to the Majilis in September 2004, yielded a lower house dominated by the pro-government Otan Party, headed by President Nazarbayev. Two other parties considered sympathetic to the president, including the agrarian-industrial bloc AIST and the Asar Party, founded by President Nazarbayev's daughter, won most of the remaining seats. Opposition parties, which were officially registered and competed in the elections, won a single seat during elections. The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe was monitoring the election, which it said fell short of international standards.\n\nIn 1999, Kazakhstan had applied for observer status at the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly. The official response of the Assembly was that Kazakhstan could apply for full membership, because it is partially located in Europe, but that they would not be granted any status whatsoever at the Council until their democracy and human rights records improved.\n\nOn 4 December 2005, Nursultan Nazarbayev was reelected in an apparent landslide victory. The electoral commission announced that he had won over 90% of the vote. The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) concluded the election did not meet international standards despite some improvements in the administration of the election. \n\nOn 17 August 2007, elections to the lower house of parliament were held and a coalition led by the ruling Nur-Otan Party, which included the Asar Party, the Civil Party of Kazakhstan, and the Agrarian Party, won every seat with 88% of the vote. None of the opposition parties has reached the benchmark 7% level of the seats. Opposition parties made accusations of serious irregularities in the election. Daan Everts, OSCE mission chief at the time, said: 'It has not been a competitive race.' \n\nIn 2010, President Nazarbayev rejected a call from supporters to hold a referendum to keep him in office until 2020. He insisted on presidential elections for a five-year term. In a vote held on 3 April 2011, President Nazarbayev received 95.54% of the vote with 89.9% of registered voters participating. In March 2011, Nazarbayev outlined the progress made toward democracy by Kazakhstan. , Kazakhstan was reported on the Democracy Index by The Economist as an authoritarian regime.\n\nOn 26 April 2015, the 5th presidential election was held in Kazakhstan. Nursultan Nazarbayev was re-elected with 97.7% of votes.\n\nForeign relations \n\nKazakhstan is a member of the United Nations, Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC). It is an active participant in the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation Partnership for Peace program.\n\nOn 11 April 2010, Presidents Nazarbayev and Obama met at the Nuclear Security Summit in Washington, D.C., and discussed strengthening the strategic partnership between the United States and Kazakhstan. They pledged to intensify bilateral cooperation to promote nuclear safety and non-proliferation, regional stability in Central Asia, economic prosperity, and universal values. \n\nIn April 2011, President Obama called President Nazarbayev and discussed many cooperative efforts regarding nuclear security, including securing nuclear material from the BN-350 reactor. They reviewed progress on meeting goals that the two presidents established during their bilateral meeting at the Nuclear Security Summit in 2010. \n\nKazakhstan is also a member of the Commonwealth of Independent States, the Economic Cooperation Organization and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. The nations of Kazakhstan, Russia, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan established the Eurasian Economic Community in 2000, to revive earlier efforts to harmonize trade tariffs and to create a free trade zone under a customs union. On 1 December 2007, it was announced that Kazakhstan had been chosen to chair the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe for the year 2010. Kazakhstan was elected a member of the UN Human Rights Council for the first time on 12 November 2012. \n\nSince independence in 1991, Kazakhstan has pursued what is known as the \"multivector foreign policy\" (), seeking equally good relations with its two large neighbors, Russia and China as well as with the United States and the rest of the Western world. \nRussia currently leases approximately 6000 km² of territory enclosing the Baikonur Cosmodrome space launch site in south central Kazakhstan, where the first man was launched into space as well as Soviet space shuttle Buran and the well-known space station Mir.\n\nSince 2014 the Kazakh government has been bidding for a non-permanent member seat on the UN Security Council for 2017–2018. That election is to be held in November 2016 at the General Assembly in New York.\n\nKazakhstan actively supports UN peacekeeping missions in Haiti, the Western Sahara, and Côte d'Ivoire. In March 2014, the Ministry of Defense chose 20 Kazakh military men as observers for the UN peacekeeping missions. The military personnel, ranking from captain to colonel, had to go through a specialized UN training; they had to be fluent English and skilled in using specialized military vehicles.\n\nIn 2014, Kazakhstan gave Ukraine humanitarian aid during the conflict with Russian-backed rebels. In October 2014, Kazakhstan donated $30,000 to the International Committee of the Red Cross's humanitarian effort in Ukraine. In January 2015, to help the humanitarian crisis, Kazakhstan sent $400,000 of aid to Ukraine's southeastern regions.\nPresident Nazarbayev said of the war in Ukraine, \"The fratricidal war has brought true devastation to eastern Ukraine, and it is a common task to stop the war there, strengthen Ukraine’s independence and secure territorial integrity of Ukraine.\"\nExperts believe that no matter how the Ukraine crisis develops, Kazakhstan’s relations with the European Union will remain normal. It is believed that Nazarbayev’s mediation is positively received by both Russia and Ukraine.\n\nKazakhstan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs released a statement on 26 January 2015: \"We are firmly convinced that there is no alternative to peace negotiations as a way to resolve the crisis in the south-eastern Ukraine.\"\n\nMilitary\n\nMost of Kazakhstan's military was inherited from the Soviet Armed Forces' Turkestan Military District. These units became the core of Kazakhstan's new military. It acquired all the units of the 40th Army (the former 32nd Army) and part of the 17th Army Corps, including six land-force divisions, storage bases, the 14th and 35th air-landing brigades, two rocket brigades, two artillery regiments and a large amount of equipment which had been withdrawn from over the Urals after the signing of the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe. Since the late 20th century, the Kazakhstan Army has focused on expanding the number of its armored units. Since 1990, armored units have expanded from 500 to 1,613 in 2005.\n\nThe Kazakh air force is composed mostly of Soviet-era planes, including 41 MiG-29s, 44 MiG-31s, 37 Su-24s and 60 Su-27s. A small naval force is maintained on the Caspian Sea.\n\nKazakhstan sent 49 military engineers to Iraq to assist the US post-invasion mission in Iraq. During the second Iraq War, Kazakhstani troops dismantled 4 million mines and other explosives, helped provide medical care to more than 5,000 coalition members and civilians, and purified 718 m3 of water. \n\nKazakhstan's National Security Committee (UQK) was established on 13 June 1992. It includes the Service of Internal Security, Military Counterintelligence, Border Guard, several Commando units, and Foreign Intelligence (Barlau). The latter is considered as the most important part of KNB. Its director is Nurtai Abykayev.\n\nSince 2002 the joint tactical peacekeeping exercise \"Steppe Eagle\" has been hosted by the Kazakhstan government. \"Steppe Eagle\" focuses on building coalitions and gives participating nations the opportunity to work together. During the Steppe Eagle exercises, the Kazbat peacekeeping battalion operates within a multinational force under a unified command within multidisciplinary peacekeeping operations, with NATO and the U.S. Military.\n\nIn December 2013, Kazakhstan announced it will send officers to support United Nations Peacekeeping forces in Haiti, Western Sahara, Ivory Coast and Liberia.\n\nHuman rights \n\nAccording to a US government report released in 2014, in Kazakhstan:\n\n\"The law does not require police to inform detainees that they have the right to an attorney, and police did not do so. Human rights observers alleged that law enforcement officials dissuaded detainees from seeing an attorney, gathered evidence through preliminary questioning before a detainee’s attorney arrived, and in some cases used corrupt defense attorneys to gather evidence. [...]\n\n\"The law does not adequately provide for an independent judiciary. The executive branch sharply limited judicial independence. Prosecutors enjoyed a quasi-judicial role and had the authority to suspend court decisions. Corruption was evident at every stage of the judicial process. Although judges were among the most highly paid government employees, lawyers and human rights monitors alleged that judges, prosecutors, and other officials solicited bribes in exchange for favorable rulings in the majority of criminal cases.\"[http://www.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/humanrightsreport/index.htm?year\n2013&dlid=220395#wrapper \"Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2013: Kazakhstan\"], released by the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor. Retrieved on November 1, 2015\n\nKazakhstan's global rank in the World Justice Project's 2015 Rule of Law Index was 65 out of 102; the country scored well on \"Order and Security\" (global rank 32/102), and poorly on \"Constraints on Government Powers\" (global rank 93/102), \"Open Government\" (85/102) and \"Fundamental Rights\" (84/102, with a downward trend marking a deterioration in conditions).\n\nThe ABA Rule of Law Initiative of the American Bar Association has programs to train justice sector professionals in Kazakhstan.\n\nKazakhstan’s Supreme Court has taken recent steps to modernize and to increase transparency and oversight over the country’s legal system. With funding from the US Agency for International Development, the ABA Rule of Law Initiative began a new program in April 2012 to strengthen the independence and accountability of Kazakhstan’s judiciary.\n\nEconomy\n\nKazakhstan has the largest and strongest performing economy in Central Asia. Supported by rising oil output and prices, Kazakhstan’s economy grew at an average of 8% per year until 2013, before suffering a slowdown in 2014 and 2015 Kazakhstan was the first former Soviet Republic to repay all of its debt to the International Monetary Fund, 7 years ahead of schedule.\n\nBuoyed by high world crude oil prices, GDP growth figures were between 8.9% and 13.5% from 2000 to 2007 before decreasing to 1–3% in 2008 and 2009, and then rising again from 2010. Other major exports of Kazakhstan include wheat, textiles, and livestock. Kazakhstan is a leading exporter of uranium. \n\nKazakhstan’s economy grew by 4.6% in 2014. The country experienced a slowdown in economic growth from 2014 sparked by falling oil prices and the effects of the Ukrainian crisis The country devalued its currency by 19% in February 2014. Another 22% devaluation occurred in August 2015. \n\nKazakhstan’s fiscal situation is stable. The government has continued to follow a conservative fiscal policy by controlling budget spending and accumulating oil revenue savings in its Oil Fund – Samruk-Kazyna. The global financial crisis forced Kazakhstan to increase its public borrowing to support the economy. Public debt increased to 13.4 per cent in 2013 from 8.7 per cent in 2008. Between 2012 and 2013, the government achieved an overall fiscal surplus of 4.5 per cent.\n\nSince 2002, Kazakhstan has sought to manage strong inflows of foreign currency without sparking inflation. Inflation has not been under strict control, however, registering 6.6% in 2002, 6.8% in 2003, and 6.4% in 2004.\n\nIn March 2002, the U.S. Department of Commerce granted Kazakhstan market economy status under U.S. trade law. This change in status recognized substantive market economy reforms in the areas of currency convertibility, wage rate determination, openness to foreign investment, and government control over the means of production and allocation of resources.\n\nEconomic stewardship during the Global Financial Crisis\n\nKazakhstan weathered the global financial crisis well, by combining fiscal relaxation with monetary stabilization. In 2009, the government introduced large-scale support measures such as the recapitalization of banks and support for the real estate and agricultural sectors, as well as for small and medium enterprises (SMEs). The total value of the stimulus programs amounted to $21 billion, or 20 per cent of the country’s GDP, with $4 billion going to stabilize the financial sector. During the global economic crisis, Kazakhstan’s economy contracted by 1.2% in 2009, while the annual growth rate subsequently increased to 7.5% and 5% in 2011 and 2012, respectively.\n\nIn September 2002, Kazakhstan became the first country in the CIS to receive an investment grade credit rating from a major international credit rating agency. As of late December 2003, Kazakhstan's gross foreign debt was about $22.9 billion. Total governmental debt was $4.2 billion, 14% of GDP. There has been a reduction in the ratio of debt to GDP. The ratio of total governmental debt to GDP in 2000, was 21.7%; in 2001, it was 17.5%, and in 2002, it was 15.4%.\n\nEconomic growth, combined with earlier tax and financial sector reforms, has dramatically improved government finance from the 1999 budget deficit level of 3.5% of GDP to a deficit of 1.2% of GDP in 2003. Government revenues grew from 19.8% of GDP in 1999 to 22.6% of GDP in 2001, but decreased to 16.2% of GDP in 2003. In 2000, Kazakhstan adopted a new tax code in an effort to consolidate these gains.\n\nOn 29 November 2003, the Law on Changes to Tax Code which reduced tax rates was adopted. The value added tax fell from 16% to 15%, the social tax, from 21% to 20%, and the personal income tax, from 30% to 20%. On 7 July 2006, the personal income tax was reduced even further to a flat rate of 5% for personal income in the form of dividends and 10% for other personal income. Kazakhstan furthered its reforms by adopting a new land code on 20 June 2003, and a new customs code on 5 April 2003.\n\nEnergy is the leading economic sector. Production of crude oil and natural gas condensate from the oil and gas basins of Kazakhstan amounted to 79.2 million tons in 2012 up from 51.2 million tons in 2003. Kazakhstan raised oil and gas condensate exports to 44.3 million tons in 2003, 13% higher than in 2002. Gas production in Kazakhstan in 2003, amounted to 13.9 billion cubic meters (491 billion cu. ft), up 22.7% compared to 2002, including natural gas production of 7.3 billion cubic meters (258 billion cu. ft). Kazakhstan holds about 4 billion tons of proven recoverable oil reserves and 2,000 cubic kilometers (480 cu mi) of gas. According to industry analysts, expansion of oil production and the development of new fields will enable the country to produce as much as 3 Moilbbl per day by 2015, and Kazakhstan would be among the top 10 oil-producing nations in the world. Kazakhstan's oil exports in 2003, were valued at more than $7 billion, representing 65% of overall exports and 24% of the GDP. Major oil and gas fields and recoverable oil reserves are Tengiz with 7 Goilbbl; Karachaganak with 8 Goilbbl and 1,350 km³ of natural gas; and Kashagan with 7 to 9 Goilbbl.\n\nKazakhstan instituted an ambitious pension reform program in 1998. As of 1 January 2012, the pension assets were about $17 billion (KZT 2.5 trillion). There are 11 saving pension funds in the country. The State Accumulating Pension Fund, the only state-owned fund, was privatized in 2006. The country's unified financial regulatory agency oversees and regulates the pension funds. The growing demand of the pension funds for quality investment outlets triggered rapid development of the debt securities market. Pension fund capital is being invested almost exclusively in corporate and government bonds, including government of Kazakhstan Eurobonds. The government of Kazakhstan is studying a project to create a unified national pension fund and transfer all the accounts from the private pension funds into it. \n\nThe banking system of Kazakhstan is developing rapidly and the system's capitalization now exceeds $1 billion. The National Bank has introduced deposit insurance in its campaign to strengthen the banking sector. Due to troubling and non-performing bad assets the bank sector yet is at risk to lose stability. Several major foreign banks have branches in Kazakhstan, including RBS, Citibank, and HSBC. Kookmin and UniCredit have both recently entered the Kazakhstan's financial services market through acquisitions and stake-building.\n\nAccording to the 2010–11 World Economic Forum in Global Competitiveness Report, Kazakhstan was ranked 72nd in the world in economic competitiveness. \nOne year later, the Global Competitiveness Report ranked Kazakhstan 50th in most competitive markets. \n\nIn 2012, Kazakhstan attracted $14 billion of foreign direct investment inflows into the country at a 7% growth rate making it the most attractive place to invest out of CIS nations. \n\nDuring the first half of 2013, Kazakhstan's fixed investment increased 7.1% compared to the same period in 2012 totaling 2.8 trillion tenge ($18 billion US dollars). \n\nIn 2013, Aftenposten quoted the human-rights activist and lawyer Denis Jivaga as saying that there is an \"oil fund in Kazakhstan, but nobody knows how the income is spent\". \n\nMacroeconomic trends\n\nKazakhstan’s economy grew at an average of 8% per year over the past decade on the back of hydrocarbon exports. Despite the lingering uncertainty of the global economy, Kazakhstan’s economy has been stable. GDP growth in January–September 2013 was 5.7%, according to preliminary calculations of the Ministry Economy and Budget Planning.\n\nFrom January to September 2014 Kazakhstan's GDP grew at 4%. According to the results from the first half of the year, the current account surplus is $6.6 billion, a figure two times higher than that of the first half of 2013. According to the Chairman of the National Bank of Kazakhstan, Kairat Kelimbetov, the increase was caused by a trade surplus of 17.4 percent, or approximately USD 22.6 billion. The overall inflation rate for 2014 is forecasted at 7.4 percent.\n\nAgriculture\n\nAgriculture accounts for approximately 5% of Kazakhstan's GDP. Grain, potatoes, vegetables, melons and livestock are the most important agricultural commodities. Agricultural land occupies more than 846000 km2. The available agricultural land consists of 205000 km2 of arable land and 611000 km2 of pasture and hay land. Over 80% of the country’s total area is classified as agricultural land, including almost 70% occupied by pasture. Its arable land has the second highest availability per inhabitant (1.5 hectares).\n\nChief livestock products are dairy products, leather, meat, and wool. The country's major crops include wheat, barley, cotton, and rice. Wheat exports, a major source of hard currency, rank among the leading commodities in Kazakhstan's export trade. In 2003 Kazakhstan harvested 17.6 million tons of grain in gross, 2.8% higher compared to 2002. Kazakh agriculture still has many environmental problems from mismanagement during its years in the Soviet Union. Some Kazakh wine is produced in the mountains to the east of Almaty.\n\nKazakhstan is thought to be one of the places that the apple originated, particularly the wild ancestor of Malus domestica, Malus sieversii. It has no common name in English, but is known in its native Kazakhstan as alma. The region where it is thought to originate is called Almaty: \"rich with apple\". This tree is still found wild in the mountains of Central Asia, in southern Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Xinjiang in China.\n\nNatural resources\n\nKazakhstan has an abundant supply of accessible mineral and fossil fuel resources. Development of petroleum, natural gas, and mineral extractions, has attracted most of the over $40 billion in foreign investment in Kazakhstan since 1993 and accounts for some 57% of the nation's industrial output (or approximately 13% of gross domestic product). According to some estimates, Kazakhstan has the second largest uranium, chromium, lead, and zinc reserves, the third largest manganese reserves, the fifth largest copper reserves, and ranks in the top ten for coal, iron, and gold. It is also an exporter of diamonds. Perhaps most significant for economic development, Kazakhstan also currently has the 11th largest proven reserves of both petroleum and natural gas. \n\nIn total, there are 160 deposits with over 2.7 billion tons of petroleum. Oil explorations have shown that the deposits on the Caspian shore are only a small part of a much larger deposit. It is said that 3.5 billion tons of oil and 2.5 trillion cubic meters of gas could be found in that area. Overall the estimate of Kazakhstan's oil deposits is 6.1 billion tons. However, there are only 3 refineries within the country, situated in Atyrau, Pavlodar, and Shymkent. These are not capable of processing the total crude output so much of it is exported to Russia. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration Kazakhstan was producing approximately 1540000 oilbbl of oil per day in 2009. \n\nKazakhstan also possesses large deposits of phosphorite. One of the largest known being the Karatau basin with 650 million tonnes of P2O5 and Chilisai deposit of Aktyubinsk/Aqtobe phosphorite basin located in north western Kazakhstan, with a resource of 500–800 million tonnes of 9% ore. \n\nOn 17 October 2013, the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) accepted Kazakhstan as \"EITI Compliant\", meaning that the country has a basic and functional process to ensure the regular disclosure of natural resource revenues. \n\nTransport\n\nMost cities are connected by railroad; high-speed trains go from Almaty (the southernmost city) to Petropavl (the northernmost city) in about 18 hours. \n\nBanking\n\nThe banking industry of the Republic of Kazakhstan experienced a pronounced boom and bust cycle over 2000s decade. After several years of rapid expansion in the mid-2000s, the banking industry collapsed in 2008. Several large banking groups, including BTA Bank J.S.C. and Alliance Bank, defaulted soon after. Since then, the industry has shrunk and been restructured, with system-wide loans dropping to 39% of GDP in 2011 from 59% in 2007. Although the Russian and Kazakh banking systems share several common features, there are also some fundamental differences. Banks in Kazakhstan have experienced a lengthy period of political stability and economic growth. Together with a rational approach to banking and finance policy, this has helped push Kazakhstan’s banking system to a higher level of development. Banking technology and personnel qualifications alike are stronger in Kazakhstan than in Russia. On the negative side, past stability in Kazakhstan arose from the concentration of virtually all political power in the hands of a single individual – the key factor in any assessment of system or country risk. The potential is there for serious disturbances if and when authority passes into new hands. \n\nGreen economy\n\nThe government has set the goals that a transition to the Green Economy in Kazakhstan occur by 2050. The green economy is projected to increase GDP by 3% and create more than 500 thousand new jobs.\n\nThe government of Kazakhstan has set prices for energy produced from renewable sources. The price of 1 kilowatt-hour for energy produced by wind power plants was set at 22.68 tenge ($0.12). The price for 1 kilowatt-hour produced by small hydro-power plants is 16.71 tenge ($0.09), and from biogas plants 32.23 tenge ($0.18).\n\nForeign direct investment\n\nAs of 30 September 2012, foreign investors had placed a total of $177.7 billion in Kazakhstan. According to the US State Department, Kazakhstan is widely considered to have the best investment climate in the region. In 2002 the country became the first sovereign in the former Soviet Union to receive an investment-grade credit rating from an international credit rating agency. Foreign direct investment (FDI) plays a more significant role in the national economy than in most other former Soviet republics.\n\nPresident Nazarbayev signed into law tax concessions to promote foreign direct investment which include a 10-year exemption from corporation tax, an 8-year exemption from property tax, and a 10-year freeze on most other taxes. Other incentives include a refund on capital investments of up to 30 percent once a production facility is in operation.\n\nSir Suma Chakrabarti, the President of the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), co-chaired the Kazakhstan Foreign Investors’ Council with President Nursultan Nazarbayev. In May 2014, the EBRD and government of Kazakhstan created the Partnership for Re-Energizing the Reform Process in Kazakhstan to work with international financial institutions to channel US$2.7 billion provided by the Kazakh government into important sectors of Kazakhstan’s economy. The partnership will boost investment and drive forward reforms in the country.\n\nAs of May 2014, Kazakhstan attracted $190 billion in gross foreign investments since its independence in 1991 and it leads the CIS countries in terms of FDI attracted per capita. One of the factors that attract foreign direct investments is country's political stability. According to the World Bank's report, Kazakhstan is among the top 40% of countries in the world that are considered the most politically stable and free of violence.\n\nKazakhstan also received high ratings in a survey conducted by Ernst & Young in 2014. According to EY's 2014 Kazakhstan Attractiveness Survey, \"Investor confidence in Kazakhstan’s potential is also at an all-time high with 47.3% of respondents expecting Kazakhstan to become increasingly attractive over the next three years.\" The high level of economic, political and social stability and Kazakhstan’s competitive corporate tax rate were the primary reasons mentioned for its attractiveness.\n\nBond market\n\nIn October 2014, Kazakhstan introduced its first overseas dollar bonds in 14 years. Kazakhstan issued $2.5 billion of 10- and 30-year bonds on 5 October 2014, in what was the nation’s first dollar-denominated overseas sale since 2000. Kazakhstan sold $1.5 billion of 10-year dollar bonds to yield 1.5 percentage points above midswaps and $1 billion of 30-year debt at 2 percentage points over midswaps. The country drew bids for $11 billion.\n\nEconomic competitiveness\n\nKazakhstan achieved its goal of entering the top 50 most competitive countries in 2013, and has maintained its position in the 2014–2015 World Economic Forum Global Competitiveness Report that was published at the beginning of September 2014. Kazakhstan is ahead of other states in the CIS in almost all of the report’s pillars of competitiveness, including institutions, infrastructure, macroeconomic environment, higher education and training, goods market efficiency, labour market development, financial market development, technological readiness, market size, business sophistication and innovation, lagging behind only in the category of health and primary education. The Global Competitiveness Index gives a score from 1 to 7 in each of these pillars, and Kazakhstan earned an overall score of 4.4.\n\nHousing market\n\nThe housing market of Kazakhstan has grown since 2010. In 2013, the total housing area in Kazakhstan amounted to 336.1 million square meters. The housing stock rose over the year to 32.7 million squares, which is nearly 11% increase. Between 2012 and 2013, the living area per Kazakh citizen rose from 19.6 to 20.9 square meters. The urban areas concentrate 62.5 percent of the country’s housing stock. \nThe UN’s recommended standard for housing stands at 30 square meters per person. Kazakhstan will be able to reach the UN standards by 2019 or 2020, if in the medium term the housing growth rate remains within 7 percent.\n\n\"Nurly Zhol\" economic policy\n\nOn 11 November 2014, President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev delivered an unexpected state-of-the-nation address in Astana at an extended session of the Political Council of the Nur Otan party, introducing a \"Nurly Zhol\" (Bright Path), a new economic policy that implies massive state investment in infrastructure over the next several years. The \"Nurly Zhol\" policy is accepted as preventive measures needed to help steer the economy towards sustainable growth in the context of the modern global economic and geopolitical challenges, such as the 25%-reduction in the oil price, reciprocal sanctions between the West and Russia over Ukraine, etc. The policy embraces all aspects of economic growth, including finances, industry and social welfare, but especially esemphasises investments into the development of infrastructure and construction works. Given recent decreases in revenues from the export of raw materials, funds will be used from Kazakhstan’s National Fund.\n\nCorruption\n\nIn 2005, the World Bank listed Kazakhstan as a corruption hotspot, on a par with Angola, Bolivia, Kenya, Libya and Pakistan. In 2012, Kazakhstan ranked low in an index of the least corrupt countries and the World Economic Forum listed corruption as the biggest problem in doing business in the country.\nThe Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Kazakh Anti-Corruption Agency signed a Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty in February 2015.\n\nDemographics\n\nThe US Census Bureau International Database lists the current population of Kazakhstan as 15,460,484, while United Nations sources such as the UN Population Division give an estimate of 15,753,460. Official estimates put the population of Kazakhstan at 16.455 million as of February 2011, of which 46% is rural and 54% is urban. In 2013, Kazakhstan's population rose to 17,280,000 with a 1.7% growth rate over the past year according to the Kazakhstan Statistics Agency. \n\nThe 2009 population estimate is 6.8% higher than the population reported in the last census from January 1999. The decline in population that began after 1989 has been arrested and possibly reversed. Men and women make up 48.3% and 51.7% of the population, respectively.\n\nEthnic groups \n\nEthnic Kazakhs are 63.1% of the population and ethnic Russians in Kazakhstan are 23.7%. Other groups include Tatars (1.3%), Ukrainians (2.1%), Uzbeks (2.8%), Belarusians, Uyghurs (1.4%), Azerbaijanis, Poles, and Lithuanians. Some minorities such as Germans (1.1%), Ukrainians, Koreans, Chechens, Meskhetian Turks, and Russian political opponents of the regime had been deported to Kazakhstan in the 1930s and 1940s by Stalin. Some of the largest Soviet labour camps (Gulag) existed in the country. \n\nSignificant Russian immigration also connected with Virgin Lands Campaign and Soviet space program during the Khrushchev era. In 1989, ethnic Russians were 37.8% of the population and Kazakhs held a majority in only 7 of the 20 regions of the country. Before 1991 there were about 1 million Germans in Kazakhstan, mostly descendants of the Volga Germans deported to Kazakhstan during World War II. After the breakup of the Soviet Union, most of them emigrated to Germany. Most members of the smaller Pontian Greek minority have emigrated to Greece. In the late 1930s thousands of Koreans in the Soviet Union were deported to Central Asia. These people are now known as Koryo-saram.\n\nThe 1990s were marked by the emigration of many of the country's Russians and Volga Germans, a process that began in the 1970s. This has made indigenous Kazakhs the largest ethnic group. Additional factors in the increase in the Kazakh population are higher birthrates and immigration of ethnic Kazakhs from China, Mongolia, and Russia.\n\nLanguages \n\nKazakhstan is officially a bilingual country. Kazakh, a Turkic language spoken natively by 64.4% of the population, has the status of \"state\" language, whereas Russian, which is spoken by most Kazakhstanis, is declared an \"official\" language, and is used routinely in business, government, and inter-ethnic communication, although Kazakh is slowly replacing it. \n\nThe government announced in January 2015 that the Latin alphabet will replace Cyrillic as the writing system for the Kazakh language by 2025. Other minority languages spoken in Kazakhstan include Uzbek, Ukrainian, Uyghur, Kyrgyz, and Tatar. English, as well as Turkish, have gained popularity among younger people since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Education across Kazakhstan is conducted in either Kazakh, Russian, or both. \n\nUrban centres \n\nReligion\n\nAccording to the 2009 Census, 70% of the population is Muslim, 26% Christian, 0.1% Buddhists, 0.2% others (mostly Jews), and 3% Irreligious, while 0.5% chose not to answer. According to its Constitution, Kazakhstan is a secular state.\n\nReligious freedoms are guaranteed by Article 39 of Kazakhstan's Constitution. Article 39 states: \"Human rights and freedoms shall not be restricted in any way.\" Article 14 prohibits \"discrimination on religious basis\" and Article 19 ensures that everyone has the \"right to determine and indicate or not to indicate his/her ethnic, party and religious affiliation.\" The Constitutional Council recently affirmed these rights by ruling that a proposed law limiting the rights of certain individuals to practice their religion was declared unconstitutional.\n\nIslam is the largest religion in Kazakhstan, followed by Orthodox Christianity. After decades of religious suppression by the Soviet Union, the coming of independence witnessed a surge in expression of ethnic identity, partly through religion. The free practice of religious beliefs and the establishment of full freedom of religion led to an increase of religious activity. Hundreds of mosques, churches, and other religious structures were built in the span of a few years, with the number of religious associations rising from 670 in 1990 to 4,170 today.\n\nSome figures show that non-denominational Muslims form the majority, while others indicate that most Muslims in the country are Sunnis following the Hanafi school. These include ethnic Kazakhs, who constitute about 60% of the population, as well as ethnic Uzbeks, Uighurs, and Tatars. Less than 1% are part of the Sunni Shafi`i school (primarily Chechens). There are also some Ahmadi Muslims. There are a total of 2,300 mosques, all of them are affiliated with the \"Spiritual Association of Muslims of Kazakhstan\", headed by a supreme mufti. Unaffiliated mosques are forcefully closed. Eid al-Adha is recognized as a national holiday.\n\nOne quarter of the population is Russian Orthodox, including ethnic Russians, Ukrainians and Belorussians. Other Christian groups include Roman Catholics and Protestants. There are a total of 258 Orthodox churches, 93 Catholic churches, and over 500 Protestant churches and prayer houses. The Russian Orthodox Christmas is recognized as a national holiday in Kazakhstan. Other religious groups include Judaism, the Bahá'í Faith, Hinduism, Buddhism, and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.\n\nAccording to the 2009 Census data, there are very few Christians outside the Slavic and Germanic ethnic groups: \n\nEducation\n\nEducation is universal and mandatory through to the secondary level and the adult literacy rate is 99.5%. Education consists of three main phases: primary education (forms 1–4), basic general education (forms 5–9) and senior level education (forms 10–11 or 12) divided into continued general education and vocational education. Vocational Education usually lasts 3 or 4 years. (Primary education is preceded by one year of pre-school education.) These levels can be followed in one institution or in different ones (e.g., primary school, then secondary school). Recently, several secondary schools, specialized schools, magnet schools, gymnasiums, lyceums and linguistic and technical gymnasiums have been founded. Secondary professional education is offered in special professional or technical schools, lyceums or colleges and vocational schools.\n\nAt present, there are universities, academies and institutes, conservatories, higher schools and higher colleges. There are three main levels: basic higher education that provides the fundamentals of the chosen field of study and leads to the award of the Bachelor's degree; specialized higher education after which students are awarded the Specialist's Diploma; and scientific-pedagogical higher education which leads to the Master's Degree. Postgraduate education leads to the Kandidat Nauk (\"Candidate of Sciences\") and the Doctor of Sciences (Ph.D.). With the adoption of the Laws on Education and on Higher Education, a private sector has been established and several private institutions have been licensed.\n\nOver 2,500 students in Kazakhstan have applied for student loans totaling about $9 million. The largest number of student loans come from Almaty, Astana and Kyzylorda. \n\nThe training and skills development programs in Kazakhstan are also supported by international organizations. For example, on 30 March 2015, the World Banks' Group of Executive Directors approved a $100 million loan for the Skills and Job project in Kazakhstan. The project aims to provide relevant training to unemployed, unproductively self-employed, and current employees in need of training.\n\nCulture\n\nBefore the Russian colonization, the Kazakhs had a highly developed culture based on their nomadic pastoral economy. Islam was introduced into the region with the arrival of the Arabs in the 8th century. It initially took hold in the southern parts of Turkestan and spread northward. The Samanids helped the religion take root through zealous missionary work. The Golden Horde further propagated Islam amongst the tribes in the region during the 14th century. \n\nBecause livestock was central to the Kazakhs' traditional lifestyle, most of their nomadic practices and customs relate in some way to livestock. Kazakhs have historically been very passionate about horse-riding. \n\nKazakhstan is home to a large number of prominent contributors to literature, science and philosophy: Abay Qunanbayuli, Mukhtar Auezov, Gabit Musirepov, Kanysh Satpayev, Mukhtar Shakhanov, Saken Seyfullin, Jambyl Jabayev, among many others.\n\nTourism is a rapidly growing industry in Kazakhstan and it is joining the international tourism networking. In 2010, Kazakhstan joined The Region Initiative (TRI) which is a Tri-regional Umbrella of Tourism related organisations. TRI is functioning as a link between three regions: South Asia, Central Asia and Eastern Europe. Armenia, Bangladesh, India, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Nepal, Tajikistan, Russia, Sri Lanka, Turkey and Ukraine are now Partners and Kazakhstan is linked with other South Asian, Eastern European and Central Asian countries in tourism market.\n\nCuisine\n\nIn the national cuisine, livestock meat can be cooked in a variety of ways and is usually served with a wide assortment of traditional bread products. Refreshments often include black tea and traditional milk-derived drinks such as ayran, shubat and kymyz. A traditional Kazakh dinner involves a multitude of appetisers on the table, followed by a soup and one or two main courses such as pilaf and beshbarmak. They also drink their national beverage, which consists of fermented mare's milk. \n\nSport\n\nKazakhstan has developed itself as a formidable sports-force on the world arena in the following fields: bandy, boxing, chess, kickboxing, skiing, gymnastics, water polo, cycling, martial arts, heavy athletics, horse-riding, triathlon, track hurdles, sambo, Greco-Roman wrestling and billiards. The following are all well-known Kazakhstani athletes and world-championship medalists: Bekzat Sattarkhanov, Vassiliy Jirov, Alexander Vinokourov, Bulat Jumadilov, Mukhtarkhan Dildabekov, Olga Shishigina, Andrey Kashechkin, Aliya Yussupova, Dmitriy Karpov, Darmen Sadvakasov, Yeldos Ikhsangaliyev, Askhat Zhitkeyev, Maxim Rakov, Aidar Kabimollayev, Yermakhan Ibraimov, Vladimir Smirnov, Ilya Ilin, Denis Ten.\n\nIn December 2014, the outgoing head of Kazakhstan's football federation, Adilbek Zhaksybekov, said Kazakhstan was planning bidding to host 2026 FIFA World Cup.\n\n; 2011 Asian Winter Games : Hosted by Kazakhstan.\n\n; Figure skating: Denis Ten won bronze at the 2014 Winter Olympics, and a silver and bronze medal at the 2013 World Figure Skating Championships and 2015 World Figure Skating Championships respectively. \n; Football : The most popular sport in Kazakhstan. The Football Federation of Kazakhstan (FFK; ) is the sport's national governing body. The FFK organises the men's, women's and Futsal national teams.\n\n; Ice hockey : The Kazakhstani national ice hockey team has competed in ice hockey in the 1998 and 2006 Winter Olympics as well as in the 2006 Men's World Ice Hockey Championships.\n\n; Cycling : Cycling is a popular activity throughout the country. Kazakhstan's most famous cyclist is Alexander Vinokourov. \n\n; Boxing : Since independence in 1991, Kazakhstan's boxers have won many medals, quickly moving up the all-time Olympic boxing medal table from last to a current 11th place. Three Kazakh boxers, Bakhtiyar Artayev, Vassiliy Jirov and Serik Sapiyev, have won the Val Barker Trophy, leaving Kazakhstan second (after the United States) in total number of victories.\nWorld IBF, WBO and IBO heavyweight champion Vladimir Klitschko was born in Kazakhstan in 1976. Additionally, undefeated middleweight Gennady Golovkin holds the WBA and IBO titles, as well as the WBC interim title. He is also currently on a streak of 20 consecutive knockout victories.\n\n; Bandy : The Kazakhstan national bandy team is among the best in the world and has won the bronze medal at the Bandy World Championship many times, including the last time in 2015. In the 2011 Bandy World Championship, the team reached extra time in the semifinal before their defeat by Sweden. The 2012 Championship was hosted by Kazakhstan. Again there was a dramatic semifinal against Sweden, as Kazakhstan was leading 5–3 with a few minutes remaining and finally losing in a penalty shoot-out. At the 2011 Asian Winter Games, the team won the gold medal. Bandy is being developed in 10 of the country's 17 administrative divisions (8 of the 14 regions and 2 of the 3 cities which are situated inside of but are not part of regions). Akzhaiyk from Oral, however, is the only professional club. At the 2017 Winter Universiade in Almaty, bandy will feature as a demonstration sport for the first time. \n\n; Judo : Askhat Zhitkeyev won silver at the 2008 Olympics and Yeldos Smetov won the 2010 Junior World Championships in the 55 kg category.\n\n; Olympic weightlifting : Zulfiya Chinshanlo won a gold medal at the 2012 London Olympics. \n\nFilm\n\nKazakhstan's film industry is run through the state-owned Kazakhfilm studios based in Almaty. The studio has produced award winning movies such as Myn Bala, Harmony Lessons, and Shal. Kazakhstan is host of the International Astana Action Film Festival and the [https://web.archive.org/web/20150608065617/http://eurasiaiff.kz/en/ Eurasian Film Festival] held annually. Hollywood director Timur Bekmambetov is from Kazakhstan and has become active in bridging Hollywood to the Kazakhstan film industry. \n\nKazakhstan journalist Artur Platonov won Best Script for his documentary \"Sold Souls\" about Kazakhstan's contribution to the struggle against terrorism at the 2013 Cannes Corporate Media and TV Awards. \n\nSerik Aprymov’s Little Brother (Bauyr) won at the Central and Eastern Europe Film Festival goEast from the German Federal Foreign Office.\n\nMedia\n\nKazakhstan is ranked 161 out of 180 countries on the World Press Freedom Index, compiled by Reporters Without Borders. A mid-March 2002 court order, with the government as a plaintiff, stated that Respublika were to stop printing for three months. The order was evaded by printing under other titles, such as Not That Respublika. In early 2014, a court also issued a cease publication order to the small-circulation Assandi-Times newspaper, saying it was a part of the Respublika group. Human Rights Watch said: \"this absurd case displays the lengths to which Kazakh authorities are willing to go to bully critical media into silence.\" \n\nWith support from the U.S. Department of State's Bureau for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor (DRL), the American Bar Association Rule of Law Initiative opened a media support center in Almaty to bolster free expression and journalistic rights in Kazakhstan.\n\nUNESCO World Heritage sites\n\nKazakhstan has three cultural and natural heritages on the UNESCO World Heritage list: the Mausoleum of Khoja Ahmed Yassaui, Petroglyphs within the Archaeological Landscape of Tamgaly, and the Korgalzhyn and Nauryzumsky reserves.\n\nPublic holidays\n\nSource: \n\nMembership of international organizations\n\nKazakhstan's membership of international organizations includes:\n\n* United Nations\n* Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council\n* Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS)\n* Shanghai Cooperation Organisation\n* Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE)\n* Individual Partnership Action Plan, with NATO, Ukraine, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Moldova, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro.\n* Turkic Council and the TÜRKSOY community. (The national language, Kazakh, is related to the other Turkic languages, with which it shares cultural and historical ties.)\n* UNESCO, where Kazakhstan is a member of its World Heritage Committee.\n* Nuclear Suppliers Group as a participating government." ] }

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{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe", "TagMe", "TagMe" ], "filename": [ "Mattel.txt", "Fashion_doll.txt", "Barbie.txt" ], "title": [ "Mattel", "Fashion doll", "Barbie" ], "wiki_context": [ "Mattel, Inc. is an American multinational toy manufacturing company founded in 1945 with headquarters in El Segundo, California. In 2014, it ranked #403 on the Fortune 500 list. The products and brands it produces include Fisher-Price, Barbie dolls, Monster High dolls, Ever After High dolls, Winx Club dolls, Hot Wheels and Matchbox toys, Masters of the Universe toys, American Girl dolls, board games, and WWE Toys. In the early-1980s Mattel produced video game systems, under both its own brands and under license from Nintendo. The company has presence in 40 countries and territories and sells products in more than 150 nations. The company operates through three business segments: North America, international, and American Girl. It is the world's largest toy maker in terms of revenue and market capitalization \n\nThe company's name is derived from Harold \"Matt\" Matson and Elliot Handler, who founded the company in 1945.\n\nHistory\n\nMattel Creations was founded in 1945 by Harold \"Matt\" Matson and Elliot Handler. The company initially sold picture frames, then dollhouse furniture. Matson soon sold his share to Handler due to poor health, and Handler's wife Ruth took over Matson's role. In 1947, the company had its first hit toy, a ukulele called \"Uke-A-Doodle\". The company was incorporated the next year in California. Mattel became the first year-round sponsor of the Mickey Mouse Club TV series in 1955. The Barbie doll was introduced in 1959, becoming the company's best selling toy ever. In 1960 Mattel introduced Chatty Cathy, a talking doll that revolutionized the toy industry, and a flood of pull-string talking dolls and toys came on the market throughout the 1960s and 1970s. \n\nMattel in 1960 goes public and is listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 1963. Mattel also acquired a number of companies during the 1960s (see table). In 1965, the company built on its success with the Chatty Cathy doll to introduce the See 'n Say talking toy which spawned a line of products. Hot Wheels was first released to the market in 1968. In May 1970, Mattel formed a joint venture film production company, Radnitz/Mattel Productions, with producer Robert B. Radnitz.Knapp, Dan. (May 21, 1970). \"[http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/latimes/doc/156485316.html?FMT\nABS&FMTSABS:AI&type\nhistoric&dateMay%2021,%201970&author\n&pubLos%20Angeles%20Times&edition\n&startpage&desc\nMattel,%20Radnitz%20Join%20Hands Mattel, Radnitz Join Hands]\". Los Angeles Times (Los Angeles, Califorina). Page F13.\n\nThe Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus was purchased by the Mattel company in 1971 for $40 million from the Feld family, who was retained as management. Mattel had placed the circus corporation up for sale despite its profit contributions to Mattel by December 1973 as Mattel showed a $29.9 million loss in 1972. \n\nAn investigation in 1974 concluded false and misleading financial reports had been issued, and the Handlers were forced from the company.\n\nPost-Handlers\n\nArthur S. Spear, a Mattel vice president was selected to run the company in 1975 and lead it back to profitability in 1977. Ruth Handler sold back her stock in 1980.\n\nThe Mattel Electronics line was started in 1977 with an all-electronic handheld game. The success of the handheld led to the expansion of the line with game console then the line becoming its own corporation in 1982. Mattel Electronics forced Mattel to take a $394 million loss in 1983 and almost filed for bankruptcy.\n\nIn 1979 through Feld Productions, Mattel purchased the Holiday on Ice and Ice Follies for $12 million. Also acquired that year was Western Publishing for $120 million in cash and stock. The Felds bought the circus (and related companies) back in 1982 for $22.8 million. \n\nNew York venture capital firms E.M. Warburg, Pincus & Co., and Drexel Burnham Lambert invested a couple hundred million in Mattel in 1984 to help the company survive. But then the Master of the Universe action figure line sales dropped off causing a loss of $115 million in 1987. Chairman John W. Amerman improved the company's financial performance in 1987 by focusing on core brands. Mattel also returned to working with the Disney company in 1988.\n\nMattel purchased Fisher-Price Inc. in 1993, Tyco Toys, Inc. in 1997, and Pleasant Company (maker of the American Girl brand) in 1998. Mattel purchased The Learning Company in 1999 for $3.5 billion, but sold it in 2000 at a loss. The company had a $430.9 million net loss that year.\n\nMattel was granted the first Disney Princess doll licenses in 2000. In December 2000, Mattel sued the band Aqua, saying their song \"Barbie Girl\" violated the Barbie trademark and turned Barbie into a sex object, referring to her as a \"blonde bimbo.\" The lawsuit was rejected in 2002. In 2002, Mattel closed its last factory in the United States, originally part of the Fisher-Price division, outsourcing production to China, which began a chain of events that led to a scandal involving lead contamination. \n\nOn August 14, 2007, Mattel recalled over 18 million products. The New York Times closely covered Mattel's multiple recalls. Many of the products had exceeded the US limits set on surface coatings that contain lead. Surface coatings cannot exceed .06% lead by weight. Additional recalls were because it was possible that some toys could pose a danger to children due to the use of strong magnets that could detach. Mattel re-wrote its policy on magnets, finally issuing a recall in August 2007. The recall included 7.1 million Polly Pocket toys produced before November 2006; 600,000 Barbie and Tanner Playsets; 1 million Doggie Daycare; Shonen Jump's One Piece; and thousands of Batman Manga toys due to exposed magnets. In 2009, Mattel would pay a $2.9 million fine to the Consumer Products Safety Commission for marketing, importing, and selling non-compliant toys. Mattel was noted for its crisis response by several publications, including PRWeek, the Los Angeles Times, FORTUNE Magazine and Business Management. \n\nIn early 2010, HiT Entertainment licensed Thomas & Friends to Mattel for toys. Mattel agreed to purchase HiT Entertainment sans Sprout from Apax Partners group in October 2011 for $680 million. The sale/merger was completed on February 1, 2012, and HIT Entertainment became a wholly owned subsidiary of Mattel, managed under its Fisher-Price unit. In October 2013, Mattel launched its new in-house film studio, Playground Productions.\n\nMattel was named by Fortune magazine as one of the top 100 companies to work for in 2013, noting that only 1,292 positions were newly filled out of 164,045 job applications during the previous year, as well as the fact that more than 1,000 employees have been with the company longer than 15 years. \n\nOn February 28, 2014, Mattel acquired Mega Brands. On April 16, 2015, Mattel announced a partnership with invention platform Quirky to crowd-source a number of products. \n\nMattel adding a Barbie princess-themed line in 2010 then fair and fantasy store based Ever After High in 2013. Barbie sales started to dropped in 2012 thus moving focus away from Disney Princess line. Mattel was only putting out Princesses Cinderella, Ariel and Belle plus the two Frozen princesses during the last year or so of its license. With these competing lines and an expiration of the brand license at the end of 2015, Disney gave Hasbro a chance to gain the license given their work on Star Wars which led to a Descendants license. DCP was also attempting to evolve the brand from one of them less as damsels and more as heroines. In September 2014, Disney announced that Hasbro would be the licensed doll maker for the Disney Princess line starting on January 1, 2016. In January 2015, CEO Bryan Stockton was replaced by board member, Chris Sinclair. This was followed with 2/3 of senior executives resigning or being laid off.\n\nMattel formed a new division, Mattel Creations, as an umbrella unit over its creative content units, Playground Productions, Hit Entertainment and the American Girl content creation team, in March 2016.\n\nOn July 2016, NBCUniversal announced that Mattel has acquired the license to produce toys based off the Jurassic Park franchise after Hasbro's rights expire in 2017. \n\nMattel Creations\n\nMattel Creations is the content production division of Mattel, Inc. The division is head by Mattel’s Chief Content Officer Catherine Balsam-Schwaber and consists of Playground Productions, Hit Entertainment and the American Girl content creation team in Middleton, Wisconsin.\n\nCreations background\n\nPreviously, Mattel had team up with producer Robert B. Radnitz to form a joint venture film production company, Radnitz/Mattel Productions.\n\nMattel agreed to purchase HiT Entertainment sans Sprout from Apax Partners group in October 2011 for $680 million. With Lionsgate, Mattel had Barbie brand launched into a series of successful animated direct-to-homevideo movies, which later moved to Universal. Monster High followed Barbie in 2010. many “American Girl” films were made.\n\nA few properties, Hot Wheels, Max Steel, a Masters of the Universe and a Monster High have been set up at the various studios. For example, Hot Wheels was first at Columbia Pictures with McG attached to direct, but ended up moving to Warner Bros. and Joel Silver. As of 2013, the property was licensed out to Legendary Pictures, with Joe Roth attached to produce. In October 2013, Mattel Playground Productions was launched by Mattel as its new in-house film studio to handle multi-media productions for Mattel's brands.\n\nCreations history\n\nMattel Creations was formed in March 2013 bring all three of Mattel content production units under its aegis in March 2016.\n\nPlayground Productions\n\nPlayground Productions, or fuller Mattel Playground Productions, is a division of Mattel Creation, itself a division of Mattel, Inc. The division was planned to set up three-year storytelling plans that incorporate every part of the Mattel company from toy designers to consumer products and marketing.\n\nIn October 2013, Mattel Playground Productions was launched by Mattel as its new in-house film studio to handle multi-media production, films, TV shows, web series, live events and games, for Mattel's brands. The intent was to centralized Mattel's disjointed content productions. Its first animated project is “Team Hot Wheels: The Origin of Awesome”. Mattel has under development a live-action Hot Wheels movie at Legendary Entertainment and Universal, a Masters of the Universe movie at Columbia, a Monster High feature with Universal and a Max Steel movie with Dolphin Entertainment. David Voss was appointed as Senior Vice President of Playground Productions, a unit of Mattel Brands. In March 2016, Playground was placed within Mattel Creations along with the other two Mattel content production units.\n\nProduction", "Fashion dolls are dolls primarily designed to be dressed to reflect fashion trends. They are manufactured both as toys for children to play with and as collectibles for adult collectors. The dolls are usually modeled after teen girls or adult women, though child, male, and even some non-human variants exist. Contemporary fashion dolls are typically made of vinyl or another plastic. Recently, 3D software versions have appeared. \n\nAn early form of the fashion dolls were French bisque dolls from the mid-19th century. However, fashion dolls were commonly used throughout the courts of France and Spain as early as the 1500s to show the tactile qualities of fashion which could not be incorporated into the paintings. A letter dated 1515 and sent by Federico Gonzaga on behalf of King Francois I of France to his mother Isabella d'Este asks her to send a fashion doll to the French court so that copies of her style might be made for the women of France. \n\nBarbie was released by the American toy-company Mattel in 1959, and was followed by many similar vinyl fashion dolls intended as children's toys. The size of the Barbie, 11.5 inches (290 mm) set the standard often used by other manufacturers. But fashion dolls have been made in many different sizes varying from 10.5 inches (270 mm) to 36 inches (900 mm).\n\nCostumers and seamstresses use fashion dolls as a canvas for their work. Customizers repaint faces, reroot hair, or do other alterations to the dolls themselves. Many of these works are one-of-a-kind. These artists are usually not connected to the original manufacturers and sell their work to collectors.\n\nHistory and types\n\nThe earliest bisque dolls from French companies were fashion dolls. These dominated the market between approximately 1860 and 1890. They were made to represent grown up women and intended for children of affluent families to play with and dress in contemporary fashions. These dolls came from companies like Jumeau, Bru, Gaultier, Rohmer, Simone and Huret, though their heads were often manufactured in Germany. In the Passage Choiseul area of Paris an industry grew around making clothing and accessories for the dolls. Child like bisque dolls appeared in the mid-19th century and overtook the market towards the end of the century.\n\nBarbie was launched by the American toy company Mattel in 1959, inspired by the German Bild Lilli doll. Barbie has been an important part of the toy fashion doll market for fifty years.\n\nMany fashion doll lines have been inspired by Barbie, or launched as alternatives to Barbie. Tammy was created by the Ideal Toy Company in 1962. Advertised as \"The Doll You Love to Dress\", Tammy was portrayed as a young American teenager, more \"girl next door\" than the cosmopolitan image of Barbie. Sindy was created by the British Pedigree Dolls & Toys company in 1963 as a rival to Barbie with a wholesome look. \n\nAmerican Character Doll Company released their \"Tressy\" fashion doll in 1963 to compete with Barbie. Tressy was first sold as an 11½\" fashion doll, and, after being acquired by the Ideal Toy Company, by the late 60s was sold as a larger pre-teen doll. Tressy featured a long swatch of hair that could be pulled out of the top of the doll's head by pushing a button on the doll's midriff; that mechanism allowed children the ability to comb the hair in a variety of styles. In the late 1960s and early 1970s Ideal released several other large fashion dolls with hair with adjustable length. The Crissy Doll and friends are 16\" and Velvet Doll and friends are 18\". British designer Mary Quant's Daisy doll from 1973 had a large selection of contemporary 70s fashion designed by Quant.\n\nFulla is marketed to children of Islamic and Middle-Eastern countries as an alternative to Barbie. The concept of her evolved around 1999, and she hit stores in late 2003. Bratz were released in 2001, designed by Carter Bryant and manufactured by California toy company MGA Entertainment. They are distinguished by large heads with skinny bodies and lush, glossy lips. Mattel introduced the My Scene line in 2002 and the Flavas line in 2003 to rival Bratz. In 2010 Mattel launched the Monster High doll line, based from fantasy and horror monsters. In 2014, artist Nickolai Lamm unveiled Lammily, a fashion doll based on Lamm's study comparing Barbie's figure with measurements matching those of an average 19-year-old woman. \n\nAsian fashion dolls are made by Asian manufacturers and primarily targeted to an Asian market. Blythe dolls with oversized heads and color changing eyes were originally made by American company Kenner but are now produced by Japanese company Takara. Another doll with an oversized head, Pullip, was created in 2003 in Korea. Japanese fashion dolls marketed to children include Licca (introduced in 1967) and Jenny (introduced in 1982) by Takara Tomy.\n\nIn the mid-1990s dolls like Gene Marshall from Ashton-Drake, Tyler Wentworth from Tonner and Alexandra Fairchild Ford from Madame Alexander appeared. They are between 15.5 and 16 inches (395 and 410 mm,) larger than other common fashion dolls. These dolls are mostly marketed to adult collectors.", "Barbie is a fashion doll manufactured by the American toy-company Mattel, Inc. and launched in March 1959. American businesswoman Ruth Handler is credited with the creation of the doll using a German doll called Bild Lilli as her inspiration.\n\nBarbie is the figurehead of a brand of Mattel dolls and accessories, including other family members and collectible dolls. Barbie has been an important part of the toy fashion doll market for over fifty years, and has been the subject of numerous controversies and lawsuits, often involving parody of the doll and her lifestyle.\n\nMattel has sold over a billion Barbie dolls, making it the company’s largest and most profitable line. However sales have declined sharply since 2014. The doll transformed the toy business in affluent communities worldwide by becoming a vehicle for the sale of related merchandise (accessories, clothes, friends of Barbie, etc.). She had a significant impact on social values by conveying characteristics of female independence and, with her multitude of accessories, an idealized upscale life-style that can be shared with affluent friends. \n\nHistory\n\nRuth Handler watched her daughter Barbara play with paper dolls, and noticed that she often enjoyed giving them adult roles. At the time, most children's toy dolls were representations of infants. Realizing that there could be a gap in the market, Handler suggested the idea of an adult-bodied doll to her husband Elliot, a co-founder of the Mattel toy company. He was unenthusiastic about the idea, as were Mattel's directors.\n\nDuring a trip to Europe in 1956 with her children Barbara and Kenneth, Ruth Handler came across a German toy doll called Bild Lilli. The adult-figured doll was exactly what Handler had in mind, so she purchased three of them. She gave one to her daughter and took the others back to Mattel. The Lilli doll was based on a popular character appearing in a comic strip drawn by Reinhard Beuthin for the newspaper Bild. Lilli was a blonde bombshell, a working girl who knew what she wanted and was not above using men to get it. The Lilli doll was first sold in Germany in 1955, and although it was initially sold to adults, it became popular with children who enjoyed dressing her up in outfits that were available separately.\n\nUpon her return to the United States, Handler redesigned the doll (with help from engineer Jack Ryan) and the doll was given a new name, Barbie, after Handler's daughter Barbara. The doll made its debut at the American International Toy Fair in New York on March 9, 1959. This date is also used as Barbie's official birthday.\n\nMattel acquired the rights to the Bild Lilli doll in 1964 and production of Lilli was stopped. The first Barbie doll wore a black and white zebra striped swimsuit and signature topknot ponytail, and was available as either a blonde or brunette. The doll was marketed as a \"Teen-age Fashion Model,\" with her clothes created by Mattel fashion designer Charlotte Johnson. The first Barbie dolls were manufactured in Japan, with their clothes hand-stitched by Japanese homeworkers. Around 350,000 Barbie dolls were sold during the first year of production.\n\nLouis Marx and Company sued Mattel in March 1961. After licensing Lilli, they claimed that Mattel had “infringed on Greiner & Hausser's patent for Bild-Lilli’s hip joint, and also claimed that Barbie was \"a direct take-off and copy\" of Bild-Lilli. The company additionally claimed that Mattel \"falsely and misleadingly represented itself as having originated the design\". Mattel counter-claimed and the case was settled out of court in 1963. In 1964, Mattel bought Greiner & Hausser's copyright and patent rights for the Bild-Lilli doll for $21,600. \n\nRuth Handler believed that it was important for Barbie to have an adult appearance, and early market research showed that some parents were unhappy about the doll's chest, which had distinct breasts. Barbie's appearance has been changed many times, most notably in 1971 when the doll's eyes were adjusted to look forwards rather than having the demure sideways glance of the original model.\n\nBarbie was one of the first toys to have a marketing strategy based extensively on television advertising, which has been copied widely by other toys. It is estimated that over a billion Barbie dolls have been sold worldwide in over 150 countries, with Mattel claiming that three Barbie dolls are sold every second. \n\nThe standard range of Barbie dolls and related accessories are manufactured to approximately 1/6 scale, which is also known as playscale. The standard dolls are approximately 11½ inches tall.\n\nIn January 2016, Mattel announced that it will add tall, curvy and petite body shapes to its line-up of dolls. Alternative skin tones, hair styles and hair colours will also be added.\n\nRange of products and influence\n\nBarbie products include not only the range of dolls with their clothes and accessories, but also a large range of Barbie branded goods such as books, apparel, cosmetics and video games. Barbie has appeared in a series of animated films and is a supporting character in Toy Story 2 and Toy Story 3.\n\nBarbie has become a cultural icon and has been given honors that are rare in the toy world. In 1974, a section of Times Square in New York City was renamed Barbie Boulevard for a week. In 1985, the artist Andy Warhol created a painting of Barbie. \n\nIn 2013, in Taiwan, the first Barbie-themed restaurant called \"Barbie Café\" opened under the Sinlaku group. \n\nThe doll transformed the toy business in affluent communities worldwide. It was not a doll, but a complex package of toys including sets of clothing for different activities and social roles, dolls of Ken and other playmates of Barbie, as well as accessories of all kinds. Instead of a single doll purchased once, Barbie launches a stream of toy purchases that typically spread over several years and engage a network of friends. Sociologists have identified a significant impact on social values by conveying characteristics of female independence and, with her multitude of accessories, a life-style free of responsibilities. On the negative side, beyond the celebration of affluence, there is a celebration of idealized body colors and shapes that critics sometimes warned against. \n\n50th anniversary\n\nIn 2009, Barbie celebrated her 50th birthday. The celebrations included a runway show in New York for the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week. The event showcased fashions contributed by fifty well-known haute couturiers including Diane von Fürstenberg, Vera Wang, Calvin Klein, Bob Mackie, and Christian Louboutin.\n \n\nFictional biography\n\nBarbie's full name is Barbara Millicent Roberts. In a series of novels published by Random House in the 1960s, her parents' names are given as George and Margaret Roberts from the fictional town of Willows, Wisconsin. In the Random House novels, Barbie attended Willows High School, while in the Generation Girl books, published by Golden Books in 1999, she attended the fictional Manhattan International High School in New York City (based on the real-life Stuyvesant High School ).\n\nShe has an on-off romantic relationship with her boyfriend Ken (\"Ken Carson\"), who first appeared in 1961. A news release from Mattel in February 2004 announced that Barbie and Ken had decided to split up, but in February 2006, they were hoping to rekindle their relationship after Ken had a makeover. \n\nBarbie has had over 40 pets including cats and dogs, horses, a panda, a lion cub, and a zebra. She has owned a wide range of vehicles, including pink Corvette convertibles, trailers, and jeeps. She also holds a pilot's license, and operates commercial airliners in addition to serving as a flight attendant.\nBarbie's careers are designed to show that women can take on a variety of roles in life, and the doll has been sold with a wide range of titles including Miss Astronaut Barbie (1965), Doctor Barbie (1988), and Nascar Barbie (1998).\n\nMattel has created a range of companions for Barbie, including Hispanic Teresa, Midge, African American Christie, and Steven (Christie's boyfriend). Barbie's siblings and cousins were also created including Skipper, Todd and Stacie (twin brother and sister), Kelly, Krissy, and Francie. Barbie was friendly with Blaine, an Australian surfer, during her split with Ken in 2004. \n\nControversy and evaluation\n\nThe Economist has emphasized the importance of Barbie to children's imagination:\n\nHowever, from the start, some have complained that \"the blonde, plastic doll conveyed an unrealistic body image to girls.\" Complaints also point to a lack of diversity in the line even as nonwhite Hispanic children now make up a majority of American girls. Mattel responded to these criticisms. Starting in 1980, it produced Hispanic dolls, and later came models from across the globe. For example, in 2007, it introduced \"Cinco de Mayo Barbie\" wearing a ruffled red, white and green dress (echoing the Mexican flag). Hispanic magazine reports that:\n\nCriticisms of Barbie are often centered around concerns that children consider Barbie a role model and will attempt to emulate her. One of the most common criticisms of Barbie is that she promotes an unrealistic idea of body image for a young woman, leading to a risk that girls who attempt to emulate her will become anorexic. A standard Barbie doll is 11.5 inches tall, giving a height of 5 feet 9 inches at 1/6 scale. Barbie's vital statistics have been estimated at 36 inches (chest), 18 inches (waist) and 33 inches (hips). According to research by the University Central Hospital in Helsinki, Finland, she would lack the 17 to 22 percent body fat required for a woman to menstruate. In 1963, the outfit \"Barbie Baby-Sits\" came with a book entitled How to Lose Weight which advised: \"Don't eat!.\" The same book was included in another ensemble called \"Slumber Party\" in 1965 along with a pink bathroom scale permanently set at 110 lbs., which would be around 35 lbs. underweight for a woman 5 feet 9 inches tall. Mattel said that the waist of the Barbie doll was made small because the waistbands of her clothes, along with their seams, snaps, and zippers, added bulk to her figure. In 1997, Barbie's body mold was redesigned and given a wider waist, with Mattel saying that this would make the doll better suited to contemporary fashion designs. \n\n\"Colored Francie\" made her debut in 1967, and she is sometimes described as the first African American Barbie doll. However, she was produced using the existing head molds for the white Francie doll and lacked African characteristics other than a dark skin. The first African American doll in the Barbie range is usually regarded as Christie, who made her debut in 1968. Black Barbie was launched in 1980 but still had Caucasian features. In September 2009, Mattel introduced the So In Style range, which was intended to create a more realistic depiction of black people than previous dolls.\n\nIn July 1992, Mattel released Teen Talk Barbie, which spoke a number of phrases including \"Will we ever have enough clothes?\", \"I love shopping!\", and \"Wanna have a pizza party?\" Each doll was programmed to say four out of 270 possible phrases, so that no two given dolls were likely to be the same. One of these 270 phrases was \"Math class is tough!\" (often misquoted as \"Math is hard\"). Although only about 1.5% of all the dolls sold said the phrase, it led to criticism from the American Association of University Women. In October 1992, Mattel announced that Teen Talk Barbie would no longer say the phrase, and offered a swap to anyone who owned a doll that did. \n\nIn 1997, Mattel teamed up with Nabisco to launch a cross-promotion of Barbie with Oreo cookies. Oreo Fun Barbie was marketed as someone with whom young girls could play after class and share \"America's favorite cookie.\" As had become the custom, Mattel manufactured both a white and a black version. Critics argued that in the African American community, Oreo is a derogatory term meaning that the person is \"black on the outside and white on the inside,\" like the chocolate sandwich cookie itself. The doll was unsuccessful and Mattel recalled the unsold stock, making it sought after by collectors. \n\nIn May 1997, Mattel introduced Share a Smile Becky, a doll in a pink wheelchair. Kjersti Johnson, a 17-year-old high school student in Tacoma, Washington with cerebral palsy, pointed out that the doll would not fit into the elevator of Barbie's $100 Dream House. Mattel announced that it would redesign the house in the future to accommodate the doll. \n\nIn March 2000, stories appeared in the media claiming that the hard vinyl used in vintage Barbie dolls could leak toxic chemicals, causing danger to children playing with them. The claim was described as an overreaction by Joseph Prohaska, a professor at the University of Minnesota Duluth. A modern Barbie doll has a body made from ABS plastic, while the head is made from soft PVC. \n\nIn September 2003, the Middle Eastern country of Saudi Arabia outlawed the sale of Barbie dolls, saying that she did not conform to the ideals of Islam. The Committee for the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice stated \"Jewish Barbie dolls, with their revealing clothes and shameful postures, accessories and tools are a symbol of decadence to the perverted West. Let us beware of her dangers and be careful.\" In Middle Eastern countries, there is an alternative doll called Fulla which is similar to Barbie but is designed to be more acceptable to an Islamic market. Fulla is not made by the Mattel Corporation, and Barbie is still available in other Middle Eastern countries including Egypt. In Iran, Sara and Dara dolls are available as an alternative to Barbie. \n\nIn December 2005, Dr. Agnes Nairn at the University of Bath in England published research suggesting that girls often go through a stage where they hate their Barbie dolls and subject them to a range of punishments, including decapitation and placing the doll in a microwave oven. Dr. Nairn said: \"It's as though disavowing Barbie is a rite of passage and a rejection of their past.\" \n\nIn April 2009, the launch of a Totally Tattoos Barbie with a range of tattoos that could be applied to the doll, including a lower back tattoo, led to controversy. Mattel's promotional material read \"Customize the fashions and apply the fun temporary tattoos on you too\", but Ed Mayo, chief executive of Consumer Focus, argued that children might want to get tattooed themselves.\n\nIn July 2010, Mattel released \"Barbie Video Girl\", a Barbie doll with a pinhole video camera in its chest, enabling clips of up to 30 minutes to be recorded, viewed and uploaded to a computer via a USB cable. On November 30, 2010, the FBI issued a warning in a private memo that the doll could be used to produce child pornography, although it stated publicly that there was \"no reported evidence that the doll had been used in any way other than intended.\" \n\nIn November 2014, Mattel received criticism over the book I Can Be a Computer Engineer, which depicted Barbie as being inept at computers and requiring that her two male friends complete all of the necessary tasks to restore two laptops after she downloads a virus onto both of them. Critics complained that the book was sexist, as other books in the I Can Be... series depicted Barbie as someone that was competent in those jobs and did not require outside assistance from others. Mattel later removed the book from sale on Amazon in response to the criticism.\n\nIn March 2015, concerns were raised about a version of the doll called \"Hello Barbie\", which can hold conversations with a child using speech recognition technology. The doll transmits data back to a service called ToyTalk, which according to Forbes, has a terms of service and privacy policy that allow it to “share audio recordings with third party vendors who assist us with speech recognition,” and states that “recordings and photos may also be used for research and development purposes, such as to improve speech recognition technology and artificial intelligence algorithms and create better entertainment experiences.” \n\nImage:Barbieswaistwidens.jpg|Barbie's waist has been widened in more recent versions of the doll.\n\nImage:How to lose weight II.JPG|Back cover of vintage booklet on How to Lose Weight, stating \"Don't Eat!\".\nImage:Barbie bathroom scale.jpg|Bathroom scale from 1965, permanently set at 110 lbs.\nImage:Oreo Fun Barbie.jpg|Oreo Fun Barbie from 1997 became controversial after a negative interpretation of the doll's name.\n\nParodies and lawsuits\n\nBarbie has frequently been the target of parody: \n\n*Mattel sued artist Tom Forsythe over a series of photographs called Food Chain Barbie in which Barbie winds up in a blender. \n*In 2011, Greenpeace parodied Barbie, calling on Mattel to adopt a policy for its paper purchases that would protect rainforest. According to Phil Radford, Greenpeace Executive Director, the organization’s “forensic testing and global research show how Mattel products are using mixed tropical hardwood from Asia Pulp and Paper, a company that is ripping down the paradise forests of Indonesia… Sumatran tigers, elephants and orangutans are being pushed to the brink of extinction because Mattel simply isn’t interested in the origins of Barbie’s pink box.” Four months later, Mattel adopted a paper sustainability policy. \n*Mattel filed a lawsuit in 2004 against Barbara Anderson-Walley over her website, which sells fetish clothing. \n*The Tonight Show with Jay Leno displayed a \"Barbie Crystal Meth Lab\". \n* Saturday Night Live aired a parody of the Barbie commercials featuring \"Gangsta Bitch Barbie\" and \"Tupac Ken\". In 2002, the show also aired a skit, which starred Britney Spears as Barbie's sister Skipper. \n*In November 2002, a New York judge refused an injunction against the British-based artist Susanne Pitt, who had produced a \"Dungeon Barbie\" doll in bondage clothing. \n*Aqua's song \"Barbie Girl\" was the subject of the lawsuit Mattel v. MCA Records, which Mattel lost in 2002, with Judge Alex Kozinski saying that the song was a \"parody and a social commentary\". \n*Two commercials by automobile company Nissan featuring dolls similar to Barbie and Ken was the subject of another lawsuit in 1997. In the first commercial, a female doll is lured into a car by a doll resembling G.I. Joe to the dismay of a Ken-like doll, accompanied by Van Halen's \"You Really Got Me\". In the second commercial, the \"Barbie\" doll is saved by the \"G.I. Joe\" doll after she is accidentally knocked into a swimming pool by the \"Ken\" doll to Kiss's \"Dr. Love\". The makers of the commercial said that the dolls' names were Roxanne, Nick, and Tad. Mattel claimed that the commercial did \"irreparable damage\" to its products, but settled. \n*In 1993, a group calling itself the \"Barbie Liberation Organization\" secretly modified a group of Barbie dolls by implanting voice boxes from G.I. Joe dolls, then returning the Barbies to the toy stores from where they were purchased. \n*Malibu Stacy from The Simpsons episode \"Lisa vs. Malibu Stacy\" (1994).\n\nCollecting\n\nMattel estimates that there are well over 100,000 avid Barbie collectors. Ninety percent are women, at an average age of 40, purchasing more than twenty Barbie dolls each year. Forty-five percent of them spend upwards of $1000 a year.\nVintage Barbie dolls from the early years are the most valuable at auction, and while the original Barbie was sold for $3.00 in 1959, a mint boxed Barbie from 1959 sold for $3552.50 on eBay in October 2004. On September 26, 2006, a Barbie doll set a world record at auction of £9,000 sterling (US $17,000) at Christie's in London. The doll was a Barbie in Midnight Red from 1965 and was part of a private collection of 4,000 Barbie dolls being sold by two Dutch women, Ietje Raebel and her daughter Marina. \n\nIn recent years, Mattel has sold a wide range of Barbie dolls aimed specifically at collectors, including porcelain versions, vintage reproductions, and depictions of Barbie as a range of characters from film and television series such as The Munsters and Star Trek. There are also collector's edition dolls depicting Barbie dolls with a range of different ethnic identities. In 2004, Mattel introduced the Color Tier system for its collector's edition Barbie dolls including pink, silver, gold, and platinum, depending on how many of the dolls are produced. \n\nCompetition from Bratz dolls\n\nIn June 2001, MGA Entertainment launched the Bratz series of dolls, a move that gave Barbie her first serious competition in the fashion doll market. In 2004, sales figures showed that Bratz dolls were outselling Barbie dolls in the United Kingdom, although Mattel maintained that in terms of the number of dolls, clothes, and accessories sold, Barbie remained the leading brand. In 2005, figures showed that sales of Barbie dolls had fallen by 30% in the United States, and by 18% worldwide, with much of the drop being attributed to the popularity of Bratz dolls. \n\nIn December 2006, Mattel sued MGA Entertainment for $500 million, alleging that Bratz creator Carter Bryant was working for Mattel when he developed the idea for Bratz. On July 17, 2008, a federal jury agreed that the Bratz line was created by Carter Bryant while he was working for Mattel and that MGA and its Chief Executive Officer Isaac Larian were liable for converting Mattel property for their own use and intentionally interfering with the contractual duties owed by Bryant to Mattel. On August 26, the jury found that Mattel would have to be paid $100 million in damages. On December 3, 2008, U.S. District Judge Stephen Larson banned MGA from selling Bratz. He allowed the company to continue selling the dolls until the winter holiday season ended. On appeal, a stay was granted by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit; the Court also overturned the District Court's original ruling for Mattel, where MGA Entertainment was ordered to forfeit the entire Bratz brand. \n\nMattel Inc. and MGA Entertainment Inc. returned to court on January 18, 2011 to renew their battle over who owns Bratz, which this time includes accusations from both companies that the other side stole trade secrets. On April 21, 2011, a federal jury returned a verdict supporting MGA. On August 5, 2011, Mattel was also ordered to pay MGA $310 million for attorney fees, stealing trade secrets, and false claims rather than the $88.5 million issued in April. \n\nIn August 2009, MGA introduced a range of dolls called Moxie Girlz, intended as a replacement for Bratz dolls. \n\n\"Barbie Syndrome\"\n\n\"Barbie Syndrome\" is a term that has been used to depict the desire to have a physical appearance and lifestyle representative of the Barbie doll. It is most often associated with pre-teenage and adolescent females but is applicable to any age group. A person with Barbie syndrome attempts to emulate the doll's physical appearance, even though the doll has unattainable body proportions. \n\nUkrainian model Valeria Lukyanova has received attention from the press, due in part to her appearance having been modified based on the physique of Barbie. She stated that she has had breast implants and that she hopes eventually to live without eating or drinking at all in hopes of becoming a \"breatharian.\"" ] }

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{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe", "TagMe", "Search" ], "filename": [ "President_of_the_United_States.txt", "Medal_of_Honor.txt", "Theodore_Roosevelt.txt" ], "title": [ "President of the United States", "Medal of Honor", "Theodore Roosevelt" ], "wiki_context": [ "The President of the United States of America (POTUS) is the elected head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces.\n\nThe President of the United States is considered one of the world's most powerful people, leading the world's only contemporary superpower. The role includes being the commander-in-chief of the world's most expensive military with the largest nuclear arsenal and leading the nation with the largest economy by real and nominal GDP. The office of the president holds significant hard and soft power both in the United States and abroad.\n\nArticle II of the U.S. Constitution vests the executive power of the United States in the president. The power includes execution of federal law, alongside the responsibility of appointing federal executive, diplomatic, regulatory and judicial officers, and concluding treaties with foreign powers with the advice and consent of the Senate. The president is further empowered to grant federal pardons and reprieves, and to convene and adjourn either or both houses of Congress under extraordinary circumstances. The president is largely responsible for dictating the legislative agenda of the party to which the president is enrolled. The president also directs the foreign and domestic policy of the United States. Since the founding of the United States, the power of the president and the federal government has grown substantially. \n\nThe president is indirectly elected by the people through the Electoral College to a four-year term, and is one of only two nationally elected federal officers, the other being the Vice President of the United States. The Twenty-second Amendment, adopted in 1951, prohibits anyone from ever being elected to the presidency for a third full term. It also prohibits a person from being elected to the presidency more than once if that person previously had served as president, or acting president, for more than two years of another person's term as president. In all, 43 individuals have served 44 presidencies (counting Cleveland's two non-consecutive terms separately) spanning 56 full four-year terms. On January 20, 2009, Barack Obama became the 44th and current president. On November 6, 2012, he was re-elected and is currently serving the 57th term. The next presidential election is scheduled to take place on November 8, 2016; on January 20, 2017, the newly elected president will take office.\n\nOrigin\n\nIn 1776, the Thirteen Colonies, acting through the Second Continental Congress, declared political independence from Great Britain during the American Revolution. The new states, though independent of each other as nation states, recognized the necessity of closely coordinating their efforts against the British. Desiring to avoid anything that remotely resembled a monarchy, Congress negotiated the Articles of Confederation to establish a weak alliance between the states. As a central authority, Congress under the Articles was without any legislative power; it could make its own resolutions, determinations, and regulations, but not any laws, nor any taxes or local commercial regulations enforceable upon citizens. This institutional design reflected the conception of how Americans believed the deposed British system of Crown and Parliament ought to have functioned with respect to the royal dominion: a superintending body for matters that concerned the entire empire. Out from under any monarchy, the states assigned some formerly royal prerogatives (e.g., making war, receiving ambassadors, etc.) to Congress, while severally lodging the rest within their own respective state governments. Only after all the states agreed to a resolution settling competing western land claims did the Articles take effect on March 1, 1781, when Maryland became the final state to ratify them.\n\nIn 1783, the Treaty of Paris secured independence for each of the former colonies. With peace at hand, the states each turned toward their own internal affairs. By 1786, Americans found their continental borders besieged and weak, their respective economies in crises as neighboring states agitated trade rivalries with one another, witnessed their hard currency pouring into foreign markets to pay for imports, their Mediterranean commerce preyed upon by North African pirates, and their foreign-financed Revolutionary War debts unpaid and accruing interest. Civil and political unrest loomed.\n\nFollowing the successful resolution of commercial and fishing disputes between Virginia and Maryland at the Mount Vernon Conference in 1785, Virginia called for a trade conference between all the states, set for September 1786 in Annapolis, Maryland, with an aim toward resolving further-reaching interstate commercial antagonisms. When the convention failed for lack of attendance due to suspicions among most of the other states, the Annapolis delegates called for a convention to offer revisions to the Articles, to be held the next spring in Philadelphia. Prospects for the next convention appeared bleak until James Madison and Edmund Randolph succeeded in securing George Washington's attendance to Philadelphia as a delegate for Virginia.\n\nWhen the Constitutional Convention convened in May 1787, the 12 state delegations in attendance (Rhode Island did not send delegates) brought with them an accumulated experience over a diverse set of institutional arrangements between legislative and executive branches from within their respective state governments. Most states maintained a weak executive without veto or appointment powers, elected annually by the legislature to a single term only, sharing power with an executive council, and countered by a strong legislature. New York offered the greatest exception, having a strong, unitary governor with veto and appointment power elected to a three-year term, and eligible for reelection to an indefinite number of terms thereafter. It was through the closed-door negotiations at Philadelphia that the presidency framed in the U.S. Constitution emerged.\n\nPowers and duties\n\nArticle I legislative role\n\nThe first power the Constitution confers upon the president is the veto. The Presentment Clause requires any bill passed by Congress to be presented to the president before it can become law. Once the legislation has been presented, the president has three options:\n# Sign the legislation; the bill then becomes law.\n# Veto the legislation and return it to Congress, expressing any objections; the bill does not become law, unless each house of Congress votes to override the veto by a two-thirds vote.\n# Take no action. In this instance, the president neither signs nor vetoes the legislation. After 10 days, not counting Sundays, two possible outcomes emerge:\n#* If Congress is still convened, the bill becomes law.\n#* If Congress has adjourned, thus preventing the return of the legislation, the bill does not become law. This latter outcome is known as the pocket veto.\n\nIn 1996, Congress attempted to enhance the president's veto power with the Line Item Veto Act. The legislation empowered the president to sign any spending bill into law while simultaneously striking certain spending items within the bill, particularly any new spending, any amount of discretionary spending, or any new limited tax benefit. Congress could then repass that particular item. If the president then vetoed the new legislation, Congress could override the veto by its ordinary means, a two-thirds vote in both houses. In Clinton v. City of New York, , the U.S. Supreme Court ruled such a legislative alteration of the veto power to be unconstitutional.\n\nArticle II executive powers\n\nWar and foreign affairs powers\n\nPerhaps the most important of all presidential powers is the command of the United States Armed Forces as its commander-in-chief. While the power to declare war is constitutionally vested in Congress, the president has ultimate responsibility for direction and disposition of the military. The present-day operational command of the Armed Forces (belonging to the Department of Defense) is normally exercised through the Secretary of Defense, with assistance of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, to the Combatant Commands, as outlined in the presidentially approved Unified Command Plan (UCP). The framers of the Constitution took care to limit the president's powers regarding the military; Alexander Hamilton explains this in Federalist No. 69: Congress, pursuant to the War Powers Resolution, must authorize any troop deployments longer than 60 days, although that process relies on triggering mechanisms that have never been employed, rendering it ineffectual. Additionally, Congress provides a check to presidential military power through its control over military spending and regulation. While historically presidents initiated the process for going to war, critics have charged that there have been several conflicts in which presidents did not get official declarations, including Theodore Roosevelt's military move into Panama in 1903, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and the invasions of Grenada in 1983 and Panama in 1990.\n\nAlong with the armed forces, the president also directs U.S. foreign policy. Through the Department of State and the Department of Defense, the president is responsible for the protection of Americans abroad and of foreign nationals in the United States. The president decides whether to recognize new nations and new governments, and negotiates treaties with other nations, which become binding on the United States when approved by two-thirds vote of the Senate.\n\nAlthough not constitutionally provided, presidents also sometimes employ \"executive agreements\" in foreign relations. These agreements frequently regard administrative policy choices germane to executive power; for example, the extent to which either country presents an armed presence in a given area, how each country will enforce copyright treaties, or how each country will process foreign mail. However, the 20th century witnessed a vast expansion of the use of executive agreements, and critics have challenged the extent of that use as supplanting the treaty process and removing constitutionally prescribed checks and balances over the executive in foreign relations. Supporters counter that the agreements offer a pragmatic solution when the need for swift, secret, and/or concerted action arises.\n\nAdministrative powers\n\nThe president is the head of the executive branch of the federal government and is constitutionally obligated to \"take care that the laws be faithfully executed.\" The executive branch has over four million employees, including members of the military. \n\nPresidents make numerous executive branch appointments: an incoming president may make up to 6,000 before taking office and 8,000 more while serving. Ambassadors, members of the Cabinet, and other federal officers, are all appointed by a president with the \"advice and consent\" of a majority of the Senate. When the Senate is in recess for at least ten days, the president may make recess appointments. Recess appointments are temporary and expire at the end of the next session of the Senate.\n\nThe power of a president to fire executive officials has long been a contentious political issue. Generally, a president may remove purely executive officials at will. However, Congress can curtail and constrain a president's authority to fire commissioners of independent regulatory agencies and certain inferior executive officers by statute. \n\nThe president additionally possesses the ability to direct much of the executive branch through executive orders that are grounded in federal law or constitutionally granted executive power. Executive orders are reviewable by federal courts and can be superseded by federal legislation.\n\nTo manage the growing federal bureaucracy, Presidents have gradually surrounded themselves with many layers of staff, who were eventually organized into the Executive Office of the President of the United States. Within the Executive Office, the President's innermost layer of aides (and their assistants) are located in the White House Office.\n\nJuridical powers\n\nThe president also has the power to nominate federal judges, including members of the United States courts of appeals and the Supreme Court of the United States. However, these nominations do require Senate confirmation. Securing Senate approval can provide a major obstacle for presidents who wish to orient the federal judiciary toward a particular ideological stance. When nominating judges to U.S. district courts, presidents often respect the long-standing tradition of Senatorial courtesy. Presidents may also grant pardons and reprieves, as is often done just before the end of a presidential term, not without controversy.\n\nHistorically, two doctrines concerning executive power have developed that enable the president to exercise executive power with a degree of autonomy. The first is executive privilege, which allows the president to withhold from disclosure any communications made directly to the president in the performance of executive duties. George Washington first claimed privilege when Congress requested to see Chief Justice John Jay's notes from an unpopular treaty negotiation with Great Britain. While not enshrined in the Constitution, or any other law, Washington's action created the precedent for the privilege. When Richard Nixon tried to use executive privilege as a reason for not turning over subpoenaed evidence to Congress during the Watergate scandal, the Supreme Court ruled in United States v. Nixon, , that executive privilege did not apply in cases where a president was attempting to avoid criminal prosecution. When President Bill Clinton attempted to use executive privilege regarding the Lewinsky scandal, the Supreme Court ruled in Clinton v. Jones, , that the privilege also could not be used in civil suits. These cases established the legal precedent that executive privilege is valid, although the exact extent of the privilege has yet to be clearly defined. Additionally, federal courts have allowed this privilege to radiate outward and protect other executive branch employees, but have weakened that protection for those executive branch communications that do not involve the president. \n\nThe state secrets privilege allows the president and the executive branch to withhold information or documents from discovery in legal proceedings if such release would harm national security. Precedent for the privilege arose early in the 19th century when Thomas Jefferson refused to release military documents in the treason trial of Aaron Burr and again in Totten v. United States , when the Supreme Court dismissed a case brought by a former Union spy. However, the privilege was not formally recognized by the U.S. Supreme Court until United States v. Reynolds , where it was held to be a common law evidentiary privilege. Before the September 11 attacks, use of the privilege had been rare, but increasing in frequency. Since 2001, the government has asserted the privilege in more cases and at earlier stages of the litigation, thus in some instances causing dismissal of the suits before reaching the merits of the claims, as in the Ninth Circuit's ruling in Mohamed v. Jeppesen Dataplan, Inc. Critics of the privilege claim its use has become a tool for the government to cover up illegal or embarrassing government actions. \n\nLegislative facilitator\n\nThe Constitution's Ineligibility Clause prevents the President (and all other executive officers) from simultaneously being a member of Congress. Therefore, the president cannot directly introduce legislative proposals for consideration in Congress. However, the president can take an indirect role in shaping legislation, especially if the president's political party has a majority in one or both houses of Congress. For example, the president or other officials of the executive branch may draft legislation and then ask senators or representatives to introduce these drafts into Congress. The president can further influence the legislative branch through constitutionally mandated, periodic reports to Congress. These reports may be either written or oral, but today are given as the State of the Union address, which often outlines the president's legislative proposals for the coming year. Additionally, the president may attempt to have Congress alter proposed legislation by threatening to veto that legislation unless requested changes are made.\n\nIn the 20th century critics began charging that too many legislative and budgetary powers have slid into the hands of presidents that should belong to Congress. As the head of the executive branch, presidents control a vast array of agencies that can issue regulations with little oversight from Congress. One critic charged that presidents could appoint a \"virtual army of 'czars' – each wholly unaccountable to Congress yet tasked with spearheading major policy efforts for the White House.\" Presidents have been criticized for making signing statements when signing congressional legislation about how they understand a bill or plan to execute it. This practice has been criticized by the American Bar Association as unconstitutional. Conservative commentator George Will wrote of an \"increasingly swollen executive branch\" and \"the eclipse of Congress.\"\n\nAccording to Article II, Section 3, Clause 2 of the Constitution, the president may convene either or both houses of Congress. If both houses cannot agree on a date of adjournment, the president may appoint a date for Congress to adjourn.\n\nCeremonial roles\n\nAs head of state, the president can fulfill traditions established by previous presidents. William Howard Taft started the tradition of throwing out the ceremonial first pitch in 1910 at Griffith Stadium, Washington, D.C., on the Washington Senators' Opening Day. Every president since Taft, except for Jimmy Carter, threw out at least one ceremonial first ball or pitch for Opening Day, the All-Star Game, or the World Series, usually with much fanfare. \n\nThe President of the United States has served as the honorary president of the Boy Scouts of America since the founding of the organization. \n\nOther presidential traditions are associated with American holidays. Rutherford B. Hayes began in 1878 the first White House egg rolling for local children. Beginning in 1947 during the Harry S. Truman administration, every Thanksgiving the president is presented with a live domestic turkey during the annual national thanksgiving turkey presentation held at the White House. Since 1989, when the custom of \"pardoning\" the turkey was formalized by George H. W. Bush, the turkey has been taken to a farm where it will live out the rest of its natural life. \n\nPresidential traditions also involve the president's role as head of government. Many outgoing presidents since James Buchanan traditionally give advice to their successor during the presidential transition. Ronald Reagan and his successors have also left a private message on the desk of the Oval Office on Inauguration Day for the incoming president. \n\nDuring a state visit by a foreign head of state, the president typically hosts a State Arrival Ceremony held on the South Lawn, a custom begun by John F. Kennedy in 1961. This is followed by a state dinner given by the president which is held in the State Dining Room later in the evening. \n\nThe modern presidency holds the president as one of the nation's premier celebrities. Some argue that images of the presidency have a tendency to be manipulated by administration public relations officials as well as by presidents themselves. One critic described the presidency as \"propagandized leadership\" which has a \"mesmerizing power surrounding the office.\" Administration public relations managers staged carefully crafted photo-ops of smiling presidents with smiling crowds for television cameras. One critic wrote the image of John F. Kennedy was described as carefully framed \"in rich detail\" which \"drew on the power of myth\" regarding the incident of PT 109 and wrote that Kennedy understood how to use images to further his presidential ambitions. As a result, some political commentators have opined that American voters have unrealistic expectations of presidents: voters expect a president to \"drive the economy, vanquish enemies, lead the free world, comfort tornado victims, heal the national soul and protect borrowers from hidden credit-card fees.\"\n\nCritics of presidency's evolution\n\nMost of the nation's Founding Fathers expected the Congress, which was the first branch of government described in the Constitution, to be the dominant branch of government; they did not expect a strong executive. However, presidential power has shifted over time, which has resulted in claims that the modern presidency has become too powerful, unchecked, unbalanced, and \"monarchist\" in nature. Critic Dana D. Nelson believes presidents over the past thirty years have worked towards \"undivided presidential control of the executive branch and its agencies.\" She criticizes proponents of the unitary executive for expanding \"the many existing uncheckable executive powers – such as executive orders, decrees, memorandums, proclamations, national security directives and legislative signing statements – that already allow presidents to enact a good deal of foreign and domestic policy without aid, interference or consent from Congress.\" Activist Bill Wilson opined that the expanded presidency was \"the greatest threat ever to individual freedom and democratic rule.\"\n\nSelection process\n\nEligibility\n\nArticle II, Section 1, Clause 5 of the Constitution sets the following qualifications for holding the presidency:\n* be a natural-born citizen of the United States;Foreign-born American citizens who met the age and residency requirements at the time the Constitution was adopted were also eligible for the presidency. However, this allowance has since become obsolete.\n* be at least thirty-five years old;\n* be a resident in the United States for at least fourteen years.\n\nThe Twelfth Amendment precludes anyone ineligible to being the president from becoming the vice president.\n\nA person who meets the above qualifications is still disqualified from holding the office of president under any of the following conditions:\n* Under the Twenty-second Amendment, no person can be elected president more than twice. The amendment also specifies that if any eligible person serves as president or acting president for more than two years of a term for which some other eligible person was elected president, the former can only be elected president once. Scholars disagree over whether a person precluded by the Twenty-second Amendment to being elected president is also precluded to being vice president. \n* Under Article I, Section 3, Clause 7, upon conviction in impeachment cases, the Senate has the option of disqualifying convicted individuals from holding federal office, including that of president. \n* Under Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment, no person who swore an oath to support the Constitution, and later rebelled against the United States, can become president. However, this disqualification can be lifted by a two-thirds vote of each house of Congress.\n\nCampaigns and nomination\n\nThe modern presidential campaign begins before the primary elections, which the two major political parties use to clear the field of candidates before their national nominating conventions, where the most successful candidate is made the party's nominee for president. Typically, the party's presidential candidate chooses a vice presidential nominee, and this choice is rubber-stamped by the convention. The most common previous profession by U.S. presidents is lawyer. \n\nNominees participate in nationally televised debates, and while the debates are usually restricted to the Democratic and Republican nominees, third party candidates may be invited, such as Ross Perot in the 1992 debates. Nominees campaign across the country to explain their views, convince voters and solicit contributions. Much of the modern electoral process is concerned with winning swing states through frequent visits and mass media advertising drives.\n\nElection and oath\n\nThe president is elected indirectly. A number of electors, collectively known as the Electoral College, officially select the president. On Election Day, voters in each of the states and the District of Columbia cast ballots for these electors. Each state is allocated a number of electors, equal to the size of its delegation in both Houses of Congress combined. Generally, the ticket that wins the most votes in a state wins all of that state's electoral votes and thus has its slate of electors chosen to vote in the Electoral College.\n\nThe winning slate of electors meet at its state's capital on the first Monday after the second Wednesday in December, about six weeks after the election, to vote. They then send a record of that vote to Congress. The vote of the electors is opened by the sitting vice president—acting in that role's capacity as President of the Senate—and read aloud to a joint session of the incoming Congress, which was elected at the same time as the president.\n\nPursuant to the Twentieth Amendment, the president's term of office begins at noon on January 20 of the year following the election. This date, known as Inauguration Day, marks the beginning of the four-year terms of both the president and the vice president. Before executing the powers of the office, a president is constitutionally required to take the presidential oath:\n\nAlthough not required, presidents have traditionally palmed a Bible while swearing the oath and have added, \"So help me God!\" to the end of the oath. Further, although the oath may be administered by any person authorized by law to administer oaths, presidents are traditionally sworn in by the Chief Justice of the United States.\n\nTenure and term limits\n\nThe term of office for president and vice president is four years. George Washington, the first president, set an unofficial precedent of serving only two terms, which subsequent presidents followed until 1940. Before Franklin D. Roosevelt, attempts at a third term were encouraged by supporters of Ulysses S. Grant and Theodore Roosevelt; neither of these attempts succeeded. In 1940, Franklin D. Roosevelt declined to seek a third term, but allowed his political party to \"draft\" him as its presidential candidate and was subsequently elected to a third term. In 1941, the United States entered World War II, leading voters to elect Roosevelt to a fourth term in 1944. But Roosevelt died only 82 days after taking office for the fourth term on 12 April 1945.\n\nAfter the war, and in response to Roosevelt being elected to third and fourth terms, the Twenty-second Amendment was adopted. The amendment bars anyone from being elected president more than twice, or once if that person served more than half of another president's term. Harry S. Truman, president when this amendment was adopted, was exempted from its limitations and briefly sought a third (a second full) term before withdrawing from the 1952 election.\n\nSince the amendment's adoption, four presidents have served two full terms: Dwight D. Eisenhower, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush. Barack Obama has been elected to a second term, and will complete his term on 20 January 2017, if he does not die or resign before that date. Jimmy Carter and George H. W. Bush sought a second term, but were defeated. Richard Nixon was elected to a second term, but resigned before completing it. Lyndon B. Johnson was the only president under the amendment to be eligible to serve more than two terms in total, having served for only fourteen months following John F. Kennedy's assassination. However, Johnson withdrew from the 1968 Democratic Primary, surprising many Americans. Gerald Ford sought a full term, after serving out the last two years and five months of Nixon's second term, but was not elected.\n\nVacancy or disability\n\nVacancies in the office of President may arise under several possible circumstances: death, resignation and removal from office.\n\nArticle II, Section 4 of the Constitution allows the House of Representatives to impeach high federal officials, including the president, for \"treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors.\" Article I, Section 3, Clause 6 gives the Senate the power to remove impeached officials from office, given a two-thirds vote to convict. The House has thus far impeached two presidents: Andrew Johnson in 1868 and Bill Clinton in 1998. Neither was subsequently convicted by the Senate; however, Johnson was acquitted by just one vote.\n\nUnder Section 3 of the Twenty-fifth Amendment, the president may transfer the presidential powers and duties to the vice president, who then becomes acting president, by transmitting a statement to the Speaker of the House and the President pro tempore of the Senate stating the reasons for the transfer. The president resumes the discharge of the presidential powers and duties upon transmitting, to those two officials, a written declaration stating that resumption. This transfer of power may occur for any reason the president considers appropriate; in 2002 and again in 2007, President George W. Bush briefly transferred presidential authority to Vice President Dick Cheney. In both cases, this was done to accommodate a medical procedure which required Bush to be sedated; both times, Bush returned to duty later the same day. \n\nUnder Section 4 of the Twenty-fifth Amendment, the vice president, in conjunction with a majority of the Cabinet, may transfer the presidential powers and duties from the president to the vice president by transmitting a written declaration to the Speaker of the House and the president pro tempore of the Senate that the president is unable to discharge the presidential powers and duties. If this occurs, then the vice president will assume the presidential powers and duties as acting president; however, the president can declare that no such inability exists and resume the discharge of the presidential powers and duties. If the vice president and Cabinet contest this claim, it is up to Congress, which must meet within two days if not already in session, to decide the merit of the claim.\n\nThe United States Constitution mentions the resignation of the president, but does not regulate its form or the conditions for its validity. Pursuant to federal law, the only valid evidence of the president's resignation is a written instrument to that effect, signed by the president and delivered to the office of the Secretary of State. This has only occurred once, when Richard Nixon delivered a letter to Henry Kissinger to that effect.\n\nSection 1 of the Twenty-fifth Amendment states that the vice president becomes president upon the removal from office, death or resignation of the preceding president. The Presidential Succession Act of 1947 provides that if the offices of President and Vice President are each either vacant or are held by a disabled person, the next officer in the presidential line of succession, the Speaker of the House, becomes acting president. The line then extends to the President pro tempore of the Senate, followed by every member of the Cabinet. These persons must fulfill all eligibility requirements of the office of President to be eligible to become acting president; ineligible individuals are skipped. There has never been a special election for the office of President.\n\nCompensation\n\nSince 2001, the president has earned a $400,000 annual salary, along with a $50,000 annual expense account, a $100,000 nontaxable travel account, and $19,000 for entertainment. The most recent raise in salary was approved by Congress and President Bill Clinton in 1999 and went into effect in 2001.\n\nThe White House in Washington, D.C., serves as the official place of residence for the president. As well as access to the White House staff, facilities available to the president include medical care, recreation, housekeeping, and security services. The government pays for state dinners and other official functions, but the president pays for personal, family and guest dry cleaning and food; the high food bill often amazes new residents. Naval Support Facility Thurmont, popularly known as Camp David, is a mountain-based military camp in Frederick County, Maryland, used as a country retreat and for high alert protection of the president and guests. Blair House, located next to the Eisenhower Executive Office Building at the White House Complex and Lafayette Park, is a complex of four connected townhouses exceeding 70000 sqft of floor space which serves as the president's official guest house and as a secondary residence for the president if needed. \n\nFor ground travel, the president uses the presidential state car, which is an armored limousine built on a heavily modified Cadillac-based chassis.[http://www.secretservice.gov/press/GPA02-09_Limo.pdf New Presidential Limousine enters Secret Service Fleet] U.S. Secret Service Press Release (January 14, 2009) Retrieved on January 20, 2009. One of two identical Boeing VC-25 aircraft, which are extensively modified versions of Boeing 747-200B airliners, serve as long distance travel for the president and are referred to as Air Force One while the president is on board (although any U.S. Air Force aircraft the President is aboard is designated as \"Air Force One\" for the duration of the flight). In-country trips are typically handled with just one of the two planes while overseas trips are handled with both, one primary and one backup. Any civilian aircraft the President is aboard is designated Executive One for the flight. The president also has access to a fleet of thirty-five U.S. Marine Corps helicopters of varying models, designated Marine One when the president is aboard any particular one in the fleet. Flights are typically handled with as many as five helicopters all flying together and frequently swapping positions as to disguise which helicopter the President is actually aboard to any would-be threats.\n\nThe U.S. Secret Service is charged with protecting the sitting president and the first family. As part of their protection, presidents, first ladies, their children and other immediate family members, and other prominent persons and locations are assigned Secret Service codenames. The use of such names was originally for security purposes and dates to a time when sensitive electronic communications were not routinely encrypted; today, the names simply serve for purposes of brevity, clarity, and tradition. \n\nFile:White House lawn (1).tif|The White House\n\nFile:Camp David 1959.jpg|Camp David\nFile:Blair House daylight.jpg|Blair House\nFile:GPA02-09 US SecretService press release 2009 Limousine Page 3 Image.jpg|State car\nFile:Air Force One over Mt. Rushmore.jpg|Air Force One\nFile:Marine One (1970).jpg|Marine One\n\nPost-presidency\n\nBeginning in 1959, all living former presidents were granted a pension, an office, and a staff. The pension has increased numerous times with Congressional approval. Retired presidents now receive a pension based on the salary of the current administration's cabinet secretaries, which was $199,700 each year in 2012. Former presidents who served in Congress may also collect congressional pensions. The Former Presidents Act, as amended, also provides former presidents with travel funds and franking privileges. Prior to 1997, all former presidents, their spouses, and their children until age 16 were protected by the Secret Service until the president's death. In 1997, Congress passed legislation limiting secret service protection to no more than 10 years from the date a president leaves office. On January 10, 2013, President Obama signed legislation reinstating lifetime secret service protection for him, George W. Bush, and all subsequent presidents. A spouse who remarries is no longer eligible for secret service protection.\n\nSome presidents have had significant careers after leaving office. Prominent examples include William Howard Taft's tenure as Chief Justice of the United States and Herbert Hoover's work on government reorganization after World War II. Grover Cleveland, whose bid for reelection failed in 1888, was elected president again four years later in 1892. Two former presidents served in Congress after leaving the White House: John Quincy Adams was elected to the House of Representatives, serving there for seventeen years, and Andrew Johnson returned to the Senate in 1875. John Tyler served in the provisional Congress of the Confederate States during the Civil War and was elected to the Confederate House of Representatives, but died before that body first met.\n\nPresidents may use their predecessors as emissaries to deliver private messages to other nations or as official representatives of the United States to state funerals and other important foreign events. Richard Nixon made multiple foreign trips to countries including China and Russia and was lauded as an elder statesman. Jimmy Carter has become a global human rights campaigner, international arbiter, and election monitor, as well as a recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. Bill Clinton has also worked as an informal ambassador, most recently in the negotiations that led to the release of two American journalists, Laura Ling and Euna Lee, from North Korea. Clinton has also been active politically since his presidential term ended, working with his wife Hillary on her 2008 and 2016 presidential bids and President Obama on his reelection campaign.\n\nFile:Carter 2k14.tif|Jimmy Carter39th (1977–81)\nFile:President George H. W.tif|George H. W. Bush41st (1989–93)\nFile:Clinton 2k15.tif|Bill Clinton42nd (1993–2001)\nFile:Bush 2k14.tif|George W. Bush43rd (2001–09)\n\nPresidential libraries\n\nSince Herbert Hoover, each president has created a repository known as a presidential library for preserving and making available his papers, records and other documents and materials. Completed libraries are deeded to and maintained by the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA); the initial funding for building and equipping each library must come from private, non-federal sources. There are currently thirteen presidential libraries in the NARA system. There are also presidential libraries maintained by state governments and private foundations and Universities of Higher Education, such as the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum, which is run by the State of Illinois, the George H.W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum, which is run by Texas A&M University and the Lyndon Baines Johnson Presidential Library and Museum, which is run by the University of Texas at Austin.\n\nAs many presidents live for many years after leaving office, several of them have personally overseen the building and opening of their own presidential libraries, some even making arrangements for their own burial at the site. Several presidential libraries therefore contain the graves of the president they document, such as the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum in Yorba Linda, California and the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California. The graves are viewable by the general public visiting these libraries.\n\nTimeline of Presidents", "The Medal of Honor is the United States of America's highest military honor, awarded for personal acts of valor above and beyond the call of duty. The medal is awarded by the President of the United States in the name of the U.S. Congress to U.S. military personnel only. There are three versions of the medal, one for the Army, one for the Navy, and one for the Air Force. Personnel of the Marine Corps and Coast Guard receive the Navy version.\n\nThe Medal of Honor was created as a Navy version in 1861 named the \"Medal of Valor\", and an Army version of the medal named the \"Medal of Honor\" was established in 1862 to give recognition to men who distinguished themselves \"conspicuously by gallantry and intrepidity\" in combat with an enemy of the United States. Because the medal is presented \"in the name of Congress\", it is often referred to as the \"Congressional Medal of Honor\". However, the official name is the \"Medal of Honor\", which began with the U.S. Army's version.DoD Award Manual, Nov. 23, 2010, 1348. 33, P. 31, 8. c. (1) (a)The Congressional Medal of Honor Society is so designated because that was the name it was given in an act of Congress that was signed into law by U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower on August 5, 1958, as Title 36, Chapter 33 of the U.S. Code (see ). The law authorizing the society has since been transferred to Title 36, Chapter 405 of the U.S. Code. [http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/html/uscode36/usc_sup_01_36_06_II_08_B_10_405.html ] Within United States Code the medal is referred to as the \"Medal of Honor\", and less frequently as \"Congressional Medal of Honor\".\n\nThe Medal of Honor is usually presented by the President in a formal ceremony at the White House, intended to represent the gratitude of the American people, with posthumous presentations made to the primary next of kin. According to the Medal of Honor Historical Society of the United States, there have been 3,515 Medals of Honor awarded to the nation's soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines, and Coast Guardsmen since the decoration's creation, with just less than half of them awarded for actions during the four years of the American Civil War.\n\nIn 1990, Congress designated March 25 annually as \"National Medal of Honor Day\". Due to its prestige and status, the Medal of Honor is afforded special protection under U.S. law against any unauthorized adornment, sale, or manufacture, which includes any associated ribbon or badge. \n\nHistory\n\n1780: The Fidelity Medallion was a small medal worn on a chain around the neck, similar to a religious medal, that was awarded only to three militiamen from New York state, for the capture of John André, a British officer and spy connected directly to General Benedict Arnold (American and British general-1780) during the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783). The capture saved the fort of West Point from the British Army.\n\n1782: Badge of Military Merit: The first formal system for rewarding acts of individual gallantry by American soldiers was established by George Washington when he issued a field order on August 7, 1782, for a Badge of Military Merit to recognize those members of the Continental Army who performed \"any singular meritorious action\". This decoration is America's first combat decoration and was preceded only by the Fidelity Medallion, the Congressional medal for Henry Lee awarded in September 1779 in recognition of his attack on the British at Paulus Hook, the Congressional medal for General Horatio Gates awarded in November 1777 in recognition of his victory over the British at Saratoga, and the Congressional medal for George Washington awarded in March 1776. Although the Badge of Military Merit fell into disuse after the American Revolutionary War, the concept of a military award for individual gallantry by members of the U.S. Armed Forces had been established.\n\n1847: Certificate of Merit: After the outbreak of the Mexican-American War (1846–1848) a Certificate of Merit (Meritorious Service Citation Certificate) was established by Act of Congress on March 3, 1847 \"to any private soldier who had distinguished himself by gallantry performed in the presence of the enemy\". 539 Certificates were approved for this period. The certificate was discontinued and reintroduced in 1876 effective from June 22, 1874 to February 10, 1892 when it was awarded for extraordinary gallantry by private soldiers in the presence of the enemy. From February 11, 1892 through July 9, 1918 (Certificate of Merit disestablished) it could be awarded to members of the Army for distinguished service in combat or noncombat; from January 11, 1905 through July 9, 1918 the certificate was granted medal status as the Certificate of Merit Medal \n(first awarded to a soldier who was awarded the Certificate of Merit for combat action on August 13, 1898). This medal was later replaced by the Army Distinguished Service Medal which was established on January 2, 1918 (the Navy Distinguished Service Medal was established in 1919). Those Army members who held the Distinguished Service Medal in place of the Certificate of Merit could apply for the Army Distinguished Service Cross (established 1918) effective March 5, 1934.\n\nMedal of Valor \n\nThere were no military awards or medals at the beginning of the Civil War (1861–1865) except for the Certificate of Merit which was awarded for the Mexican-American War. In the fall of 1861, a proposal for a battlefield decoration for valor was submitted to Winfield Scott, the general-in-chief of the army, by Lt. Colonel Edward D. Townsend, an assistant adjutant at the War Department and Scott's chief of staff. Scott however, was strictly against medals being awarded which was the European tradition. After Scott retired in October 1861, the Secretary of the Navy, Gideon Welles, adopted the idea of a decoration to recognize and honor distinguished naval service. On December 9, U.S. Senator (Iowa) James W. Grimes, Chairman on the Committee on Naval Affairs, proposed Public Resolution Number 82 (Bill 82: 37th Congress, Second Session, 12 Stat. 329) \"to promote the efficiency of the Navy\" which included a provision for a Navy Medal of Valor which was signed into law by President Abraham Lincoln on December 21, 1861 (Medal of Honor had been established for the Navy), \"to be bestowed upon such petty officers, seamen, landsmen, and marines as shall most distinguish themselves by their gallantry and other seamen-like qualities during the present war.\" Secretary Wells directed the Philadelphia Mint to design the new military decoration. On May 15, 1862, the United States Navy Department ordered 175 medals ($1.85 each) with the words \"Personal Valor\" on the back from the U.S. Mint in Philadelphia. \n\nMedal of Honor \n\nSenator Henry Wilson, the chairman of the Senate Committee on Military Affairs, introduced a resolution on February 15, 1862 for an Army Medal of Honor. The resolution (37th Congress, Second Session, 12 Stat. 623) was approved by Congress and signed into law on July 12, 1862 (\"Medals of Honor\" were established for enlisted men of the Army). This measure provided for awarding a medal of honor \"to such non-commissioned officers and privates as shall most distinguish themselves by their gallantry in action and other soldier-like qualities during the present insurrection.\" During the war, Townsend would have some medals delivered to some recipients with a letter requesting acknowledgement of the \"Medal of Honor\". The letter written and signed by Townsend on behalf of the Secretary of War, stated that the resolution was \"to provide for the presentation of medals of honor to the enlisted men of the army and volunteer forces who have distinguished or may distinguish themselves in battle during the present rebellion.\" By mid-November the War Department contracted with Philadelphia silversmith William Wilson and Son, who had been responsible for the Navy design, to prepare 2,000 Army medals ($2.00 each) to be cast at the mint. The Army version had \"The Congress to\" written on the back of the medal. Both versions were made of copper and coated with bronze, which \"gave them a reddish tint\". \n\n1863: Congress made the Medal of Honor a permanent decoration. On March 3, Medals of Honor were authorized for officers of the Army (37th Congress, Third Session, 12 Stat. 751). The Secretary of War first presented the Medal of Honor to six Union Army volunteers on March 25, 1863 in his office. \n\n1890: On April 23, the Medal of Honor Legion is established in Washington, D.C. \n\n1896: The ribbon of the Army version Medal of Honor was redesigned with all stripes being vertical. \n\n1904: The planchet of the Army version of the Medal of Honor was redesigned by General George Lewis Gillespie. The purpose of the redesign was to help distinguish the Medal of Honor from other medals, including a medal issued by the Grand Army of the Republic. \n\n1915: On March 3, Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard officers became eligible for the Medal of Honor.\n \n\n1963: A separate Coast Guard medal was authorized in 1963, but not yet designed or awarded.\n\n1965: A separate design for a version of the medal for the U.S. Air Force was created in 1956, authorized in 1960, and officially adopted on April 14, 1965. Previously, members of the U.S. Army Air Corps, U.S. Army Air Forces, and the U.S. Air Force received the Army version of the medal. \n\nAppearance\n\nThere are three versions of the Medal of Honor, one for each of the military departments of the Department of Defense: Army, Navy, and Air Force. Members of the Marine Corps and Coast Guard are eligible to receive the Navy version. Each is constructed differently and the components are made from gilding metals and red brass alloys with some gold plating, enamel, and bronze pieces. The United States Congress considered a bill in 2004 which would require the Medal of Honor to be made with 90% gold, the same composition as the lesser-known Congressional Gold Medal, but the measure was dropped.\n\nArmy Medal of Honor\n\nThe Army version is described by the Institute of Heraldry as \"a gold five pointed star, each point tipped with trefoils, wide, surrounded by a green laurel wreath and suspended from a gold bar inscribed VALOR, surmounted by an eagle. In the center of the star, Minerva's head surrounded by the words UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. On each ray of the star is a green oak leaf. On the reverse is a bar engraved THE CONGRESS TO with a space for engraving the name of the recipient.\" The pendant and suspension bar are made of gilding metal, with the eye, jump rings, and suspension ring made of red brass. The finish on the pendant and suspension bar is hard enameled, gold plated, and rose gold plated, with polished highlights.\n\nNavy, Marine, and Coast Guard Medal of Honor\n\nThe Navy version is described as \"a five-pointed bronze star, tipped with trefoils containing a crown of laurel and oak. In the center is Minerva, personifying the United States, standing with left hand resting on fasces and right hand holding a shield blazoned with the shield from the coat of arms of the United States. She repulses Discord, represented by snakes. The medal is suspended from the flukes of an anchor.\" It is made of solid red brass, oxidized and buffed. \n\nAir Force Medal of Honor\n\nThe Air Force version is described as \"within a wreath of green laurel, a gold five-pointed star, one point down, tipped with trefoils and each point containing a crown of laurel and oak on a green background. Centered on the star, an annulet of 34 stars is a representation of the head of the Statue of Liberty. The star is suspended from a bar inscribed with the word VALOR above an adaptation of the thunderbolt from the Air Force Coat of Arms.\" The pendant is made of gilding metal. The connecting bar, hinge, and pin are made of bronze. The finish on the pendant and suspension bar is hard enameled, gold plated, and rose gold plated, with buffed relief.\n\nNeck ribbon, service ribbon, lapel button, and \"V\" device \n\nSince 1944, the Medal of Honor has been attached to a light blue colored moiré silk Neck ribbon that is in width and in length. The center of the ribbon displays thirteen white stars in the form of three chevron. Both the top and middle chevrons are made up of 5 stars, with the bottom chevron made of 3 stars. The Medal of Honor is one of only two United States military awards suspended from a neck ribbon. The other, the Commander's Degree of the Legion of Merit, and is usually awarded to individuals serving foreign governments. \n\nOn May 2, 1896, Congress authorized a \"ribbon to be worn with the medal and [a] rosette or knot to be worn in lieu of the medal.\" The service ribbon is light blue with five white stars in the form of an \"M\". It is placed first in the top position in the order of precedence and is worn for situations other than full-dress military uniform. The lapel button is a , six-sided light blue bowknot rosette with thirteen white stars and may be worn on appropriate civilian clothing on the left lapel.\n\nIn 2011, Department of Defense instructions were amended to read \"for each succeeding act that would otherwise justify award of the Medal of Honor, the individual receiving the subsequent award is authorized to wear an additional Medal of Honor ribbon and/or a 'V' device on the Medal of Honor suspension ribbon\" (the \"V\" device is a high bronze miniature letter \"V\" with serifs that denotes valor). The Medal of Honor was the only decoration authorized the use of the \"V\" device to designate subsequent awards in such fashion. Nineteen individuals, all now deceased, were double Medal of Honor recipients. This was discontinued in July 2014, and changed to read \"A separate MOH is presented to an individual for each succeeding act that justified award.\" As of 2014, no devices are authorized for the Medal of Honor.\n\nHistorical versions\n\nThe Medal of Honor has evolved in appearance over time. The upside-down star design of the Navy version's pendant adopted in early 1862 has not changed since its inception. The Army 1862 version followed and was identical to the Navy version except an eagle perched atop cannons was used instead of an anchor to connect the pendant to the suspension ribbon. In 1896, the Army version changed the ribbon's design and colors due to misuse and imitation by nonmilitary organizations. In 1904, the Army \"Gillespie\" version introduced a smaller redesigned star and the ribbon was changed to the light blue pattern with white stars seen today. In 1913, the Navy version adopted the same ribbon pattern.\n\nAfter World War I, the Navy decided to separate the Medal of Honor into two versions, one for combat and one for non-combat. The original upside-down star was designated as the non-combat version and a new pattern of the medal pendant, in cross form, was designed by the Tiffany Company in 1919. It was to be presented to a sailor or Marine who \"in action involving actual conflict with the enemy, distinguish[es] himself conspicuously by gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty\" Despite the \"actual conflict\" guidelines—the Tiffany Cross was awarded to Navy CDR (later RADM) Richard E. Byrd and Floyd Bennett for arctic exploration. The Tiffany Cross itself was not popular. In 1942, the Navy returned to using only the original 1862 inverted 5-point star design, and ceased issuing the award for non-combat action. \n\nIn 1944, the suspension ribbons for both the Army and Navy version were replaced with the now familiar neck ribbon. When the Air Force version was designed in 1956, it incorporated similar elements and design from the Army version. It used a larger star with the Statue of Liberty image in place of Minerva on the medal and changed the connecting device from an eagle to an heraldic thunderbolt flanked with wings as found on the service seal. \n\nFile:US-MOH-1862.png|1862–95 Army version\nFile:US-MOH-1896.png|1896–1903 Army version\nFile:US-MOH-1904.png|1904–44 Army version\nFile:Army Medal of Honor.jpg|Post 1944 Army version\n\nFile:US Navy Medal of Honor (1862 original).png|1862–1912 Navy version\nFile:US Navy Medal of Honor (1913 to 1942).png|1913–42 Navy version\nFile:Tiffany Cross Medal of Honor.jpg|1919–42 Navy \"Tiffany Cross\" version\nFile:NavyMedalofHonor.jpg|Post 1942 Navy version\n\nFlag\n\nOn October 23, 2002, was enacted, modifying , authorizing a Medal of Honor flag to be presented to recipients of the decoration. \n\nThe flag was based on a concept by retired Army Special Forces First Sergeant Bill Kendall of Jefferson, Iowa, who designed a flag to honor Medal of Honor recipient Captain Darrell Lindsey, a B-26 pilot from Jefferson who was killed in World War II. Kendall's design of a light blue field emblazoned with 13 white five-pointed stars was nearly identical to that of Sarah LeClerc's of the Institute of Heraldry. LeClerc's design, ultimately accepted as the official flag, does not include the words \"Medal of Honor\" and is fringed in gold. The color of the field and the 13 white stars, arranged in the form of a three bar chevron, consisting of two chevrons of five stars and one chevron of three stars, emulate the suspension ribbon of the Medal of Honor. The flag has no set proportions. \n\n* The first Medal of Honor recipient to receive the official Medal of Honor flag was Sergeant First Class Paul R. Smith. The Medal of Honor with the flag was presented by President George W. Bush to his family during a ceremony at the White House on April 4, 2005. \n\nA special Medal of Honor Flag presentation ceremony was held for over 60 living Medal of Honor recipients on board the on September 30, 2006. \n\nPresenting\n\nThere are two distinct protocols for awarding the Medal of Honor. The first and most common is nomination and approval through the chain of command of the service member. The second method is nomination by a member of the U.S. Congress, generally at the request of a constituent. In both cases, if the proposal is outside the time limits for the recommendation, approval to waive the time limit requires a special Act of Congress. The Medal of Honor is presented by the President on behalf of, and in the name of, the Congress. Since 1980, nearly all Medal of Honor recipients or in the case of posthumous awards, the next of kin have been personally decorated by the Commander-in-Chief. Since 1941, more than half of the Medals of Honor have been awarded posthumously. \n\nEvolution of criteria\n\n* 1800s: Several months after President Abraham Lincoln signed Public Resolution 82 into law on December 21, 1861 for a Navy medal of honor, a similar resolution was passed in July 1862 for an Army version of the medal. Six Union Army soldiers who hijacked a Confederate locomotive named The General in 1862, were the first Medal of Honor recipients; James J. Andrews, a civilian, led the raid. He was caught and hanged as a Union spy, but was a civilian and not eligible to receive the medal. Many Medals of Honor awarded in the 19th century were associated with \"saving the flag\" (and country), not just for patriotic reasons, but because the U.S. flag was a primary means of battlefield communication at the time. Because no other military decoration was authorized during the Civil War, some seemingly less exceptional and notable actions were recognized by a Medal of Honor during that conflict.\n* 1900s: Early in the twentieth century, the Navy awarded many Medals of Honor for peacetime bravery. For instance, in 1901, John Henry Helms aboard the was awarded the medal for saving the ship's cook from drowning. Seven sailors aboard the were awarded the medal after the ship's boiler exploded on January 25, 1904. Richard Byrd and Floyd Bennett were awarded the medal—combat (\"Tiffany\") version despite the existence then of a non-combat form of the Navy medal—for the 1926 flight they claim reached the North Pole. And Admiral Thomas J. Ryan was awarded the medal for saving a woman from the burning Grand Hotel in Yokohama, Japan, following the 1923 Great Kantō earthquake. Between 1919 and 1942, the Navy issued two separate versions of the Medal of Honor, one for acts related to combat and one for non-combat bravery. The criteria for the award tightened during World War I for the Army version of the Medal of Honor, while the Navy version retained a non-combat provision until 1963. In an Act of Congress of July 9, 1918, the War Department version of the medal required that the recipient \"distinguish himself conspicuously by gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty\", and also required that the act of valor be performed \"in action involving actual conflict with an enemy\". This was in reaction to the results of the Army Medal of Honor Review Board, which struck 911 medals from the Medal of Honor Roll in February 1917 for lack of basic prerequisites. These included the members of the 27th Maine erroneously awarded the medal for reenlisting to guard the capital during the Civil War, 29 members of Abraham Lincoln's funeral detail, and six civilians, including Buffalo Bill Cody and Mary Edwards Walker (though the latter's was restored posthumously in 1977). \n* World War II: Starting in 1942, the Medal would only be awarded for action in combat, although the Navy version of the Medal of Honor technically allowed non-combat awards until 1963. Official accounts vary, but generally, the Medal of Honor for combat was known as the \"Tiffany Cross\", after the company that designed the medal. The Tiffany Cross was first awarded in 1919, but was unpopular partly because of its design. The Tiffany Cross Medal of Honor was awarded at least three times for non-combat. By a special authorized Act of Congress, the medal was presented to Byrd and Bennett (see above). In 1942, the United States Navy reverted to a single Medal of Honor, although the statute still contained a loophole allowing the award for both \"action involving actual conflict with the enemy\" or \"in the line of his profession\". Arising from these criteria, approximately 60 percent of the medals earned during and after World War II have been awarded posthumously. \n* Public Law 88-77, July 25, 1963: The requirements for the Medal of Honor were standardized among all the services, requiring that a recipient had \"distinguished himself conspicuously by gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty.\" Thus, the act removed the loophole allowing non-combat awards to Navy personnel. The act also clarified that the act of valor must occur during one of three circumstances: \n# While engaged in action against an enemy of the United States\n# While engaged in military operations involving conflict with an opposing foreign force.\n# While serving with friendly foreign forces engaged in an armed conflict against an opposing armed force in which the United States is not a belligerent party. \n\nCongress drew the three permutations of combat from President Kennedy's executive order of April 25, 1962, which previously added the same criteria to the Purple Heart. On August 24, Kennedy added similar criteria for the Bronze Star Medal. The amendment was necessary because Cold War armed conflicts did not qualify for consideration under previous statutes such as the 1918 Army Medal of Honor Statute that required valor \"in action involving actual conflict with an enemy\", since the United States has not formally declared war since World War II as a result of the provisions of the United Nations Charter. According to congressional testimony by the Army's Deputy Chief of Staff for Personnel, the services were seeking authority to award the Medal of Honor and other valor awards retroactive to July 1, 1958, in areas such as Berlin, Lebanon, Quemoy and Matsu Islands, Taiwan Straits, Congo, Laos, Vietnam, and Cuba.\n\nAuthority and privileges\n\nThe four specific authorizing statutes amended July 25, 1963:\n* Army: \n* Navy and Marine Corps: \n* Air Force: \n* Coast Guard: A version is authorized but it has never been awarded.\n\nThe President may award, and present in the name of Congress, a medal of honor of appropriate design, with ribbons and appurtenances, to a person who while a member of the Army (naval service; Navy and Marine Corps) (Air Force) (Coast Guard), distinguished himself conspicuously by gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty. \n\nPrivileges and courtesies\n\nThe Medal of Honor confers special privileges on its recipients. By law, recipients have several benefits: \n\n* Each Medal of Honor recipient may have his or her name entered on the Medal of Honor Roll (). \n* Each person whose name is placed on the Medal of Honor Roll is certified to the United States Department of Veterans Affairs as being entitled to receive a monthly pension above and beyond any military pensions or other benefits for which they may be eligible. The pension is subject to cost-of-living increases; as of December 1, 2012, it is $1,259 a month. \n* Enlisted recipients of the Medal of Honor are entitled to a supplemental uniform allowance. \n* Recipients receive special entitlements to air transportation under the provisions of DOD Regulation 4515.13-R. This benefit allows the recipient to travel as he or she deems fit across geographical locations, and allows the recipient's dependents to travel either Overseas-Overseas, Overseas-Continental US, or Continental US-Overseas when accompanied by the recipient. \n* Special identification cards and commissary and exchange privileges are provided for Medal of Honor recipients and their eligible dependents.\n* Recipients are granted eligibility for interment at Arlington National Cemetery, if not otherwise eligible. \n* Fully qualified children of recipients are eligible for admission to the United States military academies without regard to the nomination and quota requirements. \n* Recipients receive a 10 percent increase in retired pay. \n* Those awarded the medal after October 23, 2002, receive a Medal of Honor Flag. The law specified that all 103 living prior recipients as of that date would receive a flag. \n* Recipients receive an invitation to all future presidential inaugurations and inaugural balls. \n* As with all medals, retired personnel may wear the Medal of Honor on \"appropriate\" civilian clothing. Regulations specify that recipients of the Medal of Honor are allowed to wear the uniform \"at their pleasure\" with standard restrictions on political, commercial, or extremist purposes (other former members of the armed forces may do so only at certain ceremonial occasions). \n* Most states (40) offer a special license plate for certain types of vehicles to recipients at little or no cost to the recipient. The states that do not offer Medal of Honor specific license plate offer special license plates for veterans for which recipients may be eligible.\n\nSaluting\n\n* Although not required by law or military regulation, members of the uniformed services are encouraged to render salutes to recipients of the Medal of Honor as a matter of respect and courtesy regardless of rank or status, whether or not they are in uniform. This is one of the few instances where a living member of the military will receive salutes from members of a higher rank.\n\nLegal protection\n\n* 1904: The Army redesigned its Medal of Honor. To prevent the making of copies of the medal, Brigadier General George Gillespie, Jr., a Medal of Honor recipient from the Civil War, applied for and obtained a patent for the new design. General Gillespie received the patent on November 22, 1904, and he transferred it the following month to the Secretary of War at the time, William Howard Taft.\n* 1923: Congress enacted a statute (the year before the 20-year term of the patent would expire)—which would later be codified at 18 U.S.C. §704—prohibiting the unauthorized wearing, manufacturing, or sale of military medals or decorations. In 1994, Congress amended the statute to permit an enhanced penalty if the offense involved the Medal of Honor. \n* 2005: Congress enacted the Stolen Valor Act of 2005. (Section 1 of the Act provided that the law could be cited as the \"Stolen Valor Act of 2005\", but the bill received final passage and was signed into law in 2006. ) The law amended 18 U.S.C. § 704 to make it a federal criminal offense for a person to deliberately state falsely that he or she had been awarded a military decoration, service medal, or badge. The law also permitted an enhanced penalty for someone who falsely claimed to have been awarded the Medal of Honor.\n* June 28, 2012: In the case of United States v. Alvarez, the Supreme Court of the United States held that the Stolen Valor Act of 2005's criminalization of the making of false claims of having been awarded a military medal, decoration, or badge was an unconstitutional violation of the First Amendment's guarantee of free speech. The case involved an elected official in California, Xavier Alvarez, who had falsely stated at a public meeting that he had been awarded the Medal of Honor, even though he had never served in any branch of the armed forces. \n\nThe Supreme Court's decision did not specifically address the constitutionality of the older portion of the statute which prohibits the unauthorized wearing, manufacturing, or sale of military medals or decorations. Under the law, the unauthorized wearing, manufacturing, or sale of the Medal of Honor is punishable by a fine of up to $100,000 and imprisonment of up to one year. \n\n* June 3, 2013: President Barack Obama signs into law a revised version of the Stolen Valor Act, making it a federal offense for someone to pass themselves off as awardees of medals for valor in order to receive benefits or other privileges (such as grants, educational benefits, housing, etc.) that are set aside for veterans and other service members. \n\nA number of veteran support organizations and private companies devote themselves to exposing those who falsely claim to have received the Medal of Honor. \n\nEnforcement\n\n* 1996: HLI Lordship Industries Inc., a former Medal of Honor contractor, was fined for selling 300 medals for US $75 each. \n* 1996: Fort Lauderdale, Florida, resident Jackie Stern was convicted of wearing a Medal of Honor to which he was not entitled. A federal judge sentenced him to serve one year of probation and to write a letter of apology to each of the then-living 171 recipients of the medal. His letter was published in the local newspaper. \n* 2003: Edward Fedora and Gisela Fedora were charged with violating , Unlawful Sale of a Medal of Honor, for selling medals awarded to U.S. Navy Sailor Robert Blume (for action in the Spanish–American War) and to U.S. Army First Sergeant George Washington Roosevelt (for action in the Civil War) to an FBI agent. Edward Fedora pleaded guilty and was sentenced to prison. \n\nDuplicate medals\n\nMedal of Honor recipients may apply in writing to the headquarters of the service branch of the medal awarded for a replacement or display Medal of Honor, ribbon, and appurtenance (Medal of Honor flag) without charge. Primary next of kin may also do the same and have any questions answered in regard to the Medal of Honor that was awarded. \n\nRecipients\n\nThe Medal of Honor has been awarded to 3,496 different persons. Of the 19 men that have been awarded the Medal of Honor twice, 14 received two separate medals for two separate actions, while five received both the Navy and Army Medals of Honor for the same action. As of June 2011, since the beginning of World War II, 851 Medals of Honor have been awarded, 523 (61.45%) posthumously. One has been awarded to a woman: Mary Edwards Walker.\n\n* The first Medals of Honor (Army) were awarded by and presented to six \"Andrews Raiders\" on March 25, 1863, by Secretary of War Edwin Stanton, in his office in the War Department. Private Jacob Parrott, a Union Army volunteer from Ohio, became the first recipient of the medal, awarded for his volunteering for and participation in a raid on a Confederate train in Big Shanty, Georgia on April 12, 1862 during the American Civil War. The six decorated raiders met privately afterward with President Lincoln in his office, in the White House. \n* The first Medal of Honor (Navy) was awarded by Secretary of War Stanton to 41 sailors on April 4, 1863 (17 for action during the Battle of Forts Jackson and St. Philip).\n* The first Marine awarded the Medal of Honor (Navy) was John F. Mackie on July 10, 1863, for his rifle action aboard the on May 15, 1862.\n* The only Coast Guardsman to be awarded the Medal of Honor (Navy, posthumous) was Signalman First Class Douglas Munro on May 27, 1943, for evacuating 500 Marines under fire on September 27, 1942 during the Battle of Guadalcanal. Munro was a Canadian-born, naturalized U.S. citizen. \n* The only woman awarded the Medal of Honor (Army) is Mary Edwards Walker, who was a civilian Union Army surgeon during the American Civil War. She received the award in 1865 for the First Battle of Bull Run (July 21, 1861) and a series of battles to the Battle of Atlanta in Sept. 1864 ...\"for usual medal of honor meritorious services.\" \nThe 1917 Medal of Honor Board deleted 911 awards, but only 910 names from the Army Medal of Honor Roll, including awards to Dr. Mary Edwards Walker, William F. \"Buffalo Bill\" Cody and the first of two awards issued February 10, 1887, to George W. Midil, who retained his award issued October 25, 1893. None of the 910 \"deleted\" recipients were ordered to return their medals, although on the question of whether the recipients could continue to wear their medals, the Judge Advocate General advised the Medal of Honor Board the Army was not obligated to police the matter. Walker continued to wear her medal until her death. President Jimmy Carter formally restored her medal posthumously in 1977.\n\n* 61 Canadians who served in the United States Armed Forces, mostly during the American Civil War. Since 1900, four Canadians have received the medal. The only Canadian-born, naturalized U.S. citizen to receive the medal for heroism during the Vietnam War was Peter C. Lemon. \n\nWhile the governing statute for the Army Medal of Honor (), beginning in 1918, explicitly stated that a recipient must be \"an officer or enlisted man of the Army\", \"distinguish himself conspicuously by gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty\", and perform an act of valor \"in action involving actual conflict with an enemy\", exceptions have been made:\n\n* Charles Lindbergh, 1927, civilian pilot, and U.S. Army Air Corps reserve officer. Lindbergh's medal was authorized by a special act of Congress that directly contradicted the July 1918 act of Congress that required that all Army recipients be \"in action involving actual conflict with an enemy\". The award was based on the previous acts authorizing the Navy medal to Byrd and Bennett (see above). Some congressmen objected to Lindbergh's award because it contradicted the 1918 statute, but Representative Snell reportedly quelled this dissent by explaining that \"it was and it wasn't the Congressional Medal of Honor which Lindbergh would receive under his bill; that the Lindbergh medal would be entirely distinct from the valor award for war service.\" \n* Major General (Retired) Adolphus Greely was awarded the medal in 1935, on his 91st birthday, \"for his life of splendid public service\". The result of a special act of Congress similar to Lindbergh's, Greely's medal citation did not reference any acts of valor. \n* Foreign unknown recipients include the British Unknown Warrior, the French Unknown Soldier, the Romanian Unknown Soldier, the Italian Unknown Soldier, and the Belgian Unknown Soldier. \n* U.S. unknown recipients include the Unknowns of World War I, World War II, Korea, and Vietnam. The Vietnam Unknown was later identified as Air Force 1st Lt. Michael J. Blassie through the use of DNA identification. Blassie's family asked for his Medal of Honor, but the Department of Defense denied the request in 1998. According to Undersecretary of Defense Rudy de Leon, the medal was awarded symbolically to all Vietnam unknowns, not to Blassie specifically. \n\nDouble recipients\n\nNineteen men have been awarded the Medal of Honor twice. The first two-time Medal of Honor recipient was Thomas Custer (brother of George Armstrong Custer) for two separate actions that took place several days apart during the American Civil War. \n\nFive \"double recipients\" were awarded both the Army and Navy Medal of Honor for the same action; all five of these occurrences took place during World War I. Since February 1919, no single individual can be awarded more than one Medal of Honor for the same action, although a member of one branch of the armed forces can receive the Medal of Honor from another branch if the actions for which it was awarded occurred under the authority of the second branch. \n\nTo date, the maximum number of Medals of Honor earned by any service member has been two. The last individual to be awarded two Medals of Honor was John J. Kelly in 1918; the last individual to receive two Medals of Honor for two different actions was Smedley Butler, in 1914 and 1915.\n\n § Rank refers to rank held at time of Medal of Honor action.\n\nRelated recipients\n\nArthur MacArthur, Jr. and Douglas MacArthur are the first father and son to be awarded the Medal of Honor. The only other such pairing is Theodore Roosevelt (awarded in 2001) and Theodore Roosevelt, Jr.\n\nFive pairs of brothers have received the Medal of Honor:\n* John and William Black, in the American Civil War. The Blacks are the first brothers to be so honored.\n* Charles and Henry Capehart, in the American Civil War, the latter for saving a drowning man while under fire.\n* Antoine and Julien Gaujot. The Gaujots also have the unique distinction of receiving their medals for actions in separate conflicts, Antoine in the Philippine–American War and Julien when he crossed the border to rescue Mexicans and Americans in a Mexican Revolution skirmish.\n* Harry and Willard Miller, during the same naval action in the Spanish–American War.\n* Allen and James Thompson, in the same American Civil War action.\nAnother notable pair of related recipients are Admiral Frank Friday Fletcher (rear admiral at the time of award) and his nephew, Admiral Frank Jack Fletcher (lieutenant at the time of award), both awarded for actions during the United States occupation of Veracruz.\n\nBelated recognition\n\nSince 1979, 85 belated Medal of Honor decorations were presented to recognize actions from the Civil War to the Vietnam War. In addition, five recipients who names were not included on the Army Medal of Honor Roll in 1917 had their awards restored. \n \nA 1993 study commissioned by the U.S. Army investigated \"racial disparity\" in the awarding of medals. At the time, no Medals of Honor had been awarded to American soldiers of African descent who served in World War II. After an exhaustive review, the study recommended that ten Distinguished Service Cross recipients be awarded the Medal of Honor. On January 13, 1997, President Bill Clinton presented the Medal of Honor to seven of these World War II veterans, six of them posthumously and one to former Second Lieutenant Vernon Baker.\n\nIn 1998, a similar study of Asian Americans resulted in President Bill Clinton presenting 22 Medals of Honor in 2000. Twenty of these medals went to American soldiers of Japanese descent of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team (442nd RCT) that served in the European Theater of Operations during World War II. One of these Medal of Honor recipients was Senator Daniel Inouye, a former U.S. Army officer in the 442nd RCT.\n\nIn 2005, President George W. Bush presented the Medal of Honor to Tibor Rubin, a Hungarian-born American Jew who was a Holocaust survivor of World War II and enlisted U.S. infantryman and prisoner of war in the Korean War, whom many believed to have been overlooked because of his religion.\n\nOn April 11, 2013, President Obama presented the Medal of Honor posthumously to Army chaplain Captain Emil Kapaun for his actions as a prisoner of war during the Korean war. This follows other awards to Army Sergeant Leslie H. Sabo, Jr. for conspicuous gallantry in action on May 10, 1970, near Se San, Cambodia, during the Vietnam War and to Army Private First Class Henry Svehla and Army Private First Class Anthony T. Kahoʻohanohano for their heroic actions during the Korean War. \n\nAs a result of a Congressionally mandated review to ensure brave acts were not overlooked due to prejudice or discrimination, on March 18, 2014 President Obama upgraded Distinguished Service Crosses to Medals of Honor for 24 Hispanic, Jewish, and African American individuals—the \"Valor 24\"—for their actions in World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War. Three were still living at the time of the ceremony.• • List with basic details is at U.S. Army's [http://www.army.mil/medalofhonor/valor24/recipients/ List of Recipients].\n\n27th Maine and other revoked awardings\n\nDuring the Civil War, Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton promised a Medal of Honor to every man in the 27th Maine Volunteer Infantry Regiment who extended his enlistment beyond the agreed-upon date. The Battle of Gettysburg was imminent, and 311 men of the regiment volunteered to serve until the battle was resolved. The remaining men returned to Maine, but with the Union victory at Gettysburg the 311 volunteers soon followed. The volunteers arrived back in Maine in time to be discharged with the men who had earlier returned. Since there seemed to be no official list of the 311 volunteers, the War Department exacerbated the situation by forwarding 864 medals to the commanding officer of the regiment. The commanding officer only issued the medals to the volunteers who stayed behind and retained the others on the grounds that, if he returned the remainder to the War Department, the War Department would try to reissue the medals. \n\nIn 1916, a board of five Army generals on the retired list convened under act of law to review every Army Medal of Honor awarded. The board was to report on any Medals of Honor awarded or issued for any cause other than distinguished service. The commission, led by Nelson A. Miles, identified 911 awards for causes other than distinguished service. This included the 864 medals awarded to members of the 27th Maine regiment; 29 servicemen who served as Abraham Lincoln's funeral guard; six civilians, including Mary Edwards Walker and Buffalo Bill Cody; and 12 others. Walker's medal was restored by President Jimmy Carter in 1977. Cody and four other civilian scouts who rendered distinguished service in action, and who were therefore considered by the board to have fully earned their medals, had theirs restored in 1989. The report was endorsed by the Judge Advocate General, who also advised that the War Department should not seek the return of the revoked medals from the recipients identified by the board. In the case of recipients who continued to wear the medal, the War Department was advised to take no action to enforce the statute. \n\nNomination under current consideration \n\nDavid Dunnels White's nomination is under consideration for the capture of Confederate Major General G. W. Custis Lee, eldest son of General Robert E. Lee, at the Battle of Sailors Creek, Virginia, on April 6, 1865.\n\nSimilar American decorations\n\nThe following decorations, in one degree or another, bear similar names to the Medal of Honor, but are entirely separate awards with different criteria for issuance:\n\n* Cardenas Medal of Honor: decoration of the United States Revenue Cutter Service, which was later merged into the United States Coast Guard\n* Chaplain's Medal for Heroism: awarded posthumously for a single action to four recipients\n* Congressional Gold Medal: the highest civilian honor bestowed by the United States (along with the Presidential Medal of Freedom)\n* Congressional Space Medal of Honor: intended for issuance to astronauts, but despite its name, it is not equal to the Medal of Honor\n* Presidential Medal of Freedom: the highest civilian honor bestowed by the United States (along with the Congressional Gold Medal)\n* Several United States law enforcement decorations bear the name \"Medal of Honor\". The Public Safety Officer Medal of Valor, established by Congress in 2001 and stated to be \"the highest National award for valor by a public safety officer\", is also awarded by the President of the United States.", "Theodore Roosevelt Jr. ( ; October 27, 1858 – January 6, 1919) was an American statesman, author, explorer, soldier, naturalist, and reformer who served as the 26th President of the United States from 1901 to 1909. As a leader of the Republican Party during this time, he became a driving force for the Progressive Era in the United States in the early 20th century.\n\nBorn a sickly child with debilitating asthma, Roosevelt successfully overcame his health problems by embracing a strenuous lifestyle. He integrated his exuberant personality, vast range of interests, and world-famous achievements into a \"cowboy\" persona defined by robust masculinity. Home-schooled, he became a lifelong naturalist before attending Harvard College. His first of many books, The Naval War of 1812 (1882), established his reputation as both a learned historian and as a popular writer. Upon entering politics, he became the leader of the reform faction of Republicans in New York's state legislature. Following the deaths of his wife and mother, he took time to grieve by escaping to the wilderness of the American West and operating a cattle ranch in the Dakotas for a time, before returning East to run unsuccessfully for Mayor of New York City in 1886. He served as Assistant Secretary of the Navy under William McKinley, resigning after one year to serve with the Rough Riders, where he gained national fame for courage during the Spanish–American War. Returning a war hero, he was elected governor of New York in 1898. The state party leadership distrusted him, so they took the lead in moving him to the prestigious but powerless role of vice president as McKinley's running mate in the election of 1900. Roosevelt campaigned vigorously across the country, helping McKinley's re-election in a landslide victory based on a platform of peace, prosperity, and conservatism.\n\nFollowing the assassination of President McKinley in September 1901, Roosevelt, at age 42, succeeded to the office, becoming the youngest United States President in history. Leading his party and country into the Progressive Era, he championed his \"Square Deal\" domestic policies, promising the average citizen fairness, breaking of trusts, regulation of railroads, and pure food and drugs. Making conservation a top priority, he established a myriad of new national parks, forests, and monuments intended to preserve the nation's natural resources. In foreign policy, he focused on Central America, where he began construction of the Panama Canal. He greatly expanded the United States Navy, and sent the Great White Fleet on a world tour to project the United States' naval power around the globe. His successful efforts to end the Russo-Japanese War won him the 1906 Nobel Peace Prize.\n\nElected in 1904 to a full term, Roosevelt continued to promote progressive policies, but many of his efforts and much of his legislative agenda were eventually blocked in Congress. Roosevelt successfully groomed his close friend, William Howard Taft, to succeed him in the presidency. After leaving office, Roosevelt went on safari in Africa and toured Europe. Returning to the USA, he became frustrated with Taft's approach as his successor. He tried but failed to win the presidential nomination in 1912. Roosevelt founded his own party, the Progressive, so-called \"Bull Moose\" Party, and called for wide-ranging progressive reforms. The split among Republicans enabled the Democrats to win both the White House and a majority in the Congress in 1912. The Democrats in the South had also gained power by having disenfranchised most blacks (and Republicans) from the political system from 1890 to 1908, fatally weakening the Republican Party across the region, and creating a Solid South dominated by their party alone. Republicans aligned with Taft nationally would control the Republican Party for decades.\n\nFrustrated at home, Roosevelt led a two-year expedition in the Amazon Basin, nearly dying of tropical disease. During World War I, he opposed President Woodrow Wilson for keeping the U.S. out of the war against Germany, and offered his military services, which were never summoned. Although planning to run again for president in 1920, Roosevelt suffered deteriorating health and died in early 1919. Roosevelt has consistently been ranked by scholars as one of the greatest U.S. presidents. His face was carved into Mount Rushmore alongside those of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Abraham Lincoln.\n\nEarly life and family\n\nTheodore Roosevelt Jr. was born on October 27, 1858, at East 20th Street in New York City, New York. He was the second of four children born to socialite Martha Stewart \"Mittie\" Bulloch and glass businessman and philanthropist Theodore Roosevelt Sr. He had an older sister, Anna (nicknamed \"Bamie\"), a younger brother, Elliott, and a younger sister, Corinne. Elliott was later the father of First Lady Anna Eleanor Roosevelt, the wife of Theodore's distant cousin, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. His paternal grandfather was of Dutch descent; his other ancestry included primarily Scottish and Scots-Irish, English and smaller amounts of German, Welsh, and French. Theodore Sr. was the fifth son of businessman Cornelius Van Schaack \"C.V.S.\" Roosevelt and Margaret Barnhill. Thee's fourth cousin, James Roosevelt I, who was also a businessman, was the father of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Mittie was the younger daughter of Major James Stephens Bulloch and Martha P. \"Patsy\" Stewart. Through the Van Schaacks Roosevelt is a descendant of the Schuyler family. \n\nRoosevelt's youth was largely shaped by his poor health and debilitating asthma. He repeatedly experienced sudden nighttime asthma attacks that caused the experience of being smothered to death, which terrified both Theodore and his parents. Doctors had no cure. Nevertheless, he was energetic and mischievously inquisitive. His lifelong interest in zoology began at age seven when he saw a dead seal at a local market; after obtaining the seal's head, Roosevelt and two cousins formed what they called the \"Roosevelt Museum of Natural History\". Having learned the rudiments of taxidermy, he filled his makeshift museum with animals that he killed or caught; he then studied the animals and prepared them for display. At age nine, he recorded his observation of insects in a paper entitled \"The Natural History of Insects\"..\n\nRoosevelt's father significantly influenced him. His father had been a prominent leader in New York's cultural affairs; he helped to found the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and had been especially active in mobilizing support for the Union war effort. Roosevelt wrote: \"My father, Theodore Roosevelt, was the best man I ever knew. He combined strength and courage with gentleness, tenderness, and great unselfishness. He would not tolerate in us children selfishness or cruelty, idleness, cowardice, or untruthfulness.\" Family trips abroad, including tours of Europe in 1869 and 1870, and Egypt in 1872, also had a lasting impact. Hiking with his family in the Alps in 1869, Roosevelt found that he could keep pace with his father. He had discovered the significant benefits of physical exertion to minimize his asthma and bolster his spirits. With encouragement from his father, Roosevelt began a heavy regime of exercise. After being manhandled by two older boys on a camping trip, he found a boxing coach to teach him to fight and strengthen his weakened body.\n\nRoosevelt later articulated the abiding influence of the courageous men he read about, including those in his family: \"I was nervous and timid. Yet from reading of the people I admired—ranging from the soldiers of Valley Forge and Morgan's riflemen, to the heroes of my favorite stories—and from hearing of the feats of my southern forefathers and kinsfolk and from knowing my father, I felt a great admiration for men who were fearless and who could hold their own in the world, and I had a great desire to be like them.\"\n\nEducation\n\nRoosevelt was mostly home schooled by tutors and his parents. Biographer H. W. Brands argues that \"The most obvious drawback to the home schooling Roosevelt received was uneven coverage of the various areas of human knowledge\". He was solid in geography (as a result of self study during travels), and bright in history, biology, French, and German; however, he struggled in mathematics and the classical languages. He entered Harvard College on September 27, 1876; his father told him \"Take care of your morals first, your health next, and finally your studies\".\n\nAfter recovering from devastation over his father's death on February 9, 1878, Roosevelt doubled his activities. He did well in science, philosophy, and rhetoric courses but continued to struggle in Latin and Greek. He studied biology intently and was already an accomplished naturalist and a published ornithologist; he read prodigiously with an almost photographic memory. While at Harvard, Roosevelt participated in rowing and boxing; he was once runner-up in a Harvard boxing tournament. Roosevelt was a member of the Alpha Delta Phi literary society, the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity, and the Porcellian Club; he was also an editor of The Harvard Advocate. On June 30, 1880, Roosevelt graduated Phi Beta Kappa (22nd of 177) from Harvard with an A.B. magna cum laude.\n\nHe entered Columbia Law School, and was an able student, but he often found law to be irrational; he spent much of his time writing a book on the War of 1812. Roosevelt eventually became entirely disenchanted with law and diverted his attention to politics at Morton Hall on 59th Street, the headquarters for New York's 21st District Republican Association. When the members of the association encouraged him to run for public office, he dropped out of law school to do so, later saying, \"I intended to be one of the governing class.\"\n\nNaval history and strategy\n\nWhile at Harvard, Roosevelt began a systematic study of the role played by the young US Navy in the War of 1812. Assisted by two uncles, he scrutinized original source materials and official US Navy records. Roosevelt's carefully researched book, published in 1882, remains one of the most important scholarly studies of the war, complete with drawings of individual and combined ship maneuvers, charts depicting the differences in iron throw weights of cannon shot between rival forces, and analyses of the differences between British and American leadership down to the ship-to-ship level. Published after Roosevelt's graduation from Harvard, The Naval War of 1812 was praised for its scholarship and style, and it showed Roosevelt to be a scholar of history. It remains a standard study of the war. Roosevelt waved the Stars and Stripes:\nIt must be but a poor spirited American whose veins do not tingle with pride when he reads of the cruises and fights of the sea-captains, and their grim prowess, which kept the old Yankee flag floating over the waters of the Atlantic for three years, in the teeth of the mightiest naval power the world has ever seen. \n\nWith the publication of The Influence of Sea Power upon History, 1660–1783 in 1890, Navy Captain Alfred Thayer Mahan was immediately hailed as the outstanding naval theorist by the leaders of Europe. Roosevelt paid very close attention to Mahan's emphasis that only a nation with the world's most powerful fleet could dominate the world's oceans, exert its diplomacy to the fullest, and defend its own borders. He incorporated Mahan's ideas into American naval strategy when he served as assistant secretary of the Navy in 1897-98. As president, 1901-1909, Roosevelt made building up a world-class fighting fleet of high priority, sending his \"white fleet\" around the globe in 1908-1909 to make sure all the naval powers understood the United States was now a major player. Roosevelt's fleet still did not challenge the superior British fleet, but it did become dominant in the Western Hemisphere. Building the Panama Canal was designed not just to open Pacific trade to East Coast cities, but also to enable the new Navy to move back and forth across the globe. \n\nFirst marriage and widowerhood\n\nOn his 22nd birthday, Roosevelt married socialite Alice Hathaway Lee, daughter of banker George Cabot Lee and Caroline Watts Haskell. Their daughter, Alice Lee Roosevelt, was born on February 12, 1884. Roosevelt's wife died two days after giving birth due to an undiagnosed case of kidney failure (called Bright's disease at the time), which had been masked by the pregnancy. In his diary, Roosevelt wrote a large 'X' on the page and then, \"The light has gone out of my life.\" His mother, Mittie, had died of typhoid fever eleven hours earlier at 3:00 a.m., in the same house. Distraught, Roosevelt left baby Alice in the care of his sister Bamie in New York City while he grieved. He assumed custody of his daughter when she was three.\n\nRoosevelt also reacted by focusing on work, specifically by re-energizing a legislative investigation into corruption of the New York City government, which arose from a concurrent bill proposing that power be centralized in the mayor's office. For the rest of his life, he rarely spoke about his wife Alice and did not write about her in his autobiography. While working with Joseph Bucklin Bishop on a biography that included a collection of his letters, Roosevelt did not mention his marriage to Alice nor his second marriage to Edith Kermit Carow. \n\nEarly political career\n\nState Assemblyman\n\nRoosevelt was soon put forth as the Republican party's candidate for the District's House seat in Albany. He was a member of the New York State Assembly (New York Co., 21st D.) in 1882, 1883 and 1884. He immediately began making his mark, specifically in corporate corruption issues. He blocked a corrupt effort by financier Jay Gould to lower his taxes. Roosevelt exposed suspected collusion in the matter by Judge Theodore Westbrook, and argued for and received approval for an investigation to proceed, aiming for the impeachment of the judge. The investigation committee rejected impeachment, but Roosevelt had exposed the potential corruption in Albany, and thus assumed a high and positive political profile in multiple New York publications. In 1883, Roosevelt became the Assembly Minority Leader. In 1884, he lost the nomination for Speaker to Titus Sheard by a vote of 41 to 29 in the GOP caucus. Roosevelt was also Chairman of the Committee on Affairs of Cities; he wrote more bills than any other legislator. \n\nPresidential election of 1884\n\nWith numerous presidential hopefuls to choose from, Roosevelt supported Senator George F. Edmunds of Vermont, a colorless reformer. The state GOP preferred the incumbent president, New York City's Chester Arthur, who was known as a spoilsman. Roosevelt fought hard and succeeded in influencing the Manhattan delegates at the state convention in Utica. He then took control of the state convention, bargaining through the night and outmaneuvering the supporters of Arthur and James G. Blaine; he gained a national reputation as a key person in New York State. \n\nRoosevelt attended the 1884 GOP National Convention in Chicago and fought alongside the Mugwump reformers; they lost to the Stalwart faction, who nominated James G. Blaine. In a crucial moment of his budding political career, Roosevelt resisted the demand of the Mugwumps that he bolt from Blaine. He bragged about his one small success: \"We achieved a victory in getting up a combination to beat the Blaine nominee for temporary chairman... To do this needed a mixture of skill, boldness and energy... to get the different factions to come in... to defeat the common foe.\" He was also impressed by an invitation to speak before an audience of ten thousand, the largest crowd he had addressed up to that date. Having gotten a taste of national politics, Roosevelt felt less aspiration for advocacy on the state level; he then retired to his new \"Chimney Butte Ranch\" on the Little Missouri. Roosevelt refused to join other Mugwumps in supporting Grover Cleveland, the governor of New York and the Democratic nominee in the general election. He debated the pros and cons of staying loyal with his political friend, Henry Cabot Lodge. After Blaine won the nomination, Roosevelt had carelessly said that he would give \"hearty support to any decent Democrat\". He distanced himself from the promise, saying that it had not been meant \"for publication\". When a reporter asked if he would support Blaine, Roosevelt replied, \"That question I decline to answer. It is a subject I do not care to talk about.\" In the end, he realized that he had to support Blaine to maintain his role in the GOP, and he did so in a press release on July 19. \n\nIn 1886, Roosevelt was the Republican candidate for mayor of New York City, portraying himself as \"The Cowboy of the Dakotas\". GOP precinct workers warned voters that the independent radical candidate Henry George was leading and that Roosevelt would lose, thus causing a last-minute defection of GOP voters to the Democratic candidate Abram Hewitt. Roosevelt took third place with 27% (60,435 votes). Hewitt won with 41% (90,552 votes), and George was held to 31% (68,110 votes). \n\nCowboy in Dakota\n\nRoosevelt built a second ranch named Elk Horn, thirty-five miles (56 km) north of the boomtown of Medora, North Dakota. On the banks of the Little Missouri, Roosevelt learned to ride western style, rope and hunt; though he earned the respect of the authentic cowboys, they were not overly impressed. However, he identified with the herdsman of history, a man he said possesses, \"few of the emasculated, milk-and-water moralities admired by the pseudo-philanthropists; but he does possess, to a very high degree, the stern, manly qualities that are invaluable to a nation\". He reoriented, and began writing about frontier life for national magazines; he also published three books – Hunting Trips of a Ranchman, Ranch Life and the Hunting-Trail, and The Wilderness Hunter.\n\nAs a deputy sheriff, Roosevelt pursued three outlaws who had stolen his riverboat and escaped north up the Little Missouri. He captured them, but decided against a vigilante hanging; instead, he sent his foreman back by boat, and conveyed the thieves to Dickinson for trial. He assumed guard over them for forty hours without sleep, while reading Leo Tolstoy to keep himself awake. When he ran out of his own books, he read a dime store western that one of the thieves was carrying. On another occasion, while searching for a group of relentless horse thieves, Roosevelt met Seth Bullock, the famous sheriff of Deadwood, South Dakota. The two would remain friends for life.\n\nRoosevelt brought his desire to address the common interests of citizens to the west. He successfully led efforts to organize ranchers to address the problems of overgrazing and other shared concerns; his work resulted in the formation of the Little Missouri Stockmen's Association. He was also compelled to coordinate conservation efforts and was able to form the Boone and Crockett Club, whose primary goal was the conservation of large game animals and their habitats. After the uniquely severe US winter of 1886–87 wiped out his herd of cattle and those of his competitors, and with it over half of his $80,000 investment, Roosevelt returned to the East.\n\nSecond marriage\n\nOn December 2, 1886, Roosevelt married his childhood and family friend, Edith Kermit Carow (August 6, 1861 – September 30, 1948), a daughter of Charles Carow and Gertrude Elizabeth Tyler. The couple married at St George's, Hanover Square in London, England. English diplomat Cecil Arthur Spring Rice, Roosevelt's close friend, served as best man. The couple honeymooned in Europe, and while there, Roosevelt led a group to the summit of Mont Blanc, an achievement that resulted in his induction into the Royal Society of London. They had five children: Theodore \"Ted\" III (1887–1944), Kermit (1889–1943), Ethel (1891–1977), Archibald (1894–1979), and Quentin (1897–1918). At the time of Ted's birth, Roosevelt was both eager and worried for Edith after losing his first wife, Alice, shortly after childbirth.\n\nReentering public life\n\nCivil Service Commission\n\nIn the 1888 presidential election, Roosevelt successfully campaigned, primarily in the Midwest, for Benjamin Harrison. President Harrison appointed Roosevelt to the United States Civil Service Commission, where he served until 1895. While in office, Roosevelt vigorously fought the spoilsmen and demanded enforcement of civil service laws. The New York Sun then described Roosevelt as \"irrepressible, belligerent, and enthusiastic\". Despite Roosevelt's support for Harrison's reelection bid in the presidential election of 1892, the eventual winner, Grover Cleveland (a Bourbon Democrat), reappointed him to the same post. Roosevelt's close friend and biographer, Joseph Bucklin Bishop, described his assault on the spoils system:\n\nNew York City Police Commissioner\n\nIn 1894, a group of reform Republicans approached Roosevelt about running for Mayor of New York again; he declined, mostly due to his wife's resistance to being removed from the Washington social set. Soon after he declined, he realized that he had missed an opportunity to reinvigorate a dormant political career. He retreated to the Dakotas for a time; his wife Edith regretted her role in the decision and vowed that there would be no repeat of it.\n\nRoosevelt became president of the board of the New York City Police Commissioners for two years in 1895 and radically reformed the police force. The New York Police Department (NYPD) was reputed as one of the most corrupt in America; the NYPD's history division records that Roosevelt was \"an iron-willed leader of unimpeachable honesty, (who) brought a reforming zeal to the New York City Police Commission in 1895\". Roosevelt implemented regular inspections of firearms and annual physical exams; he appointed 1,600 recruits based on their physical and mental qualifications, regardless of political affiliation, established Meritorious Service Medals and closed corrupt police hostelries. During his tenure, a Municipal Lodging House was established by the Board of Charities, and Roosevelt required officers to register with the Board; he also had telephones installed in station houses. \n\nIn 1894, Roosevelt met Jacob Riis, the muckraking Evening Sun newspaper journalist who was opening the eyes of New Yorkers to the terrible conditions of the city's millions of poor immigrants with such books as How the Other Half Lives. Riis described how his book affected Roosevelt:\n\nRoosevelt made a habit of walking officers' beats late at night and early in the morning to make sure that they were on duty. He made a concerted effort to uniformly enforce New York's Sunday closing law; in this, he ran up against boss Tom Platt as well as Tammany Hall—he was notified that the Police Commission was being legislated out of existence. Roosevelt chose to defer rather than split with his party. As Governor of New York State before becoming Vice President in March 1901, Roosevelt signed an act replacing the Police Commissioners with a single Police Commissioner. \n\nEmergence as a national figure\n\nAssistant Secretary of the Navy\n\nRoosevelt had demonstrated, through his research and writing, a fascination with naval history; President William McKinley, urged by Roosevelt's close friend Congressman Henry Cabot Lodge, appointed Roosevelt as the Assistant Secretary of the Navy in 1897. Secretary of the Navy John D. Long was more concerned about formalities than functions, was in poor health, and left major decisions to Roosevelt. Roosevelt seized the opportunity and began pressing his national security views regarding the Pacific and the Caribbean on McKinley. Roosevelt was particularly adamant that Spain be ejected from Cuba, to foster the latter's independence and to demonstrate the U.S. resolve to reinforce the Monroe Doctrine. Ten days after the battleship Maine exploded in the harbor of Havana, Cuba, the Secretary left the office and Roosevelt became Acting Secretary for four hours. Roosevelt cabled the Navy worldwide to prepare for war, ordered ammunition and supplies, brought in experts and went to Congress asking for the authority to recruit as many sailors as he wanted. Roosevelt was instrumental in preparing the Navy for the Spanish–American War. Roosevelt had an analytical mind, even as he was itching for war. He explained his priorities to one of the Navy's planners in late 1897:\n\nWar in Cuba\n\nPrior to his service in the Spanish–American War, Roosevelt had already seen reserve military service from 1882 to 1886 with the New York National Guard. Commissioned on August 1, 1882 as a 2nd Lieutenant with B Company, 8th Regiment, he was promoted to Captain and company commander a year later, and he remained in command until he resigned his commission. \n\nWhen the United States and Spain declared war against each other in late April 1898, Roosevelt resigned from his civilian leadership job with the Navy on May 6 and formed the First US Volunteer Cavalry Regiment along with Army Colonel Leonard Wood. Referred to by the press as the \"Rough Riders\", the regiment was one of many temporary units active only for the duration of the war.\n\nAfter securing modern multiple-round Krag smokeless carbines, Lieutenant Colonel Roosevelt arrived on May 15. The regiment trained for several weeks in San Antonio, Texas, and in his autobiography Roosevelt wrote that his prior National Guard experience had been invaluable, in that it enabled him to immediately begin teaching his men basic soldiering skills. The Rough Riders used some standard issue gear and some of their own design, purchased with gift money. Diversity characterized the regiment, which included Ivy Leaguers, professional and amateur athletes, upscale gentlemen as well as cowboys, frontiersmen, Native Americans, hunters, miners, prospectors, former soldiers, tradesmen, and sheriffs. The Rough Riders were part of the cavalry division commanded by former Confederate general Joseph Wheeler. It was one of three divisions in the V Corps under Lieutenant General William Rufus Shafter. Roosevelt and his men departed Tampa on June 13, landed in Daiquiri, Cuba, on June 23, 1898, and marched to Siboney. Wheeler sent parts of the 1st and 10th Regular Cavalry on the lower road northwest and sent the \"Rough Riders\" on the parallel road running along a ridge up from the beach. To throw off his infantry rival, Wheeler left one regiment of his Cavalry Division, the 9th, at Siboney so that he could claim that his move north was only a limited reconnaissance if things went wrong. Roosevelt was promoted to colonel and took command of the regiment when Wood was put in command of the brigade.\n\nThe Rough Riders had a short, minor skirmish known as the Battle of Las Guasimas; they fought their way through Spanish resistance and, together with the Regulars, forced the Spaniards to abandon their positions. \n\nUnder his leadership, the Rough Riders became famous for the charge up Kettle Hill on July 1, 1898, while supporting the regulars. Roosevelt had the only horse, and rode back and forth between rifle pits at the forefront of the advance up Kettle Hill, an advance that he urged despite the absence of any orders from superiors. He was forced to walk up the last part of Kettle Hill, because his horse had been entangled in barbed wire. The victories came at a cost of 200 killed and 1000 wounded.\n\nRoosevelt commented on his role in the battles: \"On the day of the big fight I had to ask my men to do a deed that European military writers consider utterly impossible of performance, that is, to attack over open ground an unshaken infantry armed with the best modern repeating rifles behind a formidable system of entrenchments. The only way to get them to do it in the way it had to be done was to lead them myself.\"\n\nRoosevelt as a veteran\n\nIn August, Roosevelt and other officers demanded that the soldiers be returned home. Roosevelt always recalled the Battle of Kettle Hill (part of the San Juan Heights) as \"the great day of my life\" and \"my crowded hour\". In 2001, Roosevelt was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions; he had been nominated during the war, but Army officials, annoyed at his grabbing the headlines, blocked it. After returning to civilian life, Roosevelt preferred to be known as \"Colonel Roosevelt\" or \"The Colonel\". However, \"Teddy\" remained much more popular with the public, even though Roosevelt openly despised it. Men working closely with Roosevelt customarily called him \"Colonel\" or \"Theodore\".\n\nGovernor of New York\n\nAfter leaving the Army, Roosevelt discovered that New York Republicans needed him, because their current governor was tainted by scandal and would probably lose. He campaigned vigorously on his war record, winning the 1898 state election by a historical margin of 1%.\n\nAs governor, Roosevelt learned much about ongoing economic issues and political techniques that later proved valuable in his presidency. He was exposed to the problems of trusts, monopolies, labor relations, and conservation. Chessman argues that Roosevelt's program \"rested firmly upon the concept of the square deal by a neutral state\". The rules for the Square Deal were \"honesty in public affairs, an equitable sharing of privilege and responsibility, and subordination of party and local concerns to the interests of the state at large\".\n\nBy holding twice-daily press conferences—which was an innovation—Roosevelt remained connected with his middle-class political base. Roosevelt successfully pushed the Ford Franchise-Tax bill, which taxed public franchises granted by the state and controlled by corporations, declaring that \"a corporation which derives its powers from the State, should pay to the State a just percentage of its earnings as a return for the privileges it enjoys\". He rejected \"boss\" Thomas C. Platt's worries that this approached Bryanite Socialism, explaining that without it, New York voters might get angry and adopt public ownership of streetcar lines and other franchises.\n\nThe New York state government affected many interests, and the power to make appointments to policy-making positions was a key role for the governor. Platt insisted that he be consulted; Roosevelt appeared to comply, but then made his own decisions. Historians marvel that Roosevelt managed to appoint so many first-rate men with Platt's approval. He even enlisted Platt's help in securing reform, such as in the spring of 1899, when Platt pressured state senators to vote for a civil service bill that the secretary of the Civil Service Reform Association called \"superior to any civil service statute heretofore secured in America\".\n\nChessman argues that as governor, Roosevelt developed the principles that shaped his presidency, especially insistence upon the public responsibility of large corporations, publicity as a first remedy for trusts, regulation of railroad rates, mediation of the conflict of capital and labor, conservation of natural resources and protection of the less fortunate members of society.\n\nVice President\n\nIn November 1899, William McKinley's first Vice-President Garret Hobart died of heart failure. Theodore Roosevelt had anticipated a second term as governor or, alternatively, a cabinet post in the War Department; his friends (especially Henry Cabot Lodge) saw this as a dead end. They supported him for Vice President, and no one else of prominence was actively seeking that job. Some people in the GOP wanted Roosevelt as Vice President. His friends were pushing, and so were his foes. Roosevelt's reforming zeal ran afoul of the insurance and franchise businesses, who had a major voice in the New York GOP. Platt engineered Roosevelt's removal from the state by pressuring him to accept the GOP nomination. McKinley refused to consider Roosevelt as Secretary of War, but saw no risk in making him Vice President. Roosevelt accepted the nomination, although his campaign manager, Mark Hanna, thought Roosevelt was too cowboy-like. While the party executives were pleased with their success in engineering Roosevelt's next political foray, Roosevelt, very much to the contrary, thought he had \"stood the state machine on its head\". Roosevelt proved highly energetic, and an equal match for William Jennings Bryan's famous barnstorming style of campaigning. Roosevelt's theme was that McKinley had brought America peace and prosperity and deserved reelection. In a whirlwind campaign, Roosevelt made 480 stops in 23 states. Roosevelt showed the nation his energy, crisscrossing the land denouncing the radicalism of William Jennings Bryan, in contrast to the heroism of the soldiers and sailors who fought and won the war against Spain. Bryan had strongly supported the war itself, but he denounced the annexation of the Philippines as imperialism, which would spoil America's innocence. Roosevelt countered that it was best for the Filipinos to have stability, and the Americans to have a proud place in the world. With the nation basking in peace and prosperity, the voters gave conservative McKinley an even larger landslide than in 1896. The Republicans won by a landslide.\n\nThe office of Vice President was a powerless sinecure, and did not suit Roosevelt's aggressive temperament. Roosevelt's six months as Vice President (March to September 1901) were uneventful. On September 2, 1901, Roosevelt first publicized an aphorism that thrilled his supporters at the Minnesota State Fair: \"Speak softly and carry a big stick, and you will go far.\"\n\nPresidency (1901–09)\n\nOn September 6, President McKinley was shot by an anarchist acting alone while in Buffalo, New York. Initial reports suggested that his condition was improving, so Roosevelt, after visiting the ailing president, embarked for the west. When McKinley's condition worsened, Roosevelt rushed back. McKinley died on September 14, and Roosevelt was sworn in at the Ansley Wilcox House. The following month, Roosevelt invited Booker T. Washington to dinner at the White House. To his dismay, this sparked a bitter, and at times vicious, reaction across the heavily segregated South. Roosevelt reacted with astonishment and protest, saying that he looked forward to many future dinners with Washington. Upon further reflection, Roosevelt wanted to ensure that this had no effect on political support in the South, and further dinner invitations to Washington were avoided; their next meeting was scheduled as typical business at 10:00am instead. Roosevelt kept McKinley's Cabinet and promised to continue McKinley's policies. In the November 1904 presidential election, Roosevelt won the presidency in his own right in a landslide victory against Alton Brooks Parker. His vice president was Charles Warren Fairbanks of Indiana.\n\nDomestic policies\n\nTrust busting\n\nOne of Roosevelt's first notable acts as president was to deliver a 20,000-word address to Congress asking it to curb the power of large corporations (called \"trusts\"). He also spoke in support of organized labor to further chagrin big business, but to their delight, he endorsed the gold standard, protective tariffs and lower taxes. For his aggressive use of United States antitrust law, he became known as the \"trust-buster\". He brought 40 antitrust suits, and broke up major companies, such as the largest railroad and Standard Oil, the largest oil company. \n\nCoal strike\n\nIn May 1902, anthracite coal miners went on strike, threatening a national energy shortage. After threatening the coal operators with intervention by federal troops, Roosevelt won their agreement to an arbitration of the dispute by a commission, which succeeded in stopping the strike, dropping coal prices and retiring furnaces; the accord with J.P. Morgan resulted in the workers getting more pay for fewer hours, but with no union recognition. Journalist Ray Baker quoted Roosevelt concerning his policy towards capitalists and laborers: \"My action on labor should always be considered in connection with my action as regards capital, and both are reducible to my favorite formula—a square deal for every man.\"\n\nRailroads\n\nRoosevelt thought it was particularly important for the government to supervise the workings of the railway to avoid corruption in interstate commerce related to the shipment of coal and other commodities and goods. The result was enactment of the Hepburn Act in 1906, that established Federal control over railroad rates.\n\nPure Food and drugs\n\nRoosevelt responded to public anger over the abuses in the food packing industry by pushing Congress to pass the Meat Inspection Act of 1906 and the Pure Food and Drug Act. The Meat Inspection Act of 1906 banned misleading labels and preservatives that contained harmful chemicals. The Pure Food and Drug Act banned food and drugs that were impure or falsely labeled from being made, sold, and shipped. Roosevelt also served as honorary president of the American School Hygiene Association from 1907 to 1908, and in 1909 he convened the first White House Conference on the Care of Dependent Children.\n\nBusiness\n\nDuring the Panic of 1907, nearly all agreed that a more flexible system to ensure liquidity was needed—the Republicans sought a response to the money supply through the bankers, whereas the Democrats sought government control; Roosevelt was unsure, but leaned towards the Republican view while continuing to denounce corporate corruption. Nonetheless, in 1910, Roosevelt commented on \"enormously wealthy and economically powerful men\" and suggested \"a graduated inheritance tax on big fortunes... increasing rapidly in amount with the size of the estate\". \n\nRoosevelt was also inclined to extend the regulatory reach of his office. In a moment of frustration, House Speaker Joseph Gurney Cannon commented on Roosevelt's desire for executive branch control in domestic policy-making: \"That fellow at the other end of the avenue wants everything from the birth of Christ to the death of the devil.\" Biographer Brands states, \"Even his friends occasionally wondered whether there wasn't any custom or practice too minor for him to try to regulate, update or otherwise improve.\" In fact, Roosevelt's willingness to exercise his power included attempted rule changes in the game of football; at the Naval Academy, he sought to force retention of martial arts classes and to revise disciplinary rules. He even ordered changes made in the minting of a coin whose design he disliked, and ordered the Government Printing Office to adopt simplified spellings for a core list of 300 words, according to reformers on the Simplified Spelling Board. He was forced to rescind the latter after substantial ridicule from the press and a resolution of protest from the House of Representatives.\n\nConservation\n\nOf all Roosevelt's achievements, he was proudest of his work in conservation of natural resources, and extending Federal protection to land and wildlife. Roosevelt established the United States Forest Service, signed into law the creation of five National Parks, and signed the 1906 Antiquities Act, under which he proclaimed 18 new U.S. National Monuments. He also established the first 51 Bird Reserves, four Game Preserves, and 150 National Forests, including Shoshone National Forest, the nation's first. The area of the United States that he placed under public protection totals approximately 230000000 acre. He worked closely with Gifford Pinchot. \n\nForeign policy\n\nIn the late 1890s, Roosevelt had been an ardent imperialist, and vigorously defended the permanent acquisition of the Philippines in the 1900 election campaign. After the rebellion ended in 1901, he largely lost interest in the Philippines and Asian expansion in general, despite the contradictory opinion of his Secretary of War, William Howard Taft. As president, he primarily focused the nation's overseas ambitions on the Caribbean, especially locations that had a bearing on the defense of his pet project, the Panama Canal.\n\nIn 1905, Roosevelt offered to mediate a treaty to end the Russo-Japanese War. The parties agreed to meet in Portsmouth, New Hampshire and they resolved the final conflict over the division of Sakhalin– Russia took the northern half, and Japan the south; Japan also dropped its demand for an indemnity. Roosevelt won the Nobel Peace Prize for his successful efforts. George E. Mowry concludes that Roosevelt handled the arbitration well, doing an \"excellent job of balancing Russian and Japanese power in the Orient, where the supremacy of either constituted a threat to growing America\". \n\nThe Gentlemen's Agreement of 1907 resolved unpleasant racial tensions with Japan. Tokyo was angered over the segregation of Japanese children in San Francisco schools. The tensions were ended, but Japan also agreed not to allow unskilled workers to emigrate to the U.S.\n\nLatin America\n\nRoosevelt's attention concerning Latin American turmoil was heightened by his plans for building a canal. In December 1902, the Germans, English, and Italians sought to impose a naval blockade against Venezuela in order to force the repayment of delinquent loans. Roosevelt was particularly concerned with the motives of Germany's Kaiser Wilhelm. He succeeded in getting the aggressors to agree to arbitration by a tribunal at The Hague, and averted the Venezuela Crisis of 1902–1903. The latitude granted to the Europeans by the arbiters was in part responsible for the \"Roosevelt Corollary\" to the Monroe Doctrine, which the President issued in 1904: \"Chronic wrongdoing or an impotence which results in a general loosening of the ties of civilized society, may in America, as elsewhere, ultimately require intervention by some civilized nation, and in the Western Hemisphere, the adherence of the United States to the Monroe doctrine may force the United States, however reluctantly, in flagrant cases of such wrongdoing or impotence, to the exercise of an international police power.\"\n\nThe pursuit of an isthmus canal in Central America during this period focused on two possible routes—Nicaragua and Panama, which was then a rebellious district within Colombia. Roosevelt convinced Congress to approve the Panamanian alternative, and a treaty was approved, only to be rejected by the Colombian government. When the Panamanians learned of this, a rebellion followed, was supported by Roosevelt, and succeeded. A treaty with the new Panama government for construction of the canal was then reached in 1903. \n\nIn 1906, following a disputed election, an insurrection ensued in Cuba; Roosevelt sent Taft, the Secretary of War, to monitor the situation; he was convinced that he had the authority to unilaterally authorize Taft to deploy Marines if necessary, without congressional approval.\n\nExamining the work of numerous scholars, Ricard (2014) reports that:\n\nThe most striking evolution in the twenty-first century historiography of Theodore Roosevelt is the switch from a partial arraignment of the imperialist to a quasi-unanimous celebration of the master diplomatist.... [Regarding British relations these studies] have underlined cogently Roosevelt's exceptional statesmanship in the construction of the nascent twentieth-century \"special relationship\". ...The twenty-sixth president's reputation as a brilliant diplomatist and realpolitician has undeniably reached new heights in the twenty-first century...yet, his Philippine policy still prompts criticism. \n\nThe media\n\nBuilding on McKinley's effective use of the press, Roosevelt made the White House the center of news every day, providing interviews and photo opportunities. After noticing the reporters huddled outside the White House in the rain one day, he gave them their own room inside, effectively inventing the presidential press briefing. The grateful press, with unprecedented access to the White House, rewarded Roosevelt with ample coverage.\n\nRoosevelt normally enjoyed very close relationships with the press, which he used to keep in daily contact with his middle-class base. While out of office, he made a living as a writer and magazine editor. He loved talking with intellectuals, authors, and writers. He drew the line, however, at expose-oriented scandal-mongering journalists who, during his term, set magazine subscriptions soaring by their attacks on corrupt politicians, mayors, and corporations. Roosevelt himself was not usually a target, but his speech in 1906 coined the term \"muckraker\" for unscrupulous journalists making wild charges. \"The liar,\" he said, \"is no whit better than the thief, and if his mendacity takes the form of slander he may be worse than most thieves.\" \n\nThe press did briefly target Roosevelt in one instance. Ever since 1904, he had been periodically criticized for the manner in which he facilitated the Panama Canal. In the least judicious use of executive power, according to biographer Brands, Roosevelt, near the end of his term, demanded that the Justice Department bring charges of criminal libel against Joseph Pulitzer's New York World. The publication had accused him of \"deliberate misstatements of fact\" in defense of family members who were criticized as a result of the Panama affair. Though indictment was obtained, the case was ultimately dismissed in federal court—it was not a federal offense, but one enforceable at the state court level. The Justice Department had predicted that result, and had also advised Roosevelt accordingly.\n\nElection of 1904\n\nThe control and management of the Republican Party lay in the hands of chairman Mark Hanna until McKinley's death. Hanna's domination, and potential rivalry for the party's nomination in 1904, began to wane with his own health issues; he died early that year. In deference to Hanna's conservative loyalists, Roosevelt at first offered the party chairmanship to Cornelius Bliss, but he declined. Roosevelt turned to his own man, George B. Cortelyou of New York, the first Secretary of Commerce and Labor. To buttress his hold on the party's nomination, Roosevelt made it clear that anyone opposing Cortelyou would be considered to be opposing the President. The President secured his own nomination, but his preferred vice-presidential running mate, Robert R. Hitt, was not nominated. Charles Warren Fairbanks gained the nomination.\n\nWhile Roosevelt followed the tradition of incumbents in not actively campaigning on the stump, he sought to control the campaign's message through specific instructions to Cortelyou. He also attempted to manage the press's release of White House statements by forming the Ananias Club. Any journalist who repeated a statement made by the president without approval was penalized by restriction of further access.\n\nThe Democratic Party's nominee in 1904 was Alton Brooks Parker. Roosevelt won 56% of the popular vote, and Parker received 38%; Roosevelt also won the Electoral College vote, 336 to 140. Before his inauguration ceremony, Roosevelt declared that he would not serve another term.\n\nSecond-term troubles\n\nRoosevelt, moving to the left of his Republican Party base, called for a series of reforms that were mostly not passed. He sought a national incorporation law (at a time when all corporations had state charters, which varied greatly state by state). He called for a federal income tax, but the Supreme Court in the 1890s had ruled any income tax would require a constitutional amendment. Roosevelt sought an inheritance tax so the great fortunes could not pay out in perpetuity. In the area of labor legislation, Roosevelt called for limits on the use of court injunctions against labor unions during strikes; injunctions were a powerful weapon that mostly helped business. He wanted an employee liability law for industrial injuries (pre-empting state laws). He called for an eight-hour law for federal employees. In other areas he also sought a postal savings system (to provide competition for local banks), and he asked for campaign reform laws. He secured passage of the Hepburn Bill, with help from Democrats, which increased the regulating power of the Interstate Commerce Commission. Eventually some of his proposals were enacted under his successors. When Roosevelt ran for president on an independent Progressive Party ticket in 1912, in addition to these policies he proposed stringent new controls on the court system, especially state courts, to make a more democratic. His court policies in particular caused his anointed successor, William Howard Taft, to lead a counter-crusade that defeated Roosevelt in 1912. \n\nPost-presidency\n\nElection of 1908\n\nBefore leaving office, while attempting to push through the nomination of William Howard Taft for the Presidency in 1908, Roosevelt declared Taft to be a \"genuine progressive\". In January of that year, Roosevelt wrote the following to Taft: \"Dear Will: Do you want any action about those federal officials? I will break their necks with the utmost cheerfulness if you say the word!\" Just weeks later he branded as \"false and malicious\"; the charge was that he was using the offices at his disposal to favor Taft.\n\nTaft easily defeated three-time candidate William Jennings Bryan. Taft promoted a progressivism that stressed the rule of law; he preferred that judges rather than administrators or politicians make the basic decisions about fairness. Taft usually proved to be a less adroit politician than Roosevelt and lacked the energy and personal magnetism, along with the publicity devices, the dedicated supporters, and the broad base of public support that made Roosevelt so formidable. When Roosevelt realized that lowering the tariff would risk creating severe tensions inside the Republican Party by pitting producers (manufacturers and farmers) against merchants and consumers, he stopped talking about the issue. Taft ignored the risks and tackled the tariff boldly, encouraging reformers to fight for lower rates, and then cutting deals with conservative leaders that kept overall rates high. The resulting Payne-Aldrich tariff of 1909 was too high for most reformers, but instead of blaming this on Senator Nelson Wilmarth Aldrich and big businesses, Taft took credit, calling it the best tariff ever. He managed to alienate all sides. While the crisis was building inside the Party, Roosevelt was touring Africa and Europe, to allow Taft to be his own man. \n\nRepublican Party schism\n\nRoosevelt had attempted to refashion Taft into a younger version of himself, but as soon as Taft began to display his individuality, the former president expressed his disenchantment. He was offended on election night when Taft wrote and indicated that his success had been possible not just through the efforts of Roosevelt, but also his brother Charley. Roosevelt was further alienated when Taft, intent on becoming his own man, did not consult him about cabinet appointments. Lodge empathized with Roosevelt, and therefore declined an offer to become Secretary of State.\n\nUnlike Roosevelt, Taft never attacked business or businessmen in his rhetoric. However, he was attentive to the law, so he launched 90 antitrust suits, including one against the largest corporation, US Steel, for an acquisition which Roosevelt had personally approved. Consequently, Taft lost the support of antitrust reformers (who disliked his conservative rhetoric), of big business (which disliked his actions), and of Roosevelt, who felt humiliated by his protégé. More trouble came when Taft fired Roosevelt's friend and appointee Gifford Pinchot, a leading conservationist. Pinchot alleged that Taft's Secretary of the Interior, Richard Ballinger, was in league with big timber interests. Conservationists sided with Pinchot, and Taft alienated yet another vocal constituency. The left wing of the Republican Party began turning against Taft.\n\nSenator Robert M. La Follette Sr. of Wisconsin joined with Pinchot, William White and Hiram Johnson to create the National Progressive Republican League; their objectives were to defeat the power of political bossism at the state level and to replace Taft at the national level. Roosevelt declined to join this group—he was reluctant to leave the GOP. Back from Europe, Roosevelt unexpectedly launched an attack on the courts. He gave a notable speech at Osawatomie, Kansas, in August 1910, which was the most radical of his career and openly initiated his break with the Taft administration and the conservative Republicans. Osawatomie was well known as the base used by John Brown when he launched his bloody attacks on slavery. Advocating a program of \"New Nationalism\", Roosevelt emphasized the priority of labor over capital interests, a need to more effectively control corporate creation and combination, and proposed a ban on corporate political contributions.\n\nRoosevelt shortly thereafter made it clear in a meeting with Lloyd Carpenter Griscom, a New York Republican regular, that Taft no longer enjoyed his support, since he had \"deliberately abandoned\" their previous close relations. Taft was deeply upset. In the 1910 Congressional elections, Democrats won a majority in the House, and significantly diminished the Republicans' hold on the Senate. From 1890 to 1908, Southern legislatures dominated by white conservative Democrats had completed the disenfranchisement of most blacks, and therefore most Republicans in the region, through a series of new constitutions and laws creating barriers to voter registration. Democrats built the Solid South, a one-party region, which was maintained as such nearly into the late 1960s.\n\nThese changes made Taft's reelection in 1912 doubtful. The Republican progressives interpreted the 1910 defeats as compelling argument for the complete reorganization of the party in 1911, and Roosevelt reacted with renewed interest in more personal political endeavors. Despite skepticism of La Follette's new League, Roosevelt expressed general support for progressive principles; between January and April 1911, Roosevelt wrote a series of articles for The Outlook, defending what he called \"the great movement of our day, the progressive nationalist movement against special privilege, and in favor of an honest and efficient political and industrial democracy\".\n\nSmithsonian-Roosevelt African Expedition (1909–10)\n\nIn March 1909, shortly after the end of his presidency, Roosevelt left New York for the Smithsonian-Roosevelt African Expedition, a safari in east and central Africa outfitted by the Smithsonian Institution. Roosevelt's party landed in Mombasa, British East Africa (now Kenya), traveled to the Belgian Congo (now Democratic Republic of the Congo), before following the Nile to Khartoum in modern Sudan. Financed by Andrew Carnegie and by his own writings, Roosevelt's party hunted for specimens for the Smithsonian Institution and for the American Museum of Natural History in New York. The group, led by the legendary hunter-tracker RJ Cunninghame, included scientists from the Smithsonian, and was joined from time to time by Frederick Selous, the famous big game hunter and explorer. Among other items, Roosevelt brought with him four tons of salt for preserving animal hides, a lucky rabbit's foot given to him by boxer John L. Sullivan, a Holland & Holland double rifle in .500/450 donated by a group of 56 admiring Britons, a Winchester 1895 rifle in .405 Winchester, an Army (M1903) Springfield in .30-06 caliber stocked and sighted for him, a Fox No. 12 shotgun, and the famous Pigskin Library, a collection of classics bound in pig leather and transported in a single reinforced trunk. Participants on the expedition included Kermit Roosevelt, Edgar Alexander Mearns, Edmund Heller, and John Alden Loring. \n\nRoosevelt and his companions killed or trapped approximately 11,400 animals, from insects and moles to hippopotamuses and elephants. The 1000 large animals included 512 big game animals, including six rare White rhinos. Tons of salted animals and their skins were shipped to Washington; it took years to mount them all, and the Smithsonian shared many duplicate specimens with other museums. Regarding the large number of animals taken, Roosevelt said, \"I can be condemned only if the existence of the National Museum, the American Museum of Natural History, and all similar zoological institutions are to be condemned\".\n\nAlthough the safari was ostensibly conducted in the name of science, it was as much a political and social event as it was a hunting excursion; Roosevelt interacted with renowned professional hunters and land-owning families, and met many native peoples and local leaders. Roosevelt had become a life member of the National Rifle Association in 1907. He wrote a detailed account of the safari in the book African Game Trails, recounting the excitement of the chase, the people he met, and the flora and fauna he collected in the name of science. \n\nElection of 1912\n\nRepublican primaries and convention\n\nIn November 1911, a group of Ohio Republicans endorsed Roosevelt for the party's nomination for president; the endorsers included James R. Garfield and Dan Hanna. This was notable, as the endorsement was made by leaders of President Taft's home state. Roosevelt conspicuously declined to make a statement requested by Garfield—that he flatly refuse a nomination. Soon thereafter, Roosevelt said, \"I am really sorry for Taft... I am sure he means well, but he means well feebly, and he does not know how! He is utterly unfit for leadership and this is a time when we need leadership.\" In January 1912, Roosevelt declared \"if the people make a draft on me I shall not decline to serve\". Later that year, Roosevelt spoke before the Constitutional Convention in Ohio, openly identifying as a progressive and endorsing progressive reforms—even endorsing popular review of state judicial decisions. In reaction to Roosevelt's proposals for popular overrule of court decisions, Taft said, \"Such extremists are not progressives—they are political emotionalists or neurotics\".\n\nRoosevelt began to envision himself as the savior of the Republican party (the \"GOP\") from defeat in the upcoming Presidential election and declared as a candidate for the GOP banner. In February 1912, Roosevelt announced in Boston, \"I will accept the nomination for president if it is tendered to me. I hope that so far as possible the people may be given the chance through direct primaries to express who shall be the nominee. Both Elihu Root and Henry Cabot Lodge thought that division of the party would lead to its defeat in the next election; Taft believed he was witnessing the end of his political career—it was only a matter of whether he would be defeated by his own party or in the general election.\n\nThe 1912 primaries represented the first extensive use of the presidential primary, a reform achievement of the progressive movement. The primaries in the South, where party regulars dominated, went for Taft, as did results in New York, Indiana, Michigan, Kentucky and Massachusetts. Meanwhile, Roosevelt won in Illinois, Minnesota, Nebraska, South Dakota, California, Maryland and Pennsylvania; Roosevelt also won Taft's home state of Ohio. These primary elections, while demonstrating Roosevelt's continuing popularity with the electorate, were not pivotal. The final credentials of the state delegates at the national convention were determined by the national committee, which was controlled by the party leaders, headed by the incumbent president.\n\nAt the Republican Convention in Chicago, though Taft's victory was not immediate, the hard fought outcome was in his favor. Black delegates from the South played a key role: they voted heavily for Taft and put him over the top. Roosevelt said \"Seven-eights of the negro delegates, and about the same proportion of white men representing negro districts in the South, went for Mr. Taft.\" \n\nThe Progressive (\"Bull Moose\") Party\n\nOnce his defeat as the GOP nominee was probable, Roosevelt announced that he would \"accept the progressive nomination on a progressive platform and I shall fight to the end, win or lose\". At the same time, Roosevelt prophetically said, \"My feeling is that the Democrats will probably win if they nominate a progressive\". After two weeks at the GOP convention, Roosevelt asked his followers to leave the hall, and they moved to the Auditorium Theatre. Then Roosevelt, along with key allies such as Pinchot and Albert Beveridge, created the Progressive Party, structuring it as a permanent organization that would field complete tickets at the presidential and state level. It was popularly known as the \"Bull Moose Party\", after Roosevelt told reporters, \"I'm as fit as a bull moose\". At the convention Roosevelt cried out, \"We stand at Armageddon and we battle for the Lord.\"\n\nRoosevelt's platform echoed his 1907–8 proposals, calling for vigorous government intervention to protect the people from the selfish interests;\n\nMany Progressive party supporters in the North were supporters of civil rights for blacks. Roosevelt did not want to alienate them. On the other hand, his chief advisors in the South insisted the Progressive party had to be a white man's party there. Rival all-white and all-black delegations from four southern states arrived at the Progressive national convention. Roosevelt decided to seat the all-white delegations. He ran a \"lily-white\" campaign in the South in 1912. Nevertheless, he won little support outside mountain Republican strongholds. Out of nearly 1100 counties in the South, Roosevelt won two counties in Alabama, one in Arkansas, seven in North Carolina, three in Georgia, 17 in Tennessee two in Texas, one in Virginia, and none in Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, or South Carolina. \n\nAssassination attempt\n\nOn October 14, 1912, while campaigning in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Roosevelt was shot by a saloonkeeper named John Flammang Schrank. The bullet lodged in his chest after penetrating his steel eyeglass case and passing through a thick (50 pages) single-folded copy of the speech he was carrying in his jacket. Roosevelt, as an experienced hunter and anatomist, correctly concluded that since he was not coughing blood, the bullet had not reached his lung, and he declined suggestions to go to the hospital immediately. Instead, he delivered his scheduled speech with blood seeping into his shirt. He spoke for 90 minutes. His opening comments to the gathered crowd were, \"Ladies and gentlemen, I don't know whether you fully understand that I have just been shot, but it takes more than that to kill a Bull Moose.\" Afterwards, probes and an x-ray showed that the bullet had lodged in Roosevelt's chest muscle, but did not penetrate the pleura, and it would be less dangerous to leave it in place. Roosevelt carried the bullet with him for the rest of his life. \n\nBecause of the bullet wound, Roosevelt was taken off the campaign trail in the final weeks of the race (which ended on election day, November 5). Though the other two campaigners stopped their own campaigns during the week Roosevelt was in the hospital, they resumed it once he was released. The bullet lodged in his chest exacerbated his rheumatoid arthritis and prevented him from doing his daily stint of exercises; Roosevelt soon became obese..\n\nElection of 1912\n\nIn an era of party loyalty, Roosevelt failed to move enough Republicans to vote a third party ticket. He won 4.1 million votes (27%), compared to Taft's 3.5 million (23%). The Democratic candidate, New Jersey governor Woodrow Wilson gained 6.3 million votes (42% of the total), enough for a massive landslide in the Electoral College, with 435 electoral votes; Roosevelt won 88 electoral votes, and Taft had 8. Pennsylvania was the only eastern state won by Roosevelt; in the Midwest, he carried Michigan, Minnesota, and South Dakota; in the West, California, and Washington. The South as usual was solidly Democratic. \n\n1913–14 South American Expedition\n\nA friend of Roosevelt's, Father John Augustine Zahm, a Catholic priest and scientist at the University of Notre Dame, had searched for new adventures and found them in the forests of South America. After a briefing of several of his own expeditions, he persuaded Roosevelt to participate in such an expedition in 1912. To finance the expedition, Roosevelt received support from the American Museum of Natural History, promising to bring back many new animal specimens. Roosevelt's popular book, Through the Brazilian Wilderness describes his expedition into the Brazilian jungle in 1913 as a member of the Roosevelt-Rondon Scientific Expedition, co-named after its leader, Brazilian explorer Cândido Rondon. The book describes the scientific discovery, scenic tropical vistas, and exotic flora and fauna experienced during the adventure.\n\nOnce in South America, a new, far more ambitious goal was added: to find the headwaters of the Rio da Duvida, the River of Doubt, and trace it north to the Madeira and thence to the Amazon River. It was later renamed Roosevelt River in honor of the former President. Roosevelt's crew consisted of his son Kermit, naturalist Colonel Rondon, George K. Cherrie, sent by the American Museum of Natural History, Brazilian Lieutenant João Lira, team physician Dr. José Antonio Cajazeira, and 16 skilled paddlers and porters (called camaradas [comrades] in Portuguese). The initial expedition started somewhat tenuously on December 9, 1913, at the height of the rainy season. The trip down the River of Doubt started on February 27, 1914. \n\nDuring the trip down the river, Roosevelt suffered a minor leg wound after he jumped into the river to try to prevent two canoes from smashing against the rocks. The flesh wound he received, however, soon gave him tropical fever that resembled the malaria he had contracted while in Cuba fifteen years before. Because the bullet lodged in his chest from the assassination attempt in 1912 was never removed, his health worsened from the infection. This weakened Roosevelt so greatly that six weeks into the adventure, he had to be attended to day and night by the expedition's physician and his son Kermit. By then, he could not walk because of the infection in his injured leg and an infirmity in the other, which was due to a traffic accident a decade earlier. Roosevelt was riddled with chest pains, fighting a fever that soared to 103 °F (39 °C) and at times made him delirious. Regarding his condition as a threat to the survival of the others, Roosevelt insisted he be left behind to allow the poorly provisioned expedition to proceed as rapidly as it could. Only an appeal by his son persuaded him to continue. \n\nDespite Roosevelt's continued decline and loss of over 50 pounds (20 kg), Commander Rondon reduced the pace of the expedition to allow for his commission's mapmaking and other geographical tasks, which required regular stops to fix the expedition's position by sun-based survey. Upon Roosevelt's return to New York, friends and family were startled by his physical appearance and fatigue. Roosevelt wrote, perhaps prophetically, to a friend that the trip had cut his life short by ten years. For the rest of his few remaining years, he would be plagued by flare-ups of malaria and leg inflammations so severe as to require surgery. Before Roosevelt had even completed his sea voyage home, critics raised doubts over his claims of exploring and navigating a completely uncharted river over 625 miles (1,000 km) long. When he had recovered sufficiently, he addressed a standing-room-only convention organized in Washington, D.C., by the National Geographic Society and satisfactorily defended his claims.\n\nWorld War I\n\nWhen World War I began in 1914, Roosevelt strongly supported the Allies and demanded a harsher policy against Germany, especially regarding submarine warfare. Roosevelt angrily denounced the foreign policy of President Wilson, calling it a failure regarding the atrocities in Belgium and the violations of American rights. In 1916, he campaigned energetically for Charles Evans Hughes and repeatedly denounced Irish-Americans and German-Americans whom he described as unpatriotic, saying they put the interests of Ireland and Germany ahead of America's by supporting neutrality. He insisted that one had to be 100% American, not a \"hyphenated American\" who juggled multiple loyalties. In March 1917, Congress gave Roosevelt the authority to raise a maximum of four divisions similar to the Rough Riders, and Major Frederick Russell Burnham was put in charge of both the general organization and recruitment. However, the Commander-in-chief, President Woodrow Wilson, announced to the press that he would not send Roosevelt and his volunteers to France, but instead would send an American Expeditionary Force under the command of General John J. Pershing. Roosevelt was forced to disband the volunteers. He never forgave Wilson, and quickly published The Foes Of Our Own Household, an indictment of the sitting president. \n\nRoosevelt's attacks on Wilson helped the Republicans win control of Congress in the off-year elections of 1918. Roosevelt was popular enough to contest the 1920 Republican nomination, but his health was broken by 1918, because of the lingering malaria. His family and supporters threw their support behind Roosevelt's old military companion, General Leonard Wood, who was ultimately defeated by Taft supporter Warren G. Harding. Roosevelt's youngest son, Quentin, a pilot with the American forces in France, was shot down behind German lines on July 14, 1918, at the age of 20. It is said that Quentin's death distressed Roosevelt so much that he never recovered from his loss. \n\nDeath\n\nOn the night of January 5, 1919, Roosevelt suffered breathing problems. He felt better after treatment from his physician, Dr. George W. Faller, and went to bed. Roosevelt's last words were \"Please put out that light, James\" to his family servant James Amos. Between 4:00 and 4:15 the next morning, Roosevelt died in his sleep at Sagamore Hill; a blood clot had detached from a vein and traveled to his lungs. Upon receiving word of his death, his son Archibald telegraphed his siblings: \"The old lion is dead.\" Woodrow Wilson's vice president, Thomas R. Marshall, said that \"Death had to take Roosevelt sleeping, for if he had been awake, there would have been a fight.\" Following a private farewell service in the North Room at Sagamore Hill, a simple funeral was held at Christ Episcopal Church in Oyster Bay. Vice President Thomas R. Marshall, Charles Evans Hughes, Warren Harding, Henry Cabot Lodge, and William Howard Taft were among the mourners. The snow-covered procession route to Youngs Memorial Cemetery was lined with spectators and a squad of mounted policemen who had ridden from New York City. Roosevelt was buried on a hillside overlooking Oyster Bay.\n\nPolitical positions and speeches\n\nTheodore Roosevelt introduced the phrase \"Square Deal\" to describe his progressive views in a speech delivered after leaving the office of the Presidency in August 1910. In his broad outline, he stressed equality of opportunity for all citizens and emphasized the importance of fair government regulations of corporate \"special interests\". Roosevelt was one of the first Presidents to make conservation a national issue. In his speech at Osawatomie, Kansas, on August 31, 1910, he outlined his views on conservation of the lands of the United States. He favored using America's natural resources, but opposed wasteful consumption. One of his most lasting legacies was his significant role in the creation of 5 national parks, 18 national monuments, and 150 National Forests, among other works of conservation. Roosevelt was instrumental in conserving about 230 e6acre of American soil among various parks and other federal projects. In the 21st century, historians have paid renewed attention to President Roosevelt as \"The Wilderness Warrior\" and his energetic promotion of the conservation movement. He collaborated with his chief advisor, Gifford Pinchot, the chief of the Forest Service. Pinchot and Roosevelt scheduled a series of news events that garnered nationwide media attention in magazines and newspapers. They used magazine articles, speeches, press conferences, interviews, and especially large-scale presidential commissions. Roosevelt's goal was to encourage his middle-class reform-minded base to add conservation to their list of issues. \n\nPositions on immigration, minorities, civil rights, and eugenics\n\nImmigration\n\nIn an 1894 article on immigration, Roosevelt said, \"We must Americanize in every way, in speech, in political ideas and principles, and in their way of looking at relations between church and state. We welcome the German and the Irishman who becomes an American. We have no use for the German or Irishman who remains such... He must revere only our flag, not only must it come first, but no other flag should even come second.\"\n\nRoosevelt took an active interest in immigration, and had launched an extensive reorganization of the federal immigration depot at Ellis Island within months of assuming the presidency. Roosevelt \"straddled the immigration question\", taking the position that \"we cannot have too much immigration of the right sort, and we should have none whatever of the wrong sort\". As president, his stated preferences were relatively inclusive, across the then diverse and mostly European sources of immigration:\n\nMinorities and Civil Rights\n\nHe was the first president to appoint a Jewish cabinet member—Secretary of Commerce and Labor, Oscar Solomon Straus, who served from 1906 to 1909. Straus, who had helped co-found the Immigration Protective League in 1898, was the Roosevelt Administration's cabinet official overseeing immigration; he helped secure the passage and implementation of the Immigration Act of 1907. \n\nIn 1886, Roosevelt criticized the morals of Indians he had seen:\nI don't go so far as to think that the only good Indians are dead Indians, but I believe nine out of ten are, and I shouldn't like to inquire too closely into the case of the tenth. The most vicious cowboy has more moral principle than the average Indian. Turn three hundred low families of New York into New Jersey, support them for fifty years in vicious idleness, and you will have some idea of what the Indians are. Reckless, revengeful, fiendishly cruel, they rob and murder, not the cowboys, who can take care of themselves, but the defenseless, lone settlers on the plains. \n\nRegarding African-Americans, Roosevelt told a civil rights leader:\nI have not been able to think out any solution of the terrible problem offered by the presence of the Negro on this continent, but of one thing I am sure, and that is that inasmuch as he is here and can neither be killed nor driven away, the only wise and honorable and Christian thing to do is to treat each black man and each white man strictly on his merits as a man, giving him no more and no less than he shows himself worthy to have. \n\nRoosevelt appointed numerous African Americans to federal offices, such as Walter L. Cohen of New Orleans, a leader of the Black and Tan Republican faction, whom Roosevelt named register of the federal land office. \n\nContrasting the European conquest of North America with that of Australia, Roosevelt wrote: \"The natives [of Australia] were so few in number and of such a low type, that they practically offered no resistance at all, being but little more hindrance than an equal number of ferocious beasts\"; however, the Native Americans were \"the most formidable savage foes ever faced ever encountered by colonists of European stock\". He regarded slavery as \"a crime whose shortsighted folly was worse than its guilt\" because it \"brought hordes of African slaves, whose descendants now form immense populations in certain portions of the land\". Contrasting the European conquest of North America with that of South Africa, Roosevelt felt that the fate of the latter's colonists would be different because, unlike the Native American, the African \"neither dies out nor recedes before their advance\", meaning the colonists would likely \"be swallowed up in the overwhelming mass of black barbarism\".\n\nRace suicide and eugenics\n\nRoosevelt was intensely active in warning against race suicide, and held a Neo-Lamarkist viewpoint. When Roosevelt used the word 'race', he meant the entirety of the human race or Americans as one race and culture. Americans, he repeatedly said, were getting too soft and having too few children and were thus dying out. While he agreed with some of the ideas of eugenics, he strongly opposed the core eugenics movement principle that some people should have fewer children. As historian Thomas Dyer explains, Roosevelt, \"Strenuously dissented from the ideas which contravened the race suicide..... And categorically rejected any measure which would not produce enough children to maintain racial integrity and national preeminence.\" Roosevelt attacked the fundamental axioms of eugenics, warning against \"twisted eugenics\". \n\nIn 1914 he said: \"I wish very much that the wrong people could be prevented entirely from breeding; and when the evil nature of these people is sufficiently flagrant, this should be done. Criminals should be sterilized and feeble-minded persons forbidden to leave offspring behind them.\" \n\nWhen Madison Grant published his book The Passing of the Great Race, Roosevelt wrote this to Scribner's Magazine to promote it:\nThe book is a capital book; in purpose, in vision, in grasp of the facts our people most need to realize. It shows an extraordinary range of reading and a wide scholarship. It shows a habit of singular serious thought on the subject of most commanding importance. It shows a fine fearlessness in assailing the popular and mischievous sentimentalities and attractive and corroding falsehoods which few men dare assail. It is the work of an American scholar and gentleman; and all Americans should be sincerely grateful to you for writing it. \n\nRoosevelt was greatly impressed by the performance of ethnic American soldiers in the world war. Biographer Kathleen Dalton says:\nHe insisted to [Madison] Grant that race and ethnicity did not matter because men of foreign parentage across the nation fought well, including Jews....Roosevelt took the final step toward believing in racial equality. At the end of his life TR repudiated the Madison Grants and other racists and promised W.E.B. DuBois to work with more energy for racial justice. \n\nWriter\n\nRoosevelt was a prolific author, writing with passion on subjects ranging from foreign policy to the importance of the national park system. Roosevelt was also an avid reader of poetry. Poet Robert Frost said that Roosevelt \"was our kind. He quoted poetry to me. He knew poetry.\" \n\nAs an editor of Outlook magazine, Roosevelt had weekly access to a large, educated national audience. In all, Roosevelt wrote about 18 books (each in several editions), including his autobiography, The Rough Riders, History of the Naval War of 1812, and others on subjects such as ranching, explorations, and wildlife. His most ambitious book was the four volume narrative The Winning of the West, focused on the American frontier in the 18th and early 19th centuries. Roosevelt said that the American character – indeed a new \"American race\" (ethnic group) had emerged from the heroic wilderness hunters and Indian fighters, acting on the frontier with little government help. Roosevelt also published an account of his 1909–10 African expedition entitled African Game Trails.\n\nIn 1907, Roosevelt became embroiled in a widely publicized literary debate known as the nature fakers controversy. A few years earlier, naturalist John Burroughs had published an article entitled \"Real and Sham Natural History\" in the Atlantic Monthly, attacking popular writers of the day such as Ernest Thompson Seton, Charles G. D. Roberts, and William J. Long for their fantastical representations of wildlife. Roosevelt agreed with Burroughs' criticisms, and published several essays of his own denouncing the booming genre of \"naturalistic\" animal stories as \"yellow journalism of the woods\". It was the President himself who popularized the negative term \"nature faker\" to describe writers who depicted their animal characters with excessive anthropomorphism. \n\nCharacter and beliefs\n\nRoosevelt intensely disliked being called \"Teddy\", and was quick to point out this fact to those who referred to him as such, though it would become widely used by newspapers during his political career. He attended church regularly. In 1907, concerning the motto \"In God We Trust\" on money, he wrote, \"It seems to me eminently unwise to cheapen such a motto by use on coins, just as it would be to cheapen it by use on postage stamps, or in advertisements.\" He was also a member of the Freemasons and Sons of the American Revolution. \n\nRoosevelt had a lifelong interest in pursuing what he called, in an 1899 speech, \"The Strenuous Life\". To this end, he exercised regularly and took up boxing, tennis, hiking, rowing, polo, and horseback riding. As governor of New York, he boxed with sparring partners several times each week, a practice he regularly continued as President until being hit so hard in the face he became blind in his left eye (a fact not made public until many years later). Thereafter, he practiced judo, attaining a third degree brown belt; he also continued his habit of skinny-dipping in the Potomac River during the winter. \n\nRoosevelt was an enthusiastic singlestick player and, according to Harper's Weekly, showed up at a White House reception with his arm bandaged after a bout with General Leonard Wood in 1905. Roosevelt was an avid reader, reading tens of thousands of books, at a rate of several per day in multiple languages. Along with Thomas Jefferson, Roosevelt was the most well-read of all American politicians. \n\nLegacy\n\nHistorians credit Roosevelt for changing the nation's political system by permanently placing the presidency at center stage and making character as important as the issues. His notable accomplishments include trust busting and conservationism. He is a hero to liberals for his proposals in 1907–12 that presaged the modern welfare state of the New Deal Era, and put the environment on the national agenda. Conservatives admire his \"big stick\" diplomacy and commitment to military values. Dalton says, \"Today he is heralded as the architect of the modern presidency, as a world leader who boldly reshaped the office to meet the needs of the new century and redefined America's place in the world.\"\n\nHowever, liberals have criticized him for his interventionist and imperialist approach to nations he considered \"uncivilized\". Conservatives reject his vision of the welfare state and emphasis on the superiority of government over private action. Historians typically rank Roosevelt among the top five presidents. \n\nPersona and masculinity\n\nDalton says Roosevelt is remembered as, \"one of the most picturesque personalities who has ever enlivened the landscape\". His friend, historian Henry Adams, proclaimed:\n\nRecent biographers have stressed Roosevelt's personality. Cooper compared him with Woodrow Wilson, and discovered that both of them played the roles of warrior and priest. Dalton stressed Roosevelt's strenuous life. Sarah Watts examined the desires of the \"Rough Rider in the White House\". Brands calls Roosevelt \"the last romantic\", arguing that his romantic concept of life emerged from his belief that \"physical bravery was the highest virtue and war the ultimate test of bravery\".\n\nRoosevelt as the exemplar of American masculinity has become a major theme. As president, he repeatedly warned men that they were becoming too office-bound, too complacent, too comfortable with physical ease and moral laxity, and were failing in their duties to propagate the race and exhibit masculine vigor. French historian Serge Ricard says, \"the ebullient apostle of the Strenuous Life offers ideal material for a detailed psycho-historical analysis of aggressive manhood in the changing socio-cultural environment of his era; McKinley, Taft, or Wilson would perhaps inadequately serve that purpose\". He promoted competitive sports and the Boy Scouts of America, founded in 1910, as the way forward. Brands shows that heroic displays of bravery were essential to Roosevelt's image and mission:\n\nMemorials\n\nRoosevelt was included with Presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Abraham Lincoln at the Mount Rushmore Memorial, designed in 1927 with the approval of Republican President Calvin Coolidge. For his gallantry at San Juan Hill, Roosevelt's commanders recommended him for the Medal of Honor. In the late 1990s, Roosevelt's supporters again recommended the award. On January 16, 2001, President Bill Clinton awarded Theodore Roosevelt the Medal of Honor posthumously for his charge on San Juan Hill, Cuba, during the Spanish–American War. \nThe United States Navy named two ships for Roosevelt: the , a submarine that was in commission from 1961 to 1982, and the , an aircraft carrier that has been on active duty in the Atlantic Fleet since 1986. On November 18, 1956, the United States Postal Service released a 6¢ Liberty Issue postage stamp honoring Roosevelt. A 32¢ stamp was issued on February 3, 1998, as part of the Celebrate the Century stamp sheet series. \n\nIn 2008, Columbia Law School awarded a law degree to Roosevelt, posthumously making him a member of the class of 1882. In Chicago, the city renamed 12th Street to Roosevelt Road four months after Roosevelt's death. \n\nTheodore Roosevelt Association\n\nIn 1919, the Theodore Roosevelt Association (originally known as the Permanent Memorial National Committee) was founded by friends and supporters of Roosevelt. Soon renamed the Roosevelt Memorial Association (RMA), it was chartered in 1920 under Title 36 of the United States Code. In parallel with the RMA was an organization for women, The Women's Theodore Roosevelt Association, that had been founded in 1919 by an act of the New York State Assembly. Both organizations merged in 1956 under the current name. This organization preserved Roosevelt's papers in a 20-year project, preserved his photos and established four public sites: the reconstructed Theodore Roosevelt Birthplace National Historic Site, New York City, dedicated in 1923 and donated to the National Park Service in 1963; Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Park, Oyster Bay, Long Island, New York, dedicated in 1928 and given to the people of Oyster Bay; Theodore Roosevelt Island in the Potomac River in Washington, D.C., given to the federal government in 1932; Sagamore Hill (house), Roosevelt's Oyster Bay home, opened to the public in 1953 and was donated to the National Park Service in 1963 and is now the Sagamore Hill National Historic Site. The organization has its own web site at http://www.theodoreroosevelt.org and maintains a Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/pages/Theodore-Roosevelt-Association/41852696878.\n\nOther locations named for Roosevelt include Theodore Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota, and Theodore Roosevelt Lake and Theodore Roosevelt Dam in Arizona.\n\nIn popular culture\n\nRoosevelt's \"Speak Softly and Carry a Big Stick\" ideology is still quoted by politicians and columnists in different countries—not only in English, but also in translations to various other languages.\n\nOne lasting, popular legacy of Roosevelt is the stuffed toy bears—teddy bears—named after him following an incident on a hunting trip in Mississippi in 1902. Roosevelt famously refused to shoot a defenseless black bear that had been tied to a tree. After the cartoonist Clifford K. Berryman illustrated the President with a bear, a toy maker heard the story and named the teddy bear after Roosevelt. Bears, and later bear cubs, became closely associated with Roosevelt in political cartoons, despite Roosevelt openly despising being called \"Teddy\". On June 26, 2006, Roosevelt was on the cover of TIME magazine with the lead story, \"The Making of America—Theodore Roosevelt—The 20th Century Express\": \"At home and abroad, Theodore Roosevelt was the locomotive President, the man who drew his flourishing nation into the future.\" \n\nIn 1905, Roosevelt, an admirer of various western figures, named Captain Bill McDonald of the Texas Rangers as his bodyguard and entertained the legendary Texan at the White House. Ironically, in the 1912 campaign, McDonald was Woodrow Wilson's bodyguard. Wilson thereafter named the Democrat McDonald as the U.S. Marshal for the Northern district of Texas. \n\nRoosevelt has been portrayed many times in film and on television. Karl Swenson played him in the 1967 western picture Brighty of the Grand Canyon, the story of a real-life burro who guided Roosevelt on a hunting trip to find mountain lions. Brian Keith played Roosevelt in the 1975 film The Wind and the Lion. He was also portrayed by actor Tom Berenger in 1997 for the TNT movie Rough Riders, a made-for-cable film about his exploits during the Spanish–American War in Cuba. Frank Albertson played Roosevelt in the episode \"Rough and Ready\" of the CBS series My Friend Flicka.\" Robin Williams portrayed Roosevelt in the form of a wax mannequin that comes to life in Night at the Museum and its sequels Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian and Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb.\n\nIn Don Rosa's comic book series The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck (1994–96), Roosevelt meets and befriends Scrooge McDuck in 1882 when both were visiting the Dakota badlands and later again in 1902 at Fort Duckburg. In Don Rosa's story The Sharpie of the Culebra Cut (2001), collected in The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck Companion, they meet for the third time during the construction of the Panama Canal in 1906.\n\nMedia\n\n* Theodore Roosevelt was one of the first presidents whose voice was recorded for posterity. Several of his recorded speeches survive. A 4.6-minute voice recording, which preserves Roosevelt's lower timbre ranges particularly well for its time, is among those available from the Michigan State University libraries (this is the 1912 recording of The Right of the People to Rule, recorded by Edison at Carnegie Hall). The audio clip sponsored by the Authentic History Center includes his defense of the Progressive Party in 1912, wherein he proclaims it the \"party of the people\", in contrast with the other major parties.\n\n* [http://www.loc.gov/item/mp76000114/ Roosevelt goes for a ride] in Arch Hoxsey's plane in October 1910\n\nAncestry\n\nSource:" ] }

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{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe" ], "filename": [ "A_Wild_Hare.txt" ], "title": [ "A Wild Hare" ], "wiki_context": [ "A Wild Hare (re-released as The Wild Hare) is a 1940 Warner Bros. Merrie Melodies animated short film. It was produced by Leon Schlesinger Productions, directed by Tex Avery, and written by Rich Hogan. It was originally released on July 27, 1940. A Wild Hare is considered by most film historians to be the first \"official\" Bugs Bunny cartoon. \nThe title is a play on \"wild hair\", the first of many puns between \"hare\" and \"hair\" that would appear in Bugs Bunny titles. The pun is carried further by a bar of I'm Just Wild About Harry playing in the underscore of the opening credits. Various directors at the Warner Bros. cartoon studio had been experimenting with cartoons focused on a hunter pursuing a rabbit since 1938, with varied approaches to the characters of both rabbit and hunter. \n\nA Wild Hare is noteworthy as the first true Bugs Bunny cartoon, as well as for settling on the classic voice and appearance of the hunter, Elmer Fudd. Although the animators continued to experiment with Elmer's design for a few more years, his look here proved the basis for his finalized design. \nThe design and character of Bugs Bunny would continue to be refined over the subsequent years, but the general appearance, voice, and personality of the character were established in this cartoon. The animator of this cartoon, Virgil Ross, gave his first-person account of the creation of the character's name and personality in an interview published in Animato! Magazine, #19. \n\nBugs is unnamed in this film, but would be named for the first time in his next short, Elmer's Pet Rabbit, directed by Chuck Jones. The opening lines of both characters—\"Be vewy, vewy quiet, I'm hunting wabbits\" for Elmer, and \"Eh, what's up Doc?\" for Bugs Bunny—would become catchphrases throughout their subsequent films.\n\nThis cartoon was first theatrically released with the Warner Bros. film Ladies Must Live.\n\nPlot\n\nElmer approaches one of Bugs' holes, puts down a carrot, and hides behind a tree. Bugs' arm reaches out of the hole, feels around, and snatches the carrot. He reaches out again and finds Elmer's double-barreled shotgun. His arm quickly pops back into the hole before returning to drop the eaten stub of Elmer's carrot and apologetically caress the end of the barrel. Elmer shoves his gun into Bugs' hole, and thus causes a struggle in which the barrel is bent into a bow.\n\nElmer frantically digs into the hole while Bugs emerges from a nearby hole with another carrot in his hand, lifts Fudd's hat, and raps the top of his head until Elmer notices; then chews his carrot and delivers his definitive line, \"What's up, Doc?\". When Elmer replies that \"he's hunting 'wabbits'\", Bugs chews his carrot and asks what a wabbit is; then teases Elmer by with every aspect of Fudd's description until Elmer suspects that Bugs is a rabbit. Bugs confirms this, hides behind a tree, sneaks behind Elmer, covers his eyes, and asks \"Guess who?\".\n\nElmer tries the names of contemporary screen beauties whose names exploited his accent, before he guesses the rabbit. Bugs responds \"Hmm..... Could be!\", kisses Elmer, and dives into a hole. Elmer sticks his head into the hole and gets another kiss from Bugs; whereafter he wipes his mouth and decides to set a trap. When Bugs puts a skunk in the trap, Fudd blindly grabs the skunk and carries it over to the watching Bugs to brag; and when Elmer sees his mistake, Bugs gives him a kiss on the nose, whereupon Fudd looks at the skunk, who winks and nudges Elmer. Fudd winces and gingerly sends the skunk on his way.\n\nBugs then offers a free shot at himself; fakes an elaborate death; and plays dead, leaving Elmer miserable with remorse; but survives the shot and sneaks up behind the despairing Fudd, kicks him in his rear, shoves a cigar into his mouth, and tiptoes away, ballet-style. Finally, the frustrated Elmer walks away sobbing about \"wabbits, cawwots, guns\", etc. Bugs then begins to play his carrot like a fife, playing the tune The Girl I Left Behind Me, and marches with one stiff leg towards his rabbit hole (recalling The Spirit of '76).\n\nOscar nomination\n\nThe film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Short Subject: Cartoons. Another nominee was Puss Gets the Boot (the first Tom and Jerry cartoon), directed by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera and produced by Rudolf Ising. Both nominations lost to The Milky Way, another MGM Rudolph Ising production.\n\n1944 Blue Ribbon reissue\n\nOn June 17, 1944, Warner Bros re-released this cartoon as a Blue Ribbon Merrie Melodies. Many other cartoons were also reissued.\n\nChanges in the Blue Ribbon reissue\n\n* In the original version, when Bugs plays \"Guess Who\" with Elmer, Elmer's second answer was Carole Lombard. In the reissue prints released following Lombard's death in a plane crash, \"Carole Lombard\" was redubbed with \"Barbara Stanwyck.\"\n* If you look closely, you can see that before it says MCMXL (1940), it says MCMXLIV (the Blue Ribbon reissue was made in 1944). It quickly changes to MCMXL with a big black outline (so that MCMXLIV cannot be seen).\n\nWild Hare on the radio\n\nIn a rare promotional broadcast, A Wild Hare was loosely adapted for the radio as a sketch performed by Mel Blanc and Arthur Q. Bryan on the April 11, 1941 edition of The Al Pearce Show. The sketch was followed by a scripted interview with Leon Schlesinger.\n\nAlthough the script is available for public online viewing, as of June 2010 no recording of the broadcast is known to exist.\n\nWhat's up, Doc?\n\n* Bugs's nonchalant stance, as explained many years later by Chuck Jones, and again by Friz Freleng and Bob Clampett, comes from the 1934 movie It Happened One Night, from a scene where Clark Gable's character is leaning against a fence eating carrots more quickly than he is swallowing (as Bugs would later do), giving instructions with his mouth full to Claudette Colbert's character. This scene was so famous at the time that most people immediately saw the connection. \n* The line, \"What's up, Doc?\", was added by director Tex Avery for this film. Avery explained later that it was a common expression in Texas where he was from, and he didn't think much of the phrase. But when this short was screened in theaters, the scene of Bugs calmly chewing a carrot, followed by the nonchalant \"What's Up, Doc?\", went against any 1940s audience's expectation of how a rabbit might react to a hunter and caused complete pandemonium in the audience, bringing down the house in every theater. As a result of this popularity, Bugs eats a carrot and utters some version of the phrase in almost every one of his cartoons; sometimes entirely out of context. \n\nAvailability\n\nA early restoration with the original titles first surfaced on The Golden Age of Looney Tunes, with the 1941-45 opening theme, the closing was the original 1939-40 theme, used instead of the usual opening theme found on most 1939-40 Merrie Melodies shorts. This version now has its original music restored for Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Academy Awards Animation Collection.\n\nThe film occurs (unrestored) in its entirety in two documentaries available as bonus material in the Looney Tunes Golden Collection series. One documentary is What's Up, Doc? A Salute to Bugs Bunny, which is available as a special feature on Discs 3 and 4 of the Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 3, with the original title cards. The other documentary is Bugs Bunny: Superstar, which is available as a special feature on Discs 1 and 2 of the Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 4 with the Blue Ribbon reissue titles and 'dubbed version' end title, although it has not been refurbished or released independently in that series. The most noticeable effect of this is that the backgrounds appear to be in muted, autumn-like tones (visible in the picture of Elmer and Bugs above), rather than the vibrant springtime colors the backgrounds were painted in (although this is mainly due to the age of the prints).\n\nAn uncut, restored version appears on the Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Academy Awards Animation Collection DVD set, but did not surface on the Golden Collection series, despite being the debut for Bugs Bunny, Warner Bros.' most popular cartoon star. The restored version is also featured on Disc 1 of The Essential Bugs Bunny and on Disc 1 of the Looney Tunes Platinum Collection: Volume 2. \n\nIt can also be found on videos released by MGM/UA Home Video, such as the \"Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd Cartoon Festival\" VHS, and the \"Here Comes Bugs\" VHS." ] }

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{ "doc_source": [ "TagMe" ], "filename": [ "Bart_Simpson.txt" ], "title": [ "Bart Simpson" ], "wiki_context": [ "Bartholomew JoJo \"Bart\" Simpson is a fictional character in the American animated television series The Simpsons and part of the Simpson family. He is voiced by Nancy Cartwright and first appeared on television in The Tracey Ullman Show short \"Good Night\" on April 19, 1987. Cartoonist Matt Groening created and designed Bart while waiting in the lobby of James L. Brooks' office. Groening had been called to pitch a series of shorts based on his comic strip, Life in Hell, but instead decided to create a new set of characters. While the rest of the characters were named after Groening's family members, Bart's name is an anagram of the word brat. After appearing on The Tracey Ullman Show for three years, the Simpson family received its own series on Fox, which debuted December 17, 1989.\n\nAt ten years old, Bart is the eldest child and only son of Homer and Marge, and the brother of Lisa and Maggie. Bart's most prominent and popular character traits are his mischievousness, rebelliousness and disrespect for authority. He has appeared in other media relating to The Simpsons – including video games, The Simpsons Movie, The Simpsons Ride, commercials, and comic books – and inspired an entire line of merchandise.\n\nIn casting, Nancy Cartwright originally planned to audition for the role of Lisa, while Yeardley Smith tried out for Bart. Smith's voice was too high for a boy, so she was given the role of Lisa. Cartwright found that Lisa was not interesting at the time, so instead auditioned for Bart, which she thought was a better role. \n\nHallmarks of the character include his chalkboard gags in the opening sequence; his prank calls to Moe; and his catchphrases \"Eat my shorts\", \"¡Ay, caramba!\", and \"Don't have a cow, man!\"\n\nDuring the first two seasons of The Simpsons, Bart was the show's breakout character and \"Bartmania\" ensued, spawning Bart Simpson-themed merchandise touting his rebellious attitude and pride at underachieving, which caused many parents and educators to cast him as a bad role model for children. Around the third season, the series started to focus more on the family as a whole, though Bart still remains a prominent character. Time named Bart one of the 100 most important people of the 20th century, and he was named \"entertainer of the year\" in 1990 by Entertainment Weekly. Nancy Cartwright has won several awards for voicing Bart, including a Primetime Emmy Award in 1992 and an Annie Award in 1995. In 2000, Bart, along with the rest of his family, was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.\n\nRole in The Simpsons\n\nThe Simpsons uses a floating timeline in which the characters do not age at all, and as such, the show is always assumed to be set in the current year. In several episodes, events have been linked to specific times, though sometimes this timeline has been contradicted in subsequent episodes. Bart's year of birth was stated in \"I Married Marge\" (season three, 1991) as being in the early 1980s. He lived with his parents in the Lower East Side of Springfield until the Simpsons bought their first house. When Lisa was born, Bart was at first jealous of the attention she received, but he soon warmed to her when he discovered that \"Bart\" was her first word. Bart's first day of school was in the early 1990s. His initial enthusiasm was crushed by an uncaring teacher and Marge became worried that something was truly wrong with Bart. One day during recess, Bart met Milhouse and started entertaining him and other students with various gestures and rude words. Principal Skinner told him \"you've just started school, and the path you choose now may be the one you follow for the rest of your life! Now, what do you say?\" In his moment of truth, Bart responded, \"eat my shorts\". The episode \"That '90s Show\" (season nineteen, 2008) contradicted much of the backstory's time frame; for example, it was revealed that Homer and Marge were childless in the early 1990s. \n\nBart's hobbies include skateboarding, watching television (especially The Krusty the Clown Show which includes The Itchy & Scratchy Show), reading comic books (especially Radioactive Man), playing video games and generally causing mischief. His favorite movies are Jaws and the Star Wars Trilogy. For the duration of the series, Bart has attended Springfield Elementary School and has been in Edna Krabappel's fourth grade class. While he is too young to hold a full-time job, he has had occasional part-time jobs. He works as a bartender at Fat Tony's social club in \"Bart the Murderer\" (season three, 1991); as Krusty the Clown's assistant in \"Bart Gets Famous\" (season five, 1994); as a doorman in Springfield's burlesque house, the Maison Derrière in \"Bart After Dark\" (season eight, 1996); and briefly owns his own factory in \"Homer's Enemy\". (season eight, 1997) \n\nCharacter\n\nCreation\n\nMatt Groening first conceived of Bart and the rest of the Simpson family in 1986, while waiting in the lobby of producer James L. Brooks' office. Groening had been called in to pitch a series of animated shorts for The Tracey Ullman Show, and had intended to present an adaptation of his Life in Hell comic strip. When he realized that animating Life in Hell would require him to rescind publication rights, Groening decided to go in another direction. He hurriedly sketched out his version of a dysfunctional family, naming the characters after members of his own family. For the rebellious son, he substituted \"Bart\", an anagram of the word brat, for his own name, as he decided it would have been too obvious for him to have named the character 'Matt'. Bart's middle initial J is a \"tribute\" to animated characters such as Bullwinkle J. Moose and Rocket J. Squirrel from The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show, who received their middle initial from Jay Ward. According to the book Bart Simpson's Guide to Life, Bart's full middle name is \"JoJo\". \n\nBart had originally been envisioned as \"a much milder, troubled youth given to existential angst who talks to himself\", but the character was changed based on Cartwright's voice acting. Groening has credited several different figures with providing inspiration for Bart: Matt Groening's older brother Mark provided much of the motivation for Bart's attitude.Groening, Matt. (2006). Commentary for \"My Sister, My Sitter\", in The Simpsons: The Complete Eighth Season [DVD]. 20th Century Fox. Groening, Matt. (2006). Commentary for \"Bart Carny\", in The Simpsons: The Complete Ninth Season [DVD]. 20th Century Fox. Bart was conceived as an extreme version of the typical misbehaving child character, merging all of the extreme traits of characters such as Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn into one person. Groening describes Bart as \"what would happen if Eddie Haskell [from Leave It to Beaver] got his own show\". Groening has also said that he found the premise of Dennis the Menace disappointing and was inspired to create a character who was actually a menace. \n\nBart made his debut with the rest of the Simpson family on April 19, 1987 in The Tracey Ullman Show short \"Good Night\". In 1989, the shorts were adapted into The Simpsons, a half-hour series airing on the Fox Broadcasting Company. Bart and the Simpson family remained the main characters on this new show. \n\nDesign\n\nThe entire Simpson family was designed so that they would be recognizable in silhouette. The family was crudely drawn, because Groening had submitted basic sketches to the animators, assuming they would clean them up; instead, they just traced over his drawings. Bart's original design, which appeared in the first shorts, had spikier hair, and the spikes were of different lengths. The number was later limited to nine spikes, all of the same size. At the time Groening was primarily drawing in black and \"not thinking that [Bart] would eventually be drawn in color\" gave him spikes which appear to be an extension of his head. The features of Bart's character design are generally not used in other characters; for example, no other characters in current episodes have Bart's spiky hairline, although several background characters in the first few seasons shared the trait. \n\nThe basic rectangular shape of Bart's head is described by director Mark Kirkland as a coffee can. Homer's head is also rectangular (with a dome on top), while spheres are used for Marge, Lisa, and Maggie. Different animators have different methods of drawing Bart. Former director Jeffrey Lynch starts off with a box, then adds the eyes, then the mouth, then the hair spikes, ear, and then the rest of the body. Matt Groening normally starts with the eyes, then the nose, and the rest of the outline of Bart's head. Many of the animators have trouble drawing Bart's spikes evenly; one trick they use is to draw one on the right, one on the left, one in the middle, then continue to add one in the middle of the blank space until there are nine. Originally, whenever Bart was to be drawn from an angle looking down so the top of his head was seen, Groening wanted there to be spikes along the outline of his head, and in the middle as well. Instead, Wes Archer and David Silverman drew him so that there was an outline of the spikes, then just a smooth patch in the middle because \"it worked graphically.\" In \"The Blue and the Gray\", Bart (along with Lisa and Maggie) finally questions why his hair has no visible border to separate head from hair.\n\nIn the season seven (1995) episode \"Treehouse of Horror VI\", Bart (along with Homer) was computer animated into a three-dimensional character for the first time for the \"Homer3\" segment of the episode. The computer animation was provided by Pacific Data Images. While designing the 3D model of the character, the animators did not know how they would show Bart's hair. They realized that there were vinyl Bart dolls in production and purchased one to use as a model. \n\nAppearance \n\nBart, like the rest of his family, has yellow skin. Bart has blonde hair done up in spikes. Bart usually wears an orange T-shirt, blue shorts and blue-and-white trainers. When the Simpson family goes to church in the episodes, or to school events or shows, Bart wears a blue suit with a white shirt, a purple tie, blue shorts and a blue jacket.\n\nVoice\n\nBart's voice is provided by Nancy Cartwright, who voices several other child characters on The Simpsons, including Nelson Muntz, Ralph Wiggum, Todd Flanders, and Kearney. While the roles of Homer and Marge were given to Dan Castellaneta and Julie Kavner because they were already a part of The Tracey Ullman Show cast, the producers decided to hold casting for the roles of Bart and Lisa. Yeardley Smith had initially been asked to audition for the role of Bart, but casting director Bonita Pietila believed her voice was too high. Smith later recalled, \"I always sounded too much like a girl. I read two lines as Bart and they said, 'Thanks for coming!'\" Smith was given the role of Lisa instead. On March 13, 1987, Nancy Cartwright went in to audition for the role of Lisa. After arriving at the audition, she found that Lisa was simply described as the \"middle child\" and at the time did not have much personality. Cartwright became more interested in the role of Bart, who was described as \"devious, underachieving, school-hating, irreverent, [and] clever\". Matt Groening let her try out for the part instead, and upon hearing her read, gave her the job on the spot. Cartwright is the only one of the six main Simpsons cast members who had been professionally trained in voice acting prior to working on the show.\n\nCartwright's normal speaking voice is said to have \"no obvious traces of Bart\". The voice came naturally to Cartwright; prior to The Tracey Ullman Show, she had used elements of it in shows such as My Little Pony, Snorks, and Pound Puppies. Cartwright describes Bart's voice as easy to perform, saying, \"Some characters take a little bit more effort, upper respiratory control, whatever it is technically. But Bart is easy to do. I can just slip into that without difficulty.\" She usually does five or six readings of every line in order to give the producers more to work with. In flashforward episodes, Cartwright still provides the voice of Bart. For \"Lisa's Wedding\", (season six, 1995) Bart's voice was electronically lowered. \n\nDespite Bart's fame, Cartwright is rarely recognized in public. When she is recognized and asked to perform Bart's voice in front of children, Cartwright refuses as it \"freaks [them] out\". During the first season of The Simpsons, the Fox Network did not allow Cartwright to give interviews because they did not want to publicize that Bart was voiced by a woman. \n\nUntil 1998, Cartwright was paid $30,000 per episode. During a pay dispute in 1998, Fox threatened to replace the six main voice actors with new actors, going as far as preparing for casting of new voices. The dispute was resolved and Cartwright received $125,000 per episode until 2004, when the voice actors demanded that they be paid $360,000 an episode.\n The dispute was resolved a month later, and Cartwright's pay rose to $250,000 per episode. After salary renegotiations in 2008, the voice actors receive approximately $400,000 per episode. Three years later, with Fox threatening to cancel the series unless production costs were cut, Cartwright and the other cast members accepted a 30 percent pay cut to just over $300,000 per episode. \n\nHallmarks\n\nIn the opening sequence of many Simpsons episodes, the camera zooms in on Springfield Elementary School, where Bart can be seen writing a message on the chalkboard. This message, which changes from episode to episode, has become known as the \"chalkboard gag\". Chalkboard messages may involve political humor such as \"The First Amendment does not cover burping\", pop culture references such as \"I can't see dead people\", and meta-references such as \"I am not a 32 year old woman\" and \"Nobody reads these anymore\". The animators are able to produce the chalkboard gags quickly and in some cases have changed them to fit current events. For example, the chalkboard gag for \"Homer the Heretic\" (season four, 1992) read, \"I will not defame New Orleans.\" The gag had been written as an apology to the city for a controversial song in the previous week's episode, \"A Streetcar Named Marge\", which called the city a \"home of pirates, drunks and whores\". Many episodes do not feature a chalkboard gag because a shorter opening title sequence, where the chalkboard gags are cut, is used to make more room for story and plot development.\n\nOne of Bart's early hallmarks were his prank calls to Moe's Tavern owner Moe Szyslak in which Bart calls Moe and asks for a gag name. Moe tries to find that person in the bar, but rapidly realizes it is a prank call and (despite not knowing who actually made the call) angrily threatens Bart. These calls were based on a series of prank calls known as the Tube Bar recordings. Moe was based partly on Tube Bar owner Louis \"Red\" Deutsch, whose often profane responses inspired Moe's violent side. The prank calls debuted in \"Homer's Odyssey\", (season one, 1990) the third episode to air, but were included in \"Some Enchanted Evening\", the first episode of the series that was produced. As the series progressed, it became more difficult for the writers to come up with a fake name and to write Moe's angry response, so the pranks were dropped as a regular joke during the fourth season but they have occasionally resurfaced on the show.\n\nThe catchphrase \"Eat My Shorts\" was an ad-lib by Cartwright in one of the original table readings, harking back to an incident when she was in high school. Cartwright was in the marching band at Fairmont High School, and one day while performing, the band chanted \"Eat my shorts\" rather than the usual \"Fairmont West! Fairmont West!\" Bart's other catchphrases, \"¡Ay, caramba!\" and \"Don't have a cow, man!\", were featured on T-shirts manufactured during the production of the early seasons of The Simpsons. \"Cowabunga\" is also commonly associated with Bart, although it was mostly used on the show after it had been used as a slogan on the T-shirts. The use of catchphrase-based humor was mocked in the episode \"Bart Gets Famous\" (season five, 1994) in which Bart lands a popular role on Krusty the Clown's show for saying the line \"I didn't do it.\" The writers chose the phrase \"I didn't do it\" because they wanted a \"lousy\" phrase \"to point out how really crummy things can become really popular\". \n\nBart commonly appears nude in the show, although in every case only his buttocks are visible. In The Simpsons Movie (2007), Bart appears in a sequence where he is skateboarding while fully nude; several different items cover his genitalia, but for a brief moment his penis can be seen. The scene was one of the first worked on for the film, but the producers were nervous about the segment because they thought it would earn the movie an R rating. Despite this, the film was rated PG-13 by the Motion Picture Association of America for \"Irreverent Humor Throughout.\" The scene was later included by Entertainment Weekly in their list of \"30 Unforgettable Nude Scenes.\"\n\nPersonality\n\nBart's character traits of rebelliousness and disrespect for authority have been compared to that of America's founding fathers, and he has been described as an updated version of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, rolled into one. In his book Planet Simpson, Chris Turner describes Bart as a nihilist, a philosophical position that argues that existence is without objective meaning, purpose, or intrinsic value.\n\nBart's rebellious attitude has made him a disruptive student at Springfield Elementary School, where Bart is an underachiever and proud of it. He is constantly at odds with his teacher Ms. Krabappel, Principal Skinner, and occasionally Groundskeeper Willie. Bart does poorly in school and is well aware of it, having once declared, \"I am dumb, okay? Dumb as a post! Think I'm happy about it?\" On one occasion, Lisa successfully proves that Bart is dumber than a hamster, although Bart ultimately outsmarts her in the end. In \"Separate Vocations\" (season three, 1992) Bart becomes hall monitor and his grades go up, suggesting that he struggles mainly because he does not pay attention, not because he is stupid. This idea is reinforced in \"Brother's Little Helper\", (season eleven, 1999) in which it is revealed that Bart suffers from attention deficit disorder. His lack of smarts can also be attributed to the hereditary \"Simpson Gene\", which affects the intelligence of most male members of the Simpson family. Although he gets into endless trouble and can be sadistic, shallow and selfish, Bart also exhibits many qualities of high integrity. He has, on a few occasions, helped Principal Skinner and Mrs. Krabappel: In \"Sweet Seymour Skinner's Baadasssss Song\" (season five, 1994), Bart accidentally got Skinner fired and befriended him outside the school environment. Bart missed having Skinner as an adversary and got him rehired, knowing that this would mean that the two could no longer be friends. \n\nDue to Bart's mischievousness and Homer's often uncaring and incompetent behavior, the two have a turbulent relationship. Bart regularly addresses Homer by his given name instead of \"Dad\", while Homer in turn often refers to him as \"the boy\". Homer has a short temper and when enraged by Bart will strangle him on impulse in a cartoonishly violent manner. One of the original ideas for the show was that Homer would be \"very angry\" and oppressive toward Bart, but these characteristics were toned down somewhat as their characters were explored. Marge is a much more caring, understanding and nurturing parent than Homer, but she also refers to Bart as \"a handful\" and is often embarrassed by his antics. In \"Marge Be Not Proud\", (season seven, 1995) she felt she was mothering Bart too much and began acting more distant towards him after he was caught shoplifting. At the beginning of the episode, Bart protested at her over-mothering but as her attitude changed, he felt bad and made it up to her. Despite his attitude, Bart is sometimes willing to experience humiliation if it means pleasing his mom. Marge has expressed an understanding for her \"special little guy\" and has defended him on many occasions. She once said \"I know Bart can be a handful, but I also know what he's like inside. He's got a spark. It's not a bad thing... Of course, it makes him do bad things.\"\n\nBart shares a sibling rivalry with his younger sister, Lisa, but has a buddy-like relationship with his youngest sister Maggie, due to her infant state. While Bart has often hurt Lisa, and even fought her physically, the two are often very close. Bart cares for Lisa deeply and has always apologized for going too far. He also believes Lisa to be his superior when it comes to solving problems and frequently goes to her for advice. Bart is also highly protective of Lisa: When a bully destroys her box of cupcakes in \"Bart the General\", (season one, 1990), Bart immediately stands up for her.\n\nBart is portrayed as a popular cool boy and has many friends at school. Out of all of them his best friend is Milhouse Van Houten, although Bart has at times shown embarrassment about their friendship. Bart is a bad influence on Milhouse, and the two have been involved in a lot of mischief together. Because of this behavior, Milhouse's mother forbids Milhouse from playing with Bart in \"Homer Defined\" (season three, 1991). While at first he pretended that he did not care, Bart eventually realizes that he needs Milhouse, and Marge manages to convince Mrs. Van Houten to reconsider. Milhouse is a frequent target for local bullies Nelson Muntz and his friends Jimbo, Dolph, and Kearney. At times, Bart also finds himself at the hands of their abuse. Milhouse describes their social standing as \"Three and a half. We get beat up, but we get an explanation.\" While Bart and the bullies have been adversaries at times, with Bart once declaring war on Nelson, the school bullies actually like Bart for his ways and hang out with him at times, especially Nelson who eventually becomes close friends with him. \n\nBart is one of the biggest fans of children's television host Krusty the Clown. He once declared, \"I've based my whole life on Krusty's teachings,\" and sleeps in a room filled with Krusty merchandise. He has helped the clown on many occasions, for example, foiling Sideshow Bob's attempt to frame Krusty for armed robbery in \"Krusty Gets Busted\" (season one, 1990), reuniting Krusty with his estranged father in \"Like Father, Like Clown\". and helping Krusty return to the air with a comeback special and reignite his career in \"Krusty Gets Kancelled\". For his part, Krusty has remained largely ignorant of Bart's help and treats Bart with disinterest. One summer, Bart enthusiastically attended Kamp Krusty, which turned out to be a disaster, with Krusty nowhere to be seen. Bart keeps his hopes up by believing that Krusty would show up, but is soon pushed over the edge, and finally decides that he is sick of Krusty's shoddy merchandise and takes over the camp. Krusty immediately visits the camp in hopes of ending the conflict and manages to appease Bart. One of the original ideas for the series was that Bart worshiped a television clown but had no respect for his father, although this was never directly explored. Because of this original plan, Krusty's design is basically Homer in clown make-up. When Bart foiled Sideshow Bob's plans in \"Krusty Gets Busted\", it sparked a long-standing feud between the two. The writers decided to have Bob repeatedly return to get revenge on Bart. They took the idea of the Coyote chasing the Road Runner and depicted Bob as an intelligent person obsessed with catching a bratty boy. Bob has appeared in fourteen episodes, generally plotting various evil schemes, but is always foiled in the end.\n\nDespite being currently portrayed as an underachiever, Bart was actually very happy and looking forward about going to school. However, the boy's initial enthusiastic nature is crushed by an uncaring and bitter teacher who said that he would be a failure at life and never amount to anything. Deeply hurt by this comment, Bart then began the process of developing his path into the mischievous, rebellious, disruptive, disrespectful, snarky, nihilistic, school-hating, prankster-pulling, trouble-making delinquent he is known for being today. \n\nReception and cultural influence\n\nBartmania\n\nIn 1990, Bart quickly became one of the most popular characters on television in what was termed \"Bartmania\". He became the most prevalent Simpsons character on memorabilia, such as T-shirts. In the early 1990s, millions of T-shirts featuring Bart were sold; as many as one million were sold on some days. Believing Bart to be a bad role model, several American public schools banned T-shirts featuring Bart next to captions such as \"I'm Bart Simpson. Who the hell are you?\" and \"Underachiever ('And proud of it, man!')\". The Simpsons merchandise sold well and generated $2 billion in revenue during the first 14 months of sales. The success of Bart Simpson merchandise inspired an entire line of black market counterfeit items, especially T-shirts. Some featured Bart announcing various slogans, others depicted redesigns of the character, including \"Teenage Mutant Ninja Bart, Air Simpson Bart, [and] RastaBart\". Matt Groening generally did not object to bootleg merchandise, but took exception to a series of \"Nazi Bart\" shirts which depicted Bart in Nazi uniform or as a white power skinhead. 20th Century Fox sued the creator of the shirts, who eventually agreed to stop making them. \n\nDue to the show's success, over the summer of 1990 the Fox Network decided to switch The Simpsons' timeslot so that it would move from 8:00 p.m. EST on Sunday night to the same time on Thursday, where it would compete with The Cosby Show on NBC, the number one show at the time. Through the summer, several news outlets published stories about the supposed \"Bill vs. Bart\" rivalry. The August 31, 1990 issue of Entertainment Weekly featured a picture of Bill Cosby wearing a Bart Simpson T-shirt. \"Bart Gets an \"F\"\" (season two, 1990) was the first episode to air against The Cosby Show, and it received a lower Nielsen rating, tying for eighth behind The Cosby Show, which had an 18.5 rating. The rating is based on the number of household televisions that were tuned into the show, but Nielsen Media Research estimated that 33.6 million viewers watched the episode, making it the number one show in terms of actual viewers that week. At the time, it was the most watched episode in the history of the Fox Network, and it is still the highest rated episode in the history of The Simpsons. Because of his popularity, Bart was often the most promoted member of the Simpson family in advertisements for the show, even for episodes in which he was not involved in the main plot. \n\nBart was described as \"television's king of 1990\", \"television's brightest new star\" and an \"undiminished smash\". Entertainment Weekly named Bart the \"entertainer of the year\" for 1990, writing that \"Bart has proved to be a rebel who's also a good kid, a terror who's easily terrorized, and a flake who astonishes us, and himself, with serious displays of fortitude.\" In the United States congressional, senatorial and gubernatorial elections of 1990, Bart was one of the most popular write-in candidates, and in many areas was second only to Mickey Mouse amongst fictional characters. In the 1990 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, Bart made his debut as one of the giant helium-filled balloons for which the parade is known. The Bart Simpson balloon has appeared at every parade since. This was referenced in The Simpsons in the episode \"Bart vs. Thanksgiving\", which aired the same day as the parade, where Homer tells Bart, \"If you start building a balloon for every flash-in-the-pan cartoon character, you turn the parade into a farce!\" Meanwhile, behind and unbeknownst to him, the television briefly shows a Bart Simpson balloon. \n\nThe album The Simpsons Sing the Blues was released in September 1990 and was a success, peaking at #3 on the Billboard 200 and becoming certified 2x platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America. The first single from the album was the pop rap song \"Do the Bartman\", performed by Nancy Cartwright and released on November 20, 1990. The song was written by Michael Jackson, although he did not receive any credit. Jackson was a fan of The Simpsons, especially Bart, and had called the producers one night offering to write Bart a number one single and do a guest spot on the show. Jackson eventually guest starred in the episode \"Stark Raving Dad\" (season three, 1991) under the pseudonym John Jay Smith. While the song was never officially released as a single in the United States, it was successful in the United Kingdom. In 1991 it was the number one song in the UK for three weeks from February 16 to March 9 and was the seventh best-selling song of the year. It sold half a million copies and was certified gold by the British Phonographic Industry on February 1, 1991. \n\nBart as a role model\n\nBart's rebellious nature, which frequently resulted in no punishment for his misbehavior, led some parents and conservatives to characterize him as a poor role model for children. Robert Bianco of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette wrote that \"[Bart] outwits his parents and outtalks his teachers; in short, he's the child we wish we'd been, and fear our children will become.\" In schools, educators claimed that Bart was a \"threat to learning\" because of his \"underachiever and proud of it\" attitude and negative attitude regarding his education. Others described him as \"egotistical, aggressive and mean-spirited.\" In response to the criticism, James L. Brooks said, \"I'm very wary of television where everybody is supposed to be a role model, you don't run across that many role models in real life. Why should television be full of them?\" \n\nIn 1990 William Bennett, who at the time was drug czar of the United States, visited a drug treatment centre in Pittsburgh and upon noticing a poster of Bart remarked, \"You guys aren't watching The Simpsons, are you? That's not going to help you any.\" When a backlash over the comment ensued, Bennett apologized, claiming he \"was just kidding\" and saying \"I'll sit down with the little spike head. We'll straighten this thing out.\" In a 1991 interview, Bill Cosby described Bart as a bad role model for children, calling him \"angry, confused, frustrated.\" In response, Matt Groening said, \"That sums up Bart, all right. Most people are in a struggle to be normal. He thinks normal is very boring, and does things that others just wished they dare do.\" On January 27, 1992, then-President George H. W. Bush said, \"We are going to keep on trying to strengthen the American family, to make American families a lot more like the Waltons and a lot less like the Simpsons.\" The writers rushed out a tongue-in-cheek reply in the form of a short segment which aired three days later before a rerun of \"Stark Raving Dad\" in which Bart replied, \"Hey, we're just like the Waltons. We're praying for an end to the Depression, too.\"\n\nAlthough there were many critics of the character, favorable comments came from several quarters. Columnist Erma Bombeck wrote, \"Kids need to know that somewhere in this world is a contemporary who can pull off all the things they can only fantasize about, someone who can stick it to their parents once in a while and still be permitted to live.\" In 2003, Bart placed first in a poll of parents in the United Kingdom who were asked \"which made-up character had the most influence\" on children under 12 years old. \n\nCommendations\n\nIn 1998, Time named Bart one of the 100 most important people of the 20th century. He was the only fictional character to make the list. He had previously appeared on the cover of the December 31, 1990 edition. He was also ranked #48 in TV Guides \"50 Greatest TV Stars of All Time\" in 1996 and both he and Lisa ranked #11 in TV Guide's \"Top 50 Greatest Cartoon Characters of All Time\" in 2002.\n\nAt the 44th Primetime Emmy Awards in 1992, Cartwright won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Voice-Over Performance for voicing Bart in the season three episode \"Separate Vocations\". She shared the award with five other voice actors from The Simpsons. Various episodes in which Bart is strongly featured have been nominated for Emmy Awards for Outstanding Animated Program, including \"Radio Bart\" in 1992, \"Future-Drama\" in 2005, \"The Haw-Hawed Couple\" in 2006 and \"Homer's Phobia\", which won the award in 1997. In 1995, Cartwright won an Annie Award for \"Voice Acting in the Field of Animation\" for her portrayal of Bart in an episode. In 2000, Bart and the rest of the Simpson family were awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame located at 7021 Hollywood Boulevard. \n\nIn 2014 Bart Simpson became the second mascot of Russian football club FC Zenit Saint Petersburg, wearing number 87 on his back (referring to The Simpsons debut in 1987; the club's first mascot is a blue-maned lion). \n\nMerchandising\n\nAlongside T-shirts, Bart has been included in various other The Simpsons-related merchandise, including air fresheners, baseball caps, bumper stickers, cardboard standups, refrigerator magnets, key rings, buttons, dolls, posters, figurines, clocks, soapstone carvings, Chia Pets, bowling balls and boxer shorts. The Bart Book, a book about Bart's personality and attributes, was released in 2004. Other books include Bart Simpson's Guide to Life. The Simpsons and Philosophy: The D'oh! of Homer, which is not an official publication, includes a chapter analyzing Bart's character and comparing him to the \"Nietzschean ideal\". \n\nBart has appeared in other media relating to The Simpsons. He has appeared in every one of The Simpsons video games, including Bart vs. the World, Bart Simpson's Escape from Camp Deadly, Bart vs. the Space Mutants, Bart's House of Weirdness, Bart vs. The Juggernauts, Bartman Meets Radioactive Man, Bart's Nightmare, Bart & the Beanstalk and The Simpsons Game, released in 2007. Alongside the television series, Bart regularly appears in issues of Simpsons Comics, which were first published on November 29, 1993 and are still issued monthly, and also has his own series called Bart Simpson Comics which have been released since 2000. Bart also plays a role in The Simpsons Ride, launched in 2008 at Universal Studios Florida and Hollywood.\n\nBart, and other The Simpsons characters, have appeared in numerous television commercials for Nestlé's Butterfinger candy bars from 1990 to 2001, with the slogan \"Nobody better lay a finger on my Butterfinger!\" Lisa would occasionally advertise it too. Matt Groening would later say that the Butterfinger advertising campaign was a large part of the reason why Fox decided to pick up the half-hour show. The campaign was discontinued in 2001, much to the disappointment of Cartwright. Bart has also appeared in commercials for Burger King and Ramada Inn. In 2001, Kellogg's launched a brand of cereal called \"Bart Simpson Peanut Butter Chocolate Crunch\", which was available for a limited time. Before the half-hour series went on the air, Matt Groening pitched Bart as a spokesperson for Jell-O. He wanted Bart to sing \"J-E-L-L-O\", then burp the letter O. His belief was that kids would try to do it the next day, but he was rejected. \n\nOn April 9, 2009, the United States Postal Service unveiled a series of five 44-cent stamps featuring Bart and the four other members of the Simpson family. They are the first characters from a television series to receive this recognition while the show is still in production. The stamps, designed by Matt Groening, were made available for purchase on May 7, 2009." ] }

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